Flyblog

June 2004
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May   Jul


 16 June 2004

Yesterday I got fed up with working and seeing such great weather outside. Out with Dave and we had almost the whole range to ourselves. A bit tricky to get up at first - quite cyclic - then rough as anything over Colonna, but then got up to 2100m over Nudo (blown north) and rather than head north and not get back decided to go for Campo dei Fiori. Got there - just - below ridge height, -5m/s for the last km...

After crusing there a bit, up to 1950m with a sailplane, again getting blown back, then out over to between Sangiano and Cardana, back to Sasso where it was +2m/s in the ridge lift alone... out over the Laveno harbour to get down, 2h30 and a reasonable landing (lots of steps...). Didn't feel destroyed either: combination of air sick pills and the electric shock therapy seems to work well.


10:53:22 PM    

 10 June 2004

Decent enough flight in bumpy conditions last Sunday. 2h20 with lots of sink between thermals, climbs usual 2 to 4 m/s up, but several pilots went down crossing valleys. I had a big climb out (850m) from low down in the Brusciatta, but only to just under 1750m. I didn't go further than Nudo, seeing a few coming back low low low from Colonna. Finally I got a bit bored and tried going out in front, got to 1950m, and then spent the best part of 45mins thermalling over Cardana and Bogno.

By contrast, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today have all been fantastic flying days...


1:47:49 PM    

 30 May 2004

Finally a spot of reasonable weather and some flights. Both about the same track, off to Pian, San Martino and Sangiano. Topped out at 1800m both times. Nice flights, about 30km XC but still haven't got 8hrs yet this year! Only five flight so far...

Have to check out my VG (too stiff since I changed uprights) and also repack the chute. And the stinger elastic has gone.


2:13:50 PM    

 25 April 2004

Forgot to add a little flight at Easter: good height, basically a 3 thermal flight though, over to Sacre Monte becuase there was a snow storm towards Sette Termine and Lema, then over home, back to Sasso, up to 1800m. At this point Campo dei Fiori started to produce a rain storm, I headed out over home again, and came into land because it started looking a bit heavy. 1h36min.


4:59:54 PM    

There's been some discussion on some rather shocking looking stats concerning alpine acidents in 2003. Putting aside the conspiracy theory that it's just a way of getting students for various magazine contributor's alpine flying courses ;-) I have of course my own opinion...

Just to remind you, I'm British, I learnt to fly a HG in the UK in the late '80s. I redid my entire course here in Italy in 1999, and fly mostly "foothills" 1200m high on the southern edge of the alps in Northern Italy. Flying is seriously different here. I recall a trip to Annecy (rather similar to here) in my 2nd (British) season, and realise now I knew nothing about what flying in mountains meant.
 
First on the stats: in Italy, about 1/1000 members is killed each year, about the same for HG and PG, so pretty much the same as the BHPA stats. This is about double the level of sailplane pilots, and to put it into perspective is a bit more than three times for accidental death rate for an average person (i.e., something like 1/3,300 people are killed in a year through general accidental death), or about the same risk as driving 50,000km annually on Italian roads... A friend of mine fought an insurance case (PG accident, badly damaged ankle/foot) so we researched these figures pretty well. 50 deaths in 2003 in the alps doesn't really tell us much, since we don't know the population of pilots, but could be believable.
 
As for an analysis of the accident causes: none of the things commonly listed as "accident causes" are that - they are a situation a pilot got into through bad judgement. In my opinion, most days I fly, cloudsuck is there. Strong sink is nearly always predictable. Turbulence exists over the back of every mountain (but which side is the back?). An analysis of the accidents would be useful, to remind us all the banal kind of mistakes that lead to these incidents. But turbulence, sink and wind are not causes of accidents. We always fly with some of the these elements - indeed, we rely on them.
 
Second: is flying in the alps more dangerous than the UK? In my opinion, if you know when to fly, NO. Definitely not. I would say my 40hours/year here are in fact safer than when I flew in the UK, sometimes in marginal conditions because of desperation with my "addicition" - getting just half the airtime per year. Many of the classic problems faced in the UK - flying low to the ground in windy conditions springs to mind - are not faced on the right days in the Alps. The question is, which are the right days?
 
The answer is quite simple - ones without wind. Or put differently, windy days in the Alps are never safe days. And you can pretty much work out when these are, especially given the abundance of information on the web (my main two sources for here: pressure difference across the alps (equals wind speed and turbulence) http://www.soaringwetter.ch/sg/adiff.html, and a specialised forecast for pilots again from Sitwzerland http://www.meteosvizzera.ch/it/Professione/Aviazione/vololibero.shtml; sorry, they are in Italian and German...). A statistic: I fly about 30 to 35 flights a year, mostly at weekends, and maybe only once or twice a year do I go out to fly and return home without doing so (compare that to a UK pilot's parawaiting stats). It is remarkably simple these days to forecast which days will be good ones.
 
