Advance paragliders in the West Country

Well, what a week – flying every day! We were so lucky with the weather! Here’s a summary of my flights:

Day 1, Sat 27th June – an hour’s familiarisation flight from Planfait – good fun, but there some big clouds around!

Day 2, Sun 28th June – a nice 70km flight around the whole area having taken off from Mont Lachat in Grand Bornand. Included going round the Dents

Day 3, Mon 29th June – another 80 odd km flight, this time from Forclaz, over the lake, along the Rocque de Boeuf and down to the Albertville valley, before big clouds stopped play just short of Albertville

Day 4, Tue 30th June – a repeat of Monday’s flight really, except much faster, and not quite as far – probably 60km ish…

Day 5, Wed 1st July – went to Marlens for an early start, flew for a couple of hours but SE side the Aravis weren’t really working so landed in Ugine for about 15km

Day 6, Thu 2nd July – back to Lachat in Grand Bornand for a fantastic flight along the Aravis, round La Tournette and the Dents and back to Grand Bornand – another 70km ish flight

Day 7, Fri 3rd July – a lovely flight from Semnoz, all the way down the ridges to La Sire, back again, then over the lake, and back home to St Jean du Sixt – 80km in total I reckon

Day 8, Sat 4th July – back to Semnoz where we had a nice flight once the storms had passed over. Boated up and down the ridge before hopping over the back to the RdB and landing at the main Doussard l/z. About 30km if I’m being generous!

So all in all 415km in seven flights – ie. an average of 60km per flight. If you drop the two smaller flights on the less good days then the average goes up to 75km! Nice… 🙂

I was super pleased with my Sigma 7, it behaved beautifully and I felt completely at home on it, not to mention its great glide helping me on those long transitions!

Lots of photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timp/sets/72157620505485539/