Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Lunch Time Hike and Fly

I had time for a short flight on Monday around lunch time. Saturday and Sunday afternoon had both ended in storms, and this left a lot of moisture on the ground, resulting in a sweaty hike up. I got up to launch before noon; big clouds were forming, but it was a S day, and it's much harder to climb out from the S launch than the normal W launch. Lots of people on launch, lots in the air, either maintaining or sinking out.

I launched and struggled in traffic. You know it's a difficult day at St Andre when you have to worry about ridge rules and you're looking at trees for signs of movement. But after 10 minutes struggling I caught a nice thermal and got almost 1000m over launch. No-one seemed to want to join my thermal so I enjoyed watching the other wings getting smaller below.

I really couldn't fly for very long, so I just had a nice little ride around St Andre and the Lac de Castellane before landing and getting back to work. A pity, because as the day evolved it seemed to get better and better - a much better flying day than Saturday or Sunday. 

2 comments:

  1. Just found you. You seem to be having a lot of fun. I recall you mentioning you wanted to move to France. Keep it up.

    Ajay Kalra (worked with you at Tualatin)

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  2. Nice to hear from you, Ajay - hope everything is going well for you. I guess the internet makes the world small.

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