Italy -5: Col Rodella / Dolomites

Today was looking a bit better and we coud make a nice flight; but nothing special for here...
Again (as yesterday) shortly after noon the winds started switching and I descended to the lower SW TO.
Jimmy Parcher had 'promised' that cloud base would rise to Marmolada level (or even higher) - but it turned out otherwise. Still it was possible to cross from Belvedere into the South face of the Marmolada and fly towards the peak - but I turned around before (shortly after the pix further down was made).

Rodella (Main TO)

Main TO: Pano looking east (Center: Sass Pordoi)

Pano near Langkofel (looking East): Sella Towers, Sass Pordoi, Marmolada)

Marmolada (South face)

As yesterday, we had again dinner in company with Masahiro Kishi's group of Japanese pilots, a very relaxing 'affair' with lots of laughter - thanks for having us and being so generous!

Italy -4: Canazei

Today was rather strange: almost all websites we consulted in the morning were showing not so good or even rather bad weather for today. Originally we had planned to drive via Obertilliach (AT) -make a flight there- and then on to Canazei. But the outlook for Obertilliach was not good enough to warrant a detour of almost 3 hours, so we drove via Belluno. Here we stopped shortly at Pieve Alpago/ Mte. Dolada, hoping to catch a ride to launch - but no such luck. So we continued via Agordo and Fedaia Pass to Canazei. Only a few PGs were flying and cloudbase still rather low at that time. Only after 1500 we decided to take the cable car to Col Rodella and give it a try...

'Edelweiss' (on the way to SW launch at Col Rodella)

Still only a few Pilots in the air; the wind at the lower (SW) launch showed gusty west, at the main launch it seemed to come straight in, but actaully the TO was in the lee...
Andy and I descended to the SW TO: it certainly was launchable, but I considered it to be beyond my capabilities and hiked back up; Andy launched, apparently without major problems.

Andy

While waiting for the cable car to ride down I watched a couple of EN-D gliders taking off from the main launch: they had to go trough huge sink and some turbulence before they were clear of the lee and could climb out...

Italy -3: Lijak (SI)

Another fine flying day with rather high cloudbase: Lijak (SI), just behind the Italian border at Gorizia.
Again with Andy, Alberto and Marco, who was guiding and driving.
First in the morning it looked very promising: at 1000 already nice cumuli over the ridge, but then the clouds begun spreading and covering large parts of the land, so we did some parawaiting in a nice Cafeteria on the banks of the Isonzo (Soça) River. Luckily these clouds disappered by 1300 and cumuli formed again. After a while some nice cycles set in and it was possible to climb to almost 2000m (which is rather high for this site). So we headed downwind (east)...

Lijak -TO

Vipava

Pano looking East (back) towards Lijak

Andy

Alberto

Sunset in Tarcento (Ristorante Belvedere)

Italy -2: Stol (SI)

Right from the biginning of our trip all signs indicated, that Stol (Kobarid, Slovenia) could be a good choice for flying on Wednesday.
So together wih Albert (a sailing friend of Marco's), we left early in order to be at the meeting point in Kobarid by 1000. Lots of pilots waiting and 5 shuttle buses were needed to get everbody up to launch. But launch is very big so no problem there...

Ritchie (Ritchard Fritz), who flies VERY often here. I've met him way back in la Palma.

looking towards Bovec

Marco

Alberto

It indeed turned aut to be a very good day! I was able to fly a 101k flat triangle with an average speed of 25kmh -which for me is rather fast. The only time I wasn't feeling comfortable during this flight was near the western turning point (Gemona) where I had fly in a region barely landeble and then had to climb out from low in front of Guarnan TO.

a well earned landing beer...

Kobarid

Italy -1: Meduno

Monday (2.8.) morning I departed with my friend Andy for the 7+ hour drive to Fogliano Redipuglia in the Italian Province of Udine. Here we met (and stayed with) Marco Zonca, with whom I already stayed several times (last time this spring).

Due to the wind situation Marco proposed to fly Meduno on Thuesday.

Pano on TO, looking W

Andy

Marco

Marco

Andy

At the beginning, I didn't like the aerology at all: small bubbles, unclear wind situation, but during the 2+ hour flight things improved. 
On the return to Fogliano we stopped for dinner at a Churrasceria in Udine, which turned out to be surprisingly good.

France -12: Mieussy

isn't this a promising name??

Today (FRI) was my last day on this trip and I tried to fly (again) Mieussy. I finally managed to hitch hike to the Pertuiset launch: 15min before the first car stopped and took me about a third up, then almost 30min before the local flight school took me along: 'we can't have you standing there beside the road' was the greeting by the driver...

Pertuiset: East TO

East TO

LZ at Mieussy

It was just a sled ride as it was still rather early, but I think it was nice to make a flight here: it still is the place, 'where it all began'. And I also can say: 'third time lucky' as on my two former visits I didn't get to fly.

As I 'destroyed' my second pair of sunglasses during/ after landing I decided to head for home, as I don't like to fly without my shades (I had planned to go to Passy later).

All in all a very successful trip in excellent company (thanks Martin!) with many new sites for my 'collection'  ;-)

France -11: les Saisies -Mt.Bisanne

A new day, a new site...
As with almost all the sites in France, also Mt.Bisanne is not easily reachable for PG-pilots (especially if you are travelling solo and don't want land on any LZ while your car is still on top af the mountain...)
The conditions today were pretty stable again, so toplanding wouln't have been an option either.

Fortunately during July and August some buses and local shuttles are operating, so it is possible to reach Mt.Bissane by public transport, although it's a bit cumbersome.
I found out on the internet, that the bus from Albertville to les Saisies would pass the LZ around 0900, which it did with just a small delay. This ride cost 2.10EUR, so no complaints there. At les Sisies it connects twice a day to the local (free) shuttle service to Mt.Bisanne - so getting to launch for the morning flight has not been that hard. 

