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My flying 2022
In spite the fact that 2022 started with drinking contaminated water resulting in 6 times throwing up in the new year's night and basically a detox for 2 days, this year was actually a good year.
To sum up, I have visited and flown in lots of places, some of them new for me [ Tenerife Spain, Bassano,Monte Avena, Gemona, Levico Terme Italy, Kobala Slovenia, Breitenberg Germany, Oludeniz Turkiya] , some nice flights in Brasov area, Romania and I met some amazing people in my trips. I also realised that I usually live in some kind of bubble that I created for myself . Of course, not everything was great everytime, but that is another story I have written about before [ see How to choose wisely your paragliding SIV course]
I guess no one can say that I haven't tried, I managed going flying almost every weekend, on my less busy Fridays or whole weeks, even that the good weather was not always by my side.
In Romania, this year was Brasov year for me, as I managed to make some memorable flights from that place.
One of my best and most beautiful flights was the one taking off from Bunloc, climbing over Piatra Mare, passing over Cheile Rasnoavei, near Postavaru, going over the northern part of Bucegi, passing over Bran Castle, Magura Branului, climbing over Piatra Craiului and landing near Zarnesti..just pure joy.
https://www.xcontest.org/2022/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/19.6.2022/09:55
Another cool flight was in Germany, flying with Spike and fellow pilots from Poland over the Neuschwanstein Castle, very beautiful landscapes and colours.
https://www.xcontest.org/2022/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/24.7.2022/09:39
That week in the Alps was not the best weather so we managed to fly some more in Italy from Levico Terme, Gemona and even the usual Bassano.
At the end of August I decided within a day notice to go to Serial Cup, a competition in Slovenia where everyone flies only B or C wings. The level is not low, because many advanced pilots choose to come and fly serial wings for competing here.
The idea was to go there, try to learn some new stuff, be aware of what is going on around me and try to follow the best, and also try to make the goal if this is possible. And it was possible in the first day of the competition, I was very slow and I did not follow anyone because they were much faster than me, but with patience and motivation I made it into the goal! That was my first time ever! Cool feeling!
https://www.xcontest.org/2022/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/24.8.2022/12:45
Next few days of the competition were short because of the strong Bora wind or clouds overdevelopment. We had one task in Lijak, where I was a bit confused over my navigation map and lost the altitude by going absolutely chaotic towards the last turnpoint, ending up landing on a field very close to the goal...
But in female cathegory I was on the 3rd place, so for my first attempt, I guess this is a good result, even if overall I was on 51st place. I am aware that female cathegory is just for motivating female pilots to go to competitions, but this has been great, as paragliding is only a hobby for me.
So..busy summer for me, trying to catch the good weather, following the sun..
Hope that 2023 is an even better year! 🥳
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How to choose [wisely] your paragliding SIV course
I have been flying paragliders since 2008, when I decided to attend to a beginner’s course for 2 weeks in Parâng area, Romania. I didn't know much about paragliding back then so I went on a recommendation of a colleague at that time. That was not a good choice and if I have had some real reviews back then, I would have analysed it more carefully. Being an experienced pilot with good results or nice flights does not make you a good teacher. The pedagogical module helps a bit, but the skill..you should have it if you want to be an instructor.
Since then, I have been attended to some paragliding courses and participated in a few seminars on different subjects in the paragliding field: SIVs, XC guided courses or seminars. Some of them were really good and some..well.. not so much. Since 2015 for 5 consecutive years, I have participated in SIV courses in North Macedonia, over Ohrid Lake with a Bulgarian team, which in my opinion was a good choice with very good results. This year I decided to make a change and see other point of view of another instructor in Oludeniz, Turkey. I really think that some courses deserve more real reviews so that you can choose wiser.
I would say there are a few very important aspects to take in consideration when choosing a course, especially a SIV course, as it is your own life in stake.
- And as a planning-wise fact, the course with one instructor should have maximum 6 to 8 pilots, so that the pilots shouldn't wait for many hours at the take off in the sun for the other colleagues to be over the water and to have the instructor's attention. Also, the number of the participants in a course affects the time of individual briefing/debriefing sessions or simulator time every day.
- SIV or Acro. Well, it can be both in the same course but there will be time not well spent for some. Acro [wannabe] pilots already know the theory of basic manoeuvres, so SIV basics are too entry level for them. Also, pilots who only want SIV course will be over their head with too much information about way too complicated manoeuvres for their skill level.
- Every SIV course should start with introduction of the pilots, to understand their experience level and their aims for the course. The plan for the course should be individually adjusted as every pilot is different, even if the overall plan is somehow the same and in every SIV there are same manoeuvres taught. Comparison between pilots is stupid way of showing the progress of the pilots, as I mentioned before every individual is different, with different background and experience.
- Next step in a course should be the theory session, generalities about aerodynamics, weather, local particularities and then the very important part about manoeuvres, procedures and incidents. I find it necessary the theory session to be more condensate in just few hours sessions as it is common knowledge that after 2-3 hours, people tend to not paying that much attention. So, I guess the important stuff has to be taught when pilots are not tired, hungry or distracted.
- Also, in SIV courses, it is very important to simulate all the manoeuvres in the simulator with your harness, before every flying day so that when you get over the water, you can execute them even if, in case of emergency, you do not hear the instructor's vocal commands in the radio. Some instructors explain very well the manoeuvres and the procedures that when you are over the water, they just guide you in case of emergency, otherwise you are welcome to do them all by yourself.
- As for the commands of the instructor, well, they have to be clearly explained beforehand, so that when you are in the air executing a manoeuvre, to be able to understand what to do. Commands, like 'control it', have no sense and mean nothing if you do not understand what you have to do [ pull or release?! left or right or both?! Well, that depends on the manoeuvre you have to control ]
- Every flying day should have its own briefing and debriefing sessions, sensible organized in a day so that pilots can also have time to eat and rest, which I think it is normal every flying day.
- It is also important to have professional video recorder with zoom on the ground so that you can analyse the flight in the debriefing and see what you’ve done in the flights and what you should have done better.
- Another important fact is the compatibility with the instructor, as everyone has his own approach when teaching and also the attitude towards the students. Some students might adapt easier than others on instructor's style. [Personal feedback: This can go very wrong when you meet a textbook misogynist and frustrated instructor. Of course, this fact you will not know until you deal with it. Or you can ask for feedback from others.]
- The aim of this course should be to gain more confidence in your own strengths, to repeat manoeuvres, get them right and to learn new stuff as every pilot wants to develop his/her skills so that the pilot can fly better and safer. If after the course that did not happen, well... I guess it was not the right choice for you. That does not mean that you shouldn't try somewhere else. SIVs are a very important part of every pilot training.
- And finally, but also important, is what can be included in the course's price: a boat in the water which can come to you as quickly as you land in the water and save you, life vest for each pilot, radio station with ear set, rescue packing if you land in the water and usually a van to the take off. Some places, like Oludeniz, have cable car to the take off.
