Annecy Trip 2007 - A day to chill out
After a busy couple of days experimenting with d-bagging and parachuting set ups, as well as doing a lot of filming, we were lucky to get a soarable day. Those that were patient on the launch mat (like me!) were rewarded with long soaring flights. Although cloudbase was making it difficult to get to Les Dentes.
Looking back at the Forclaz launch from the middle of Lake Annecy.
Scratching low, a tandem pilot gives a punter their first taste of paragliding.
The tandem pilots are still busy in September.
Below me, Jason is struggling in weak lift. That's the price you pay for launching too soon! There is scratchy lift where I am. Just a few hundred feet below Jason is finding it even harder to maintain altitude and he eventually bombs out at the Doussard landing field.
Since it's a Saturday there is no shortage of local pilots to crowd what marginal lift there is. I need to stop playing with my camera before I lose too much height.
With a bit of luck a small gaggle of us manage to connect with the house thermal which has finally built to it's regular strength. We head of down the ridge, hoping to make it to Les Dentes for a lake crossing.
You can get some priveleged perspectives of some awesome scenery in a paraglider. I love this stuff!
We find ourselves up and down, meeting promising lift only to find it evaporate. Pilots back at the launch seem to be having more luck so we make our way back to give the house thermal another try. It's not going to be an epic XC day today, but we have already been in the air for over an hour, just bumbling about. I guess September is a bit late in the year.
Almost back at launch
We arrive back at the Forclaz launch to find the house thermal still alive and kicking. Jason radios to tell me he is on his way back up to launch, so I hang around for a bit hoping to film him take off - no luck, I don't see him.
After topping up on some altitude we all head off back towards Les Dentes for another go and someone in the distance manages to transition in front of La Tournette, reaching Les Dentes with a reasonable amount of height.
The rest of us bumble about, too low to try to follow. It is getting later in the day and the thermals are getting weaker.
From here it's a long glide to the Doussard landing field and the lift is really getting scratchy again so we all head off on our final ridge run towards the south end of the lake and the Doussard landing field.
There are still pilots making the trip to launch, but conditions are really weak now, so I pull out from the hill and make my final glide to the LZ. At two and a half hours, it's the longest flight of the trip with several moments where I thought I was going to bomb out.
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