SE - TO

Already the local schol was sending its student of into the calm air.

The place offers a fantasitic view of the Mont Blance - so it's well worth coming there even if you are not flying. 

Mont Blanc

Around 1130 the conditions seemed to improve slowly, I decided to launch around 1145. There were some good thermals, but still too narrow to be centered efficently. So just a few passes in front of TO for me. While I was slowly gliding down I could see that 15mins later everybody else was staying up :-((

SE - TO

LZ in Beaufort (Marcot)

Shortly after I had landed and packed up, the local tandem guys unloaded their passengers and they had a seat for me in their car. On the way up hey  picked up another pilot in need of a ride, as in the mean time the thermals had completely shut off and everybody was on the ground.
My lift got me to les Saisies, but I quickly found another friendly french guy who took me towards Mt.Bisanne. Halfway up he dropped me off, as he had to turn off the main road. But just about 5mins later the other pilot which had got a ride in the car up to les Saisies came with a friend of his in order to get their car down so I got a ride to the top: sweet!

NW - TO: looking towards Uriage (left of wind sock)

The conditions at the NW-TO were very weak so I waited till about 1715 before launching. In the mean time the tandem guys made 3 rotations - but they don't fly all the way down to the valley (this would mean a too long turn-around time). They have a 'private' LZ in Crest-Volant, which only they are allowed to use (tricky due to its small size and cables close by).
I had waited so long hoping that the thermals west of launch would get stronger, thus permitting a longer flight and also that the valley wind (which during the afternoon normally is too strong at the LZ in Beaufort) would weaken so that I would not have to land in Uriage (from where it would be rather hard to get back to my car at the LZ in Beaufort).
Unfortunately the thermals were way to weak and I didn't even make the intended LZ. I nedded to walk back to my car for about 45mins - and not a single car stopped to pick me up :-((

But all in all a site well worth visiting in better conditions.

France -10: St.Hilaire, Chamrousse

Moonset

Originally I had wanted to go to Montlambert in the morning and then fly Chamrousse in the afternoon.
But as I passed St.Hilaire some PG's were already flying, so I changed my mind and went there. In addition, this would save me at least an hour driving time for my intendend afternoon flight...

Funiculaire to St.Hilaire (83% gradient)

St.Hilaire - the 'famous' tapis-TO

LZ in Lumbin

It was pretty stable and the inversion could be clearly seen; I landed after 1h20min and drove to the LZ for Chamrousse in St.Martin-les-Uriages. As luck would have it, some other PG pilots were driving up to launch and they had a spare seat left (otherwise I would have needed to go down to Uriage-les-bains and then ride with the local bus up...).

LZ, can be pretty tricky, as there are (too) many fences...

Croix de Chamrousse

This summer they are improving the installations on top of the 'Croix de Chamrousse', so the gondolas are running only during weekends; Therefore we needed to walk up to the 'Aiguille'-TO and couldn't fly from the very top. This 30min hike (steep at times) is about the limit I can do while carring a backpack - but I finally arrived also.
Of course the air was also too stable here and after 40min my flight ended where I had parked my car.

Chateau in St.Martin-les-Uriages

LZ behind soccer field (just the dark green patch left of the road!)

France -9: (Montlambert), Chamoux

TUE: I got up late as the forecast (Mistral) would not allow any flying. But at least her in Uriage it didn't seem very strong. I drove north towards Allevard (a site I had flown on the way down). At the office of the local school I was told that they were flying at Montlambert (about 1 hour away). On the way I passed the site of St.Hilaire

St.Hilaire-du-Touvet

Unfortunately I arrived at the LZ too late, as nobody was driving up to launch anymore. 

Montlambert

But I was told, that later in the afternoon the site of Chamoux should become good and a local pilot guided me there.

Just after having arrived at the LZ, a tandem company was driving to launch and they had a couple of spare seats...
Many tandems were taking of (and also toplanding), as well as 2 flight schools were sending their students off, so the Mistral definitifely didn't seem to be a danger anymore!
I could launch easily and had a nice, relaxing 1.5hr flight.

TO from above

TO (TOP landing posssible, even with tandems)

Pano looking west

LZ

LZ, looking north towards Albertville

This night I finally had the 'long awaited' Cote de Boeuf for dinner. Last week while staying with Martin and his girlfriend I didn't get a chance, as they both are not so much into meat ;-)  (The whole week I was teasing Martin with this subject...)

Cote de Boeuf

France -8: travel day

MON: a small front was passing and the only reasonable place to fly would have been St.Vincent-les-Fort. But I didn't want to go there again, as probably 'everybody' would try to fly there. So I started my way back home by driving north.
On the way I passed the site of Serpaton, a very good XC starting point in spring...

Serpaton TO: above cow's head

I stopped for the night in Uriage-les-Bains, hoping to fly the site of Chamrousse the next day.
I even called the local flight school, but I was told that the next day (TUE) the 'Mistral' (a north wind in the Rhone valley) would prevent any flying in the region

Nicole Fedele: - new out-and-return WR (female) -Sorica 18.8.13

Here you can find to Nicole's latest feat: just 1 week after her husband Arduino set a new out-and-return WR (his flight here), she set her own WR (flying in company with Arduino) - CONGRATULATIONS!!

Arduino (Bimbo) - new WR (out and return) (12.8.13)

Here you can find the link to Arduinos new out-and-return WR, flown 12.8.2013 in Sorica (Slovenia) - Congratulations!!!
...and 'only' on a Peak 3 (from Niviuk), not a racing machine like the IcePeak6 or something similar...