I'm a flatlands pilot

Mountains are for launching (Ramp launch on Montegrappa)

On Thursday the clouds were low at about 4,000' on the Montegrappa launch as we looked toward the mountain from the LZ.  They were also quite diffuse, soft looking.  The forecast was for light lift.

After we drove up the switchbacks of Strada General Gardino to launch we saw that a few paraglider pilots were managing to soar so clearly flying was not a problem.  We set up and I launched first in no wind conditions off the steep ramp.  Heading west I didn't find any lift until almost the end of the ridge line and then it was a substantial thermal that showed 500 fpm on the twenty second averager.  I was quickly to cloud base at 4,200'.

After a few minutes of fooling around on the hill I headed west to the next hill, Costalunga, across a small valley, Valle Santa Felicita.  Getting near the west side of Costalunga I found good lift and again climbed quickly to cloud base.  I had noticed that unlike the first two days here there were plentiful cu's out to the south in the flats.  I wanted to leave the hills and go cross country.

I couldn't go that far cross country as Belinda had taken the train to Padova to check out Giotti's, so that idea was to do an out and return.  Also there were airspace issues to the south away from the hills.

The cu's are barely visible because of all the moisture in the air.  When you climb to cloud base you can't quite tell where the open air ends and the cu's begin.  It gets especially thick right near the base of the cu's.  If you look out horizontally it is quite dark.  At the same time it is no problem to look down and see the ground below.

It turned out that there was plenty of usable lift under the rapidly developing and diminishing cu's to the south being blown to the east by the five mph west winds.  I wasn't able to get to Cassola to where we are staying but made three attempts and each time was able to get back to lift to the north whenever I got down to 3,000'.  It would have been easy to glide to Cassola, but I wanted to be able to come back without difficulties.

I thoroughly enjoyed being out in the flats away from even the minor turbulence of the hill sides.  This is not something that I choose to feel better about, that is just the way it is.  I would love it if turbulence didn't bother me at all, and in competition it seems to bother me a lot less.

Years ago when I first started going cross country I flew at Chelan Butte in Washington state, USA.  The Butte is about 3,500', but only 700' above the flats five miles to the east on the other side of the canyon formed by the Columbia River that almost surrounds the Butte.  My first big competition took place at Pine Mountain, Oregon, east of bend, and it is a lone hill surrounded by flat desert.  It can be rough out there in the flats, as I have experienced in the flats east of Chelan, but for the most part I love the flats (especially in Texas).

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