Days of possible Good XC or better Tandem Conditions from La Malinche – 8 days
Days of possible Soarable Conditions from La Malinche, including the above XC days. – 28 days
Non-Soarable days from La Malinche – 3 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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Wednesday, November 30th
Most of the CDP pilots went up to launch at 10:30, which is always too early, and many had their sled-rides for the day by the time I showed up at launch around 1:30pm. There was one pilot, Robert I think his name, and Bernie who waited like me for more developed conditions. There was Andy and another still up and struggling in the ratty early thermals when I arrived. Finally when I started to see some of the house-thermals down the west facing ridge turn on, myself and Bernie launched.
I launched at 2:09 and shot up straight like a rocket into the house thermal. The plan was to fly to Santo Desierto and then to Malinalco, but we all continued to hit a barrier getting to the Antennas. I gave up and turned back and worked the main La Malinche house thermal up to my highest altitude of this season so far, about 3100 meters, but the batteries on my GPS failed, and my camera memory was almost full so that failed me too.
By the time I was at 3100 meters the gaggle of about 4 pilots finally had taken the antennas of Snto. Desierto, and were gaining major altitude there. I crossed the Tenancingo Valley to the east, but did not find the thermal I needed to cross to the Malinalco Valley, although the western Tenancingo Valley was generally buoyant. I landed at the Casurinas LZ at the east end of the valley for a 41 minute flight.
It was difficult to cross to Mali today, but Andy did best, landing in San Nicholas, north of Malinalco. Bernie made a daring landing in the badlands because he could not make it to more lift and the Malinalco valley, and landed on a narrow road on the side of a hill, and Robert was with him, but opted to jump into the sink zone that leads to the eastern Tenancingo Valley but great landing zones.
Definitely soarable with strong thermals in the afternoon, but lacking any cumies to mark the thermal locations and the XC routes.
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Tuesday, November 29th
Skies were clearer. We had a cold night and morning and it just started to warm up by noon. There were no clouds in the region.
Half the Casa group went up to LM by taxi around 11, and I showed up at Casa later, where Peter, Bernie, and Andy were waiting for Daniel to show up, and for my part I was shooting for about 2pm as the best hour. The four of us arrived at launch, one of the previous group had not launched yet and the others already flew to the Tenancingo Valley and beyond.
It looked good so I set up and launched at 2:01pm,
and shot up like a rocket. In 9 minutes I was 727 meters over launch and headed over the back towards Tenancingo. There was a light easterly wind over the Tenancingo Valley, and there was a lot of emergency helicopter activity going on because of a visit from the governor and an unrelated bus crash, so I chose to land at 
the Insurgentes soccer field, at 2:20 for a 19 minute flight, and I waited there and the five others of the group eventually landed there. The owner provided beer and refreshments to the pilots and invited us to land there more.Conditions were
excellent for soaring and tandem flying, with strong thermals of good form, though we lacked cloud streets, and a few pilots who tried to fly to the north hit a barrier, plus flying to the east would not have been easy. Flying in the direction of El Piñon might have been the best XC call for this day.---------------------
Monday, November 28th
Daniel Pedraza drove us 9 pilots up to launch around noon, including Andy, who is a champion paraplegic pilot.
On launch skies were hazy with a little cumie formation. Conditions were pretty dead when we arrived, but after a half hour a few encouraging cycles entered. I launched first on my small wing, struggled in very weak lift to the west of launch, after a few minutes tried the cliffs to the east of launch, and lost it completely and landed downwind kind of hard in the rock-field of the Cabañas LZ.
Meanwhile, some of the other pilots soared some on larger wings, and two got high enough to fly into the Tenancingo Valley, including Andy. I hiked back up for another try, but it was the shortest flight I have ever had, back to the Cabañas.
Soarable, just barely.
Here is a good video to illustrate the need for good ankle support in flying shoes or boots.
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Sunday, November 27th,
It was rainy and drizzly all morning, but the now larger CDP group of pilots headed out with a break in the clouds in the late afternoon, to see launch for the first time at least. I did not want to risk a sled ride when I had something more practical to do, to buy a few kilos of potatoes...
Here is Bernie's account-
"By now we were a bit late and the system started to shut down, most of the 6 pilots got ready anyway just to get into the flying mexico rhythm. There was not much happening and most landed down below in St Antonio. One of the pilots , Witek, got up 800m above launch but choose to fly south and lost right away as there was not much left. At least they had a flight and are now ready for tomorrow."
