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| Tricky |
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Lure - yet again
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Crikey, this was a difficult day!
A 10-15kt north-westerly was enough to make
the Gache work, but not enough for wave. And since we had launched early,
there wasn't much in the way of thermals either. I ran up the Lure,
finding at its summit a really strong thermal to 7499ft - perhaps
wave-induced? I continued along the ridge as far as les Omergues where, as
the wind-speed lessened and the thermals refused to fire up, I retreated
back to the Gache. |
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| That was pretty
much all you need to know for the first FIVE hours of the flight.
We scrabbled around all the known hotspots, none of which seemed to be
working. And all the time the fallback to the ridge became less secure as
the wind dropped to under five knots. I nearly landed back three times,
getting away on each occasion over Richard's house in Valernes; I assumed
Bob's team were cooking up a barbeque to trigger the thermal. I was sure I
could smell sausages. |
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Playtime on the parcours
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| At 5pm, I found a
good climb at Jouere, to 7,500ft. That was more like it! And so I was able
to reach the cumulus at Blayeul which unlocked the door to the parcours,
where the cloudbase varied from 8,500ft to 10,000ft. After the early
struggles it was an absolute joy to romp up and down the parcours between
Morgon and Cheval Blanc, blasting along all that lovely cumulus above the
ridge-lines. I did consider heading off to Guillaume, but at that time of
the afternoon there didn't seem much point. |
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Evening sunshine
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| And so, back to
base. All the other Brits had landed by the time I arrived. Bob reported
experiencing the same difficulties as I had, and earlier calls on the
radio expressed much the same for the others. I can't really complain
about a 6h30m flight in the mountains; it was effectively a training day
with a rewarding playtime session at the end. |
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You done good, 245
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