Wind in the Alps is a killer, causes massive turbulence, and a pilot who is not used to turbulence will find the going scary and possibily fatal. My last flight here wasn't that exceptional for the spring, but I still registered +5/-8m/s on my vario. I landed when I saw a developing storm 6km away (over a mountain I just flew past 45mins before), I was at 1800m (1500m agl) and decided it was getting a bit too good (I spiraled down from 700m agl when the following 10km glide had only lost me 600m). It's this kind of decision making that keeps you out of the danger.
 
At 6pm the same day (I took off at 2.30pm, landed just after 4pm) there were PGs at 2000m over our club. And no danger in sight. A wonderful flight for a load of pilots who waited out for smooth evening air.
 
Typical mistakes by lowland pilots who don't have alpine knowledge:
 
- thinking they need wind. The only wind you need in the alps is thermal generated, and it can still be very strong.
- thinking they need to fly early: in fact superb flights can be had at 7pm. Don't fly at 2pm unless you have got the experience and are completely on top of your wing.
- not being prepared for the exposure: suddenly ending up 2000m (or more) AGL can freak you out. Be prepared, know where you want to go, know how to get down.
- XC: mountain XC has a high exposure level; again, psychologically, you can get freaked out when you are 30km from home, alone on a mountain.
- not realising that a cloud can go from +4 to +8 in a matter of seconds. On a PG (I very occasionally fly one) I never go closer than 300m, and even on my HG I only go near CB on benign, stable days.
- reading XC Mag too much: sites like St Andre and Laragne are superb XC sites for very experienced pilots, but very strong - valley winds, strong thermals. There are plenty of lesser sites offering great conditions. Or fly very late. Or both. Note Steve Pearson's and Gerard Thevenot's comments at the bottom of the XCMag web article: http://www.xcmag.com/Spinner/read/article.cfm?id=1134, as they point out it's not the conditions that are the problem.
 
There are lots of small things too: All the classic problems of new sites also mean that danger is there. Of course there is obvious stuff like valley winds (so landings aren't in the direction you think they will be) etc to consider.
 
It's ironic, but most of my fellow Italian pilots won't ridgesoar. They think top landings are for expert gurus only. They won't fly close to the hill. They prefer nil-wind landings (British HG pilots usually dread them, since they top land in wind 95% of the time). This is only because they don't have that experience... it's all relative. You can come to the Alps and fly safely, but you need a different reference set. You can get that safely through a guided course, or going regularly to a club-based site (from this perspective, Laragne and St Andre are good) and taking local advice seriously.     

12:41:28 PM    

 28 March 2004

First decent spring day to fall on a weekend. The forecast looked OK except base was likely to be a bit low, as air was humid.

Got to the club at 1pm to find the navetta loaded already with 9 hg's... and I didn't have the right boots for the mud on top of Nudo so back to the house and then the 2pm minibus up. Finally took off at 3.25 into the bad part of a cycle, worked around to Nudo but it was quite broken and didn't get anything good until I got over Nudo TO and then a slow 1.5 - 2 m to 1600m. Decided to head forward as it was quite bumpy, by this time it was already clear I was underdressed for the cold.

Over to Sasso quite high, leave at 1350m for Picutz, and get there to find Erik coming back from Cardana, slowly, quite low. I continue but turn back and follow him to Sasso, but I get the lee thermal from Picutz and climb up to 1100m again in +1. Decide to return to Nudo, but I get a good climb on the east spur of Sasso out to 1650m, so go south again, this time cruise through Picutz at 1350m, and the clouds over Cardana look good. Indeed, I get +2 to over 1500m there a couple of times, head out over Bogno, Besozzo Sup and generally float around for over 20mins before deciding I'm getting real cold now and head for home.

Almost screwed up the landing since I figured it was switching, but when I came in for a west wind, there wasn't much and it even seemed to have swung NW... my eyes were streaming from the cold wind, I was a bit fast, missed an upright... but got it 3rd or 4th attempt. In the end just had to time the flare right, push real hard - and every came good. Next time I think I'll just come in for a South landing unless it is consistently West. 1h25m, remember another layer next time.


9:09:37 PM    

 21 February 2004

Spring is late here and also the weekends have seen the worst weather. Today wasn't good, overdeveloped but actually with some sun coming through occasionally. Usually I wouldn't have bothered but since I hadn't flown since November - even a top to bottom was worthwhile.

