France -12: Mieussy

isn't this a promising name??

Today (FRI) was my last day on this trip and I tried to fly (again) Mieussy. I finally managed to hitch hike to the Pertuiset launch: 15min before the first car stopped and took me about a third up, then almost 30min before the local flight school took me along: 'we can't have you standing there beside the road' was the greeting by the driver...

Pertuiset: East TO

East TO

LZ at Mieussy

It was just a sled ride as it was still rather early, but I think it was nice to make a flight here: it still is the place, 'where it all began'. And I also can say: 'third time lucky' as on my two former visits I didn't get to fly.

As I 'destroyed' my second pair of sunglasses during/ after landing I decided to head for home, as I don't like to fly without my shades (I had planned to go to Passy later).

All in all a very successful trip in excellent company (thanks Martin!) with many new sites for my 'collection'  ;-)

France -11: les Saisies -Mt.Bisanne

A new day, a new site...
As with almost all the sites in France, also Mt.Bisanne is not easily reachable for PG-pilots (especially if you are travelling solo and don't want land on any LZ while your car is still on top af the mountain...)
The conditions today were pretty stable again, so toplanding wouln't have been an option either.

Fortunately during July and August some buses and local shuttles are operating, so it is possible to reach Mt.Bissane by public transport, although it's a bit cumbersome.
I found out on the internet, that the bus from Albertville to les Saisies would pass the LZ around 0900, which it did with just a small delay. This ride cost 2.10EUR, so no complaints there. At les Sisies it connects twice a day to the local (free) shuttle service to Mt.Bisanne - so getting to launch for the morning flight has not been that hard. 

SE - TO

Already the local schol was sending its student of into the calm air.

The place offers a fantasitic view of the Mont Blance - so it's well worth coming there even if you are not flying. 

Mont Blanc

Around 1130 the conditions seemed to improve slowly, I decided to launch around 1145. There were some good thermals, but still too narrow to be centered efficently. So just a few passes in front of TO for me. While I was slowly gliding down I could see that 15mins later everybody else was staying up :-((

SE - TO

LZ in Beaufort (Marcot)

Shortly after I had landed and packed up, the local tandem guys unloaded their passengers and they had a seat for me in their car. On the way up hey  picked up another pilot in need of a ride, as in the mean time the thermals had completely shut off and everybody was on the ground.
My lift got me to les Saisies, but I quickly found another friendly french guy who took me towards Mt.Bisanne. Halfway up he dropped me off, as he had to turn off the main road. But just about 5mins later the other pilot which had got a ride in the car up to les Saisies came with a friend of his in order to get their car down so I got a ride to the top: sweet!

NW - TO: looking towards Uriage (left of wind sock)

The conditions at the NW-TO were very weak so I waited till about 1715 before launching. In the mean time the tandem guys made 3 rotations - but they don't fly all the way down to the valley (this would mean a too long turn-around time). They have a 'private' LZ in Crest-Volant, which only they are allowed to use (tricky due to its small size and cables close by).
I had waited so long hoping that the thermals west of launch would get stronger, thus permitting a longer flight and also that the valley wind (which during the afternoon normally is too strong at the LZ in Beaufort) would weaken so that I would not have to land in Uriage (from where it would be rather hard to get back to my car at the LZ in Beaufort).
Unfortunately the thermals were way to weak and I didn't even make the intended LZ. I nedded to walk back to my car for about 45mins - and not a single car stopped to pick me up :-((

But all in all a site well worth visiting in better conditions.

France -10: St.Hilaire, Chamrousse

Moonset

Originally I had wanted to go to Montlambert in the morning and then fly Chamrousse in the afternoon.
But as I passed St.Hilaire some PG's were already flying, so I changed my mind and went there. In addition, this would save me at least an hour driving time for my intendend afternoon flight...

Funiculaire to St.Hilaire (83% gradient)

St.Hilaire - the 'famous' tapis-TO

LZ in Lumbin

It was pretty stable and the inversion could be clearly seen; I landed after 1h20min and drove to the LZ for Chamrousse in St.Martin-les-Uriages. As luck would have it, some other PG pilots were driving up to launch and they had a spare seat left (otherwise I would have needed to go down to Uriage-les-bains and then ride with the local bus up...).

LZ, can be pretty tricky, as there are (too) many fences...

Croix de Chamrousse

This summer they are improving the installations on top of the 'Croix de Chamrousse', so the gondolas are running only during weekends; Therefore we needed to walk up to the 'Aiguille'-TO and couldn't fly from the very top. This 30min hike (steep at times) is about the limit I can do while carring a backpack - but I finally arrived also.
Of course the air was also too stable here and after 40min my flight ended where I had parked my car.

Chateau in St.Martin-les-Uriages

LZ behind soccer field (just the dark green patch left of the road!)

France -9: (Montlambert), Chamoux

TUE: I got up late as the forecast (Mistral) would not allow any flying. But at least her in Uriage it didn't seem very strong. I drove north towards Allevard (a site I had flown on the way down). At the office of the local school I was told that they were flying at Montlambert (about 1 hour away). On the way I passed the site of St.Hilaire

St.Hilaire-du-Touvet

Unfortunately I arrived at the LZ too late, as nobody was driving up to launch anymore. 

