deltaplane hanggliding

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July
See report, pictures and flights here


JUNE 
27th June : 220 km triangle from Laragne
See flight on Google Earth
see OLC

The Pic de Bure, just keep flying at it until the vario bips (it will) !!

After  having studied my maps I had seen that a triangle flight from the Chabre to Sederon, then north to the Pic de Bure and down to Saint André and back to Laragne was possible. June 27 was my day.
Top south take off, already to go at 12.30, but the south thermic breeze was having problems dominating the general northerly. After 20 mn wait for a good south cycle I got off, and got up in the usual "house thermal" on the right. Some clouds were already forming and it was easy enough to go along the ridges to the west to just north of Sederon. Came partially back along the Chabre before heading north on the Pic de Bure. Further north east and north west the clouds were down low, the dividing line being the Col de Lus la Croix Haute. Best cloud base of the day for me on Bure at 2950.
The Pic de Bure summit with the Observatory
Then headed south towards Ceüse to a nice looking cloud that worked. Further south in the Durance valley the sky was all blue, but good clouds had formed over the mountains to the east of La Motte du Caire. That's where I had to go ! On to Maloup and got a good climb, even though there were no clouds, then  a long glide into the mountains to connect up with the clouds again. Back at cloud base at 2700, things were looking good as there were plenty of clouds on my south track, which soon got me down to Saint André where there was at least 20 km/h of SW wind (maybe more) as no one was flying on the Chalvet (Saint André) here cloud base was lower 2600 (later I spoke to pilots who had flown at Lachens and it was 2100).
The take off of Saint André and nobody's flying : is it too windy ?
I had decided to try a more direct route back, so with clouds was able to work my way up wind to the Cousson next to Digne by which time it was about 6 pm, and the clouds were dying out in front of me. To the north side of Digne is a moutain where there is a PG site and I could see several flying, though they were low, just ridge soaring. I arrived about 200m over them, but below the top of the moutain and continued to ridge soar up into the Thoard valley (which is landable). The end of the valley is blocked by other mountains so I just continued up the valley ridge soaring the sunny south west face. I figured I was going to land up here as I was in the blue with no thermals at 7 pm!
Paragliders soaring the mountain just north of Digne

I had just enough height left to glide accross the valley to the "end" south facing mountain, and was able to ridge soar up and along into the next valley. Just over the top of the mountain I could see the site of Saint Geniez and the Trainon just behind it. There were PG's flying. Great ! There was a south breeze there also, I glided over the Trainon and  was now into the Durance valley north east of Sisteron. in front of me was the big hill of Hongrie, a well know thermal source for the Vaumeilh gliding club next to it. As I got to Hongrie south side I flew into a thermal which got me back to 1480m and, from there I was able to glide into the campsite at Laragne and land at 8pm.
I feel like I learnt a lot on this flight as I was often below the mountain tops and had to work the "moutain sides" often, also I got "comfortable" about being relatively low often. On high cloud base days, I find that some times when I get below 3000, I panic, thinking I've probably blown it and will have to land soon !
Another 7 hours flight on the Atos. It's an amazing glider and today I benefited from all it's qualities, less tiring to fly, great glide, and fantastic sink rate which got me out of the Thoard valley when I was really low over the ground working 0,1m second !
Looking back to the SW I had soared up the other side of this tree covered mountain to get out of the Thoard valley
Coming over the Trainon with the Saint Geniez site visible in the top of photo at the end of the track

17th June : 226 km O/R Saint André see here

MAY
4 out of the 5 blue fields are photovoltaic panels and the 5th one is a lake !
The month of May in the Laragne area was very average. The high pressure never really established itself,and we had a succession of fronts coming throuh. Thunderstorms were common, and quite a few days of mistral. Of the few flights I had after the 10th of May, these 3 were the best.
Looking south already too much overdevelopment

May 24 th : Laragne top south. Good clouds, but forecast to storm late afternoon. I flew to the N.W. where by 2.30 pm it already was overdeveloping. Came back to the Chabre and headed South over Lure but again storms to the south and west so came back to the Chabre, where to the east the Durance valley was still in sunshine. Went to the N.E. of Maloup, but as overdevelopment was becoming general now came back into the sunshine of the Durance and landed at the camping at about 5 pm. The storms that evening were severe. See trace
Montagne de Lure
Time to get back to the sunshine !

Looking to the South West, definitely not going over there !

May 28th : Laragne bottom north. A "lightish" mistral still present, but with good clouds and a P.G. comp from Sederon to help thermal spotting, had a nice fly round. See trace
Here in the spring, the type of glider you'll see the most often

May 31st : Laragne bottom north. Abouth 25kph mistral. Took nearly an hour to get north of Orpierre so I gave up and went down wind to a good looking sky south of Lure and to Oraison. Here the wind was west and it was easy to get onto the plateau of Valensole and back up to Digne. With the wind it was always going to be very difficult to get back to Laragne, and I had to land next to Sisteron after nearly 6hours in the air, with and average flight speed just over 20 kph due to YoYoing in the Digne Valley ! See trace
The eastern end of the Plateau de Valensole looking west

BIG THURSDAY : 218km FAI triangle
10th of May : The forecast for thursday 10th and friday 11th looked pretty good -light winds to 3000 m and cumulus to 2500-3000 mts- which is just average for here. Quite a few pilots out on the Chabre including Alain Chauvet -the local "master" of circuit flying aroud the Laragne area, and the holder of most of the site records. Read more - Pictures - Trace


MAY : Off to a good start

1st May : Laragne lower south t.o. After very heavy rain on the last day of  April, the 1st of May was flyable on the Chabre, but with too much moist cumulus and a higher veil coming over in the afternoon. I had a nice flight, a triangle to the west of t.o, with lots of flying up the sides of clouds, as the cloud base differed from 1800m to 2700m in the space of just 20 km ! See flight here
Looking back along the Chabre from the west


