Practice Day –29th January

Woke up to a rather chilly morning in Valle, had a good breakfast at the Hotel, grabbed a taxi and headed up to launch about 15 miles away. Taxi ride $15 for two, not too shabby really. The road up to launch has been re-graded this year and it was a much smoother dirt road ride than any time before. Arriving at launch at 10:15 no one was in the air but the Norwegians had huddled together for their daily chat about what they were planning.

On launch I met up with a few old friends, had a brief chat and then got myself ready. We had been advised it was going to be dusty and it was but not as bad as I had thought.

The sky had high cirrus and I was worried that there night not be that much lift but I was wrong. At around 10:30 a few  folks got into the air and they were soon about 700ft over launch. I got my gear ready and setup in line behind Gilead and Doug.

Jeff had just launched but it was clear he had some issues. He was veering to the right and trying to untangle knotted lines it looked like as we could see a small tip deformation. We watched Jeff unsuccessfully try to get it out and eventually head out to land below.

Gilead, Doug and then myself launched. It felt strange to be in lift again with the wing pressurized and the vario sounding off indicating good lift. It was gusty and windy in places though. I stayed in the gaggle until just under 9000 and headed off to Penon. Flew to the bottom of the wall, no lift headed back to launch and up again and then back to Penon. From there I noticed some folks had headed over the back, others had headed out to Espina and beyond and there were a few folks left in front. I flew around for a while and saw Doug out in front. With no one in the Piano as yet and Doug’s first time landing there I thought I would just go join him. I headed out to join him and we were met with some strong wind, probably around 20mph in places. However we both landed well.

We radioed to see where Jeff was. He had hiked back up the front side to launch! . Doug and I had a beer and headed back to town. Jeff relaunched and flew to Jovan. Gilead landed at Sacamate. Mer and Dave flew to the lake. Dave Norwood however had a great triangle from launch to Pila to Agila and back to launch.

Happy faces all around today!.