Quixada - Day 1

After a short night (just 3 hrs), breakfast was set at 0550 and we departed around 0630.
The first pilots took off around 0830. Windspeed was unusally low for Quixada, so I got off very easily shortly after nine. Cloudbase rather quickly rose to 1200m, then 1400m, so most pilots headed East. Due to the circumstance (short/ lousy night) I landed after an hour below our hotel.

above our hotel looking East towards TO

Around noon Arduino and Arnie returned from their looooong retrive from yesterdays flight (Arnie ca 170km/ Arduino ca 270kms) - not too bad for the first day I'd say...

LIS-FOR; Immigration FOR

After a 'layover' of 5 hours the TAP A330 departed about 30 minutes late for Fortaleza.
But this probably made for the nice views of the sun setting over Lisbon.

Sunset over the South Atlantic

A real disappointment has been the immigration at Fortaleza!
Although the foreigners outnumbered the Brazilian travellers by about 3: 1, until all Brazilians had passed immigration, there has been only 1 booth available for us (and 3 for them)...
So we all had to wait quite a while; customs on the other hand has ben 'painless', but then I had to wait almost another hour until 5 more pilots of our group arrived: they had missed their flight the day before in LIS due to late arrival of the flight from ZRH, Arrival at the 'Pedra dos Ventos' at 0130. Nicole and Marco were still awake,

BRAZIL 2011 ZRH - LIS

A look at the Brazialian XC page clearly shows, that this year's long distance race is already on! So it's again time to pack the gear, go there in order to watch these guys and gals flying - and maybe fly some ks as well...
Leaving home on a beautiful autumn sunday



with an intermediate stop at

Lisbon.

Arosa Weisshorn (4.10.11)

:-((

The 'golden autumn weather' was still holding and as I was in Arosa anyway I wanted to fly from the 'Weisshorn' for a last time this summer: wx fcst looked very promising: some (weak) thermals and light westerly winds - on paper ideal to fly here.
But as I got to the top the winds were EAST (!); even climbing down the hill and trying to launch from the 'Rööslihang' has not been not an option...

Breitenberg (Pfronten)

While driving past 'Pfronten' on my way home I saw some gliders flying. So I decided to head for 'Breitenberg', hoping for my first flight here in Germany (which hadn't taken place on 'Tegelberg' earlier this day).


Here (contrary to 'Tegelberg') TO is no issue, there is enough space to set-up and lay out.
After launch generally one flies North out to the ridge which lies in front. There the thermals together with the 'Bavarian wind' very often permit nice climbs.

looking East towards 'Füssen'/ 'Tegelberg'

So after 23 years of paragliding the Alps I finally made a flight in Germany:-))

Tegelberg (Flight Festival)

After my sled ride at Molveno I had driven North across 'Brennerpass' into Austria and Germany and had stopped for the night near 'Füssen'.

Sunset behind 'Füssen'

Here the 'Flight Festival Tegelberg' was to take place the following days.
I shelled out 7 Euros to gain entry, but I was mighty disappointed as there were few exhibitors (only 4 PG companys, of which none had a glider for my weight range...); the only good thing about this was that I met Oliver Guenay (a pilot/ photographer/ tour guide/ guide book writer) again. We had met last time 1995 (?) in Rio.

Sunrise over 'Schloss Neuschwanstein'

I underwent all the necessary paperwork necessary in order to be able to fly here at 'Tegelberg' - this has drastically increased after a (uninsured (!) tandempilot crashed into the gondola and then had fled the scene...

Tandempilot launching in NIL-wind (!) over the NE-ramp

The launches are rather technical:
- NW: there is some room to abort,
- NE: a ramp whitch allows no abortion.

But he tandem pilot in the picture above made an excellent reverse launch in these nil-wind conditions -compliments! - I wouldn't even consider taking off there in less than 10kmh headwind...

The winds remained light and variable and after having waited for 2.5 hours I decided to quit this mountain by taking the gondola down; furthermore more and more pilots had arrived and it had begun to get really crowded.

set-up area