Stubaicup -day 2: no fly due wind/ wx :-((

A word about my accommodation here: Thalerhof in Telfes: great (and quiet) location; very good relation price-quality! Extremely friendly hosts; excellent breakfast and dinner (I had half-board); good WiFi; spacious rooms.

a part of the breakfast buffet

Friday's dinner...

The 'surcharge' for this excellent dinner was only 15EUR/ night - a real great value!

 

Stubaicup -day 1

For the first time I travelled to Austria to attend the Stubaicup. Even though the forecast didn't look very promising in advanc, once more this valley proved to have its own micro-claimate:  a bit of blue sky in the morning and thus even some weak thermals to prolong the (test) flights.

sunrise at my hotel: Thalerhof in Telfes

Elfer (left) Kreuzjoch/ Schlick2000 (right)

Quite some manufacturers are present and I had prepared in advance a list of possible wings I wanted to try if they would be available in 'L'. Unfortunately the Corona crisis can also be felt here as some brands didn't receive (yet) all gliders in all sizes. Among them Niviuk, where I wanted to test their Ikuma2. And also 777 didn't bring the Rook3 to Neustift. I could talk a little with the guy from this brand and he hopes that the 'L'-prototype will arrive from Sri Lanke within the next 5-6 weeks. Until I have not flown this glider I will not make a final desicion about a replacement of the Rook2 (resp Maestro).
 

Elfer launch

I have to say that the organisation is close to perfect: good information, lots of helpers on launch. I could setup, then walk to launch where the wing would be spread out and when ready to go the helpers would stop all other take-offs for a moment so there would be no incidents. I think this is especially important, as almost everybody is testing new wings and is concentrated on a good launch. LZ is HUGE, so even 10 ore more pilots landing at the same time shouldn't be a problem - provided everybody uses a bit of common sense ;-)

Today I flew 2 wings:
- Skyman CrossCountry2 (L)
- Sup'Air Leaf2 (L)

CrossCountry2

After a flight of little more than 12 minutes it's very hard to say a lot about a glider:
launching (zero head wind/ even a touch of tailwind) was easy! Some thermals permited a little climb, which felt good. The only thing I didn't like on the CrossCountry2: the split A-lines are attached so high up, that I'm unable to reach them with my (damaged) left arm... But Markus meant that this is something that could be fixed if I ever wanted to buy this wing.

Leaf2

Same as above; the flight lasted just 2 minutes longer ;-)  The Leaf2 has very long lines, at least much longer than on the CrossCountry2. Easy launch in almost no head wind. Grabing the split A-lines was no problem, but the brake handles are too small. Turning in the weak thermals felt comfortable as well. Packing the glider in the (too small) bag Sup'Air provided is a bit of a hassle.

777 Rook 3

Finally some information about the new Rook 3 from Triple Seven...

Info here: 777 Rook 3  or here

So far only one size (MS) has been certified and it will be probably May before the 'L' will be available...

Scheisshorn... Maestro

A (unfortunately) rather typical day here in Arosa on the Weisshorn with westerly wind.
It took more than 2 hours before launching became possible: first too much west wind with a possible rotor on launch, then for a while even SE-wind (= tail-wind).

if you're familiar with the area, then you know, that this is not the 'best' wind direction ;-)

Finally I could launch with almost zero tail-wind. The first launch in these conditions failed, but on the second one I got away without probems. Thanks to Marlies, Peter & Kiwi for their assitance!

Some light thermals above the Golf course allowed a climb of 350m and thus to extend the flight to almost 30 minutes.

BTW: my PHI Maestro 25 (LTF/ EN B) (105-130kg) is now up for sale: 10 flights, about 8 hours; bought Dec'19; price negotiable.

GGZSCHWEIZ/             or
GGZ Markt                     or
DHV Gebrauchtmarkt

2 days Arosa (Rook 2/ Maestro))

Thursday/ Friday I spent in Arosa, taking advantage of the nice weather: blue skies, little wind, but also no thermals. As the Maestro is still with Stefan, I was flying the Rook2.

777 Rook 2

2 flights to Chur and 1 flight to Arosa, landing beside the Obersee.
For me the feeling flying the Rook2 is rather different to the Maestro: with the R2 I feel completely at ease. But I have to admit that launching the Maestro is easier.

Chur / Calanda

Chur: train station

As I'm writing this post I got a message from Stefan: he has been flying the Maestro: with just 100kg on the low side of the weight range. He reported that everything felt 'normal'; for him the brakes are (now) too long... So I'm waiting for PHI's feed back on the data from last week's measurements.

Maestro

Today I brought the Maestro to Stefan in Kirchberg (SG). He took measurements of all the lines: A-, B- and C- lines are all within tolerances.
The brake lines as well... B U T   only considering that I have made them already longer by 14 (!) centimetres.
Even now they still seem to be a touch short. And on the first couple of flights they had been made longer only by 5cm, meaning that on those instances they had been about 9cm too short :-((
It's interesting too see that 'my feeling' made me prolong the lines to almost the correct value according the DHV-line sheet. 
Stefan is now mailing the data to PHI - I'm curios to see, what they will say...
He will also be flying the glider one of the next days (weather permitting/ and with lots of ballast)...

Stefan kiting my wing

For those wondering why I prolonged the brake lines in the first place (as this is something we're not supposed to do): after my accident in 2012, I cannot any more stretch out my left arm fully, so I need to have the brake handles a bit 'further down'.

SPC -last (flying) day here on La Palma

Time is flying - already 4 weeks are over and in less than 24 hours I'm back home in the cold ;-)
Today similar wx situation a as for the last days: nice thermals, so I attempted a flight South to Las Indias (and possibly beyond).

