Days of possible Good XC or better Tandem Conditions from La Malinche – 0 days
Days of possible Soarable Conditions from La Malinche, including the above XC days. – 23 days
Non-Soarable days from La Malinche – 8 days
(Once in a while I might mark a single day as both Soarable and Non-Soarable, like when part of the afternoon is soarable, and the other part is not.)
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Monday, October 31st
I think it was soarable at La Malinche today, despite some gusts from the north in the morning.
Oh, and here is some interesting information that may be of interest to my friends living in the Seattle/Vancouver area. http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1688990/pg1
(In Tenancingo one can survive on $50 a week, or live comfortably on $100 per week, or very comfortably on $150 per week, although that figure might not include buying paragliding equipment. On that amount most of my friends in Seattle/Vancouver could retire for life here now, and never have to work again.)
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Sunday, October 30thDaniel Pedraza and I drove 20 minutes to nearby San Simone El Alto to visit Despegue Bistro, the new SE facing launch site in the Malinalco Valley. It is the vision of owners and tandem pilots Pablo and Roberto to not only offer paragliding rides, but by some miracle, they have placed a cargo container converted into a gourmet kitchen, in the location which is only accessible by several hundred meters of foot-trails.
We were 7 pilots, and Pablo and his wife Blanca
prepared us a delicious bacon and eggs breakfast with all the extras. Conditions were still light. After breakfast Pablo launched first and managed to make it around to top-land, and start cooking an afternoon meal, while the rest of us launched and struggled in the weak lift that not even the birds could get very high in, and landed shortly afterwards in one of the many open fields by the highway below, where Roberto came to pick us up for a ride back up for an afternoon supper and more flights.
I just flew once. I launched at 12:58pm, at 2415 meters asl. I landed at 1:05pm at 2035 meters asl. And skipped out on the food and flight, but I am sure that at least the food was excellent. It looked like he was cooking some kind of meat with lots of apples. =)I think the region needs perhaps another week to dry out before real thermals start to kick in. Despegue Bistro appears to offer a good option when conditions are SE and generally thermic, or as a morning flying site, but possibly not a late afternoon site, when it is in the shadow. It appears to be the best located site, and has been reported to be, the best place to launch if one wishes to fly to the south over the city of Malinalco, and then to the west towards La Malinche, or to the east and Chalma/Cuerna Vaca. This site should start working a few hours before La Malinche turns on, in general, and is located on a well-flown series of east-facing cliffy 400mt hilltops.
(Google Despegue Bistro for more details)
I suspect that it was soarable at La Malinche in the afternoon.
I think the region needs perhaps another week to dry out before real thermals start to kick in.
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Saturday, October 29th
Pablo of Despegue Bistro, the new SE facing launch in the Malinalco valley, came to visit L.M.. "Jano" also came and drove us along with Daniel Pedraza up to launch in his new monster 4x4. The truck made it up the road easily.
Just like the last week, it was cold at night, clear blue skies all day, warm sun but cool temps, with just a little medium level cumie action in the afternoon. I launched first at 1:30pm, as wind dummy, and worked some really weak small thermals to the right, and then tried the left of launch by the cliffs and hit sink. The next five or so minutes I struggled to work weak lift down the western ridgeline, and then landed at the emergency LZ above don Pablo's field.
Some ten minutes after I launched, Daniel Pedraza launched, and then Pablo on tandem with a passenger. They both had similar flights as mine of about 15 minutes. Pablo and passenger landed in the same emergency lz as me, and Daniel Pedraza tried the cliffs to the left and immediately sunk out to the Cabañas LZ.
There were no taxis, as usual, on the road from the "don Pablo" LZ that Pablo and I used, so we had to walk with packs for kilometers to get to the main highway.
