Nant-e-Moel - as a tvhgc traitor flying for the southern slackers
Nant-e-Moel
GPS Track -
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/205724
I got up early on the Saturday and did a final weather check which suggested high base and light winds, so jumped in the car headed to Abbergeveny. On the way, there were some well set wave bars, which was a little concerning, but as there wasn't any wind and blue skies I didn't worry.
However, high cloud covered the sky once I got to Wales and the wind was anything but light!
After an hour or so of milling around the car park,other pilots arrived and were mostly pretty uninspired by the conditions and some even headed off to Mere in the hope of better conditions there.
Ian Greig (fellow Southern Slacker) offered my a lift in his van up to Nant-e-Moel which I gratefully accepted as the wind from the south west meant that we would be flying back towards Abbergeveny if we got away which would make for an easy retrieve.
We arrived on the hill to find a couple of wings out, but no one flying as the wind was too far off to the south, but pilots were optimistic that once the sun came round we "should" get an opportunity to fly, but XC didn't seem likely. Sure enough the sun came onto the face and that helped move the wind more onto the hill and a couple of pilots took off, I immediately got my kit out (having been pretty pessimistic about our chances five minutes earlier) took to the air.
The air was buoyant, but fairly rough, by this time there were probably about10 - 15 wings in the air all searching for a decent thermal. We tried heading out into the valley and some found a bit of lift, but nothing special, I chickened out quite early on my last venture and saw one glider was half way to base and climbing above the edge of the hill. I immediately focused on finding a climb on the ridge and saw the only other glider on the ridge turn into something promising.
I headed over and found a solid 2 m/s climb and tucked in. Unfortunately for me the pilot above was turning left, something I don't tend to do very often and my climb rate is always significantly lower than to the right. After trying to persuade the other pilot to turn right, I bit the bullet and accepted that i was going to thermalling left (which sucked). I just couldn't seem to crank on the turn when I hit the cores in the same way as i can to the right, and although i didn't have any collapses (the lift was variable), I didn't feel in total command of my wing.
Eventually, I managed to overtake the other pilot and immediately switched right and accelerated away for the last 150m or so. By this time there was a nice looking cloud above us, but we were still a fair distance from base and no longer climbing. I therefore headed off vaguely downwind watching the cloud above to get indicators of where i might find a little more lift. I found something and turned in it a few times, but again it petered out. Ahead of me I could see the first glider across the first valley searching for lift and so headed off on glide in his direction.
By this time the pilot I had shared the first thermal with was about 500m behind and a bit lower too, so he wasn't going to be helpful to me finding the next climb.
As I approached the ridge the pilot ahead started to turn in something, it didn't look that promising, but I figured that 2 of us searching would probably work quite well. As I approached a seagull came in from my left and found a belting climb close to my location so I changed direction and found myself going up, the seagull ahead kept on a straight course and continued to climb, so I followed, but the climb was really bitty.
I tried turning in it a few times, but the lift was light and bitty so pressed on. Once I left the higher ground, I found some fairly strong sink and started to consider where I might land, the air was rough and the wind was strong. Aberdere didn't have too many obvious landing spots, but the most attractive was the athletics track at the southern end of the town. T o make matters worse I could see the 2 gliders from earlier almost at base back above the last ridge.
As I headed over the town, I spotted another seagull and this one flew past me at 90*, so I turned and watched as it started to climb quickly. I followed and found myself in a strong ratty thermal that was varying between .3 and 3.7m/s which i figured must have been the some sort of convergence. I stuck with it for a while, but either lost it or it died, but by this stage i was over the top of the next ridge and so pushed on again. My efforts were rewarded with another really snotty thermal with big variations in the climb rate, but averaging around 2m. The conditions were some of the roughest I have flown in, although the lift wasn't that strong, the constant variation in the climb rate meant that i was working really hard to keep the glider above me.
Again the climb suddenly died, but now I could see wispy's at my height, but with "proper Cu" still 500m or more above. I figured that I was on the wrong side of the sea breeze, but decided that rather than head north into the boonies I would follow the A465, as that was on route to my car.
As I descended, I flew between 2 lakes about 500 metres apart and the wind on the lake to the south shooting across in a northward direction and the lake to the north with wind south much straight south while I flew between them straight downwind heading east?! I found a bit of a climb, but was either too low or too crap (probably both) to manage to hang on to it and headed on to the cricket pitch ahead which looked like the best landing option as I knew it was going to be turbulent and with the wind strong and all over the place, I felt that being somewhere with lots of people around would mean that if anything went wrong, at least there'd be someone to call an ambulance and with luck administer a bit of first aid too.
Fortunately I landed without incident on the boundary to be applauded by the cricketers and some guys just finishing off their rugby practice. What they didn't realise was quite how grateful I was to be on the ground without having had any sort of incident.
After packing up, I asked how to get back to Abbergeveny and was told to walk round the corner where I could catch a bus straight to Abbergeveny!
I got back to the car, checked in with Ian to see where he'd got to and he hadn't left the hill, so jumped in my car and was home drinking a pint in the garden at 6pm. All in all a pretty perfect day - apart from flying for the wrong team of course!