I hope that this article here will help you choose wisely your SIV course, the right instructor and the right place so that you can enhance your skills in paragliding. But you should also ask for personal reviews from people who already completed the course [ or at least tried to complete it].
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The journal of the Bassano magic
I met Spike few years ago when we were in Colombia and Bir, saw him training for hike and fly competitions ( he won the 9th place in RedBull XAlps 2021) and also saw him coaching flying groups and last year I decided to try come to one of his flying seminars.
My flying friend Andrei Turnu and I decided few weeks ago that we should start flying in the Alps so the playground for this spring was Bassano.
The spring flying season started here in Bassano 2 months ago and March was totally awesome, from what I heard and from the flights I saw on xcontest.
The first week of April was forcasted with shitty weather, low cloudbase, fully coverage and rain in some days, exactly the week we had planned to come, of course. The conditions this week were far from being the best or even usual here in Bassano area, from what I ve heard.
But, guess what, the magic of Bassano allowed us 5 days of flying out of 7 in the seminar, some were better, some were less, but totally I managed to fly some spring hours and learnt a bunch of new stuff from Spike. So, thank you Spike for this experience, I am looking forward to a new one!
Sunday was our first day of the seminar but we started with 5 or 6 hours of rain in Bassano. We were kind of depressed, but some walking and hiking really helped achiving the goal steps for the day and the spirits up.
The place we had the headquarters was La casa di Spike, in Rivai village, Arsie area, on the back valley from Bassano- Monte Grappa ridge, 40 minutes drive from the landing areas in Bassano. It is a very beautiful area for staying and for flying, very close from Monte Avena flying zone.
The second day looked not so good for flying, the cloudbase was pretty low on the mountains and we decided to give it a try in Bassano, but the rain came on the ridge so we escaped on the flatlands for an 1h flight.
Then, Spike s girlfriend, Leo, told us that in Arsie area the sky looks much better so we went back for a 2h flight on Monte Avena, with some clouds but really good climbs and ridge soaring, having in the background the Dolomitis. This take off is from the mountain called Monte Celado.
We were a gang of 8 flying pilots, plus Spike, most of them Polish pilots, one Canadian and two Romanians. And we managed a very nice flight with landing 300m far away from home.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/4.04.2022/13:31
It was so freezing in the air that I hardly could feel my hands, so this first photo is @courtesy of Wadim who took off his glove to take this shot.
Second day of flying was on Tuesday when we took off from Bassano, a good training in a very crowded place with lots of beginner pilots. The task was to fly around, get to know the area and try to stay more in the air.
This is a new flight in magic Bassano where we flew with a low cloudbase on the mountains and then pushing after Brenta Valley where the sun was shining over the hills. My flight had few low saves that I am quite proud, not that it is an efficient way of flying, but still my patience got to new limits, which I find a good skill in cross country flying.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/5.04.2022/08:51
On Wednesday the weather got much worse, so Spike invited us for a hike&fly adventure at 7 a.m. to Monte Celado takeoff. Although the cloudbase was lower than the launching place, we managed to make a good few minutes warm-up flight after 1h30 hiking.
The peak of the day was visiting Monte Grappa over the clouds with the whole team while heading to Bassano.
@courtesy of Jacek
After that, a local 35min flight for me in Bassano.
The 4th day of flying was on Thursday when Spike showed us a new take off in Caltrano, 20 something km to the west from Bassano, where we took off from above the clouds, that is why on my tracklog you will find that I gained no altitude during this flight. But still, with my new developed skill of patience, I managed to scratch the hill, find thermals and continue to the east for 50km, passing by Bassano takeoff. This is my longest flight in this seminar, but not the most hard-worked one, as I would find out the next day.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/7.04.2022/10:09
The last flying day in the seminar was on Friday, when the forecast was for shitty weather, with fully covered sky and low cloud base. But that s why I called this Bassano Magic, because even if there was no place to go flying when searching on the meteo maps, this place offered us a new flying day and improved spring conditions. Proper spring conditions, with turbulences and the whole package. But it was such a good training day. We all managed to stay in the air, escaping from all the beginners from near the takeoff area and making a nice flight. Hard worked for me, but very satisfying.
The landing places in Bassano area are many and generous, so I guess that is one of the reasons for coming here so many beginner pilots and schools of paragliding from abroad.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/8.04.2022/09:56
So even the canceled day on Saturday because of the feohn coming was flyable in the morning in Bassano. At the edge of CBs, but still flyable.
So this is my flying trip in Bassano, a guided seminar with Michal Gierlach and lots of new stuff learnt. So thanks again, Spike for awsome first adventure in the [lower] Alps.
#bassano flying#paragliding#italy paragliding#spring#bassano#xc guiding paragliding#xc seminar#cross country
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From India, with love
repost from 21st November 2019 on gotravel2fly
Bir Billing take-off site
Going to India for 3 weeks this year was a rushed decision and everything had to be planned in only one month. We wanted to catch the best possible time for flying in Bir, so we decided that mid-October - mid-November is the best time for traveling and for flying there.The result was amazing, we had the best adventure ever in discovering this country, the people and their culture. Of course, just a tiny little part of India, but it is a start. We've met a few people we already knew from Colombia and lots of other people from all over the world.Places like Bir in India or Roldanillo in Colombia are spots for paraglider pilots eager to fly many hours per day, many days in a row, but suitable from beginner to very experienced level. Bir offers a large range of types of flying: for beginner level there can be local flying and small xc flights, for intermediate level there can be XC flying on the front ridges and for experienced level there can be flying in the back, on higher peaks and can be transformed in vol-biv very easily so this type of flying needs to be very well planned in advance, with full equipment on.
Getting to Bir, Himachal Pradesh region, is an adventure itself, because the place is quite remote. We got our cheapest plane tickets with a 9h stopover in Istanbul, so we had a very short flight from Bucharest and almost a full day of maybe visiting Istanbul. So we found out that Turkish Airlines has some city tours for people who have big stopovers and we made it in the last minute to a 6h guided tour, with lunch included in the old city center and visits the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia. It worth every minute of it and we really enjoyed this tour.Unfortunately getting back at the airport we found out that our flight to New Delhi was delayed with 2h40min so we missed our connection bus to Dharamshala.We bought our sim cards for getting an Indian telephone number and Internet but the guy said that it wouldn't work in the next 12h..so I couldn't reach my friend in New Delhi who would have helped me get another good option for arriving in Bir.So our spontaneous plan B was negotiating for 2h30 for a cab in the airport to get us directly to Bir on the same day.Our first stop by cab was in a vegetarian restaurant Shiva, where all the food was very spicy, even the bread. I think the food would be tastier without all the spices, but that s just me.After 12h of waiting for the sim cards to activate, we discovered that the guy only gave us the physical sim cards but not registered them with the extra option we paid for... So we had to pay again in some shop on our way to Bir.We had a few stops because it was a long journey, even there was only about 500 km. It took us 14h to get to Bir and I start to think that the roads in Romania are not that bad after all. Here in India our taxi driver was a very good one but the roads are impossible to drive faster than he did. Near some cities, there was so much chaos that I 've never seen before and I honestly don't know anyone to manage to drive better than this guy. But the last 100 km was so long.. They wouldn't finish. We managed to get to Bir at 1.30 am, after almost 40hours of traveling and not sleeping. I was so tired that even after 7h sleep in the bed, I didn't want to go flying. But I did and it was great.The place here in Bir is great, amazing views, friendly people (friendlier than in Delhi I might add) but being tired I didn't want to deal with potential dubious retrieval so I flew in the area for 2h in my first day.Funny fact is that obviously with huge luggage I did not bring my hairdryer. The local solution was to go to the hairdresser, pay him 20 rupees and dry my hair with his hairdryer.
