I have just returned from a 6 day break in Lake Annecy with the boys. A big thank you must go to my lovely wife for putting up with me and my love affair of flying - Diana opted to stay at home looking after Sebastian while we camped, swam and flew our socks off!
Over all I got about nine hours of flying in all together. One flight lasting 3 hours and 54 minutes - my longest flight to date when I flew from the Col de Forclaz to the Dents de Lanfons and over the Lake. It was extremely thermic and I experienced 14ups and 16 downs! I also had the most monumental total collapse of my wing - the wing tips touched and at one moment I could see the wing below me; half the wing then inflated causing me to pendulum massively before the wing opened and started flying again! It happened very quickly and I strangely became more confident having experienced this and how my new wing recovered. I absolutely LOVE my new Aspen II and cannot rate it highly enough. Dave and Sam both decided to land having seen me drop like a stone.
Sam then had his own epic as he was being blown backwards by the strong valley winds towards the lake. He ended up landing in someone's garden narrowly skimming a large pine tree with his butt before swooping down and landing safely much to astonishment of the family having lunch on the grass nearby! Nice one Sam! That night he dreamt about being in a plane crash - funny that!
We ate Tartiflette each night, croissants and grands cafe each morning and generally missed lunch because we were flying! This is what I imagine heaven to be like!
When it came to finally coming home which came around far too quickly the bonus was seeing little Sebastian and of course Diana. Sebastian was waiting for me in a cardboard box! Pure joy!
We spent the weekend in the country at Closewood. I took the motor down on the off chance using my homemade carrier for the car which works extremely well. 
The weather was perfect and the conditions were clear. I took off from the local farm and had an hour or so flying around. There were a lot of light aircraft about and I waved to them. Lots of cricket was happening and I flew as far as Corhampton Golf course, over Hambledon, Droxford (photo below) and Lovedean before flying over Closewood (above photo) before landing. Ben then had a go on my machine as he still has to pick his up from repair. I could clearly see the sea and the whole of the Isle of Wight which is where we want to fly next. Bring it on! 
(Photos were all taken on my mobile phone)
