Arosa (daytrip)

XCtherm 'promised' rather good conditions, so I headed once more to Arosa. My idea: launch from Weisshorn, then fly via 'Seta' (above Langwies) and the Schanfigg valley towards Chur, try to cross to Calanda and then westbound Flims, Brigels... and back to Chur, where I had parked my car in the morning.

Seta

After a good launch I needed some time to make enough altitude to cross to Seta; there good climbs to 3000m. Unfortunately nothing above Peist so I had to glide to Calfreisen, where I could get back up to about 2650m. With this altiudde I crossed towards Calanda, arriving there at around 1550. Unfortunately I just found some weak, but bumpy thermals... Landing in Chur after 1h35'.

Montalin, Calanda

looking North towards Landquart

Fazit: the first part (until Montalin/ Chur) worked more or less as I had planned/ hoped for, but after crossing towards Calanda it has been 'game over' ;-)

But as far as I can see, not all pilots could connect after this crossing...

Arosa with Oli (and Andy)

 

The last 3 days I've spent in Arosa together with my friends Oli and Andy (who joined us for the first day).

Really nice conditions on launch as well as in the air: not too much wind, nice thermals and cloudbase > 3100m. On Wednesday I made 2 flights landing at the Middlestation after the first flight; Oli made 2 flights as well, but he toplanded the Weisshorn after his first flight; Andy 'just' made 1 flight, as he tried to fly direction home; he finally landed near Landquart. So in the evening all three us had big smiles on our faces ;-)

 

Thursday: I just made 1 flight; Oli flew via Davos-Klosters and landed in Schiers.

looking South towards Engadin: Piz Kesch, Piz Palü, Bernina, Piz Rosegg, Piz Aela..

 

Friday: Föhn in the forecast... In the morning Oli and I decided not to fly (even though certainly a flight would have been possible), but considering the fact that the last two days had been excellent, there seemed to be no point in 'spoiling' this great experience by a flight in possible borderline conditions.

Arosa - 2 days

Saturday: the RegTherm didn't look very promising... and the first flight has been accordingly: just an extended sledder. So for the second flight I didn't have high hopes. But after half an hour of weak thermals the day got better :-)) Landing after 1h20', as I wanted to make another flight.

Isla

 

By chance my approach/ landing was filmed by Igor and his drone (many thanks!!):

Unfortunately a very 'typical' Taggi-landing ;-)

For the third flight I launched shortly before 1600, which is rather late for early March. But luckily thermal activity hadn't stopped yet and I could even cross towards 'Tjierflue', 'Medergen' and 'Seta' (and trying to get back).

above 'Langwies': 'Seta', 'Fondei'

Medergen

 

But by now (1645) thermal activity had almost stopped so I couldn't make it back to Arosa and had to land in 'Litzirüti' (near the train station).

Sunday: as the RegTherm looked much better, I've had hopes of making some good flights...

BUT: contrary to all forecasts (even those from the very morning) clouds arrived much earlier than predicted :-(

Therefore I launched without great expectations, but already the first thermal over Tschuggen got me to above 3100m and I could glide back to Weisshorn to take some pix.

Weisshorn

Then back to the same thermal; at 3000m I decided to glide towards Langwies/ Seta (as yesterday). There I could climb to 2800m which was enough to get me back Arosa. 

Pano over Langwies

 

The thermal at Seta is rather reliable and strong, but never a 'nice' one ;-) Coming back to Maran (at 2000m) it would have been possible to get high again as there was lift almost anywhere.

> Immagine how the day could have been without all these clouds which certainly dampend the thermal activity...

Webinar: Leeloo - Zwischenbericht

>> sorry - again German only as the Webinar on Zoom will be held in German! <<<

...so wird er aussehen, wenn er den Weg zu mir gefunden hat...

Am Mittwoch, 10. März 2021 um 2000 findet auf Zoom ein weiteres Webinar zum Thema 'Leeloo rising' statt: ein Zwischenbericht mit Hintergrundinfos, Spannendes aus dem Testalltag, eine kuriose Geschichte aus der Zulassung und vieles mehr:

• Stand der Entwicklung und Zulassung
• Feedback und Wünsche unserer Probe- und Testpiloten
• Neues aus unserer Produktion in Kroatien
• Der Zeitplan
• Unsere Erfahrung mit der Leeloo in der harten Frühjahrsthermik
• Geschwindigkeit und Polare
• Videos und Fotos
• Erfahrungen aus dem direkten Vergleich mit all den Hochleistern in Bassano

 

11.3. Die Aufzeichnung des Webinars kann noch für einige Tage mittels diesem Link auf Vimeo angesehen werden.

Der Link zum ersten Blogeintrag zu Leeloo.

Die Webseite für Leeloo

 

Cari: finally :-))

As I only made up my mind this very morning about going to Cari again, Andy unfortunately couldn't come along. The Regtherm for Bedretto/ Leventina looked rather promising. 

 

The Föhndiagram on the other hand gave some North-overpressure - increasing in the afternoon. This normally means no flying in Ticino, as Northföhn can be (very) turbulent.

When arriving at the middlestation of the chairlift it really looked as the Föhndiagramm would be correct: 'strong' Bergwind (= catabatic wind), thus permitting no TO and I feared that I had made today's trip in vain... Luckily on launch there was almost nil tailwind. But this made for a tricky launch with lots of running. But I got away on the first try :-)

The first part of the flight was rather slow, but then conditions improved and it became a really great and enjoyable flight with ample, nice and strong thermals, not too much wind and almost no turbulence.

Pano looking North: Ambri (left side); Val Bedretto at 12 o'clock; Lago Ritom (rt side).

I turned around just before Airolo.

