Practice Day 2

Geoff Tabbner showing the way

Well I say practice day, more of a bimble round the hills with some mates. The practice days at Rieti are characterised by stereotypical Italian behaviour. To get a launch one has to purchase a ticket. This is not a simple task. It involves standing in front of a glass window while the official spends 30 minutes chatting to her mates, selling tee-shirts to the bloke behind you, taking a few phonecalls, wandering off for a drink etc etc. At the launchpoint it is similarly chaotic. The aeroclub tugs are separate to the gliding club tasks and there's a third category I don't understand. Matching the glider to the ticket to the tug is complex, but eventually we got away.
Once launched there were good climbs to 7500' above the release area but on Terminillo the climbs were affected by North Easterly wind shear again. However, we got together and set off as a couple of gaggles and ran South to Roccarsolo (pronounced Rockyarsehole ). There were good climbs to 9000' and Cu to mark them most of the way. The run North to Nocero Umbra (Italian for Night-time Umbrella) saw the Cu petering out and eventually most people turned 14kms short. Despite the NE flow the wind was a light NW in the soft and fluffy valley of fun, and we all ran through it comfortably.

Running into the final valley at a very comfortable height for once