Thermal flying in december!

Yesterday, Kurt and I left for a weekend in Neumagen. 3-4 Bft from the east was predicted, so that should have been fine. Arriving in Neumagen, we noticed that we were the only guys around and that there was almost no wind and it was completely overcast...

Sebastian and Mattias showed up and we got inside Sebastian's van, which has got heating. No panic, Neumagen is a place where the best flights usually are late in the afternoon. And it turned out to be the same this time around.

The winds picked up at 3 o'clock due to thermal acitivity and we could soar about 150 meters above the ridge. Now and then, we could also make 3 or 4 turns in 1 m/s thermals and gained another 150 meters. To make the flight complete, the sun came through, rewarding us with a spectular view on a white winter landscape in the distance.

Today was a lot less rewarding, although it looked promising in the morning. I had a 10 minute flight, gradually losing height. Kurt started a little later and had a nice 1,5 hour flight, be it in strong winds.

Below is a picture from this morning and a video of Kurt's take-off yesterday, still overcast as you can see: