Happy Holidays...

With my best wishes for X-Mas and the upcoming New Year!
- may 2011 bring you new adventures and safe flights!

Fly high! Fly safe!

Arosa

The change in temperature from Brazil (20-40ºC) to Arosa today (ca. -20ºC at launch at 2650m) was quite abrupt; but none the less I could make 2 flights: only sled rides, but at least the vario beeped twice ;-)

Launch on top of the "Aroser Weisshorn (2650m)

Arosa - the slopes are in perfect condition!

If the "Föhn" will not be too strong tomorrow (SUN); I'll try again...
Info about "Föhn".

All about AROSA
Paragliding in Arosa

Brazil - conclusion

What shall I say?
- Quixada has been a great adventure;
though "flat land flying" still remains quite a mystery to me...
But being in the company of those eager XC-pilots from different countries has been very interesting and there remains still quite a lot for me to learn.
- "The South": maybe my expectations have been too high, but -though we could fly almost every day thanks to Andy's wisely choosing of our itinerary- the flying didn't quite measure up. Here the most worthy thing remembering remains the friendliness and hospitality of the local Brazilian pilots; they went out of their way to make us feel at home and get us flying! This is certainly something which is (unfortunately) hard to be found here in Europe anymore.

Muito obrigado por todo!

Brazil -the trip has come to an end

Meanwhile I'm back home in Switzerland, where we got snow last Thursday (which crippled the transportation system to quite some degree)
I also had time to sort trough my pictures, have them worked over and uploaded them to Flickr. Here they are:
"the South"
Quixada

My thanks go to all who have contributed to a successful trip:
Andy and Moni from Fly with Andy for organising this trip.

In Quixada:
- Almeida from Hotel Pousada Pedra dos Ventos;
- Paolo and his crew on TO at Quixada;
- Bello, Gio and all the retrieve drivers...

In the "South":
- the friendly pilots and their friends in Encantado (we won't forget your fine dinner!);
- the drivers from Encantado's Jeep Club, for bringing us and our gear to launch;
- the dentist in Encantado for expertly repairing my filling at short notice;
- Cacapava's pilots for introducing us to their site;
- Sergio in Gaspar from Raul's Hotel for an excellent dinner and taking his time to guide us/ me around.

Urs: best wishes to a quick recovery from your injury!


X-Mas tree at the club house at
Morro Azul's LZ in Pomerode.

Sunday - Morro Azul (Pomerode)

Today was my last flying day here im Brazil - at least for this year...
Again the day started with lots of clouds and only after 1200 the sky began to clear up.
TO today was rather difficult on this short, flat "slope" with almost no wind. One pilot aborted too late and fell into the bushes below, but he and his gear didn't suffer any damages. Flying was also rather difficult and many pilots had to land earlier than they wanted ( -me among them too).

Saturday - Gaspar -Morro Pelado

At 0900 the `travellers` left for Curitiba and Sao Paolo.
The sky was completely overcast in the morning, so also Andy with Michelle and Roebi decided to leave. Sergio took me to `Morro Pelado` and by 1100 the sky began to clear, by 1200 just a few cumuli were left and we took off. Sergio together with his friends immediately went for an xc-flight; I didn`t get up high enough and sank out after 30minutes :-(
They flew for about 20km...
As the thermals kind of died after 1300, nobody drove back up to launch.

Sergio

Friday (Gaspar) - Praia Vermehlo

Today was for most of the pilots in our group the last flying day of this trip. They'll drive tomorrow morning with Mauro to Curitiba, from where they'll fly to GRU in order to join their flights back home. Only Andy, Röbi and I'll be staying a few more days...
But back to today: at 1030 we left together with Sergio for the local flying site (Morro Pelado). The local PG club has there a with great care prepared and maintained flying site: nice TO with a 4WD access road; a huge LZ with many windsocks and a nice club house with a bar.The conditions have been very weak, so most of us had only sled rides.
Then Sergio guided us to "Praia Vermehlo", a beautiful beach about 45mins from Gaspar. Here the conditions were absolutely perfect (windspeed 25-30kph). Everybody was able to make an extended soaring flight. Michelle-after having made her first high altitude solo flight this morning on Morro Pelado - added her first 2 soaring flights. Congrats! and don't let the small mishap stop you enyoing flying.
In the evening then Sergio had prepared for us in his home an excellent dinner consisting to Hannes' (and other's) delight mostly of freshly BBQed tender meat (Churrasco) -contrary to Tobias', the vegetarian in our group...

If you happen to stay in/ near Gaspar (with or without paragliding) then I certainly can recommend Sergio's place.

Gaspar - Morro Azul (Thursday)

This morning we drove from Floripa to Gaspar, about 2.5hrs.
The sky was overcast and it didn't look very promising...
We checked in at "Hotel Raul", whose owner (Sergio) is a keen paraglider pilot.
The hotel looks very nice and is quite a step up from the somewhat grumpy accomodation we've had for the last 3 nights.
After lunch some blue holes appeared in the sky and Sergio guided us to "Morro Azul", a PG site 1.25hrs from Gaspar. This site has an excellent access road, a very well mantained TO and a large LZ with a small bar - what else can a pilot ask for?
I "avoided" all the thermals and had too land rather too soon for my liking.
Tonight I'm looking foreward to a large piece of medium-rare (mal passado) filet...

Wednesday - Floripa - Vermehlo

The day started with lots of sunshine, but the remaining humidity of monday's rain quickly turned into clouds. But after 1230 the sun broke through for a while; enough to produce some nice thermals permitting a 60+ min flight. Later in the afternoon another (short) flight was possible, but the thermals were very weak...
Tonight Gregor had to leave for home...

Tuesday - Floripa - Urs

Evev though today was very cloudy. It was flyable. In the morning we went to "Lagoa", in the afternoon to " Praia Mole". Both times it was rather windy, so I didn"t fly in the afternoon. Unfortunately Urs made a mistake while trying to take-off in the rather strong conditions and hurt himself. We don't know yet if he has broken something, but he had to be brought to a hospital...

Monday- xxRA

Monday we moved from Sapiranga to Florianopolis.
It was raining only once!
In Torres we stopped briefly to have a look at the (small) soaring site.
Accomodation in "Floripa" (as Florianopolis is also known) unfortunately turned out to be rather substandart- contrary to Andy's claims :-(

Caçapava (Sunday)

This morning we (Hannes, Daniel, Gregor and I) drove 280km to Caçapava do Sul (RS).
We hsd been told that this would be a site with excellent XC potential.
We left at 0610 and arrived shortly after 1000. Upon arrival, Gregor called Riodrigo (a local pilot) who picked us up within less than 10min amd guided us to the site. Here already a few students were inflating their wings on the lower slopes of this small hill. Marcel then took us and our gear in his SUV up the steep dirt road to the top, here TO is possible onto all quadrants of the compass. Although the altitide difference is only about 200m, it looks as if getting high shouldn't be too big a problem.
September is supppsed to be the best mpnth and flights up to 300 should be possinble...
But today the air was much too stable and not a single cloud was visible, so my fellow pilots could make only short soaring flights. I didn't have my wing with me as I came along as a (possible) retrieve driver,
( mit Nova bleibsch oba, mit Advance hast kei Chance und mit Sky gasch hei ;-)
We then went to a local Churrasceria where we onvized the locals to an (extended) lunch.
In the late afternoon we drove back to Sapiranga.
Many thanks to Rodrigo amd all the local pilots for being such amiable and openhearted hosts!
Muito obrigado a Rodrigo y todos/ -as pilotos/-as de Caçapava!

.. pix to follow..

Here some additional info/ pix from the local Marcelo's blog.

Sapiranga - Day 3

Once more a fine soaring day here at Sapiranga. The first flight was just dynamic soaring in front of TO; on the other 2 flights there have been nice thermals - though I have been unable to do some decent xc-flying ;-(
As it was Saturday many local pilots (PG and HG) showed up, many with their families. The TO-area is so huge that this doesn't pose any problems: lots of parking space, tables for pick-nicking and even a vendor in his T2 VW-Bus who is selling drinks etc.
Andy made contact with a local pilot who told him about a new fliyng site, which just "opened" 6 month ago, so the whole group agreed to chane our itinerary: instead of going to Florianopolis on Monday as orginally planned, we'll go to Cacapava tomorrow...

