Roldanillo :-((

Today (Sunday) started off not very promising: lots of (low) clouds and humidity: When we got to Los Tanques cloud base was still below launch and it rained even a bit at times.

...in cloud base...

But as we had hoped for, it slowly started to clear up, cloud base rised and soon the first pilots launched. André and Basil got off easily, I on the other hand somehow managed to pull my reserve out of its continer while getting ready - don't ask me how; I think it happend only twice in the last 20 years. As it was still raining very little and as I am unable to reinstall the resreve myself, I had to drive back to Roldanillo. Luckily a bus with some other pilots who didn't elect to fly, was just leaving and they gave me a lift back to my hotel.
Basil had a short flight only but André did well.

drying my glider

I texted Pete (the guy from Colorado I met again last Friday) if he was able and willing to help me fix this problem. Later in the afternoon, after I had dried my glider on the hotel's terrace, he showed up and expertly reistalled my reserve - many thanks Pete!!!

Meanwhile the sky had changed completely: nice CU's, high base, not too much (?) wind. I wonder what flights will be uploaded to XContest later this afternoon.

Excellent dinner together with André and Basil at 'Che Caffé': so far the best beef on this trip (and cooked to perfection)!

Roldanillo (again)

So while yesterday the rest of our group was sightseeing/ flying in Jericho and then heading for Medellin for their todays departures back home, Basil, André and I made a nice flight from Los Tanques. While waiting to get ready, my name was called: Theo and Pete (whom I met 2016 in Roan/ Glenwood) were also preparing their wings. I met them later again in town for a drink; unfortunately Theo was heading home that evening, but I might meet Pete again... Lots of people on launch and even more in the air; but that made it easy for me to try to venture out into the flats, as wherever I would go at least some 'dummies' would be there ;-)   I made it even across the Cauca river, something I had been able to do only once before.

la Victoria

This weekend 'grande fiesta' in Roldanillo: Thursay evening a large parade with hundreds of horses.

 Friday evening: a kind of 'carnival' corso through the streets of the city.

Saturday morning started with intense rain, so flying was impossible. Time to work a little on my pix and the blog ;-)

Conclusion after 2 weeks

So the 2 weeks tour organized by Fly with Andy  has (already) ended.
It has been an excellent trip: good guides (Vreni, Tini, Pedro), a safe driver (John), flyable (though not excellent) weather (every day at least a flight!) and nice, local accomodation (fincas). Our guides would go always the 'extra step' to make our trip as successful and memorable as possible!

Personally:  I'm not very happy with the way I handled the 'flatland flying'; on the other hand: mostly good TOs (though not always at first go), all Ldgs ok (and NOT too far from road/ transport). So there is some room for improvement ;-)

John, always smiling and helpful

The Columbian people are extremly friendly and helpful and (at least here in the Valle de Cauca) all the 'horror' stories we hear back home about Colombia are certainly not true.
It's almost impossible to stand for more than a couple of minutes alongside a road without somebody stopping and asking if you need a ride; sometimes they even turned around if I was heading in the opposite direction than they were driving.
Food so far has also been always good (or even excellent) and portions generally more than abundant ;-)

Last but not least: our group: 12 pilots from CH, DE, IT; from young to 'old'; from local flyers (like me) to XC-hounds (like Res, Andy et alt). All in all a very 'homogenous' group, which made the 2 weeks pass way too quickly.

Many thanks to all (guides, driver, pilots) who were always willing to give me a hand when I needed it! I thoroughly enjoied the 2 weeks in your company!

Ansermanuevo (cont)

>>> no decent internet access here in our finca on the mountain in Ansermanuevo; so I had to wait until we had left before I could continue posting - sorry!

A few words about the wx: apparently this is a 'Ninja'-year. This means more humidity, clouds and sometimes also wind than in a 'normal' year.
So flying conditions have been tricky at times, even though we had been flying every day. 

