The passage of the cold front leaves us with a cooler and moister flow. This mornings low Stratocumulus should thin and rise as the morning develops. I expect by midday we will be able to fly, with decent thermal conditions and light winds from NW going further to the N. The cloud base should rise to around 2600 by the end of the day (Max temp 20ºC).

20:00hrs

Nice conditions today with climbs to 2600m and generally light winds – somewhat confusing as N-NE west of Launch and W- NW to the East of Launch. Mainly flying around the main ridge. Early flight in very overcast cirrus, but later bright sunshine for 2nd flight and evening soar.

No chance this morning with another, more active coldfront passing through. Hopeflly Friday will give us a good day

Our high season is now underway and we have a few interesting new developments to improve our service for 2012.

Live Tracking

This year we are introducing live tracking. Each client will be provided with a tracker which sends its position via the GSM ‘phone network to the Livetrack24 website every 5 seconds. Steve carries a tracker and another is installed in the bus.

Using this system Steve and the retrieve driver will be able to see the location, speed and height of all pilots with additional bespoke software designed and tested by Paul Russell, based on the Livetrack24 system. Likewise, clients who have a smart phone will be able to see positions of the other pilots and the retrieve van relative to themselves.

In addition to the important safety aspect and greater freedom for the XC routes, this system enables the flying activities to be followed on the web each day. In addition to this summary page, you can follow the action in 3D on the Livetrack24 website page or on pages designed for smart phones or tablets.

We loan you the equipment at no extra cost. However, the SIM cards connected to the GSM network are a consumable, dependent upon how many hours you fly or have the device switched on. To simplify things we would like a donation of 1€/flying day. Bear in mind that a roaming voice call phone to our driver or Steve to explain your landing position would probably cost you considerably more.

For further details check out our report page: //www.flypiedrahita.com/flypiedrahita/report

Settling Your Account in Sterling

We now accept the balance of payment to our UK bank (Lloyds TSB) in Sterling. This makes sense considering the current fragility of the Spanish banking system and saves transfer fees for those with UK accounts. The current exchange rate is currently very favourable (330€ balance would be 267 UK pounds). This of course may improve more, or may go the other way if there is another round of quantative easing. Our transfer exchange rate is on our website: //www.flypiedrahita.com/flypiedrahita/booking. If you do make a transfer please inform us via e mail with the amount, the week you booked, your name and the name of your bank. If possible also include these details on your transfer documentation.

You may settle your balance any time before your trip by a Sterling transfer to our UK account or a Euros transfer to our Spanish accounts. You may of course still settle in cash in Piedrahita when you arrive.

Fully Booked!

We are now fully booked for our high season except one place on week 26 and 7 spaces in week 39.

An upper level flow of much more wind than previous days. Very good thermal quality with Cu as at around 2500m, though the wind may be excessive. An inversion at 2500m may allow the winds to be of a paraglidable strength, although as the day develops mixing down of winds is likely to make it excessive and there is also a chance of Congestus clouds.
We must decide if we shall leave early for Lastra (S. Take off) or await conditions at P.Negra. Probable departure at 11am if we go to Peña Negra, 10.30 if we go to Lastra.

Crossing The Pass

Yesterdays track lines in 3D of our group approaching the Pass. What went right and what went wrong?

19:30

No flying today due to increasing winds. Kite bugying and an early dinner in Zapata.

Back wind at take off so far this morning. High pressure still dominates but a head low seems to be forming just south of us. The winds are forecast to be around 15km/hr rising to 20km/hr at take of level.
Local spanish forecast gives no sign of storms, yet the skew T does indicate some probable congestus build up with Cu starting around 3000m.

Winds along track to Segovia are W. With this strenght we will have less problem with N wind at low levels near Avila, so flights beyond Avila are possible if thermal conditions are good enough.

We must wait for an anabatic wind at take off, then the window of oportunity will not be as long as yesterday before conditions become unsuitable for launching. Thermal conditions in the Avila valley once again considerably better than Piedrahita Valley. Potential for long flights, though not a classic day by any means.

Complications for the next few days:

So , what happened?

It turned out to be a classic day with perfect convergence from Avila to Villacastin allowing a very long dolphin non circling flight. Tim and I landed on the outskirts of Segovia,Mark got over the pass landing near the bend in the road. Jaques alsont over the pass but his line took him to far to the south and he ended up landing on the top of the mountain near Villatoro with a 3+ hour walk out.

High pressure dominating the Iberian Peninsula. Light NW wind (zero wind at PN at 10am). There is a strong inversion at around 2600m and no cumulus is expected. Probably a slow thermal start to the day. Probably leaving for take off at around 12 would be fine. We could leave a little earlier if some of you wish to do a down flight (maybe Ray to try his new wing?). Conditions would be good for a flight to Avila. After Avila the wind in the lower levels is likely to be NE which would make progress difficult.

Summary at 23:39hrs

Well it turned out to be a very nice day, with the forecast pretty much as expected, but some convergence clouds in the Avila valley. Tim and I reached the Avila goal, with Jaques missing out near the pass, Paul gettting over but bombing in the Avila valley after the Pass, Marshall at Villafranca and the other strung out along the Piedrahita valley.

Early this morning still some deep low Stratocumulus which should reduce by mid afternoon leaving reasonable flying at Peña Negra for when we arrive back from the airport. Next few days look OK.

23:21
Back from the airport in good time for an hour of perfect evening soaring and restitution.

The arrival of a cold front this evening and the over unstable conditions did not allow us more than a late afternoon flight. However, still 7 days in a row, all but today with good XC conditions

An upper level trough and approaching cold front makes it unlikely that we can safely fly today. Winds in SW to 25km/hr at P.Negra. After cold front goes through we should be set for another good week from tomorrow afternoon onwards.

A small chance late this afternoon, but unlikely.

Alto Cu Castellanus visible in the E from early on and first formation of Cu towards Barco at 8.30am. The visible sky and Skew T looks like we will have a stormy day. Light winds (negligable SE at Peña Negra at the moment) so we may get an early (nervous) flight from P.Negra.
9.15am. Light S wind at P.n.Negra. I am strongly considering an early trip to Lastra now. Leaving 10am . Are you up and ready???
.

21;00hrs
Well, we had a reasonable flight from Lastra, with Brian and I getting good clean climbs out (Brian at 6m/s touching 9m/s) and myself with a more relaxing 3m/s. However, as some big towers were growing over towards Piedrahita, we soon landed at Barco de Avila.