Montlambert

But I was told, that later in the afternoon the site of Chamoux should become good and a local pilot guided me there.

Just after having arrived at the LZ, a tandem company was driving to launch and they had a couple of spare seats...
Many tandems were taking of (and also toplanding), as well as 2 flight schools were sending their students off, so the Mistral definitifely didn't seem to be a danger anymore!
I could launch easily and had a nice, relaxing 1.5hr flight.

TO from above

TO (TOP landing posssible, even with tandems)

Pano looking west

LZ

LZ, looking north towards Albertville

This night I finally had the 'long awaited' Cote de Boeuf for dinner. Last week while staying with Martin and his girlfriend I didn't get a chance, as they both are not so much into meat ;-)  (The whole week I was teasing Martin with this subject...)

Cote de Boeuf

France -8: travel day

MON: a small front was passing and the only reasonable place to fly would have been St.Vincent-les-Fort. But I didn't want to go there again, as probably 'everybody' would try to fly there. So I started my way back home by driving north.
On the way I passed the site of Serpaton, a very good XC starting point in spring...

Serpaton TO: above cow's head

I stopped for the night in Uriage-les-Bains, hoping to fly the site of Chamrousse the next day.
I even called the local flight school, but I was told that the next day (TUE) the 'Mistral' (a north wind in the Rhone valley) would prevent any flying in the region

Nicole Fedele: - new out-and-return WR (female) -Sorica 18.8.13

Here you can find to Nicole's latest feat: just 1 week after her husband Arduino set a new out-and-return WR (his flight here), she set her own WR (flying in company with Arduino) - CONGRATULATIONS!!

Arduino (Bimbo) - new WR (out and return) (12.8.13)

Here you can find the link to Arduinos new out-and-return WR, flown 12.8.2013 in Sorica (Slovenia) - Congratulations!!!
...and 'only' on a Peak 3 (from Niviuk), not a racing machine like the IcePeak6 or something similar...

France -7: Aspres sur Buech / Clamontard

SUN: It has taken us quite some time to decide which could be a good place to fly: we finally opted for Aspres-sur-Buech and its mountain. Unfortunately at the aerodrome (LZ) we didn't find someone we could ride with to launch, so we had to drive up ourself.

 

Launch was full of Hangies, we were the only baggies. But we launched quickly and after some inital scratching around we found some good thermals.

Aspres

I landed at the AD as planned (before 1300 in order to avoid the strong afternoon conditions) and now I had the problem of getting back to the car on top of the mountain...
Luckily the first guys I asked would take me along in their car as they wanted to paraglide later in the afternoon.
At that time I still didn't know where Martin was; I had texted him, but only on the way to my car he was able to call and tell me that he was still flying, heading west over the 'col du cabre'. I told him to continue as long as he could/ wanted and that I would be getting the car and follow him. He reported his position once more ('Luc-en-Diois') and finally gave me directions after he had landed west of 'Die' (all in all approx 50km).

While following him I noticed on my map that I was passing through another PG area: Clamontard.
On the way back from 'Die' we saw the TO, studied the info in my guide book and decided to have a look at this site. A steep road took us in 30 minutes up to launch.
The views on launch are pretty spectacular and the guide book gave us a good description of what to expect. It needed some patience to wait for a good cycle but I finally got off well and immediately found some good thermals (the vulture helped as well).

Pano looking east

Launch (a bit ticky, as the wind seldom comes in straight)

possible cliff launch...

vulture showing me where the thernals are

Pano looking East

Clamontard after landing -TO is below the 'l' in Pano 'l'ooking East (above)

So all in all we both had mad very nice flights!

France -6: Moustiers / St.Geniez

Today (FRI) we got to Moustiers in time to catch the first shuttle (at 1045) going for the upper TO (Mt.Denier). Conditions were perfect, so we launched right away. Nice thermals brought us high above TO. Unfortunately South wind increased and made flying more difficult. I landed before 1300, as often between 1300-1600+ conditions can get pretty rough...

Lavender field

nice, very spacy TO

TO

Pano looking West

We didn't wait here for an evening flight but returned towards Vilhosc (Martin's place) and visited his home site: St.Geniez/ le Trainon. Martin immediately launched and found himself flying in strong thermals, I decided to wait for some mellower conditions.

on the way to St.Geniez

Lauch (top landing possible)

TO, le Trainon

LZ

When I finally launched, I found very nice conditions, 

but this thunderstorm over Sisteron (11km away) then 'killed' all the thermals and made me land.

France -5: (Moustiers) / Oraisons

Today our flying day almost was ruined by French incompetence: we arrived at the LZ in Moustiers/ Venasque around 1300. The lady in charge told us, that (exceptionally) today there woud be a shuttle bus at 1430 going to the upper TO (Mt.Denier), as there was little wind. In order to aviod having the car on the mountain we decided to wait for this shuttle. At 1415 we were then told the shuttle would only go to the lower TO. Finally the shuttle left at 1515 :-((
The conditions on the 'Curchon'-TO didn't look very nice: almost no wind, a flat TO with lots of rocks at the end - I didn't like it at all and decided not to launch here. Se we rode the shutlle back and decided to go to Oraison (same site as yesterday).

Martin

Venasque

Pano from Curchon

Oraison again proved its worth as a reliable evening soaring site.

Martin