Flying in the Karakoram - 'the Magic of Freedom'

Arosa

Probably the last flight of this year's winter season in Arosa. I arrived early on the mountain with the intention to just make an extended sledder trying out a few things I had read the day before in the freshly released LeelooX manual. But with very little wind on the NE slope I had to try 3 times before finally managing a decent launch (also in almost nil wind) ; -) Many thanks to Hampa and Joel for helping me relaunching!

Unfortunately by the time I finally made it off the mountain, the originally blue sky had started to be (temporarily) covered by cirrus clouds, which partially blocked the thermals.

one-sided collapse - but the wing almost doesn't turn away...

big ears on the rh side - unspectacular

In both manoeuvers the wing showed very little tendency to turn towards the closed side and it's even  possible to steer/ turn away from the collapse. But in either manoeuvre there is room for improvements, ie to make the ears / collapse bigger... 

 The flight has ended with a good landing on the golf course/ nordic track.

I went up to the Weisshorn again, but decided not to launch, as the wind on neither launch provided a clear head wind component.

Urs and PeterN getting ready for another flight - and the cirrus clouds had disappeared...

I'm slowly feeling more confident and comfortable with my wing and I'm looking forward to the iCamp supposed to start on 5th of April in Levico, where I hope to fine tune all these manoeuvers with Michael's help; especially: so far I have not managed to make (big) ears simultaneosly on both sides, as my lh hand doesn't reach high enough, but I'm hoping Michael will have an idea ;-)

Watles (IT)

I had left home Wed afternoon (19.3.) as my first iCamp in 2025 with Michael, Gudrun and Peter was supposed to begin on Sat, 22.3. in Levico Therme. 

Ofenpass - looking East into Münstertal; Ortler (3945msl) on the right

I stopped at Laatsch in the upper Vinschgau, as I hoped to make a flight the next day on Watles.

Thu (20.3.) Blue skies, little wind - all looking very good :-)

Mals (bus station): Ortler

I parked my car in Mals at the bus station, as first I had to ride the bus (20') to Prämajur (1700msl), from where the chairlift (2 sections) start to Watles - pretty fairly priced at 15EUR. On the bus I have met a local pilot (Luis) and with him I rode the chairlift to 2140m, where we stopped for a while and had something to drink. Here, Luis gave me a good brefing about the local coditions  - many thanks!

view from restaurant at 2140m: again Ortler

An hour later we have been joined by 2 other pilots and we rode the second chairlift to Watles (2490m) - the actual peak is a about 500m away and 100m higher. The launch here can only in winter reached by chairlift; in summer there is another launch at 'Pfaffensee' (2220m). Launch directions are S (on the groomed slope) and W - but here the launch is not well prepared (so no choice for me with little or no wind).

The 3 locals launched without too many probles. I, on the other hand, had to abort the launch 4 times on the rather flat slope with no wind at all :-(

looking S

rather shallow, especially with no wind... (looking SE)

In the end with a little headwind, I also had a good launch (but lots of running) :-)

Conditions would have been rather good, but with my 4 aborted launches I had spent a bit too much energy, which lacked now ;-)

looking N: Watles on the left/ Reschenpass on the right

Monastery 'Marienberg'

LZ in Schleis, looking to Prämajur, Watles; 'Burgeis' at on the far right

In the evening I have received a message from Peter, that the iCamp had been cancalled due to a very unpromising fcst. But I could secure myself a slot in the next iCamp starting in 2 weeks (5.-12.4.), also in Levico.

Tomorrow (Fri) unfortunatley already looks bad with a chance of the Föhn becoming too strong - but we'll see in the morning...  Anyway I'll be driving home  - with or without a flight.

Hüsliberg

(Sa, 8.3.)  Before the forecasted 'bad-wx-period' (which is said to last a week+) Andy and I had a nice flight at Hüsliberg/ Schänis. 

view from LZ in 'Rufi'

The number of pilots with the same idea has been quite big ( >30+) and it took a bit of parawaiting until conditions produced steady thermals. The initial thermal has been rather weak and it took some patience to climb out - thanks to Andy for showing me the 'entry'!

Leeloo2 and LeelooX in the same thermal

Spirals with...

...and without ear...

...happy landing after an hour :-))

Arosa at its best :-))

March (2.- 5.3) Several days with excellent flying conditions here in Arosa; although sometimes TO has been a bit tricky with SSE-SE winds (as there is no real good launch for this wind direction...) But the 'hassle' of taking off in these conditions was more than made up with nice flights in (partly) strong conditions and thermal tops around 3000m. I'm not saying 'cloud base', as there have been no clouds at all. Of course the visibility has been excellent. Reverse launching the LeelooX (even with little wind) is really easy; at the moment it seems to me even easier than forward launching with little/ no wind...

Pano looking S direction 'Bernina' / 'Engadin

Medergen

Pano over 'Litzirüti' - looking W

Nordic tracks / golf course

My flights lasted between 1 and 1.5hrs, often cut short as my fingers got too cold. I landed always on the golf course/ nordic tracks at Maran - just 3' walk from the bus station...

LeelooX auf lu-glidz (Lucian Haas)

Sorry - German only !

https://lu-glidz.blogspot.com/2025/03/leistungsdrang-38-en-b-zweileiner.html

Cari - not my day ;-)

Fri (28.2.) I departed early (0645) for Cari (Ticino) after a lousy night with little sleep. The thermal fcst looked very promising with the wind situation similar to the day before, when already some nice flights had been made there.

Quite obviously I have not been the only one to have seen this, as for the 0945 bus from Faido to Cari a rather big number of pilots had congegrated. Besides the regular service, which arrived alreday half full at the post station, a larger and bigger bus with more than 50 pilots had been departing from the train station directly for Cari. The regular service was also filled up, leaving about 12 pilots behind. The driver apologized as they had only 1 spare bus/ driver available and said, that he'd be back in about 60'... But none of the 'left behinds' had wanted to wait that long, so several pilots elected to drive them selves to Cari and in the end everybody had been taken care of.

For quite a while the wind remained weak, 'tailwindish' with only short spells of head wind, so it has taken quite a while until everybody could launch.

...even strong tailwind at times (I have been wondering whether to unpack at all...)

But in the end, after almost everybody had already taken of, a nice ('crossish') head wind set in :-) As per fcst, thermals have been strong and climbing has been easy. Right from the start I realized, that today I wasn't really 'fit to fly' (due to lack of sleep), so after a benign collapse (thanks to RAST) and later, when I encountered stronger head wind I turned around and with some spirals landed after 40' in Faido. The decision to land early has also been influenced by the fact, that I had completely misjuged the temperature above 2500m.

Pano looking south (Leventina)

looking West

           
It can be clearly seen, how the RAST-system is 'fighting' the collapse, which otherwise would have resulted probably in a full frontal rosette...

spiralling

landing at LZ in Faido

But nevertheless, it has been a worthwhile 'excursion' which resulted in a good night's sleep :-))