iCamp (Fri/ Sat)

Friday/ Saturday. unfortunately the wx didn't play along :-(  So, lots of interesting theoretical stuff by Gudrun and Michael - with clarifying comments thrown in by Peter ;-)

One of Michael's favourites: 'the pleasure of flying in turbulence' - a lesson more than worth hearing. Luckily I'll get a pdf-document with the highlights, as I have not been able to write everything down.

Instead of flying - or better: for compensating the 'non-flying' - a daily visit to the local gelateria (at least)...

Gelateria 'Dolci Promessi'

After a last lecture this morning, the iCamp ended and people started heading home; some as far north as Flensburg (D), near the Danish border. Fortunately not me - I just had to drive about 2 hours East to Romans d'Isonzo (Friaul/ Friuli), where I met my longtime friends Nicole and Alby. I'll be staying at a B&B for the next 4 nights before heading home as well.

Tomorrow the wx fcst is not looking very bright, but beginning next week conditions should be improving.

'Tapetti'

Conclusion:

- personally: one of my targets for the week has been to improve my launches and landings (adapted to the reduced possibilities of my body). And I think I have made some progress - with still some room for improvements ;-) I also flew some spirals with ROD > -10m/s; the wing-overs this year have not been very satisfactory: one or two have been ok, but never a nice sequence of 4 or more in a row.

- generally: it has been a very rewarding week with 3 absolutely outstanding instructors: Gudrun, Michael and Peter complement each other perfectly  - kind of a 'dream team' (at least for me). And it has (again!) been a great pleasure to be with and around them. There is nothing about paragliding they wouldn't know and be able to explain.

Luckily the didn't cancel this week, even though the forecast at the time they had to give the 'go ahead' for the camp, has not been very optimistic (to say the least). What they did instead has been moving the camp from Levico Therme to Bassano. Here it has been flyable until Thursday, whereas in Levico we could have made only a few flights or would have had to drive to Bassano daily (about an hour each way)...

Remark: The whole week I have been fly my Leeloo Mk2; the Mk1 I have given to Michael to have it checked after about 125flights/ 120 hours. For reasons whatsoever, the brakes have been a little too short, which -at least partly- explains why my launches with the Mk2 this week have been so much 'better'/ moree consistent (almost no blown launches) than with the Mk1. I should get the Mk1 back by end of May, as I want to take this glider along to DK in August and the US in September.