So we went to the beach...

Yesterday and today it was blown out at Mt. Arangoiti (70 km/hr / 42 mph at launch) so we took road trips to fun-fly instead.  

Yesterday we went to the coast of the Bay of Bisbay to a town named Sopelana, northeast of Bilbao.  I've always wanted to do a beach soaring site (like in California) but this one was a lot tighter than I had bargained for.  The launch was easy on a grassy slope, until I got out over the cliffs.  Due to unfamiliarity with the dynamics of this type of site, I had a difficult time maintaining altitude, or figuring out where the lift band was to gain altitude.  Launch was 300 feet above sea level, and in order to land on top, I had to have another 300 feet above launch to circle back downwind, turn and land.  It took me almost an hour to get from 300 feet to 600 feet and land!

Today we went southwest, to another mountain site which we hoped would be out of the strong wind, also to fun-fly (not scored for the competition).  25 gliders/pilots went, 4 set up and flew (not me).

Tomorrow we plan to go to Mt. Arangoiti to see if we can do a comp task, but it's not looking real good.  It looks like the following days will be good though, so we'll see...

After landing and packing up the glider, I walked up to the edge of the cliff
to get this photo.  For perspective, note that there is a man standing on the
rock wall outcropped from the cliff.

This is it on Google Earth, although it's a lot steeper in real life!