Arrived just in time to get the minibus up - four HG's. Nudo TO was a bit muddy but I got rigged quick enough, double check everything and take off into what looks like bouyant air - most of the PG's seem to be hanging around in weak lift. After a short climb with everyone above the Brusciatta, I guess that the dynamic lift round in front of Nudo will work, and round I go. Everyone catches on and we have fun in +1 to +2 up to cb about 250m above TO. After a couple of "speed runs" to get a feel for the glider's handling with VG on, I try to cross over to Colonna but I would get there real low, so turn around. Back to Nudo, up to the summit again, and then cb comes down and the peak goes in the cloud. Time to head for Sasso; it's buoyant there too and even 2.5m up - I cruise out after a PG who's heading for Picutz, I get beyond Sangiano and I'm still at 900m: I decide to head back for Nudo, VG on full at best glide, I lose about 200m for a long glide (4km?) before arriving back at Sasso and after climbing in weak lift I get back up to the restaurant, head out and wind down to land for a bit over an hour's flight. Nice flight, beautiful views when you have to fly low over the wooded mountainsides.


8:27:39 PM    

For touring around, at least. Mine's an eTrex Vista, this is how I use it:


First get some decent software. I use SeeYou, but there are others. Make sure you get 3-D views etc - that's what you want it for, to see yourself spiraling up in some great thermal. icon_cool.gif

Then set your waypoints to be meaningful landmarks for you - LZ's, take off points, your next XC distance target, mountain peaks. Digitise them and get them onto the GPS. Don't load 100's otherwise you'll have a hell of a job selecting them in the air... give them meaningful names, too, not just "102AZX". icon_eek.gif

Make sure you have the track set to a level that will work for you. I guess you have around a 10,000 point memory, so either set it for a few seconds (3 or 4) or just auto (that's what I use for my eTrex Vista). On auto 3 hours of XC seems to be around 5,000 points.

Waypoints: put LZs in at their mean sea level (MSL) height (or more correctly WGS84 ellipsoidal height, there can be quite a difference in some places). I fly mountainous areas, so I put my other waypoints mostly as peaks, so again I use MSL. This means that when I make a valley crossing to a peak, I have the glide angle required to reach that peak. I guess that for flying in the plains, one would add a standard margin above the way point but I don't have that experience.

I use the map display as a thermal tracker, so I set the zoom to be 120m or so, then I can see the 360's - and judge if I fall out of the back, wind direction, drift, etc. Turn off the "snap to roads" so the display is normal. I set the map display so up screen is the direction I fly (in other words, the screen turns if I do). This seems much more natural - it is a flight instrument, not a map.

For XC flight, I switch to the "trip computer" display, which I have set up with the most meaningful fields: ground speed, glide angle, glide angle to destination, altitude, time to destination, distance to destination, destination name, etc. I can't remember all, but skip through the choice list and you'll get the idea. I use the glide angle to destination to decide if I go on glide as I'm climbing in a thermal (I also have this displayed on the map screen), and to judge if I am winning or losing on the glide.

In flight I generally choose my next waypoint depending upon the conditions, clouds, etc. This means its easier to use the favourites list for the waypoints, or choose from the "nearest" function. You need some practice to do this. The 76S will be better than the eTrex because the buttons are bigger.

Make sure you have it working, the memory clean, and the track recording, during your pre-flight check. Then after you land, stop the track and then switch off. When I get home, I download via G7toWin (even though SeeYou can read directly) and save the IGC file. SeeYou is then able to do all the stats (flight time, etc) automatically and you have nothing else to do but sit back in an armchair and enjoy your flight...

First posted by me here on the Oz forum, Feb 2004


3:07:12 PM    

 12 October 2003

Yesterday I missed a pretty epic autumn day. Wasn't sure today would be HG or PG, in the end it was overcast this morning so I decided for the latter. Off to the training field and alone did a couple of take offs which went fine.

Took off at 3pm from Nudo: down to the Brusciatta and into a thermal and up quite fast to around 1300m (no altimeter, I didn't get the GPS mounting sorted out yet). Over to Nudo and up high, in fact the lift was pretty strong and I didn't fancy too much getting under the Cu's. Manfred was flying around in a Swift, sharing a thermal wasn't particularly comfortable. All in all, easy to get up and around, not too much wind.

Flew around there a bit and then over into the valley to land in 4 strada. I'm still a bit nervous on landing, a bit too much pendulum and I seem to come down, rather than forward. But it's all so slow that it's really not an issue.   


8:12:54 PM    

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