Peter landed in the brush on his first flight of a new wing. He would have to tell that story himself. Don't let yourself get low in front of LM I recommend.
Sounded soarable late in the afternoon, barely.
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Saturday, November 26th,
Iit was raining and drizzeling until late afternoon. We all went to visit Gerardo in Ixtapan de La Sal, who is recovering from a brused disk in his lower spinal column, from an accident a few days earlier when one of his lines clipped a tree on landing. It was also day two of the annual 3-day Ixtpan de La Sal free-flight event, and as far as we know, almost no one flew, except when we were leaving late in the afternoon, a crew of police and pilots were headed out to rescue one pilot who did fly, and was stuck in a tree. Not soarable, probably not even for the guy who got stuck in a tree.
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Friday, November 25th
Bernie said he was going to wait at CDP for an arriving pilot today, and that pilot arrived early in the afternoon but I did not get Bernies call so I stayed at my home and did domestic stuff today.
But it sounds like both Bernard and the new arrival had good flights into the Tenancingo Valley, the visitor flying to somewhere north of Tenancingo. Peter Peru arrived later.
Sounds like it was definitely soarable, and hopefully conditions are improving over the last 4-5 days.
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Thursday, November 24th
Today looked perhaps a little better by the cumies and streets that were forming mid-day, probably because of the heavy rain that fell last night. Better perhaps based on my theory that at this moment a little rain will help break the stable air of the last few days, rather than make it more stable, which you can't really because almost dead air is pretty dead. Anyhow the cumies faded to blue sky in the late afternoon, so the late afternoon was probably pretty dead.
Bernie and I hiked up to La Malinche around noon. Winds were from the south light to medium. I launched and flew directly to the right where I usually catch my first thermal, but it was too weak, and I continued to fly to the right down the ridge to the west. All the house thermals were there in their places but they were all a little too weak, to make up for the sink, plus with me on a small wing, and I landed at don Pablo's emergency LZ for an about 15 minute flight.
Bernie wisely waited some and immediately flew to the left where he caught the base of the main house "Matlalcueye" thermal, and with his great skill and a slightly lighter wing loading, thermaled up over the 2500 meter level, flew into Tenancingo and caught the Cristo Rey thermal, and landed at the Guadalupe Victoria Soccer Field. Way to go Bernie!
Guess I call it as soarable with cloud streets, but barely. Although I suspect that it might not soarable in the afternoon, even with ridge-lift.
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Wednesday, November 23rd
Today looked like a repeat of stable blue skies so we took the microbus to the Malinalco site, El Picacho. There were strong cumies developing about a mile to the north, but both of us got rather short flights in weak air, just like the last few days at La Malinche. Guess I'll call it soarable for Mali, barely, and probably the same for L.M..
But it was very beautiful. I wish I had my GoPro in video mode when I launched because I grazed a whole bunch of field animals and field hands as I hugged the hillside in weak air just after launching. On a small fast wing my flight was very short.
Bernie had a 15 or 20 minute flight working some real small thermals on his bigger wing, and came in with dead wind and I doubt if he was more than 6 inches off from a perfect target, a small margin of unplanted land on the edge of a field of sweet peas. 3 meters too far and he would have been in a really ugly sharp boulder patch ;)
We've got some rain late tonight, so it will be interesting to see if that breaks this stable air cycle. Not sure about tomorrow, maybe, but at the moment between noon and one the day after tomorrow looks promising.
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Tuesday, November 22nd
Bernie and I took the taxi and hiked up to LM. Skies were blue, no clouds, a little haze, temps were warm. It was entering very lightly at launch from the south, although windguru had predicted considerably stronger conditions for 2:30pm.
I launched first, flew to the right and sunk out insanely fast. Just before getting to the emergency LZ at the head of don Pablo's field, I caught the tiniest bird-thermal, did the tightest circles that I could, and managed to slowly climb back up. Meanwhile Bernie launched and sunk out like crazy and landed in the same field that I almost landed in.
For me it was just a little up and a whole lot of down, using all the skill I could muster to just rise up a little, and just outside the very few tiny thermals I found, there was very heavy sink everywhere. I managed to get up finally just a little above the ridgeline and worked my way over to the cliffs to the left of launch, and it was the same story there, fighting like crazy in the the weakest lift, surrounded by heavy sink, and finally put down in the Cabañas emergency LZ for a 44 minute flight.Even though I was able to fly for 44 minutes, that was VERY difficult, and I am calling this day not soarable. It really sucked, like some days in the middle of the rainy season, although at first glance everything looked good for soaring. (but don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoyed the challenge) I guess it was a problem with the lapse-rate.
