This year's expedition turned out to be memorable for many reasons. The flying statistics speak for themselves:
  

My trip to the Matterhorn is a memory I will treasure - the conditions on that day were superb.

It turns out that what I was saying earlier about the tugging operation needs a proviso: it depends on which tug and who is flying it. On one particular day, we had a grid of 20 gliders and only two tugs available - the reasonably powerful HI and the relatively under-powered KB. HI was used for the two-seaters, leaving KB for the single-seaters. I have to say that with runway temperatures in the high 30s, this made the end of a KB ground-run a most exciting event.   

Another feature of the launch experience  was the difference in tow times (and hence cost) to the same destination between different tuggies. Duty tuggie Max was brilliant - very efficient with a quick turnaround. The chef pilote Joel took a more relaxed approach, taking maybe 25% longer for the same tows. At least the KB tuggies had an excuse...

It is a concern amongst many local club pilots that the advance payments requested of visiting pilots will deter future expeditions to Sisteron. It is already rumoured that many German pilots will seek alternative launch sites for next season; since they make a significant contribution to club income, next season will be a challenge for ACIS, to say the least - unless they take the opportunity this winter to provide a more positive ambience for visiting glider pilots.

Apart from the niggles above, everything else about my visit was excellent. Good briefings, launches pretty much on demand, superb weather and some wonderful flights. And after my 28 years of expeditions to Sisteron, there is still a lot to learn and more rewards to come. 

...that just about wraps it up for this year and, indeed, for the Sisteron Diaries*. I have been writing this stuff since 2003 and reckon that I have said all there is to say about flying here. I do intend to carry on making these expeditions to Sisteron - flying in the Alps has a truly exciting beauty that will always draw me back - but you will be spared that feeling of deja-vu on reading my latest efforts and I will be spared the pain of trying to think of something interesting to say on a rubbish day.

So, thanks to everyone who has appreciated my attempts to convey the sheer joy of flying here in the mountains (and my apologies to those who found them irritating...). 

I will continue to have conversations with anyone interested in flying in the Alps, preferably over a beer.

See you down south!