After dropping the Dunstable boys we managed to get back early again with the Malverns lot in time for the afternoon flight. On the drive back from Madrid there was a strong South to Avila, then a big convergence went from the Piedrahita valley and north east from the pass.

At take off the wind was almost zero, but after gliding though the shadow and sink to the valley light climbs below 2000m turned into massive lift seemingly everywhere to around 3500m to some overlarge Cus. Chris and I flew about 9km into wind in constant lift to escape the Piedrahita area, getting upwind of the large development. Dennis and Cliff had similarly rough lifty rides but were able to get down nearer to home. Quite a first flight for them, and for sure the biggest air I have encountered this year.

The late afternoon was filled in watching Alex try to pack away his hoop tent, and the evening settled down but was a bit too west for easy soaring. Peter, who I have been flying on the tandem for much of last week made his first solo flight here. Hopefully that will give him confidence for further flights this week, though we will probably keep doing the XCs on the tandem untill he has exorcised all of his ghosts (he had a bad accident landing here some 10 years ago)