Cavallaria

In the morning conditions didn't look very good at first, but after 1000 the sun started to burn away the high clouds :-) I met PierAndrea at Lessolo (LZ for Cavallaria) and we took the 1100 shuttle to the top launch.

Lessolo: (top) launch is just above the wind sock; on the right side: Andrate.

Top launch

Contrary to the wx fcst, the wind at launch (and for the whole day!) was much stronger than predicted.

 

Top launch (PierAndrea)

PierAndrea (as usual) was quick to get airborne. I think I could have handled the conditions by launching into a lull, but like some others I decided to hike 20' down to a lower launch, where the wind had (mostly) a good speed for launching. Later only some hangliders launched from the top, everybody else from here...

Decollo 'manifestazione'

Decollo 'manifestazione'

Nice, strong thermals made climbing up easy, but also in the air the influence of the S/ SW-wind could be clearly felt and today I was not really in the mood to be 'shaken' around too much ;-)

Cima Cavallaria; LZ (left of roundabout)

Landing after slightly more than an hour.

LZ Lessolo

Belice (Santa Elisabetta)

Today I woke up to a cloudless sky. At 1100 I met PierAndrea at Salto and we drove up to the Belice launch which offered  a great panorma: Mt.Viso, Torino (below the haze), ...

As soon there was a chance to stay up, PierAndrea launched; I waited another 30 minutes, hoping for some better established thermals.

By chance I launched into a good cycle, which brought me about 400m above take-off.

Gran Paradiso (4061m)

Nice thermals and great views! I never got really above 1600m and flew for about 1.5hrs, then my fingers slowly got cold... Contrary to PierAndrea who flew for more than 4hrs and could climb to 2300m - but what else would you expect from a pilot with probably more than 25'000hrs (HG and PG) - many of them around here. That's more than 10 times more artime than I have on PGs and about twice what I have if I add all my flying hours...

Andrate (San Giacomo)

As the weather on the North side of the Alps over the weekend was changing rapidly towards 'winter', I decided at short notice to travel South (Piemonte -Italy) as conditions there looked flyable (at least until Tuesday) with temperatures up to 20°C. So I left home on Saturday afternoon and drove via San Bernardino to Ivrea; I preferred to travel that way as in front of the Gotthard tunnel queues of up to 6km were reported on the radio :-(

Today at 1000 I met my friend Ennio at the LZ for Andrate (San Germano). He was going to do 2 tandem flights on his hangglider and I offered to drive his car down after his first take-off (at 1145).

Andrate

 

'San Giacomo'-launch

The day looked rather promising, but at the time of Ennio's first flight thermals had been not strong enough yet.

Unfortunately, his second passenger arrived only at 1330, so I was ready to launch finally by 1430. Meanwhile the weather had changed quite a bit...

looking SE along the Serra towards Lake Viverone

at the same time: looking North into the Aosta Valley

LZ San Germano

 

Nice strong thermals (up to 5m/s) quickly got me to cloudbase. But then the clouds (over)develloped rather quickly and it even started to rain a little :-(  Therefore I cut my flight short. While packing up there could even some thunder be heard. (When driving back to my B&B it was raining rather heavily.)

Obviously (with hind sight!) I shouldn't have offered to drive Ennio's car but should have waited on launch till about 1300 as then I would (most probably) have had a decent flight in good conditions...

As Ennio is unable to join me for the next wo days, he put me in contact with PierAndrea Patrucco (the local 'crack' - he flies up to 600hrs/year mostly in this reagion), who agreed to 'take care' of me on Monday and Tuesday ;-)

'Winter' in Arosa

Summer has come to an abrupt end over the weekend: up to 1m of snow at higher altitudes. But I think/ hope it will not remain, as the ground is still too warm. So it will melt away and we hopefully have a nice autumn :-)

 

 

 

 

Kanin

The paragliding side 'Kanin' can be reached from Bovec by gondola (440m-2210m). I had passed this site a couple of times while driving to/ flying from Mangart. But for many years the gondola has not been operating in summer.

In order to reach launch, one has to descend about 100m, but this is rather trricky as it is all very loose gravel and the risk of slipping with the backpack is rather high. There is an other launch at 1700m, which can be reached more easily.

looking back to launch

Mangart (2677m) (the mountain below the clouds)

looking west: Bovec, Kanin

 

Like yesterday perfect conditions on launch, but today it has been more stable and later some high clouds moved in: after 45 minutes I had to land.

The LZ (unfortunately) is quite distant from the gondola station, as there is a small aerodrome with a grass strip at Bovec, used by sailplanes and skydivers.

Diesel costs 1EUR per litre in Slovenja :-)

Vogel

I have been to the Bohinj region only once before (with Marco in autumn of 2012, after my accident. At that time I had left the paraglider at home...) But I liked the region very much and I always had wanted to come back and fly some of the local sites: Vogel, Vogar, Studor. They all share the same LZ by the lake. Vogel can be reached by cable car and chair lift. So in the morning Marco and I left early in order to reach the car train from Most na Soci to Bohinjska Bistrica.

It travels along the same valley as the (narrow and winding) road, but then crosses the mountain range by a 6.6km long tunnel. If you'd be driving across the mountain, then you'd pass the xc-site of Sorica...

The conditions for flying had been perfect. a little head wind for launching, nice thermals (up to about 1800m) and great views. I flew for 1.75hrs, but the flight could have been prolonged quite a bit ;-)

After the flight Marco and I had freshly roasted suckling pig; on the way back we then drove by Lago di Bled -famous for the chaple on the small island.

Lago di Bled

For dinner, some more meat at 'li da Gigiote' (- a vegetarian's / vegan's 'nightmare') in the company of Nicole, Marco, Lorenzo (another Swiss pilot).

Antipasto misto

2kg...

Gemona

 Yesterday: too windy, too many clouds, so we didn't drive the 45' to launch...

Sunset in Romans d'Isonzo

Today (Friday) looked better, but still quite stable and low cloudbase. At noon 8 pilots gathered for the shuttle launch to Mt.Cuarnan.

Conditions had been perfect for launching (headwind about 5kmh); nice thermals, but not a great flight (as they did today in Fiesch) - bur really pleasant. Nicole was flying the 777 Rook3-light. The light version of the R3 launches much better than the 'normal' R3 - but most probably there will never be a R3-light Size L,

Just local flying for about 1.5hrs...