After a delayed disembarkation at Santander, and a tiring drive through Spain, we eventually arrived at Sotos Aerodrome after dark on Monday. Fortunately a safari hang-glider dinner was still in full swing, so the airfield was not locked, we said hola to everyone and dumped the trailer, and arrived at the Hotel in Cuenca after midnight.
On Tuesday morning there was wall to wall cumulus...
.....but we were in no fit state to fly so we went for a drive round instead.
On Wednesday, we rigged OL after briefing and Pete had a site check with Francesco in K13 finding numerous strong thermals in the blue. After a swift change of ends as the wind had changed, we lined up OL and immediately broke the dynema on the ground run. Next attempt was a rather slow downwind launch to 800ft, but straight into a 8 knot thermal to 5000ft (8000ft msl).
The afternoon got better and better, with short-lived cumulus appearing and 8-10 knot thermals to cloudbase eventually reaching 11,500ft msl. We flew 210km OLC by flying 3 circuits of the local valleys and a few explorations of the mountains at height to get familiar with the area.
Thursday was much too hot and with little/no wind there was no chance of getting a reasonable height launch so we did the tourist bit with a posh lunch in Cuenca historic town.
The forecast for Friday was for thick cirrus and no thermals so it was declared a rest day, however during our exploration of the mountains by road a sky full of nice looking cumulus appeared locally at 16:00! - J&P
On Tuesday morning there was wall to wall cumulus...
 |
| Wall-to wall cumulus (J&P) |
.....but we were in no fit state to fly so we went for a drive round instead.
 |
| Sotos aerodrome and forests that look like cloud shadows (J&P) |
On Wednesday, we rigged OL after briefing and Pete had a site check with Francesco in K13 finding numerous strong thermals in the blue. After a swift change of ends as the wind had changed, we lined up OL and immediately broke the dynema on the ground run. Next attempt was a rather slow downwind launch to 800ft, but straight into a 8 knot thermal to 5000ft (8000ft msl).
 |
| Flying over the gorge at Cuenca (J&P) |
The afternoon got better and better, with short-lived cumulus appearing and 8-10 knot thermals to cloudbase eventually reaching 11,500ft msl. We flew 210km OLC by flying 3 circuits of the local valleys and a few explorations of the mountains at height to get familiar with the area.
 |
| Eventually got to 11,500ft (J&P) |
Thursday was much too hot and with little/no wind there was no chance of getting a reasonable height launch so we did the tourist bit with a posh lunch in Cuenca historic town.
The forecast for Friday was for thick cirrus and no thermals so it was declared a rest day, however during our exploration of the mountains by road a sky full of nice looking cumulus appeared locally at 16:00! - J&P
