Nice conditions from early on.  I did a tandem at 11am and was straight into nice climbs.  Once back up we made our way towards the Corrals, but the cloud development over the pass rules out a trip towards Avila.  We headed to the Long Bar, where Dermot and Colin landed for Coffee, but Paul and I took a very lifty…too lifty line back to Piedrahita along the road.  Long glides in 3m/s climbs…time to get down.

A great looking sky till around 5pm, then Cbs.

Another epic day with perfect soaring conditions with a base near 3500 m and streeting.  Light NW to NE winds.

A slow start with an inversion around 2200m, though at the pass we finally took a 6m/s climb to over 3000m.  Paul and I flew together, with Tobias further back, and Colin having returned to land at the Villafranca junction.

We first followed the mountains the other side of the pass, then took the street to Muñogalindo, our turning point, mostly surfing below the street.   On the route back Paul took a mega climb arond Amavida, sufficient to glide back to Piedrahita with very little turning at all, taking the North side of the Pass on the return.

Back over Piedrahita it was booming, and would have permitted another 2 hours of XC…….but cups of tea beconed.

Nice evening conditons.  Tobias had landed after also returning from the out and return, then straight out of the landing field to the take off in the vehicle to complete another 6 hours of flying for the day.

Another classic day with unbeatable soaring conditions.  With negligable winds we decided to go over the pass to link up with the cloud street to Avila.  Unfortunately Colin and Dermot landed early, but Adrian on the tandem with Sue, Paul, Tobias and myself flew easily over the pass and ran the cloud street at base to Muñana 30km from launch (the big cross roads with the gas station).  Here we returned, now with a ground speed of around 45km/hr.  Getting over the pass was easy, though Adrian missed the good climb and did a very expert technical landing on a small hump between the Pass and Villatoro.  From the Pass we were able to fly back to Piedrahita in lift for most of the way without turning.  In fact, it was very difficult to find sink to get down to the landing (more so for me as my vario was out of batteries).  Tobias carried on flying around the valley till near sunset, with over 6 hours of airtime.

An even better day forecast for Friday. Temperatures well up on the usual for this time of year and conditions perhaps better than in July.

3 flights today, but the afternoon flight we cut short due to building Congestus clouds.  Light winds from N in general.  No Cbs, so hoping that the upper levels are stabilising for some bigger flights over the next few days

Another day with very pleasant smooth thermic conditions with easy climb outs.  The clouds soon had a depth of some 1000m so Paul and I decided to land for coffee at Barco.  Tobias decided to fly around for a little more landing more towards the Tornavacas pass.

Another fantastic day with Cu at 3400m though beginning to tower by late afternoon.  After a slow start we moved of to the NW towards the Lake.  Although going into a head wind the streets alowed us to make easy progress near cloud base.  Adrian and Sue landed on the Tandem at Guijuelo, whilst Paul, Colin and myself headed due east to pick up the Salamanca road and make a triangle back to Piedrahita.  Lionel and Tobias were also around on similar tracks but we rarely saw them.  Colin, Paul and I landed near the red roofs (Santamaria de Berrocal) since there seemed to be a CB still active SE of Piedahita. A P.B. for Colin.

All in all an epic day with unbeatable XC condtions.  Towards Guijuelo we came across 100s of Griffon vultures (simiar to last month when I was there with Bill, Liz, Nigel and Michal).  They were tearing along the cloud street as if it were a highway.

Today at task 7 we had some of the best flying conditions in this week. Urs Dubach was landing at around 180km at 18:30. We had a very late prize giving at around 12.30am as many competitors did not get back till around midnight.

The overall winner of the Piedrahita event was Paul Tomassi (CHE), who has come close in our previous XC Open events.   Paul, although only having flown in the Piedrahita event of the series, has also won the overall XC World Series for 2009.  Paul was also the only pilot to fly back to Piedrahita yesterday (having reached Avila) to take the 20% bonus for the return.

The majority of the pilots have headed off for Avila in an epic looking Cu filled sky to over 3000m.  Adrian has reported that he is on the way back as there are NE winds low down.  More later………..

Fantanstic conditions with convergence along the high peaks.  Some amazing flights, with various routes taken.  Ari (Fin) went to the Gredos peaks and flew to Pedro Bernardo before returnin g the Barco Valley.

The day Winner, Martin Muller flew to near Avila then back to the Tornavacas pass.

Our long time client Oli Pipe nearly broke his previous personal best (of 95km with a 5 hour flight of 92.9 flying to Villafranca, then most of the way down the Cherry tree valley, then flying back towards the Tornavacas pass.  Epic stuff on his Gradient Golden.

Paul Tomassi and Reynald Mumenthaler, the competition leaders, came back from a 6.5 hr flight towards Avila and back to a landing near Tornavacas Pass. Distances were 136km for Paul and 133km for Reynald.

A day with not an outstanding cloudbase, but very good and consistent thermal conditions.