We now have a vacancy for these weeks (30 -31).  Week 33, previously posted this morning now seems to be filled by Hyun Kim.

Due to a drop out we now have a space for this week.  This is the only vacany untill week 39 at the end of september.

We now have a new vehicle added to our fleet of 9 seater vans.  It is a Renault Traffice long wheel base 9 seater which gives us a little more space than the Mercedes Vito which was a bit tight when packing 9 gliders.

The white Transit is also still with us as a third back up, but after many many years hard service needs a bit of a rest and probably definitive retirement in September.

High pressure at surface level with with forecast temperature to 26ºC in Piedrahita.  The approach of a warm front which will only skim the N of the Peninsula will give us a thickening of Cirrus towards late afternoon.  Good quality thermals to 3100m and winds light westerly.   If they keep SW at altitude and are not too strong from N at Avila a good day for Segovia.

What happened?

Forecast not far off, with strong climbs to around 3500, though I possibly could have taken more but for the rough.  All of us over the Pass except for Chris.  Mike Blain and Paul at Avila and Dave and Catherine beyond at around hte 65km mark..  I took a glide to N of the lake finding lift just about everywhere.  Quite spooky flying with Altocumulus Lenticularis forming with very little wind (not over 15km in the boundry layer).  I managed to forget to turn my tracker on so no track for me.  Puri did teh driving today with Jorge doing more tests on his foot in Madrid.

Looked light a decent day, though a bit  breezy to start with.  Nice evening conditions (N) when the new crew got back.

Tandem photo from yesterday..

Tomorrow looking very good with ligh w, base around 3000m.  Segovia here we come!

Passage of weak cold front yesterday cleared the air giving us greater visibility and improved thermal conditions.  The heat low seems to be displaced further to the E and today the winds are lighter, probaby going more north towards the end of the day.  Cloud base around 3000m with some risk of overdevelopment if we look at the Skew T (max temo 25ºC).  High pressure comming in in typical summertime pattern so we are looking v.good throughout next week.

Today convergencde likely in the Ambles Valley and an good chance for flight to Avila.  Maybe Segovia if overdevelopment does not impede us nor a N at Avila.

Suggested time to go up hill around 11.45, briefing 11.15.

10:50

Wind light NW  at P:N.   Good Cu development in valley by 10.30 though not far off hill top.  I needs to rise a fair amount.  Typical day with easy agreeable thermic conditions.

23.50

Well, it was a good day, with good climbs and a 4/8 Cu filled sky.  Myself on a commercial tandem over the pass with Mike and Rod.  Mike had a big blow out near base at the Pass which gave his Airwave Sport 3 a cravat.  He dealt with it nicely though.  My passenger had had enough with the cold etc so we went down to land near Amavida.   Rod nearby and Mike at La Torre.

Another early start to the airport tomorrow.

Once again probably high winds from the SW.  A slim chance of a safe take off if the wind comes onto Peña negra .  Not worth risking the S site at Lastra. Local mountain forewcast showing 65km at 3000m.  Saturday still looking good.

17.30hrs

Not too bad and every one flew OK till thewind started to get up.  Ian at Bonilla and Nick at Villafranca, the rest near El Soto or home.

Models tried: Nearbirds Zippy and Woody Valley X alps GTO.

I have tried to reduce my kit weight and dimensions this year.  There are now plenty of new models offering pod harnesses with considerably less weight and bulk than my Kortel Cannibal.

Amongst the most desired, if the waiting list and price demand shows, the Impress 3 seems most popular.  I actually had one on order, but with the long waiting lists looked elsewhere.  After seeing the Nearbirds Zippy on the forum I ordered one and have been flying the L size for a few months.

