Montag, 23. März 2015

14. November 2014 - Pisaqua > > Calheta Buena > > Calheta Camarones

As the day does not look bad I suggest we should try another triangle like we did the day before, but Alex is not so confident and offers to take care of our van, so I start alone with the will to top the triangle, Alex flew yesterday. Things run pretty smooth to the south towards Calheta Buena. At the corner above Calheta Mejillones del Norte I know from many former occasions, I could catch a collapse and I do. And what a big one ! Huge frontal and than one side really deep down. In the meanwhile I have got so much confidence to this wing, so I stay calm, don't act and want to closely watch, how it will rebuild itself. But it doesn´t. Of course I hold back the wing on its flying side, but first I do nothing to get the collapsed side refilled. Then I understand, it would not work without my input, so I first try to pump it up, but only pull the wingtip deeper into the lines. The released lines now hang like deep slings way below my harness. So I let go the brake handle on this side and try to pull about every outer line on the damaged side to see, if I could produce any kind of positive reactions. What I miss at this time is, that the wind is wrapping my brake handle and brake line around the c-riser again and again and again. As I realize it, it is to late to open the built knot, also not using my fingernails. I steer a bit away from the ridge and let the flying side enter a spiral dive. It accelerates very fast and on the other side braking line and stabilo line hold each other, shortened and making the blocking knot even stiffer. So I have to kill the flying side and prepare for deploying the reserve. But surprise, surprise : the hard pressure I apply on the flying side does not put the wing into full stall, but empties the outer wing and the center remains stable and flying ! Now I´ve got two big ears, a blocked cravat on one side and a big emptied ear on the other. I am able to steer the wing with weight shift and hold the big ear side down, that it won't refill again and try to open the knot from about 900 m above sea level to about 300 before I give up and decide to steer to a proper landing place on the beach - exactly this one, where I got grounded on Oct. 12th without enough food, water and batteries. This place must be something special for me. To mention: during the fight with on the center wing only I fly into a thermal and am climbing with the reduced wing, but the additional time does not help me in antangeling the knot. Finally on the ground it takes me about 5 minutes and a lot of fingernail work with both hands to open the brake-stabilo-blockade. Whats to learn : no matter what, don't let the brake handle freely flock around. Put it around your wrist on treat it like pilots do it on acro wings. I pack my stuff, walk up about 300 meters of altitude onto the dune side and start again. I fly back towards Pisaqua, overfly the peninsula and the Tiliviche canyon and fly on towards Calheta Camarones. With the last uprising air of a rather peaceful afternoon I reach the village. It would not be possible to cross the valley or to fly into it towards the Panamericana or to fly back to Pisaqua, so probably a big triangle like yesterday would not have been in the cards today anyway. My fishermen friends take me to the bus station on the Panamericana and after a bus ride I am back in Iquique, whereto Alex had driven the van. My confidence in this unbelievable wing is now bigger than ever - the attitude of emptying to outer wing sections while remaining a stable flying center before stalling opens a wide range of chances, beginning from handling in rough turbulences to top landing in turbulent strong wind conditions - I really enjoy this and use it a lot on future occasions. 

 

 

 

 



YouTube : Calheta Buena to Calheta Camarones

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:fritzdornat/14.11.2014/14:56

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:fritzdornat/14.11.2014/18:13

http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=334730