Today is to be my last day flign in Italy,  I fly back to Jeddah tomorrow AM.

The weather forcast was bad... cold air from the back and rain by 2:00 PM.  

Ralph, a German pilot, and I headed to launch at 11:00 to see if we can get a sled ride before the approaching storm

I've been in t-shirt and shorts for 9 days days.  A few tiems I've flow with pants but I haven't worn my sweater yet.  Today is different the weather has definatley chanaged... it's cold on launch... very cold... so I layer on every bit of cloth I carry in my bag... which is still not going to be enough. 

Launched at 12:00... and we both scratched for about 15 minutes before hooking a beauty to couldbase.  We flew about 15KM together and as ralph drifted back over the higher peaks I, in my slower glider, elected to stay out at the front of the ridge where the CUs where not quite so developed yet.

I sank down to Semoneta (see the photos) and had to scratch a while before finally climbing back up and continuing down the ridge.

After more then two hours the sky was really starting to darken and each tme I ventured under the bend of balck clouds my vario started going nuts so I headed out the valley. and found even more lift... I flew for 5 full minutes with big ears on speed back going up at about 0.5 m/s.  Finally when I was several KM away from the ridge I started to boat around again.in and out of lift. before finally landing in the valley.

Hitched back to launch where Ralph had the wine out at the parking lot.

Hiked back to launch around 4:00 when the locals usually show up.  There sit 40 pilot watchin g the wind sock blow from the back.

What a great way to end this trip.  I will definatley be back.  Mark you rcaledars.  Next September/October in Norma Italy!

Ciao.

Photos at

http://picasaweb.google.com/gtissington/BestFlightAtNorma/photo#s5123466472724349730