Flims, Arosa

Last weekend in Flims we had a reunion of our grade school class in Arosa (class of '56). As the forecast promised a beautiful Sunday, I loaded also my pg stuff . After having brunch at 'Foppa' I took the chairlift to 'Naraus' for a autumn-sledder.

'Naraus' (chairlift): left  side; launch: center/ right

'Naraus' (left side) - 'Flimserstein'

I didn't want to go up for another short sledder here in Flims, so I headed towards Chur, where I hoped to catch the train to Arosa for a flight from Weisshorn back to Chur. I made the train with about 1 minute to spare...

Pano on Weisshorn looking South to Southwest): Piz Kesch, Bernina etc

I had an exceptionally well reverse launch (at least for me). The 6000ft vert sledder took just a little more than half an hour (with some small thermals at Maladers).

Triple Seven - Rook2

Weisshorn (launch): to the right of my head

Chur: old city center

Chur; train station

Chur: construction works at the 'Kantonsspital'

SFra -10: (Gréoliers) Gourdon

As mentioned earlier I hade arrived yesterday here in Gréoliers. I'm styaing at the Villa Regain, a very nice and quite B&B with helpful and friendly hosts.
In the morning I checked if it would be possible to get a ride from the local flying school to launch here, but contrary to what I'd been told last week they have closed for the season - and it would be at least a 40 minutes hike to launch...

le Cheiron (left) / Gréoliers

So I decided to try my luck in Gourdon, about 20mins away. Here it is actually possibe to drive to launch (at least to the 'lower' launch). Furthermore toplanding is also a possibility.

'lower' launch

Gourdon (lh side); looking towards Nice (Nizza); LZ in 'Valettes' is also visible (the only large field in the pix)

Overview

With a 1.25hr flight this trip to Southern France has come to an end. Even if I didn't/ couldn't fly as far as I had hoped it has been a succsessful 'adventure'. Especially in sofar as I got to meet some friends I haven't seen for quite a long time: Vincent, Beat, Martin etc.
Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to change anyway and I'll be headig towards Italy, where in the evening I'll be pickung up Ruth at Florence airport. We'll stay for a week in the Toscana and again we'll be meeting some old friends (partly dating back to the early 80's)   :-))

SFra -9: Bad timing (Laragne - le Chabre)

Although we originally had planned to leave around 1100, it wasn't until 1200 before we left Vilhosc.
We went to 'Laragne-le Chabre', a pretty well known site not too far away.

Arriving on launch, the wind direction and strenght was perfect: straight out of the south...

Pano looking: North-East

Massiv des Ecrins

Martin ready to launch

 

I didn't loose too much time setting up, just taking some pix and waiting for Martin to launch. But this has been already too much: Martin launched in the very last usable cycle. He headed west and found some thermals exactly where he had said before that they would probably be. He could fly for about 3/4 hr and climb to about 2000m.
After his departure the winds died completely and later even turned west/ north, making launching impossible for me...

Northwind :-((

Driving back we checked the actual conditions for different sites (St.Geniez, Oraison etc), but nothing looked promising enough to make the drive there worthwhile. So I loaded up my stuff and drove to Gréolières, where I'll stay the next 2 nights, hoping to fly...

SFra -8: Mt.Ventoux; le Buc

Great day here in southern France: NO clouds at all and excellent visibility (> 120km), but hard to find a site to fly as in the morning everything indicated winds out of the North/ Northwest, sometimes quite strong, especially at higher altitudes.

So Martin and I decided to drive towards Sédéron, about an hour west of Sisiteron, which offers TO possibilities in many directions and with 'le Buc' and 'Bergiers' has to sites close together. When we first got there, the wind came out of the East, which was totally unexpected and is the only direction, for which there is no launch. We saw one paraglider launching from nearby 'Bergiers', but he sank out very quickly. So instead of waiting on launch for the wind to switch we headed for 'Mont Ventoux', with 1912m the highest mountain in this region. The name 'Ventoux' derives from 'vent' = wind, and normally is a very windy spot. Mt.Ventoux is a 'famous' mountain for cyclists: the Tour de France often arrives here and it seems to be a 'must' for many bikers.
We actually found to LITTLE wind and could just make a sled ride on the North side.

Martin

looking NW towards the Rhone valley

LZ in Mt.Serein, probably one of the nicest LZs in Southern France.

We drove back to the top hoping for some more wind and thus some soaring, but the wind was even weaker... Back to 'le Buc', where the winds had sitched to North (as we had hoped); but also here too weak to permit more than a prolonged sledder.

looking NE: 'les Ecrins', about 120kms away

'Le Buc' - observe the large 'windsock'

But all in all it has been a great day! Nice company: Martin & Dorothée (which drove the car down twice), excellent visibility and colours, beautiful countryside with pittoresque villages and even though just 2 short flights, but 2 sites I hadn't flown before - what more to wish for!?

SFra -7: ULM

Also Sunday didn't allow flying; well that's not really correct: we (Martin and I) flew in Martin's ULM a 'Jodel D18) from Sisteron/ Vaumeilh - but again no PG.

Martin refueling his 'Jodel D18' (consumption: about 15l/hr)

a little 'thight' inside...

It is a very nice little aircraft with a good cruise speed (of about 190kmh), quite silent (inside and outside) and very pleasant to fly; the only draw back according to Martin (who is an excellent pilot): landing this taildragger in (left) cross winds is VERY tricky/ demanding...

We cruised around for about 45 minutes before heading back to Vaumeilh: to the west the first showers could already be seen. A second flight with a friend of his, Martin had to cut short as it started raining in Sisteron as well.

