The flying continues to be spectacular here in Laragne, with light west southwesterly winds Saturday and cu's filling the sky. I unfortunately broke a downtube and scuffed my leading edge material (UVM Mylar - that will cost me) on an aborted launch on the south side in light conditions, so I didn't get to enjoy the flying today. I'll be ready tomorrow though as all was repaired quickly.

The Dutch team is beginning to arrive. Derrick Turner is here from Florida and had a nice flight. The Australians, Monica and Scott are here and Scott enjoyed himself, launching late. Katarina is here, but didn't fly yet.

The two Jeff's, Jamie, Nicole and Jack Simons are on their way from Munich and should arrive Sunday evening.

Saturday night and the place is a party with various functions going on. Music and barbequing and the Euro Cup.

Pictures from Gary and Gil around Laragne. Gil did a 180 KM triangle on Thursday and hit the high peaks. Gary gives us shots of the Laragne-Chabre ridge and the surrounding area including Laragne-Montéglin.

The flying Sunday was likewise spectacular with the late cu's. Yesterday one ATOS VQ pilot flew for six hours finally getting a chance to relax and have a good glide late in the day under the convergence clouds. Balasz and Attila arrived early Sunday afternoon.

Scott Barrett and Davis launching on Sunday on the south launch, the lower south launch, in about a five mph breeze. Run these videos in slow motion to get the full effect. You can use Windows Movie Maker to do this.

On Saturday morning Bernard Kurtz, who runs the local hang gliding museum (housed in a garage at 300 Euros/month), supplied the old gliders to be setup in the landing zone at the campground. One glider in particular is interesting in that it was the glider that provided the French name for hang glider: Delta Plane. Here is Bernard holding up the glider:

The shop that sold these original gliders was on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees near the Arc de Triumph. The documentation consisted on a single sheet of paper, one side for the instructions on how to set up the glider and the other on how to fly it.

More photos from the show here.

Jeff O\\'Brien blog.