25 Jun 07

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25 Jun 07

Seyne-Les-Alpes

Dropping off the parcours

Yippee! Our replacement C4 arrived this morning and after some fiddling with the electrical connections we (with the help of Martin Whitehead) managed to get the thing going. We needed a flight test and all agreed that Martin would accompany me in 220 this afternoon. The forecast was for south-westerlies, some wave and good thermals before afternoon storms.

We lobbed onto Malaup and then the Cretes de Selles where the thermals were tight and all seemed to last about half a turn before dissipating. We carried on to the gorges de Meouge near Laragne where we found some wave to 9000ft and then tried to find a bit more in the Jabron valley north of the Lure. Having not much luck there we heard that gliders were having a great time at 18,000ft at la Blanche, so we decided to join them, finding good conditions en-route at la Baume, Vaumuse and Authon.

Scraping near Seyne

Then, when we got to Blayeul, the plan started to unravel. Some bright spark (me sir, it was me, sir!) decided to fly direct to la Blanche from 7500ft at Blayeul, in a south-westerly wind, in the lee of the tete Gross and other mountains of the pre-Alpes. The joke about this of course was that I had followed exactly the same plan, in the same conditions, several years ago - and it didn't work then, either!

We sank rapidly below the high mountains, eventually having to ridge-soar the low hills (no, the really low hills) near Seyne airfield. I think we recorded a low point of 800ft above airfield height before luck intervened with a last-gasp thermal over the town that got me slowly back into the soarable world. I knew that as long as I hung on to the thermal, its drift towards Dormillouse would get us away, and so it proved.

Back on the parcours proper, I flew along la Blanche and immediately hit strong wave that got us to 12000ft, just 25 minutes after our low point at Seyne - it's quite an impressive sport, this gliding lark.

Back on la Blanche


	Martin, having kept silent for much of the drama (mainly because he was videoing it, possibly for insurance purposes), kindly flew 220 while I took a break. The wave pattern was complicated and difficult to decipher, and we slowly dropped out into thermals, returning to the Sisteron valley via Blayeul, Auribeau, Authon and la Baume, landing soon afterwards after another memorable flight. And, yes - the post-flight beer was delicious.
	Movie (25.8Mb) (Right-click image to download)
Martin: "Me? I wasn't worried at all"