La Nina spoils the Ausy Big Distance season

It is well worth keeping an eye on the El Nino, La Nina cycles when planning your next paragliding adventure trip. With a strong La Nina developing (strongest since 1999), Australia is now suffering from cloudy, damp conditions and the Oz report mentions that the Australian Record Encampment has been postponed, probably indefinitely.

La Nina events are generally not good for Southern Hemisphere big distance flying with both Australia and eastern South Africa experiencing cooler and wetter conditions. Although predicted to be wetter, the Ceara area of Brazil does seem to have benefitted from La Nina with a new world open distance record; perhaps the added moisture allows earlier starts. The Eastern Pacific is predicted to drier and Argentina and Southern Brazil suffer from later frosts and drought conditions so possibily this is another place to go!

So what about Texas in July next year? Unfortunately, La Nina is also said to favor the formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic basin by suppressing the wind shear that tears apart embryonic storms. (10 storms during El Nino in 2006, 28 during weak La Nina in 2005!).

With all this in mind, there is less correlation between record flights and ONI cycles in Texas, which goes to show that you only need one good day! Its just that in La Nina years, you may have to be more patient!

More news from SA

Alfredo manages another couple of 200km flights in South Africa (262km on the 9th, 204km on the 8th) but instability to the east is causing problems for record breaking flights. Meanwhile, gliding at Gariep Dam is well underway, with the first 1000km sailplane flights of the 2007/2008 season.......check out the news section.

The weather should be better for Tuesday and wednesday, so watch this space

Big Distances in South Africa

With a cold front moving up the south coast and a heat low developing to the east in land, it looks like today is going to be a good XC day with classic WNW winds.

The rumour is that 310km was flown today (5th December) by 2 Slovenian pilots and Alfredo Studer flew 255km.....watch this space

The rumours were true!

News from the South African team is that Ewa Wisnierska flew 300km from De Aar, just 2 km short of the Feminine World Distance Record, with Greg Hamerton flying 255km. The Swiss Team were flying from near Marydale and from there Alfredo Studer flew 255km.

The longest distances were flown by the Gradient Team, flying from Vanwyksvlei with Marko Novak and Primos Suza flying 310km!

James Braid, the SA Gradient importer writes

05 December 2007

Hi everyone

Just got back from a 400km recovery trip. I'm sitting here in Prieska with a group of Slovenian pilots who, forget the world record, are trying to fly 500+ km. So far there hasn't been too much to report, only the odd 120 km and 180 km flights here and there, you know, one-thermal-downwind-glide kinda stuff.

Anyway, today wasn't looking so good in the morning, lots of high level cirrus and very weak winds, but the conditions improved during the day. The JimmyTheBlade day rating was only 6.5 out 10. We decided to take a drive to Vanwyksvlei anyway to take advantage of the westerly winds, and it paid. Marko and Primos flew 310 km, landing in Colesburg. Peter landed at 240 km, just past Hydra, and I spiralled down at 215 km at De aar to help with recovery. The upper air wind strength was about 30 km/h and climbs averaged about 3m/s to 3500m ATO. If we get a good day here, these guys are going far. They're all flying SR7s, and they fly them like puppies - the performance is just unbelievable! The Swiss team also had good flying, doing 250 km, according to Walter. And Cloudsuck Ewa managed approx 300 km from De Aar, which is only a few clicks short of the current womens open distance record. An excllent achievement!

I finaly had a chance to fly the XC2, so here's a 1 minute review. Well, first flight on it took me 215 km, so it must be good. Feedback is like a serial class glider, but it's very well behaved. Recovery is very fast, and despite the glider being quite thin, it's very stable and mellow. The most I had was the odd tip tuck in nasty stuff. I was either cranking it in the rough thermals, or on half speedbar with one hand holding the toggles and the other eating chocolate. Glide and speed are very good although I didn't have much opportunity to compare with other glider - besides all the others are SR7s, so not a fair comparison. In short, a stunning glider, suitable for experienced XC pilots. The only problem with a glider with such a thin chord is that one's face and feet get sunburnt - viva the training gliders.

Tomorrow looks very easterly and irritable, so it's sleep-in time. Alister our recovery driver has done about 1000 km today, so the sleep in is well deserved. Mon and Tues are looking good.

James 'Jimmy the Blade' Braid