Arosa in July

Pano looking SW

Twice so far I've been to the Weisshorn during these last few days; even though conditions looked great (little wind, high cloud base), I've been unable to launch due to the 'shitty' wind conditions on the mountain (that's why I call this mountain 'Scheisshorn' instead of 'Weisshorn').
There would be an alternative launch further down (so called 'Rööslihang'). It's rather steep, but normally perfectly facing the thermals. But the problem for me is: if I cannot launch (for reasons whatsoever), in my present physical condition I'm simply unable to carry my equipment back up the mountain to the cable car station :-((
So I have to hope for a launch window on top of the mountain or take the gondola down again...

wind direction...

XC Tracer (Ebenalp)

A whileback I stumbled over a crowd sourced project of a 'new' kind of vario, the XC-Tracer.
As the approach looked pretty interesting I immediately have joined and yesterday my unit was delivered. All info about the XC-Tracer can be found here or here.
The unit is extremely light ( < 60 gr) and very small. So far I use it as a stand alone instrument, meaning I'm not connecting it via Bluetooth to any app etc.

Today I was flying with XC-Tracer for the first time (2h 45min) and the instrument did exactly what was promised: extremely responsive, no time lag when entering / leaving a thermal.

Great flying conditions on Ebenalp!

Galgenen

Today being the only 'reasonable' day of this week, Andy and I went to Galgenen.
We have chose this site because it's a site mostly flown with 'Bise' (an easterly wind predicted fro today).
I have been here for the last time on in May'99, flying a ProDesign Target.

Conditions looked more promising than they finally turned out to be. While Andy could fly for about an hour, I was never able to climb above launch :-((
Shortly after we had landed, 2 Icepeaks had to land as well...

LZ - freshly manuered

When driving up to retrieve my car from launch, I met Barry, who has been our guide on my visit to South Africa in January'12 (shortly before my accident). He is touring Switzerland for about 3 weeks. I can highly recommend his company for anybody wanting to fly in ZA. Or join a group/ tour who is guided by him.

Ebenalp

Today should have been the only reasonably good day of the week. When I called Heinz G. in the morning, who lives not far from 'Ebenalp', he told me the conditions should be 'good'.
Unfortunaltely there was much more moisture left than anticipated and therefore low clouds started forming rather quickly.

But I have to say, that today I made the best TO (and Ldg) with my Rise2 until now:-))
I'm extremley glad that this 'problem' seems to be resolved!

Ebenalp

crossing from Ebenalp ot Sigel

...darker clouds...

over LZ

When I started to fold my glider, there have even been some raindrops.
Later in the afternoon it looked for a moment like the clouds would clear, but while driving home I could see a CB in the region.

Wallis -3: Fiesch (once more...)

As there is a set of scales at the cable car station in Fiesch I took the opportunity to measure my total flying weight: 141.5kgs - perfectly within the range of my AD Rise 2, which goes to 145kg.
The fcst (as well as all the people I have spoken to this morning) said that overdevellopement would be a problem today, even more than yesterday. Luckily everybody was proven wrong and it turned out a magnificient flying day!
I was airborne before 1100 (a first for me) and started heading East. I didn't reach the Sidelhorn today, as I made a mistake, which took me quite a while to correct before being able to climb to cloudbase again.

launch....

crossing to Bellwald: Fiescherglacier (left); Bellwald (under cloud); Goms (right)

just nicely develloped CU's...

Aletsch glacier (left); Eggishorn (center, below cloud)

near Riederalp

Therafter it was pretty easy: just cruising along at cloudbase :-))

As the shortest way home (Furkapass - Andermatt - Brunnen) was closed due to a rockslide between Andermatt and Göschenen, I drove via Grimselpass.

Grimselpass

Wallis -2: Fiesch

Another great day here in Fiesch! As today in many parts of Switzerland 'Fronleichnam' is a public holiday, even more pilots flocked to Fiesch, but with its many large launch possibilities, this is almost never a problem...

looking East

But already before noon many more clouds develloped compared to yesterday.

near Sidelhorn, looking East towards Grimsel and Furka

On the way back from Sidelhorn until Bellwald it was almost unnecessary to make any turns; just above Bellwald I needed to climb to cloudbase for the crossing towards Eggishorn.
Therefore also the unusually high average speed for me of 28kmh. Unfortunately the clouds grew bigger and there was also a little rain in the air, so I decided to cut the flight short and head for 'terra firma'. Of course these kind of conditions would be needed for really long flights...

Luckily for all the pilots who kept going, this cloud didn't devellop into a CB.

Wallis -1: Riederalp, Fiesch

Very promising forecast for today; so Andy proposed we should go to 'Riederalp', as the cable car in 'Fiesch' was still under maintenance (tomorrow it will be operating normally again).

When we arrived on launch, besides a few 'late comers' like us, everybody was already on their way (high up and going east).

Riederalp (TO)

With the newly learned launch technique I got off easily - on the first try :-))
but then: I seemed to miss all the thermals and had to land in Lax :-((

So I headed for Fiesch, where I could catch the 1315-gondola. The next one would have been only at 1515, way too late to attempt anything...

just a few CU's

Also here I could launch without problems and was able to climb to 3460m (1200m above launch). I also headed East, but today didn't seem to be my day. In Bellwald I had to search quite a while before climbing up again. Still heading East, but I could feel (and see) that the 'Grimsel-Wind' (East wind coming over the Grimsel-pass) was getting stronger.

