Monte Belpo

Thur: MteBaldo was supposed to remain in clouds, so we had 2 options: Levico or Mte.Belpo at the South end of Lake Garda. The majority wanted to see a new flight area, so we headed for Pesina, the LZ for Mte.Belpo. Here Tiziana, a friend of Michael and Gudrun was waiting for us and showed the way to the parking and then to launch. I was told it would be about '10 minutes', but in the end it turned out to be something close to 45' (for me!) and a bit more than 100meters uphill...

Mte.Belpo (top) Pano looking SW (lake Garda)

LZ in Pesina (the whole field between the 2 roads) (looking West)

Conditions for this first flight: good on launch, but just a tad to weak to be good ;-) Andy flew 'my' Leeloo3, but also feels more comfortable on the 'normal' Leeloo..

We drove up again, but only some pilots climbed again to the top of Mte.Belpo, the rest descended in about 20' to another launch called 'Gas'. Here we had to wait until the West wind increased, but then conditions became really good. Unfortunately I had made an error while 'hooking in', as I twisted the accelerator in such a way that it became completely blocked/ unusable. This made me land prematurely :-(

'Gas' - looking SW-W

Waiting for all the pilots to land, a few uf us visited a nice Gelateria nearby; later the whole group had dinner at a local restaurant.

Mte.Baldo - SIV No2

Tue: unfortunately the wx didn't allow for any flighing; so more analysis of Sunday's flights and theory...

Wed: we departed at 0800 for Malcesine/ Mte.Baldo for our second SIV-day. The fcst 'promised' 1 or 2 flights, but also rather strong East-winds. 

Pano looking North: Lake Garda, Riva

This meant, that we had to wait rather long before everyone found a moment where the wind 'suited' him/ her for launching. I did only one flight: spirals and collapses. The wx slowly worsened and the wind started to increase, so some pilots had to take the gondola back down; later even some rain...

After a late lunch - for me: Gelati ;-) - we returned to Rovereto.

Levico

(Mon) Unfortunately the wx permitted only an extended sledder at Levico Therme; when the thermals finally became stronger it also started to rain. I have flown my 'old' Leeloo on which I felt a lot more at ease than on the Leeloo 3. So certainly yesterday's desicion to 'abandon' that wing is has been the correct one, though it still 'hurts' a bit to give up such a performant and great looking wing. Due to the wx I did take almost no pix... After flying we had lunch at ristorante/ albergo 'Aurora' in Vetriolo before returning to Rovereto. Here we had a first look at yesterdays flights over Lake Garda.

just after having packed up it started to rain...

sheltering from the rain while waiting for the second bus 

iCamp: Monte Baldo/ Malcesine: SIV No 1 and a difficult desicion

Sunday started (again) with much better wx than had been forecasted so already at 0800 we left for Malcesine on Lake Garda. At the LZ we received another briefing about the conditions and manouevers, with special emphasis on the local wind system (Ora); also the harnesses where checked. Then we headed for the cable car to Monte Baldo.

LZ looking NW/ N

waiting for the cable car

Malcesine / Lake Garda at middle station

TO on Mte.Baldo

Most of us did 2 flights, some 3; on my first flight I just did several wing overs and spirals: both of them with much room for improvement, as this glider (a 2-liner) needs much bigger/ stronger imputs. On the second flight again wing overs and spirals - a bit better, as well as frontal collapses.

Reserve parachutes left hanging to dry...

Quite a large number of pilots got their feet wet - but only one of our group :-) ; but 

1 pilot i our group got his feet wet, where as a surprisingly large number
of other pilots either had to throw their reserve during
a badly executed manoeuver or underestimated the influence of the
increasingly stronger Ora on approach and therefore landed short...

At the end of the day I have deciced to return this Leeloo to Michael, as it simply is too performant for me: the glider is very easy to launch and even easier to land; its performance, especially when using speed bar is very impressive. But it also needs bigger and stronger inputs on the brakes/ controls to make it enter a good spiral or to make high wingovers... It has not been an easy decision, but I had to take it as I simply don't feel confident enough to handle the glider in strong thermal/ bumpy conditions or when it would be necessary to make a rapid descent, be it because I needed to get down due to wx (ie CB etc) or of the danger of breaching an airspace restriction without descending... Furthermore it would have been very tempting to keep on flying this one-of-a-kind glider.

