Merci Vincent pour ces photos!
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Friday, 7 August 2020
Plan Praz (Chamonix)
Finally conditions have improved! Today I could make a nice flight together with Vincent in the Chamonix area: taking-off at Plan Praz (below Brevent) then west to Passy; turning at Varan and landing in Chamonix (Savoy) after 1hr 45min :-)) Rather surprisingly I had been able to keep up with Vincent on the transitions: speed- and also glide- wise.
Vincent: thanks for showing me the way ;-)
Launch at Plan Praz
le Brevent
Planz Praz (looking East): Argentiere 
Vincent
heading towards Passy
Plaine Joux (Passy): launch (where we have flown yesterday)
Varan (turning point)
Heading back to Chamonix...
Chamonix: LZ Bois du Bouche (left lower corner); LZ Savoy: field on right side
And to finish off a very nice day: a 'typical' French dinner (Cote de Boeuf) in the company of Claire and Vincent.
Thursday, 6 August 2020
le Prarion, Passy Plaine Joux, Sunset
A very hot and stable day. Just 2 (extended) sledders for me, but great company by Vincent and magnificent views!
In the morning 'le Prarion', reached by gondola from 'les Houches.
Pano looking East towards Chamonix, Mt.Blanc
Pano looking North: LZ in the middle
Later in the afternoon Vincent took me to 'Passy -Plaine Joux': again great views but little lift :-(
Beautiful sunset in the Chamonix Valley
Verbier
With the promising forecast I decided to travel to Wallis. Overnight I stayed in Niederwald, just a few kilometers to the east of Fiesch.
But in the morning I decided to go to Verbier (instead of Fiesch). The main reason: I the evening I wanted to be in Les Houches (near Chamonix), so I can fly for the next few days together with my friend Vincent, who lives there.
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| Pano looking West |
Unfortunately the thermal activity was unusally weak, even if the parameters looked good:
- post frontal,
- cold night,
- little wind.
The only thing I can immagine: as it has rained very heavily during the last two days, there was just too much humidity left in the ground, so the sun's energy was spent in drying up the ground...
Anyway, after 3 hours of parawaiting, I also launched and could fly for close to 1.5hrs. Shortly before landing I was working on my wing-overs: I had a right wing-tip collapse and when the tip reopened rather violently the stabilo line snapped :-(
Luckily I found a company nearby (in Bex/ Monthey) specilizing (among other things) in paraglider repair: Asagiri SA
Even as it already was well past 1800, the guy there agreed to wait for my arrival at 1900 and he fixed the problem right away: that's what I call perfect/ outstanding service!! - and I have never been a customer there before...
I finally arrived in Chamonix just as the sun was setting.
Friday, 31 July 2020
Arosa
Launching from the Weisshorn was (just) a bit tricky, as there is always a X-wind from the left (caused by the thermals coming up 'Rööslihang'). But finally I managed a good launch :-)
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| Pano looking SW (Aroser Rothorn) |
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| above launch |
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| Badi (Untersee) |
Just flying locally for a bit more than an hour, taking pictures and landing in 'Isla'.
For dinner Ruth invited me to Lamm&Leu (Steakhouse). Here I was served one of the best pieces of meat (filet) I ever had :-))
Saturday, 25 July 2020
Bündner Rigi
Day trip to 'Bündner Rigi', near Ilanz. The thermal fcst for today didn't look too promising - and so it tuned out: 2 flights of about 30', searching for the weak lift (and trying to center it)...
But I'm still pretty happy: 2 good (reverse) launches and also 2 good (spot) landings.
In the afternoon the LZ in Ilanz West can become tricky, when the valley wind (coming from Chur) gets too strong. In this case I have been advised that TOP-landing (or just anywhere below TO) would be the better/ safer option. But when I landed the base wind has been less than 20kmh.
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| Launch: looking NE: (Ilanz), Flims, Chur |
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| Luven; looking up to launch (appox below 3rd highest point) |
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| LZ in Ilanz (looking West) |
But I'm still pretty happy: 2 good (reverse) launches and also 2 good (spot) landings.
In the afternoon the LZ in Ilanz West can become tricky, when the valley wind (coming from Chur) gets too strong. In this case I have been advised that TOP-landing (or just anywhere below TO) would be the better/ safer option. But when I landed the base wind has been less than 20kmh.
Thursday, 23 July 2020
Alp Scheidegg
A spontaneous excursion to Alp Scheidegg with Andy.
