“ struggled to stay airborne and happy to land after an hour of scratching”.
“ First 4 hours spent climbing a bit and sinking a lot on the N side. Dash to South, climb but not enough, back to N. Back and forth, and then followed a local K13, hit the “spot” on N side and escaped the immediate valley, only to find the surrounding mountains surrounded by turbulent climbs and crashing sink, happy to land after 5 hours”
Glacier Blanc (Wyn Davies)
Lac de Serre Penson (Wyn Davies)
Climbing on the local mountain (Wyn Davies)
The attached photos are of the obligatory”glacier blanc” and various views taken during some days when gliding conditions were perfect, when the valley breeze worked as advertised and all the Alpine hot spots gave generously of their predictable thermals.
However, not 2 weeks into a planned month stay, I ruptured the Achilles tendon of my right leg, whilst helping push a friend's light aircraft. A&E in Gap hospital were superb, and had me stitched and plastered up within 3 days. John Allan kindly derigged W7 and helped Marie prepare the trailer for the long drive home. ( The brownie point debt I'm in, for 14 hours of Marie towing my glider home is not insubstantial).
The recovery time for this injury doesn't bear thinking about. I look forward to venturing back to NH when fitness returns, which will be in a few day's/week's/month's time. - Wyn Davies W7
July 17th (2 weeks post-op and counting)