SFra -6: Nizza (noFly)

As predicted Saturday was cloudy, rainy and windy: so no flying here in Southern France :-((
So instead I took the narrow gauge train from Digne to Nice (Nizza)  - called 'Train des Pignes'. 

Digne: 'Train des Pignes'

I had planned this trip already when I came to St.André for the first time in 2003, but so far I had to postpone it, because flying had always been possible ;-)




This 3.5hr trip (one-way!) leads through beautiful, wild and partly remote landscapes (except the last 30 minutes before Nice). In Nice I had lunch, walked to the seaside (and almost got lost on my way back to the train station...)

Promenade des Anglais

SFra -5: St.André-les-Alpes

Last day here in St.André: again 'blue', but more (West-) wind and thermals not so abudant as yesterday- I didn't make it to the Cheval Blanc today :-((

I got to see a Kobo eReader running LK8000 (connected via Bluetooth to a XCtracer) - so far the best readable display I have seen...

The vultures showing where to find the thermals...

I didn't get beyond this 'mountain'

After the flight I left St.André and drove 1.5hrs to Vilhosc, a small village near Sisteron. I'll stay here for the next couple of days with my friend Martin.

SFra -4: St.André-les-Alpes

Another 'blue' day here in St.André-les-Alpes. Almost no wind and thermal tops at 2400m (predicted to go up to 2700 at 1600). So I made an attempt to fly to Dormillouse (and hopefully back) - like many others...

my friend Vincent (we met here in 2003!)

le Chalvet - west launch

heading North towards Cheval Blanc

It was pretty easy going until the 'Cheval Blanc'. I made two attempts to get over the top of this mountain, but failed bothh times (like many others). Some continued without this additional height, but for me the risk of sinking out in the narrow valleys beyond (with little or no roads/ traffic at all) seemed to big so I didn't take the chance and turned around.

'Cheval Blanc' left side of pix

heading back

...one cannot start early enough...

SFra -3: St.André-les-Alpes

Contrary to yesterday, for quite a while no single cloud could be seen and also later in the day only a few white 'puffs' on the horizon. But thermal tops have been quite low (I think lower than anticipated).
It took quite a while before the thermals started to devellop, so some parawaiting was called for before launching into the north westery wind made sense. 

...not really alone...

looking north across the west launch

my friend Vincent (Advance Sigma)

looking south towards launch

With the  predominant NW-wind and low base I did just some local cruising around...
Tomorrow is supposed to be (much!?) better ;-)

SFra -2: St.André-les-Alpes

'Early' in the morning (0745), the sky looked pretty promising.

But around 1000 it already started to become cloudy; some pilots meant, that it wouldn't be worth while even going up to launch... But around 1200, a few 'blue holes' started appearing and Igot a ride on the shuttle to launch. Lots of people waiting on the South launch and a few gliders already climbing up.

le Chalvet: south launch 'near' lake; LZ: the large meadow in front of lake

It was possible to climb almost to 2500m, but the 'blue window' didn't last very long, so after 1hr I landed. Rain later in the afternoon.

looking North: 'Cheval Blanc' on the right side

St.André & le Chalvet: LZ left side; South launch on the 'shoulder' to the right of the highest point

In the morning I had Vincent, an old flying buddy from 2005, 2006, 2007...
Furthermore I saw on the XContest that another friend is also here: I'll have dinner tonight with Beat :-)

SFra -1: St.Vincent-les-Forts

Early departure for a long drive to Southern France...
After half an hour the trip could already have been over: while stopping for a red light, I got hit by the car behind me - luckily no major damage (I hope). As it is still possible to close and latch the door of the trunk compartment I was able to continue.

Untile Berne the usual stop-and-go, but thereafter no more problems. I made a stop at Lumbin (St.Hilaire du Touvet); but the TO was just in clouds and then there was a transport problem: the funiculaire had just closed down for the season and also no more shuttles running... So I decided to continue and eventually ended up in St.Vincent-les-Forts.
Upon arrival nobody was flying, as the wind so far had been too weak; the first pilots were just getting ready to launch.

Pano looking west: note the nice carpet covering the launch area!

Lac de Serre-Poncon

Unfortunately it (too) quickly clouded over and the wind died; but at least I had chosen the right moment to (top-) land ;-). So after a short flight I continued towards St.André-les-Alpes.
On the way I picked up a hitchhiking PG Pilot, which had to land out due to the cloud cover.

IT, SI -12: Cornizzolo

On my way back home I stopped at the only place I had found, which looked flyable: Monte Cornizzolo near Leggo/ Lago di Como.

Lago di Annone; Monte Cornizzolo

Unfortunately the sky looked as clear and blue only in the morning... Arriving at the LZ in Suello and hoping to find a shuttle, extremely few pilots have been there. A local tandem pilot said that it would be unflyable as there was north wind. Well I could see some clouds moving south - but only slowly.
And once in a while some pilots also took off. Finally at 1330 a shuttle drove up with the waiting 7 pilots. By that time the sky was almost completely covered and I made just a sledder. Though I have to admit that by observing the sky more closely and waiting maybe 20 more minutes on launch, a longer flight probably would have been possible as the sun was coming through a bit more.
I then went up for a second flight, but this time no more 'blue holes' in sight, which would have been worth waiting for...

Bosisio Parini

LZ in Suello

But all in all it has been a very successful trip: flying on most days, 2 new sites, meeting many old friends, excellent food,getting a new glider  :-))