A wee swarm collection from York

A lovely swarm that I collected last night after a phone call from someone in their allotment. Bit awkward when they are so high up in a flimsy tree as you can't get the box up there. Pictures are a bit crappy as they are from a mapple.
They were very small bees. Smaller than all in my apiary which may mean they are feral? The reason I say that or think that is the foundation bee keepers use has slightly larger cells which makes the bees slightly bigger. Foundation is a sheet of wax with the comb impression on it that we put into a frame  from which the bees draw comb. I have left a few frames now that are without foundation but the bees are still making larger cells so I still don't know if there is any truth in this. I have read it but you can't always believe what you read especially in bee keeping! 20 ways to do the same task.

A quintessential English summer day in the bee garden

What a lovely day again! Summer has arrived with a grateful bang indeed and I for one shall not be complaining one iota :-)

LaLa the tiger girl was being cheeky whilst enjoying the radiant warmth of the day amongst the many wild flowers the meadow does offer even if they are a few weeks late to bloom.

Buttercup the very handsome boy stands on lookout for the dumb dogs that occasionally enter the grounds in search of who knows what!

The veg garden is starting to give up some goodies which is great for a fresh healthy dinner.  Mixed leaves, chives, corriander, spinach, beetroot & wild garlic leaves, hot spicy radish and spicy rocket my favorite:-) A couple of Brian from down the street chicken's eggs followed by a rhubarb (home grown) crumble by Caroline and that is one meal to beat :-)

Nothing added, just love, water, sun & horse crap:-)

The bee garden

A pleasant morning in the bee garden ahead with bees n wild flowers for company.
Looking like the first honey harvest coming up in the next couple of weeks which is 4 weeks behind last years! Its been a very tough 12 months for the bees, and me but we are all through it and enjoying the warmth of an English summer........while we can:-)

Bright eyes

Very handsome chap with attitude. Sitting on the road near Hodge's hobbies warming up in the morning from the tarmac. When I picked him up I thought he would bite me! Put him clear of the road well away from the red necks.

Georgia on my mind

Had what should have been a mighty fine trip to Georgia for a great comp run by Jamie Shelden and sponsored by Steve Kroop of Flytec USA but unfortunately I became a little under the weather out of the blue. It didn't of course quell the enthusiasm but the brain did become all fuzzywuzzy due to the drugs. Its not an excuse to my crap score just a major factor!  Thanks to Heather dearly. If you read this I am and will be forever thankful. I wouldn't have done what you did xx

The Souther Field Airport in Americus is an amazing place to fly out of behind a Dragon Fly which is where the comp was held. Very soft big ol smooth thermals most days and we didn't get the good stuff! You can have a three hour flight and not even get an ache its so sweet, either that or the Wills Wing T2c I fly is as equally sweet or maybe a combination of the two? If you have never been to a Flytec comp I urge you to do so as the organisation is second to non and very laid back especially after a couple of margaritas;-) It can be a little expensive as usually it involves getting a long airline flight for European pilots and the odd Ozzie or two, may have been 3 even this year! The best place on the planet, in my humble opinion, still has to be Quest Air for the flying and the horizontal laid backyness:-) Have had two trips there this year and would go every other week if only I could. Sigh...............

I would write a wee report on the comp and what went on but I only remember the first 3 days and they are a little fuzzwuzz, so I won't even try. Hardly took any pictures neither which is unusual for me and a regret!

To try and cut costs I rented an SUV to live in for 2.5 weeks and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. It gave me freedom as in America no one hardly walks! Certainly in Georgia where there seems to be  so many obese people in one place! Propper obese living on corn syrup and deep fried everything! So my favourite place to sleep was at the end of the model, bowling green runway at Hodges hobbies where even the shower/toilet rooms were air conditioned and at $10 a night was a bargain! Would pop into town for breakfast at an amazing coffee shop where they actually roasted the coffee bean in bulk out the back with the beautiful aromas hitting you as you got near. All organic with lovely yogurt and fruit with great WiFi and truly lovely Spanish staff. A place that was like someone's front room in the back with big ol settees and armchairs.

