Welcome 2013 for nice flights!

Klaus took off early this morning with his Stemme (before the bad weather caught him up) for an attempt on a continental record for 2000 km towards Austria. Good luck!

 

Quo Vadis / Eagles has rented for 4 months an Ultra-light Dynamic WT9 as a tug-plane. It used to second the trusty Rallye 180 CV "Marsupilami".

All about the UL Dynamic WT9 tug here.

This is an additional document both technical & illustrated by the French Gliding Federation's "SAFETY AIMS" concerning risks and threats linked to mountain flying.

 

For your safety and that of the other pilots think to update your Flarm with the last version 5.09 of March, 2013. To download it is here.
And do not forget to look outside!!!

We finaly get rid of the snow on the airfield just in time. Weak ground and weak thermals for the first flight. The first gliders took off around 2 o'clock this afternoon.  We made the aerotows to the Aiguille and did very local flight to Aujour until sunset.

Starting March 2013, the minimum price charged for tows drops. Good news : Your tows will be cheaper,  especially in Mistral conditions!
 See new prices for towing.

As part of their yearly training, 15 German doctors chose, as is now a habit the first week of September, our airfield to hold the seminary to maintain their skills. Exchanging experiences and professional courses on the latest medical program. Like a summer camp, it was work in the morning and outdoor activities in the afternoon (including initiation courses in gliding for some).

Sunshine, good people and very nice weather, August was just like we like it. Yes it was hot, but as most of us spend our time above 3000 m or beside the swiming pull, It was acceptable.

The weather was specialy good during july. A lot of pilot could fly around Cervin and Mont Blanc several time. Some of them flew until Furka pass. We also had two very intresting days of easten wave, it was possible to fly to Mont blanc with this uncomun situation.

despite very higth temperature, bad visibility and a strong south wind a few pilot decided to fly instaed of staing at the swiming pull. Once in the air fliyng along the ridges, they got south wave and cloud base up to 4000 m. That was enought to go, turn ouround the Mont Blanc and fly back to Serres.

Nice outlanding in Bayon. We will not give you the GPS data of this field. There's only one in the valley of Bayon (east side of La Motte du Caire). The people in the village are used to see gliders landing in this aerea. A flat field of 300 meters and next to it a small field going up hill to the south west.

The end of may was very good. We could fly to the grand Paradis on tuesday, fly aroud the Mont Blanc through the Vercors, Bauges, Aravis and return through Aoste on Thursday, and finaly fly to the Furka Pass on Saturday. Every body goes home happy.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?dsId=2447554
http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:jac/30.5.2012/09:51

How to promotegliding to neophytes who don't even know what lies behind the term "gliding"?
Well, today I saw on the field at Quo Vadis a trailer adorned with photos on stickers. The decoration is particularly educational and "inspires" non-pilots to learn more about our favourite activity. The trailer is form club in Strasbourg. We congratule them!

Despite the 12m/s in the wave of Pic de Bure, the day was not as expected and not so easy. Klaus could fly 1259km between Trento (Italy) and the Massif Central . 15 hours of rotors and wave.

It is becoming a habit now, when the south wind blows, Klaus Ohlmann goes for a long flight to Austria. This work might lead one day to a 2000 km in the Alps. The ground speed after the wave of la Meije is impressive.

See the link to olc.  http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-88774353

For a few weeks now, low pressure systems are passing. But every day is a good surprise with the possibilities of flight. Cloud base are really lower than in March. Recent snow fall and high humidity makes the country side magic. Some pilots could even fly a 700 km.

On Sunday morning two gliders took off from Serres quite early. The north wind was blowing for just one day, and they had to enjoy it. Christoph and Klaus could do a nice 1486km flight between Mont Ventoux, Constance lake and Massif Central. Pic de bure wave went up to 12,5 m/s and some thermals on the way 9m/s.

The weather is really great - Vercors Chartreuse, Oisan, Vanoise, Maurienne... as well as the southern Alps. Not one valley wasn't flown over by a glider. The week was so good that many glider pilots decided to take a rest even though cloud base is at 3000 m above the Parcours.

First meal at the snack tonight. The pilots are meeting for a meal. The gliding week was very nice for March. Cloud base up to 4200m and a lot of 400 km flights.

We are actually  burying all electrical lignes on the airfield as well as the telephone. On one hand the approaches will be clearer, most of all in case of a restart, security is improved including the aerotows facing south.

 

 A small cartoon !

It needed some time for FAI to recognise the last world records of Klaus Ohlmann with the solarplane SEIKO Icaré2, but finally...My special thanks to Heinz Seidel for Transport and his tireless help and Jürgen Eckert, who invented a new documentationsystem for solarplanes in no time.
Special thanks of course for all the students and engineers from IFB Stuttgart, who made wings from a dream.
A small video from the record flight is here:
http://vimeo.com/30340032

Mistral after snow fall can transform a small tree in a strange ice statue.

An other view from Pic de Bure. As you can see, the cloud base was not that high, but the pleasure was the same. This week, three pilots could fly about 3 to 4 hours each day. The Drôme and Vercors were specially good.

Last week our pilots could fly with very good gliding conditions. Specially on the east side along the Italian border. The cloud base was high. they could fly to Fayence in the south and to Col du Carro in the north.

After the passage of a very active font in the night from Saturday to Sunday morning, we enjoyed two days of wave.

The gliding feminin touch.

He arrived four weeks ago without any aeronautical knowledge and without any flight experience, but his mind was set on obtaining his glider pilot licence.
His holiday was quite studious, particularly studying several hours a day to obtain the theoretical part.
He flew during 4 weeks - 3 weeks training and 1 week flying solo before obtaining his glider licence.

Congratulations Michael for your perseverance!

For your safety as well as for other pilots, please remember to update your Flarm software with the latest version (V5.03).You will find it here. Bear in mind you must also update your data base with the latest Alpin obstacle file "alps20110404 .obs". We wish you all many wonderful flights and keep your eyes open!