Bir bus station area
The habit here in Bir is to wake up very early if you want to fly far. Sure, that was not the case for me ( because in the first few days I had to get used to the new area of flying, have the mindset that I can do longer flights, you know, confidence troubles) but the others were kind of desperate to fly more and more and so at 8.30 we were already in the cab on our way up. The trip from Bir to the take-off takes about 45 minutes by taxi and it costs 600 rupees. The whole time we had a personal taxi driver, a guy who waited for us every morning at 8.30 to drive us up.The take-off is always crowded even at 9 a.m., with people launching even if there is no thermal, just enjoying the views. In the first days we showed up the inversion didn't let me go too high, but I had nice flights trying to be patient in the air ( the only thing I could think of was Ivo telling Andrei Turnu at the SIV course: be patient, you have to have patience )
Bir -landing area
The food in Bir is mixed: you can have Indian dishes, Tibetan dishes or international cuisine (pizza, pasta, falafel, etc). I have tried many of the restaurants there and everywhere the food was good and did not have any problem ( as I thought I would have).The weather here in Bir is usually OK for flying after the monsoon period, so the start of October - mid-November and also in the springtime April-May. But this year it seems that the monsoon had extended and the weather was still very humid the first 2 weeks of October. Problem is that after monsoon come stable days... There was an inversion layer around 2300m and it is mostly ok if you fly on the higher mountains in the back, but from the take-off, you have to reach out to the inversion and fly only above it. If you fall under it, you struggle a lot. So all these being said, my 3rd day of flying in Bir was a complete frustration because I could not get above the inversion for 1h45min. I started to think that I'm a mess and I don't have any idea how to fly. So I landed, pack my glider, return to the homestay and enjoy a nice afternoon visiting the village and one of the Buddhist monasteries in Bir.
Photos from various Buddhist temples in Bir
the best Masala tea@ Garden Cafe in Bir
After a memorable day of flying, Vlăduț decided that he can sacrifice one day for flying with me, just to give me confidence in flying some distance. Although the day seemed to be the same as the day before, it actually was better as most of the people who took off in the morning managed to climb above the inversion. So did I and first personal record I broke today was the altitude one, I reached 3300m, the highest I've ever flown before with a paraglider. We decided to go to Dharamshala and back and Vladut flew with me all the time, practicing his patience and waiting for me to climb and then waiting for me to glide and so on. The view was just amazing, it's absolutely breathtaking flying near so high mountains. And we flew only in the front, not going on the main ridge actually. On our way back from Dharamshala, on a green terrace where I was trying to get a climb, I saw some animals moving around. They were probably impressed with our colorful wings so they gathered from the bushes and trees. As I could not climb very well there, so losing some hight over the terrace, I was wondering what animals were they so I looked more carefully and I realized they were grey monkeys, like the ones from the Jungle Book. I was so amazed that I circled again around the terrace and I managed to scare some of them away, still, I saw some small baby monkeys.The flight was the longest I 've ever had, duration and distance, flying 6h4min and 85km flat triangle. So 3 personal records in one day. Plus I managed to sum up over 100 flying hours this year, till now. Yep, pretty cool feeling!
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/23.10.2019/04:46
The strange feeling here is that every day is different and you can not tell until you fly. You cannot say in the morning if there is a good day or not, the weather can change very quickly and you just have to adapt.When there is overdevelopment or raining or strong wind, you can go visiting some more Buddhist temples.One good thing about the food here is that they have a lot of vegetarian dishes, so I actually haven't eaten any meat in India. I think that this is a good thing for me and I will try to keep this habit longer.The drinking water here is not a problem as I heard about the rest of India. They have here some fountains and everyone drinks from there. I tried not to use so much plastic, so I brought my own metallic recipient for filling it with drinking water.The problem here is the trash. I did not figure out how they collect the trash but most of it gets in the rivers, so the water from the river is only clean on the mountain where are no people. Otherwise everywhere here people throw the trash in the water or they burn it.Another thing you can do when not flying in Bir is renting a bike and visit the Buddhist monastery called Palpung Sherabling, 40 minutes ride from Bir, Dharamshala direction, but on a secondary road(I cannot explain the chaos is here on the roads even when it is not a big city). The whole visit worth it, not only because we saw a big group of monkeys at the monastery, but because I had the best ginger-lemon-honey tea ever and we were also witnesses at the monks' prayers during their ritual. That was an intense and very rhythmic experience in the temple where children and adults monks were singing and reading their mantras and playing on two big drums and horns. I don't know much about the Buddhist religion but the atmosphere was impressive and somehow not that different from our Orthodox church inside monasteries.After many local or very short xc flights, I manage to focus and stay in the air longer time so I get to fly more distance. The classic route is to take off in the morning, go west to Dharamshala, come back and go east to Camp 360.
Baijnath bazaar
The few first days in November weren't that great, it was very unstable weather and it rained for one night that I thought it wouldn't be flyable the next day, but it was. The weather is not very predictable, but it is flyable almost every day.One day we decided that it is no worth going up to the take-off because it was cloudy so we went to a small hike in the wilder parts of the village to see a small Hindu temple. Then we decided to visit a village near Bir, Bashnat, a few km away. So we took the bus because now we were 5 so we don't fit in one taxi. The ride by bus was very cheap and we really enjoyed it. In Bashnat we visited a 1000 years old Hindu temple, just amazing. All sculpted in stone with a lot of decoration.If you like Indian clothes, you will find tons of them in bazaars, all kinds and colors. The trouble is that especially in the countryside there are not ready-made, so you can buy a kit containing one scarf and two textile materials fo trousers -salvar and for the dress named kurta. After that, you have to go to a tailor to sew your new clothes to fit you. It is quite cheap to do that, so I managed to buy a full kit with 750 rupees and paid the tailor 300 rupees. The tailor was very professional and the kurti was amazingly beautiful. We were out dressed in them, celebrating my new distance record 122 km flat triangle, Vlăduț's 150 km fai triangle and the last night in Bir of Kevin and Lisa, our new friends from Australia.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/5.11.2019/04:41
For the last week, we have visited some other places, Palampur and the tea plantations and Dharamshala with Dalai Lama's temple. The bazaars are full of stuff to buy as souvenirs. Himachal Pradesh is an amazing area. All the people we've met were friendly and kind and we decided to come back again next year.Delhi is one of the most polluted cities in the world. We had to wear masks to be able to breathe filtered air, especially because in this period, many people use to burn down their fields and also there is a holiday called Diwali when everybody burns firecrackers all over the place for 3 to 5 days. So the quality of the air is very much reduced because of this. The initial plan was to stay for 2 nights in Delhi and one day to visit Agra and the Taj Mahal. We abandoned this plan when we found out that the quality of the air was very poor with a hazardous risk. So only one day in the big city was more than enough to understand why people in India we talked with prefer to stay on the mountainside, away from the big crowded 28-million-people capital.We enjoyed taking photos with lots of people in Delhi, where we happened to get to a Sanskrit Meeting in an exhibition complex.
