Intro to XC – Laragne

Is it for you?

Laragne is on the edge of the Southern Alps, giving it a consistent and reliable climate for learning to fly XC. You’ve done an SIV, are pilot rated, have some thermalling experience and you’re ready to go on your first XC.

About the trip

Pilots come back to Laragne year after year to build on their XC skills. This week is designed to introduce the skills you need to start clocking up your XC kilometres, from making decisions in the air, to choosing a landing field. We’ll help you improve your thermalling so you can stay up and start joining up thermals. We’ll introduce you to the local weather patterns and you’ll start understanding how to plan and fly XC.

Laragne is in the pre-Alps. There is plenty of opportunity to learn about flying distance in the mountains without the strong valley winds, narrow valleys and difficult landings of the big mountains.

Trip schedule

We’ll arrive at the accommodation on Saturday afternoon in plenty of time to get set up ready to fly on Sunday morning.

We usually have a debrief of the previous day’s flying after breakfast, followed by a weather and route briefing. On a normal day, we have an XC flight in the afternoon and an evening flight, before going out for dinner.

Flights

We fly in and out Marseille airport, usually on the morning Easyjet flight from Gatwick.

Accommodation

We’ll be staying at a beautiful gite surrounded by orchards in the Provencal countryside, with an outdoor pool and a landing field nearby.

Rooms are usually shared with one other pilot.

Breakfast is included and a packed lunch is available at an extra cost.

Cost

£1,250

The trip cost includes

• Bed and breakfast accommodation, based on two sharing
• Airport transfers
• Transport to take-off (excluding chair lifts) and all retrieves
• Coaching and guiding.

BOOKING

Contact us to book. Your place will only be confirmed once we have confirmed we have a space available and received your deposit of £300. The balance is due eight weeks before the trip.