I have been here for last time in 2017 and it's actually the first flight since I have become a member of the DCZO (Delta Club Zürcher Oberland) a few months ago ;-)
At first I almost sank out, but luckily I could 'dig me out' above the LZ ;-)
Just cruising around for about 40' before landing at LZ 'Hüebli' - this time there was no thermal waiting to safe me.... This is always a challenging LZ, as the wind can suddenly switch around.
Many thanks to Maya & Andy for the ride!
I have been here for last time in 2017 and it's actually the first flight since I have become a member of the DCZO (Delta Club Zürcher Oberland) a few months ago ;-)
At first I almost sank out, but luckily I could 'dig me out' above the LZ ;-)
Just cruising around for about 40' before landing at LZ 'Hüebli' - this time there was no thermal waiting to safe me.... This is always a challenging LZ, as the wind can suddenly switch around.
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| 'Hüebli' |
Tuesday, 21 July 2020
Fiesch
Day trip to Fiesch using the 'Tageskarte' for the railways: departing home at 0630, arriving Fiesch at 0955 and ready to launch by about 1100. With this option (Tageskarte) I would be able to land ANYwhere and travel back home without the need to by an additional ticket.
The plan: heading East across Furkapass and possibly even further: Oberalp-Disentis-???
According to the fcst, this should have been possible; even with a light (N)W-wind helping...
Even though I had hoped to land (much) more to the East, it has been a very nice and interesting flight in good conditions - at least until Furkapass ;-)
I arrived at home shortly after 1900.
My flight on ayvri.com.
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| quite some pilots flying, but not too crowded... |
The plan: heading East across Furkapass and possibly even further: Oberalp-Disentis-???
According to the fcst, this should have been possible; even with a light (N)W-wind helping...
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| Finsteraarhorn (4274 müM) |
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| over Grimselpass, looking East: Dammastock (left), Rhone glacier, Furkapass |
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| Gletsch, Grimselpass (Totsee) |
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| Belvedere, Rhone glacier (or what's left of it...) |
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| Pano looking West: Goms, Grimselpass, Grimselsee, Finsteraarhorn, Räterichsbodensee |
Until reaching Furkapass I made good (albeit slow) progress. I didn't see any paragliders crossing the pass, just 3 hangliders coming back from the East. Unfortunately I made a major mistake here which most probably cost me the continuation further East :-(
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| Realp |
So I got (too) low into the Urseren Valley. I didn't much like the aerology here: NW-wind at altitude, East wind lower. Therefore I decided to land at Realp near the railway station. I could have reached Andermatt, but there is normally much more wind and it's a longer walk from the LZ to the train station. With less than a minute to spare I made the train to Andermatt :-)
Instead of flying across Oberalppass and then via Disentis towards Chur I took the train along the same route. The 'Bündner Oberland' certainly looked rather promising...
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| Sedrun, looking promising |
Even though I had hoped to land (much) more to the East, it has been a very nice and interesting flight in good conditions - at least until Furkapass ;-)
I arrived at home shortly after 1900.
My flight on ayvri.com.
Wednesday, 15 July 2020
Gerlitzen (Dual Tandem SIV) -2 / Ikuma2 with Colin Popa
2nd day of my SIV at Ossiachersee: 2 more flights with Colin Popa on the tandem and a solo flight.
Finally: the exit of the fly-back worked; also the controlled spirals posed no problems. We didn't do any wing overs today as for me the other manouvres take priority as they are saftey relevant.
But launching has been quite hard: just a light wind out of the west. On the shallow slope this required long and hard running (tandem and solo). On the solo flight I just did 1 long spiral: ROD > -14m/s, but not a very high g-load (yesterday we measured 3.8 - 4.5g)
After these three flights Andy and I drove all the way home. Probably we could have made some more flights as the wx stayed (again!) better than forecasted.
2 most interesting days training with Colin Popa! - Mersi mult!!
Conclusions:
- the exit of the fly-back still need some more work; but Colin thinks that most probably I should be able to manage if worst comes to worst. He also thinks that it might be better Not to control the exit at all (= just hands up), as on a B-glider the wing shouldn't dive too much in front; this might actually be better than a 'screwed up' exit by not properly catching the shooting wing and thus creating another stall (or worse).
- controlled spiral: very good, but the 'normal' exit uses a lot of altitude. He proposed a training session somewhere in the future, where he would show me an 'emergency' exit of the spiral, which uses less altitude...
- wing overs: I'll train them on my own.
Ikuma 2-30
I have decided to order the Niviuk Ikuma 2-30 as a replacement of my 777 Rook 2 - and not the U-Turn Vision L.
