An easy day to stay in the air, with few bomb outs at the time of writing (6pm). One of our pilots recently reporting to be well down the Cherry tree valley at over 3000m.

Light NNE with the best distance of 118km. Our Malvern group finished with flights around Barco for the majority and a final evening float.

Although the forecast was poor, the W dropped and swung on nicely. Early on a little weak but we moved down valley and were rewarded with a reasonable though breezy climb near the Cemetery. Brian, Graham, Dave, Martin and myself few over the pass, all landing just short of Amavida where I just hooked the climb. Nigel landed up near the Antenna. As the afternoon on things moderated and we had once again some very easy and nice evening soaring being able to use most of the ridge.
Tomorro the XC Open starts, so I will be on the ground during the day as Meet Director for the next 8 days. A good looking forecast for next week

Very strong from early on. We had a visit to Barco for coffee and Horchata followed by a 3 hr hike up to the lagoon of the Duke (Laguna del Duque). The white van is now miraculously repaired only 24 hours after its near destruction.

Although it came on late to Peña Negra things soon turned on. I was first over the pass on the tandem with Pepe Luis, a Bullfighter from Salamanca and a local pilot. Graham, Brian, Nigel, Martin and Carolin followed. Carolin and Martin landed soon after the pass, leaving the rest of us to decide what to do on arriving at Avila; carry on or get down to get back for an evening flight for the unfortunates who had landed early. Brian and I landed, and Nigel decided to fly back some way, making excellent progress the to just W of the Bend in the road.
High excitement on the retrieve when on driving down the pass the front wheel of the white van came loose. Pete expertly maintained control, bringing it to the hard shoulder. Poor white van; after a visit to the mechanic last week just a bit of grease was prescribed…..it seems it was something a bit more serious!

After the clouds clearing in the morning we did a quick morning flight then tried to get to Avila. With climbs to an inversion around 2300m it was a bit tricky, but Graham, Gavin and myself went through to 2600m at the quarry, allowing us to get over the pass. Tricky going on the other side (Graham bombing at Poveda) untill Solosancho, when we made it high again, then 2 more climbs for Gavin and I to reach Avila.
Amazing evening conditions with many landing well after the sun had set.

Just a down flight today late in the evening after a hot windy W windy day.

I didnt come onto Peña Negra, and rejecting a turbulent early flight we did Salamanca and had some nice evening soaring at Chia for the last day of Malvern part 1.

A great day which started with a little spot landing comp on the first flight. The main flight I flew with John on the tandem. Easy climbs and we were soon at the pass in 5m/s climbs. Paul made it to near the Pass, but with his radio going out he did the O&R back to home. Tony, Chris, Nigel, Steve and myself with John made an easy crossing flying fast along the convergence clouds. On reaching Muñana we had a ligth E wind, but decided to push onto Avila. Chris landed at the bend in the road, and Steve near Santa Maria del Arroyo. Tony, Nigel and myself landed in the usual Avila Goal. Jim had a good day, venturing alone in the afternoon condtions and landing near the Long Bar.
Wonderfull evening flights with fantastic evening restitution.

After an uneventfull morning flight our afternoon flight became quite exciting by the time we reached the corrals with much of the Ambles valley in shadow form big Cu formations. On tandem with Jim, we flew back to the NW, for perhaps 6km in strong lift, deciding to land N or Piedrahita as conditions were getting a bit ugly (though it never actually became a Cb). The rest of the group did likewise. The evening cleared, but with a cross/back wind.