The drive down to La Motte du Caire was long but uneventful which was a bit of a relief as we were unsure of the fuel situation because the glorious French were getting off to an early start with their strike season. The weather on the trip was grim to say the least, cold, damp and most of the wind turbines we saw were hiding their heads in the clouds. My favourite part of the journey is when we crest the hills south of Lyon and you get your first sight of the big mountains around Grenoble and the excitement of the flying to come kicks into overdrive. It was here too that the mountains showed their influence on the weather, breaking the overcast, letting in the strong sun but also boosting the moist air into spectacular CB's.
This was pretty much the situation at La Motte for the first few days. Good thermals in sunny conditions to start but very quickly going to towering cumulus and then Boom, showers would kick off over the bigger mountains, rapidly turning into lightning filled monsters which all seemed eager to join hands for a game of Ring-a-Ring O Roses.
We did our check flights with Christian on Saturday. Mine consisted of a winch launch, a quick climb off Early Morning to allow moving to a cloud towards Sisteron where we took a strong climb with a pair of vultures which then gave us enough height to do some aerobatics. Straps now really tight, he asked me to do a loop over head the field along the runway axis, he did a better one and then rolled inverted gave me back control and told me to take us downwind remaining upside down. It wasn't pretty but I managed it, with the speed somewhere between 120-140kph (metric instruments) and the string all over the place, rudder is now opposite to stick movement. It was like learning to fly all over again. The recovery if you find yourself in this situation, Christian explained, is to apply full aileron and rudder in the same direction making sure not to pull on the elevator until you are the right way up. This I duly did and returned the dust and sand from the canopy to its rightful place on the floor. We landed and rolled to a stop outside the hangar with just enough time to get the glider inside before the first big drops of rain started drumming on the roof. JB and I decided to make use of the afternoon by going for a walk which turned into a hike up the awesome Mountain le Gache.
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| On top of Le Gache, La Motte is in the center about 10km away |
The next couple of days we flew locally keeping a watchful eye out for the storms and always within an easy dash back to the safety of La Motte. Tuesday brought a dose of pundititis and we decided not to fly as a even earlier cut off was predicted. A few people flew and soared for a couple of hours before we were treated to a proper thunderstorm and a whole night of rain.
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| David in LS8-18 EZ climbing the slopes of the Morgon |
Wednesday was much better weather wise, however JB still wasn't full of his usual enthusiasm and decided to have a proper rest day. David Jesty and I were keen to make the most of it and were soon climbing the mountains and heading east to the Parcour. Cloud base wasn't very high, only about 2300m (7500' for the English pigdogs) which meant the top of the ridge was well into the clouds but also meant you didn't feel too low because you couldn't see exactly how much mountain was above you.
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| JB in the wave with Pic de Bure and the Ecrin beyond |
Thursday was just spectacular. There was a northerly air flow over the region with the wind strength increasing in the west which meant there was a good chance of wave in the afternoon. With a light wind at La Motte, and launching towards the north it wasn't that straight forward to escape from the local valley but we were eventually whizzing along the Parcour to the east before making our way to try the north facing ridges to the west of Sisteron. It was a good battle, climbing in wave boosted rotor thermal, pushing forward to the next rough climb to eventually get out from under airspace constraints and finally contacting smooth lift just to the north of Serres before pushing forward again into the lee of the Pic de Bure where we really got to surf the wave. JB and I had to stop climbing at the 5800m limit (19000' an extra 500' separation from the FL195 airspace limit) so put on the speed to counteract the lift and at 90kts headed north east over the majestic snow covered mountains of the Ecrins before turning for home and a well deserved cup of tea.
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| 9kts on the averager at 5200m |
Still on a high after yesterday we were ready for an early launch on Friday because of an expected early cut off due to an approaching perturbation (front). Climbing in a steady 5knots off the winch I saw 4 vultures cruising in towards my thermal like a competition gaggle before they pulled up and joined in my climb to the already healthy 2500m cloud base. JB, David and I romped over to the Parcour for a couple of runs along the gliding superhighway before we all headed back to La Motte as the encroaching top cover damped down the conditions.
1 week down and looking forward to getting into the really big mountains.
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| A vulture soars over Cheval Blanc |
