Back at Laragne (and some flying)

It was a worthwhile trip heading down south as we managed to check out St Andre as well. We did have flight but it was extremely short one in rotor. St Andre was a beautiful place. But the overcast skies re-appeared and the flight we had was not inspiring so we headed back up north and Laragne. Later on that night, when the sun was setting and the skies started to clear, a double rainbow came out. This is Sarah getting her dose of light.


The next day we woke to blue skies. Finally. It was nice to be in a place that has everything, landing at the camping ground, swimming pool and free wireless internet. We weren't planning on moving on so it was nice to know we didn't need to pack up camp and spend another day driving.

The conditions on the hill were clear. We just needed a fly to keep this officially a flying trip. There were no clouds so nobody was taking off. There were about 20 other hang gliders set up but there were in big groups. A paraglider took and off and was maintaining, so Sam and I took off soon after.


The conditions were still weak but maintainable. Sam got angry after about 10mins fighting the paraglider and decided to check down the ridge for other lift. He didn't find it and landed soon after. I hung it out and was soon joined by 4 other para's fighting for the same lift, still in weak conditions. It was quite fun. After about an hour, it was still just me and the para's fighting it out. The other hangies were still stagnated on the hill. Then conditions started to improve, the lift height slowly started to increase.


Finally the hang glider pilots started to launch and it was good to get some company in battling the para's. But there was more air to play in now so it was fine.

After getting some decent height, I decided to just head down the ridge about 10km and back. The lift was plentiful and it was easy to get there and back. This is looking back down the ridge towards the take off and the camping ground just on the other side of the hill.

The clouds came out a little. As I was coming into land, the sun on the textured paddocks was really nice. Laragne is definitely one of the better places to fly as the different colours are amazing.

On landing, I flew over the swimming pool low to say hi to Sam and Sarah who were there cooling off. I landed within 25m of our tents, parked the glider and went and joined them. Arhhh!!!!

Work, what's that again.