Up early and off to get important supplies, beer to you and me. On the way back we watched the first gliders coming off puncho the site we flew the previous day so the choice of venue was decided for us. While wendy prepared the sarneys we sat drinking coffee chewing the fat and assesed conditions as the local dual pilots earned their crust one by one.
As there seemed no rush we let Dave Hume take the first batch of pilots up to take off, he then returned to join us at the landing field so we would have a car there. With a beautiful blue sky it look like a repetition of the previous day however it was Sunday and the amount of pilots at TO was a good indication of the day ahead. The wind was light and both TOs were useable so we elected to head up to the quieter one and left the hangies to there own devices. It was now midday and although pilots were maintaining we sat it out a while and tucked into our sammiches which was a good move considering the flight ahead looked like it would be a long one! I was 1st off shortly followed by Andrew and in a matter of minutes was 2 grand above Wendy and Bill who missed the nice little TO breeze which assisted us off the hill. No hard work here as the thermals were really powerfull and huge, there were dozens of pilots using multicores in these hundred yard monsters and it was not for the feint hearted as it required a lot of active flying not to mention a good strong sphinkter!
30 mins or so later saw wendy and bill invading my space and as we were all on radio we pointed out the best lift and worked as a team getting more and more adventurous while heading out into the valley. A huge core there took us up over 3grand above TO and I saw this as a good oppertunity to X the valley onto another site "pic d'andan" with my speed bar at max and my vario off the scale in the wrong direcion jockeys advice of heading to high ground had to work as I was past the point of no return, but sure enough here came another elevator and I relayed it back to Bill and Wend and they headed in my direction. The valley was now full of adventurous pilots and these were great indicators to play with however when you were the current indicator a dozen or so would soon come to spoil your fun. 2 hrs on and the active conditions were tiring me out so when bill called he was landing I decided to join him in a beer. Wendy however was having none of this and we heard steve had gone XC! As I circled above the landing field I watched Dave as he made his approach, he seemed to glide on forever and at the end nosed in! Soon after landing he confirmed the worst, he was an upright down and had no spares
Steve had checked in and was 37k away in the direction of boonie town so Dave and Ali set out to retrieve him while we relaxed at the bar. Glen had quite a scarey collapse so his flight was short but not sweet and both he and andrew decided to have a 2nd bite of the cherry so Bill took them back up to TO. Wendy eventually came down through choice not conditions and Glen soon followed not really finding his groove yet in these very challenging conditions. Andrew radioed down to say how tricky it was to get down as restitution was now setting up all over the valley but big ears ensured his decent and we were all back to swapping fight stories at the bar. A beautiful chilli, a bottle of wine and numerous beers were consumed while we watched a score of gliders flying well after 9pm. Dave and the gang eventually turned up around midnight and steve's tale is far too long for this post. However due to his direction and the tree covered gorges he was navigating he decided to wind down on the only no tree covered part of the plateau for miles which was 800ft above his TO point!All in all a five star day in the most beautiful of locations
Until next time x
