Blog for ZREA

I have been warming up today for the season. I flew 4 times today with paraglider; two times in Vionnaz and two times here in Villeneuve. One time I flew with Alain… I followed him everywhere, I guess he was little irritating of that…ha ha
It was great day, but of course rough spring thermals. The core is very small and outside it is bumpy; Once again I was able to test my flying skills, and it feels good to start flying again…after long winter…blue sky, HERE I COME!

no pictures for this moment, I will upload my GPS tracklog...soon.

Last two days I finally have been able to fly a little. Although, the spring condition is strong and the core of the thermal is like a bullet, and for my poor soul it is hard. But I need to warm up and it was good to get airborne again. Alain, Luc and Thierry flew tandem with 3 sportive girls. I think they enjoyed the flight; they seemed to be very happy at the landing. Also I could see how a 2-liners gliders and with carbon flies in rough condition, for me it looks quite stable, it flies amazing and it is so beautiful in the air. The pilot is also very good and he knows exactly how to handle it, so no worries. I was very curious how this glider works because of all speaking (discussions) about it the last half year. I spoke with the pilot before launch and asked how it works when it collapses; he told me the wing is not very aggressive and less problems with cravats than “normal” gliders. He also told me how it is constructed with all small “stiff” things inside and what the idea behind the stiffness. The packing is not actually so much bigger than “normal” glider, just need to take little bit more care with the carbon. BTW, it is very easy to change carbons if some of them should brake.
I think only few pilots in the world can fly this kind of gliders, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the European Champ in Austria very soon and I hope we ill not see some incidents with 2-liners gliders. 2 liners-gliders (incl. pilot) did very well the first World Cup this year. So, I think it will be an interesting competition year and of course a lot of discussions as well.

photo: Alain is ready to take off with his passanger.

Long time-no sign, just to say little hello. We have been busy lately and we are now preparing for few days off in Italy. We have prepared our “new” caravan for this season, checked the brakes, the gaz, the electricity, wc, cleaning little bit and “voila” ready to use.
In Italy we hope we have better luck than Morocco for skydiving and maybe also paragliding. I haven’t almost not touched my glider this year, real shame...but the weekends hasn’t been much flyable either.
The spring is here and the “rocket-thermals” have been seen not for away from here. Also here in Sonchaux the test pilots had strong and narrow thermals-up to 7 m/s. For Sonchaux this is not normal at all.

When I get little time, I will password protect the comments/feedbacks, many of you have the password anyway.

Saturday:
We arrived early at Geneva airport and landed right before mid-day in Marrakech (also called Red City). We didn’t see so much from the plane: low cloud base and rain. What a sad start for our trip. We took same taxi with Léo and his girlfriend to the city-centre; we managed to put 4 big suitcases in the baggage room of one yellow Mercedes! Well, the taxi driver tied up the suitcases with baggage door open. After few minutes in the taxi, the driver left us in the big market place and pointed out direction for the hotel (Riad). The problem is, there are hundreds of possibilities to reach the hotel. We had no other choice than to pay one man to guide us there. The Riad is very cosy and it has nice atmosphere. The owner welcomed us with tee and nice talk, while raining outside (and inside). Afterwards we visited Souks, this is a big market place with many hundreds of small shops, same amount of sales men trying to sell their products, horses, donkeys, chicken, bicycles, motorbikes, dancers, musicians and a lot of people. It was very busy streets and really stressful. So, it was nice to take a brake in the Museum of Marrakech and old student house. The architecture is fantastic, outside the buildings seems grey and sad, but inside it is like paradise. The Souks is busy and there are so many narrow streets, it is impossible to walk through everything in one day. In the evening we found the other Swiss fellows and we ate fabulous dinner together. It is very cold for the season and the rain didn’t make it so much better.

Sunday: Rain in the morning. My legs were stiff and I had cramps from the walking day before. We decided not do so much walking, but we walked like crazy. It is not easy to find the right way with only small tourist map. We wanted to visit couple of palaces and gardens, but we ended up in a French garden Majorelle which was beautiful. Afterwards we had a big rest in Riad, totally exhausted. For the evening dinner we found a restaurant on the market place, we ate fast and went back for sleeping. Cold, wet and tired we slept like babies.

Monday: No rain in the morning, we met the other Swiss at Grand Hotel for to take the minibus to Beni Mellal, for skydiving. During the way it started to rain again, real showers. It was obviously not need to rush to Beni Mellal. The roads were over floating with red water, the roads turn into rivers. In Beni Mellal we made us ready in the hotel for a lunch at the airport close by. Already many skydivers were arrived and we met the boss of the drop zone, he was very happy to see the Swiss again. The food was excellent; chicken, a lot of vegetables and delicious orange. After check-in/registration for skydiving, we went back to the hotel and crossed fingers for good weather for the days after.

Tuesday: Wind and rain; we had a late breakfast. After eating we walked to the centre, but wet wet wet everywhere. We found the market place and it was overwhelming to see all these nice fruits and vegetables, they smelled so good. We decided to eat lunch at the airport, but it was almost impossible to find a taxi, and a taxi driver who understood where the airport was. So we ended up in the hotel. Not bad idea actually, because we were cold and wet. We turn on air-condition to 30 degrees on putted the shoes on for to dry them. BTW, I bought new shoes on the market, but they smelled really bad!

Wednesday: Rain in the morning, but we went to the airport for waiting for better weather. It didn’t look so optimistic. We went up with Pilatus (air-plane) to 1000 m, but we were already in the clouds, with rain in the air we decided to go down again with Pilatus. Right before mid-day, the Russians took the plane up 4000 m and they jumped in the clouds, an hour later we tried and the clouds slowly started to disappear. We finally could see the ground 4000 m above! I haven’t jumped for 6 months, so I had a lot of butterflies in my stomach. I always have bad openings, but this time was very smooth! Jippiiii! We did amazing 6 jumps that afternoon and the last jump was just fantastic. The boss obviously enjoying Swiss people, so the last flight we were allowed to go up to 4500 m above the ground (5100 m over sea level)! We had nice sunset and nice view over mountain Atlas, it was absolutely a magic moment. We were 6 skydivers doing tracking together, and for the first time Alain and me could follow the “rabbit”. Fun fun fun. When we finished packing it was already dark. The beers tasted so good that evening.

Thursday: Raining, we went back to Marrakech, and the boss was driving us. We used 4 hours for driving, but we had nice explanation about Morocco (economy and culture). Nothing special in Marrakech, we only did small walk in the Souks, eating and sleeping. We spend the night in Grand hotel, but hey - this hotel I will not recommend to anybody.

Friday: Home again.

Conclusion: Cold and wet for the season, should have taken more suitable clothes. Marrakech, need minimum 2 days to discover the old town (maybe 3). Must know how to discuss the prices (for everything). Nice drop zone in Beni Mellal, I really enjoyed the people there. Beni Mellal should be nice place for XC flying with paragliding. For example: easy to make 50-70 km along the ridge (foothills of Atlas- 1700-2200m). Excellent food (Taijin and couscous), but the wine is not very good. Oranges were super tasteful.

Pictures will follow soon….Here are they

in Marrakech

in Beni Mellal