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| Stress
Relief |
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Firstly, a short
note about the start of this year's proceedings: I arrived late yesterday
evening to something of a crisis: our nine-month old puppy, Oscar, who was
already at our French home, had
contracted hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, a truly vile illness with a 50%
mortality rate. After several long days and nights of treatment, he
thankfully took a turn for the better and now, at the time of writing this blog (one
week on), the crisis has thankfully passed and Oscar is almost back to his normal
self; now he just needs to be nursed back to full health.
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But it
might explain why my mind was not wholly focused on gliding matters, and
certainly not on this blog. The really important thing to say is that it
is solely due to Ariane's commitment and dedication Oscar came through and
we are able to
breathe again. Ariane is an absolute
gem.
And so it was with mixed feelings today that I obeyed instructions for me to just go away and fly. It is true that
flying (for me, anyway) has the power to reduce external stresses.
Probably by replacing them with another type of stress.
Ho-hum...
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| So, today's
action...
After I took my tow
to Hongrie, I noticed that (a) my Flarm wasn't working and (b) when it did,
30 minutes into the flight, it wasn't talking to my Oudie. I didn't feel
it appropriate under the circumstances to spend any time playing with the
settings whilst in flight, so I carried on using that old-fashioned
lookout technique.
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Ski Station at Orciere-Merlette
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I noticed that there are many more buzzards in the area
than I remember from previous visits and, boy, do they know how to fly!
Handy hint: If
you find yourself climbing happily at 4 knots, why not get another few
knots simply by shifting your circle to that of the bird? Works for me...
I quickly reached the parcours, cut across to the Morgon
ridge and flew onto Guillaume. After a failed attempt to get past Furan I
decided to try the west side of the Ecrins, back-tracking to to the ski
station at Orcieres-Merlette, partly due to it having played a leading
role in the finale of a video I made of our Spring trip. |
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Lac Cenis
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| I entered the St Crepin valley
having taken the Route Royale to the north of the pas de Cavale. and
continued the glide to the tete d'Amont, Briancon and the col d'Etache,
during which there was a distinct whiff of wave in the air. I was climbing
nicely near the lac Cenis when the conveniently located 2 knots of wave at
13,500ft turned into 6 knots of sink, signaling a speedy return back over
the col to the security of the St Crepin valley.
The route back over the Ecrins was more conventional,
past Furan, Guillaume, Morgon and on to the parcours at Dormillouse. I
then had a great run as far as Beynes, near Digne, where I topped up for a
run onto the Serre Montdenier and an easy final glide back home. Of course
- some plans need a backup, and mine was to climb to 3000ft above final
glide height for the 50km leg home. My LNAV showed an 8kt westerly, but
after 10 minutes or so I realised that the countryside wasn't moving as
fast as it should have, so I put two and two together and put it down to a
stiff north westerly headwind.
No problem in the end: I passed easily over la Baume and
topped up on the now strongly-working Gache to give me plenty of height
for a decent circuit. |
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Maurienne
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