Sapiranga -Day 2

Andy, our guide

Another perfect flying day in Sapiranga.
I probably took off way too late, but once you found a thermal (!), it was rather easy going up. Today much less clouds than yesterday, so finding thermals was not too easy. Against the wind I didn't make it back to the LZ...
A few days ago while flying in Encantado, I made my 2000th (solo-) flight (according to my logbooks - give or take a few...)

Brazil - Photos on Flickr

Sorry, but most probably I'll be unable to upload anymore pictures to Flickr before returning home in 10 days.
(My laptop quit on Quixada...)

Brazil - Sapiranga (RS)

Thursday morning we moved from 'Encantado' to 'Sapiranga', about 2.5hrs by car. Mauro almost hadn't been able to load all of our luggage into his (too) small trailer...
In Sapiranga we then immediately drove to launch. Again Mauro's car was tested to it's limits on this partly rather steep, unpaved road.
Conditions were perfect and everybody could make 1 or 2 flights: 2 pilots got to fly almost 50km.
Here in the South ( Rio Grande do Sul) Brazil looks completely different to Ceara: much greener, the fields more cultivated, the houses better maintained. On TO in Encantado one could immagine being somewhere on a hill alongside the Rhine- or Mosel-valley.
We'll stay 3 nights here before moving on to 'Florianopolis'.

Brazil - Encantado (RS)

Unfortunately my Laptop has quit and I left him with Almeida in Quixada, so I'm unable to continue blogging regularily.
_____________________________________________________

Last SAT I flew from FOR to Sao Paolo, where I met my 'new' group. Then (on SUN) I drove with our luggage 17hrs south to "Encantado', actually I didn't drive myself, but Mauro our driver for these 2 weeks did...
Here in Encantado we met incredibly friendly and helpful people -be it from the local PG club or from the 'Jeep Club Encantado'.



Already the first evening we were invited to a magnificent local BBQ with 'tons' of perfectly grilled meat.









We could fly here on MON, TUE, WED -but the conditions didn't allow for 'great' flights.
But anyway -yesterday (TUE)- I made my 'official' (solo-) flight Nr 2000 (at least according to my flight books).
Tomorrow (THUR) we will be moving to another flying site.

Quixada -Friday

Günter Hansinger (AT)

Today was not my day: I didn't feel too well.
Furthermore, at one time my GS (ground speed) fully accelerated (!) fell to almost zero... And as the forecast called for increasing winds till about 1500, I decided to land at the hotel.
The forecast winds didn't 'materialize' and a few pilots (again Beat among them -he flew 208km yesterday) got beyond 150kms...




A few impressions from 'Juatama', the small village, where our hotel 'Pedra dos Ventos' is situated.

Quixada -Thursday

Today was very windy in the morning - only Arduino took off early (at 0900) (with winds gusting to -an estimated- 50+kmh).
Later the winds slowed down a bit and I took off without problems at 1230 (as the last pilot in our group).
Unfortunately I couldn't take advantage off the conditions which gradually became better: Beat flew more 208km (with one -very- low safe)...

The video shows Philippe taking off, having a few collapses in the beginning, which he handled expertly.


Less than 10min after I had to land, this nice little cumulus cloud had formed above my head!

Quixada -Wednesday

Overview: left: Monastery/ Ramp (TO); background: city of Quixada; right: bail-out LZ (lake)

Finally the winds have dropped considerably. By 0720 (Sunrise at 0510) the first guys took off (I launched at 0740). At that time the lift was smooth, base around 900msl; when base rose to 1000msl the first pilots (Arduino -again) departed. Base rose continously: at 1200msl more left. As it was (again) completly blue I decided not to go for XC and landed after 2 hrs flying -before thermal activity became too strong...

Marco (Nicole)

Quixada -Tuesday

Sunrise at Hotel 'Pedra dos Ventos'
Unfortunately another day without flying for me (and most). Only Arduino, Nicole, Burki, Robert and later Günter and Philippe took off. Strong windsfrom SE-SSE, so taking off has not been easy. Also penetrating against the wind was hard. The sky was blue without any clouds and the thermals rough...

Quixada -Monday

As already yesterday, the winds on TO have been rather (too) strong, so only Arduino and Nicole took off; later the wind speed increased further, so nobody else flew...
Arduino landed after (about) 220kms.

Quixada -Arduino (IT)

Yesterday Arduino (Persello) -aka 'Bimbo'- finally had his first (?) great day. On all precious days he landed around 55km from TO. We already have been joking that he had a brasilian girlfriend hidden there somewhere... But on Saturday he flew for more than 8hrs and flew an impressing 278km! The retrieve car brought him back by 0100 in the morning. So most probably he didn't mind too much, that we couldn't fly on SUN, because it was too windy.

You can find his flight here.

Quixada -Nicole Fedele (IT)

Nicole getting ready for her record (?) flight

7 days after her arrival here in Brazil (and 5 days after the rest of her luggage finally arrived!) Nicole made a (Italian female opem distance) record (yet to be confirmed).

On the first attempt she was too early and had to land again. So for this great flight she was taking off rather late. Contrarily to some other (female/ BR) pilots who had somebody fly with them, showing them the way and the thermals and when necessary also coaching) Nicole did this flight completely on her own! Furthermore it's her first visit to Brazil and to this site and only her 5th or 6th flight here. So: many congratulations!
I'm extremely glad that I could help her getting here by partly sponsoring her trip.

her flight
See all of her flights (XContest 2011) here

Quixada -Paolo, "king of the site"

Paolo

Paolo is the "king" of this site.
Without him it would hardly be possible for most of us to depart safely from this TO!
When a pilot is ready he comes to give you the "go".
he always goes through a very clear/ precise sequence which can be "read" by looking at his body posture and finally he will point his hand and call "GO!!"
This is the momentt (and not 5 or 10 seconds later!) to (reverse) launch your glider as he unfaillingly (!) senses a window of opportunity coming up.
For us bystanders it's almost like a small wonder how he does it, because on top of the launch it could be blowing 40+kmh when he gives his command.
And he is also capable of "adapting" his command to the abilities of the pilot: so 'good' pilots would get a "go" in somewhat stronger conditions than 'unsure' pilots.

Paolo: many thanks already now for safely getting me/ us in the air!!!

Quixada -Thursday

Today looked rather promising in the morning, so Arduino (of the 'squadra italiana') took off early, climbed quickly to base and started flying (high) West. Unfortunately the conditions (again) became 'blue' later in the day and he had to land about 10k before Madalena.
Except Günther (250+k) and Nicole (125+k) everybody sank out in the first 40k.
As the conditions have been very typical for a day here in Quixada (on TO high winds with gusts up to (an estimated 50+k)) I decided to wait till later in the day.
I finally took off at 1400 -much too late for XC-ing- and sored for little more than an hour, landing 5mins from our hotel (Pedra dos Ventos), were a "cold little blond" was waiting...

A Brazilian TV crew showed up in the morning, taking videos and interviewing some of us.


Beat being interviewed by Brazilian TV


Marco


Looking down on TO/ towards Quixada


'Urubu'
Urubus are the local vultures here, sometimes showing us where the thermals are...


Football field/ LZ near our Hotel "Pedra dos Ventos"
(looking East towards TO -behind hill)

Quixada -Wednesday

It looked VERY promising: nice cloud streets, little wind...
...but quickly it turned completely blue and most of us sank out
- only Thomas (Blatter) made a good flight (> 170km).

Quixada -Tuesday

Nicole, Arduino, Marco: la "squadra Italiana"

Todays was (at least for me) quite a good day: I fle almost 70km.
Some unfortunately sank out..




as LZ I choose the square flield in the middle

I landed about 10km South of Madalena. Immediately after touch down some guys appeared and offered to help me pack my glider. One of them took me on his motorbike to the 'rodoviaria' (bus station) in Madalena. After about 45mins one of our retrieve-drivers arrived and eventually drove me back to the hotel.

Quixada -Monday

Yesterday Günter flew 216.5km (beyond Nova Russas) -congrats!
Especially in view of the fact that he was flying here for the first time.

Today the wind was a little less strong and I got off without too many problems, though the groubdspeed sometimes dropped to almost 0 (accelerated!).


Burki ready to go...

The flight itself was too short in regard to the good conditions, but I'm happy none the less, as the landing was smooth and safe.


above launch; looking E


"wild ride"

The ride back to Quixada on the "bus" was almost as bumpy as the flight ;-)

Quixada -Sunday

Todays is election-day in Brazil; for this reason - and as it's the first day the whole group is together - we departed rather late (0900) from the hotel; normaly we should leve by 0630/ 0700 latest. The wind at launch already was quite strong and still increasing, so not all were able to launch. I as well decided not to try -maybe later this afternoon the wind will drop enough to permit a relaxed TO and flight...

