Four friends and I hire a private car and drive down south to the Nyaru take-off. As we arrive at the launch, it is completely in condensate, but the condensate looks like getting lighter and lighter and every some minutes the valley can be seen between the upcoming mist. I prepare my start as fast as possible and as soon as I am ready to go the condensate opens in front of me and I can pass out. Being about 100m out I can see, that just the ridge corner is in the condensate, but outside above the condensate can be flown. I fly south to enlarge my track a bit and turn back to the north. Passing take-off I can see my friends just about starting, but still on the ground. As I fly between km13N and km23N Fredi catches up to me, but he turns around before the corner at km23N. I am able to overcome this corner, but the way to the north seems not reliable as thermal flying is a necessity from this point on and the sky looks almost completely overcast, which means the power of the heating sun is missed there and so I also turn around to fly back. Flying back to the south turns into rough flying and as soon as I overfly the Tambach corner I cannot see any other pilot in the air any more except me. Flying down to the southern turnpoint at the main ridge, next to the Nyaru take-off is more or less business as usual, but the experience with all the comers and edges, I have collected in the meantime, helps a lot. As a large triangle was not in the cards, I switch to plan B, trying to reach km23N a second time and fly back to the south in the afternoon, planning to extend as far as possible to the south, which should be more then 250 ams in total. When I reach km23N the second time I simply am not able to overcome it and flee very low to the ground over the front ridge, scratch and fight there a lot and finally recover to the usual flight path. Enlarging further to the north still is not compatible with the presented view into this direction and of course the headwinds, that have built up in the meantime - very usual for the time of the day. Flying down south in the afternoon requests good height over the ridge as the eastern facing hillsides are more or less in the shadow of the sunlight, now arriving from the west. When I arrive in Nyaru, me plan to enlarge my track to the forelaying ridge towards the south gets rained away, as this part is in the rain now including a rapidly sinking cloud base. I am just able to enlarge my track around the Kapchebelel corner to the small village in the flat valley southwest of it. The welcoming crowd knows me from my landing there last year, also I know some of them. I praise the bikibiki-rider for his job, bringing me back to the hotel last year, but take the matatu to Eldoret this year. In that matatu some nice contacts can be made, especially with a teacher, who teaches the german language in a school, located right on the edge of the rift valley ridge - I promise to do some spectacular flying for the pupils, the next time I will pass by there. Another matatu brings me from Eldoret back to Iten.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen