Day 7

Today was a good day.

The Tabbner goes wave flying

The wind was forecast to be strong and before launch the live feed from Mt Ventoux showed 100km/hr Northerly, it was certainly brisk on the ground! We launched at midday onto Arambre and from 5000' a push forward into wind into rotor climbs took us to 7000 and a push further forward dropped us into 6-7kts of wave behind Aspres ridge. Up to 11500 here and across to Pic de Bure took us up to the airspace limit of FL195. We congregated here and set off North into the Ecrins and finally contacted good wave again just in front of Mt Pelvoux. Back up to FL195 again and off to Bardonecchia where the cloud cover became 8/8 and further progress was denied. We therefore did a downwind dash back to Pic de Bure, climbed up to 13000 and pinged off South East to the convection. East of Par Cours the wind changed from the 40kts NNE we'd been seeing to virtually calm. A run back up a convergence took us back up to Blayeul and an easy glide across to Chabre. Geoff and Ben went in to land, I ran out West to Rosans and was back over site by 1830hrs. The landings were pretty sporty thanks to the rotor over site but everything was tucked away nicely in time for dinner. At 2100 Klaus finally came in to land - the guy's a superstar!

Baron Broomhandle, Rachel and GA