A french pilot made 250km on Monday, successfully avoiding the airspace just after Avila. The big days are certainly here…..though we of course landed at Avila that day. Today, after the passage of a cold front yesterday we reverted to the early morning flight then the XC flight. Quite difficult conditions, light wind and bullet thermals on the first flight. Catherine did a swing around a tree near the Chalets on the first flight, which looked exciting but caused no damage to her or the glider. On the XC Ian called a 14 up, which most of us carefully avoided. A flight towards Barco, but abandoned as things got a little turbulent half way along course.

Today I flew with Catherine on the Tandem, and amongst our bunch, Mike, Mike and Nick got over the pass. The conditions, with 3200m cloud base were quite fantastic with a good spread of Cu in the Ambles valley. Mike Thomas landed at Avila, needing a pee, and Mike Blain some 12km short. I did a bit of cruising over the city, a place which Catherine saw plenty of a few months back on a visit with poor weather. The sky down wind of Avila was quite exceptional, though now we have to consider the constraint of the new airspace. However, today we were happy with what we had. We made an evening flight , though tomorrow looks less promising, though back to the good stuff Thursday

After very little flying last week in the UK, Monday here turned out to be a high quality XC day. Sunday we got in an evening flight on getting back from the airport,and yesterday Nick and Paul got over the pass, Paul landing at Muñana, and Nick going down at Villatoro. A booming Cu filled sky, and 6 m/s climbs to avoid when I came down to land. A classic evening flight with the corrals and back an easy cruise. For those of you who saw the little kitten Zara. She is now fine and doing well. We got here about 3 weeks ago (abandoned by her mother). After syringe feeding her with kitten milk she is now on solids. Today, Tuesday, is looking pretty epic. Patric Berod (X-PWC and french champion) is also here with a group of french pilots so we will have a few more thermal markers.

A visit to RAF Cosford yesterday. A fantastic range of aircraft and things to read while the rain beat down outside the exhibit hangars. After Cosford, I dragged Paul and Nigel Prior around Shrewsbury to see all the sights proudly advertised in the local guidebook.
Today, we actually started flying a short 30km ridge running task, until we realised it was in fact rather dangerous, highlighted by a Marra getting rotored in and John Chambers having an interesting deflation in the 30km plus cross wind as we inched along the hill in an overcast sky with showers all around.

Task cancelled and a tedious afternoon waiting for the beer to be served this evening. Tomorrow is looking pretty awful, but maybe possible (if not enjoyable). Back in Piedrahita it looks as though they have had an awesome week, though still looking good for next week.

After a short XC from Bache Hill yesterday, with most of the BPC pilots landing at around 6km (Only John Ellison made the 40km or so to their goal at Montgomery), the expected poor weather has Read the rest of this entry »

My first flying day in the UK and high expectations for all the pilots attending the Long Mynd event who have been suffering 2 days of bad weather.

Lucky me once again and my arrival in the UK coincides with Read the rest of this entry »

Today the trace looked good, with a base in the upper 3000metres, and a light to moderate SW wind. Some upper level instability, causing largish build ups before noon, and forming shadow on the hill. The wind never came onto Peña Negra, much to the regret of ourselves and the 50 or so pilots of the Liga Centro comp. We checked out Chia, but was a bit feisty for our tastes, though later a few brave pilots got away and flew off towards Avila. Read the rest of this entry »

Epic conditions today, but although the Avila valley was booming with the convergence set up from early on, the Piedrahita valley took a while to get going, taking most of our group down at the quarry, even though we waited almost an hour on the ridge for things to improve.

While hords of pilots (french spanish and my group of Belgians and brits ) were bombing around the quarry, Colin, was bimbling around further upwind near the Long Bar and gaing height. I managed to Read the rest of this entry »

A 20km SW wind, with quite stable conditions in El Valle de Corneja, though in Amble (Avila Valley) there were good Cu from early on. A bit crossed and strong for the likes of my group, so we returned for the evening flight. Some spaniards who took off around 3pm were reported to have passed Segovia.

The group decided to forgo the early flight and concentrate on the XC. Unfortunately, they all landed without hooking into the climb at the Quarry. So, with an epic cloud street towards Avila, all my guest were down, with only me high at the pass. Ah well! For the evening flight we took off at around 6.45pm and decided to try for the pass again. Read the rest of this entry »