Day 1

Our first day coincided with the start of the Duo competition at Sisteron, which makes the morning briefing a lively and very confusing affair for the brits who only have a basic grasp of French. Anyway as normal the Saint- Auban weather forecast proved to be the most accurate with good thermals, the possibility of thunderstorms and no wave.

With the competition going first we were a little slow off the make to get a place on the grid behind them which meant that our first launch was not until 13:40 by which time it was obviously working well to the East and showing signs of rain to the west. Both robin and Ginny had flights of over two hours exploring the local ridges to the east as far as Blayeul. The expectation had been for the day to cut off early but when we landed back it was obviously on for a second trip so Billy and Graham got in and we were off again with less than 15 mins on the ground.

With the changing weather conditions the second flights appeared to be a matter of timing with the Duo crew finding the wave to 10,500ft and the DG crew grovelling around on the rocks to the East of La Motte. We eventually arrived back in the Sisteron area as the Rain started to approach the airfield and the DG landed as the first spots hit the canopy.

As I write this the windsock is beginning to move and I expect we will be launching shortly with the promise of good weather to the West.

Colin