Quixada -Saturday

The drive from Paracuru to Quixada - via FOR airport- took about 4 hours. After checking in at the Pousada Pedra dos Ventos, at 1515 we drove to the Quixada TO. The wind was unusally weak so we got off fast and easily. Landing was on the big football field right below our pousada.

Paracuru

In Paracuru we stayed 2 nights at the Pousada Sol y Lua
At this time of the year, Paracuru is well travelled kite-surfing spot.

across the South Atlantic

Sunset at Mid-Atlantic

The flight from ZRH to LIS had 2 hours delay due to the strike in France. We made it to the gate almost on time, but the flight for FOR (Fortaleza) departed LIS with 1.5hrs delay. Until the luggage was delivered it was almost 200LT in FOR. It took another 1.5hrs to get to our hotel in Paracuru.

ready for new adventures - Brazil...

After almost 7 weeks without paragliding, I'm now ready to leave for Brazil. Tomorrow (28.10.) the adventure starts by flying with TAP: ZRH-LIS-FOR. In Fortaleza I'll be picked up by our 'guide' and 'organizer': Andy (Flüeler). 1 day (FR) at the coast to get acclimatized; then on SA we'll drive to QUIXADA, where everybody is supposed to arrive/ meet in the (late) evening. We'll stay there for 2 weeks, trying to fly as far as possible... My friend from Italy (Nicole, Marco, Arduino surely have ambitions), but I'm certainly not going to break any records except eventually mine: 150+km would be nice, but first of all I'll have to get of this windy mountain...

Canazei/ Col Rodella/ Dolomiten

Langkofel


Langkofel and Sella


Belvedere,Marmolada


Marmolada

Canazei in the heart of the Dolomit mountain was my final flying site on this autumn's trip. Here I also met Masa (from Japan) again with his group of PG pilots. The first day was unflyable ("Nordföhn"); but on Saturday this north wind had stopped and permitted some excellent flying with base at/ above 3600m!
The longer the day wore on, the easier it became to go wherever you wanted. I used this opportunity to make lots of pictures, which I then stiched together (>> see my Flickr photo page).
Unfortunately after landing I was told that one of the Japaneses (lady) pilots suffered a very bad accident upon landing. I heard that a rescue helicopter overflew her quite low and that her glider collapsed in the rotor's downwash -she didn't stand a chance! She was flown to Trento for treatment. In the evening I accompagnied Masa to the Santa Chiara hospital in order to help him with translations. After dinner I left for home at 2200, where I arrived shortly before 0400 on Sunday morning.
Apart from this accident, this 2 weeks were quite successful, as flying was possible about every 2nd day.


Chopper waiting to transport JPN pilot to Trento

Bassano (del Grappa)

Next 'station' on my way north/ back home was 'Bassano del Grappa'.
Even though the wx fcst for that day was very unpromising -it turned out to be a very nice flying day...

Castelluccio

On the way to Castelluccio I wanted to fly in Campo Imperatore (Gran Sasso), but the cablecar had already closed for the season and anyway it looked as the wind would have been too strong...



having arrived in Castelluccio around noon, the winds there had also become too strong, so on MON no flight was possible.

Next morning Castelluccio presented itself in its usual Autumn way: the plains fog covered with only the village sticking its head out.


Castelluccio di Norcia

But in the late afternoon a good flight with toplanding near the Refugio Perugia, where I stayed, was possible.

Norma (Sun)

Giardino di Ninfa


Unfortunately I missed the good moment for take-off -the conditions seemed to be too weak. But then the wind increased rapidly and no TO was possible for the next few hours. But in the end I was able to make a nice flight...

XCamp - Day 6 (SAT) -Flight 3 -Campochiaro

Campochiaro /Giovanni

Contrary to my expectations SAT proved to be as good a flying day as WED (Bocca della Selva). Campochiaro is North facing, but the thermals were excellent and I was able to cross the matese mountains and land in San Potito. At Gallinola TO, the thermals were coming from the lee side and the first 200m hve been very rough...
In the evening the price giving ceremony was held (- I ended up 4th in the Hobby categorie) and fresh pizzas from the wood oven was served.

Lago di Letine

San Potito