Bassano (cont)

Yesterday and today (Thursday/ Friday) have been very similar. strong thermal conditions in the forecast, but not the westerly wind component. I took the 10 o'clock shuttle to launch and we stopped at Stella, Tapetti and (on Thur) even at Casette, but nowhere it looked really nice. It would have been launchable in all 3 places (and many pilots also launched), but I decided to ride the shuttle back down. Instead of waiting on launch for the conditions to improve I preferred to spend at least some of the waiting time at the local Gelateria ;-)

Thursday afternoon: going up to launch (Stella) at 1400. I had a really nice launch, but didn't find good lift, thus landing (too) quickly :-(  But the second flight from Stella (launching shortly after 1700) was really making up for the day: nice thermals/  restitution and climbs to >1800m; landing at 1840 (and by far not the last one).

Stella Alpina -launch

Bassano del Grappa

Semonzo: PG landings

Friday afternoon: in the end I decided to ride up only with the 1600-shuttle, as this has proved yesterday to be a really good decision and hope for similar (smooth) conditions... Unfortunately -even though the conditions in the morning had been very similar to yesterday's- in the afternoon it has not been the same: whereas yesterday my launch was helped by a nice little headwind, today I had to be happy not to have a tailwind... Despite this, I had a (very) good no-wind-launch, but in the air there was very little thermal activity left - at least for the pilots who had just launched. 20' I was back on 'terra firma' ;-) 

IT - Bassano

The morning the day before I wanted to depart for Italy -Monday (25.5.)- I went to the local grocery store to make some last purchases. For reasons whatsoever I left my smartphone at the self check-out desk. I only realized this some hours later, but at the store nothing had been found :-)  Luckily I had installed the app 'where is' on my back-up smartphone and it showed my 'lost' phone in the next village, just a few minutes away by car. In the evening (hoping that everybody would be at home) I visited all 3 single family homes at the address 'where is' was indicating, asking if anybody by chance had found my iPhone. All 3 persons asked around in their families, but nobody admitted of knowing anything...

Next morning (Tuesday) the app showed that my phone had 'moved'... I went to the new address and asked again, but to no avail. Also checking the surroundings didn't turn up the phone. Then I had to depart for Italy. Meanwhile I had deactivated the SIM-Card of the phone. This morning (Wednesday), the app showed the phone still in the same position. Andy offered to have also a look and in the end by chance he found it lying on a garden wall - HURRA!

So what happend (our guess): a child found the phone in the grocery store and took it. When in the evening I asked around at the 3 houses in question, it probably was astonished to see that I had 'come so close' and it also heard me telling, that without the proper PIN code, the phone was completely useless. So, the next morning on the way to school he dumped at. I don't know if the intention was to 'find' it later and hope to get a finder reward. But luckily Andy had been quicker! Thanks again for his special effort to find it.

My trip to Italy could almost have been my very last drive: on the ring road of Merano I was driving on the left lane; the right lane was going very slow due to a traffic jam at the next exit. Suddenly a delivery van - without flashing his lights! - pulled from the right line while I was almost at his height. I hit the brakes and luckily he also realized his 'mistake': nothing happend, but it would have been a nasty accident a 90kmh, probably involving several vehicles and blocking that road for quite a while... Once more my guardian angel was working overtime.

Wednesday: waking up to a cloudless sky.

view from the balcony of my B&B at Semonzo

The shuttle took me to the 'Antenna Costalunga' - launch. That's a launch I rather like: not so steep and crowded as 'Tapetti'.

Antenne Costalunga

I launched at 1045 - which is early for me - but the conditions looked already very nice. Actually some thermals have been pretty strong ;-) 

After cruising around for about 1.5hrs I landed at the PG-LZ. Due to the conditions (and not yet very used to 'spring action') I lacked the motivation for a second flight... 

This was also the first flight after André (from Flugsau) had modified my Sup'Air harness: he had lowered the attachment points for the main raisers, making it a bit easier for me to reach (with my left hand) the 'baby-A'-risers, needed for pulling big ears. But this resulted in a position of my hands that I'm not yet used to and thus my arms tired more than usual.

RMK: the last pilots landed when I returned from dinner (> 1900).

Arosa again

 

Tuesday (12.4.) Normally, with almost 7hpa south-overpressure you wouldn't even think of going up to the Weisshorn, but at altitude there was virtually no wind. Ok, down in the typical Föhn valleys (like Chur), there has been some wind, but nowhere as strong as with a 7hpa pressure differential 'normally' would be expected...

excellent visibility: Engadin: Piz Palü, Bellavista, Piz Bernina

Wednesday/ Friday: no more Föhn in the fcst ;-) Nice thermals with Tops > 3100m; sometimes really strong.

overflying launch (Weisshorn, 2640m)

I have been flying with my (new) Skytraxx4.0: it's incredible how excellent the readability of the color display is. They are using a technology for the display which makes it the better readable the brighter it is (normally it's the other way around: Naviter's Oudie, Handys etc). There are still a couple of things I'm not yet familiar with and also some features, which on other instruments are much better implemented. I've already written several mails to Skytraxx in this respect, but obviously they don't like suggestions for improvements, as my mails are never answered; not even their receipt is acknowledged :-(

again looking towards Engadin (at 3100m)

All these days I have been flying with the harness from Flugsau, as my Sup'Air EVO harness is with Andrè, who is going to lower the attachment points, so I can better reach up. My impression is that (at the moment) I can better take-off with the Flugsau harness (easier running), but in-flight I prefer the harness from Sup'Air - especially if the flights last > 1hr.