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Monday, November 21st
I met up with Bernie at CDP around noonish. It was great to see him and it felt like just yesterday since we had met, although it has been something like 4 years. Daniel Pedraza was out of town on business so we went up to launch with the Acatzingo taxi and hiked.
Skies were generally clear blue, with just a few small but high cumies popping off of Santo Desierto. I launched first at 1:38pm, and Bernie soon after. The thermals were strong but ratty, surrounded by very heavy sink, and did not have duration of more than one minute in general. It was up and down, and a down cycle eventually flushed me down to the Cabañas emergency LZ, where I caught a tight thermal and was going up for one minute more, and then hit a heavy down cycle and got flushed back to the Cabañas, at 2:13, for a 45 minute flight.
In the meanwhile Bernie got a better thermal with the minimum altitude to jump to Tenancingo, and flew into the Tenancingo Valley. He later said how the thermals were better on the Tenancingo side. We noticed how upper level winds were from the north, while lower level winds were from the south, and that sort of seemed to be part of the explanation of why thermals were broken up and why cumies could not form. In the LZ's on both sides, winds were switching, gusty then calm, and unpredictable.
It was soarable, but not a good day for cross-country flying.
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Sunday, November 20th
Not sure, but I think that the skies lacked the cloud streets for me to call it a good XC day, but it probably was a good day for soaring from LM.
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Saturday, November 19th
The skies looked like they had potential. My original plan was to hike up to launch at noon, but Daniel P. asked me to wait till 2. I called around 1 to tell him that it was over developing some and better if we left early, but he said he had work to do and that I should go alone.
I hiked up alone. There had been a somewhat OD cycle around 12 or 1, and now skies were kind of clearer, but there were not the strong thermals that might have existed earlier.
I launched at 2:40. The thermals were sort of difficult and ratty and away from the ridge line. My maximum altitude was 2834 while well back behind the ridge, and en route to Tenancingo. I landed at 3:15 at Insurgentes for a 35 minute flight.Insurgentes is mostly recently bulldozed in dirt, with some natural grass towards the edges, where I landed. Looks like the Causerinas is a nicer place to land this year.
I think it might have been better conditions earlier on, but I did not hit them, and the past couple days were not optimal XC days either, so I will call this one as simply, Soarable.
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Friday, November 18th
Contrary to what windguru predicted, we had skies overcast with high cirrus. Its the first time in maybe a month or two that windguru has been flat-out wrong concerning the clouds.
I think that it was probably barely soarable with weak to medium thermal conditions.
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Thursday, November 17th
As far as the blue skies with developments of cloud-streets it looked excellent, but there were rather strong winds from the east, which would indicate some problems with dangerous rotor at La Malinche if one were to fly to the left of launch, and tricky conditions to the right, but the possiblity of still great XC conditions if one were to rise up to 200 meters above launch, and choose a westerly course out across the San Jeronimo Valley.
Summary, initially tricky but possibly good XC conditions for an experienced pilot at L.M. flying to the west, but possibly a better day for the nearby SE facing San Simon launch if it were a question of tandem flights.
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Wednesday, November 16th
I hiked up to L.M. with Daniel Pedraza and flew alone while he worked on the road up to launch.
Skies were mostly clear blue with just a few far apart high level cumies showing up. I launched at 1:20, worked my way up the main house thermal with a group of 3 eagles to 500 meters above launch, where I bailed out towards Ixpuichiapan, caught another thermal at the east end, and worked my way over to the Tenancingo side, where thermals got better and I hooked up with maybe the same eagles again. There was strong and rather rowdy lift over the city of Tenancingo. I got up to 2974 meters over Cristo Rey, but I was getting some heavy collapses even on my stable small DHV1 wing, and the thought of having to throw my reserve over the city spooked me, so I headed to the east over the countryside, and eventually landed at the Causerinas mowed grass field, at 2:06, for a 46 minute flight.
It was definitely soarable and with good tandem conditions, but in my opinion lacked the cloud-streets for me to call it a really good XC day.
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Tuesday, November 15th
It looked like another great XC and good Tandem potential day.
