When I said yesterday that I'm not a great fan of wave...well, I could be persuaded. Today promised a northerly wind so we all launched onto the Gache (in my case with a very exciting "oops the rope has gone slack I hope it doesn't break" moment). Half the pack went to the Lure, the other half stayed on the Gache. I was one of the latter and seeing some very high gliders above me it was clear that good wave was occurring right here.

All I needed to do was climb to the top (just under FL115, the legal ceiling here) and keep on pushing forward towards Aspres, topping up to FL115 at each bar. On the south-west corner of the pic de Bure I was able to climb to FL195 and enjoy the marvellous view.

I carried on to the Ecrins, still trying (and failing) to make sense of cross-country wave flying. As 'er indoors had requested an early landing, I decided to descend to enjoy the afternoon cumulus to the west of Serres, and discovered instantly what the rotor boys were whinging about. The turbulence came in short, sharp stabs, with huge changes in airspeed in fractions of a second. After a minute of this I began to lose my enthusiasm for roller coasters and sought sanctuary near the airfield.

The windspeed as I descended showed a 15 knot northwesterly on downwind, but my hopes for a peaceful circuit were dashed as I encountered more wind-shear turbulence on the downwind leg. A 600ft final turn one field back seemed about right to me and I touched down without further drama and rolled to a halt to the western edge of the runway.