| Flight details: | The big day of the week was forecast, but inversions kept it blue, and it started much more difficult that forecast. I waited a long time to take off, not liking the throngs forming in front of launch whenever a cycle appeared; meanwhile the early birds began to climb a few hundred metres.
I launched into a decent climb, and then moved west along the ridge. With the sky getting crowded again, I pushed forward but found little. Down I went, maintaining over a tree-covered lump, while the pilots that I was counting on to find me a low save landed one by one. But my maintenance turned into a slow, weak climb back up from 800m to 1000 (take-off is 1300, so I was well below). Then I saw an eagle cruising about below me, and found what turned into a modest but consistent climb. I began to think I might get high enough to fly back to the campsite... but at 2000m I realised that I had to reignite my ambition, because I was back in the game.
I returned to launch, sinking to 1700, but there hit a boomer which took me up to join a hangie at 3000m -- the highest I've ever been here, and enough to turn down my body temperature consiserably. That gave me an easy cruise over the next turnpoint, before a calmer climb at Beaumont. During that I managed to put on my thick gloves, do up all my zips, and eat a muesli bar. Revived, I took a buoyant glide to the third turnpoint at Bonnet Rouge. Clouds near there suggested rain rather than huge suction, but they kept their distance from the turnpoint.
I took a couple of weak climbs and a cruise to the Aspres ridge. By now the day was fading and the top cover increasing, but the air remained buoyant. I took a nice glide over Veynes, picking out landing fields in the town, but made it past to the foot of a hill. A power line at the bottom persuaded me not to try to soar it, and down I came to find the retrieve bus already waiting. A Finnish pilot bought beer for the busload, which soon included Catherine, who'd outflown me by a cou |
