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Long Mynd Soaring Club
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| Status: | Long Mynd is currently open to all pilots |
|---|---|
| Grid ref: | SO404918 |
| Latitude: | 52.5211° (52° 31' 15" N) |
| Longitude: | -2.8786° (2° 52' 42" W) |
| HG rating: | CP |
| PG rating: | CP |
| Takes wind: | 260 ° - 310 ° (WSW - WNW) |
| Location: | [maps.google.co.uk] [www.multimap.com] [www.streetmap.co.uk] |
This is an extremely popular site in a Westerly, and can get extremely busy. If you have not flown the site before, take a few minutes to view the multimedia site guide (see below) and read the other information on these pages.
Additional information will often be posted in the notice board and sandwich board at the entrance.
T/O altitude 1400 ft AMSL
Top to bottom 700 ft
For non-members of the LMSC, a site fee of £3 per day is payable at weekends and bank holidays. Please put the money in the collection box, or hand to a committee member. Site fees are used to maintain the site (which is not cheap) and for the air ambulance.
This is available to view online, or to download to mobile devices. Use it to complement the information provided in text format on this page.
Get it on your mobile. Download the relevant file and transfer it to your mobile:
Kai Coleman, 25.06.2004. To Eltisley. 201.6km. PG
From Church Stretton take the Burway hill and follow signs for the Midland Gliding Club. Park by the roadside in ‘echelon’ to save space. Do not obstruct the gateway. Go through the gate to the rigging area. DO NOT CLIMB OVER THE FENCE, not least because then you miss any notices posted by the gate (as well as giving the impression you are trying to avoid paying the day fee, if you are a visitor).
On busy days this is becoming a significant issue, with complaints about the inability for any rescue vehicles being able to get past. Please makes sure that you park diagonally in such a way that the car does not stick out into the main tarmac roadway at all. Anyone that can lift share, then please do so if it looks like being a busy day - this is not just weekends as we are now getting a lot of people available in the week when the forecast is good. Try to park in such a way as to allow as many vehicles to squeeze in as possible. If you park along the gliding club fence, make sure that you are completEly off the tarmac road, but beware of grounding your vehicle due to the hump between the road and the ditch.
HG rigging is immediately inside the gate - tie-downs are available. T/O is straight ahead and landing is on the northern half of the site. PG take off is at the northern end of the ridge.
Take-off is straightforward but keep a very careful watch for soaring traffic which can be heavy. PG pilots should keep to the right of the white line (marked with painted slabs) to take off and when below the ridge to avoid conflict with HG overshoots.
Top landing is good except for rotor which can occur in the north east corner. In strong wind, do not go back beyond the boundary fence. Clear the landing area immediately. Do not fly behind the road when top landing. This is especially important for Hang Gliders who believe that they can penetrate back into wind once behind the road; however experience over many years has shown that this is often not the case. The road runs diagonally behind our launch field, and it is natural to assume that approaching into wind is as easy from by the entrance gate as the far corner, but this does not normally appear to be the case. This may be due to the effects of where the road drops down the hill and acting as a venturi near that area, or the particular profile of the launch area. Landing on the road, cars or fence is really not a good idea, and we don’t want to have experienced pilots zooming in low over the cars and giving the false impression to less experienced pilots that this is anything except a very highly skilled and potentially risky manouvre.
Bottom landing field for paragliders is the small sloping field immediately under T/O. For hang gliders there is a larger, flat field, the panhandle field, over the road and slightly right of T/O. Do not overfly the horses on the approach to this. There is also a field for emergency use only to the left of launch. See the diagram on the right for details of this. Pilots new to the site MUST TAKE LOCAL ADVICE each time on bottom landing before flying since this is a VERY SENSITIVE ISSUE and field availability changes with the seasons and usage etc. See notes on horses below.
It is a requirement purely on safety grounds that Paragliders do no launch or attempt to do so to the left of the white marked slabs running down the field approximately 1/3 of the way across the field. If any paraglider slope lands in this area - especially low down, then they must bundle their wing up and walk across to the north to the normal Paraglider launch area. Please remember that there may not have been any hang gliders around when you launched, but they could be just out of your sight if you are low, and waiting for the right ‘safe’ moment when no paragliders are passing their launch or landing path.
The comments below are from a Hang Glider pilot and should give a balanced perspective as to why this is so important.