Many thanks to Michael (Profly.org) for being so kind as having designed this glider especially for me, and at the same time sorry that I don't keep on flying with it!

Panettone (Bassano); tx Rovereto (iCamp)

Sat: again contrary to our expectations the day started with much better wx than we had anticipated :-)

Andy has driven me to Panettone, from where I could make a nice flight with even some decent thermals; I landed after about 40', as we had to leave for Rovereto, where at 1500 our iCamp (SIV) was due to begin.

At the hotel quite a large group ha dalready gathered: 5 trainers/ drivers and 18 trainees. The briefing started with the explanations of the manouvers the piliot wanted to fly durning this week. Out of the 7 days 3 (if wx permitts) are planned for SIV/ manouever trainig over Lake Garda with the flights taking of from Mte. Baldo (1745msl). As I had flown my new Leeloo only for a few flights so far, I would be  doing only wing overs, spirals, frontal collapses at the beginning...

Travel / Bassano - light rain (Video)

Yesterday (Thur, 2.5.) Andy and I have driven to Bassano (- Vereina tunnel - Ofenpass - Münstertal - Vinschgau -Trento -); a 7hr drive, partly in rain. Our first stop in Italy: Schluderns (Caffe Time) for an icream and a capucchino ;-)

Todays fcst didn't look too promising, but waking up in the morning we could see some 'blue disturbances' and no rain for the moment. Soon some gliders could be seen... After breakfast we drove to Tapetti-launch; where we met Hans and Thomas guiding a group of pilots from Flatlandparagiding. As the sky began to darken, Andy helped me to prepare my gluider and as I was finally ready, the first drops of rain could be felt...

Due to the wx, it has been only a short flight, but the wing seems even easier on TO and LDG than the 'normal' Leeloo ;-) 

But at least the flight provided enough data to make the following video: many thanks to Andy for editing my raw material and adding the music!

The rest aof the day remained wet :-( Dinner at Garden Relais: Steak & Salad and for dessert their famous 'Mille Feuilles)...

finally :-)

Finally the 'long-awaited' maiden flight with my new glider. Many thanks to Andy, who has driven me to Alp Scheidegg!

Ideal conditions for an easy fwd launch, nice thermals bringing me close to the airspace limit of 1700msl. The glider handles really well, although feedback is more direct than on my other Leeloo(s) and thermal 'bumps' are not as dampened either. Flying for about 40' before landing at 'Hüebli'. No manouevers flown, this has to wait for the next flight... A few small things need to be changed/ adapted: brakes are still a bit short; the accelerator needs some ajustment (shortening); if possible, I'd like to have the stabilo line in a different color, so it can be found easier/ faster.

(pix by Andy)

'my' Leeloos and another one ;-)

I still don't know how I had been able to talk Michael into making this wing for me, but anyway: MANY THANKS!! 

After lying around unopend for close to a week, today finally the wx permitted a short 'pull-up' my new wing ('Leeloo3').Unfortunately nil wind, maybe even a whisp of tailwind... 

The ears didn't completely open, but I think they would have opened easily in-flight...

I tried only twice; on the second attempt a light tailwind could be clearly felt... (Video below is from first attempt).

As I had kind of 'lost track' of all the Leeloos which have passed through my hands (or which I had the chance to fly), I had to make a list... 

Arosa

Today has been the last day of this year's winterseason; the gondola will start running again on 8. June (until 20.October). The fcst had predicted increasing SW-winds, but when I arrived on launch wind speeds had been already rather high, so I made only 1 launch attempt, as the wind had been too gusty. (Many thanks to Marlies and PeterN for your assistance!)

We (Marlies, PeterN and I) then have spent the next 2 hours sitting in the restaurant and chatting about the past and upcoming season. Surprisingly, in the meantime the wind had dropped to really acceptable levels (contrary to all predictions!), so we all could launch.

the three (all Leeloo!) of us setting up (pix by webcam)

The wait has been really worthwile, with thermals permitting climbs to 3000m, from where the view has been fantastic. I flew via Medergen to Langwies/ Seta, but here I couldn't find a good thermal, something that is rather unusual; back again via Medergen for a landing after 1.5hrs on the golf course. 