1000 years old Hindu Temple in Baijnath
Tea plantation @ Palampur
in Delhi with Alexandra and some nice dressed girls
India, we will come back for sure!
the chaos in Delhi
the veggie momos
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North Macedonia & Bulgaria June 2019
repost from 1st July 2019 on gotravel2fly
Coming back from a couple of weeks flying holiday seems is a hard thing to do, home is never good enough..it never was actually.Our road trip to North Macedonia started with the left foot, the forecast looked sheety for next 2 weeks, I broke my newly received present ( a bamboo eco drinking cup) in the car's door, we got hail on our way there that I had to put my sleeping bag over the windscreen that it wouldn't break.. And probably many other stuff that I don't even remember anymore because after that, the trip was amazing.In Ljubanista, North Macedonia we've met the group of people we meet every year for the last 4 years and also new people and we joined them to their organized SIV course over the Lake Ohrid. We had the best time there like I wouldn't imagine when I left home.The place is pretty remote, as I like it and I want to stay there for longer period of time because it has everything I need: a clear and sweet water lake, mountains all around, a small beach and enjoy the silence.
So the first week was great for flying and trying stuff over the water. Next days were great for swimming, kayaking, visiting and scuba for the first time :D. That was really really great in Ohrid Lake, being so clear water. Love Ohrid Lake! Thanks, Anouk for the tips One of the days I learned how to repair broken wings, thank you Ivo for your patience I even got a haircut on the beach! Thank you Pepi for the new hairstyle, you rock!Because the weather was good, but the wind not so much for flying again in Ljubanista, we decided to leave earlier to Krusevo, also in North Macedonia, where we had 2 days of flying and a little XC on my first flight there https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/27.06.2019/11:09Last 2 days were set for Kongur Air Fest, at the Bulgarian- Greek border, where the views are amazing. The top to the bottom difference there is around 1800m and the mountains are really spectacular. My flight there wasn't that pleasant because I think I took off in the rotor and after taking off I had a big frontal collapse with a twist and I was so lucky I wasn't that close to the ground, but even if I just came from SIV course, I got nervous in the air, so I shortened the flight. All in all, the place is great but because it is faced north, the thermals come from the southern part of the mountain so it was rather turbulent air. The music from the festival was cool and I really enjoyed it.Next days I will make a compilation of my movies over the lake, like every year.
The first day we had tailwind so we decided to go kayaking and it was so cool that I have to share some pictures.Next 5 days were flyable and I had so much fun climbing over Magaro and then going over the lake. I was a little nervous with my Rush 5 over the lake but after a few stalls, I calmed down: the wing is ok. The only thing is that it has so many plastics in the leading edge that it got cravats after every maneuver. Luckily, I managed to get used to this, so no big deal there. The spiral dive though..not so great :)) I tried many times to exit ok, so after many fails, I figured that maybe I shouldn't try SAT this time :)) But for sure next year!
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and back home..
repost from 25th February 2019 on gotravel2fly
Coming back from a 7 weeks trip away from home made me realize how small we are in a gigantic world. We have so little time to live and feel every place we like on this planet... Because just to see one place it doesn't mean you know how to live it. You can see the whole world without understanding it.
One other thing that I 've just realized is that Europeans have the nasty habit of not being happy. And it is not just the climate, it's the mentality. People I've met these past weeks are happy, they live under the same sun and they smile to complete strangers. They help each other and they help also people they haven't met before. They also have corruption and poverty, but they smile and they dance and they enjoy their life as it is. Maybe it could be better, maybe it could be worse. But they enjoy what they have.
There are very, very few reasons in this world that can make you not to smile every day.
About Roldanillo I can say that even if it is a small town with about 30000 inhabitants, there are lots of stuff going on, people are friendly and hard workers and they love their families. There are many activities you can do there like paragliding almost every day, bike riding, motorbike riding, horse riding, hiking and visiting many beautiful places. And at the beginning of February, there is Cabalgata festival, followed by Roldanillo Carnival, so you shouldn't miss these two if you are around in this period. Cabalgata is a horse festival, where people from this area and around ride on their horses in the whole town, while horses are making a specific step learned with great effort, which looks like a dance. So there is interesting stuff to see but also there is a party in the central square where people are listening to local music and dancing on the street. Next day is Roldanillo carnival which gathers people of all ages dancing on the street and having a group theme. There are tens of groups that dance around moving in the whole city for hours. It is probably exhausting for them but they did a great show and all the spectators were very impressed. I took lots of pictures and the atmosphere was amazing those days, so probably that's the best time to be there in Roldanillo.
There are many things happening in Roldanillo all the time, even if it is a small town. The Colombian paragliding national championship was held in Roldanillo, at Aguapanela take-off, so the beginning of the contest was marked with a small fiesta in the city center. Also, the end of that was a gala held in Central Square.
So, waiting for the spring to come back home means a few more weeks of cold weather and warm clothes...I guess I should have stayed longer in Colombia
P.S.: If you want to travel to Colombia, note that the yellow fever vaccine is very cheap in their country and you can make it even in airports there.
Till next time, goodbye Roldanillo & Colombia! Was very nice to meet you! Thank you for having me there!
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Salento & Valle de Cocora, Colombia
repost from 23rd February 2019 on gotravel2fly
Coming to Colombia was a good decision, flying here is very reliable, almost every day in the last 7 weeks was flyable, people are very friendly and the prices are low or at least decent.
Last Sunday we decided to visit Salento and Valle de Cocora, a 2hours ride by bus from Roldanillo. It is a great place and I really recommend visiting it because here I found a nice traditional small town full of souvenir shops and great views. It is also full of tourists but I really enjoyed visiting it.
Valle de Cocora is one of the places you can visit from Salento, taking the jeep from the city center about a 20min ride, by bike 1h30min or hiking for 3h one way. We decided to take the jeep and it was a nice ride on an asphalted road.
The views in Valle de Cocora are amazing, in the reservation you can find wax palms that grow only in this area. They live between 2000 and 3000 m altitude and are like 45-60m high, named also the cloud forest because here rains almost every day and the clouds are always present. So the views here are unique in the world and you should also know that in these palm trees live yellow-eared parrots, but, of course, you can find lots of other animals, birds and plants.
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The trip in the trip – Medellin and the Caribbean Sea
repost from 30th January 2019 on gotravel2fly
In a 7-weeks holiday for paragliding, you also need a break so we decided to leave for Santa Marta, in the north of Colombia, on the Caribbean coast. The plane tickets I bought online from a local airways company, from Medellin, a city we anyway wanted to visit and meet with some friends from the US. The booking for the accommodation I made using Airbnb or hostels with good reviews.
