A Bit of a Cham-bles…
Transfers this evening, but we had part of the afternoon free… until 3.30 anyway. It was looking like it might be flyable, it was lovely and warm, 20° in the shade! virtually summer…
Sylvain Launching
The wind charts weren’t looking bad, nothing overly dramatic. After an early lunch, we gathered our gliders and headed for launch. On arrival, I was just about to set-up, but felt a tad uneasy. The wind fins were blowing from the west at the back, swinging ’round to the east, and at launch it was on face and gusting, the windsock was vertical on occassion, and common sense told me to hang on for a while, not being one to argue, I decided to sit it out. Dennis meanwhile was getting set up, whilst getting his kit ready another pilot took off, got hoovered straight up, hit sink like a plumbline, then got slurped up again like he was in a straw!! it was all a bit boisterous, wing tips flapping and getting pushed back, pinned, it looked like lots of fun if that’s your thing…!
Dennis, was set to launch, the glider was snaking and thrashing about, resulting in a variety of omnidirectional inflations… it was all looking a bit too unruly for my liking. After deciding it was a ‘little on the strong side’ Dennis sat it out a while. We didn’t have all day so were hoping it would calm down soon. Whilst waiting, and watching a few die hards take off, there was a thunderous rumbling behind, it was one of three avalanches we saw cascading down the Fiz range. Quite spectacular, I took some pics, but they look a bit tame.
A blue day with extreme temperature differences mixed in with wind, an approaching front, and spritely spring thermals, make for a diverse concoction, and a recipe for some exciting flying. We watched the inversion form and felt the air all choppy and cut up. I didn’t want to suffer indigestion after such a belly full of ingredients so was content to wait a bit longer.
It started to calm, and was beginning to feel ok, the wind lessened and relaxed. As it improved a few more pilots arrived. Problem was, time was getting on, if we were going to fly we’d better fly now, so we’d be back in time to do the transfers. I wondered if it was worth it. If we didn’t have time restrictions it’d probably have been ok, but as it happens we did, so I decided to stay grounded and drive. Dennis, flew and said that it wasn’t very pleasant, lots of wind mixed up with thermals, not very nice, but ok. Anyway, he landed out in Batistock, as it was looking a bit rough at Chedde.
All in all, it was an excellent day’s flying if you were above the inversion and really high but inbetween, and getting up there was accompanied by an argument from the elements. Where we are at Plaine Joux, it can be smack on the inversion level, so it’s usual to get some crappy air at that altitude, occassionally. Chamonix would have been good, having the extra height above the inversion level would have been an assest. I should think there were probably some good xc’s, if you’d got the time, the inclination, and been in the right place! We’ve since heard that there was hardly a breath at 2200 mtrs at Aiguillette des Houches, dag nabbit! should’ve gone to Chamonix, I knew it!! 
Tomorrow, we have our first official flying guest arrive, so we’ll be out every flyable day whilst he’s here. It’s good when we have flying guests as we take our weather charts and information much more seriously instead of ’looking out the window!’ we’re obliged to find the best and most appropriate places to fly, which is beneficial all round…if he was here this morning, we’d probably have gone to Chamonix!
Some more pics in the gallery.
