Arosa (21. - 23. March) - Test: Axis Vega III

Axis Vega III

In the 3-2011 edition of "Thermik" magazin there has been a test report of this glider: Axis Vega III, which sounded very promising. Furthermore this glider is also available in size "XL" (118-150kgs).
So finally I have been able to make a few flights. And the last 3 days have been (very) good here in Arosa.


Taggi


Andy

On all 3 days I was in the company of Andy, which I have met on this year's trip to Maroc.
Furtermore on Monday Peter was also getting some airtime.


Peter


Oli

And today (as I had to leave for home in the afternoon) I was also joined by Oli.
Luckily he can stay another 2 days; especially Friday is looking very promising...

Arosa (4./ 5. March)

2 perfect days with great thermals!

Maroc - Pictures

The 2 weeks flying in Maroc have been a great succes. Never before (on my revious visits to this country) have I been able to fly as much as this time: all days, except one (!), have been flyable.
The pictures are now uploaded and can bee seen here - enjoy!

I have also uploaded pictures from the first week (without flying), when I visited Marrakesh (and its surroundings) together with Ruth. See here.

Sorry for not having posted more out of Maroc, but the opportunities timewise have been too rare...

Maroc

Last Thursday I met the members of our flying group in Agadir.
Before that I had stayed with Ruth 1 week in Marrakesh - but that's another story.
We drove to Aglou Beach and after a day with too little wind we had an excellent day today and everybody could soar as much as he wanted to. The conditions in Aglou-North were absolutely perfect: good strong winds in the morning (a little cross) and straight on the nose, but a little weaker, in the afternoon.

Speedbag

Even though today the conditions were far from optimal I went flying as I wanted to check out the speed bag I had recently attached to my harness.
According to WoodyValley this speed bag is NOT intended for use with their X-Alps harness. Nevertheless I got this speed bag and it seems to fit well with my harness.
I still have to work on the technique of getting efficiently into that bag...




Chur: looking west

Full Moon flying

During the winter season 'ABB' (Arosa BergBahnen -Arosa's Cablecars) offer once a month "full moon skiing" -conditions permitting.
We PG-Pilots use this opportunity for flying as well.
Last year the weather was unsuitable on all proposed dates and unfortunately the evenings had to be cancelled.
So this year -on the first possible occasion- 11 pilots took advantage of the good conditions.
Do not assume that we are doing something absolutely illegal: of course basically PG-flying is restricted to daylight only. But fortunately there is a gentleman's agreement with REGA (Swiss Air Rescue Guard): all pilots carry a light and we inform them of our intentions, time and route of flight.

...more of the same...

"Weisshorn" -looking West

The new year continued with more of the same weather as the old year had ended: cold, but clear, blue skies with little wind, which permitted flights almost every day; the first sled ride on January 1st.

... and HAPPY NEW YEAR !

The new year has started with the same beautiful weather as the old year had ended: just clear blue skies with little wind and already a hint of thermals coming out of the forest - just great!

Happy Holidays...

With my best wishes for X-Mas and the upcoming New Year!
- may 2011 bring you new adventures and safe flights!

Fly high! Fly safe!

Arosa

The change in temperature from Brazil (20-40ºC) to Arosa today (ca. -20ºC at launch at 2650m) was quite abrupt; but none the less I could make 2 flights: only sled rides, but at least the vario beeped twice ;-)

Launch on top of the "Aroser Weisshorn (2650m)

Arosa - the slopes are in perfect condition!

If the "Föhn" will not be too strong tomorrow (SUN); I'll try again...
Info about "Föhn".

All about AROSA
Paragliding in Arosa

Brazil - conclusion

What shall I say?
- Quixada has been a great adventure;
though "flat land flying" still remains quite a mystery to me...
But being in the company of those eager XC-pilots from different countries has been very interesting and there remains still quite a lot for me to learn.
- "The South": maybe my expectations have been too high, but -though we could fly almost every day thanks to Andy's wisely choosing of our itinerary- the flying didn't quite measure up. Here the most worthy thing remembering remains the friendliness and hospitality of the local Brazilian pilots; they went out of their way to make us feel at home and get us flying! This is certainly something which is (unfortunately) hard to be found here in Europe anymore.

Muito obrigado por todo!

Brazil -the trip has come to an end

Meanwhile I'm back home in Switzerland, where we got snow last Thursday (which crippled the transportation system to quite some degree)
I also had time to sort trough my pictures, have them worked over and uploaded them to Flickr. Here they are:
"the South"
Quixada

My thanks go to all who have contributed to a successful trip:
Andy and Moni from Fly with Andy for organising this trip.

In Quixada:
- Almeida from Hotel Pousada Pedra dos Ventos;
- Paolo and his crew on TO at Quixada;
- Bello, Gio and all the retrieve drivers...

In the "South":
- the friendly pilots and their friends in Encantado (we won't forget your fine dinner!);
- the drivers from Encantado's Jeep Club, for bringing us and our gear to launch;
- the dentist in Encantado for expertly repairing my filling at short notice;
- Cacapava's pilots for introducing us to their site;
- Sergio in Gaspar from Raul's Hotel for an excellent dinner and taking his time to guide us/ me around.

Urs: best wishes to a quick recovery from your injury!


X-Mas tree at the club house at
Morro Azul's LZ in Pomerode.

