Friday, February 13, 2015

Rolda (Los Tanques-1)

Feb 13, 2015

"Rolda", as many call this town, is the paragliding capital of Colombia. The reliable conditions and sizable launch site (Los Tanques), hosted the FAI World Paragliding Competition less than one month prior. Between December and March, there is a constant flow of pilots staying here and flying the valley.  Our hotel was quite full with paraglider pilots on arrival, but by the next day a group left and we were able to thin out on the room sharing.

On our first day, I met Dawn Westrum. She was having a juice with Julie S. at the very popular juice bar on the town square. Although she is a fairly new competition pilot (6 years of experience) and accomplished endurance athlete from Utah. She has entered this year's X-Alps competition and she is here training; hiking to launch daily and scoring some impressive XC flights on her Ozone Alpina 2 glider. 




We had light north winds in the valley with plenty of sun in the morning. Normally, the sky begins with cloud base near launch altitude and clouds clinging to the peaks in the foothills. Then, around 10:00 to 11:00, the sky opens up and the flying begins. The early heating was set to make for punchy flights. 

In fact, the conditions were just that. Some launched and dealt with uneasy flights. There was plenty of strong lift, but with constant, reactive inputs and several collapses. It wasn't anything gross, but it was not a mellow flight. Julie W. flew, JK went about 24 km and Mike, unhappy with the conditions, went to a field on the edge of town and opted not to use the soccer field. Everyone else rode down or hiked down from launch. 

1 comment:

  1. Punchy conditions seems to be the norm every where now. As our winter flying here has thrown us a few. Something to take note of.

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