Fanas

Unfortunately the gondola to the Weisshorn in Arosa had shut down last Sunday, even though some lifts (like Hörnlibahn) are kept running until tomorrow (15.5.) So I had chosen to go to Fanas. Basically a nice day; a little bit like the last flying day in Arosa: lots of high altitude (Cirrus) clouds in the beginning. BUT: lots of pilots, lots of snow on launch (Eggli) and very little headwind (mostly light tailwind)... Andy came with me and could launch with no tailwind. Already in the beginning I had my doubts about my ability to launch in these conditions.

Eggli

So after having waited quite a while and watching several failed launches (due to the high snow and/ or tailwind) I took the gondola down to 'Mast 4'. Here lots of Hangies were setting up, as this launch can be easily reached by car.

HG launch at 'mast 4' - Plandadein is the meadow at 12 o'clock in the pix

From here I walked to 'Plandadein', where there was no snow and even some nice head wind.

Plandadein

Plandadein

I had a pretty good launch but I expected only a short flight and a landing in Grüsch. 

Eggli

But luckily I made it up to above 2000m and could finally land in Schiers, where I had parked my car  :-))

Arosa

After the 'Föhn' (last weekend) is before the 'Föhn' (this weekend) ;-)
But Friday finally was a good day - without the cirrus clouds it most probably would have been an excellent day. But so, the thermals have been (very) weak at times ant it was hard work to stay up.

Peter

Marlies

I went up for another flight, this time blue skies! But no thermals - at least I couldn't find them ;-)

Arosa

Sorry for the long break in blogging, but the wx didn't really cooperate since I have returned from Colombia ;-) But at least I had my glider checked and the reserve repacked in the mean time.
Hoping to finally make my first flight in 2018 from the Weisshorn, I had travelled to Arosa the day before. But I knew beforehand, that there was a big chance of too much wind...

...and so it turned out: not really 'Föhn' yet, but coming from the west. It probably would have been flyable, but there was no point in taking any risk just for an extended 'sledder'.
As I was about to take the gondola down, Marlies saw me and invited me to a tea and some small talk. Many thanks to Marlies and Peter - hope will be flying next Friday!

Föhn clouds

Florida and return

Last day here in Colombia...
Today Johnatan (from Dedalos, with driver Florian) took me to 'Florida', a site near Cali/ south of the airport. In order to have good flying here, the sun needs to heat up the flats/ foothills. In the morning, when we decided to go there, it looked like it might work, but upon arrival on launch: lots of clouds...

...another nicely groomed Colombian launch...

They looked like they would thin out later in the afternoon, but I was unable to wait that long, as I needed to be at the airport around 1600, in order to have enough time to change and pack my gear properly for the return flight.

looking towards the town of Florida

In order to strech out my flight as much as possible, I was scratching all the way down and in the end had to make an out-landing.
Then I was taken back to the airport. Here I had hoped to rent a day room for a couple of hours, but unfortunately all rooms seemed to be occupied, so I had to change -without showering- in a bathroom  :-((

Even though I had planned a connexion time of >2hrs in BOG, this was (almost) not enough, as the Avianca flight from CLO arrived 1.5hrs late. In BOG I had to pass through immigration  and (again) through security, I finally arrived at the gate at STD, but was by far not the last one ;-)

route flown: 9hr 25min

Boeing 787 (Dreamliner) descending over Spain

Due to favorable winds the Avianca flight BOG-MAD arrived in MAD almost on schedule. I had been able to sleep a little. As I had renounced dinner, I needed 'something' to keep me going before the final leg to ZRH ;-)

'Culeton de Ternera' (500gr)

MAD-ZRH (Iberia A319): perfectly on time! Beautiful sunset over the Alps.

Mont Blanc

...again...

Swiss Alps: Eiger, Mönch

Picked up by Ruth - MANY thanks, but of course not only for the pick up!!

Piedechinche: last flights

Much less clouds than on most days during the whole trip: promising?!