Finca: our cook / Pedro

BBQ...

launch

LZs as seen from launch

Our original plan was to leave here earlier and go to Jericho for some more flying. But due to this prevailing conditions, the wx further north is not looking very promising, so the stay here was extended and only 1 night planned for Jericho, then on to Medellin.
I had originally planned to stay a few days more in Medellin and fly some sites there, but after several discussions with Pedro (our local guide) I changed my mind.
It is quite a long drive (6+ hrs) from Ansermanuevo to Jericho, especially as all traffic has to make a detour of about 2 hours due to a bridge under repair. Then it's another 2 hours to Medellin. So much driving just to see and eventually make a sledder a the sites further north didn't make much sense. (And I must also get back to Cali, as my flight will be leaving from there!) So I decided to leave our group on Thursday (together with Basil and André) and head back to Rodanillo for the next days.

Ansermanuevo

As mentioned in the previous post, todays goal was to fly as much north towards our next 'destination' Ansermanuevo. (The same idea as when we had tried to fly from Piedechinche towards Roldanillo.)
Again I didn't have enough patience to always climb to cloud base, so I was back on 'terra firma' north of la Union ;-) 
Due to optimal transport I quickly reached Ansermanuev; all our gear was loaded on a Jeep (called 'Willys' here) and driven up he mountain to our finca. Then it was time to relax at the pool.

View from our finca to launch

...relaxing...

airial view of our finca

our (excellent) guides: Verena & Tini (Siegel) - which is which was always the question ;-)

Launch in Ansermanuevo: couldn't be any better!

Roldanillo (cont)

Hostal 'La Vid' in La Union  - we stayed for 4 nights

Yesterday evening (Friday) our guides (Verena & Tini Siegl and Pedro) prepared dinner for us: really excellent 'Spaghetti Bolognese'; compliments!

Roldanillo (lookig East)

More flying off 'Los Tanques'-launch. Lots of pilots and switchy wind conditions made launching today a bit cumbersome. Contrary to the other days here we had a north wind, so flying close to the ridges would put you in the lee: a pilot of another group apparently just did this and in the end he had to throw his reserve...
I was progressing rather slowly and behind Rodanillo it took me quite long to reach cloudbase; then I tried to follow the others of our group, which already had crossed the river Cauca, passed Zarzal and continued south towards Tulua. I also made it across the river, but couldn't find a decent thermal which would allow me to fly beyond Zarzal...
Retrive worked perfectly: just as I had packed up, our bus arrived. I was dropped off in Zarzal, as they continued south to pick up more pilots. Back to the hotel via hitch hiking and Taxi.
Let's hope that tomorrow, when we continue to Ansermanuevo (to the north), I'll be able to make a (more) decent flight ;-)

Roldanillo

After a loooong drive (1.5hrs) we arrived at 'los Tanques' launch here in Roldanillo.
For a moment we could catch a rare (!) glimps of 'Nevado del Ruiz' an active vulcano to the east (5389m). Shortly afterwards the mountain was again covered by clouds over the Cauca Valley. 

The 'problem' here in Roldanillo:  towards noon the (west) wind from the pacific normally sets in and getting away from on the different (east facing) launches here becomes impossible. It's a bit similar to the 'Bayrischer Wind' in the Pinzgau, where the wind comes over the lowest parts of the mountains to replenish the (hot) rising air that makes us climb in the thermals.

los Tanques

From the car park it's 'only' a short (but steep) hike up to launch. Luckily John (our driver) offered to carry up my gear, as today I most probably wouldn't have made it my by myself.
Many thanks John!!!
The sky remained covered by cirrus clouds, so (for me at least) thermals were hard to find and the climbs weak; but still a 1.2hr flight.

Similar situation also the next day: but cloud base was much lower, so we had to wait quite a bit before we even could launch. 

waiting for cloudbase to rise, so we could launch

The flight itself - well nothing to be proud of: it seems as I had been flying in a kind of 'thermal-avoid-modus' ;-) 
But everybody felt that today's conditions had been much harder than yesterday's.
I had landed not far from the road and when I got there, almost the first car stopped asking me if I wanted to go to Roldanillo. I said that I needed to go in the opposite direction (to La Union). So they turned around and offered me a lift; on the way they also stopped to pick up another member of our group (Dirk), who was walking along the road and then we got dropped off in the center of La Union. Many thanks!!!

