The Worlds in Laragne - Task 4

Yesterday was another non-flying day. The weather forecast had predicted northerly winds that would turn to westerlies in the early afternoon. So Aspres was chosen as the site of the day. But when we got there, the wind was blowing over the back pretty strong, and everyone was sceptical whether it would be launchable. But all the pilots set their gliders up, a task was set, and we had a briefing. Then the launch window opened. But the wind kept on blowing from the left or even over the back, with very, very few launchable cycles. So we got about ten pilots off the hill before the day was cancelled. That was at four o'clock. Hanging around one day on the hill in the sun is pretty exhausting...

Today, we went up the Chabre again. A 131 km task was set, leading to the west to Villeperdix first, then to the north to Beaumont, south again to Ailes les Grauges and then via Tête de Bougé back to the campsite. The launch window opened early, at 12.10, because there were thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon. It seemed to take forever to get everyone off the hill because the wind kept on switching from south to north to east to west, so that launchable cycles were rare. After almost two hours, all the pilots were airborne - and now, nice cycles were coming up.

Anyway, clouds were building up fairly quickly, and at 3.45, the task had to be stopped due to serious overdevelopment. Some pilots that were not far away landed at the camp site, the others just somewhere on the course. Monica did the driving today, so I had time to do some work. Tonight, mum and I will go and have dinner with Davis and Belinda in a very nice restaurant - I look forward to that.

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