Day 4
Arriving at the airfield, the usual suspects were already queuing on the runway indicating that the day was expected to be a good one. The predicted cloud bases were 10000' locally rising through 14000 and with a potential of 16000' in the high alps. Klaus was very impressed with the forecasts saying that they were the best he had seen over the last decade and went in to great detail on how to progress beyond the Aosta valley and offering a choice of return options just in case of potential blocking thunderstorms. Peter W and Merv were dispatched third expecting great things but 20 mins later they were back on the ground having apparently released too early. The second flight starting from a greater altitude was much more successful. However, after 2 hours of heat and struggling and the cloudbase was still only 7000' we decided to return to the airfield early. On landing we discovered that Neil M and G had landed at Gap and Chris H was on his way by road for the pilot change and to launch from there. Graeme C and Merv tried to make the best of the conditions but the best cloudbase we could find was 8500. It was hot 30C and a very tricky day, it certainly did not match the forecast!
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