But how was it.. an adventure from the first day to the last! It had happened so many unpredictable things but I managed to be zen and get over the nasty things in order to have fun on this trip.
Going from Roldanillo to Medellin
The first day of the trip wasn’t as expected. After a very long way from Roldanillo to Pereira 2h and from Pereira to Medellin 7h15min for about 250km, we arrived in this overcrowded city where you have to run for your life as a pedestrian because you never have priority on the street. The first place I have booked on Airbnb was a room in an apartment in El Poblado, one of the most crowded places in Medellin. The room had no outside windows, but only some slots to a very small courtyard, so no natural light or ventilation. After 3 weeks staying in Roldanillo, Medellin seemed horrible. However, meeting Kristen and Jason was great.
Santa Marta
The trip to Santa Marta was ok, just 1h long, I think we actually spent more time getting to the airport. From Simon Bolivar airport to Santa Marta city center we took a local bus spending only 5000pesos for 2 people. We walked a bit to visit the city center, we had lunch at a local restaurant with good food, where the corn soup and the tee were from the house and I had a sea fish with patacones. Although the place didn’t look very tourist-friendly, a Colombian girl eating there encouraged me to enter and try it. And she was right, the food was very good and cheap. The walk through Santa Marta was a short one, only a few hours, visiting the port, some shops and a nice and shady coffee shop near the Tayrona Museum of Gold. The city of Santa Marta wasn’t a very good experience, it’s pretty dirty, crowded and many beggars everywhere. From there we took the bus to Tayrona area, which was 8000pesos and lasted 1h but was interesting.
Places and people
The whole Tayrona area has incredible views, there were extraordinary places we had visited and if I come back here again, I would definitely stay again at the Journey Hostel, where I really liked the accommodation type and the design. It is one of the coolest places I’ve been. The views are great, the staff very friendly and they give you useful tips about places to visit around the Tayrona Park. The rooms are for 2 or more people, actually some open-space places with no walls only handrail. The huts are made of wood on a steep slope, with toilets and showers on the ground floor and the beds on the upper level. The bunk beds were made of bamboo wood and each of them with a mosquito net. You can also rent a hammock to sleep in if you want to go cheaper. The place is very cool and I guess many west European people preferred it. We decided to spend here 2 nights even if I had only booked one because it was more comfortable than sleeping in a hammock on the beach. so this is a nice place, I strongly recommend it.
the fish I had in Santa Marta, at a local restaurant
visiting Santa Marta
the view from our room near Tayrona Park
me and the hammock
the Journey Hostel
Tayrona Natural Park
The first day around, we visited Tayrona Natural Park, a place with many great reviews on the internet and definitely a must see. It is a beautiful natural park, but very overrated and also the entrance fee was expensive. We entered the park on the Calabazo entrance, so not the main one, because it is not so crowded and you hike more to get to the beach. On our way, we visited Pueblito village, a 2000 years old village of Tayrona civilization, which initially had around 2000 families, but you could see now only about 5 houses with a circular form, covered with sugarcane. These houses are having few inhabitants with their families, but I don’t think they are very comfortable being a museum piece, people staring at them and taking photos with their homes. Besides, on the heat that was that day, they were cooking inside with the door closed.
After another 2h of hiking, we got to the Cabo San Juan de Guia beach, with amazing views, but very crowded, especially Dutch people, and big waves so that you weren’t allowed to swim too far from the coast. The main attraction was actually the alligator living peaceful and quiet in his swamp near this beach. what I don’t understand it was why people were relaxing staying on that part of the beach between the swamp and the sea. So I asked a lifeguard and he told me that if the alligator comes on the beach, people will simply leave.
in the jungle
Vladut matching with the red tree
to the Pueblito Village
a Tayrona house
Playa Cabo San Juan del Guia
See you later, alligator!
the cute iguana
The Monkey Walk and the Naranjos Beach
For the second day in Tayrona area, we followed the tips from the hostel’s staff and we went on the Monkey Walk to the Naranjos Beach. So we passed through the river and walked among the plantations of bananas and coconuts and spontaneous vegetation in the jungle and the path was full of ants, lizards and iguanas. We haven’t seen any monkeys but it was a very pleasant walk especially when we got to that cool and wild beach with big waves, not recommended for swimming. On one part of the beach, there was the place where the river flows into the sea, being the favorite spot for alligators.
The Valencia Waterfalls
Next visit was to Valencia waterfalls, on the north-eastern part on the main road, where we had like 20 minutes walk to get in a place where the waterfalls formed some natural pools with sweet water. We enjoyed the walk and the splashing and I think this area is worth visiting.
On our last night in the north, we slept in Santa Marta in a home of a very friendly family and the guy that rented us the room also made us a very tasty breakfast.
Back to Medellin
Our last day of the trip was scheduled for the way back to Medellin and visiting the city. Our program was disturbed by the fact our SIM cards were not working anymore so we had no internet because we never registered the phones in Colombia. They have this stupid law that you have to register your phone in maximum 20 days since you have bought the Colombian SIM card otherwise, your SIM card will be blocked. To solve this problem, we visited some phone shops to figure that even if you register your phone after being blocked, it will be 72h until it will work again. So Vladut had to buy a new phone and a new SIM card so we could have internet on our way and we actually spent half of the day doing that. The other half we got to visit Pueblito Paisa, a small part of a village reconstructed on a small hill in the city where you can see the panoramic view of Medellin. After a short walk in the city center, we headed to the place I have booked on Airbnb in the same neighborhood, El Poblado. The thing is that after an hour wondering and asking where that place is and calling them with no answer, we realized that it is a non-existing guesthouse and that I got tricked. So, just that you know, Guest House Poblado does not exist in Medellin, so don’t book or pay for it. So we entered the first hostel we saw on our way and we found a nice, basic and cheap room to spend the night in. And after a few days, we got our money back from Airbnb for booking that room we never found.
And back home to Roldanillo
The last day of the trip was scheduled for the way back from Medellin to Roldanillo, knowing that for this 250 km or so you spend around 10h from your life. So we got to the bus station and we found a bus going to Cali that could leave us in Zarzal, 10 km away from Roldanillo. The driver said that this will take about 6-7 hours, but we had lots of delays from the beginning so we actually spent 9h with all the stops. Although the journey by bus from Medellin to Roldanillo is very beautiful, with high mountains and deep valleys, narrow roads and very comfortable seats, I definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND traveling by bus on more than 50km in Colombia. You really waste your youth on the road.
