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First climb at Gache
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| Regular visitors
will know that I am not a great fan of wave flying; I have never found it
a useful tool for cross-country flying. So when I saw the forecast for a
strengthening north-westerly wind I wasn't immediately convinced that it
would be an enjoyable day. Still rigged though...
My logger file tells me that it took twelve minutes to
get established in the wave. And that includes a five minute aerotow. All
I needed to make the magic work were two beats of the Gache, a 7-knot
thermal climb to a 6,500ft cloudbase and a push into wind. If only it was
always that easy. |
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FL195 at Serre-Poncon
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| No need to go to
the Lure for big climbs today. At 9,000ft I crossed the cuvette to get
another climb near the crete de Selles, this time to 14,000ft. There was a
lot of lower cloud today, so picking my way through the cloud tops towards
the pic de Bure needed a little care, but once I was to the east of the
pic, the traditional wave-generator kicked in, giving me about 15,000ft.
Pointing north for much of the climb had its effect on
my feet, which were now blocks of ice. I headed for the Ecrins to see if I
could make any sense of the jumbled mass of cloud that lay above it and,
sure enough, another climb near the Valgaudemar gave me 18,500ft. I then
dropped past the lac de Serre-Poncon where the lenticulars pointed to
another big climb, this time to the legal ceiling of FL195. |
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Ceuse
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| There were still a
few more hours left in the day, and I particularly wanted to delay what
was likely to be an exciting landing until the thermals started to die
down. So I made a short tour of the pre-Alpes and did another circuit,
this time topping out at FL195 just to the east of the pic de Bure. The
wind was strengthening, now 320°/45 knots, and it was only when I was
well below cloudbase that it dropped to a more manageable 20 knots. The
landing was a non-event, apart from considerable turbulence and the sudden
appearance of another glider and a light aircraft in the circuit ahead of
me.
In summary...I could get to like this wave
nonsense... |
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Still working...
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