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Back to Normality
After yesterday's excitement pilots felt
disinclined to fly on a day that was predicted to be difficult. A strong
inversion that would require a 33°C trigger temperature along with a
maximum temperature for the day of 34°C led all but Wendy and John to take
the day off flying and various expeditions set off for shopping, swimming
and sightseeing.
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Pre-flight at the bar
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One down, 29 to go...
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The competition grid was nevertheless
dispatched in about an hour, to the great credit of the French launch point
organisation, leaving any remaining pilots to launch at the time of day they
would have normally launched anyway.
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Lac d'Esparron, south of Lac Ste Croix
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Wendy made it down to the lac Ste Croix and the Gorges du
Verdon for the first time, and then headed off north to the parcours as far
as les Trois Eveches and la Blanche, before heading for the pic de Bure and
the area around Aspres and Serres.
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John took time off from the high mountains and flew south
across the 'flatlands' to the Montagne Ste Victoire, near Aix-en-Provence.
Predictably, he was unable to resist the lure of snow and ice and had a good
run up to the Ecrins to explore the western face of the Barre des Ecrins,
where cloudbase had risen to 13,500ft. The return was via the western face
of Pelvoux and the Valgaudemar. In hindsight, a very reasonable day and well
worth launching for.
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Near Morgon
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Barre des Ecrins
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As a postscript to yesterday's weather, two German gliders
made it to the Grand St Bernadino pass, about 700km out and return, which
put the rest of our achievements into some sort of perspective. Jerome, the
CFI at Sisteron, commented that yesterday's were the best conditions that he
had seen since 1976.
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