So we had our adventures in the last few weeks and I really hope to be good weather for flying
Playa Naranjos, the one I enjoyed most
platana con queso on a leaf
on the Monkey Walk, among banana and coconut trees
Medellin- city center
on the road from Medellin to Roldanillo
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Adventures in Colombia
repost from 28th January 2019 on gotravel2fly
It is interesting in these well-known places how you get to meet people from around the world and the coolest skill here is to be able to speak many foreign languages. Sometimes knowing English might be enough if you travel to Europe, India, Australia or New Zealand, because it is a very global language. But in Latin America, not so much. Here people speak Spanish and only rarely they can speak English, so it is good to be able to communicate with local people. On the other hand, there are many foreigners but not all of them speak English. So here I have practiced my English, French and Spanish and the fact is that people are very curious to know about Romanian. All of them are very surprised to find out that this is a Latin language, spoken in a country surrounded by Slavic and Hungarian speaking countries.
In fact, people in this sport are very open-minded, there are people that travel a lot and see lots of things and that helps them understand differently the world around them. And it is not only about paragliding, it is about what happens when doing this, how you get back home after landing in a very remote place (which can be an adventure even in your home country), how you interact with the other pilots on the take-off or after landing, how people make groups for traveling or different adventures, etc.
About adventures, every day is a new story. The day it really rained a lot since we’ve got here, we decided to rent a motorbike in the afternoon. The weather seemed ok at that hour and we decided to ride up to the take-off and that area, on a paved and steep road. However, the rain started again so we made two stop-overs because we were all wet and we could not see forward. It was a cool adventure, but I wouldn’t ride again if raining.
One of the days I flew to the South but I landed near Bolivar because I couldn’t get back. A guy on a motorbike stopped near me trying to make a conversation but I couldn’t understand what he was talking about so he left. He got back with a cold bottled lemon juice and he understood that he has to use simpler words in order for me to understand Spanish. The retrieval was fast, Don Fernando took me by car, a very nice elder man with whom I talked about Medellin, Cali and Cartagena which he recommended to visit.
On 13th of January was the first day of the Colombian National Championship and I thought that it will last longer till we could take-off because of the 70+ pilots registered in the contest. But in fact it was ok, we waited longer because of the rain, but after that, I made a nice flight with Vladut.
The day before leaving in the trip to the north, I landed on a field and then a guy from the USA landed there also. I waited for him to pack his equipment and we headed to the gate, but it was closed so the only way out was climbing over the gate. So this is what he did and when I tried that, a piece of the metal gate broke, entering in my right foot. Since I don’t really react ok when I see blood, I had to sit down for a minute. Thank you Steve Mcbee for having and using your first aid kit!
So this is how I ended up in ER in Roldanillo, where I got an antitetanus vaccine and some stitches, with the recommendation to use antibiotic for 7 days and no entering the water with the wound (just before leaving to the seaside). My experience in the Roldanillo hospital was pretty good, it didn’t last that long, the doctor was very young and careful and although he couldn’t speak English very well, he used Google translate for easier communication.
Later edit :
Even that Roldanillo is a very well-known place for paragliding and so many pilots come here this time of the year for free flying or contests, the retrieval in case of emergency is very late and there are many things that can get better in this community related to this thing. Accidents happen and paragliding is not the least dangerous sport ever, so the local authorities should mobilize to do something about this, with the help of local pilots and the ones that come here often for flying because I think it is completely unacceptable that a rescue from the mountain to take 6 hours. There is a lack of information at the take-off and in the city of Roldanillo, there is a lack of interest to solve these kinds of problems that often occur. People are not prepared to help the pilots who suffered an accident and even if they want to help, they don't know the procedure if there is one.
About 3 weeks ago I witnessed a bad situation with a flying mate, which eventually ended up ok-ish, but still... After an early take-off,( because the week before was British open so every day we took off after the competitors) that day I had one of my bumpiest flights, with lots of asymmetric collapses and a cravat, that made me land pretty soon. But I landed OK. The thing is next second I heard a colleague of mine saying in the radio station that she landed on the mountain and her foot hurts. So I asked her location and tried to help by calling the ambulance. I didn't know the number but I asked people in the village. They called the hospital but no answer, then a taxi came and he called the hospital and they said that if the patient is on the mountain, we should call the firefighters. No-one knew the number so the taxi driver took me to the HQ, where they said that another department is on that accident, the Civil Defence. So the taxi driver took me there and they were like... Ah OK, we will come. I had the location so I took them there in the village and then we hiked up for like 1hour to get to the patient. Meanwhile, her boyfriend was already there with her and also the kids from the village. The retrieval from the mountain took 3h to get her in the village, so a total of 6h since when she called her accident until she got to the hospital. Her foot was broken and she needed surgery. That s bad, but actually not that bad... If there had been a blood loss, the patient would have been dead probably in 6 hours. That is bad. That is bad structure, I did not know the procedure if they had one.. And the people here working in different departments have no clue what to do and who to call. That is bad... Bad news actually because it was not the first accident here. Another friend had a back injury a week before and the ambulance came, took him to the hospital in Roldanillo and they sent him home... And he actually had his back broken and in need for back surgery and he was walking around for a week without knowing that because the hospital sent him home. And after a few other tests and CT, he found out that he should have not left the hospital like that. They should have sent him to a more competent hospital if they were too small or unprepared or unqualified... This is what I was talking about... This is a bad-organized community, the Roldanillo authorities and the flying community also. Before these accidents, I had no idea of who I should call in case of emergency, there is no number written at the take-off or in the city center or elsewhere. You can check over the Internet, but Colombia has a bunch of different numbers because every institution has its own line for emergencies and they do not communicate among them.
This is something I don’t get... paraglider pilots come here for 20 years and this small town earns lots of money from these hundreds of pilots coming here every year in full season. I’m not saying that people won’t come again, but I think that there are a few things that should change around here, for people safety.
con Don Fernando after retrieval
on our way by motorbike
at the take-ff during Colombian National Paragliding Championship
a local finca
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Finding my way to Colombia
repost from 12th January 2019 on gotravel2fly
It’s great having good friends especially when they help you in need, so thank you Ingi. Leaving Bucharest on New Year’s night can be complicated when you live 20km away from the airport. Taxis are hard to find and the prices are booming. But we got there on time thanks to our friend and we managed to get our baggage paid and checked-in in just a few minutes.
Getting to Roldanillo
It was a very long trip to get to Colombia and I got there very tired, even if the airways company managed to make our journey easier and decent. The first stop-over was Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, a well-organized giant with lots of places for rest (it is important when in transit, to have a place to spread your legs). From there, we flew over the ocean with a very big plane, Boeing 777, with about 400 passengers onboard, arriving on time in Panama City airport, where we had to spend about 5 hours before our next departure. That airport, the one I heard so much about especially over the duty-free shops, was not that impressive and I actually couldn’t find any decent place to rest.
Welcome to our new temporary home
Our hosts in Roldanillo are very nice and friendly people, a traditional family (with 2 small kids, a dog and 2 puppies), who retrieved us from the Pereira Matecana Airport, where we landed from Panama City.
The trip by plane lasting 24h with 2 stop-overs wasn’t very comfortable and the first night I spent in Roldanillo, our destination, was delightful for sleeping in an actual bed.
