Season's Greetings!!

...for those I have forgotten in my mails - or where it landed in their spam folder ;-)

 

Meteoblue

 

...Meteoblue's forecast seems to be way off today...

Arosa (3 days)

Sat: a nice NE-wind permitted even some soaring at the Weisshorn (above the so-called 'Telefonhang'). 1st flight to Isla, 2nd flight to Chur - all-in all an hour of flying :-)

Pix by Webcam ;-)

Isla

Isla

Sun: much less wind and much trickier to launch. A lot of pilots in the afternoon... 2 flights: 1st to LAW-Mitte; 2nd to Chur.

(pix by webcam)

Mon: another beautiful day with very little wind. Just a(nother) sledder to Chur before driving back home.

Arosa

Taking advantage of another beautiful day :-))

Unfortunately, I have not been able to launch for a second flight: 3*RTO due to x-wind :-(

Arosa

What a great winter day: plenty of fresh snow, plenty of sun: so all the skiers should be happy today. And with almost no wind, we paragliders are happy too :-) Temperature on the 'cool' side ;-)

Just an extended sledder to Chur (>30') in perfectly calm air with even a with of thermals before landing...

Airline fares - a black box! -2

 ...and it has become even more 'crazy'...

I have made another rebooking:

ZRH-BOG-UIO (iso ZRH-BOG-GYE) - all the rest remains the same!

>>  price difference: minus 650.-chf  ??!!

ok: I have to spend 130.-chf for the flight  UIO-MEC (Manta/ Crucita), but on the other hand I don't have to pay for a taxi from GYE to Crucita...

I'm still looking for explanations ;-)

sorry: german only

 

Edelweiss Air - finally!

Finally!!

According to a message in the latest edition of 'Swiss Glider', the airline 'Edelweiss' has confirmed, that PG-equipment is accepted and treated as any other sports luggage(even if this is not especially mentioned on their homepage).

more Leeloo...

Leeloo 'No 6' passing through my hands ;-)  (Destination: Andrea)

 

Speedflying...

Something to keep you entertained in these times when one low pressure area chases the next one...

 

Airline fares - a black box!

Since I returned from my trip to Italy with Ruth, I have been looking at airline fares to South America:

3.1 - 28.1.2024: 2 weeks Ecuador (EC) and 2 weeks Colombia (CO).

My intended itinerary: 

3.1. ZRH- BOG-GYE

15.1. UIO-MDE

28.1. CLO/BOG-CTG-ZRH

(ZRH - Zurich; BOG - Bogota (CO); GYE - Guayaqil (EC); UIO - Chito (EC); MDE - Medellin CO); CLO - Cali (CO); CTG - Cartagena (CO))

At first I wanted to book:

a) ZRH-BOG-ZRH

b) BOG-GYE

c) UIO-MDE

d) CLO-BOG

(each letter stands for a booking/ ticket)

Then I searched further and now I have booked:

a) ZRH-BOG-GYE  / CLO-CTG-ZRH

b) UIO-MDE

>>>  the result: the second option is about 25% LESS expensive then the first one!

Same airlines / same days / same booking class / same fare conditions...

Can anyone explain???

Arosa: Föhn

I'cant remember ever having seen a gust >200 km/h on top of the Weisshorn...

Arosa

Tue (17.10.) First a visit to Medergen in order to make our hut 'secure' for the coming winter. At that time the sky looked still rather 'blue'...

Later I flew from Weisshorn, but unfortunately the sky had become more covered by high cirrus clouds. These clouds virtually 'killed' all thermals, as otherwise conditions would have been pretty promising for a nice flight. But it was only to be a slightly extended sledder...

Golf course

Isla - my LZ

Mte. Generoso

Mon, 2.10. With Ruth, Edith and Valentino we visited Mte.Generoso, where we also had lunch. Instead of taking the cog-wheel train back to Capolago, I used the opportunity for a flight from Mte.Generoso. Last time I have flown here: 1996...