Pano looking south

Valle Blenio: Aquarossa

For the final leg after the southern turnpoint (short of Biasca) there was no need for a single circle; that's why I managed an average speed of > 20kmh over the whole 2.5hrs (which is unusally high for my style of flying).

Faido: LZ

Looking at my flightlog: this has been my longest flight since August'20 (19.8. Scuol with PeterW).

The flight on ayvri.com

Arosa

24.2. Even knowing that Cari today would have been excellent, I elected not to go there: too many people in a overcrowded bus from Faido to Cari, as well as on launch... At least 70 flights have been uploaded to XContest from Cari.

So I drove to Arosa where I could make 2 nice flights. Unfortunately the thermals have been rather weak and so it has been 'hard work' to make the flight last more than an hour ;-) Conditions on launch have been good for both flights.

25.2. Much more demanding conditions on launch: gusty South wind. After about 2 hrs conditions improved, but contrary to expectations/ yesterday thermal activity has been rather weak :-(

Cari

After I had blown too many launches when visiting Cari the week before, I used the last three days for some groundhandling/ low wind speed launches. On the first of these days I went with Andy to Alp Scheidegg. He took some videos and tried to help me 'fix' my foreward launches, but I'm not posting any of those videos as I look really very silly ;-)

22./23.2. Driving again to Cari (as on Monday the Föhn was still blowing strongly on the North side of the Alps). Unfortunately much more clouds than forcasted and almost no wind on launch. So this was going to be a test if my launchung skills had improved...

On the almost flat area I managed a good forward launch in very little wind (albeit only on the second attempt). There have even been some weak thermals so I managed to extend my flight to a little more than 50 minutes :-)  

As tomorrow the conditions are supposed to be better (less clouds), I'm staying overnight in nearby Airolo.

...not the perfect conditions for launching ;-)

The day looked better, but it was very hazy (due to dust from the Sahara desert) and conditions on launch have been even more demanding than yesterday. Also the high pressure (1035hpa) wouldn't allow for really good thermal devellopement.

But with some help I had a good launch (- thanks to the two pilots from Thun!) and flew for close to 1.5hrs :-)

launch area

Pano looking South

Cari is a really nice flying site for late winter/ early spring with good xc-potential - as long as the chair lift is running. Although on my 3 visits here so far the conditions for launching never have been really good: always tricky in nil wind or even a little from behind.

(Arosa) / (Cari)

 

2 daytrips to Arosa (24.1./ 4.2.), but due to the wind situation I didn't fly :-(

15.2. a (day)trip to Cari (Leventina, Tessin) with my friend Andy. Cari is a site I have not visited before; in winter the top launch at 2280m can be reached by chairlift ;-)  There are several lower launches as well - one even right in the village of Cari at approx 1600m.

Many (!) pilots -at least 50- had the same idea. Never since Covid started I have been in a public bus (from Faido to Cari) so tightly packed with people :-(

 Basically nice conditions with good thermals, little wind, but VERY cold!

But it has not been my day: on the rather shallow slope I blew the launch 3 times, then I was completely drenched in sweat and had to call it a day :-((

Andy landed after 1.25hrs due to feeling too cold. On XContest there are flights >4hrs - I don't know how those pilots do it...

riding down

Arosa - Bise

A rather unusual situation here on the Weisshorn: 'Bisen-Soaring' (soaring with NE-wind (= 'Bise')).

 

Second flight to Chur: just an extended sledder, but interestingly there couldn't be felt absolutely no influence of the 'Bise'; in Chur even a tendency of South-wind - strange...

the visor really helps to keep the face/ nose 'warm' ;-)

Calanda

 

Arosa -'mucho geilo' ;-)

 

Driving to Arosa in the morning I had serious doubts about the wx: the fcst had called for blue skies, but for a while it didn't look very promising. But luckily I was proved completely wrong. In Chur I was joined by my friend Oli and we rode the train together to Arosa. (As usual) first a flight to Arosa (-Obersee) then another one back to Chur and our cars. For me the day turned out to be the best early January flying day in Arosa so far ever!

 

Already the first flight lasted > 45' with nice thermals (> 3m/s); luckily I had my new heating gloves, otherwise the flight would not have lasted more than 15' ;-)

Chur: pano looking West (Domat-Ems)

 

On the flight to Chur we othbfound nice thermals above Maladers and our flights lasted about 60' :-))

Chur: Masans

Arosa -COLD!!

Daytrip to Arosa: I left my car in Chur, as the fcst for Wednesday was not looking good and therefore I wouldn't stay overnight in Arosa.

getting ready for launch

Surprisingly I found some nice thermals above Tschuggen and could climb about 250m; not surprisingly: after about 10' I had to leave the climbs due to VERY cold fingers :-((  (On the way home I got a replacement for my heating gloves who are just to old in order to cope anymore with such conditions.)

Unfortunatey the low stratus clouds (Hochnebel) appeared earlier than forcasted, so in Chur I had to find some 'holes' in order to get to my landing in Masans.

But it has not been as bad as it looks in the picture ;-)

Hopefully coming Friday I can make another daytrip.

Arosa - new windsock

 

Thanks for putting up a new windsock (- the last one had been destroyed by the Föhn). So it's possible ti check the wind again on the webcam.

Happy Holidays!

 'Life is what's happening to us 

while we are busy making different plans'

several authors/ adapted

 

 ...and I'm wondering when travel will be possible again without too many hassles and worries...

Arosa (Nov / Dec)

Several nice flights in Arosa, some even with some thermal assistance (17./18. Dec.)! On most days I made a flight to Arosa and then another one to Chur (and back to Arosa by train).

Golf course Domat-Ems