Las Indias (looking South: Vulcan San Antonio)

I didn't venture much more South as the wind influence from the East side of the island could be felt. Flying back was slow, but not too difficult. But after El Remo, the NW-wind could be clearly felt and for a moment it looked that I would have to land at Charco Verde...

Charco Verde

With a little luck I managed to reach the LZ at Puerto Naos :-)

Many thanks to Hartmut for his assistance and Gaby for driving down our car whenver it has been possible to fly!

Addendum: looking at some flights on XContest, it seems that I have been overly cautious when turning back at Las Indias...

Next week I'll have the Maestro checked and I'll also have a look at a new harness.

Campanarios / el Gallo

Another good flying day, but again under the 'threat' of possible strong NW-wind -which (again) didn't happen in the end. The wind didn't go above 20kmh - but who was to know beforehand? 
So we flew from Campanarios at midday: strong cimbs near the mountain, but I elected to fly towards Puerto Naos, so I could see any possible change in wind speed / direction.

la Bombilla

With the steady NW-wind we decided to try to fly el Gallo in the afternoon: ideal conditions for launching on the rather flat slope. Same again: good climbs near the mountain, but from there it's not possible to see what's going on at the LZ...

Campanarios (more) / Maestro

Another good flying day here on La Palma with lots of pilots :-)

Unfortunately the flight was cut short due to the increasing NW-wind, indicated by white caps on the sea. Warned by yesterday's experience, when 1 hour after my landing in Tazacorte the wind inceased well beyond anything a paraglider could handle, I (and most others) landed. Today this has been an unnecessary precaution, as the wind speed in the end didn't go above 18-22kmh...

Puerto Naos

re: Maestro - I don't think I'll ever get to really like this glider. I'm not sure, but it feels like I had more collapses in the last 7 flights with this glider than I had on the Rook2 the whole last year. And they have not been 'nice' collapses; they happen without any fore warning whatsoever. More collapses have been probably only avoided as I kept the brakes most of the time pulled a little - but everywhere they say 'let the glider fly'...
This glider here does not seem to be the glider I have read all the reviews about before making up my mind :-((
Back home I'll let someone familiar with this glider fly it and he shall then tell me if it is behaving like a PHI Maestro is supposed to...
If it is, then I'll fly my R2 until I get something more to my liking. If it isn't then I'll change it as well, because then it shouldn't have been sold to me in the first place.

(Wind) Campanarios

After 2 non-flying days due to wind, finally the first really good flying day :-))
Taking off from Campanarios, nice thermals got me to nearly 550m over launch.

Campanarios: Hart setting up

Villa Mamita (where we stayed this time)

With that much altitude I decided to attempt a flight to Tazacorte - something so far I have not yet been able to do from Campanarios. Thanks to the excellent conditions I made it even against a slight head wind :-)

looking North: Los Llanos

Puerto Tazacorte

It's amazing how fast the conditions can change here on the island: just about 1 hour after my landing the wind increased quite a bit and it would have not been flyable any more.

Torre del Time

Torre del Time

Just a sledder from 'Torre del Time' with virtually no thermals. Near 'el Time'-launch just 2 circles - but no altitude gain.

(over Mirador el Time) looking back to launch

Tazacorte

Puerto Tazacorte (landing is on the left side)

Later a nice dinner and sunset at 'Balcon Taburiente'.

Campanarios / (el Gallo)

Today 'just' a midday flight from Campanarios (lots of pilots....)
Conditions have not been good: not a single decent thermal so I landed after 50 mins :-(

Campanarios

Later (too late) we went to 'el Gallo'. Bernd was able to launch before the wind turned catabatic and he landed at Puerto Naos; Hart and I decided to drive down...

el Gallo

Campanarios

All of us (Hart, Bernd and I) got to fly today at least once from Campanarios with landing at Puerto Naos. On my first flight I launched maybe 15mins too early, but still managed to fly for > 1hr; this mostly on the lower ridge. Whereas pilots having launched later could climb above launch.

Bernd

Puerto Naos

Puerto Naos

I'm still 'struggling' a bit with the Maestro, as the handling is different from the Rook2: especially wing overs are much less fun.
On the second flight the WNW-wind could be clearly felt and the thermals have been a little rough - but maybe it's just the different feeling of the wing...

sunset at Puerto Naos

Later dinner at a fish restaurant in Puerto Naos.

(Roque de los Muchachos)

The last 2 days no flights have been possible due to the wind situation (south / Calima). As the wx otherwise has been really nice we did some sightseeing...
Today we wanted to fly from Roque de los Muchachos, as the fcst (and actual) wind showed the required west component for launch at 2100m. As none of us had flown from there, we haven't been sure of how to get there. 

Bernd & Hart

looking into the caldera

launch is on the hill on the left

Our route decision turned out to be the wrong one :-((  It took much longer and was much harder than we had immagined. Therefore we arrived on launch at least an hour later than anticipated. And probably this 'delay' was the reason we couldn't laucnh anymore safely: the wind had swiched to NE...  I tried to launch twice, but failed.

looking back to Roque de los Muchachos

Launch looking west; the first 500m of the flight look a bit tricky...

So we had to hike down: a long and arduous descent. This brought me really to my phisical limits...

La Palma (SPC) 'maiden flight'

After 2 weeks on La Palma with Ruth (pix here), yesterday the first flight on the island :-)
Not that I missed much last week anyway: the conditions have not been very good for paragliding.

And it was the first flight with my new PHI Maestro as well. Launching was extremely easy in the perfect conditions at Campanarios; the glider feels a bit more 'nervous' than the Rook2. As it was a late afternoon flight, I landed after about 40mins.

Unfortunately, the fcst for the next days is not too promising again: flying might just be possible...