The Nearbirds Zippy L

The Zippy seems to have copied its basic strap setup/geometry fom the Advance Lightness.  However, it seems an improvement on the lightness in that it has decent buckles, some back protection and an inflated airbag style fairing (not so sure the latter would offer much protection though).  The harness is very very light (around 2.5kg) and must be flown with a front mounted reserve with the reserve webbing attached direct to the riser karabiners.  This ads for extra messing around before launch.  There are no pockets accesible during flight, though there is a ballast storage space under the seat and a back within the inflated airbag behind.  I had to fly with everything extra attached to a radio chest harness.  The supplied reserve container has velcro for fixing instrucments, and if properly attached to the chest strap give a good view of the instruments.

The support of  the pod relies on 4  lines (about the same diameter as brake line) for support of the feet/legs.  Once  in the hammock/harness this is the most comfortable harness I have ever tried – whilst hanging in the simulator.  I have never had a pod harness which seems to keep your feet up without a lot of pressure and stomach muscle work.  There is closing stystem which relies on one clip across from right to left and another line threaded across and held in place with a small metal disc to prevent it running out through a plastic eyelet.

Putting the harness on is a very pleasant due to the light weight.  However, doing up all the buckles and clips is time consuming .  The process is:

2 metal  chest strap  buckles

1 plastic chest strap buckle

Fit reserve (I left one side on, so only had to affix 1 plastic support buckle, then the reserve webbing through the flying Karabiner), then another clip to leg loops, then a velcro loop around the chest strap.

Clip for pod skirt.

Thread line right to left for pod skirt and hook in metal disc.

That is a lot to do, especially on a launch with your glider thrashing around!  Plenty can go wrong.  These were my errors:

Forget to attach reserve webbing on karabiner

Get pod closure lines hooked in the chest buckle maiking it impossible to get into the pod

Foul pod closure lines with various parts of harness making it impossible to get into the pod.

No being able to get into a hammock style harness is much more of an issue that failing to get into the pod of a seatboard style harness.  For one your are hanging from your groin which can be uncomfortable (the zippy is well padded here).  More importantly, much of the stability of the harness relies on your pressure on the footplate.

What is it like flying

Assuming you are now well set up an successfully in the harness the flying in nice conditions (ie. smooth thermals and limited turbulence) is very nice.  I origionally flew with a too wide chest setting, but reducing to 42cm made a lot of difference to comfort without restricting further the weight shift.

Weight shift requires a whole body roll and is quite tiring as the harness naturally want to roll to nuetral straight.  There is no ABS and the harness tends to roll a lot about this straight and level position giving plenty of unwelcome feetback in strong turbulence. Many of us have an inate tendency to drop our legs in turbulence – after all this should reduce twist tendence.  However, this is not a good option with a hammock style glider as you will find it becomes uncomfortably unstable in roll.

After XC flights of 5hrs or more the thin shoulder straps did make for a little soreness, but not much, as the pressure there was much less than on other pod harnesses as there is litte need to push out hard with the feed and shoulders to keep supine.

Getting out for landing was easy, but best to stay in till late to maintain roll authority near the ground.

The best bit of all was packing it into its small rucksac and carrying away something almost half the weight of my previous set up.

The Impress 3

I have not flown this, but many of my guests are arriving with them so I´ve had a good look and we have talked a fair bit about its characteristics.

The hammock system is very similar to the Zippy, though with a degree of ABS.  Like myself with the Zippy in strong turbulence – ie running the Convergence near Avila – these harnesses give a much higher workload.  Getting into the I3 is also difficult, especially for shorter pilots.  Many have adapted a home made system with a shock cord tied to their foot so they can find the opening and get their feet in.

Woody Valley X Alps GTO

The WV harness is advertised as a lightweight harness, but is nowhere near as light as the Zippy, and probably similar to the Impress 3.

However, where the Zippy is all minimalism, the WV is a harness with many extras and a much higher specification of build quality and details.  Their geometry still relies on a long seatplate which makes it a much easier step to make for the pilot who already has an old style pod or is buying one for the first time.

