March

This was the first day of a week's trip to southern France on a flying holiday arranged by Mike Hibbit of Cloud 9 Airsports. Flying along with us was John Terry and Pete Malon.

Monday 22nd March 2004

We flew at Roquebrune again today. It was a little livelier than yesterday with some thermal activity to help things along. I reverse launched this time but ended up running backwards quite quickly and skimming the rocks on take off. the flight itself was a very pleasant 40mins. Soaring the cliffs and hotel was a very exciting experience and hovering close to the elevated road was something I've never done before. I tried to soar to the western end of the ridge but lost the lift and had a nail biting flight over the town to try to make it back to the landing beach. It was close (I would have wanted to leave it any later to return) but I still had some reasonable height to bleed off before landing.

Tuesday 23rd March 2004

We went to Lachens today. We tried the SW take-off first of all and the wind seemed to be on the hill some of the time but then seemed to shift for a while. Mike wanted to get some local knowledge before taking off if possible so he and John went to find the local club/school. While he was gone, Pete and me could hear the sound of artillery guns in the distance and could see the very small plumes of smoke from the guns so we both made a mental note of the course NOT to fly if we got away from the hill.

After a while, Mike and John returned having not had any success in finding anyone for advice. We decided to try another launch site. We first went to the SE site to look at the conditions but looking at cloud/fog sinking and rotating at quite a rate quickly told us that this would not be a good idea.

Lastly we tried the NW take off. This seemed to be fine, if just a little strong. We sat on the hill for a while and appreciated how cold it was. Pete had decided not to fly here and waited in the car. After twenty minutes or so, the wind had eased ever so slightly (or was it just wishful thinking) and we decided to go for it.

I was first off to act as wind dummy. The wind was indeed quite strong but this made it very easy to soar the mountain. Flying over the wooded area was quite bumpy and I radioed down to the guys to be aware of this as it may be disconcerting to them. At times I got to over 500ft above take off without the use of thermals (which were noticeable by their absence). The guys took off one by one and we had a great flight above the mountain. John and then Mike went down to the landing field and shortly afterwards after a 40minute flight and freezing cold I followed them. It was getting quite dark by now and it was quite and experience to land when we could barely see the ground. Once on the ground I realised how cold it actually was as pain shot through my fingers as they started to thaw. Peter drove down shortly afterwards to collect us.

Wednesday 24th March 2004

Another couple of flights at Roquebrune today. This seems to be the failsafe site that is very often flyable when others are not. The lift was a little patchier than Monday but I still manage a flight of 37mins, and as always an pleasant landing on the beach. Another top to bottom flight of around 12mins finished of the day nicely

Today was the first time we got to fly Greollierre. This is an 8 km ridge with a huge valley in front. It is also a huge walk up and if possible it is always better to get a lift from the local school who has a Land Rover that makes the unbelievable journey up a very narrow dirt track and zig zagging by driving forwards up one straight and backwards up the next straight until it can go no further then does the same to get down.

The sky looked good but a little overdeveloped in places and the wind wasn't the howling gale that it had been on our previous trips here during the week. John went off first, then Mike then Pete stood on take off. He'd been struggling to get flying on the unfamiliar and sometimes daunting take offs during the week so this was a test of nerves. He reverse launched and got off without a problem. Pete did a couple of turns then headed for the landing field. Now it was my turn. I reverse launched and turned left along the ridge. I could see that John was soaring the slopes above take off along with Mike so I followed course. 

After a little more soaring I saw the other two make for the landing field. I could feel thermals coming through, and quite strong ones at times. I was gaining height and getting close to the top of the ridge when I got myself into a strong thermal. I circled in it and found myself going up at 1500ft per minute. As I approached (a very dark) cloud base it started snowing. Getting worried that I was going to get sucked into the cloud I used the magic handle to pull in the ears and started to fly away from the cloud. as I got out of the cloud and lost height it stopped snowing. I topped up my height back under the cloud. At this time I was pulling in substantial big ears and still going up at an alarming rate so I again headed out of the cloud and started along the valley. As I looked back while running from the cloud I could see how dark it looked and thought that they may be getting a storm below. It turns out I was wrong about this though and they never even got the snow! I followed the valley under a cloud street getting some fantastic lift. Once at the end of the valley I turned to come back again. 

I suddenly lost all lift and had trouble moving forwards. I tried to get to the ridge to try to soar back but there was no lift to be found and I had to look at landing options. It seemed like no time at all that I was on the ground. I phoned back to Mike and he said to try for a hitch for a while. After being unsuccessful with this, they came to pick me up and we went back for one more go at the ridge. This time was a much more sedate top to bottom with the only lift being right where we didn't want, on landing, which made it and interesting time.

On the way back we stopped off at Gourdon. It was early evening now and by the time we got to the upper take off mist had started gathering. We waited a while to see if it would clear but it got thicker. We talked for a while, and knowing that the airspace in front of take off was clear, and that we only had to fly in a straight line to get out of the cloud. I again acted as wind dummy and launched first. Mike had gone down to the lower take off with the intention of letting John take off once he'd spotted me fly past. I launched into the void. I almost regretted the launch as the flight through the cloud seemed to last for ages. It is true that you get disorientated when flying in cloud and although I was certain I was flying in a straight line, there was this nagging feeling that maybe the line wasn't as straight as I thought. Slowly the cloud started to disperse and I was almost exactly where I thought I was and initiated a left hand turn to head towards the landing field. Like a prat I'd forgotten to turn my radio on so couldn't let John and Mike know that all was ok and could only hope that Mike had seen me. I came down to the landing field and had a lively landing, as the field sloped away from me but I came to rest with nothing worse than a chipped tooth due to a collision with my Cage due to a stumble on touch down.