January 2012 Summary
Days of possible Good XC or better Tandem Conditions from La Malinche – 19 days
Days of possible Soarable Conditions from La Malinche, including the above XC days. – 28 days
Non-Soarable days from La Malinche – 6 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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Tuesday, January 31st
Overcast early, to clear skies in late morning, to low level developing cumies in midday, and overdeveloped cumies in the afternoon. Mostly not soarable, but a possible one hour time window in the early afternoon.
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Monday, January 30th
Rain, overcast and east winds all day. Not soarable.
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Sunday, January 29th
Overcast and east winds all day. Not soarable at LM.
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Saturday, January 28th
Daniel Pedraza drove Aaron and Soren up to LM at noon, and I hiked up. When I arrived, it appeared thermic, but we were under a swath of clear blue sky, and there was cumie development in far off regions to the west, north, and east, and to the south there were high streaky cirrus of an apparent convergence zone.
We felt uncertain about conditions so waited to see if cumies would start to develop over LM, but by the time that started the cirrus convergence zone moved in and high winds kicked in that did not abate for hours until we left. We did not fly and Sunday Soren goes back to Valle, and Aaron back to Arizona.
It was probably soarable in a several hour time window early, and maybe late in the day, but it was not flyable most of the afternoon due to high winds.
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Friday, January 27th
Daniel Pedraza drove Aaron and Soren and I up to LM at around noon. It was very thermic and cycles were strong. I launched first and then Soren and then Aaron. I worked my way towards the new switchbacks cut in the hillside and got rather high, but returned to the LM house thermal where Aaron and Soren were gaining even more altitude.
We all crossed north to the Tenancingo Valley at that point, where I was lower, and I did a loop around the whole valley but did not find lift, so I landed at Insurgentes next to the circus, which I was avoiding because major dust-devils were kicking off there every 15 minutes. No problem but I hurt my ankle a little in switchy winds that went dead in the last seconds and gave me a hard landing.
Meanwhile Aaron was gaining even more altitude over Cristo Rey, and Soren was getting lower and setting up to land by me at the circus big-top, when he sunk out big-time over the roof of the Garis store, and looked like he could not even penetrate 100 meters for a safe landing, so he did a u-turn, and became the second person to ever land in the soccer field of a high-security private school. He posed for photos with a bunch of school-girls, and then was politely escorted out by the guards.
Aaron continued to gain altitude up to 12,000 feet, and landed at small pueblo near San Pedro where the locals had never seen a paraglider before.
Strong XC or tandem conditions, blue skies with small high cumies.
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Thursday, January 26th
Pilots Aaron and Soren of Arizona came to Tenancingo from Valle de Bravo, because the Monarca competition started and they were not allowed to fly there because they were not part of the competition.
Soren already had a good thermic and XC flight earlier in the day when Daniel Pedraza and I passed by their hotel later in the afternoon. We rode up to La Malinche. I launched first and Soren launch just after me. It was rather late, like around 4pm. It was thermic but not real strong. We were both working the knoll beyond the cliffs to the left and sinking out. I ended up landing after a maybe 15 minute flight at the Cabañas LZ, and Soren scratched his way back up, jumped the ridge to the Acatzingo side rather low, and then got major altitude gain over Teneria, ultimately flying to San Pedro, some 10km north of Tenancingo.
Strong XC or tandem conditions, blue skies with small high cumies.
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Wednesday, January 25th
Looked like strong XC or tandem conditions, blue skies with small high cumies.
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Tuesday, January 24th
Looked like strong XC or tandem conditions, blue skies with small high cumies.
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Monday, January 23rd
Looked like strong XC or tandem conditions, blue skies with small high cumies.
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Sunday, January 22nd
I hiked up to LM and launched at 3:24pm into strong thermic conditions. Skies were clear but a little hazy in some areas and a little OD'ed with small high altitude cumies in other areas. Strong XC or Tandem Conditions. Conditions were strong and rowdy. Got up to 2857 meters over Tenancingo.
I flew towards Tecomatlan, found no more turbulence or lift on the way, and landed there at 3:59 for a 35 minute flight.
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Saturday, January 21st
Looked like good XC or tandem conditions.
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Monday January 16th through Friday January 20th
These 5 days all appeared like days with good XC and tandem potential. I was working and recovering from a flu, but I've got the itch to try flying again soon.
Here is a video from pilot Florian of Toronto from when he was flying here a few weeks ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNGJCY_bNlE
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Sunday, January 15th
Overcast in the morning, but periods of nicely developed conditions in the afternoon.
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Saturday, January 14th
Overcast in the morning, but periods of nicely developed conditions in the afternoon.
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Friday, January 13th
Nice little cumies from the SW, looked like good XC conditions.
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Thursday, January 12th
Blue skies, light winds from the SW. Probably very powerful conditions, and good XC for a knowledgeable pilot, but no cumies to mark the thermals.
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Wednesday, January 11th
Blue skies, light winds from the SW. Probably very powerful conditions, and good XC for a knowledgeable pilot, but no cumies to mark the thermals.
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Tuesday, January 10th
Blue skies with some high velocity and altitude cirrus and high winds from the SSW in the Tenancingo Valley in the afternoon. I would guess blown-out and not flyable at La Malinche most of the day.
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Monday, January 9th
Blue skies, no cumies, but probably very strong thermals judging by dust devils I saw roaming around. Lots of powerful but invisible turbulence monsters in the air I would guess.
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Sunday, January 8th
Blue skies with cumies, good XC and tandem conditions it looked like.
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Saturday, January 7th
Blue skies with nicely formed cumies and streets and light south winds it looked like excellent XC and tandem conditions. I was still indoors with the flu. Florian reports his longest flight of his vacation here, most of the flight over 7000ft, past Malinalco and back to Tenancingo. He says he got it on video. I made him promise to hook me up with a link when he edits and uploads.
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Friday, January 6th
With blue skies and nicely formed cumies and cloud streets it looked like powerful XC or tandem conditions. Florian flew around midday and was rather high over the cliffs of La Malinche when in turbulent air he got two full collapses in a row and then a cravat that he barely got out before hitting the ground. He says he would like to fly a little later next time when the lift is more stable. I can relate to that!
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Thursday, January 5th
It looked like excellent XC conditions with cumies and cloud streets around mid-day, but later in the afternoon it over-developed in the Tenancingo region. I would have flown, but felt some kind of virus hitting me in the morning.
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Wednesday, January 4th
Rather dense high altitude cirrus was blocking a good deal of solar radiation reaching the earth. I suspect that it was soarable, but just barely, at La Malinche.
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Tuesday, January 3rd
Blue skies with nice cumies but with SE wind which is generally tricky for La Malinche, although possibly soarable more to the right of launch. Peter and Florian chose to fly and El Picacho where they had some excellent high altitude soaring in that region.
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Monday, January 2nd
Strong winds from the north most of the day and not flyable. But Peter and Florian soared late in the day at Mali as conditions switched.
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Sunday, January 1st
Was predicted east by windguru, but it seems to have come in more from the south in the afternoon. Blue skies with some cumie activity. Good soaring conditions later in the day I suspect. Florian and Peter had good flights from La Malinche.
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