Pano looking East (Aletsch glacier left, Fiescher glacier center, Goms right)

looking East towards Münster glider port (center)

So finally I turned around and landed in Ritzingen; wind upon landing: 25-30kmh...

LZ Ritzingen

Although both flights have been a bit disappointing, it still has been a wonderful day in excellent company (Andy didn't quite make it to Chur...) and very nice conditions.

My thanks go to the 2 car drivers, who stopped when I was hitch-hiking and took me
a) from Lax to the cable car and
b) from Biel back to my hotel.

AD Rise2 (Ilanz)

I have mentioned a few times earlier, that I have difficulties launching my Rise2.
Today I finally tackled this problem by going back to 'ground school'  ;-)
I drove to Trin to meet Walo from FS Swissfly  (that's also the place where I had bought this glider) and took some lessons.

'Bündner Rigi'; looking towards Laax

It quickly turned out that these new gliders need to be launched quite differently to what I'm used to with my 'old' 4-liner Axis Vega III. Instead of making an 'inrun' ('Anlauf'), the glider needs only steady pressure on the A-lines until it stands over my head and only then I need to start running.
I gave it a few tries and finally also made to 2 flights. It needs getting used to just standing there (without running) and getting the glider up. On the second flight it already worked rather well,


Many thanks to Walo and Laura from SF Swissfly for an enjoyable day and their professional teaching!

looking back to launch

LZ in Ilanz

stemless Gentian (in Riein)

As the wind was switching on 'Bündner Rigi' we drove for another flight to 'Riein', but here the wind was very thermic and (too) strong, so we had to decline; but many nice alpine flowers around.

Unfortunately the wx fcst for the next days is rather unoptimistic, so I have to wait until I can try out this technique again; but Walo said I'd always be welcome If I didn't feel comfortable with my skills.

Marco

Many thanks to Marco for his assistance and retrieve today (and of course as well for the whole trip). It was again worth every cent spent!!
For pilots wanting to explore this corner of Italy and Slovenia, I consider him the premier guide for such an adventure.
>>  http://marco-zonca.blogspot.it/     >> http://xweek-it.blogspot.it/      

Marco has just returned from a 18 month long trip cruising around the world in a sailing boat. His blog (only in Italian) is well worth reading.
 

Lijac (SI)

In the morning the conditions looked rather bleak, so it was a very pleasant surprise when upon arriving at Lijac in Slovenia the sun burned some holes in this overcast and thermals started to develop. Again I flew my Axis Vega III...

above launch

Once past the hangliding ramp it was pretty easy going and I ended up with an average speed of over 24.5kmh - also a first.

Turnpoint east

landing area (Pizzeria Anja) (large filed in center of pix just 'below' highway)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

It's extremely rare for me to be in the top ten of a daily XContest ranking - if it even ever happend so far (more than 200 flights entered)  ;-)

We ended the day  with an excellent dinner at the 'Bellevue' in Tarcento in the company of Arduino (aka Bimbo).

Unfortunately the wx fcst for the next few days calls for lots of rain, so I'm cutting my stay short and start heading home tomorrow.
But overall it has been a very succesful trip: 5 flying days, 5 different sites, whereof 2 new sites and a site last flown 21 years ago.
Furthermore meeting old firends again!

Meduno (Monte Valinis)

The conditions continued to be 'soso': lots of high altitude clouds reducing the power of the sun and thus the thermal activity. But Marco still launched my Rise2 and made a few flights. Also here he didn't notice anything unusual - so it must be my limited skills which prevent me from launching this wing properly... Tomorrow I'll probably do some inflations under his supervision.

Marco launching my Rise2 in XL

Luckily (and rather unexpectedly) the sky later in the afternoon cleared for a while and quickly some good thermals develloped.

It's always a pleasure to wathc Marco launch, fly and (top)land: it looks so easy, so perfectly controlled. I made also a nice flight - but it clearly didn't look as good ;-)

On the way back, looking towards Gemona (right)

Porzus (Attimis)

Unfortunately a thin layer of high altitude clouds prevented a better development of the thermals, but still Marco and I had a nice flight at Porzus, a small, relatively seldom flown site south of Gemona. Vittorio (who had developed the site) drove us there and also helped me launch.
Thanks Vittorio!!
The launch is rather small and the trees in front grow higher by the day...

Marco ready to launch

Marco over launch (the small village of Porzus is on the right)

local LZ in Attimis (sport field)

In the nice, smooth thermals I could climb to almost 1600m (1000m over launch) and started heading N towards Gemona. But unfortunately at Bernadia the flight was over after a good hour, as I had been unable to find any more decent thermals  :-((
Later the local pilots told me that today the thermals were to be found further out in the flats...

Bernadia

TO in Bernadia

LZ in Bernadia

As I'm presently flying my 'old' Axis Vega III, because I'm still not 'able' to launch the Rise 2 properly, I had Marco inflate this wing a few times and see, if he would detect somethin unusual - which he didn't. But he'll fly it tomorrow and do somemore checking...