I got back from a week's break in Scotland at 2 am and didn't get as much sleep as I'd like. The forecast looked good but with an inconvenient wind direction (SE) and a real chance of afternoon storms. I decided an early flight made the most sense so I got up to launch well before noon. Despite strong cycles, people were struggling to stay up.
I launched at midday and groveled below launch for 5 minutes before I rode a thermal for a vertical mile. Despite the early hour, clouds were building rapidly over the big mountains and I decided a flight out of the big hills towards Digne made the most sense. Things went according to plan, with a really good thermal over the Mouchon.
The second half of the flight was all new territory for me and I wasn't sure what to expect. I got onto a peak just above Digne that looked like an excellent thermal trigger (I later found it's called the Cousson and a drive up site for Digne pilots) and expected a good climb. I was disappointed and gradually lost altitude there until I found myself scratching with 3 or 4 local pilots who had launched from that peak. I yo-yoed between 1500m and 2000m several times, but I really wanted to get quite a bit higher before crossing the Bleone. After 30 minutes I got fed up and decided to head N instead, but I hit a bunch of sink just before a 'no-LZ' zone. I was pretty sure I had enough altitude to cross it, but I didn't want to take the risk and decided landing was a better option.
I believe the local pilots land in a sports stadium in town, but I wasn't too sure and instead found myself a nice field just outside the town. Retrieve was via the 'Train de Pignes', the tourist train between Digne and Nice.
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