The first day in Roldanillo was tiring, as we couldn’t sleep more than 6 hours because of the jet-lag, we packed our paragliders and headed to the city center for having our breakfast, get some local currency from the ATM and buy local SIM cards. Near the central park we got a cab to the main take-off, Aguapanela, which costs about 30.000- 35.000 pesos and lasts 25 minutes. People are very friendly in Roldanillo, as I was about to find out.
The first flying adventure in Roldanillo
Being very tired, I couldn’t manage to fly too much and the air felt bumpy.
The first day there wasn’t the usual weather because it hadn’t rained for a few weeks and it felt very dry and hot. So, heading to a place to land, I decided that a grassy field will do, near the city so that it wouldn’t be that bumpy in a small landing field closer to the city center. But guess what: I actually landed in a pineapple orchard, probably not so well maintained as it was full of tall grass around.
It was a real adventure to get off that field because my paraglider landed over that grass which was taller than me. I managed to get off from the grass and move 2 meters in about 20 minutes and got to a ditch where I could actually pack my glider because the grass wasn’t that tall over there.
After a while, I got to a road close to the city and I put my home address to Google maps trying to not get lost. The trouble here in Roldanillo is that Google Maps has no accuracy and I managed to get lost because of the numbering of the streets and houses (first, they note the street’s name, then the alley’s name and then the meters away from the house to the street..I mean: how weird is that?!).
Luckily for me, as I said, people here are friendly and when I asked a guy for directions, he actually offered to get me there, walking with me, telling me about his beautiful country and asking the people living in the area about the right address. It seems that Google maps got me a little too far from where I was supposed to get, but after 1h30min of walking in 360 C ( which next days took only 20 min), I got to the place we stay.
How things work around here
In Colombia there are some stuff you got to get used to: you and the equipment have to be prepared for the rain, no matter what the forecast says because the weather is not that predictable, you will most probably take cold showers every day and you have to get used to fried food.
The weather
I’m getting used to my new gear with very small steps and I think the weather doesn’t help me either. First few days we got here, the weather was very dry and the temperature very high +350C. So it was pretty bumpy and the thermals were rare. Next days the humidity increased and the air felt much better, more thermals and I decided to take my chance and go on a small XC flying around Roldanillo. But the humidity was rising so much that it started raining every day for many hours, especially at the take-off, which is at 1800m ASL, and over the mountains, that I had actually flown once in the last 3 days.
The food
After a cold shower and half an hour of sleep, we got to the city center to get something to eat. Apparently, many restaurants were closed at that hour on 2nd of January, 16.30-17.00, but we got to a nice place near the central park where I had a wrapped chicken and best lemonade I had ever tasted, with coconut juice and lime. It was really delicious and I will try this again the next days.
In this area, there are many fruits, exotic for me, like mango, papaya, bananas, maracuja or avocado and others I haven’t even heard of and they serve fresh squeezed juices and smoothies on the street. This is my dream place!
I have tried the local papaya, bought from the supermarket for about 1000 pesos, and it is great! All the other papayas I have tried before in Romania were green and with a totally different taste because of that. I also bought one big green banana to try to see how it is, but it sucks because apparently the best way to eat them is fried as patacon, a tradition in Latin America.
A nice and fast breakfast you can try on the street, prepared by local people in front of their homes, called arepa con queso, a corn bread with cheese, very tasty and light, made on grill (especially if you have already tried all kind of the fried empanadas- pastry filled of meat, cheese and vegetables)
People and places
The best thing being in Roldanillo is that in this period, you are never alone. There are here pilots from all over the world and you get to know them especially when parawaiting :). The first day when I didn’t fly (because of me getting too late to the take-off and the rain coming) we discovered a super cool new place near Aguapanela, called Montana Posada, with multiple functions: restaurant, accommodation or leisure like horse-riding. A very beautiful place, with very welcoming staff and great views, where you can actually see the take-off from the bar. So the perfect place for parawaiting, where I ate something called patacon con pollo, a delicious chicken stew served on patacon base layer.
There are also places where you can run from the rain, closer to the take-off. There you can try Aguapanela con Queso, a local drink made of sugarcane and consumed with local cheese.
I have met people from France, USA, Canada, Germany and New Zealand, all very kind and funny and I hope I will see them again (the ones that already left Roldanillo). With the others I meet every day at the take-off, on the bus going up or when I go out in the afternoon/evening.
The mobility in and around Roldanillo
People in this area travel a lot by motorbike or scooter, a few by car and many by bus. The bus travel timetable is pretty good, the fees are very cheap and the connections between villages or cities are very good, so it’s a very easy way for retrieval from XC flights. You can also travel by taxi or jeeps to get to the take-off, but it is more expensive than taking the local bus.
If you want to try going wild, you can rent a motorbike, around 40.000 pesos per day, and get to feel the flow of this cool place. For sure I will try to rent a bicycle as I really want to do some workout.
When in need, people here find solutions to get you where you want. So, one day, after parawaiting at that cool restaurant near the take-off, we wanted to take the bus to Roldanillo, but the bus was full. So a man from the staff there offered to get us to Rolda by car. We were five pilots with five equipements and the driver in a Chevrolet Aveo, usual type. It was very funny how we managed to stuff ourselves in that car and to get to the village in no time :).
On the 12th of January it will start here in Roldanillo the Colombian national championship and probably it will be full of pilots everywhere. So I will probably have lots of new stories to write about.
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My SIV course 2018
repost from december 2018 on gotravel2fly
This is the movie I made for remembering the skills I got by taking this SIV course in 2018. This was my third year in a row for taking this course in Ljubanista, Ohrid, North Macedonia with my super cool instructor, Ivo.
vimeo
SIV course is ‘simulation d’incidents en vol’, a must do course for every paraglider, no matter of the level of experience. So , here I am, taking this course every year since 2016, although I have tried some manouvers by my self over the water before, at Oludeniz, Turkey in 2014 and at Ljubanista, Macedonia in 2013. But I recommend taking a course with a good SIV instructor for a better experience. I have learned so many things about my gear and about myself in so many different situations by taking this course, so I decided to go there every year because I also like the people I’ve met and the chill atmosphere in Ljubanista. The views there are great, see below some photos.
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Xc course,July 2020 (at Sopot, Plovdiv) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEPgJMopqkY/?igshid=1pajro5282bo8
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The secret of the cross country flying
@Yassen Savov Paragliding
Because of all the new Coronavirus lockdown and the shitty weather after that, I managed to gather only about 20 hours flying until July, which is amazingly poor and low level, after all the magic flying last season. But traveling in 2020 is quite a challenge for everybody. So, after many plans going with the wind (only metaphorically speaking, unfortunately!) I decided to give it a go with an XC course/guided distance flying in Bulgaria, Sopot area.
Sopot is a small city on the southern part of the Balkans mountains, around 1h30 drive from Sofia, a 4h30 drive from Bucharest and a place where I’ve been a few times before. It is a cool place to fly and the weather here can be good for flying many days in a row especially in July and August, so I guess that makes it a reliable option close to Bucharest. It can be rough, it can be bumpy, but it can be flyable, so according to the experience of the pilot, it can be very rewarding or unsatisfying, even frustrating. In this magical place, where you can eat a great ice-cream right at the lift, good Bulgarian food at Rodeo, and talk to many nice and friendly pilots, I decided to learn to fly better.