Soaring conditions might have been just a little better just a little later in the afternoon, and Alfredo called me while I was returning to let me know that he was headed up to launch, but my back is more limited from past injuries so I opted out of the more hiking with packs that would be required for another flight, for a mediocre flight at best. I heard the next day that Alfredo soared along the ridge line considerably longer than our flights. Conditions are still barely soarable. Maybe with another week for things to dry out, it will get better.
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Friday, October 28th
Like the prior days we had a cold clear night, but day time temps were higher, and there were signs of stronger thermal development, a little medium altitude thermal induced cumie development, and perhaps tempered by just a few cirrus streaks in the mid afternoon.
It looked like a stronger day for soaring today, than the previous days this week.
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Thursday, October 27th
Like prior days with relatively dry clear blue skies, just a couple of cumies kicking off in the Tenancingo Valley in the late afternoon. Winds supposedly were from the S - SW this afternoon and things can get blown out easier from that direction at La Malinche, so I would guess soarable but maybe blown out around mid-afternoon. Things are drying out so thermal forces should be building a little each of these days.
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Wednesday, October 26th
Something like the day before, probably soarable.
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Tuesday, October 25th
It was very cold the night before and all morning, and even the afternoon was chilly. Skies were clear blue and very clean smelling like mountain air, and it was sunny. I hiked up to La Malinche alone, and launched at 2:49. The thermals were to the right of launch, as if easterly conditions. The thermals were mild, very small diameter, and did not go too high. My highest altitude was about 500 meters over launch when I flew over the back, found temporary light lift at the east end of Ixpuichiapan hill, and landed in the cow pastures down below for a 35 minute flight.
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Monday, October 24th
Clear blue skies, no clouds. There was a slight north upper flow, but was probably blowing in at La Malinche making it mildly soarable.
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Sunday, October 23rd
Winds from the north once again, but light enough that it was probably soarable at La Malinche, but with weak thermals in a blue sky, so maybe not the easiest conditions.
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Saturday, October 22nd
Winds were from the north. A group came down from Valle but didn't fly. Not flyable at La Malinche.
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Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, October 19th, 20th, 21st
Probably soarable from La Malinche, but less than optimal with light east winds.
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Tuesday, October 18th
High winds, looked not soarable.
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Monday, October 17th
It looked soarable.
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Sunday, October 16thI hiked up to launch with Daniel P. and Alfredo around 1pm. The skies were all clear blue in the area of launch, and the wind was entering a little strong, from the south-east. I launched first. The thermals were broken and not easy to center. Alfredo launched some ten to 15 minutes later and after scratching for a few minutes flew over the back with less than optimal altitude, and landed outside of town by the highway that goes past Tepotzingo.
I stuck around and kept working it till I got a thermal up to about 2800 meters, when I flew over the back into Tenancingo, got no thermal activity along the way, except a few weak ones near the Insurgentes LZ, where I landed for an about 40 minute flight. It was soarable.
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Saturday, October 15th
I hiked up to launch alone in the afternoon, and enjoyed La Malinche in total solitude. The pilot from yesterday was just here for one day. Today there was less cloud-cover than Friday, and a little more blue sky.
I launched and tried all areas up and down the ridge-line for about 45 minutes, and down to the antennas where there was rotor and headwind, and never found a thermal that went high enough to get me out of the area, whether to Malinalco, which was my original intent, or simply to Tenancingo.
But finally back at the ancient Acatzingo fortress hilltop, two of the local eagles came along, got real close to me, and showed me exactly how to circle a certain thermal. When I achieved the altitude for Tenancingo they took off and I continued to thermal a few hundred meters higher, to a maximum of 2781 meters, where I crossed over the back, and landed at Insurgentes which is chest high in wildflowers, for an hour nine minute flight.
Conditions were definitely soarable, but the countryside is still too damp to generate stronger thermals for good XC conditions.
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Friday, October 14th
A "European" pilot from Luxumborg (and also from a bunch of other places) named G. came to visit. The 1pm forecast in the morning was for north winds, but by 11am it changed to an east forecast at 1, and then up at launch at 1pm, and at higher altitudes, it seemed to be more of a southerly flow. (go figure...)
