This was only my second launch from LaLastra, and the first for an daytime flight, so I was very keen to get high and leave the hill. We’d headed there as the stronger SW meteo wind meant there was little chance it would come on at the north facing Pena Negra where’d we’d launched from the day before. The valley you launch into is small and a trip to the bottom would put pay to any re-launch for that day, so the pressure was on. I aborted my first go as the chap in front of me stopped and I didn’t fancy picking my wing out of the bushes, but got off okay the second go. It’s lower than Pena Negra and sweaty given we’re dressed for the 10’c of cloudbase, but at least the group were marking a nice climb for me, so I was able to quickly get up to 2400m or so. As LaLastra faces south, it also means that it more quickly gets blown out when meteo wind is added to the thermic wind on the hill, so this means that we have to launch earlier than normal. Other than that climb to 2400m there was very little available as we transitioned north across the Piedrahita valley, and this meant that we were quite low on the smaller hills to the north. This is when having other pilots in the air makes all the difference and I topped up a little when I saw Andrew maintaining, and then a lot more when I flew East to where Iain, Markus and Jacob were doing better. Back up at 2500m we flew as a gaggle to the middle of the northern valley, maintaining at about 2000m, but not connecting with any more decent climbs. I pushed North so see if the transition to the plateau was working, whereas Jakob stayed closer to the river. His move was the better as he was able to slowly get high again whereas I almost bombed, getting down to 206m AGL at one point before finding a strong climb and my saviour. Markus who was a little behind me and more patient hadn’t got quite so low and was able to join my climb, although he didn’t get the best of it. I eventually topped out at approximately 3400m, and it’s always good to be high when it’s hot below. I could vaguely see Jacob in the distance to the NW but Markus and I headed on a more NW track as that was directly downwind at the time.
- Күн бұрын
My first XC from La Lastra Piedrahita and big one for some
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