Homeward bound

Maybe a flight would have been possible to wait today later in the afternoon, but I didn't want to wait so lang, as the drive home would take me roughly 6 hrs. There is a flight on XContest, but TO was only at 1515... Instead I choose to drive not by the fastest way, but across 'a few' mountain passes: Passo Costalunga, Passo Nigra, Passo Stelvio/ Stilfserjoch (2757m), Passo de Foscagno into Livigno (Tax free area, where diesel costs only 0.85EUR/litre!), Flüela Pass and Wolfgang. Perfect weather until reaching Zernez: in America you would call it 'Indian Summer'.

45 hair needle turns (Tornante) on the east side

Passo Stelvio

Ortler

37 hair needle turns on the west side...

...all in all well above 100 hair needle turns..

'Indian Summer'

Lago di Livigno

Dolomiten -2

Another beautiful day here in the Dolomites, but again no flying due to wind.
So instead of doing the 'Sella Ronda' with my paraglider I had to do by car,  instead of flying up to Sass Pordoi and Piz Boè I had to take the cablecar and of course the Marmolada could also only be viewed from afar ;-)

Passo Sella: Langkofel (Sassolungo) and Val Gardena

Grödener Joch: Langkofel (Sassolungo)

Passo Pordoi (looking east): Lagazuoi

(Passo Pordoi)

Passo Pordoi: Cablecar to 'Sass Pordoi'

Monte Pelmo (from 'Sass Pordoi')

'Sass Pordoi': Marmolada

Passo Pordoi: right: Langkofel (Sassolungo); middle: Col Rodella

Dolomiten -1

Todays forecast for the Friuli region has not been very promising. But I could see on the webcams, that the region of Canazei had clear skies, so I choose this way to start my drive home. I knew from windy.com that there was a risk of too much wind... Beautiful drive across the mountains via Belluno, Passo Staulanza and Passo di Fedaia to Campitello.

Monte Civetta?

Marmolada (3343m) (from Passo di Fedaia)

Arriving the cable car for, just 2 PGs could be seen flying, but many pilots came down with the gondola :-((  But due to the excellent visibility I rode up to Col Rodella none the less just to enjoy the views.

Windsock at launch showning strong westerly wind

 But what a view! Well worth the ride - even without flying.

Sella towers, Piz Boè (3152m), Sass Pordoi (2950m)

Marmolada (right) (3343m)

When going down, one pilot could be seen flying: almost no penetration against the wind and it seemed to be a rather bumpy ride...
I'll stay for the night, but I'm not expecting to fly tomorrow, as there is still too much wind in the fcst.

Meduno

Last day here in eastern Italy (Friaul) / Slowenia: for a while it has been unclear where (and if) we could fly at all. Marco finally selected Meduno and he proved right again! Nice 2+hr flight under a sky with more then 50% cloud cover. 

Above LZ - Pix by Jessica C.

Jessica C.

Pix by Jessica C.

Pix by Jessica C.

Nice pix taken by Jessica C.: many thanks!!! Although 'only' flying for a little more than a year, she already has close to 300 flights (ca 275hrs) in her logbook: compliments!

Gigjote

No flying today due to wx, but 'at least' a nice 'Fiorentina' for dinner ;-)

Lijac

Finally a flying day how it is suppose to be: wx according forecast with little wind, clear sky, good thermals (strong, but not bumpy), high base and nice company...
All of this (and more) could be had today at Lijac. After a slow start (pretty usual for me) I landed at Pizzeria Anja after 2.25hrs/ 40.1km  :-))

'Kovk' launch

looking west from near LZ

777 Rook2

landing at 'Pizzeria Anja'

Bernadia (IT) / Lijac (SI)

Another day here in eastern Italy with 'difficult' weather conditions. Still some 'Bora' in the forecast, so we went first to Bernadia. With just a little more sunshine/ less clouds more than just an extended sled ride would have been possible...

LZ In Torlano

So we moved on to Lijac, where the 'Bora' was supposed to weaken in the afternoon. I had an excellent start: right after launch (at 600m) I could climb in one thermal to 1350m. Then I started flying east. But after leaving the 'protected' zone around launch, the influence of the 'Bora' could be clearly felt. So I turned back; above the LZ the wind was still 25-30kmh, tendence increasing...

