Piemonte: Cavallaria-2

What a difference to yesterday! Whereas yesterday everything was 'hard work' and tiresome (even Pierandrea Patrucco said that only the first 2 hours had been 'fun', the rest just sh...t - so he landed at his home after 'only' 4 hours). Today on the other hand was a flying day right out of the 'picture book'!

Yesterday we launch from 'Cima Cavallaria' (1430m) around 1100; today from 'Manifestazione' (1390m) after 1300. This meant, that probably the wind on Cima Cavallaria would have been too strong...

'Manifestazione'

Also contrary to yesterday, where it took me 2hrs before I could climb in a thermal for a few hundert meters, today already the first thermal brought me to more than 500m above launch :-))

heading west towards 'Santa Elisabetta'

I atempted to fly West, hoping to make it to 'Santa Elisabetta'-launch, which I eventually did :-))

coming back...

So after a little more than 2 hours I was back at the LZ in 'Lessolo/ Calea'.
I consider this so far to be the best/ coolest/ nicest/ most interesting flight in 2018.

Piemonte: Cavallaria-1

Another fine day here in northwestern Italy (Piemont). Virtually no clouds, much better visibility than yesterday. At 0915 I was at Lessolo, the LZ for Cavallaria, where Pierandrea Patrucco (the local 'high-flyer' with 6-800hrs on PG annually!) had organized for me a seat in the 'navetta'. The ride to the upper launch takes close to 50mins.
Piearandrea Patrucco: find his flights here

'Cavallaria' (upper launch, 1430msl) - looking SW

finally - spring is here!

enough space for everyone

'Maestro' Patrucco launching

Conditions on launch were perfect: just enough headwind to permit an easy reverse launch.
Patrucco launched (almost) first and was quickly out of sight; I think none of the other XC-hounds, whose plan was to follow him had been able to do so.
I on the other hand (almost as usual) lauched last...

'Cavallaria' -upper launch (left of my boot); Andrate - on the other side of the valley (above boot))

even the 'Matterhorn' could be seen

looking west towards 'Santa Elisabetta' (another launch here)

Unfortunately today I didn't seem able to 'center' the thermals properly; rarely I could make 3 or 4 consecutive turns before I lost the lift :-((   It took me almost 2 hours before I could center 1 (one!) thermal for a climb of several hundert meters.

So I 'jo-joed' around for about 2.5hrs, never getting above 1800m...

LZ in Lessolo

Piemonte: Andrate

As promised a few weeks ago, my italian friend Ennio (the new president of FIVL -the italian free flight organisation) mailed on Monday, telling me that a few nice days could be expected in nortwestern Italy. So at short notice I packed my stuff and headed south :-))

Ennio

Andrate's upper launch: 'San Giacomo'

With 2 cars and 6 HGs we headed up to launch, where conditions looked pretty good with the wind coming straight in - even a little strong at times.

looking West towards 'Cavallaria'

'Cavallaria' is another good lauch, but the 'navetta' does not take hangliders, so the always go to 'San Giacomo'.

large LZ in 'Borgofranco'

So with an 2hrs flight I landed in the main LZ; later I drove 2 pilots back up to launch, so they could retrieve their cars.

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...