Sky High

Today made couple of really nice flights! First walked up to the Gréolierès launch early. That's good morning exercise it is 220 meter up and takes about 35 minutes. There was some overcast in the east but the western half of the sky was clear with the border being close and getting nearer over time. So an opportunity, or need, for para-waiting and enjoying the scenery. The local school was flying tandems and pilots from the top of the mountain, 600 m higher. But as everybody was just going down I waited a bit more. Later things clearly improved and I launched but still a bit too early as I could cling on for a little while but bombed out after 10 minutes. The weather looked really great now and top-launching pilots were staying up, so quickly packed up and walked up. Now it was easy to stay up, it actually took only minutes to fly up to the top and above. Cloudbase was at around a nice 2300 m! I tried to fly to Gourdon, but didn't have the guts to make the last transition, and returned to Gréolières, where I landed after 1.5 hours flying. Quite tired after all the walking and of flying in the strong conditions; thermals were 5-6 m/s strong.

After a short lunch break went to see if Gourdon would offer some nice afternoon flying; and sure it it did! Launched at exactly 16:00 and flew another 1.5 hours getting as high as 1700m. I'd never been that high above Gourdon it was truly amazing.

In the evening feasted on a well-deserved pizza at the Barricade and for desert shared an apple pie that I'd made in the early evening with my hosts Karen and Ben.