MahonyAviation
is based near Laragne, SE France, in the Hautes
Alpes region - an area which offers excellent
paraglider, paramotor, hang-glider, microlight
and sailplane flying with excellent sites and
reliable weather conditions. Allez-up.com provides
luxury accommodation in a beautiful Gites near
Laragne for all who wish to visit the area. Below
is a selection of the local sites we regularly
fly, these include Laragne Chabre, Sederon, St
Geniez, Aspres, St Vincent les Forts. Additionally
Orcieres-Merlette. Les Richards, Digne, St Andre
les Alpes sites are all within an hour and occasionally
visited for a little variety. The area has incredible
safe cross country flying potential in reliable
flying conditions.
La Chabre -LARAGNE
La
Chabre is our local site and the take off is only
an 8km glide from the accomodation at Allez-Up.
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 as flying in dynamic
soaring mode means flying in relatively strong wind
which is not generally advised on a spine-back ridge.
Take off 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 Rachael Evans's 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.
The North take offs at Laragne are more committed
and, while fine for hangliders, require a level
of confidence and competence on a paraglider, happily
the wind generally blows from the South and if it
doesn’t then there are several gentler North facing
sites in the area. Laragne North has no less than
three huge official landing fields (two are big
enough for light aircraft and used for such).
SEDERON
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.
Specifically
the Sederon sites are;
Bergies (North and South) The
main site with a Balise on top giving wind direction
and strength every 20 minutes. There is a road to
the top and the North landing is an easy glide some
560 metres (1850 ft) below. The northerly take off
is gentle and grassy and used as a morning site
by the local school for first high flights, it is
also the main take off for cross country flights
at about 1pm. The wide open valley to the East makes
this site excellent for first cross country flights
with lots of landing options and a gentle 6 or 7km
glide if that second thermal remains elusive. The
more ambitious can emulate Ingmar or Rachael and
fly to Colmar or St Andre les Alpes just over 100km.
away or just head for home. The Southerly take off
is steep over a cliff and reserved for more experienced
pilots. Again the wind usually turns Westerly in
the early afternoon and caution is required during
and after this transition. This is the time to go
for a coffee and wait for the westerly wind to establish
itself so you can head off to BUC.
Buc West (and East) For
us as English pilots Buc took a bit of understanding.
Due to the influence of the Rhone valley to the
West, the wind almost invariably veers Westerly
on the site in the late afternoon, even on an Easterly
day, and at any time from 3pm onwards (usually later)
Buc starts to work. After an initial couple of hours
of thermal chasing, another chance to get to cloudbase
and away if Bergies has proved difficult, it generally
smoothes off giving the opportunity of an evening
of gentle restitution flying, ideal for confidence
building for low airtime pilots.
The big challenge of Buc is
knowing when and where to take off, the site can
involve a walk up, though the long awaited road
has now been built, it is only really suitable for
4x4's or hire cars. The lowest take off known as
‘Jacques tree’ after the first pilot to get up from
there in the days of less buoyant canopies, is at
1050m and only a 15 minute walk up, less if you
let the 4x4 take your canopy up, the skill is picking
the moment to allow you fly up onto the ridge or
finding someone else to use as ‘fusible’ (wind dummy)
to see if it's possible. Alternative a longer walk
up to ‘le goulet’ 100m higher up or to ‘le sommet’
at 1440m greatly improves the odds in your favour,
the reward being gentle restitution soaring till
the time to retire to the bar arrives. The landing
is a large area at the foot of the bowl at 950m
where the cars are parked, unless of course you
achieve enough height to go over the back to the
Bergies landing or fancy a wander over to Le Fort
and the school landing field behind.
Others
The other take offs are La Trappe, South facing
with a road to the top and a landing field amongst
the lavender and Le Fort for those Easterly morning
glides to the field below.
ST
GENIEZ
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
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 LES FORTS
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.
OTHER SITES
Whilst
the above are the sites we regularly use there
are numerous others in the area which we only
fly occasionally. Digne, Les Richards and Banon
are under an hour away and St Andre les Alpes
only just over the hour. Orcieres-Merlet is a
recent discovery giving direct access to the Ecrins
and the opportunity to ski and fly in the Winter.
The area therefore has great potential for itinerant
flying and site bagging for the more experienced
or for expanding the window for lower airtime
pilots. We feel the local topography with big
wide open valleys, generally without strong valley
winds and with lots of landing out potential (and
no angry farmers), coupled with exceptional weather
conditions to be ideal for learning and developing
cross country flying skills safely. It has certainly
worked for us.
