Judith's blog

Completely overcast skies this morning, so we had a leisurely start and then headed to Plan Fait. Despite nearly being clagged in, people were flying and maintaining. We drove up and the sky started to brighten and we set up. Geoff launched and climbed up. I got ready, built a wall, pulled the glider up to check and it all seemed fine. As soon as I was off the hill, I pulled my left brake and felt a lot of resistance. On looking up, I had a big knot at the top of the breakline, which seemed to get worse as I tugged it. The back tip was pulled in, and I had to fly one hand up above my head and the other down by my shoulder to maintain straight flight. Not good, so I decided to fly straight down. I tried a left hand turn, but I whipped round, so decided not to do that again and planned my approach accordingly. When I landed the sky started to really break up and they were thermalling up and having a blast. I resisted the temptation to go into a mega sulk and packed up quick in the hope of getting a lift straight back up. Unfortunately, everyone was already up, so no chance of a lift. I met Sean from Chamonix, who was also hoping for a lift and together we hitched, but no one would stop. In the end (an hour and a half after I landed) we got a lift but by this time it was a lot windier on top. I decided to wait while Geoff drove the van down. Lots of people flew, but it seemed gusty and off to me and I just wanted a nice flight. In the end, the wind started coming from the north and sometimes over the back and the locals decided to drive down, so I joined them. I was gutted to have missed the best of the day, but have only myself to blame. Better preflight checking tomorrow!

Geoff writes: I had a great flight. I flew for an hour and a half and it was cloudy but still thermic. When the sun started to come out it got even better. It was easy to get high, but you couldn’t let yourself get too high because the cloud was still relatively low. I landed to have a break and to have something to eat, planning to go up again later, assuming that the sun would come out properly. But it just clouded over again.

See photos of today.

No comments yet - please add one »

We woke up to cloudy skies, but by breakfast time it was breaking up and the sun started shining. We headed towards Talloires, but got distracted by gliders on a ridge to the west of the lake. I recognised the gliders from a couple in Phillipe’s group, so we headed up to find their landing field. The wind was picking up, but Phillipe generously took us along to Marlens and gave us a lift up.

It seemed breezy in the landing field, but we headed up. The wind wasn’t too strong and people from a Swiss school were doing ok. We launched, but with wind and thermals it was a little rough. I could see the Swiss guys heading down and they were coming down vertically and a fire at the entrance to the valley was starting to be horizontal. I decided that there we strong wind above and below me and so I headed down. It took me a while to descend, but once I turned into wind I was going backwards. Only 1.9mph, but backwards nonetheless. I reversed into the landing field and then pulled my Ds as hard as I could, for an untidy landing, but at least I didn’t get dragged. Geoff’s approach was hampered by the wind changing. He had plenty of height to come in on a cross wind approach, but the wind turned and he sunk out vertically, missing a powerline by inches and then getting unceremoniously dumped on his bottom. We had a beer with Phillipe, Christine, Jacqui and Paul and then decided to can the day, although they were going to Plan Fait in the afternoon.

Instead we went to the Gorges du Fier. The gorge has been cut out by the canals which run through Annecy from the lake. It is steep side and they have built a walkway halfway up the side of it. It was stunning and amazing to actually be inside the gorge, looking up and down. Next stop was Annecy town, with its narrow streets and beautiful houses. We sat by the lake and had a picnic in the sunshine and soaked up the views of the mountains. I could live here…

See photos of today.

No comments yet - please add one »