Friday 26th

A poor forecast with death and destruction in the form of wall to wall cu-nims later in the day. Dave and Marko managed just over the hour in some strong lift which imediately turned into large blobs of white. A quick return to base before the hail and plague of frogs turned up for a quick de-rig for the journey home.

Thursday 25th

A fantastic day that was almost too easy. Climbs to over 12,000', averages up to 9 knots this mountains were a playground. The wind has dropped and most features you expect to work did so which was unique for the week. DaveT went out to Pic de Bure, photos below. Mike went to East of the lake, Marko went to Barcellonette and into the big hills and David went Orcieres and down to the Verdun Gorge. A few close climbs to the rock and lots of ridge runnning catching the thermals coming up the valleys.

On top of the Pic deBure, going home through the valleys and climbing way from the tow.

Weds 24th

A much more promising day a good forecast and lots of ambition. The day started with towing out over the hills near Hongrie and working the weak small bubbles of lift until they turned into something substantial, trips out to Barcellonette across to Briancon with some very challenging flying in the high mountains as the bubbles were small and the sink was big. Lots of flying very near the rocks made for some fantastic flying if hardwork for 'G'. Mike and 'G' got a very close look at Pic de Bure.


















Over the Mountains and Lac de Serre-Ponchon

Tuesday 23rd

A more difficult day to get away, forecast was for moderate thermals and relatively poor conditions. We all launched to the Gauche and spent a lot of time close to rocks trying to climb away in a succession of small bubbles that did not last long. The more successful got away to the local hills beyond and the hard work continued. It turned out to be an excellent learning experience as accurate thermalling close to the rocks was required along with the ability to read the terrain.
DaveT and Marco set out on cross country on foot and walked to the top of the Gauche and took photos of gliders up close and personal. Some samples below of 776 avoiding power lines and running the ridge. All in all a great learning day followed by a group dinner at G's place.

Monday Evening

A good day had by all, everyone achieved 2.5 hours each. Flights were a mixture of climbing up the ridge in thermals after launch onto the Gache, see picture on right. The only difficulty was the wind was from the NW and of course the sun's from the S which made deciding exaclty what would work and where a bit more difficult. Dave Tanner's flight with 'G' being typical with a jump over to the Lure a long ridge with lots of turbulent strong lift and sink with a lot of effort needed to get above the ridge. Then a jump straight upwind though 7-9 knots of sink to cross the valley to connect with a 7.5 knot climb to cloudbase and then connecting with the wave after soaring the shear just in front of the cloud.

A run downwind in direction of St Auban and a nose into the mountains found weak lift with wave suppressed thermals until deeper into the hills, after which strong climbs and sink and a very close look at the some of the hills.

Running to the wave and a close look at the hills!

Changeover completed

David Dunwoody here - just a very quick note to say that myself, Dave Tanner, Mike Sedgwick and Marko Dragosavac had a good day's flying, all managing 2h30 in along and above the local ridges.

Thermals were triggering off the ridges and going to about 9000ft or so; not much in the way of dynamic ridge lift.

It was my first time in the montains, and I was sufficently impressed to forget to take any photos.

Mike and I are flying second today, so I'm off for some bread, cheese and sausage now - got to keep up my healthy diet somehow!

18th 11.15am

Looking good for a first launch around noon, already cu over the peaks; some of the forecasts (see above) predict showers, but hoping to get a full day.
Graham