Sunday - Morro Azul (Pomerode)

Today was my last flying day here im Brazil - at least for this year...
Again the day started with lots of clouds and only after 1200 the sky began to clear up.
TO today was rather difficult on this short, flat "slope" with almost no wind. One pilot aborted too late and fell into the bushes below, but he and his gear didn't suffer any damages. Flying was also rather difficult and many pilots had to land earlier than they wanted ( -me among them too).

Saturday - Gaspar -Morro Pelado

At 0900 the `travellers` left for Curitiba and Sao Paolo.
The sky was completely overcast in the morning, so also Andy with Michelle and Roebi decided to leave. Sergio took me to `Morro Pelado` and by 1100 the sky began to clear, by 1200 just a few cumuli were left and we took off. Sergio together with his friends immediately went for an xc-flight; I didn`t get up high enough and sank out after 30minutes :-(
They flew for about 20km...
As the thermals kind of died after 1300, nobody drove back up to launch.

Sergio

Friday (Gaspar) - Praia Vermehlo

Today was for most of the pilots in our group the last flying day of this trip. They'll drive tomorrow morning with Mauro to Curitiba, from where they'll fly to GRU in order to join their flights back home. Only Andy, Röbi and I'll be staying a few more days...
But back to today: at 1030 we left together with Sergio for the local flying site (Morro Pelado). The local PG club has there a with great care prepared and maintained flying site: nice TO with a 4WD access road; a huge LZ with many windsocks and a nice club house with a bar.The conditions have been very weak, so most of us had only sled rides.
Then Sergio guided us to "Praia Vermehlo", a beautiful beach about 45mins from Gaspar. Here the conditions were absolutely perfect (windspeed 25-30kph). Everybody was able to make an extended soaring flight. Michelle-after having made her first high altitude solo flight this morning on Morro Pelado - added her first 2 soaring flights. Congrats! and don't let the small mishap stop you enyoing flying.
In the evening then Sergio had prepared for us in his home an excellent dinner consisting to Hannes' (and other's) delight mostly of freshly BBQed tender meat (Churrasco) -contrary to Tobias', the vegetarian in our group...

If you happen to stay in/ near Gaspar (with or without paragliding) then I certainly can recommend Sergio's place.

Gaspar - Morro Azul (Thursday)

This morning we drove from Floripa to Gaspar, about 2.5hrs.
The sky was overcast and it didn't look very promising...
We checked in at "Hotel Raul", whose owner (Sergio) is a keen paraglider pilot.
The hotel looks very nice and is quite a step up from the somewhat grumpy accomodation we've had for the last 3 nights.
After lunch some blue holes appeared in the sky and Sergio guided us to "Morro Azul", a PG site 1.25hrs from Gaspar. This site has an excellent access road, a very well mantained TO and a large LZ with a small bar - what else can a pilot ask for?
I "avoided" all the thermals and had too land rather too soon for my liking.
Tonight I'm looking foreward to a large piece of medium-rare (mal passado) filet...

Wednesday - Floripa - Vermehlo

The day started with lots of sunshine, but the remaining humidity of monday's rain quickly turned into clouds. But after 1230 the sun broke through for a while; enough to produce some nice thermals permitting a 60+ min flight. Later in the afternoon another (short) flight was possible, but the thermals were very weak...
Tonight Gregor had to leave for home...

Tuesday - Floripa - Urs

Evev though today was very cloudy. It was flyable. In the morning we went to "Lagoa", in the afternoon to " Praia Mole". Both times it was rather windy, so I didn"t fly in the afternoon. Unfortunately Urs made a mistake while trying to take-off in the rather strong conditions and hurt himself. We don't know yet if he has broken something, but he had to be brought to a hospital...

Monday- xxRA

Monday we moved from Sapiranga to Florianopolis.
It was raining only once!
In Torres we stopped briefly to have a look at the (small) soaring site.
Accomodation in "Floripa" (as Florianopolis is also known) unfortunately turned out to be rather substandart- contrary to Andy's claims :-(

Caçapava (Sunday)

This morning we (Hannes, Daniel, Gregor and I) drove 280km to Caçapava do Sul (RS).
We hsd been told that this would be a site with excellent XC potential.
We left at 0610 and arrived shortly after 1000. Upon arrival, Gregor called Riodrigo (a local pilot) who picked us up within less than 10min amd guided us to the site. Here already a few students were inflating their wings on the lower slopes of this small hill. Marcel then took us and our gear in his SUV up the steep dirt road to the top, here TO is possible onto all quadrants of the compass. Although the altitide difference is only about 200m, it looks as if getting high shouldn't be too big a problem.
September is supppsed to be the best mpnth and flights up to 300 should be possinble...
But today the air was much too stable and not a single cloud was visible, so my fellow pilots could make only short soaring flights. I didn't have my wing with me as I came along as a (possible) retrieve driver,
( mit Nova bleibsch oba, mit Advance hast kei Chance und mit Sky gasch hei ;-)
We then went to a local Churrasceria where we onvized the locals to an (extended) lunch.
In the late afternoon we drove back to Sapiranga.
Many thanks to Rodrigo amd all the local pilots for being such amiable and openhearted hosts!
Muito obrigado a Rodrigo y todos/ -as pilotos/-as de Caçapava!

.. pix to follow..

Here some additional info/ pix from the local Marcelo's blog.