Clouds and Wind

7 pilots headed up La Chabre; we didn't have an official retrieve, so this would be more typical of Laragne flying if I were to move here. Some forecasts warned about S winds and we found three gliders more or less ridge soaring, struggling to get high. There seemed more wind and maybe less thermals than on a typical day. I launched and was pleased to find good enough thermals straight away.

Pretty soon, the clouds were the problem; I was at cloud-base and wanted to head W, but some clouds were blocking me. You had to always choose a route with an escape route available, so I headed N - the Buech valley was in sunshine. The flying was relatively straightforward, though I always seemed to arrive at a peak or ridge that was in shade. I wanted to wait for the other pilots, but I seemed to be either at cloudbase (and struggling to stay below it) or in shadow (and struggling to stay up). As the day went on, the wind strengthened.

Coming onto the sail-plane ridge I headed left (W) for a cloud but it gave no lift. This was a bad mistake, it left me in a position where I had to fight the strong valley wind to get onto the ridge. As I started to sink out, my concern changed to finding the LZ that would minimize the problem of the wind - I got one above the valley bottom that was OK.

I got a couple of lifts back to Laragne without any problems. The first guy asked lots of questions; I first told him I was American then Scottish and he felt Scottish was 'beaucoup mieux'.

Tracklog -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/262677

Pics -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Laragne31August#

Mens

The forecasts for today were hard to interpret After some head scratching, I headed to Mens with 3 other pilots (Rod, Chris and Johan). Mens is on the north side of the Col de la Croix Haute - this marks the divide between the Southern Alps and the rest of the Alps (and often, the good and the bad weather). But it is relatively sheltered from N winds and we reckoned it would work today (as the Mistral slowly ran out of steam).

Mens is a lovely village as well as a flying site; we had a nice lunch there before heading up to launch. There we found at least 40 pilots; the local club competes in a club XC league and the idea was that all members would fly 20 Km, thus winning the comp for the local club. This seemed good news for us foreigners - the locals thought this was the place to fly today!

Alas, this wasn't the case. There was a strong inversion; it rose as the day went on, but it limited my flying to 1800m (6,000 ft). At least 2 of the club members got through the inversion, but most pilots were flying around launch height. With the number of pilots and lack of lift, things got interesting - I seemed to find several mini-gaggles where 4 pilots were turning left and 4 were turning right.

After around 1 hour, my three companions had landed and I flew out to join them. Just before the LZ, I found one weak thermal and decided to take it for practise - I rode it for 2,000 feet, with weak 50ft/min gradually getting stronger. It was my most enjoyable climb of the day.

Not the greatest of flying, but Mens is a very scenic site and the local club members were very friendly.

Tracklog -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/261764

Pics -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Mens30August#

Mistral Day

Saturday was beautiful; cool and breezy - the Mistral had arrived. The sky was bright blue - the continental air descending the Rhone valley had very little moisture content. It was probably flyable at St Vincents (a site sheltered from N winds), but I'd flown the last 6 days and reckoned I deserved a break. So I explored the countryside and towns around Laragne and Gap.

In Gap I had a refreshing beer in a cafe and the paper I was reading nearly got blown away by the Mistral - dangerous things these winds. I had intended to get back to Laragne in time for a walk, but I didn't - I went for a nice meal with 3 other pilots.

Petit Mistral Day

The weather was due to change into a Mistral pattern for a day or so; this is a strong Northern wind blowing down the Rhone valley that can 'blow the ears off a donkey'. Friday is a day of transition - a petit Mistral - where we thought we might fly La Chabre on the North side. We were worried the wind would be too west to do so, and that's how it proved. Rachael, Chris and I managed to get off; there was lift (I got about 150ft over launch at the start) but the thermals were all being broken up by the wind. We landed 15 minutes later, in the same order we launched in, but in different fields.

The others bagged it and we decided to head to St-Vincent-les-Forts - an hours drive away, but a site that works well when the Mistral is not too strong. We arrived and the wind was strong on launch, but gliders were flying and a few were high. Straight off launch I got a good climb and just kept pushing out and thermalling up until I was level with the mountain we wanted to get onto - the Dormillouse. Chris and I headed across and waited over the summit for Karen who had a slower climb; I lost quite a lot of altitude in the process but was able to rebuild it. The others didn't get across to the Dormillouse or, in the case of Johan, only arrived much later and we left them behind.