Launch at Lijac: work in progress to make it (even) larger

Oppulent dinner with Nicole and Marco to finish the day ;-)

Meduno

We woke up to a cloudless sky here in Fogliano Redipuglia. But unfortuately there was some 'Bora' in the forecast, so Gemona and Ljiac were out of question. Instead we decided to head for Meduno (protected from 'Bora'), but knowing, that it could be cloudy there. When we arrived at launch, the sky was almost overcast, but with some immagination the sun could be seen. Within about 1 hour the sky cleared up and some nice thermals develloped, so I was able to make a nice flight :-))

Ossiachersee/ Gerlitzen: 'Dual Tandem SIV' -2 (with Xandi)

2nd day here at Gerlitzen for SIV-trainig with Xandi. Same program. 3 flights on the tandem glider, 1 flight on my 777 Rook2. Like yesterday, the clouds on top have been very 'reluctant' to clear away, so the first flight was from 'Kanzelhöhe', the others from the top.

Top::waiting for the clouds to clear away... (Xandi on the Icaro)

I can only stress the efficiency of this kind of 'Dual Tandem'-training, especially with such an excellent trainer/ teacher/ instructor as Xandi!

So after 2 very intense/ interesting/ instructive days at Gerlitzen I drove to Italy in the evening. Here I hope to make some flights with Marco as my guide.

Ossiachersee/ Gerlitzen: 'Dual Tandem SIV' -1 (with Xandi)

After my accident in 2012 (where I had lost  consciousness while spiralling) I didn't dare participate in any SIV for fear of blacking-out again. But in a recent XCMag edition I had read an article about a 'special' kind of SIV here at Annenheim (Ossiachersee/ Gerlitzen): let's call it 'Dual Tandem SIV'.
The SIV is done on a tandem glider with the instructor flying on the second seat. It's an especially selected glider, which behaves as close as possible to a mono glider.
So first of all: should I black-out, then there is the instructor who can take over and land the glider safely; second: it is extremely efficient way for training, as the instructor sits right behind me and can see/ feel in real time, what I'm doing (wrong).
So at short notice I have been able to secure a place with Xandi (Alexander Meschuh) from  X-ART Paragliding for 2 days of training.

Unfortunately no flying yesterday (Wed) due to too many clouds :-((
Even today it took quite a while longer than we had anticipated until the clouds had cleared away before we could fly from Gerlitzen (Top at 1900m). Xandi used the time to soar solo for a while in his tandem paraglider (ICARO Parus 41.5)...

It was well after noon until we could finally launch for our first flight: wingovers and spirals.
Meanwhile the wind on top had even increased more, so for the next two flights we took off from 'Kanzelhöhe'.

launch at 'Kanzelhöhe'

More wing-overs and spirals as well as flying at MNM speed for the second flight and full stall on the third flight. Here the only disadvantage of this kind of training showed: it needs lots of power in your hands to stall this (tandem) glider. More power than I actually have in my left (damaged) arm, so Xandi had to help a little bit. But all the other manouvers I've been able to fly on my own ;-)

our glider: 'ICARO Parus 41.5'

Xandi

LZ

So hopefully there will be more of the same tomorrow...

Bischling

When I got up, the sky was completely clear and soon the first gliders could be seen flying from Bischling (Werfenweng, Zaglau-AT). So -at least for me- I found myself unusually early on the way to the gondola ;-)
Excellent visibility/ views from the top!

Pano looking east over (SE-) launch: Tennengebirge

Pano looking west over (W-) launch: Hochkönig, Werfenweng

SE-launch

Bischling is also a very convenient PG-site: very short walks from the gondola to the different launches, although LZ is a little further from the gondola (as compared to Tannheim). Last time I was here in May'09 with Arnie F.
Wind blowing in straight, sometimes already a bit gusty; punchy/ small thermals and then (same as yesterday) the sun got blocked by clouds...

Tennengebirge

Zaglau: gondola station on the left; LZ middle of pix; Werfenweng upper right corner.

So I drove SE across the 'Tauerngebirge' towards Villiach/ Ossiachersee for my 'appointment' tomorrow...

(Finally) on the road again... Alp Scheidegg/ Neunerköpfle

After almost 4 months without paragliding, I finally was able to restart again last friday (on 'Alp Scheidegg') with some ground handling.

Alp Scheidegg

Yesterday I headed for Austria (an my way to Italy). First stop: Tannheim ('Neunerköpfle'), a site perfectly suited for paragliding: gondola, TO 2 min walk, LZ/ parking less than 5 mins from gondola ;-)

Neunerköpfle: parawaiting

It took about 1 hour of parawaiting until the sky had cleared up and thermals permitted climbing. Unfortunately this window didn't last too long and after I had packed up it even started to rain a little bit. But anyway, it has been a nice flight after this long 'break'.

Calanda

(sorry, the joke works only in my local dialect...)

involuntary break continues...

...more patience is required...