Arosa - 'Föhn'

For Sat and Sun (6./ 7.4.) at least 4hpa South overpressure (= Föhn) had been predicted, so on Sat I didn't 'dare' go to Fanas and Arosa: but besides a little 'bumpiness' flying seemed to have been pretty good. Today (Sun) I decided to go to Arosa (despite this fcst); unfortunately the massive amount of Sahara dust transported by the (warm) SW-wind and some Cirrus clouds had covered the sky too much. Therefore thermals activity had been pretty weak...

Pano looking NE towards Weissfluh; sky covered by Sahara dust and Cirris clouds

I had to wait a while before I could start my flight, as the wind came from E / SE - a direction not very well suited for launching here; but finally the wind turned around (to S) and permitted a nice (fwd) launch. Over Maran/ Golf course I found some weak thermals which prolonged my flight to a little over 30mins: it seems that my harness is now well adjusted and permits easy steering by weightshifting; I landed on the Golf course: in late winter/ early spring I prefer landing there, as the covered driving range provides a shelter and therefore a dry place fro packing my equipment, which otherwise (on the melting snow) would become very wet.

Sorry for the lousy pix; I had not correctly adjusted the settings of my X3 :-(

Actually I had wanted to make a second flight, but while waiting for the gondola to depart, I realized that the wind had already increased to SSE/ 20-28kmh, so I changed my mind and returned home. While doing so, I received a call from Michael telling me, that he had been able to fly my new glider and that everything looked fine; he indicated that he wanted to make another flight (in strong thermals) and then it would be delivered to me :-) Actually he's probably getting this glider also for himself...