I launched first around 1pm. Lift was decent up to a low cloud-base of around 2450 meters. G. launched later on his late model Ozone competition-class wing. The last I saw him he was in a thermal near the Cama del Rey, and I was sinking out for a landing by the highway. My flight was a little over a half an hour long.
Daniel Pedraza called me later to tell me that G. flew down to the antennas, crossed the valley to Ixtapan de La Sal, and came back up the middle of the San Geronimo Valley, crossed over to the Tenacingo Valley, and landed in Tenancingo. A pretty good flight for early in the season with a low cloud-base and over developed skies, even if he was flying on the latest technology!
Soarable, and I won't go so far as to call it "good XC", even though G. did do a very good XC flight.
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Thursday, October 13th
Mostly cloudy with lightly adverse winds. Could have been soarable just around midday though.
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Wednesday, October 12th
Cloudy and rainy all day long. Not soarable.
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Tuesday, October 11th
Cloudy and rainy all day long. Not soarable.
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Monday, October 10th
Overcast and rainy all day long. Not soarable.
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Sunday, October 9th
It was already over developing by midday and winds were east so I would have guessed not soarable, but Daniel at launch clearing brush and said that it looked soarable midday. In any case it did OD and rain by mid-afternoon.
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Saturday, October 8th
Alfredo and I hiked to launch. Skies were mostly clear and blue down below but by the time we got to launch the cumies were already developing rapidly. It was blowing in marginally strong. Alfredo opted to wait. I read the skies as there being a possible half hour to one hour flight window, with the necessity to keep options open to get out of the air quickly in the event of OD or storm activity.
I launched at 12:31pm in a lull cycle. In the air there were probably portals to cloud-suck and up to cloud-base, but flying alone with few clues I did not stumble on those lift zones. In general there was a strong south wind from hilltop level down, and SE from hill top level up, and lift was very strong but not easy to center, more like rotor turbulence bands than thermals.
My maximum altitude was around 300 meters above launch, and easy to maintain that altitude but not rise above it. I flew for 38 minutes while Alfredo watched but did not fly. I landed in a field that is of strategic importance for those who fly here, because it presents possibly the fastest turn around time to get back to Tenancingo, or back to launch. There are more details in the YouTube data.
It OD'd with sprinkles after I landed, but all out storm activity never transpired. Soarable.
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Friday, October 7th
Cloudy and overcast with mild north winds all day. Not soarable for La Malinche I would think.
Saturday and Sunday look to possibly have some (perhaps spectacular) soaring conditions around 1pm, maybe leading to rapid over-development and possible storm activity later.
How's that to hedge a prediction?
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Thursday, October 6th
Blue skies with nice cumies. Good soaring it looked like. Murphy had other plans for me.
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Wednesday, October 5th
Blue skies with nice cumies, and slightly NE upper winds, but probably not enough to matter at LM. Good soaring I suspect. Murphy's law did not allow me to fly this day, and neither on Thursday.
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Tuesday, October 4th
I decided not to fly today because windguru was predicting east winds, and the clouds did look slightly east, but I think that it probably turned out to be a good day for soaring in any case.
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Monday, October 3rd
Skies were clear blue with some nicely formed cumies and it was blowing in from the south at mid-day according to wind guru. I think that it was very soarable, and I was thinking of flying, but spoke with Daniel and decided to try it a different day this week. I think it is too early to call for good XC conditons, but it looked like the first good day of the new flying season.
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Sunday, October 2nd
Skies were generally overcast and it was blowing down from the north. Not flyable.
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Saturday, October 1st
Winds were from the north 7-10kmph according to windguru. Skies were were generally overcast at midday and over developed later on. Not soarable for La Malinche I would guess.
1 comments:
Wow. Nice video! congrats.
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