Le Parcours

No pics on the flight, but our glider is 4th in line!

Today was a very nice sailplane XC day. I had a new instructor for the day, Guillaume, and he was very laid back and let me do almost all the flying. We towed up to 1300 m (about 500 m above the ground, some 200 m higher that usual - I like to stack the odds in my favor...) and released into a thermal that took us straight up to 3200 m. In a sailplane that sort of altitude opens up a lot of terrain and we headed to the Pic de Morgon, just N of the Dormillouse, topping up in a couple of thermals on the way.

At that point Guillaume asked if I'd done 'le Parcours'. I didn't even know what it was so he explained that it's a classic sailplane flight, running S along ridges from the Lac de Serre Poncon to the Lac de Sainte-Croix (the start follows the PG route from the Dormillouse to St Andre). I didn't hesitate, so off we went... 

At Guillaume's suggestion, I turned the vario sound off to help develop a better feel for the aircraft. We headed south, starting at about 2500 m and dolphin flying in ridge lift and some thermals, pretty much maintaining altitude. As we got into the bigger mountains, we effectively fell below ridge height; I suggested turning in a thermal but Guillaume said it wasn't necessary. Further south, the mountains got lower but there were enough promising clouds to almost compensate for the lack of ridge lift. At the end of le Parcours, after 80 km without turning, I was down to near 2000 m and built a bit more altitude in a thermal (with the vario sound back on) before the leg back to St Auban.

A very nice triangle of about 170 km and easily my most satisfying sailplane flight yet! Even better, different instructors teach you new and different things - so Guillaume gave me a bunch of new insights and things to work on.