Virgin Atlantic! My god they have been superb on both trips this year. Not hardly blinking when I turn up with a short packed hang glider, long packed harness, clothes bag and a rucksack mounted on a pair of wheels made from an old skate board, down tubes and tent poles! They even ushered me to the first class lane to avoid the lines of people all queuing to check in! I really can not praise them enough! You're beautiful Virgin Atlantic.

So, to see if the blogging becomes easier......... Looks like the pictures are fixed on the app which is a shame and means they all end up at the end of the text!

Poor chap. Didn't realise what was wrong with him until i picked him up to move him off the road:-(

Testing from android

Just seeing if the droid app makes blogging easier:-/

Chalvet Open - Practice/Training week

I arrived at Saint-André-les-Alpes, France on Sunday evening

View Larger Map
– had a bit of a run-in with the bloke at the campsite on Monday when I turned up to pitch base. Unfortunately he wanted all PG’s and HG’s to camp together (in a not so great part of the campsite); I thought I’d understood where he wanted me but he wanted me to move – this whole experience left a bad taste (I wanted to be welcome there) so I de-camped to the smaller and I have to say MUCH nicer campsite just out of town. I know it’s not as convenient for briefings but I like it here - Doris arrives on Saturday and will be happy, I am sure.
So we are now camping at Camping de L'Issole not Camping Les Iscles

We had a lovely day flying yesterday. Base upto 8000' and nice climbs be it a little rough at times but that's St A;-) Very light wind which makes a change.



THIS COULD BE THE LAST BLOG - There is no Internet at the campsite so this could be the last blog for the duration of the comp. Hopefully the Comp Website will be up to date with news and results so you can follow HERE
Other bloggers could be:
Jochen
Jamie
Phippsy

Chalvet Open

Book your place now for the Chalvet Open : 21-27 August 2011, St Andre les Alpes - see you there! Just checked the PILOT LIST and it's looking like it's going to be one of the biggest hang gliding comps this year with around 90 entries..... Phil our scorer tells me he's booked his week in rehab!

The comp includes the French and British Nationals. As well as Class 1 there will also be a comp for Club [Sport] Class and Rigid Class 5. Talk at The Worlds was that the Rigid Pilots are hoping to do 200+km flights (weather allowing) but aren't we all.

We apparently have the whole launch area 'booked' and the whole mountain to ourselves (ie no PG) during the taskable time.

The waypoints list is now available to download from HERE

The Worlds - Day 11

………… so that’s the end of The Worlds

Today was also cancelled which means The Worlds was won with only 2 tasks.

Congratulations to Alex Ploner new World Champion
Photo taken by Flavio

A few Thank You's
- to the organisers and helpers of the competition; if only better weather could have been pre-booked it would have been perfect.
- to Team GB Manager, Pete and also to Trudy for the retrieve :-)
- to Team GB Sponsor and also my personal sponsors Aeratech, Doris and her Dad, John Drury

I start the long drive home early tomorrow morning.

The Worlds - Day 10

Right! I want to know who nicked me mojo?! It disappeared last year and whoever has it please can I have it back. You can just leave it where I can find it and I won't say anything. If you can leave a bit of joojoo too that would be great:-)


No surprise that today was Cancelled – It’s looking like a 2-day worlds! Bummer…………….

A few people/teams have now thrown in the towel and are on their way back home. Can't blame them at all. There is not much you can do in the rain and we have increased the local tourism economy 5 fold already.

Lollipop is missing her bra - The Tip Bag Story

A strange thing happened on the hill yesterday: I thought it strange that the storage bag inside my harness had open itself & ejected my batten bag. I put it all away & thought nothing more of it …… until I landed & Lollipop needed her tip bags – they were missing? Then it all made sense! Thieving bas****s! Give her her tip bags back – have you any idea how hard it is to fold a curvy tip glider without them? Obviously you do!

That is all, thank you.

The Worlds - Day 9

Raining again!!!!!!!!

Task cancelled. I think GB Team Leader, Pete sums the day up perfectly:-

“The day starts with some sunshine but a very low cloudbase and rain forecast for this afternoon. The order was to go to take off and await the pilot briefing at 11:30, by 10:00 we have 100% cloud cover but there are still some cue's forming so maybe some hope. 11:25 I get a sneaky look at the task board, 84k race, 11:30 the board is shown to the pilots, 11:35 the task is cancelled. 90% of the pilots free fly with several showing off their flying skills, unfortunately one German pilot pushed his glider too far and had to throw his reserve, the pilot is ok but I think that his glider is history. The first of the rain hits us at about 13:30, team GB are all landed with gliders in bags before it gets too bad. Forecast is not looking great, just hope that they are wrong, we need tasks, 4th is not a good place to be”

Tomorrow is looking like rain too so Friday will be our last chance.

