Judith flying at Santa Brigida.We opened the conference to presenters this morning, so had to do some work, but sent a message out on the Girona parapente mailing list to say we would be out flying at 2.30pm. Marc called to say he would meet us at Santa Brigida. The forecast was for possible thunderstorms in the Pyrenees, but that doesn’t mean it’ll overdevelop here. I saw some nice fluffy cumulus at 1pm, which is fine, not too early. However, on the drive to Olot, we could see the clouds starting to develop a lot. On arriving at Santa Brigida, the air out front was clear. Marc launched and I got ready. Once I was airborn I could see a massive cell over the back which was turning into an anvil and the big clouds were slowly drifting closer. It was smooth enough, although entering and leaving some of the thermals was entertaining.

I am a complete wimp when it comes to big clouds. I find it puts me off flying, as I spend most of the flight worrying about what’s happening around and above me. As the wind picked up, I decided I’d done my bit so went off to land. Marc elected to bottom land, but got big lift in the valley, so had to keep flying out to find sink. He got down fine. We decided to wait around a bit to see if the clouds would decay again, but a big clap of thunder in the not too far distance had us packing up and heading home. We met the rain about 3km over the back. Geoff, very wisely, had decided not to fly at all.

See photos of today.

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