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I wasn't really sure whether to fly today, but seeing the
forecast for tomorrow I realised that this would be my last chance of the
holiday and, given the continuing awful weather in the UK, possibly my last
chance of the season. Today's forecast was for westerlies, reaching 55kt at
FL180 and thermals which might be "difficult" to use, according to
Arnaud. Steve in JAC was the only other visiting Brit who wanted to fly, so
I lined up after him and took a launch to the Gache.
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Barrage du lac de Serre-Poncon
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It was late enough in the afternoon for stronger thermals to
appear, which is just as well because the wind strength on the Gache was
barely usable for ridge lift.
A couple of strong thermals got me to Jouere at around
6,000ft, after which a superb 7-knotter to cloudbase allowed me to
push into wind and pop into some moderate wave. Cloudbase was 9,000ft, which
didn't leave that much left before hitting the local FL115 ceiling, so I set
off northwards to search for more wave with higher limits.
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Lac de Sautet from 5000m
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Pic de Bure
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The strength of the wave wasn't great today, between 1 and 3
knots, but finding lift was fairly easy due to the amount of sausage-shaped
cumulus forming enough straight lines to mark the lift. I took my next climb
to round 15,000ft over the barrage of the lac de Serre-Poncon, and then
another to 16,500ft to the north of the Pic de Bure, in the lee of the Obiou
range, where the wind was about 270/45 knots.
Then, a gentle slide downhil via Dormillouse and Blayeul,
accompanied by moderate turbulence as I hit the convective layer, back to
Sisteron for a final landing.
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