I'd still like to test the 777 Rook 3, but the openings of the cells are extremely narrow, which makes the glider a bit hard to launch in nil-wind conditions, as it needs to be guided until it is completely over the pilots head - which could a bit hard for me due to my damaged left shoulder. But everybody keeps telling me that otherwise it has great performance. Additionally, nobody (not even 777!) can tell, when the R3 will finally be available for testing...
I've been told that delivery time should be 2-3 weeks. The custom design (shown in an earlier post) would take 10-11 weeks, which is simply too long.
It has been a tough desicion as I liked both gliders in the tests.
The Ikuma2 is the more 'modern' design. I think that the B2C-steering is a clever idea, not only to control the glider in accelerated flight, but also to actually thermal in weak conditions. (In strong thermals it doesn't really matter if you loose a bit of performance by controlling the wing via the brakes). The max weight is a bit higher (130kg vs 125kg), so I'm actually not flying overweight. The accelerator on the Ikuma2 needs a bit less power to activate and I can reach the lines for making big ears without problems. On the Vision a technical fix would have been necessary in order for me to easily reach these lines.
You might say that this is not a very important point, but with the ever increasing performance of these gliders, flying spirals as well as holding Big Ears for en extended period becomes IMHO more important in order to get down/ loose altitude.
A small -but not unimportant- detail: the dealer selling the Ikuma will trade-in my Phi Maestro, for which I have not found a buyer in the last 5 months. I won't get very much for the Maestro, but I'll be finally 'rid' of this glider. I'll keep the Rook 2 as a 'spare' and I can take this wing along on a future voyage and then leave it abroad...
Finally: the exit of the fly-back worked; also the controlled spirals posed no problems. We didn't do any wing overs today as for me the other manouvres take priority as they are saftey relevant.
But launching has been quite hard: just a light wind out of the west. On the shallow slope this required long and hard running (tandem and solo). On the solo flight I just did 1 long spiral: ROD > -14m/s, but not a very high g-load (yesterday we measured 3.8 - 4.5g)
After these three flights Andy and I drove all the way home. Probably we could have made some more flights as the wx stayed (again!) better than forecasted.
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| flying towards Kanzelhöhe |
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| LZ |
2 most interesting days training with Colin Popa! - Mersi mult!!
Conclusions:
- the exit of the fly-back still need some more work; but Colin thinks that most probably I should be able to manage if worst comes to worst. He also thinks that it might be better Not to control the exit at all (= just hands up), as on a B-glider the wing shouldn't dive too much in front; this might actually be better than a 'screwed up' exit by not properly catching the shooting wing and thus creating another stall (or worse).
- controlled spiral: very good, but the 'normal' exit uses a lot of altitude. He proposed a training session somewhere in the future, where he would show me an 'emergency' exit of the spiral, which uses less altitude...
- wing overs: I'll train them on my own.
Ikuma 2-30
I have decided to order the Niviuk Ikuma 2-30 as a replacement of my 777 Rook 2 - and not the U-Turn Vision L.
I'd still like to test the 777 Rook 3, but the openings of the cells are extremely narrow, which makes the glider a bit hard to launch in nil-wind conditions, as it needs to be guided until it is completely over the pilots head - which could a bit hard for me due to my damaged left shoulder. But everybody keeps telling me that otherwise it has great performance. Additionally, nobody (not even 777!) can tell, when the R3 will finally be available for testing...
 |
| Niviuk Ikuma 2 |
I've been told that delivery time should be 2-3 weeks. The custom design (shown in an earlier post) would take 10-11 weeks, which is simply too long.
It has been a tough desicion as I liked both gliders in the tests.
The Ikuma2 is the more 'modern' design. I think that the B2C-steering is a clever idea, not only to control the glider in accelerated flight, but also to actually thermal in weak conditions. (In strong thermals it doesn't really matter if you loose a bit of performance by controlling the wing via the brakes). The max weight is a bit higher (130kg vs 125kg), so I'm actually not flying overweight. The accelerator on the Ikuma2 needs a bit less power to activate and I can reach the lines for making big ears without problems. On the Vision a technical fix would have been necessary in order for me to easily reach these lines.
You might say that this is not a very important point, but with the ever increasing performance of these gliders, flying spirals as well as holding Big Ears for en extended period becomes IMHO more important in order to get down/ loose altitude.
A small -but not unimportant- detail: the dealer selling the Ikuma will trade-in my Phi Maestro, for which I have not found a buyer in the last 5 months. I won't get very much for the Maestro, but I'll be finally 'rid' of this glider. I'll keep the Rook 2 as a 'spare' and I can take this wing along on a future voyage and then leave it abroad...
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