Rotenflue

 

Whitsunday (Pentecost): (once more) rather better wx than in the fcst - so Ruth and I drove to Rickenbach (SZ) for a flight from Rotenflue: but many pilots and also flightschool had the same idea. Luckily launch is really large, so this dind't pose any real probem.

Launch(es) - there is even a HG ramp (upper rt corner)

Nice thermals got me to just above 2200m, from where the views have been really amazing.

Pano lookig NW: Vierwaldstättersee; Lauerzersee/ Rigi; launch/ Mythen

Pano looking south: Mythen; Vierwaldstättersee; Lauerzersee/ Rigi

Pano looking North: Schwyz. Mythen, launch

Landing after about 1h20': I really misjuged my approach! By looking at other pilots going in for landing it looked to me that the final approach seemed rather lifty, so I planned my approach accordingly. But I had misread the conditions: less lift, more wind which made me come in low and short; I landed in the high grass well short of the official LZ and the glider got 'draped' over a fruit tree :-((

With the help of a ladder (from the gondola station) and some pilots we have been able to get the glider untangeled. Many thanks to ???, Tabea and Ricardo for their assistance!!

Scheidegg

Already on 14.May I made a flight here, but as I didn't feel at all 'fit to fly', I landed already after only 15 minutes :-((

Today, the fcst predicted a short window in the afternoon, where the wind should be dropping and the sun shining. But at noon it was still raining a bit. At 1430 I looked again at the webcam on Scheidegg and saw some pilots flying. Andy graciously offered to drive me up to launch so we met at Hübli one hour later.

Pano looking NW towards Bachtel

Pano looking NE back to Scheidegg

Really nice thermals and not too much wind permitted flying for an hour before I landed at Hüebli (and my car) - thanks Andy!

Fanas (slight 'Föhn' tendency)

 Just a short flight in Fanas before the 'Föhn' became too strong...

On launch I have been recognized by Moni; at that time she's been a 'guide' for 'Fly with Andy' and we have met 2010 (in Quixada/ Patu) and 2011 (at San Fermo) - incredible! I think she's runnig her own business now: Flugrausch...

With hindsight it would have been possible to fly a little longer/ farther as the forecast has been a bit too pestimistic and the strenght of the 'Föhn' increased less rapidly.

But anyway: a good launch, a safe landing; the rest in between is a bonus and if the flight lasts more than an hour then everything is just great ;.)

Weissenstein

Sunrise on 'Weissenstein' (Webcam)

Daytrip with Andy and Oli to Weissenstein: very instable atmosphere with great climbs and big sinks.

Pano looking West

A bit too much west wind for my liking. This flight also shows how little experience I have in flying here: which of these (parallel) valleys do you follow: the first one, the second one, when to switch from one to the other..

Probably I was too 'fixed' on reaching my imaginary target ('Chasseral'), so I tried to push too much westward (against the wind). Thus I missed to right moment when I should have turned back and taken advantage of the wind (for going East). So I had to land; but I found a sports field very close to the train station at 'Sonceboz'. But a nice average speed for going against the wind (23.7kmh)... Back home by train in less than 2.5hrs. 

And that's what really sets Switzerland apart from all other countries. Everywhere you can flind great flying site and magnificient landscapes. But only here it's possible to reach many launches by kind of public transport (thus you can leave the car at home), then fly for as long as possible/ as convenient, land and normally within an hour you'll have a train or bus to take you back home :-))

Pano looking West: 'Bielersee' (left), 'Chasseral', the white 'dot' (middle of pix)

Sonceboz

...never before I'd heard of this village...

Andy made the same mistake and  was on the ground just a few minutes before me; Oli headed East and landed just short of 'Olten'.

Scheidegg (mAndy)

Taking advantage of the last (?!) flyable day of the rest of this week...

Andy kindly offered to drive up to launch - thanks a lot!

He made a short flight with my wing: interestingly it's much more to his liking than the Ikuma2 which he had flown at Galgenen lately.

Alp Scheidegg: launch

In the beginning thermals had been 'nice' and strong, but the longer the flight, the more the thermals became bumpier (especially low); landing after a good hour of flying.

PS: according to my flight log, today's flight is flight number 600 in my second life (or 2761 since 1988).

Fanas

Again to Fanas, with many other pilots who had the same idea ;-) But that's the problem this time of the year: most (if not all) gondolas, cable cars etc are now closed for maintenance and will reopen only around mid-June. Therefore pilots go wherever there is still a gondola running or where the site can be reached by bus/ car.

 

 

Unfortunately today I was less motivated and still a bit tired from yesterday's flight.

Pano looking East towards Stels/ Chrüz

In Stels I couldn't find any lift in the 'usual' places and when I finally did find something it has been a strong lee thermal due to the prevailing westerly wind. So I decided to call it a day and landed after about an hour.

Pano looking West: Schiers, Vilan, Sassauna (left to right)

Profly Leeloo

PS: on landing I met the first pilot who didn't ask me what wing I was flying, but he already knew the glider and wanted to know my opinion about the Leeloo ;-)

PPS: Reading some comments by pilots to their flights from Fanas today it seems that I'm not the only one who was not 'happy' about the wind...

Fanas - Arosa

What a day today :-)) Again I went to Fanas, unfortunately Andy couldn't join me :-(

I didn't realy have a plan: just fly. First Eastbound towards 'Fergenhütte': this is very often the first turnpoint for most pilots. Also today many pilots turned there and then flew back to Fanas and further West.