Weisshorn

looking S towards Engadin: Palü, Bellavista, Bernina, Rosegg

that's when I took the above picture

Medergen

Pano near Langwies/ Seta looking SW: Arosa

Maran/ Golfplatz

Timing has been perfect: after having packed my gear and walked to the bus station I had only to wait 5' for the bus to arrive :-)

Fanas

As mentioned in my last post, Andy and I have been driving to Schiers in order to chatch the 1032 bus for Fanas. Andy had reserved to seats in the 1045 gondola. As expected quite a large number of pilots had the same idea...

today's thermal fcst (by https://www.burnair.cloud)

As can be seen, thermal activity started rather late, so we stopped at the restaurant for a drink and to enjoy the great view.

Pano at restaurant looking SW

As the 'Eggli'-launch has been still rather crowded, we decided to carry our gear about 10' uphill, where we had ample space to prepare - especially after everybody else had left ;-)

our launch site - Sassauna (2308m) in the background

Conditions on TO had been perfect for an easy fwd launch and the house thermal brought us quickly to 2375m, where Andy started the crossing towards Mottis and Chrüz... I followed him, although normally I prefer to have at least 100m more height for this crossing.

gliding towards Mottis

...where the usual thermals did their work and permitted an easy crossing of Chrüz.

climbing at Mottis (Andy -for once- below me)

after passing Chrüz, crossing to Jägglischhorn

Continuing East towards Klosters, where in the 'Madrisa' thermal I could climb to 2600m.

Pano above Klosters looking East-South: Davos

I continued towards Fergenhütte before turning around; conditions got steadily better and for the crossing back to Chrüz I have been able to climb to almost 3000m (2995m). I passed our launch site and continued west towards Vilan, where I finally turned and headed towards Schiers for landing. While passing the LZ at Grüsch I noticed that pilots landing there had almost no ground speed. So instead of landing at the official LZ East of Schiers, which under such conditions lies in the lee of the village and also has higher wind speeds, I landed on the luv side of the village. My gound speed at landing had been almost nil (maybe 3-5kmh)... After having packed my gear it had been a 20' walk back to my car where Andy was already waiting. Our Leeloos had performed flawlessly in these strong, but not too bumpy conditions :-)

With 3 1/4h and almost 60km, this has been my longest flight since March 2022 :-))

Arosa (more)

Finally, it's looking like a 3 or 4 flyable days in a row :-) Even if the thermaly fcst didn't look very 'convinving' I made (again) a trip to Arosa. At first just a sledder to 'LAW Mitte', but with a nice reverse launch to the NW ;-) 

Second flight with a no-wind TO on the FIS slope; by now I could see some puffs on the other side of the valley (towards Furkahörner); but I arrived there a bit too low and could not make enough height to get back to Arosa, so I landed after a bit more than .5hr in Litzirüti.

Litzirüti

Tomorrow is supposed to be better: I'll be going with my friend Andy to Fanas, where he has reserved to spaces in the 1045 gondola...

Arosa - 'Föhn'

For Sat and Sun (6./ 7.4.) at least 4hpa South overpressure (= Föhn) had been predicted, so on Sat I didn't 'dare' go to Fanas and Arosa: but besides a little 'bumpiness' flying seemed to have been pretty good. Today (Sun) I decided to go to Arosa (despite this fcst); unfortunately the massive amount of Sahara dust transported by the (warm) SW-wind and some Cirrus clouds had covered the sky too much. Therefore thermals activity had been pretty weak...

Pano looking NE towards Weissfluh; sky covered by Sahara dust and Cirris clouds

I had to wait a while before I could start my flight, as the wind came from E / SE - a direction not very well suited for launching here; but finally the wind turned around (to S) and permitted a nice (fwd) launch. Over Maran/ Golf course I found some weak thermals which prolonged my flight to a little over 30mins: it seems that my harness is now well adjusted and permits easy steering by weightshifting; I landed on the Golf course: in late winter/ early spring I prefer landing there, as the covered driving range provides a shelter and therefore a dry place fro packing my equipment, which otherwise (on the melting snow) would become very wet.

Sorry for the lousy pix; I had not correctly adjusted the settings of my X3 :-(

Actually I had wanted to make a second flight, but while waiting for the gondola to depart, I realized that the wind had already increased to SSE/ 20-28kmh, so I changed my mind and returned home. While doing so, I received a call from Michael telling me, that he had been able to fly my new glider and that everything looked fine; he indicated that he wanted to make another flight (in strong thermals) and then it would be delivered to me :-) Actually he's probably getting this glider also for himself...