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Monday, November 14th
It looked like another great XC and good Tandem potential day.
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Sunday, November 13th
I met up with Daniel Pedraza at his home at midday. We had not heard of any pilots coming to LM to fly today, but headed up, me with my wing, and Daniel with a big tank of water and a weed whacker to tend the grass lawn on launch.
Skies were blue with lots of smallish medium altitude cumies to mark the lift. I launched at 1:27 into good thermic conditions. It was no problem to get up to 500 meters over the ridge-line and maintain or gain on that altitude. I flew down to the antennas of the Santo Desierto national forest. At that point, to follow the cloud street and the lift would have taken me over some 6 or 8 kilometers of "badlands", where there are no apparent decent emergency landing fields. Only a few pilots have made this easterly crossing, which is the most direct and obvious route if flying to the east from La Malinche with Cuerna Vaca or Puebla as a goal.
I had 3352 meters of altitude, over a kilometer over the terrain, and probably could have done the easterly crossing under the cloud street, but I did not feel like attempting it alone. Flying to the NE to Malinalco seemed not good because even with 1km altitude above the ground, the 8km gap of badlands to get to Mali would have fallen in a sink zone between the next cloud street, which was about 10km to the north.I chose to fly to the north, over the Santo Desierto forest triangle, into the zone where there is almost always heavy sink, and today proved no exception, which placed me as dropping out of the air in the Eastern Tenancingo Valley, where I landed at Las Causerinas recreational park, at 2:03 for a 35 minute flight, (marked as field A in the diagram from a few days ago). It was a good day for XC or tandems in general. If another pilot had been with me maybe I would have crossed the gap and flown to Chalma.
Here is a photo of coming in on final at Las Causerinas. I have never found a rotor problem with the tall pines around this field. Maybe enough wind passes
through that they don't make rotor. It is a great landing field for a visiting pilot because the store with refreshments is always open. The owners and staff are friendly but leave you alone, and are there to help if you need it. It is a comfortable hangout place for people on the ground, and the taxis and buses pass constantly on the highway, and cost only 4-6 pesos to Tenancingo.---------------------
Saturday, November 12th
It looked like it might OD this afternoon so I stayed in the shop and did more grunt work today but it looked from the ground like another good XC day, with cumies all over the place to mark thermals, but enough blue sky to power the lift. Tomorrow looks like a great forecast however, albeit perhaps very strong.
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Friday, November 11th
We had heavy rain the night before and it was cold and cloudy in the morning. The afternoon cleared up with rather a lot of cumies in blue skies. I imagine that it may have been soarable within a narrow time window, but not strong.
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Thursday, November 10th
Kind of like the prior days by with more nubies early on and over-development and socked-in skies by early afternoon. It was probably soarable early on, with possibly dramatic lift and cloud-suck. It would have been a good day for a tandem flight at 12:30pm at launch, but too narrow a time window for good XC, possibly.
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Wednesday, November 9th
A repeat of yesterday with excellent XC and potential great tandem conditions. The French pilots flew, some of them flying into the Tenancingo Valley, and some staying in front of launch. They left for Valle this afternoon.
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Tuesday, November 8th
Skies were blue with a little haze and nicely formed cumies and cloud-streets. I hiked up to LM at noon. Daniel P and the French pilots were there but perhaps were concerned that conditions were too strong. It looked to me to be a little strong, but not too strong for an advanced pilot. My stated purpose was to play wind-dummy for them, and fly back to my shop in the Tenancingo Valley, because I had a lot of work to do.
I launched at 12:58 and shot straight up like a rocket. In 60 seconds, by the time I started to make my first rotation, I was already 121 meters over launch.
By 1:09, 11 minutes into the flight I was at 2970 meters, 700 meters over launch, nearing cloud-base, and already drifting north towards Tenancingo.There was excellent cross-country potential, with cumies marking lift for the easterly route over Santo Desierto, and the northerly route east over San Simone, and pretty much any other direction an XC pilot might want to fly as well. I could have gone for a longer flight in theory, but not only did I have work to do down on the ground, but honestly the “big air” in this region sometimes scares the $#!+ out of me, despite the fact that my small DHV1 wing is so stable and flies so lovely, so I landed by my shop at 1:22 for a 24 minute flight.