But tomorrow, wx should be better...

moving on...

Yesterday was our last day in Piedechinche. As we're moving to Roldanillo for the next few nights, the 'goal' was to fly north as far as possible.

Butterfly

In the beginning I was not very keen on going XC, as (for the 'usual' problems) I have to land close to a possible pick-up location. And in some paces in the Valle the Cauca, these can be hard to find ;-((
In the end day turned out much better than anticipated (and than the privious days), so I also tried to move (slowly) north; right in the beginning I feared for a moment that I would have to land without having found a single thermal. But after 'digging' myself out 3 times I made it to Buga (about 35kms from launch).

looking North (at beginning of flight)

landing just south of Buga (LZ at 12 o'clock)

After everyone had been picked up, we drove to Roldanillo, where we had dinner together, then we continued to our hotel in 'La Union', about 1okms north of Roldanillo.

Piedechinche

2 good days here at Piedechinche! But in order to get up and far you have to turn in thermals with 0.5m/s! And it is not mountain flying but rather flatland flying...

Overview: LZ 'Daedalos'

LZ

our finca

LZ in town (Santa Elena)

First days: Cali, Piedechinche

First of all: at our present finca, the internet connection is EXTREMELY slow, so blogging and especially posting pictures will be kept to a minimum  - sorry about that!

Saturday morning I went on a little cuty tour of Cali: in short words: I can see no real reason, why anyone should visit Cali! There is almost nothing to see, no old city center, only very few 'special' buidings...

Cali: la Ermita

In the afternoon our group met at the airport and we were driven to our finca, where we'll stay about 4 nights. My first impression: it looks like a 'good' group; there is even a pilot I know from 'my former life' ;-) 
Dinner together at a local restaurant...

Yesterday (Sunday): after a briefing in the morning everybody was 'equipped' with local SIM-cards. but it took quite a while until all of us had a 'working' phone...

Tine (Siegl) helping us through the spanish set up menus

While strolling through the street to buy some water, I encountered Nancy and Carlos, whom I've met on a trip to Marocco a few years ago; they are doing also a 2 weeks trip of Colombia, so most probably we'll 'bump' into each other again.

Then it was up to the mountain: being Sunday, lots of pilots and also tandem pilots flocked to launch. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy and not many managed to get above launch or even away; I was not among them...

main launch

PWC: Piedechinche

In the morning I got a message from my friend Zak in Roldanilo, that the PWC 'was heading my way' today; ie that goal for todays task in the PWC Superfinal had been set in Piedechinche. As this was only about 1 hour from COL, I decided to go there and see them arrive. I made it with less than 10 minutesto spare , before the first pilot arrived - I had completely underestimated how fast they are flying in such competitions...

Nicole made it as well, and was rather surprised to find me at the LZ. But this year's competition here in Colombia unfortuantely is not one of her best...
Tomorrow there  will be the final task (wx permitting), but even a very good flight won't bring her back to the podium.

Results can be found here.

Travel

Luckily my flight from ZRH left durng a 'window' with relatively good weather between the two storms that hit Switzerland (and completely shut down operations in AMS). The rest has been uneventful and smooth.

the route from MAD to BOG (about 8200km)

Portugese Atlantic coast (looking towards Lisbaon)

On arrival in BOG it was raining heavily, but CLO was dry. Door-to-door the trip has taken a little over 23hrs...

slowly getting ready...

...almost ready to go: first 2 weeks on an organized trip with 'Fly with Andy', then another week 'solo'...

Bericht von der Reise 2017: hier

I just hope that the present storm situation here in Switzerland will not upset my flight schedule: ZRH - MAD (Madrid) - BOG (Bogota) - COL (Cali); the actual trip then starts on Saturday.

PWC Superfinal 2017 - Results

Results can be found here...

 

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PWC Superfinal 2017 - Roldanillo (Colombia)

Tomorrow the PWC Superfinal 2017 will start in Roldanillo with the openig ceremony; first competition day is 10.January. Prize giving on 20.Januray...
I'll keep my fingers crossed, that Nicole will have a successful competition!

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