Again to Piedechinche 'Seven': today it probably would have paid off to launch earlier... By the time I was finally ready to launch, the thermals looked like 'having Siesta'. It took me close to 40min (!) to climb above launch for the first time on this flight and it didn't get much better. I seemed to be always in the wrong place, so I could't really take advantage of the seemingly good conditions.

So after 1hr 40mins I was back on 'terra firma' - a bit frustrated by my 'performance' ;-)

Back to 'Seven' for a second try; this time everything went much smoother; I was able to turn also in rather weak thermals and had a rather nice, 45min flight with a landing right beside my hotel :-))

Landing can be made either on the soccer pitch or on the field 'below' the hotel.

As this was my last night here in Colombia before flying back, I enjoyed a(nother) nice piece of beef.
 

Piedechinche

Tuesday: the first day 'on my own' here in Colombia ;-)  Well, as a pilot you are rarely on 'your own' in this country during this time of the year...
After breakfast I went into town (or whatever you want to call 'Santa Elena'), bought some water and organized a taxi to take me to the LZ.
Here I had to wait a while before the jeep had 'collected' enough pilots to make it worth while for them to drive up to launch. While waiting I met Bill from Alaska and as chance would have it, he knows Stacy from Utah...
He also introduced me to Johnatan, a local pilot, who also offers guiding, so with good weather I might visit a site called 'Florida' near Cali during the next couple of days.
For the first time here I was taken to 'Belo Horizonte'-launch, another nicely prepared TO with good infrastructure: ample space, restaurant, kiosk, toilets...

Bello Horizonte

Unfortunately the sky was cloud covered (again), so I had 2 options: try to climb in the small local thermal (as Bill tried to do) or glide straight out over the LZ and try to find some lift in the flats. As this had worked twice for me before, I choose the second option. But it remained a sledder (called 'piana' here), as I couldn't find any lift...

... so quickly I was back at Johnatan's place at the LZ.
For a moment in the afternoon, the sn broke through and it looked as a flight might be possible - but I didn't try. So I spent the afternoon in my hotel 'Siga la Vaca' in Santa Elena - they have the best internet connection of the whole of my trip ;-)

Wednesday: started of with a cloud covered sky - not very promising :-((
But fortunately around noon it started to clear up, so I drove to the LZ again. As for the moment I was the only pilot wanting a ride, I had again to wait a while. They want at least 4 pilots in the car...

Bello Horizonte

Today I had a really nice flight: almost 40kms in less than 2hrs -a few minutes 'cloudtime' included, but I could see my feet at all times  ;-)

For the first time I had to wait rather long (> 30mins) before somebody stopped; but the waitwas  wortwhile, as I was brought right back to my hotel.
It's called 'Siga la Vaca' and for the first time during my vist this hotel has hot water in the shower! Also the WiFi is really fast and the food is very good; it's actually the best restaurant in town.

Roldanillo: last day

Completely contrary to yesterday, I woke up to an almost cloudless sky. So again (together with André and Basil)  took a taxi  los Tanques. Although we arrived rather early, many pilots had arrived even earlier.

Nice CUs started to form with a much higher cloudbase than yesterday. So off I went for my last flight here at Roldanillo: first north towards la Union. As I feared I wouldn't be able to cross beyond this town and thus would have to land early, I turned around and headed south, passing Roldanillo and 'Agua Panelas' launch.
I think even  more pilots have been flying today than yesterday: the XContest is full of flights from Roldanillo (and other launches) in the Cauca Valley.

Agua Panelas

So a little short of 2 hours I landed in Bolivar, from where I returned to Roldanillo by bus.

Here I picked up my gear at Sully's and Zak's house (where I had deposited it earlier this mornig when checking out of my hotel). Then I called a taxi and was driven to Santa Elena (Piedechinche) - about 2hrs.
Interestingly a taxi driver is not allowed to go just anywhere; if he wants to leave his 'region' he needs a written permission...

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.