One of the instructors is Niki Yotov from Skynomad, the one who told me about the course. He has been flying for over 20years and he knows very well the area, the particularities and the aerology of these mountains. He is a very good pilot and the one who managed the logistics for the course.
The other instructor is Yassen Savov, one of the best competition pilots World level, European champion and a crazy funny guy. I didn’t know Yassen before this, but I’m glad that I’ve met him now, he’s cool and I enjoyed very much flying with him. I hope that, at some point, my skills will be sharper so I can fly like him.
I figured that was a good combo for the guiding team, so I went along, it seemed the right thing to do. I also told Andrei Turnu, so that I can share the experiences with someone I knew. This is the link of the course, on Yassen’s site https://www.yassensavov.com/sopot-bulgaria-26-july-1-august/
The headquarters was at the nest www.nest.bg, Niki’s place, which I highly recommend because it really has good vibes, cool atmosphere flying-related and the place where we also had our theory sessions during the course, briefings and debriefings every day.
As the first day was forecasted with some overdeveloping of the clouds, we adapted somehow to the conditions. I know it is a small flight, but it was hard work there :)).
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/26.7.2020/11:14
The task was too optimistic for the day, but I had a really nice flight with Yassen and managed to turn back to the main landing place. I guess that we got the best what we could from that day as the plan changed accordingly. Honestly, if I were alone, I would go land much earlier, so the fact that we fly with the instructors is a good motivation for me. In bumpy air, I usually decide to land than to continue to struggle, but I guess that was just my lack of determination until now.
The course is held in this area, but actually not only in Sopot, as we ended in 2 hours drive take off from Sopot only on the second day. Some of the guys managed to fly very well and quite far by themselves or with the instructors, which is a very good thing. I managed to bomb-out twice, so not the best day for me. The conditions were not that bad actually, as it was proved by the others’ flights, but tricky for me, as it was a small hill near Plovdiv, with a quite strong wind at the take-off and some turbulent air, which I love by the way… So I took off, climbed in a thermal and then lost it on the way… It happens, I guess, but I decided I need some ballast in order to load my paraglider better and my wing to stay more stable.
The trouble is, as I guess most of the paragliding girls and light pilots, that I fly an S size glider and I don’t really load it maximum. XS size would be way too small, so a 65-85 is a good range, me having around 78kg with my equipment on.
The next day I took 4litres of water but there were no significant changes, with Yassen waiting for me on every jump and in every thermal… I felt a bit ashamed of that because I really tried and did my best..but my glide ratio nor my speed didn’t want to cooperate.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/28.7.2020/09:48
We managed to get back near Sopot and land on a nice golden field. Yassen having his anti-G parachute thrown on every glide (although he flew with a Rush 4) just to wait up for me, priceless…
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/29.7.2020/08:38 – This one was my PR FAI triangle! Note to self: insist more where you consider it should work, don’t give up just before getting there!
But with an extra 5-6 liters of ballast, I felt like this is something I really had to do for a long time… My Rush 5 flies soooo much better and faster than I would have expected being overloaded, it seems. So with 9 liters of water ballast… It was just perfect! My every-day-collapses were a bit rarer, thou stronger, turbulence didn’t seem that annoying and the speed was amazing compared to the day before! I really felt I could travel by flying my paraglider, and not only feeling like moving around by bus! So days of the pure pleasure of flying with full speed at cloud base in the Sopot area… A dream coming true! Not the numbers are important, but the landscapes I got to see, the feelings I got to feel.. Just amazing!
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/30.7.2020/09:04
The preset task was 100km out and return to the west of Sopot. Although I bombed out on this flight, it was one of the best flights so far, I managed to stay at cloud base the whole flight over the mountains and then I had a low-save on a golden field, from 160m above the ground right to the cloud base, which allowed me to travel back for a few more km until the shadow came on the valley. The better option was to stay more on the right side when going back to the take-off, as the north wind entered stronger later in the day over the mountain.
@Svetli, at the Sopot take-off, Rush 4 and Rush 5
I don’t know how people get to learn how to do efficiently distance flying, but for me, it did not come naturally. It takes a lot of work, frustration, bomb outs and that uncomfortable feeling that I cannot do this. But actually, I can. I have learned a lot in the past year flying many hours in Colombia, India and around home, but I’ve learned even more in a few days on this course because the guys have worked hard on explaining how terrain should be approached, how the weather should be read, how the things should be working. And if you take it easy and shallow, it won’t work. You have to be committed to doing this. Every information should be processed and you should imagine very clearly the zoning in the air and the thermals and the clouds forming in order to get to fly far and fast. Of course, this course was held with people flying B wings and not competition level wings. It was a bit overkill, in my opinion, as Yassen and Niki fly way better than teaching us how to tighten the 360 in a thermal and when to push the speed bar. What I mean is that this course can be held for advanced pilots who want to fly fast in competitions or open distances.
I know how much I annoy Vladut with my slow flying that he only very rarely has the patience to wait for me (actually only twice that happened..). But I guess patience is something everyone has to deal with.
@ Svetli, at the Sopot take-off
We had on this course incredible good weather, kinda tricky, but if you fly with the right people nearby, it can be awesome! The 6th day of the course was really amazing, as I guess no-one expected to be epic weather for the day. The forecasted strong North wind was not really that strong and let us fly to the east and then southeast, with incredible cloud base 3200+. After beautiful site seeing over the Botev Peak, we flew out from the mountains and traveled at the cloud base over the flatlands to the southern part of Kazanlic and then south passing by Stara Zagora.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/31.7.2020/09:06
The preset task was to Haskovo, but the wind was too westerly on that part so the new plan was Bulgaria-Greece-Turkey border. So after 7h flight and many thermals away, the goal was completed by all the three students flying that day in the course… What a day! 175 km, a personal best of distance flying and airtime. We had 2 different routes, Jack and I were with Yassen and Andrei was with Niki, but we managed to land in the same spot. At the landing, the bus was waiting for us, many thanks to Ivan for the retrieval. Actually every day was very well organized and the retrieval bus came very fast every time.
This is the team for this flight, Ivan was taking the photo.
Best guiding ever, I feel that I have made progress, I have learned a lot of things while flying but also in theory sessions. Amazing job, guys!
The 7th day of the course was also flyable though pretty strong NW wind at the Brestovitsa take off. I somehow managed to take off and then fly by myself for 45km with tricky strong wind and complete the small task. https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:raluca_dd/1.8.2020/11:08
Overall, it was a really great experience this XC course, with 2 of the best instructors I could have for teaching me stuff about cross country flying, having epic and amazing flights every day for a week… That is very consistent weather in the Sopot area, but actually, Bulgaria has very good weather most of the time… I would really like to fly again with the guys and maybe see some new places to fly in the next months if Corona will allow us.
Oh, I forget to tell you about the secret of cross country flying… I actually missed that because Andrei and I were late for the beginning of the course and the secret had already been told :)))
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