chasing the wind

There was too much of a north wind at the main site today, so we drove for a couple of hours to another place far from Sopot. I don't know the name, but must find out!! We got to the first site, but I felt the wind was too strong for me, even though some others flew. To get to the intially intended landing site we would have to fly upwind into a fairly strong head wind. Some of the earlier pilots couldn't reach it, so landed in a large alternative landing feild, including Zabdi. I just wasn't getting the right vibe from it so I was happy to take the van down with a couple of others that didn't fancy it. It was a cool drive down the mountain, there was a beautiful small village perched on top of a ridge. When we got to the bottom everyone had landed safely and were packed away. We went to the intial landing site and had a picnic before moving on.

How many gliders can a moscovich carry? Quite a few!

The first take off site of the day

Small town on a ridge on the way back down.

Picnic!

And at the second site we drove to the wealthiest small town I'd seen in Bulgaria - must get the name!!! Some of the houses looked very affluent. We had a fair hike up to a first potential launch site over looking the posh town. The wind was coming strongly across the hill though and was not suitable for take off.

Assessing the second potential take off site. Notice how the cumulus clouds in the background are in a line, Nicky says that this is ideal for cross country as you can easily hop from one to another and cover a lot of distance.

Looking over the posh town.

We then walked even further to another potential launching site, it overlooked a quarry and intially the wind seemed more favourable. But there was a big dark cloud approaching and it didn't look too appealing. That wasn't to stop the bold Nicky though and another local pilot from going up and having a soaring flight. The wind got stronger though and they quickly turned around a flew down to the landing site beside the posh town. We all grabbed our stuff and walked down. At least we got a jeep to carry our equipment though!

We then drove to a nice restaurant not far from the town and had a great meal, probably the best food we'd had in Bulgaria.

Third take off site over a quarry.

The stop off at a nice restaurant before heading back to Sopot.


We've just arrived back. I'm knackered and I'm going to bed. I managed to injure myself in my sleep last night, I woke up with a stiff neck. And it's been gradually getting stiffer all day, and it's really pissing me off! It probably didn't help lugging gliders up a hill!

I've landed in bushes and crashed into fences this holiday without getting a scratch and then I go to bed one night and hurt my back - typical!!