St Andrè, September 2007

Having gained a bit of experience at Lachens and Gréolières I was keen to fly somewhere with a bit of XC potential. St Andrè has certainly got a reputation in this regard and I was keen to see how far we might be able to go.

Arriving on launch I was a bit concerned to see how windy it was, but people seemed to be getting off OK (OK so there were a few minor mishaps but it seemed doable) and the sky was blue and full of gliders.

Once I was all ready to go it seemed like the wind was just getting stronger. There were lulls but once again I found myself battling with the wing on the ground. After lots of waiting and a few failed attempts I took off and immediately went up - rather faster than I was used to. Ulric followed me into the air and I concentrated on moving along the ridge and thermalling to get some height.

After gaining quite a decent amount of height with little effort I tried to push further along the ridge only to hit lots of sink. I couldn't believe it. In almost no time I was well below launch and it looked like I would be heading for an early landing. I was the only one going down and so I just kept searching for lift. I eventually found a good climb which I stayed with for 700m until I topped out at about 2,300m - what a relief! Such a great feeling to have fought my way back up, although it seemed to take forever.

Our plan for starters was to try and fly along the ridge but Ulric also found lots of sink and so we instead decided to attempt crossing the valley over the town of St Andrè to the Crète Des Serres. All went well to start with but I ended up only finding sink apart from a couple of blips on the way over and was forced to contemplate my landing options on the far side of the valley, but well short of the ridge.

It wasn't too hard to find somewhere to land once I had established where the pylons and electricity wire were! Safely down on the ground I could only ponder my misfortune. Apparently it is rare not to make the transition when leaving the hill at the height I did, so I was clearly unlucky. Still, I was safe and felt very pleased with my thermalling and that I had found that climb which saved me from an even earlier bomb-out.

Conditions were fairly gentle according to Ulric and I didn't have any problem dealing with them - although a small front collapse just after take-off was a little concerning but it came out of its own accord.

The views from the air were amazing. It was an especially clear day and the peaks of Mercantour were visible in the distance. Other pilots made 50km+ but for me it was a more modest affair but certainly valuable experience and a taster of what I hope to do a bit more of in the future.

I stayed with Ruth and Ulric Jessop in their self-catering flat which i'd highly recommend.