The flying at Greolieres is on the S side of a big E-W ridge (the Cheiron). The meteo wind (especially aloft) is normally from the N but lower down the anabatic breeze, valley winds and thermals usually overpower it and give pleasant flying (which can sometimes get bumpy when you get up to ridge height). Sometimes, though, although the forecasts look fine, it doesn't work and it is just too bumpy to enjoy the flying.Today was such a day; I took off with about 6 pilots from the Nice area. Climbing up was easy but it was very bumpy; I had no collapses but just keeping the wing open was hard work. Maybe early in the season you don't want to turn down air-time, so I waited a little to see if things would improve. But there isn't really anywhere else you can easily go to at Greolieres (airspace kinda traps you there), so all I could do was to try a few different altitudes but they were all unpleasant. So just shy of an hour I joined the other pilots in the LZ (they had all come to the same conclusion as me).
I had lunch, drank some tea, did some kiting and went back up for an early evening flight. By then things were a lot more comfortable and I flew with a couple of locals. Normally you rocket up the Cheiron in a thermal but we very slowly ridge-soared upwards and had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.
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