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| Pleasant
Surprise |
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Be Prepared
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The early morning weather didn't look
promising - low cloud hung over the hill tops and the summits of la Baume
and the Gache were only just poking through. John and David from Lasham
had arrived, and we decided to rig and wait until the sky had cleared.
Launching started at around 2pm into a blue sky littered with
cumulus.
I couldn't help noticing the panel of the
glider in front of me - maybe the pilot was in the boy scouts. |
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| I followed the
standard route out of the cuvette: Hongrie, Trainon, Authon (which did
work today), Auribeau and Blayeul - though there was a moment between the
latter two that I got a little nervous, but the climb came and Bridgie was
happy again. The cloudbases varied from around 7500ft to 8500ft, dropping
as I reached la Blanche, but the parcours maintained its reliable
reputation, so no worries as far as Morgon. |
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Morgon
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| The Ecrins looked
out of bounds today - low cloud over Guillaume saw to that. So I turned
tail and flew down to the Gorge du Verdon, pausing at the Cheval Blanc to
investigate a small chunk of wave. It was very weak and I didn't linger,
but it was lovely to fly past the cloud tops over the Coupe.
I turned the pont d'Aiguines at around 6000ft, which
sounds a lot, but not when you have a 5000ft mountain to get back to. The
Serre Montdenier worked as expected, and I soon got the height required to
get back to the Coupe for the reverse trip along the parcours. I went
slightly off-piste at Couard, setting off across the valley for a good
looking cumulus under which a German glider was climbing well. I was a
little surprised that John had followed me, as my tactic was a little
unconventional, but the plan worked well and I was soon back at a more
comfortable height to continue my trip along the parcours. |
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Pont d'Aiguines
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| Turning Morgon once
again, it was time to go home. After proving that a 6 knot north-westerly
wasn't enough to make the Lure work, I returned to base after what had
turned out to be an unexpectedly good day. |
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Bed-time
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