Here is a little story about a wonderful 2 week holiday :
It started through a contact with Pierre Rondel from the French RCSM discussion list. We met south of Grenoble, halfway to Gap where the French have some of the most beautiful sites you can imagine. After a couple of careful flights (unknown landing site amidst 40 cows) my flying day ended with a mid-air collision with a beautiful Swift (4.5 m ?) from Gerard Prat. The Swift did seem reparable, my Eclipse was a wreck (although theoretically, one might have a go at repairing it, the main spar is intact).
After some revalidation in a little rented house in Toscany, we went up to the Val di Fassa meeting.
Val di Fassa, the scenery
As you may have read, the first day was kind of unsecure. It was however a pleasure to see Uwe Gewalt fly his Bergfalke on every occasion he could and to see this bird back again intact after a very long but unsuccesful search for lift. Afterwards, we found out his landing was somehow a miracle - he had passed near a house, under a crane and just over some electrical cabins with only a few feet on each side, touching the ground on a little slope, just behind those obstacles - some people deserve that kind of luck ! One more word about Uwe: what an inspiration for other pilots !
Uwe Géwalt and his Discus 2
I did a flight on the second day, I was extremely nervous, still had to check my gear after getting the transmitter, so in the end I must have flown 5 minutes at the most. Peter Smidt assisted me wonderfully in launching the plane and guiding me to the landing site to come back in.
You'll see various transport means, on wheels
or as large backpacks - in this case with Robbe prototypes: a 4 meter two-seater - beautiful !
Some comments: it would seem to me that meetings like this gain with a clear and entertaining leadership. I saw this at earlier events, and this time, later on on the first day, it was as if the pilots were left on their own, nothing happened and no announcements were made whatsoever. The second day however, everything ran much more tightly, or put differently, I had an idea of what was happening. My suggestion would be to hold breefings (which I am used to !), at least each morning (with weather conditions, landing procedures and sites, etc), and when important decisions are taken, for example when conditions are poor and risky as they were on the first day. Also, one should respect participants by starting at the announced time, some people get up at six or earlier to make the trip and enter their transmitter on time, and then for a long time nothing happens because a few people haven't entered theirs, and so everyone waits.
This seems like a lot of criticism, which wouldn't do right to the event. I had a great time meeting people, talking and sharing ideas, stories and experiences about a common passion, and last but not least, meeting people like Graupner, Gewalt, Quabeck, etc. and watching many others fly, which is almost as beautiful as flying oneself.
On the monday, I went to the Seiser Alm on the North-Western side of the Dolomites. My frustration of the preceeding two days (only flying once at the Pordoy) was completely compensated. Wonderful safe landing site and a beautiful scenery. And what's more, quite a few guys from the weekend were there as well, a.o. Peter, Thorsten and Uwe, and now I could fly as much as I wanted, just how it should be. What's more, and I point this out to some French friends, parapentistes, tourists and model gliders living in unisono in a wonderful way.
Seisser Alm, meeting place for many
To Pierre and Gerard: could one use such experiences to make living together with parapentes in France more easy ? The same happens at the Wasserkupe, build shared experience or something ?
Loads of parapente gliders and model gliders flying peacefully from the same site at the Seisser Alm
And then for the final stage of this trip: the Teck. On the wednesday, I had the chance to do an airtow for the first time. Well, maybe the word 'air-crane' is more in place. I didn't have to do a thing, only keep the wings straight. My Flamingo weights about 2.5 kg and it must have been at least 100 cc pulling me in the air at an angle of over 90 degrees.
Seisser Alm: preparation and launch
Intermezzo: compared to the Eclipse, the Flamingo has always seamed a poor bird - everytime I want to circle it in a tight space, it falls into a dive, which is a nuisance, especially when flying at a larger distance from the slope. And with a dive test, it did react correctly, but there had to be something wrong. After discussing this with Gerd Holzner, I advanced the cg considerably (I never measured it, only weighed the plane on my fingers with an idea of cg at about 35 to 40 % - which led to a faulty cg ! - in the future I'll start with putting it exactly at the prescribed place).
The following day brought a new adventure at the Teck. After some five or six flights of between 15 and 20 minutes with the advanced cg, the Flamingo and I flew wonderfully. I was enjoying every minute of it. At moments with no wind or lift, flying large circles losing only little height (and not loosing coolness) till finding lift again. Also the thermalling was now much easier, I would not just recognise lift but also circle it, sometimes up to 400 meters (I prefer some altitude - the 400 meters I know because of Thommy's vario aboard the plane), sometimes doing 50 metres every 5 seconds (+ 10 m/sec !).
But then, maybe overconfident or something, my mind wasn't as careful as I would like it to be. I started when conditions were visibly poor. I went after others who were trying to pick up some lift, but I was going down quickly, I couldn't get back to the slope to land on a little field nearby (on the Teck Eastern slope). At some point I was circling behind trees - the plane came back once, but with a village for background, the plane wasn't too visible - and then with the next circle it disappeared behind the trees, not to come back.
I searched for over 1.5 hours in the slope, amidst thick bushes and trees, temperature somewhere around 30 C, but didn't find it. I did try to listen to servo's wiggling and requesting an altitude reading now and then from the altimetre and then walking over some distance till the signal would become weaker. Afterwards, I found out that I had been very close to the model most of the time. So the idea of trying to pinpoint the model with the altimetre receiver was not a bad idea. And, I did have some idea at what height it should be, but it was hidden in very thick bushes.
How do I know this ?
We did the following thing: after climbing up the slope and finding Gerd Holzner who had been waiting for me, we decided to go to the airfield at the other side of the valley (Haneweide) and try to get a lift from a Cessna or something of the kind, to have a look from the air. This worked out fine and a little later, we were in the air.
Now the pilot was of course busy flying and Gerd and I didn't see any big white model down on the slope. But a little boy Stephen (hope I got his name right) flew with us and he was able to pinpoint a V-tail in the bushes and even discern some red (it is in fact a normal tail and lila, but close enough). We did a few more circles asking Stephen to explain to us exactly where he had seen it, but somehow 40 year old eyes don't match those of a ten year old, and both of us (gerd and myself) couldn't discern it in the bushes.
The rest of the story is simple - got in the car, drove as close as we could and then searched and found the plane .... completely intact !!!!! Wow. In fact, only the tail was visible, it was burried deep into thorny bushes but didn't have a scratch ! Was I happy ! I must be supersticious, but I really believe the Flamingo likes to stay with me. We have had quite some experiences together already - other planes come and go, and the Flamingo stays to be a good companion. And luckily, we may now continue our adventures.
In conclusion, some comments and reflections
• Flying in mountains demands learning and regular doing. Each time, I find new traps in which I hopefully won't fall a second time - as I put it sometimes to console myself: I build up experience quickly.
• A good fellow experienced flyer standing next to you, not saying too much, but even just being there helps to keep the right mind setting.
• Take any occasion you have to further build this experience, talk to and fly with experienced pilots, look at them flying and try to understand what they are doing.
• And last but not least: put in some 'noisy device' to locate your model when you are slope soaring.
From a low and flat land flyer who loves slope soaring, and thanks to friends on the way,
Marc
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Marc Tassoul
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