Pano looking East towards Klosters

I decided to fly towards Davos.

Davos

Here a bit of patience was needed to get high again, but once again above 3000m I decided to cross over towards Arosa and take advantage of the good conditiions and (maybe) land in Arosa.

Tijerflue (left), Medergen (right)

Piz Bernina, Piz Roseg

Pano looking towards Chur/ Calanda

For a moment I wanted to return towards Fanas and land in Schiers, but contrary to my experience for once only (big) sink at Langwies/ Seta! Therefore I had to turn around and landed in Arosa.
Actually this is the very first time I landed in Arosa without having launched from here!

Back to Schiers (where I had parked my car) by train (via Chur-Landquart).

The flight on ayvri.

Leeloo: no problems at all. Only with the risers I'm not completely happy: B-C-steering is only 'available' when flying accelerated (and then it's hard to reach with my left hand). On the Ikuma2 I used B-C-steering quite often when turning in weak thermals, as this was very efficient. And as mentioned earlier, the brake handles are attached to the risers only by a magnet and therefore tend to drop off easily (especially during preparations for TO)... But these are still my only 'complaints' so far.

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Fanas, (Galgenen)

Daytrip with Andy to Fanas: the thermal fcst looked pretty promising, but also indicated BKN clouds early in the afternoon.

Unfortunately the clouds arrived already before noon and thus made getting high quite difficult. Actually Andy didn't find anything worthwile and just had an extended sledder :-((

above launch, looking towards Schiers (center of pix)

I had a bit more luck, also due to some 'dummies' indicating some -initially really weak- thermals. Once above launch it became much easier. Turning in these weak thermals really is a strong point of this wing.

In the XContest there are some really long flights from this area, but they all launched earlier while it was still less cloudy.

'Eggli' (launch - center of pix)

(pix by Andy)

I landed after a bit more than an hour. Extending the flight time would have been easy...

Afterwards we drove to Galgenen, where Andy made a 'test' flght with my Ikuma2.

He liked the wing's ability to climb in thermals, the effectiveness of the speedsystem, but overall for him the wing was a bit to 'fidgety'. He likes a more 'stable' canopy, longer (and less direct) brake travel. So I'll have to look for somebody else to sell the Ikuma2 to ;-)

(Herlisberg), (Ramenegg), (Hummel), Galgenen

Today it took a while (and some driving) until I finally could find a site where everything was to my liking ;-)

The original plan in the morning had been: try to fly Heitersberg, a site above Baldeggersee facing East - well suited for the predominat 'Bise'.

Pano looking East: launch and Baldeggersee

As I arrived there, some pilots were flying, but their ground speed somtimes was almost nil; after watching for a while, I decided to come back here another time with (hopefully) less wind...

Then I decided to try Ramenegg, a site above Ägerisee. But halfway up to launch the road was blocked due to logging :-(  So I continued to Hummel on Sihlsee. Quite a large number of pilots in the air, but it's a hike-up site and today certainly I was in no shape to attempt this, especially considering the cold 'Bise'.

Continuing to Galgenen-Gschwänd, where I already had been 2 days ago, but didn't fly: conditions at that time didn't seem good enough to go through all the trouble of getting back to my car after a (probably) short flight...

2 days ago: still quite some snow on (HG) launch

Today (PG) launch looked quite differently

But today has been 'another cup of coffee': lots of pilots (including students) on launch and in the air. While watching I was approached by Steph, who also had just arrived. In winter Steph often flies in Arosa as well, but he actually lives in nearby Lachen. As this is kind of his home site, he gave me some valuable advise about flying here - thanks a lot!

Pano over launch looking towards Sihlsee and Hummel

It took a bit of patience to get high, but my Leeloo easily turned in the (initially) weak thermals; once a bit above launch it was easy going :-)

PG launch (pilot toplanding)

LZ in Galgenen

After 'cruising' around for a good hour I made 2 attempts at toplanding, but meanwhile thermals had become abundant and quite strong, so I didn't succeed and landed at the official LZ in Galgenen.

Steph before launching had generously offered to drive me back up to retrieve my car in case I couldn't topland; an offer more than welcome and gladly accepted: many thanks again!!

Besides Alp Scheidegg, this site (Galgenen-Schwänd) is one of the closest places from Fehraltorf to fly, so I'll certainly be back more often: last time here has been in 2015 with my friend Andy and before that: 1999...

...unfortunately she/ he is not yet big enough to help me pack my glider ;-)

Leeloo: again no problem for the reverse launch, at least nothing I can attribute to the wing ;-) As mentioned, the Leeloo 'likes' weak thermals: just let her fly and she'll find her way... No collapses, just rock-solid. I'll need to adjust the speed system a little: at the moment on first bar I'm accelerating more than 50%, which is unnecessary. But the effort needed for holding this is minimal. Ears: I can pull them very easily (even with my left hand! - therefore no modifications will be necessary (contrary to the Ikuma2)); almost no effort is needed to hold them. Spirals: easy to get in / out, but I haven't tried big descent rates ( > 10m/s) yet...

Manual: very well written and the only manual -as far as I can rememeber- where the author actually has published a detailed polar for his wing :-) 

 

>> be aware that I don't 'test' wings, as I neither have the experience to do such, nor have I the sensorium and vocabulary for the exact description of a wing's behaviour; I'm just trying to summarize my impressions.