Mistral magic

The clue to today's weather was the way the wind kept shaking the chalet last night. A gusty 25kt Northerly was blowing this morning which made launching easy. The tug has time to make a 180 degree turn and is then on the Arambre mountain which sits right behind the airfield. Here you can release and be straight into the ridge lift which today was giving a constant 4-6kts lift.






The other slackers were late launching so in the meantime I nipped down to the Chabre ridge for a little ridgerunning out to the West and met our German friend JJ in his ASH25.


The rest were in the air by 1230 and we swarmed over site and agreed a 400km task to Logis du Pin and Sollieres. In typical style we managed to get all 11 gliders together - briefly, and cruised back onto Chabre then overhead Sisteron onto the Gache mountain. Arriving at 3500' we were below the cliff-face and on the treeline but it was working well and we were soon back up to a comfortable height. A bit of faffing and we arrived on Blayeul in 6kts and climbed to cloudbase at 8500'.

After this things were easy and good climbs abounded on the way South East to the first turn. Best climb en route was averaging 10kts and we made good speed.










From here we tracked North into increasingly good air. More 9-10kt climbs led us to the Cime de la Bonnette - an 11000' peak with a road running up to the summit. A quick beatup and we moved East into a convergence running along the Italian border. The clouds were really sucking well here and we peaked at a cloudbase of 14500'. It looked marginal ahead so we ran over to the Ecrins and home via Pic de Bure.








All in all not a bad day out. Landings were a little exciting in the strong Northerly and varied from PIO through too damn low to "my God Geoff's a bit close - Run!"