Fall Colors

I was hoping for a hike and fly this weekend, but the winds aloft haven't cooperated. I settled for a lovely hike today in the Corradour and Coyer. I set off a little later than I intended and had to rush to get back down just before dark. Fall is very scenic here!

Some pics.

Gray November Flying

Looking back at launch

Toussaint (all saints' day) is a holiday in France, together with the 11th of Nov. St Andre gets a lot of visitors for these holidays from pilots hoping to extend their flying season. But today the weather didn't really cooperate - flyable but, with very little sun and a low inversion, maybe not soarable. Launch was crowded but without much action - vultures were seen flapping and almost all launchers sunk without trace.

But it clearly wasn't going to 'turn on' and seemed as likely to get worse as improve, so I launched and enjoyed an unusual flight for St Andre. Very marginal lift, mostly ridge soaring and lots of traffic around launch (pilots that sunk out came back up for second or third flights). A few thermals took me to a maximum of 200 m over launch, and I also had to work my way up from 150 m below launch more than once. Lift was scarce enough that you had to concentrate to stay up. I managed to mow up and down the ridge to the Antenae to avoid the traffic. From around 3.00 the lift weakened and things got a little quieter; I concentrated on staying up and landed just shy of 4.00, after a little more than 2 hours in the air.

The contrast to the normal flying here was a nice change and it was about as good as you could hope for from such an unpromising gray day...

Montagne de l'Aup

Strong winds aloft all heading to Tours

Despite the lateness in the season, the flying has been pretty good lately. Today naively looked to continue the trend with moderate winds and a reasonable ceiling.

But a more careful examination of the forecasts consistently showed very strong winds just above the top of lift. It seemed a better day for a hike, so I headed up the Montagne de l'Aup, immediately SW of St Andre. I've hiked it a couple of times before, but I also fancy it for other purposes - a snowshoe ascent, a little ski-tour and maybe even a hike and fly. So I spent some time investigating its hike and fly potential but I couldn't find a credible launch to the south (see the pics) and while it would work to the north, the glide back to St Andre looks very marginal. 

Launch to the south looks tricky

The sheep are down and the shepherds cabin is closed up for the winter. Lots of wave clouds in the sky. Fall is my favorite time for hiking here - cool temperature and lovely colors - and I got home feeling nicely tired.

Some pics.

Clouds...

Flying to Barreme doesn't look sensible right now

Yesterday, I got home from a lunch time bike ride just as the heavens opened. The rain continued into the evening and all that moisture has to go somewhere. So I wasn't surprised when I got up this morning and all the peaks were in the clouds. But the forecast wasn't bad for October, it would surely clear and I was due a day off from work, so I decided to fly.

It looks OK now!

I had a damp hike up to launch through the clouds. Cloud-base gradually rose to above launch but there were a lot of threatening clouds in the sky. They weren't near launch though - there, all the clouds looked puffy and reassuring, if a little low (about 200m above launch). So I joined a bunch of pilots playing around launch and it was really quite fun. The big clouds stayed away and it never felt threatening - I don't think I've flown for as long and stayed to near launch in St Andre. Base lifted a little as the day went on (I got to just over 2000m at the Antenae, higher than cloudbase) but not enough to tempt me to try an XC.

The Red Nova Club does Allos

Gliding onto Chamatte - I'll
arrive just above ridge height

Things were very slow on launch and Nigel asked about my flight plan. I said I hadn't flown to Allos this year and fancied rectifying that. Nigel said that he and Dieter had the same plan. 

I took off pretty late - quite a while after Nigel and Dieter - and it was slow going. On days like this, the traffic calms down quickly once you leave launch. I milked all the help I could from other pilots - especially vultures! - but by half distance I was flying by myself. 

Nigel and 3 Red Novas

I stuck with it, the top of lift slowly raised and in the end I arrived over Allos with a ridiculous amount of ground clearance. Far below, I saw a pilot land in the standard LZ. I spiraled down and found Dieter and Nigel - red Factor 2 and red Mentor 2 - waiting for me as I landed with my red Mentor 3. 

Flight plans don't always pan out like they did today! 

Oregon Tourists

Dan with the South Launch in the background

Dan and Mary-Beth have been visiting from Oregon. Since Dan retired a couple of years ago they've become paragliding tourists, spending the Northern winter in Australia, and clocking up tons of flying hours in both hemispheres. They're doing a 1 month European swing and came here after a great trip to Annecy.

It was interesting for me - how do you explain flying St Andre? It's not a very accessible site and I remember my first flights here felt very exploratory.

Conditions weren't great but they weren't bad either (better than this season in general, but worse than a typical start to Sept). Dan had a bunch of flights but work commitments limited my flying with him. I think we had 6 flights together, including my first evening flight of the year. His last flight here was probably his best. Despite an unpromising forecast and lowish ceiling, we flew a nice little loop out to the west and landed together at La Mure.

Mercantour Hike

Mistral conditions are great for hiking but bad for flying, so I headed to the Mercantour national park for some high altitude hiking. A seven hour hike - no mountain tops, but three high (2600m) passes - left me nicely pooped at the end of the day. The scenery was stunning (though my camera died after a couple of hours, so you'll have to believe me). Wildlife was pretty much limited to lots of plump marmots, waddling into their dens as I approached - they look ready for their hibernation!

I must admit I spent a lot of the hike looking at flying possibilities heading towards Italy and they did look pretty promising. But afterwards I did some checking. The rumors that the park rules now allow XC flying turned out to be incorrect. Despite some minor changes, you have to be have 1000m terrain clearance over the national park and that essentially rules out almost all flights towards Italy from St Andre. Bummer.