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BPP
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An unusual day for me and Mike Tomlinson. We had been booked
in for an exam as part of the procedure for obtaining a Brevet de Pilote de Planeur
(BPP),
the French glider pilots' licence. So it was a 9:00am start for us in the CFI's
office, where we were asked to answer 26 questions, in English, selected from a
known list of 240-ish. Some were trivial, some thought-provoking, but nothing
that a reasonably current glider pilot should not be aware of. Having usefully
devoted some time in studying for this, we managed to achieve the pass mark
without too much difficulty.
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Back to school
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The next step was a check flight, 30 minutes in a
Duo where we demonstrated rolling the wings on aerotow, stalling, tight turns,
lookout and circuit procedure. The whole process took one morning for the two of us
and resulted in two passes. The benefits are two-fold: not only are we no longer
required to pay the 80 euro 'tax' for our next pilot equivalence application, we
can now fly French club gliders, making a long weekend's visit from the UK a
viable proposition. (Of course, these benefits are bound to change in the next few
years as EASA sticks the boot in).
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Low cloud over the Queyras
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And so to the day's flying. Ariane and Angie whizzed off to do
some R&R at the Domaine de Germanette, the swimming complex near Serres,
where they enjoyed the water, the restaurant, and the undivided attention of an
admiring waiter. These Frenchmen, eh...?
I had the pleasure of inviting Hugh Kindell, one of the Lasham
team, to accompany me on today's mission. With all the events of the morning it was a
slightly late 2pm start, but conditions were excellent and a tow to Trainon got
us on to Authon and thence to the parcours via Blayeul. With 10,000ft on the
clock at la Blanche, we hopped over to the Morgon ridge and tracked east along
the ridge line under a lowish cloudbase, as far as the tete de Ciguret where
cloudbase was rather higher.
Although the cloudbases were higher at the eastern edge of the
Barcelonnette valley I had a hankering to see the Queyras under a lower
cloudbase, so we picked our way through some magical scenery, flying around high
peaks nearly touching the clouds. The shadows created a another dimension to the
mountains and the panorama was stunningly beautiful.
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Col d'Izoard
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On the way to the glacier Blanc we saw what appeared to be a
deflated cu-nim sitting over the Barcelonnette area, so plan A (back to the lac
d'Allos) was abandoned. Plan B was to get home via the pas de la Cavale, which
we approached at an 'interesting' height - I keep promising myself I will NOT go
through there low again, but sometimes circumstances arise that are beyond our control...
The light shower experienced on the glide home was unwelcome,
but we had good air after that and around the Sisteron cuvette everything was
going up. We made a tour of the local ridges and then landed, job done (though
my day was not yet over - that word bureaucracy re-appeared, demanding that Mike
and I spend the rest of the evening filling out a series of application forms for the BPP).
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