| Flight details: | In my fifth September at St Andre, I was a bit less daunted by the thought of the 50-kilometre flight over the mountains to the Dormillouse, because I had at least now flown at the Dormillouse end, in this year's Gin Wide Open. But only a little bit less daunted�
I went up in a full minibus, from which Nigel Cooper � alone � departed at the south launch, saying that he might well end up walking to join us at the west one. But well before noon gliders started climbing from the south launch, and were soon getting high enough to move on � Nigel among them. It did eventually come on to the west take-off, but the southern lot had an hour's start on us.
Never mind, there was plenty of day left. I was in the air by one o'clock, and found it easy to climb over launch. I reached the antennas to the north quite comfortably, and shared a climb out front, after which I never got low again on the outward journey. In fact, I was repeatedly using Kelly Farina's 45-degree rule to keep out of the clouds (read more about it in his excellent book, Mastering Paragliding, published by Cross Country magazine).
What felt strange was, after that busy climb near the antennas, suddenly being on my own in an empty sky. I'd expected a motorway of gliders to mark the route, but the only ones I could see ahead were low in an east-west valley beyond Cheval Blanc. I went that way anyway, reckoning that some of them were sure to find climbs, and sure enough, I was able to join a pair of orange and red Ozones coming up below me.
I stayed in the climb a bit longer than them, but lost my height advantage in the next glide, and had to steel myself to go in after them into the big rocky bowl. But it was surprisingly mellow there, and I joined one of the Ozones again in a climb at the far end of it.
From there it was easy flying along the Dormillouse ridge to the fort above St Vincent, stopping for occasional climbs, though probably not needing to. Dieter passed on his Triton heading back s |