GPS Track -
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/205724
I got up early on the Saturday and did a final weather check which suggested high base and light winds, so jumped in the car headed to Abbergeveny. On the way, there were some well set wave bars, which was a little concerning, but as there wasn't any wind and blue skies I didn't worry.
However, high cloud covered the sky once I got to Wales and the wind was anything but light!
After an hour or so of milling around the car park,other pilots arrived and were mostly pretty uninspired by the conditions and some even headed off to Mere in the hope of better conditions there.
Ian Greig (fellow Southern Slacker) offered my a lift in his van up to Nant-e-Moel which I gratefully accepted as the wind from the south west meant that we would be flying back towards Abbergeveny if we got away which would make for an easy retrieve.
We arrived on the hill to find a couple of wings out, but no one flying as the wind was too far off to the south, but pilots were optimistic that once the sun came round we "should" get an opportunity to fly, but XC didn't seem likely. Sure enough the sun came onto the face and that helped move the wind more onto the hill and a couple of pilots took off, I immediately got my kit out (having been pretty pessimistic about our chances five minutes earlier) took to the air.
The air was buoyant, but fairly rough, by this time there were probably about10 - 15 wings in the air all searching for a decent thermal. We tried heading out into the valley and some found a bit of lift, but nothing special, I chickened out quite early on my last venture and saw one glider was half way to base and climbing above the edge of the hill. I immediately focused on finding a climb on the ridge and saw the only other glider on the ridge turn into something promising.
I headed over and found a solid 2 m/s climb and tucked in. Unfortunately for me the pilot above was turning left, something I don't tend to do very often and my climb rate is always significantly lower than to the right. After trying to persuade the other pilot to turn right, I bit the bullet and accepted that i was going to thermalling left (which sucked). I just couldn't seem to crank on the turn when I hit the cores in the same way as i can to the right, and although i didn't have any collapses (the lift was variable), I didn't feel in total command of my wing.
Eventually, I managed to overtake the other pilot and immediately switched right and accelerated away for the last 150m or so. By this time there was a nice looking cloud above us, but we were still a fair distance from base and no longer climbing. I therefore headed off vaguely downwind watching the cloud above to get indicators of where i might find a little more lift. I found something and turned in it a few times, but again it petered out. Ahead of me I could see the first glider across the first valley searching for lift and so headed off on glide in his direction.
By this time the pilot I had shared the first thermal with was about 500m behind and a bit lower too, so he wasn't going to be helpful to me finding the next climb.
As I approached the ridge the pilot ahead started to turn in something, it didn't look that promising, but I figured that 2 of us searching would probably work quite well. As I approached a seagull came in from my left and found a belting climb close to my location so I changed direction and found myself going up, the seagull ahead kept on a straight course and continued to climb, so I followed, but the climb was really bitty.
I tried turning in it a few times, but the lift was light and bitty so pressed on. Once I left the higher ground, I found some fairly strong sink and started to consider where I might land, the air was rough and the wind was strong. Aberdere didn't have too many obvious landing spots, but the most attractive was the athletics track at the southern end of the town. T o make matters worse I could see the 2 gliders from earlier almost at base back above the last ridge.
As I headed over the town, I spotted another seagull and this one flew past me at 90*, so I turned and watched as it started to climb quickly. I followed and found myself in a strong ratty thermal that was varying between .3 and 3.7m/s which i figured must have been the some sort of convergence. I stuck with it for a while, but either lost it or it died, but by this stage i was over the top of the next ridge and so pushed on again. My efforts were rewarded with another really snotty thermal with big variations in the climb rate, but averaging around 2m. The conditions were some of the roughest I have flown in, although the lift wasn't that strong, the constant variation in the climb rate meant that i was working really hard to keep the glider above me.
Again the climb suddenly died, but now I could see wispy's at my height, but with "proper Cu" still 500m or more above. I figured that I was on the wrong side of the sea breeze, but decided that rather than head north into the boonies I would follow the A465, as that was on route to my car.
As I descended, I flew between 2 lakes about 500 metres apart and the wind on the lake to the south shooting across in a northward direction and the lake to the north with wind south much straight south while I flew between them straight downwind heading east?! I found a bit of a climb, but was either too low or too crap (probably both) to manage to hang on to it and headed on to the cricket pitch ahead which looked like the best landing option as I knew it was going to be turbulent and with the wind strong and all over the place, I felt that being somewhere with lots of people around would mean that if anything went wrong, at least there'd be someone to call an ambulance and with luck administer a bit of first aid too.
Fortunately I landed without incident on the boundary to be applauded by the cricketers and some guys just finishing off their rugby practice. What they didn't realise was quite how grateful I was to be on the ground without having had any sort of incident.
After packing up, I asked how to get back to Abbergeveny and was told to walk round the corner where I could catch a bus straight to Abbergeveny!
I got back to the car, checked in with Ian to see where he'd got to and he hadn't left the hill, so jumped in my car and was home drinking a pint in the garden at 6pm. All in all a pretty perfect day - apart from flying for the wrong team of course!
