March 2009
Monthly Archive
Tuesday, 31st March 2009
Judith 31 Mar 2009 | : Flying, France
We woke up to sunshine and found the Flyeo school, who we are doing the SIV course with next weekend. They were closed. We had a coffee in Talloires and I accosted a group of pilots to ask them for information on where to go flying. One of the group was Phillipe from Espace 3D who offered us a ride up the mountain, and gave us a comprehensive briefing of the landing area.
On arrival at the launch, it was very light and stable. Some low airtimers went off for top to bottoms, but we waited for some credible signs that it was actually working. The first buzzard had me rushing for my gear, but two guys went down in the sink after the thermal. I waited another five minutes and then launched and got up. The wind was very south and the thermal drifted me along the ridge. It didn’t last and I headed back to the same source and flew around in broken stuff while Geoff and twelve Polish pilots watched to see if it was worth launching too. Ten minutes later I was in the landing field and watched Geoff launch, maintain and then climb up. By this time the Poles did think it was worth launching too, and everyone lobbed off. Geoff had a nice hour boating about looking at the scenery, which is just stunning.
I had a coffee at the bar and then Phillipe came back down to collect his clients and offered me another lift. What a nice man!
By the time I got back up, conditions had improved enormously. It was very thermic and people were getting high enough to climb up the ridge behind. I got to 1000′ ATo, but lost a lot closing my harness. I then thermalled around, but had been warned by Phillipe that with a south wind at altitude and a north wind at surface things could get churned up a bit. The drift in the thermals was still south, but I started to notice that there were waves and whitecaps on the lake from the north. People were starting to head down to the landing field and I decided that knowing nothing about the place and the valley winds it would be preferable to be down rather than to find out the hard way what strong winds on the lake mean. I flew down deliberately, but in the event, it was fine and it would not have been a problem to continue flying. However, a local agreed that it was better to be safe and usually whitecaps mean trouble.
Everyone was really friendly in the landing field and on launch and the scenery is just breathtaking. This evening a warm front has come in and we’re hoping it will go through tonight, rather than lingering into tomorrow.
Monday, 30th March 2009
We set off early this morning, packed up to the rafters as usual. It’s always sad to leave the house and the village.
We got across the border, where it was howling and stopped at a service station north of Perpignan and as we started the engine up again, we heard an ominous crunching sound. Hmmm. Breaking down in France is the worst possible scenario. They tow you off the motorway (if you want to or not) and we don’t speak the language. We drove to a safer spot for Geoff to examine under the car, but couldn’t recreate the noise. In the end we carried on.
Our first destinaton was Nimes, to see the Roman ruins. We got there without a hitch. The arena in Nimes is one of the best preserved in the world and well worth looking around. After that we looked around the narrow streets and soaked up the athmosphere. It’s a lovely place. On carrying on the journey, the winds in the Rhone valley were even worse than along the coast and passing lorries was tricky. Geoff grew Spock ears listening to the engine and transmission, but we got to Annecy ok.
Sunday, 29th March 2009
Judith 29 Mar 2009 | : Boring stuff
The forecast for today was rubbish, but on waking up, the sun was shining. We remembered too late that the clocks had changed and it was too late to go skiing. Instead we packed and cleaned and then went out for a cheeky flight. The sunshine stopped past Olot and the sky was an ominous black and the wind was gusty, so we decided to about turn and head home. Ten minutes down the road it started spitting.
So we’re all ready for the off tomorrow. Not sure if we will get an internet connection whilst in Annecy, so probably no blog for a week.
Saturday, 28th March 2009
Judith 28 Mar 2009 | : Boring stuff
Perfect packing weather – it was raining all day. Makes you less sad to leave, until you see your folks for dinner…
Cleaning tomorrow and then off Monday first thing.
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Friday, 27th March 2009
Judith 27 Mar 2009 | : Beach, Trying, but failing, to fly
We stayed overnight, to see if it was possible to get another flight in France, but it was not to be. Targasonne is impassable and the wind was forecast to pick up in Cerdanya, and on arrival at Ceret it was clear it was already blown out. We didn’t want to sit around waiting, so we headed to the beach.
We’ve never been to the coast immediately north of the Spanish border, but had heard nice things about the villages, so we headed to Collioure. It’s stunning. An old port with beautiful old buildings and a nice relaxed atmosphere. Everyone seems to either run a restaurant or an art gallery and the houses are painted nice colours and have lots of arty touches. We sat around in the sun, making the most of our last day before the packing and cleaning frenzy starts tomorrow.
Next stop was Banyuls, which isn’t as nice. Lots of modern buildings and more of a resort feel. We had our lunch there, but it was so windy that we jumped back into the car to continue our tour.
We didn’t bother stopping at Port Bou, just across the border in Spain. It is completely dominated by the railway and its buildings. Franco decided to make the gauge for Spanish trains different to French ones so that it would be impossible to invade by rail. This means having to change trains at the border, and Port Bou is the last stop in Spain. I have bad memories of having to change trains in Irun at 2am when I went inter-railing as a teenager, so we skipped the trainspotting opportunity.
The next village is Colera, and although I’ve always wanted to go there, its name does it justice. Another place to drive past with a clear conscience…
Thursday, 26th March 2009
For months we’ve been saying we would go over to fly the French sites with
Udo and Jenny, and as always, it got pushed to the end of our stay. We set off early to meet up at Ceret, but it was breezy when we got there. Udo and Jenny arrived with their guests Ruth and Rob from Winchester. Amazingly, this meant equal numbers of male and female pilots – very unusual. We sat it out, did some ground handling, had lunch, chatted and assumed it would drop as the afternoon wore on. By 4pm the wind was picking up and the gusts were really, really strong. Wave started to set up and it all looked a bit unlikely. By 5pm the wind dropped and we went up for a flight. On top it was completely and utterly nil wind.
We all got off ok, flew down and landed for a beer with an amazing sunset as a backdrop.
Wednesday, 25th March 2009
The van is fixed, so we have our freedom back! It was a glorious day, so we went out to fly. Forecast was for wind from pretty much any direction, but mostly west, which doesn’t usually bode well. We decided to go to Santa Brigida, and saw strong wind on the way. On getting to Amer, it was over the back and very gusty, but to our amazement, people were launching from Puig d’Afrou and getting up. It was too late for us to go, so we went for a spot of lunch with Roger and Patricia, a Ryanair pilot who is keen to learn to fly paragliders. We took her up to the launch, just to show her around, and the wind turned south. Geoff and I both flew, along with a French guy and his wife from Albertville. Unfortunately, it was too late for Roger, who had to be at the airport for 4.30pm.
Conditions were interesting. Geoff found it bumpy, but I didn’t. At one point I thought I had got into convergence, but it stopped over the middle of the valley. In the end it turned east and on my second flight I got drilled. Still, nice to be in the air again.