2026.07.08 Sisteron Day 2. Full sun and full fun.

The second day was even hotter and with an even bluer sky than the previous one. A trace amount of Cirrus clouds and zero Cumulus clouds guaranteed a continued lack of shade in the sky. Fortunately, the cooling method I had come up with the day before gave hope for making a long flight. Takeoff and hook-up were standard at Gache, and after finding some thermal lift, a little surprise in the form of a small wave immediately lifted me 500 meters higher. That day Piotr also took off on the BM and reported finding a wave, so a plan immediately formed in my head – no Cumulus clouds meant potential problems if we didn’t find thermal lift, so we avoid getting into trouble and I also look for the wave, and if I get high, in such a comfortable situation, I might take a chance flying into Ecrin's park. So, cautiously and thoughtfully… but as usual, things turned out differently. When I climbed to almost 3200 m together with the huge bird (the local Vulture with a wingspan of almost 3 m), I threw caution to the wind. From that height above the still not very big mountains, you get the feeling that you can reach anywhere. So I set a course for Saint Cerpin via Dormilouse and Morgon. When I passed Morgon and was back at an altitude of 3400 m, it was clear that this day was very good in terms of thermal lifts despite the lack of cumulus clouds. I assumed that if things continued to go well, I would attack the Ecrins park from the eastern side, a side still unknown to me, although tested dozens of times in the simulator. The wind was noticeable, from the north or northwest, so the assumption that the mountains south of Briançon would work perfectly for me to reach sufficient altitude at the entrance to the Ecrins park seemed perfectly reasonable to me. However, assumptions are often, and I say this with surprise but it’s true, VERY often wrong because nature knows best, and despite the north wind, the slopes south of Briançon just didn’t want to lift thermally. I don’t know why or what forces were at play, but my logic seems to have blown away with that wind. Frustrated that I still didn’t manage to gain enough altitude to enter the corridor in Écrins National Park, I decided to return the same way I came. I was really surprised that on the way back, after flying 10 km along the windward side of the slopes, I didn’t find any lift at all. Having a huge reserve of altitude to safely land at Saint Cerpin airfield, I decided, against my original plan of flying cautiously, to take a risk and head to the theoretically leeward side of the Ecrin park. I figured that if this side doesn’t lift, maybe the other one will be better. Even though the aforementioned airfield was within reach, entering unknown terrain still heightened my worries about whether I would actually make it there in case of failure, if I couldn’t find thermal lift and instead encountered some strong sinking. Especially since I hadn’t landed at this airfield before and I flew into a place where the airfield wasn’t visible, and supposedly I have the terrain layout in my memory, but there’s still that uncertainty whether I missed something, maybe wires, cables, maybe the peculiarities of air turbulence on the landing approach, etc. Fortunately, aiming at the slope of a hill called Col du Bal, which is part of the Col de l'Aigliere massif, I caught a thermal lift and then another and another, which lifted me up to an altitude of 4,584 meters I've never flown in a thermal lift to such a height before. My personal record in a thermal lift :). The height I reached that day made up for my disappointment near Briançon and reminded me of the magic of this place. From this height, you could see Mont Blanc, 120 km away, and the clear sky left no doubt that it was indeed that mountain. At this altitude, the outside temperature of 0°C was refreshing, and for a long moment, I could admire the world all the way to the horizon. I set the speed to economical, and only the noise of the oxygen system disturbed the majesty of this view. The Parcour Royale route delivers a lot of thrills even in a simulator, so imagine how it feels when you actually have before your eyes the scenery of rock spires, jagged ridges, and cliffs carved by granite, when the path of the designated corridor forces the pilot to fly in close proximity to these mountain obstacles. Maybe after flying this route for the hundredth time the excitement will be less, but on that day, the breathtaking views, the focus on piloting, and the reduced amount of oxygen at that altitude really made your chest tighten ;) Once you’ve flown 40 km in such scenery and you see the deep blue water of the Lac de Serre-Poncon reservoir on the horizon and the journey ends with the high mountains of the Écrins massif, and the person enters “civilization,” it’s a pleasant relief—you can finally relax and replay the word in your mind: amazing. #glider #soaring #gliders https://www.weglide.org/flight/1146969