Marcus and I on the Tormes between white water sections

Yesterday we had some big development by mid afternoon.  Magnus was able to make the most of things with an early start and an hour or so crossing the valley. Today, Thursday, Cbs lurking about so we have been rafting.  I have not had my rafts out since 2011, since these days we do not work in April and May, when the rivers are running.  However, due to the rains over the last months, we had quite a good white water run from Barco downstream to La Makina.    Back to flying this evening according to the forecast.

Marcus, returned from Avila and landing nr Windmill field after evening flight

A light NW with climbs to 3000m forecast, although a little weak early on putting us all on the ground a bit sooner than we wished.
Our 2nd attempt was much better, with Magnus, Hans and I going over the Pass towards Avila. At Avila, Marcus and I tried to go towards Segovia but ended up low on the north side of the city, landing near the Avila Cemetery.
Back in time for an evening fight! Here is Marcus in the photo after the evening flight.

Due to the wind we had a short morning flight.  An attempt towards Barco but we got nowhwere near!  The evening was interesting with a lauch for the PN east launch.  We were able to fly to the valley and soar the E face of Cerro la Cruz hill.

The last day of this week for our Belgian group.  Nice conditions, but NE and most of us not prepared to go down the Cherry Tree valley with the altitude we were getting.  However, we should have all gone, since Eric had a good time of it reaching Plasencia.  Good evening conditons.  On Sunday a task was run by the Tres Valles comp.  We returned from airport run for just an eveining flight.

Perfect day with light N winds and convergence in the Avila Valley Base around 2800 to 2900 and good Cu.  Best of the day by Matthiew, landing just short of Avila, followed by Peter.

Classic evening restitution flying after the retrieve till near dark.

Landing gin the Avila Valley

Evening Flight

Good morning, looks more like a typical XC day. Winds are reasonably light and NW in our valley, but likely to be North in the Avila Valley, Probable climbs to 2600, and maybe reaching around 3000m at end of the day. A good day for pushing towards Avila as far as possible, and maybe getting back. Some valley wide convergence setting up across the Avila valley around Munogalindo later in afternoon. We don’t want to go too early we need conditions to be working and base to perhaps 2600 before crossing the Pass, so we might have a take off as late as 1 pm today, depending on how wind gets up. Let us meet at 10.45 11 am for Briefing, going up soon after.

Warmer weather but a bit stable.  On the first flight we set Barco as goal to get down before forecast stronger winds.  8 of us there and more nearabouts.  For the evening we set the same goal and once again had roughly the same number there or abouts, the XC done pretty much in restitution lift.

It seemed that this year Spain was locked in a perpetual winter.  Finally, this week summer seems to have arrived.  Although Monday gave us nothing but a fly down at the end of a rainy day, things have now been warming up with a nice bit of XC activity.  Including perhaps the first flight to Goal (Barco) from the small site NW of Piedrahita called Los Alamos.   This is a long spine backed site which faces N and S.  Here are some pictures taken by Mario, our 2nd driver this week, a PG pilot and a professional photographer.

Mario Cranks

Mario Cranks

Mario Cranks

Mario Cranks

Today we have moderate winds from the west with a risk of storms, more so to the north.  An inversion will probably keep us safe from overdevelopment here, but a layer of cumulostatus is likely to keep the sun away for much of the day.

wind

winds

overall picture

skew t 1 pm

Today we start things here at Flypiedrahita.  Unfortunately, not starting with the best weather for the next few days though.

Below a selection of our tracking equipment.  The larger units on the right are an experiment with Airwhere.  Each is a stand alone unit with batter, GPS and radio reciever which works independently of internet access.  The smaller leather cases contain our usual trackers and the tablet shows the tracking app designed by Paul Russell.

Tracking equipement