Hike and Hike

Today's forecast looked excellent ("bonnes ascendances thermiques") and, after a week of so-so conditions, I was keen to get a decent flight. There is an A league FFVL competition at St Andre this weekend and I thought that getting a ride up might be difficult so I decided to walk up. I went over my gear carefully, cutting anything I could from my load before heading off. The walk up turned out to be very pleasant - although the slope is very steep, the path zigzags up nicely.

When I arrived at the top, it was obviously stronger than forecast - or maybe I just need to get better at reading the forecast! Anyway, the meteo wind was strong and more from the N than forecast and it was combining with the anabatic wind. It didn't really seem flyable but, just as I arrived, the window was opened and everyone started launching.

There were a lot of helpers available to hold wings down and generally help the pilots. There were only around 60 pilots and the launch is very wide. But I only recall seeing one launch that didn't involve the pilot getting 'yanked' and some of the launches were scary. It's not just that the winds were strong, but there were some rocket thermals just in front of launch; about as difficult conditions as I've seen people launch in. When everyone was in the air, you could almost hear a collective sigh of relief on launch.

I relaxed in the sun, watching the pilots fly the course line. There were a few small collapses and a couple of pilots decided to land (after going up for a long time in big-ears...). But generally everyone coped well with the conditions. It never calmed down, so after a couple of hours I shouldered my back-pack and walked down by a different route.

St Andre has reputation for getting strong in the early afternoon - maybe I need to get better at getting up the hill earlier. Anyway, it was a nice day's hiking - but I'd have enjoyed it a lot more with a lighter pack!