A rather unusual situation here on the Weisshorn: 'Bisen-Soaring' (soaring with NE-wind (= 'Bise')).
Second flight to Chur: just an extended sledder, but interestingly there couldn't be felt absolutely no influence of the 'Bise'; in Chur even a tendency of South-wind - strange...
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| the visor really helps to keep the face/ nose 'warm' ;-) |
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| Calanda |
Driving to Arosa in the morning I had serious doubts about the wx: the fcst had called for blue skies, but for a while it didn't look very promising. But luckily I was proved completely wrong. In Chur I was joined by my friend Oli and we rode the train together to Arosa. (As usual) first a flight to Arosa (-Obersee) then another one back to Chur and our cars. For me the day turned out to be the best early January flying day in Arosa so far ever!
Already the first flight lasted > 45' with nice thermals (> 3m/s); luckily I had my new heating gloves, otherwise the flight would not have lasted more than 15' ;-)
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| Chur: pano looking West (Domat-Ems) |
On the flight to Chur we othbfound nice thermals above Maladers and our flights lasted about 60' :-))
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| Chur: Masans |
Daytrip to Arosa: I left my car in Chur, as the fcst for Wednesday was not looking good and therefore I wouldn't stay overnight in Arosa.
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| getting ready for launch |
Surprisingly I found some nice thermals above Tschuggen and could climb about 250m; not surprisingly: after about 10' I had to leave the climbs due to VERY cold fingers :-(( (On the way home I got a replacement for my heating gloves who are just to old in order to cope anymore with such conditions.)
Unfortunatey the low stratus clouds (Hochnebel) appeared earlier than forcasted, so in Chur I had to find some 'holes' in order to get to my landing in Masans.
But it has not been as bad as it looks in the picture ;-)
Hopefully coming Friday I can make another daytrip.
Thanks for putting up a new windsock (- the last one had been destroyed by the Föhn). So it's possible ti check the wind again on the webcam.
'Life is what's happening to us
while we are busy making different plans'
several authors/ adapted
...and I'm wondering when travel will be possible again without too many hassles and worries...
Several nice flights in Arosa, some even with some thermal assistance (17./18. Dec.)! On most days I made a flight to Arosa and then another one to Chur (and back to Arosa by train).
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| Golf course Domat-Ems |
>>> for once a blog entry in German, as all 3 videos are in this language only - sorry! <<<
Im November hat Michael Nesler ein 3-teiliges Webinar zum Thema "moderne Leichtbauweise" durchgeführt. Michael ist ua auch bekannt als Konstrukteur von (SWING-)Schirmen, Sicherheitstrainer und Autor von vielen Artikeln rund ums Thema Gleitschirm.
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| Bild aus dem Leeloo-Flyer von Profly | |
(den ganzen Prospekt findet man hier)
Die Aufzeichnung des ersten Workshops "Moderne Leichtbauweise" hier:
https://vimeo.com/478391007
Kennwort: Leeloo@2021
>> Link im Browser eingeben, dann erscheint eine fast weisse Seite, wo nach dem Passwort
gefragt wird; erst danach Weiterleitung zum Video.
Die Aufzeichnung zum zweiten Workshops "Wie sieht ein Schirm aus, den ein Designer für sich
selbst baut" hier:
https://vimeo.com/user3569673/review/481132432/47298e5d47
Kennwort: Leeloo@2021
Die Aufzeichnung des dritten und letzten Workshops "RAST V3: Fakten und Mythen" hier:
https://vimeo.com/user3569673/review/483768124/451f849124
Kennwort: Leeloo@2021
>> ACHTUNG: die Videos sind nur bis 30.11.2020 verfügbar!!
>> Ebenfalls ansehenswert: "das Überflieger Projekt - werde dein bester Pilot" Hier wird das Thema "Gleitschirmfliegen" nicht nur von der rein technischen Seite her besprochen, sondern auch das Mentale wird beleuchtet.
(Saturday) ...a promising looking morning (pix from webcam on Weisshorn at 0730)
The fresh snow from the last days had already been machine packed, thus offering a perfect 'runway' for launch in the E / NE -Wind.
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| Weisshorn: looking back to launch |
The first flight was just a sledder to Arosa. The second flight (to Chur) could be extended by about 15minutes due to some reduced sink and some weak thermals in Chur :-))
(Sunday) Same 'program' as yesterday ;-)
Thursday: Half an hour of 'autmn' soaring at Alp Scheidegg (with toplanding). Just caught the right 'window', as before the wind was a bit too strong for me and later it was dying...
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| Säntis |
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| Lake of Zurich |
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| Mythen |
Friday: looking pretty promising. As luck would have it, I didn't have to wait even a minute at 'Hüebli', where I had parked my car, before another pilot stopped and offered me a ride :-))) Thanks Fritz!!
But It turned out that conditions were quite different to yesterday: wind more westerly and less consistent. Just a few pilots could make longer flights; most just concentrated on groundhandling...
After having enjoyed the sun for a while I was (again) lucky to catch a ride back to my car...
Saturday: short 'excursion' to Arosa: by car to Chur and then by train. Suprisingly nice thermals at Weisshorn :-))
(Webcam) 
above Weisshorn (at 2950m)
Chur (Werner) 
Chur: historic city
Thanks to PeterW for helping on launch and WernerG for the ride back to my car!
Sunday: too much Föhn in the fcst :-( That's also the reason why I didn't take my car to Arosa and stay there overnight.
Saturday: 2 flights
1.flight: surprisingly there has been even some slight thermal activity at 1100 :-)
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| the webcam took by chance a picture of my take-off |
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| artificial lake: the water is used for artificial snow for preparing the slopes |
2.flight: I had hoped that the conditions would improve more; thermals had been a bit stronger than on the first flight, but remained just a little too weak.
Dinner at 'Lamm&Leu'; once more the meat has been absolutely outstanding!
Sunday: unfortunately not as nice as yesterday...
2.11. and more than an hour of flying :-))
My original idea has been to go to Alp Scheidegg for some groundhandling; I didn't expect such nice conditions at all. After toplanding I did a little groundhandling and than just a sledder to the LZ.
The rest of the week doesn't look very promising; hopefully the conditions will be ok for the weekend, so I can try some flights in Arosa...
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.
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| Lessolo: (top) launch is just above the wind sock; on the right side: Andrate. |
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| Top launch |
Contrary to the wx fcst, the wind at launch (and for the whole day!) was much stronger than predicted.
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| 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...
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| Decollo 'manifestazione' |
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| 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 ;-)
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| Cima Cavallaria; LZ (left of roundabout) |
Landing after slightly more than an hour.
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| LZ Lessolo |
