| Flight details: | So, I went along to compete in the BPCup Snowdonia round - my first time at a competition (well, apart from my recent BCC at the Long Mynd). The weather was stunning, just not great for flying as it turned out...
I couldn't get access to a car until Friday lunchtime, so missed the day's flying (it took me 7.5 hours to get there!) but by all accounts it was a reasonable day although quite a few didn't get away (for whatever reason). They were flying Moel Berfedd, which was also the venue for Sunday (more about the site in a bit).
Saturday found us on the ridge above (and along from) Harlech - the launch site was just by Merthyr Farm (which is also a campsite). My god, what a beautiful place to fly, looking out across the flatlands towards Cardigan Bay, with Harlech castle just down the ridge and to the north the Snowdon Massif.
A 35km task was set via a couple of turnpoints - the second of which was Cadir Idris with the goal being the beach at Barmouth/Fairboune. The meteo wind was forecast to be northerly and with the sea breeze, convergence lift was expected. But it was a high pressure day - no sea breeze and the meteo wind didn't happen, so we waited...and waited. A couple of people tried it and quickly bombed out. Mid-afternoon a new task was set - a cats cradle back and forth between the nearest lump and down to the castle, back to the lump, back to the...well you get the idea. Still no wind though, so it was pretty academic. But how fantastic would it have felt to fly to Cadir (a mountain I've really enjoyed walking up, many times) and on to the beach - ahh (rather wishful thinking, given my limited ability of course). They'd also been a problem contacting the farmer, so he was well grumpy when hordes of people were set up on the hill above him and those that did land gave his sheep a scare. He was placated by Brad though but either way we were encouraged not to take a fly-down (and no retrieve would be forthcoming if we did), so not even a TTB!
Mo |
