LARAGNE
Laragne is our local site and the take off is only an 8km glide from the house. Most Paraglider and all Hang glider pilots will have heard of Laragne Chabre though information on this site has been misleading and only recently have British paragliding pilots discovered how good it is and that it is suitable for both para and hang gliders, a fact much better known to the Germans, Swiss, Czechs, Belgians etc. who make up the majority of visiting paragliding pilots here at present. Conditions can be strongly thermic in early afternoon in mid summer as is the case with most other popular French Alpine sites which allows substantial XC flights to be made from here. Laragne has two faces and is effectively a spine back ridge with the main take off facing South East.
The site has a Balise on top giving weather information every 15 minutes on the FFVL frequency being a ridge this information can however require interpretation.
The main, South East, take off at Laragne only really
works in thermic conditions, flying in soaring mode means flying in relatively
strong wind, not generally advised on a spine back, Take is huge with plenty
of room to lay out lots of gliders, the 30 or 40 hangliders (or more) often
found on take off in July and August set up clear of the main paragliding
launch and tend to launch later than the ‘floppies’ they use
as wind dummies. With three take off spots and room for at least 10 paragliders
to lay out on them take offs are happily not overly pressured, unlike some
sites further North. The site often has gentle breezes in the mornings and
is often used by schools, however thermals become strong after midday hence
the site's enormous potential for cross country flights (see tales of Bob,
Marcus and Sophie’s 110km flight over the Ecrins from here climbing
to over 4000m or Rachaels regular 80+km XC's on her DHV1 Atom). The terrain
to the North West through South East consists of big flat open valleys with
lots of fields for a ‘Vache’ (out landing) between the Orchards,
but with big hills in, amongst and around them to find that second thermal
source making the site ideal for safe departures from the hill. Indeed
a recent article in a French magazine listed Laragne to Aspres (and back),
as one of the five best ‘cross countries for all’, the article
title having been changed from 5 easy cross country’s. For those days
when the first thermal proves elusive or you miss the cycle there is a
huge bottom landing beside the access road allowing rapid retrieves and
a second attempt (Top to Bottom 500m). Like Bergies (see below) Laragne
can suffer from dust devils on some days and care needs to be taken, also
the wind often goes Westerly at some point in the afternoon necessitating
a quick change of site if you don’t get off soon enough.
Sederon is approximately 30km to the West, (a good cross-country home),
and has the advantage of 7 take off and landing sites catering for all
wind directions. Like many such sites it has its own weather pattern
and a good days flying can often involve flights from three different
take offs. A morning flight off Le Fort, a lunchtime XC from Bergies and
a nice evening restitution flight off BUC. Also it is blessed with very
friendly locals, farmers included, enabling a ‘vache’ (out
landing) in almost any non-crop field, of which there are plenty with
no worries about the farmers reaction - he's more likely to offer you
a lift than tell you off. The local school here trains well over 200 pilots
a year and also has excellent training slopes and sites for first high
flights which can be used by prior agreement.
It took us a long time to learn to pronounce this too. This was the first
site we flew in the area and is a very British type site (but bigger),
the locals mainly fly it in the late afternoon and evening in a light
Southerly wind in gentle conditions when flights generally involve soaring
on the ridge west of take off or on the summit behind if you can get there..
As the balise is sited behind take off some 200 metres below the summit
readings can be misleading and are not indicative of summit winds. The
site is also used in thermic conditions and opens up the mountains to
the East of the Durance towards St Vincent and St Andre without the need
to cross the Durance valley. In weak conditions the site can get congested
in French terms if everyone is soaring the lower ridge. The landing field
is immediately below take off beside the road from which the track to
take off leads. The main take off and landing areas are a little small
for hang gliders and the site is rarely used by them. (Top to Bottom 200m)
Aspres
has 3 take offs South, West, and North but only the southerly gets much
use. This take off is a large grassy bank at the top of a huge (600m)
hill with enough room to lay out several hundred gliders. the site is
regularly used by the local schools for morning and evening training flights
both on paragliders and hangliders, however the site also has lots of
XC potential and Grenoble is only some 50km to the North!. There are
a couple of landing fields in the large valley below one directly below
take off, the other at the sailplane airfield, there is also lots of
out landing potential. The site is also used by sailplanes from the airfield
below, not to mention aeromodelistes, but is plenty big enough for all,
top landing is relatively easy, unusual for a French site and the Balize
is generally the most reliable around. Again the wind often goes West
in the afternoon but due to the shape of the ridge this is not so much
of a problem as the other take off faces West, unless of course strength
increases.
St
Vincent is the furthest away site that we fly on a regular basis being
about an hours drive to take off, however it is an extremely valuable
site due to its unique and amazing meteorology. The site is sheltered
from the mistral wind and so on days when the wind is hoolying (a strange
Welsh term that) down the Buech and lower Durance valley from the North
at 100km/h plus St Vincent is often flyable, the biggest problem being
staying up in the melee of pilots who descend on the site from far and
wide. It can often be the only flyable site in the alps in these conditions,
which accounts for it being very busy at times. It is the only site in
the region we have found that competes with Northern Alp and British sites
for congestion at take off and in the air. Take off is interesting and
has become more interesting with the addition of the hotel ‘à côte’
the take off, Most British pilots seem to cope reasonably well as the
take off is reminicent of many British ridge tops, but some visiting
pilots can be most entertaining. Landing is either in a field beside take
off (top landing) or on the lakeside beach 450m below out of season, or
in a newly designated field within the forest below. St Vincent in the
right conditions offers the opportunity to fly up to the Dormillouse behind
(1200m above) and thence XC to who knows where, St Andre and Digne via
Tete de L’Estrop being favourites, if experience permits. Again
a site used regularly by schools for training particularly in the evening.