We pushed South under threatening clouds; we had to work hard not to go into the 'dark gray room'. When we emerged from the clouds we had to build some altitude on a spur to cross the next, higher mountain. Chris got in tight to the terrain and did so, Karen and I struggled a bit. Karen slowly slid down the mountain but I managed to find a thermal to get the job done. Chris and I headed South; Chris flew much nearer the terrain than me and was able to ridge soar. I was a bit too cautious and lost altitude compared to him - given it was after 6pm the danger of turbulence was pretty low but I was still in 'midday flight mode'.

We crossed the mountain and I looked for a thermal and didn't quite find it; we headed to a mountain on the glide out into the valley. Chris managed to get above it but I didn't arrive quite high enough to do so. This extended his flight a little and he got 'one village further' than I did. As I was walking to join him Rachel arrived with the retrieve vehicle and the other pilots - we had a beer in Verdaches and an interesting drive through the Clues de Barles and a nice meal at Digne. We got back to Rebinelle after midnight.

Tracklog -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/260720

Pics -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/StVincent29August#

More Laragne

There has been a lot of rain in the last two days (fortunately in the evening, so we've been able to sneak in some flying). This is limestone country, so there are very few oveground rivers (most drainage happens underground). The river (La Meouge) below the local flying site (La Chabre) has been transformed from a blue river into a muddy torrent. Kids still play in it, but they emerge covered in mud.

The rain left the ground humid and this seemed to cause some huge cumulus clouds very early. We went up La Chabre and the wind was very slightly from the North; you can launch to the North, but it's hard to find a thermal there. We decided to try to fly a triangle and to head W. The wind became more neutral as we waited and it was obvious we could launch over the S side. I did a reverse, I think everyone else did a forward and there were weak climbs available.

The big problem turned out to be the clouds; there were monster clouds around, base was low at around 2100 meters, ridge height is around 1350 meters. So you had to operate in a pretty narrow band; I had to work hard at the end of couple of climbs to stay in clear air. Over the ridges, there were enough thermals to make progress easy - away from the ridges it was much tougher, especially if it shaded out. We flew W, then S and tried to get head back E, but almost everyone sank out within a couple of Km of each other. Two people manage to 'properly close the triangle', I just couldn't quite reach the climb to make that connection - a sunny ridge where everything else was shaded.

Later in the day we went to a 'glass-off' site to the west; but it wasn't quite soarable - except for a local tandem pilot flying with a four year old child!

A really interesting day's flying....

Tracklog -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/260077

Laragne - Day Four

Flying XC is full of decisions like "should I turn in this weak lift or fly through it for the better lift I expect soon". Generally, I take weak lift too often but today I made the opposite mistake - I flew through perfectly good lift expecting better stuff beyond, and ended up sinking out.

After the storms during the night, the day was noticeably weaker than previous days - a high layer of cirrus never really burned off. But the forecast was reasonable - with worries of overdevelopment later - so we headed up La Chabre. We launched a little late; after getting up I waited for some other pilots; they got high and set off just as I got low. I re-built my altitude but this meant I was at the back of the group.

I set off on the long glide to Beaumont. I didn't get a climb over Orpierre but the air was boaty and I arrived over the cliffs at Beaumont with what seemed enough altitude and immediate weak lift. I could have turned in this and got higher but I expected better lift just beyond it and kept going. Maybe I was in a rush to catch up? But it turned out to be a bad mistake; given the general weakness I should have taken it. I then was in a classic position - is it better to continue and hope for something or is it better to turn round and hope to find and work the weak lift I just flew through?

I kept going and despite trying hard I sank out. Most of the others sank out early too. Dag and Chris got 50K heading North, always running away from the bad weather. Back around Serres the weather deteriorated very quickly; from growing clouds to monster clouds to thunder and lightening to gust fronts to torrential rain was only 30 or 40 minutes. We sat in a bar, glad we were on the ground.

It's a little frustrating to make such a silly mistake (the first I've made on my trip to France) but it was still a nice flight - just a bit shorter than it should have been.

Tracklog -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/259783

Pics -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Laragne26August#

Bad Weather Day

It is dark in Laragne and I'm sitting outside enjoying a wonderful thunder and lightening show. This was all part of today's forecast; we are hoping it will have blown through by tomorrow afternoon. This morning we managed a brief flight at Aspres before the approaching weather stopped play. The wind was strong, especially on take-off and (while it's always interesting to fly a new site) the flying wasn't very interesting - ridge soaring in a strong wind. Bad weather was rapidly approaching from the NW (although the winds were from the S) and I landed first - I didn't really see any point in flying for very long. The landing is at the corner of a large, grass airfield.