Last night: Tyler had fun in the bubbles..........
.... and so did Wolfie

The Worlds - Day 8

I reckon some people must have drunk the weather better last night? We got to fly today.

Task 2 - 114km run up and down the valley and then back to the Sigillo goal field.

I had a fantastic start but it was the rain at the last TP which decked me. “If only” I had flown straight across the valley with Dave at TP 2 and not along the ridge I would have dodged it but 2.5km from the last TP the heavens opened (I mean they really opened) and I made the conscious decision not to fly in the rain mainly because I couldn’t see where I was going so found myself a nice big field.

Congrats to my fellow Brits who were in goal :-)

It was really nice to see Tullio here today, it's such a shame that politics saw him loose his place on the Italian team.


Jamie’s Task 2 photos – HERE

The Worlds - The Power of the Bag

This letter was handed out to Team Leaders at this morning's briefing.

The Worlds - Wills Wing Party

THANKS for a great party last night



Amazing food and so much of it! Shame the top guys from WW could not have been there. WW I salute you and thank you for a lovely evening.

The Worlds - Day 7

The depression is setting in now and I can’t see a way out! To make the comp valid there needs to be another task of 600 points - the forecast is sh1t for tomorrow and sh1t for the next day and looking sh1t for the days after that so it's not looking hopeful. There is talk about using the prizegiving day a flying day if it looks taskable which can be done within the rules but there are plenty of people who have their home travel arrangements booked for this day so you can imagine the tension on this one.


So back to today ..... Even though the day looked like this .......

.....we were told to go to the Cucco North launch (but not to rigg) for an 11am briefing. No surprise that the day was cancelled, eh?

Fabien keeping warm

The Worlds - Day 6

Day Cancelled..........at the 11.30 Team Leader briefing

Woke up to 40-50 kph on take off with drizzle, grey sky and cool! All that I can think of is the jobs that need doing at home :-((

There is talk that we might get a fly tomorrow at Trepizi which is about 2hrs away.

Gordo checking out his radio problems


Team GB is splitting up tonight as Gary, Bruce and I head out to the Wills Wing Pilots evening :-) (Dave, Carl, Gordon & Grant are Moyes Boys and Tony is flying Aeros)

The Worlds - Day 5

It’s grey, its raining, its dark and did I just hear a rumble from Thor?

That’s the picture I woke up to this morning ………….. The day is cancelled and looks like there will be rain tomorrow too, in fact it isn’t looking great for the rest of the week ahead.

Yesterday was a pretty difficult task, seems Jonny was the only one to make goal from the second start - go Jonny.

Lots of talk this morning about airspace: Was somebody 3km into the airspace? With a few more into the edge of it? The zeros will tell.

Jamie (as always) was taking photos - Task 1 Photos by Jamie HERE Thanks Jamie :-)

Markus was tracking Task 1 and took some screen grabs – see more HERE


Dave at Goal!

The Worlds - Day 4

Task 1 - 120km – up and down the valley!

Take off was easy with a nice strong breeze and there were good strong climbs. I was expecting more in goal but the wind increased during the day and thwarted peoples plans, I guess…… mine included.

Congrats to Dave, Gary and Grant all in goal, should be high scoring day for the team.

I had a pretty pants day - everything was a rush today: the message to head to the Sebasioi launch got lost in translation (about 1hr drive away); we were late setting off and ended up getting lost going up the hill and then got lost again. We were following an ‘Italian’ car who we trusted would know the way but it turned out it was the Columbian team in an Italian rental and they were lost too! There is a lesson to be learnt from today :-) So we arrived up the hill and to say there was a panic to get rigged would be an understatement.

I think it’s fair to say OB has had a worse day than mine though. He took off to find his instrument had frozen; landed back on top and grabbed a back-up from the French team which then ejected itself out of the pod: he made goal but with no tracklog – bummer to say the least.



Follow the tasks as they happen (with a little delay) HERE