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For a day that was supposed to be not as good
as yesterday, things did turn out rather well. I launched onto Hongrie and made my way to the pas de la Cavale via Colombis and
Chabriere, gaining a more successful entry into the Ecrins than I had
managed on my previous attempts.
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Barrage de Serre-Poncon
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The wind was stronger than yesterday, chopping
thermals which made climbs hard work except under large isolated
cumulus clouds, which were good news, as not only did they give spectacular
thermal lift, they also marked wave spots (as one would expect).
Between Briancon and the col de Montgenevre I found a few
knots which I took to 15,000ft, and then I set off northwards trying to work
out how the wave experts manage to find cross-country wave so easily.
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St Crepin wave
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I soon dropped out, of course, retreated back
to Briancon and popped into the wave again. I wasn't about to fly any
further north, so I decided to undertake an exercise in seeing how far south I could fly without
turning.
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By the time I had dropped out
of the wave I was already at Morgon, and ahead of me lay the parcours with good
cumulus along its entire length, so no problem maintaining around 8,000ft
all the way to Puismosson. A cloudstreet continued along the lac Ste Croix and
eventually petered out at 6,500ft over the town of Aups.
I still hadn't made a thermalling turn, so I did a 180 and
wondered how far north I could go, again just following streets. The
parcours provided great excitement as far as Morgon, where my non-turning
strategy ended.
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Aups
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Trois Eveches
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SeeYou tells me that this totalled 270km of straight line
flying (well, you know what I mean...) in two and a half hours, with
just a single 180º turn in the south. Now I had to learn how to thermal
again...
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Evening sunshine on the lac de Serre Poncon
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