There was a lovely breed of swift that I have never seen before in these parts. They were grey and white with yellow accent marks. They seemed metallic, as if from some kind of computer animation. They were flying in groups of 10-20 near cloud-base about a kilometer above the ground.The following image shows paraglider friendly landing fields in the Eastern Tenancingo Valley. All are next to the main highway with constant public transportation to downtown for 4-6 pesos.
Field A) Is "Las Causerinas", a public entertainment and recreation facility, has mowed green lawns (3 manicured soccer fields), 2 large swimming pools, beer and refreshments, banquet and entertainment facilities for a thousand, etc. etc., and an open invitation to pilots to land by the owner, although I am the only person to ever have landed there, about 4 times now. No talk of landing fees. The owner refused 20 pesos last I offered. It is ringed by tall pine trees, which are not much of a problem given the size of the fields, and also the trees seem to lower wind velocity rather than create rotor so they are not to be feared.Field B) is really big (6 soccer fields in size), clean, not used and easy to land in if you have any doubts about field A, and one block away from the main highway.
Field C) is really big (10 soccer fields in size), but not so clean, and one block from the highway and a local store with cold beer, refreshments, and a little of everything.
The French pilots flew later, some for Tenancingo, and some stayed in front of launch.
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Monday, November 7th
Skies were just a little hazy as compared to the last few weeks. But there was some cumie development and it was soarable.
I got a call from Daniel Pedraza around 4 about how a French pilot landed in Tenancingo, on a flight from Malinalco, and how a group of French pilots had arrived in Tenancingo to fly this afternoon and tomorrow.
I knew it was hopelessly late to fly La Malinche, but Pablo of Malinalco came too and we all headed up to launch, arriving when the sun was just setting. On my small wing it was a sled-ride. I went to the right because that was the ridge facing the wind, but there was not enough wind to stay up, and I did not have the altitude to land at the Cabañas with the other pilots, so I landed at the field by the highway, and at least I was already back in Tenancingo while they were still packing up and waiting for a ride in the dark. I saw that about 4 of the French pilots were able to make some passes by the ridge-line before sinking out too.
See the video from October 8th where I show myself landing at that field by the highway for reference, in case you ever decide to fly La Malinche and sink out in front of the ridge-line.
The thing is, at the corner of that particular field is a small log footbridge that crosses a canal. The other similar fields do not have the foot bridge, so even if you land in a field nearby you will still have to cross this field on foot if you want to get to the highway, which is on just the other side of the canal, without walking a kilometer up the road.
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Sunday, November 6th
I rode up to La Malinche with Daniel P and Favio of Mali. It was mid-afternoon and windguru showed that it would already be over-developed by this hour, but in fact it was fairly pleasant flying at LM, but indeed ODed some 10 miles to the north with big anvil-head cu-nimbs. It was blowing in a little strong at launch, cause for concern because of the activity to the north, but it was within my wind velocity range.
I launched at 2:30pm. The lift was a little broken and difficult to work down low, but improved with altitude. I left the LM area when I had about 500 meters altitude above launch, and still some hundred meters from cloud-base, but the clouds were too small in the LM area. I flew towards Tenancingo where the lift improved under more developed cumies and got up to near cloud base, at 2904 meters ASL maximum.To the north it was OD'd and there was building risk, so I opted for the safest and easiest option, I left the cloud area over Tenancingo altogether and flew through sinky air to a convenient field next to where I live in the eastern Tenancingo Valley, and landed for a 36 minute flight.
Favio stayed in the LM area and landed on the San Antonio side.
There was good soaring today IMO, but I think that the lay-out of the cloud formations precluded safe XC options.
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Saturday, November 5th
I hiked up to La Malinche but it was already over-developed to the north and raining over Villa Guerrero and Tecomatlan. It was blowing down at launch. I hung around an half hour but it did not look like it was going to change for the afternoon.
I suspect that it was very soarable earlier, like around noon, but the afternoon was not soarable at La Malinche.
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Friday, November 4th
Blue skies with just the right kind of cumie cloud-streets. Good XC and tandem conditions it looked like.
The best time to be in the air for serious flying looked like from around 2pm to 4pm.
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Thursday, November 3rd
It looked very soarable today. Blue skies with just a few small cumies.
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Wednesday, November 2nd
It looked soarable with generally clear blue skies, just a few small cumies, but with an easterly wind.
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Tuesday, November 1st
It looked soarable with generally clear blue skies, just a few small cumies, but with an easterly wind.
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