Anyone thinking of heading to Daniel's on Saturday???
Matthew
Daniel's Saturday 11/26???
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
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Marcel Dettling
- Posts: 93
- Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 1:00 pm
- Location: Zurich (Switzerland)
- Contact:
It was great!
Once again, Daniels was very nice today. We were 7 PGs, 1 local HG flew as well. Laszlo was the first to launch around noon, caught a thermal over the house, cored it beautifully and was soaring above launch for a while. This already showed us the potential of the day. And indeed, all of us had great flights today, everybody got above launch and had at least one soaring flight.
Me on my part, I got to try the Gradient Aspen, a DHV 2 glider. Wow, it's a dream to fly such an advanced glider. But let's get back to the flying. My first flight was 25 minutes, thought I would get down directly, but had a low safe over the house and thereafter stayed up for a while.
Hiked back to launch and took off in more consistent conditions. Pretty strong thermals, but narrow, almost like bullets. Juan caught a 7m/s (1400fpm) thermal, Jim a 6.5m/s (1300fpm) and I also had 5.5m/s (1100fpm) on the integrator after the flight, don't know about my instantaneous highest reading. However, as fast as they came, the thermals disappeared also, sometimes we hit heavy sink, and we never got more than about 1000ft above launch. Played the "catch me if you can" game for 45 minutes and then landed.
Back on top, I launched for a third time. Was it already too late? I saw three sleds before I launched and couldn't find lift myself. Well, no, it wasn't over yet!!! Far out and low down there was a weak thermal. I was able to hold on to it and climbed back to around 400ft above. From there, I was able to stay up for almost an hour. I even saw two of our cracks sink out below me. Well, I would have appreciated their company of course, but I could get used to flying longer and higher than anybody else
Really, really nice. I enjoyed the flying sooo much. And the glider, whew, it rocks! Fast, responsive and climbing very efficiently! Two low saves again today, so I'm asking myself: was it me or the glider?!?
Cheers,
Marcel
PS: Sorry, no pictures today. Didn't dare to take any with this glider yet!
Me on my part, I got to try the Gradient Aspen, a DHV 2 glider. Wow, it's a dream to fly such an advanced glider. But let's get back to the flying. My first flight was 25 minutes, thought I would get down directly, but had a low safe over the house and thereafter stayed up for a while.
Hiked back to launch and took off in more consistent conditions. Pretty strong thermals, but narrow, almost like bullets. Juan caught a 7m/s (1400fpm) thermal, Jim a 6.5m/s (1300fpm) and I also had 5.5m/s (1100fpm) on the integrator after the flight, don't know about my instantaneous highest reading. However, as fast as they came, the thermals disappeared also, sometimes we hit heavy sink, and we never got more than about 1000ft above launch. Played the "catch me if you can" game for 45 minutes and then landed.
Back on top, I launched for a third time. Was it already too late? I saw three sleds before I launched and couldn't find lift myself. Well, no, it wasn't over yet!!! Far out and low down there was a weak thermal. I was able to hold on to it and climbed back to around 400ft above. From there, I was able to stay up for almost an hour. I even saw two of our cracks sink out below me. Well, I would have appreciated their company of course, but I could get used to flying longer and higher than anybody else
Really, really nice. I enjoyed the flying sooo much. And the glider, whew, it rocks! Fast, responsive and climbing very efficiently! Two low saves again today, so I'm asking myself: was it me or the glider?!?
Cheers,
Marcel
PS: Sorry, no pictures today. Didn't dare to take any with this glider yet!