A short XC flight in Bassano del Grappa.
Prologue: After flying down from the Gitschberg yesterday, I continued today to Bassano del Grappa, the paragliding Eldorado par excellence. I still have a 100 km flight on my bucket list, where if not here can I do that?
I had planned the classic, first heading east, almost as far as the river Piave and then west to Monte Giove, which should be the 100 XC km.
Weather: According to XCTherm, 100 km should be possible today. Thermals start at 10:30 with a base around 1600 m, rising to 2400 m in the late afternoon. Weak to moderate southerly winds at 1500 m, stronger north-westerly winds from 2000 m.
Launch: Launching is much easier at the new launch site. Up to 4 gliders can be laid out in parallel and there is a small flat area at the top where you can spread out your glider. The whole thing is covered with a green carpet. You are happy to pay your fees for a launch site like this.
I still had one launch failure, but the second one went off without a hitch.
11:25: As I’m a late starter per se and play it safe to make sure that the thermals are already on, I went up without any problems. The strong southerly wind made itself felt straight away, confirming that my decision to switch to the B class was the right one, as it was quite turbulent here and there.
12:02: Where the ridge gets lower, the strong southerly wind is really noticeable, so I didn’t fly to the antenna, but turned back beforehand. The risk of stalling is simply too high there
12:50: Contrary to my usual practice of flying very low in Bassano, I was already able to break the 1600 metre mark at this point
13:08: Hoping to feel the south wind less to the west of the Brenta, I continued westwards.
13:38: Somewhere near Lusiana I messed up again, I almost crashed here. Two other pilots, who were flying a little further south, caught the better line and were able to fly on. I had to fly east again as I hadn’t found any thermals.
At this point, I realised that I wouldn’t make the 100 km, as I was supposed to start the valley crossing over the Astico river at Monte Foracro by 14:00 at the latest
14:15: Together with a couple who had both flown Skywalk, I was able to dig myself out again. I still had the will to at least fly to Monte Foracro and so I continued westwards
14:46: I arrived at Monte Foracro and was able to turn up to 1713 metres. For a short time I thought about crossing the valley, but the risk of not coming back seemed too high. So I flew eastwards at a relaxed altitude. My plan was to fly over Bassano as far as possible into the flat area in order to get a flat or even a full FAI triangle recognised.
15:07: At this ridge, starting with Monte Alto, it is surprisingly easy to continue flying at low altitude. I have already experienced this several times.
15:50: To my surprise, Antenna was able to climb to over 1500 metres above the launch site, the best prerequisite for flying far onto the flat.
16:01: Unfortunately, all I could do there was drink.
16:10: On the way back I caught another good thermal. So I tried a second time to fly into the flat, this time heading south-east.
16:30: After more than 5 hours I didn’t feel like flying any more, so I landed directly at the L’Antica Abbazia campsite.