Pano looking NW: Mte.Rosa (left), Melide (center) Mte.Lema (right)

(cog-wheel train: Capolago-Mte.Generoso) Building: architect: Mario Botta

launch: pano looking East

Mte.Generoso (1701m)

LZ at Capolago: 'behind' big building (with windsock)

Flight time: 1hr - as I could find some (weak) thermal above 'Sao Nicolao' :-)

Föhndiagramm

 Für alle die das Föhndiagramm der eingestellten Meteozentrale vermissen:

>>       https://wetterring.li/profiwetter/foehndiagramm-fl-ost-ch

Italy -last days: Santa Elisabetta_Belice

Saturday: very rainy in the morning, so I didn't even visit the weekly market at Alba. But I could meet some old friends from the time we've had a house in Silio (la Morra).

In the afternoon finally the sun returned as I reached Mombello Monferrato, where I stayed for the night (in an old 'palace'). Here I had dinner with another friend.

Palazzo Tornielli at Mombello Monferrato

Sunset at Mombello

Ristorante Dubini: Tagliatelle ai funghi porcini

Sunday: magnificient day: PierAndrea (Patrucca) suggested we'd meet at Salto for the ride to launch at Santa Elsiabetta/ Belice. Arriving on launch, I've met another friend/ pilot - we first met more than 25 years ago in Valle de Abdalajis at Giacco's Finca ;-)

Belice launch

Pano above launch: looking S towards Torino

Conditions turned out better than expected and I could fly for > 1hour before I had to land for my drive back (getting home by 2030 without to many traffic jams...)

'final' cappuccino and gelato at Varese ;-)

Italy -'H&F' days 5 / 6 -Cassino

Thursday: Strong winds, rain, clouds: very difficult to find a flyable site: in the end we went to Cassino, where (after a stop at the gelateria in Cassino) 1 or 2 flights (extended sledders) could be made.

Gudrun feeding the foxes

Cassino: pano looking South

Friday: as fcst for today and also for the next days looked very unfavourable (wind, rain) and the only possible option -Norma- for an eventual (!) flight would be almost a 3 hrs drive (one-way!), the h&f-week came kind of to a premature end as half the pilots left in search for better (flying) options...

I was among them, wanting to drive via Norma and afterwards stop somewhere along the way to Alba for the night. But getting closer to Norma ist was very clear, that flying was no option: RAIN/ low clouds. So I even didn't make the detour to this flying site and headed straight for Alba. It has been a looong drive with stop-and-go in Florence and Genua: here I lost almost 1/2hr due to traffic jams. Tomorrow I hope to see some old friends in Alba. 

finally blue skies (near Alessandria)

Coming Sunday: maybe passing by Cavallaria on my way home from Alba...

Italy -'H&F' day 4: (Monte Turchio) / (Gioia dei Marsi)

Wednesday: our group (without me!) departed at 0800 in order to hike & fly Monte Turchio. The 500m (altitude) hike (in retrospect) should have been possible also for me, as most of it could have been done on a rather good trail...). I had offered to take the drivers back to their cars after landing.

In a way it was fortunate, that I didn't participate in the H&F, as it would have taken much more time for us to reach Monte Turchio. Because we would have needed to get a car to the LZ (taking quite some additional time); further more the hike would have taken much longer with me. 

Monte Turchio

This 'delay' (of about an hour) would (most probably !) have resulted, that no-one would have been able to fly, as conditions deteriorated constantly. In the end, Gudrun and Michael launched with their tandem at the very limit of acceptable windspeed (for them!)...

After getting all the cars down to the LZ, we stopped for a coffee break at the town of Gioia dei Marsi. Here some shopping was done for a picnic on launch.

Again the wind was on the strong side: just a couple of pilots did some ground-handling and only Ralf actually launched (but unfortunatley sank out).

Driving back to our hotel, Michael's car got a flat tire, which could be repaired in Pescasseroli. Later dinner together at our hotel.

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Remark: as today I had quite some time for myself, I could work on my blog and also upload many pix to Flickr. you might  notice, that there are only few pictures where people are clearly recognizeable (a few more in my blog): that's done on purpose. For my personal use I have these pix, but I avoid uploading them...