Chris has been a regular client over the years, but it seems he has always been held back by the rest of the Gloster bunch (Dennis and Cliff). Today he majestically sailed over our heads (myself with Paul on tandem, John, Nigel and Ian) after we had bombed near the cementary at Casas del Puerto. Chris made it alone over the Pass for the first time and reached the bend in the road in the Avila valley.
A nice morning flight and a very good evening flight had by all too.

A very pleasant day with easy flying…..4 flights in all. The veil of alto status kept the conditions from overdeveloping, though a break of sunshine at the end of the day really switched things on giving climbs to around 2700m. We stayed local though a few of the group went to Casas del Puerto, with Ian, test flying the Niviuk Artic, flying back from near Villafranca. Steve Dean took a climb to near 3000m on the evening flight at around 8.30pm.
Tony test flew the Synargy 4 and was outclimbing most of the pack throughout the day. He let Jim fly his Ellus who had some excellent climbs of the big spine. A photo of Jim after his flight below

A long time since we have had any of this stuff. No flying today

An airport run day for me today. Our first of two weeks with the mighty Malvern Club. A nice evening soar to start things off.

Colin Huges will be off tomorrow after a 6 week stay with us. It has been a tremendous 6 weeks, with very few unflyable days. Colin has made his PB on a number on a number of flights.
He is aways first off and acts as wind dummy for the rest of the group, sometime in the air for quite a while before the rest dare to venture into the air.
Here is a photo of Colin having his traditional preflight coffee. It will feel strange next week to be without him.

Anther nice day but with typically August condtions…….quite stable and mainly blue. We made our way to Barco, with Colin and Anthony dropping out before Aldeanueva. I bombed at Barco, some of the others crossing the river but getting little altitude on the other side. By this time the wind had changed to NW, so Marc turned around and was able to fly back, putting in a tp at the Corrals before landing in Piedrahita.
Very nice evening conditions once again.
The last day for our French group from the Pyrenees. A picture of the lot of us before todays main event.

We had an early take off as the wind was forecast to pick up. I flew a customer on the tandem and after getting some high climbs over Piedrahita had to get down before he was sick. With strongish NE wind comming through the flying was not so interesting. All landed and we went for an evening flight later in the day though the wind maintained.
Very bad weather in much of southern and eastern Spain. Big Cbs and hail and rainstorms We seem to be missing it all luckily- Looking better tomorrow.

A slow start, but conditions soon getting good as we made our way to Barco in group. A few dropped down at Barco, including myself across the river. However, Marc on the Mantra carried on down the Cherry tree valley to Plasencia then over the back of the mountains to come back eastwards some 20km south of the Gredos. Peter is still retrieving him at this time, but with the TP at Plasencia he will have done over 150km I imagine.
For the rest of us some big evening lift, but too N to do the ridge run as last night

Another very pleasant flying day with just about everybody over the pass, though the earlier guys pushing too hard and landing early on the other side. Marc and I took it easy and arrived at Avila around 4.45pm. Conditions were good to go on, but we decided to land to get back for the evening flight.
Amazing evening restitution with the mountain run easy at around 300m above take off with glassy lifty conditions. My third flight on the Hook. Continues to impress, as does my new Sol tandem Kangaroo 3.

Quite a blow comming through take off. A few rigid wings started to rig up, though we decided to give it a miss.