The harness has a similar number of set up straps as the hammock style, but the factory  setting (marked with red thread) seems perfect for most.  I fiddled around a little in the shop simulator just with the pod length settings – a smilar method of adjustment as the zippy, but a little less fiddly as loop knots were acompanied by sliding balls.

The reserve is mounted under the pilot and extraction systems seems neat and very well thought out.

At take off the following:

2 metal chest strap buckles

2 buckes on the left side for the instrument cockpit (a safety system to prevent forgetting the main buckles)

1 nylon clip for the pod closure

There are lots of well thought out details such as hidden magnets to secure the pod further down.  The closure system is not disimilar to  the zippy, but using pulleys and line discretly away from the opening which prevents snagging.  There are many nice details all well explained in the handbook online //www.woodyvalley.eu/download/manuals/en/GTO.pdf.

Flying the GTO

Very stress free as  you are sitting immediatly on the long plate and can fully control the glider from a seated position so there is no rush or loss of control at this critical time.  Getting the feet in is easy, fishing about with the feed or using one hand.  I immediately had full control of weight shift easily and naturally, even though I have been over 2 months on a hammock style.  Holding a bank angle or adjusting mid turn is was easy and far less tiring.  With the hammock I would often find myself involuntarily pushing with my wrist on the riser to help keep my body over.

The GTO has neoprene and gives a tight seal so I soon got hot low down, but dropping your legs is no problem to get the air circulating as the harness maintains stability in turns or straignt.  However, with the current set up of the pod I seem to need to hold my legs up, so that needs adjusting, or maybe you can only get that easy leg up position with a hammock?

What is the verdict?

I really love the lightness, comfort and looks of the zippy.  However, the lack of inflight accessible storage, general wobbliness in strong conditions and lack full lenght back proteccion certainly weight against it.  Also, you must be very focused on your set up before launch.  With my attention on my clients also getting off, the general fiddlyness of getting ready along with the anxiety of not being able to get into the pod has been a real problem for me.

The extra few kilos for the GTO are more than outweighed by all its advantages of passive safety, user freindlyness and even ruggedness. That is the one I will be keeping.

My profile and needs are probably not too different from your average middle aged pilot looking do decrease the weight of his pack but still wishing to continue with the advantages of a pod harness : warm in winter and cool in summer  (as you can wear shorts), glide advantage and perhaps becasue we think it makes us look cool!

If I was living in a temperate climate with long walks to take off and possible long walk outs I would stick with the Zippy.  As I fly in a near desert environent with booming conditions and drive to launch and tend to stick to civilaization for landing, then the GTO isthe better option for me.

For sale:

Zippy L with front mount container.  1 carefull owner  450€

The low pressure up near the UK moves more E introducing cooler air ovr the Peninsula.  This will give a drop in temperature (though only to around 32ºC).  Wind will continue to be very near, or probably over the limit for safe paragliding, though at the present time seems considerably better than yesterday a this time.

We will check things around 11 -11-30am, though I am not optimistic.

10.40.  Wind has come down into the valley.  Last nights attempts to drink down the wind have failed.  A mention in dipatches for their particularly valiant attempt:  Ian, Mike and Catherine.

No flying today

Not a good situation for paragliding today.  Upper level trough and surface low plus ealy on high humidiy at mid to upper layers casuing thick cloud.  Presence of Sahara dust – which arrived dramatically when we were flying yesterday – does not improve things.  A bid drop in mid-upper level humidity my early afternoon shoud lead to clearing of much of the Altostratus.  However with the extreme high groundtemperatures expected, rapid development of Cbs is probable.  If that were not enough, surface winds may be in excess of 30km/hr.  An evening flight may be possible as wind is forecast to drop off but anything earlier is unlikely and certainly very risky.  Tomorrow looks  better insome respects.  W wind  lighter but still strong and thermal soaring conditions much improved

What shall we do today then? (NON FLYING)

We can discuss when I come around at around 11.30.