Friday dawned with good promise. Blue skies, a light Northerly and drying air. The Cu were popping from 0830 onwards so after a short Klaus briefing we launched around 1100 and got away easily. After a quick foray to the North of site we grouped up and headed for Dignes. The Chabre ridge was just about working despite the sinking paragliders and we spent the obligatory 20 minutes entertaining the public. From here we set off across the valley to the Gache but arrived a lot lower than planned.
The damn power cables were in exactly the wrong place so there was an element of dodging them before getting away. Mike in 315 displayed perseverance beyond the call of duty and made an excellent low save not once but twice. Once away we cruised over to Dignes and the end of the Par Cours but the cloudbase wasn’t great at just 7200’ amsl. We ran along the Par Cours tucked up between the peaks and the cloudbase and crept along to Dormillouse. It has to be said the run has worked better! Then it was off to Mt Ventoux, 70kms to the SW, using a great line of energy to arrive with the top tantalisingly only just in cloud, round that and off to Vinon. That involved dodging the St Christol airspace and a cell that was right on the cusp of going BOOM. The run North was pretty straightforward with some interesting thermal induced wave behind the Lure and smooth lift up to 8,000 and beyond. Still air at site provided plenty of scope for giving it large so what else could we do?
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