I hadn't flown for nearly two weeks (busy with work, doing other things, so-so conditions) so I was pleased to see a decent forecast for Saturday. I headed around to the LZ and found lots of excited pilots there. "Have you brought your passport? Do you have some Swiss Francs?" one guy asked. The forecast didn't seem that good to me!
With all the pilots, it took some time before all the shuttle logistics worked themselves out and I was up on launch. I counted 77 paragliders and 10 hang-gliders - easily the busiest I've seen launch at St Andre
Conditions, though, were very weak and stayed that way for some time. Philippe and Francois fly tandems for the local school (Aerogliss) and almost always get above launch but couldn't today (of course, they couldn't keep their clients waiting all afternoon for conditions to strengthen). A couple of vultures flew past at launch height and they were using occasional flaps to maintain. The sky was blue except for some cumulus forming to the South.
All the wings that launched sunk out until a R10 managed to get above launch. More people launched then, the skies got 'busy' but most pilots were below launch in 'survival mode'. I launched when around half the pilots were at or above launch level, knowing that I couldn't afford to pass up even weak lift.
I've been trying to fly a little faster at St Andre. If you take every thermal you can stay well above ridge height, but it takes you forever to get anywhere - things are so sinky on glide. If you only turn in the strongest thermals, and fly more at ridge level, you get a better glide with a little bit of ridge lift - and it generally isn't too difficult to get back up if you sink a few hundred feet below ridge height. But today didn't seem a good day to try that approach. Staying up, at least until conditions strengthened, was the priority.
Progress was horribly slow; but as more and more gliders were landing below you couldn't afford to be impatient. Typical high pressure conditions, with very disorganized thermals. I had to turn back and look for better lift several times. It took me 1hr 20 minutes to cover the first 8K; fractionally faster than walking speed (in more typical conditions I do this in 30 - 40 minutes). As I transitioned onto Charvet, I came in well above 10 gliders that were struggling; I wasn't surprised to sink down to their level and join in the struggle.
Clouds were building and I knew if I could get onto the higher mountains to the North things could improve. The transition from Charvet to Cheval Blanc is a critical one and I was patient for a long time, hoping to get really high. Instead I bounced around with everyone else, generally just over over ridge height.
But then I saw a glider hit a rocket thermal. He was about 0.5 Km away so I used fullbar and saw he was drifting E quickly. I hit the lift and committed to it. The first turn was good, the second turn was ok, the next one was slow… I had arrived too late!
At this point I should have gone straight back to the ridge but I tried to look for a thermal that was no longer there and had drifted too far to safely get back to the ridge. 2 hours of patient flying were wasted right there.
While most people didn't do very well, the patient and skillful were rewarded with good flights. A little more patience...
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