Flying in Foehn is no Fun
High Cirrus & Foehn Cloud
Early morning, Dennis and Nick raced up to launch to squeeze a flight in before it all goes ballistic. Foehn was forecast with more deterioration and increasing winds. I decided to stay at home and get on with other things. Dennis said he’d give me a call to pick them up if they both flew, then we’d go back up to launch to collect the bus, and Nick could fly again if it was flyable.
Dennis called, they both flew… Looking towards the mountain, foehn cloud was pouring over the top and the sky was looking increasingly unsettled, with high cirrus and plenty of stretched lenticulars filling in the gaps! My phone rang, and the verdict was ‘very roly’ so not so nice. I drove over to landing, where they were both packed up. That was it for the day, no more flying. The foehn was here, the wind was picking up all the signs were saying that flying was done for the day, and probably for the next couple of days according to the forecast.
The picture looks a bit dark, that was the mobile phone shot, it wasn’t as dark as it looks. The launch area wasn’t looking bad early on, but deterioration can be really rapid. It was safe to do an early top to bottom, before any of the weather had established itself.
Yesterday, the wind was howling in Chamonix, so most of the Chamoyard crew were over here at Plaine Joux only one or two took off, it was just too windy. Mieussy was ok in the morning though as one of our friends flew and had well over an hours good flying. Today Chamonix valley looked like a bubbling pot from our end and was hoofing again. Snow is forecast for the weekend down to 1300 metres so we may be skiing…
I had some good news from the Doc, in Chamonix yesterday, it seems I’m as good as new although I’ve got a few sessions of pampering shoulder massage coming up starting in the morning, should be relaxing.
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