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Practice Flight
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Over the Glacier Blanc
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Home thermal at Valernes
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The long drive down to Sisteron was accomplished in one fine
sunny day, with only one pause on the autoroute while the emergency services
dealt with a capsized caravan. It struck me as I waited that had I been 20
seconds earlier I could have been a significant part of the accident.
After dealing with the admin we rigged and flew. My first
thermal was a 6-knotter over our village that got me away to 6000ft and on
to the parcours.
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Not a classic day, as it turned out. Cloudbase was 11000ft in
the Ecrins and six or seven hours of soaring was available, but a large
cunim over the Barcelonette valley brought a great deal of spreadout that
weakened conditions in the second half of the afternoon. It was good enough,
however, for a visit to the glacier blanc, via a low scrape over the col de
couleau and ridge-bouncing all the way to Pelvoux and the glacier
itself.
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Col de Couleau
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Flying so close to the ice and rocks of the mountains made a
refreshing change from the hot stable weather in the UK so I loitered for a
while to enjoy the views. I then flew on a straight glide to the lac Ste
Croix via the parcours and back again to Serres and home, for 390km on the
day. Meanwhile Ariane, who had selected a local flight
in order to realign herself with Alpine conditions, found herself doing a
circuit of the parcours, Guillaume, Orcieres-Merlette and home again via the
Ceuse. Martin's check flight was conducted successfully - Jean-Pierre's
gallic swearing was directed solely at the deteriorating weather rather than
his P2.
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Pelvoux
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