Archive for May, 2011

 

First take off on the Astro turf and a cracking run to Barco and some way back

May 31st, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

Yeserday (Monday) our first day with 6 Belgians and 2 Devonians and no flying. A nice run down the river on the rafts and kayaks, though Julie came out at the top of a big rapid banging her knee and putting her out of action today. Her other half, Dougal, had a craking flight to […]

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An excellent 2 hrs before the forecast gloom came true

May 28th, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

Yesterday Pete went back to Madrid after spending too long looking at forecasts on the computer and convincing himself it would not be flyable. The thing with these days with rain and storm warnings is that things can actually take a long time for it to actually happen and allow us to have a fair […]

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Thursday and Friday unflyable. A new plan unfolds

May 27th, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

Two days with light winds but storms and rain. Was not even worth trying to sneak in an evening or morning flight. Tomorrow looks a bit brighter, but no decent flying acording to the forecast untill Monday then from Tuesday on looking very nice indeed. Today some animal stress. Bitel, our Pyrenean Mountain dog got […]

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Classic big XC day. 3500m base with 20km/hr SSW

May 25th, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

Finally the upper level instability has reduced in our area. An early start (around 11.30) at Lastra. Initially easy to climb out then slightly increased wind and less thermal. Normally Lastra beams me out within minutes of launch, but today there was a lot of searching to be done. The photo below is of Pete […]

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Futher struggles with instability

May 24th, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

Another nice day going rapidly bad due to upper level instability. I had a pleasant 1hr and 15 mins in very gentle climbs around the town and on Cerro la Cruz. The weak thermals seemed not to the fit the sky at that time which went from Classic to full Cb by around 3pm.

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Really nice till 4pm

May 21st, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

Great smooth climbs but with a slowly building sky. After the Cbs we managed an evening flight too In the photo below taken this morning you can clearly see the advance in the work on Take Off. the concrete drainage channels are now in place so I imagine this week we may see the grass […]

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Chia and Peña Negra

May 20th, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

A great looking day but conditions just a bit top end for our coastal flyers. Near 3000m base with a good 4/8 Cu sky. Some late afternoon thermalling at Chia then a fly down at Peña Negra.

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Flying at Chia Tuesday and Rafting Wednesday

May 18th, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

Some nice soaring at Chia on Tuesday but the day ruined by impressive Cbs in the afternoon. No chance today so an epic 4 hours decent of Tormes in the rafts with good water levels. The photo below is a line of cloud formed by the E wind and gust front colliding just E Piedrahita. […]

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Take off improvements

May 16th, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

From the previous blog entry you will see that the take off has some light grey patches. This is various tons of a granite dust which is being laid down and compressed with rollers. On top of this the Astro turf will be laid, though not before some concrete drainage channels are dug. The area […]

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SE convergence. 2900m at climbs to 4m/s

May 16th, 2011 - Posted by Steve Ham

This week our group is all Spanish. Something of a rarity. They are all from the Basque club Airean de Getxo and normally fly the costal site of Sopelana near Bilbao. Few of them have any thermalling or XC experience. Yesterday (Sunday) we made an evening flight at Chia which went very well. Today we […]

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