2nd of May: Laragne lower south t.o. The air is still too moist, predicted to be drier south of Sisteron. To the south of t.o is the Montagne de la Platte. By the time I took off, it was looking very dark over there and as I climbed out it started raining to the south and it was coming my way ! I fled to Saint Genis which was in the sun, then on to Maloup. The massive shower now filled the west side of the valley up to Laragne, but to the south and east the sky looked good, which allowed me to have a flight down to the eastern edge of the plateau de Valensole (where there was 25 km an hour of south west wind). I got back to Laragne at 5pm under a 8/8 grey sky quite calm, as the showers had gone further north and east. See flight here
No way home for the moment : Ribiers is under the deluge !
The Cousson seen from the south
 May the 3rd : Laragne top south t.o. The pressure had risen, and no showers predicted today. On take off we were about 12 hanggliders including another ATOS VR. It was all rather stressfull as the wind was blowing over the back, then from the west, and with dust devils, and the south cycles were very short. After a 20 mn wait clipped in, feeling rather vulnerable I got off in a short but good cycle and got up straight away. As it was getting a bit late the sky was already filled with cumulus and I worked my way to the north west and the good clouds. Then headed east for 75 km on to the Dormillouse where here the conditions where working very well but there was a quite strong west wind. Fortunately the return leg to Laragne was made under a building cloud street with cloud base going up to over 3100 m. I chose to land at home at Ribiers as the car was there. Landed at 6pm which was too early as there were still good active clouds until about 7.30 pm, I should have tried to extend my triangle to the south.  See flight here

The promise of a good day... but it took a while to get off the hill !
Approaching the Dormillouse, a well known spot for the classic 100 km o/r from Saint André


The Serre Ponçon Lake

On the way back to Laragne but this photo is looking to the east
May 7th : Laragne lower north t.o. Good forecast with 15 kph northwest and no overdevelopment. I took off at 1 pm which is quite early for the north side but there were already hangglidders and some paragliders getting up.  I headed upwind to the northwest for 32 km, but as the cloud base was decreasing and the wind was increasing, I came back to the Chabre with the intention of going south as the cloud base went up to over 2900 m. I got down to not far from Oraison on the west side of the Durance, where here the wind had turned to the south (a very common occurence in the Durance valley in the afternoon). Coming back I had quite a battle in the rather turbulent lower layers when down to a 1000 m. Luckily there were quite a few sail planes in this area (the aerodrome of Saint Auban is nearby) and they showed me where the lift was, though it meant committing to going rather "deep" into the shallow hills with not too much option for gliding out. Anyway with the gliders and the good clouds further into the mountains, I felt confident and it worked out well, and I out climbed the 3 gliders I was with to get back to cloud base. From there it was 3 more easy climbs under a good sky, and a long glide into a head wind back to Laragne, landing at 7.30 pm. Overall flight speed a bit slow but a challenging flight and please to "close" the circuit. See flight here
Les Pénitents des Mées, it was low down near here that I was in the turbulent lower layers where the souht breeze is mixing with the west wind

After getting up from low down I headed north east into the higher mountains and cloud base for my ticket home !

APRIL
April can be a wet month here, and this year it was ! A succession of fronts, some mistral behind each one, and hardly a day above 1015 hPa. Every flyable day (there were not many!) was cut short either by rain, or increasing wind, or both. As each flight goes by on my Atos VR, I feel I'm getting to know the glider a bit better, and can't wait for the "big day" conditions which are ahead of us.
April 1 : light N wind with some clouds. Laragne north take off. No real drift at altitude, got round  a triangle of 112 km, back on take off and got back up to 3200m and went sight seeing to the south, another 40 km or so which wasn't in my circuit distance, then flew home to Ribiers. Yes, its not bad this Atos !
April 9 : a typical "wind switching every 10 seconds on take off day" on the Chabre. Got off late and just went up and down the ridges for a small out and return.
April 17 : about 70 km south of Laragne, if you follow the Durance Valley towards Manosque you come to ORAISON on the east side of the valley. They have a small w/sw facing site with only 180 m top to bottom, but it works quite well. It was my first flight on a "small" site with the Atos. I was the only hangglider amongst about 10 pg's. Got off late (after 4 pm) as it wasn't working and only 2 pg's had got up and away. As soon as I took off my harness zip started to open from the top to the bottom. It didn't feel very comfortable with only the safety buckle holding things together. I thought I  would go down to land when I flew into a thermal. The instinct to climb out was stronger than me (I guess most pilots know what I mean !), got up to the cloud base and had a great flight, 60 km ou and return in 2 hrs, with final glide into the head wind which I never thought would get me back to take off, but it did with about 250 m to spare... What a glider !

April 21 : Saint-Vincent les Forts is a site at the east end of the Serre Ponçon Lake and is below and at the northern end of the Dormillouse Ridge. It was windy and cloudy with a front announced for late in the aftern oon. After getting to cloud base out front, I didn't like the conditions so flew forward and down in the landing field of Mont Colombis. Read : Fenêtre sur le Serre Ponçon
April 23 : Laragne Chabre lower south, a short 1hr30 flight with a 48km circuit before the rain arrived again, landing back at Ribiers. And that was it for April ! The last week being windy from the south with more rain ! I hope April was better in Britain, and that may will give us some "classic" conditions. Read : Saisir sa chance


Commentaires

  1. Magnifique saison de vol.L'Atos est une merveille et change le domaine de vol autant au niveau technique que dans la tête.Le samedi 8 j'aurais du décoller en même temps que toi.
    A bientôt.
    Bruno.

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