Irwyn had loaned me his spare vario an then forgot to bring his own! He gallantly refused to take back his little Solario... and unfortunately sank too low at St Hilaire. Hey ho, time for lunch
Because i was flying with only mountain glider kit I didn't have a reserve..... which did make the heart beat faster for a few minutes.
It was an Aspen or Avax XC which got an aggressive asym collapse which he over controlled, almost dropped into stall, surged even more aggressively on exit and recovered but with 30% cravatte which rapidly tightened into nose over spiral (or something like that it happened fast). He threw only a few turns in and landed in one of the nasty looking ravines below.... I raised the alert by radio and heard later he was fine.
I caught up with Gareth on the far side of the transition where he was soaring the hill trying to find a thermal to get him up to make the next jump north but a strong valley breeze was coming NW down the Chambery valley and stripping the thermals. As I was having trouble not getting blown back which would have been a terrible end to a great day I went out and landed and shortly after Gareth followed.