"My main concern is for overshooting HG pilots. It has been increasingly the case that PG pilots who slope land in front of the HG take off and overshoot area, either wait where they land and take off again from there or inflate their canopy and walk it back to the PG take off area. When the conditions are marginal (hence the slope landing), it is much more likely that a HG pilot will overshoot his top landing and a canopy that pops up in front of him leaves him no where to go -> fatal accident (it has happened elsewhere). These PG pilots have no view of the top of the field, so have no idea if a hang glider is about to come over when they inflate. Other issues I have are that PG pilots have the habit of turning left after take off and staying in front of the HG take off area (and overshoot area), rather than simply transiting through. This either means that the HG pilot does not aviate at all, or takes off anyway and causes the PG pilot to take sudden avoiding action. Talking to many low time HG pilots, I know that they frequently don’t fly when it is like this for fear of collision on take off or if they overshoot their top landing. As an experienced pilot, I am happy to take my chance but still dislike the potential conflict. The ridge is 4 miles long after all, why not use it? Finally, although not so much of a safety issue, the packing up of PG wings in the middle of the LZ creates a much bigger obstacle for a HG pilot landing than a PG. This is true, not only the less experienced, but for any pilot that suffers rough air on approach."
The incidence of pilots flying acro moves in front of take off has caused a number of issues to many pilots. Specifically it often causes less experienced pilots to stand on take off and not launch at all. They are unaware of the capabiliies of the acro pilots, the space they need, their own abilities to avoid or be avoided, so lose good airtime and get frustrated. If you want to do acro, please go along the ridge to the north, or well in front of the ridge in the valley.
DOGS are not allowed on the field. Remember that farmers are entitled to shoot dogs near sheep.
This area is used by low flying military aircraft on weekdays - see notes.
Birmingham CTA at 30m, Halfpenny Green at 24m, RAF Cosford at 23m.
(take off) LMSC
These notes and diagrams are intended to give pilots an appreciation of the two circuits used by the MGC which affects us.
If you are forced to land in front of the MGC, walk either north or south away from their field. Do not take off from there as you will not be visible to a glider on take off or on weak-link break practise.
SOUTH WEST LAUNCH CIRCUIT
Release heights vary but 1000ft plus is often reached. It is most important that pilots keep a watchful eye on activity in the launch area. The AMBER FLASHING LAMP will operate during each launch. A glider ready to launch will have it’s wings held level by a tip while no-one will be standing near the cockpit. However, the canopy may be left open until the last moment.
If a glider is ready to go and you are approaching the launch caution area it is good practice to turn away from the release zone as a positive indication that you are aware. It is important to realise that a cable break could result in a glider crossing the edge of the hill at almost any height.
The CAUTION AREA to the north has received too little attention in the past. Please don’t congregate in this area since it is the access point to the landing circuit for sailplanes who can be faced by an intimidating ‘wall’ of HG/PG traffic. Some sailplanes may be scratching and some may be flown by low-airtime pilots. Training at all levels is conducted by the MGC.
WEST LAUNCH CIRCUIT (winch, aerotow and, occasionally, bungee)
Most of the above comments apply to this circuit but winch launch height is generally lower and release is close to the edge of the hill.
AEROTOW LAUNCHES
Aerotow launches are particularly vulnerable to inconsiderate actions on our part, especially in a westerly launch. They cross the edge of the hill typically below 100ft and are obviously unable to take evasive action at this critical moment. In addition, the tug pilot has poor visibility down and forward. Keep a special note of towing activity and in particular DO NOT CROSS THE BUNGEE POINT BELOW RIDGE HEIGHT when towing is active. If you hit strong lift you could rise up in front of a tug pilot. It has happened!
Aero modelers have an agreement to use the northern bowl. Whilst they have a particular duty to avoid conflict in flight, it is unwise to fly in this area when models are flying. It is easier to spot operators on the ground than models in the air.
A riding school operates at the farm below take off. The stables are tucked-in under take-off and a new, light coloured, schooling area is located about 100m west of the house. We should take great care not to fly low over any horses, especially while being ridden, or land in a field with horses. The few permanently resident horses generally get used to us but several will typically be temporary visitors receiving special training so will be unused to flying activities.
A Blipspot is taken from RASP forecasts, and provides an hour by hour forecast readout for: