A flight with everything - including a happy ending !

August 4th - 247 km FAI Triangle - Total flight time 8h37mn

Take off Laragne top south
See Google trace here
See OLC trace here

* add 2 hours to the trace time

Looking to the NE from Pic d'Obiou (archive)

The days forecast was good, but not great, as a moderate south wind was forecast for the afternoon with cumulus clouds, but with a risk of overdevlopment also late afternoon. 

We were a few keen pilots rigging up earlier then most of the others, as we had a long flight in mind ! I got off at 11.56, but there were already 3 others in the air.

I was able to climb to about 2000m straight away and headed off to fly over the north landing field (to "close" a circuit here it's not easy to overfly the TO at 1300 m asl in the evening, it's much easier to overfly the north landing field at only 600 m asl which is 3 km from the campsite).

Looking north to the Pic d'Obiou (archive)

 My first turnpoint was 30 km to the west, and it was made easier as the first cumulus started forming. Turnpoint 2 was about 80 km  to the NE. Good clouds now made getting to Aspres quick and easy. Then an error on my part put me on the wrong side of the mountain leading to Obiou,  the Grand Ferrand,  I was able to fly through the col des Aiguilles to get back on the SW face (see trace at 14.30) and back to cloud base at 3360m, then  across the northern end of the Champsaur onto the Ecrins where there were good looking clouds.

I went into the Ecrins a bit to get my turnpoint and came out again still high (see trace at 15.50). Turnpoint 3 was to the SE, near the Tête de l'Estrop, which meant now flying down the SW faces of the Ecrins. Crossing from the Grun de Saint Maurice to the Petit Chaillol, I encountered a stronger and more southerly wind which put me from 3400 m to 1600 m in no time at all, untill I got round on to the SW face. I was going down so fast that it felt like the moutain was "growing" out of the ground. It reminded me of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony where the "chimneys" grew up out of the Stadium !

Into to the Ecrins for the 2nd turnpoint (archive)

Once back to cloud base I could see that a large area of overdevelopment and rain was going to drift across my course line, so I had to fly fast to cross this "street" and get to the better conditions beyond. I flew through a few minutes of moderate rain. On the other side I was near the Piolit where normaly you try to get as high as possible for the crossing of the Serre Ponçon lake on to the Morgon, but as the Piolit was in the shade and the rain near by I just kept going. I was at 2800 m (a few days ago I'd been at 3700 m ... much more comfortable !) the crossing was quite boyant and I got onto the SW face without any problem. I was then able to climb to cloud base at 3800 m, the highest of the day for me.

From here I was able to glide over the Dormillouse and down the mountain range to the Tête de l'Estrop. Once I was there, I could see severe overdevelopment in the Colmar and Allos valley and clouds building very high towards Saint André, so I turned my 3rd turnpoint here just south of the summit. The air was really turbulent and I was glad to get away from this area.  Looking towards Laragne I had about 60 km to go, and the sky was sunny. I came back up the Blanche (see trace at 18.20) before heading out into the blue. On previous flights I'd found lift above the ski station of Chabanon, but this time I didn't find any lift. The SSW wind was now quite consequent. I glided more to the NW over SW ridges, but still nothing solid, and kept on gliding hoping to get onto the SW faces near La Motte du Caire, but I was just going down. Soon I was below the tops and in the turbulent lee side (at 27 km from the north landing) and had no option but to flee to the NE and away from Laragne (see trace at 18.45) . My glide was taking me into the Durance Valley below the Mont Colombis, a well known site. I know the landing field and wind sock, so at least I knew I'd have a safe landing in the valley.

But it wasn't over yet ! I was able to get up on the SW face of Mont Colombis to 2740 m asl and was now at 41 km from the north landing field. I then continued down the Tallard valley giving the aerodrome a wide berth. It was now after 19.30  and I was sure I was on final glide into this headwind leaving me at least 20 km short.

Once past the aerodrom, I crossed the valley to the hill to the west of La Saulce, and it kept lifting gently. I managed to get on to the SE edge of the Aujour range where the last clouds of the day gave constant light lift. It was very windy, with flaps on flying into wind I had 5km/h ground speed and 46 km/h airspeed ! But still going up : the evening valley restitution !

At just over 2000m and 8 km  from Laragne I had it ! I over flew the north landing field then back to the camping to land at 20.33 pm.

Thanks to this late evening "magic lift" I'd got back into the headwind. What a day ! I've heard so much about how easy it's to fly an Atos, well the next day I ached from head to toe ! But maybe had I been on a flexi I would have already been so tired after 7.30 hrs of flying that I'd have landed at the Colombis landing field.