Over a crackly Skype call I somehow managed to arranged a lift out to the Cusco flying site with one of the
tandem pilots, an hours drive north of Cusco. Cusco is a popular tandem
spot it seems; there must have been 20 odd people waiting their turn on
takeoff.
The area is beautiful. A yellow and brown patchwork of
fields with the Sacred Valley stretching out in front of the launch site
overlooked by some mighty rock faces and jagged snow clad peaks. The
valley floor is about 3500m, with the takeoff at 3900m.
The day took a long time to get going. El niño, that
troublesome child, is making itself felt. The normally clear blue skies
were this morning draped in clouds. They'd burnt off by late morning but
the thermal cycles and the takeoff wind direction took a bit longer to
get going.
The tandems started at about 12.30 but had to work hard to
stay up. It was working though, if not particularly well, so having sat
around all morning, I launched at 1.
I flew around the launch site for about an hour, only once
gaining any decent height - getting up to 4500m with the best thermal I
caught. Thermals were strong but broken and the cycles infrequent, so it
was hard to build any height to go anywhere. I eventually got bored of scrapping around the launch hill
however and drifted back over the hill with an alright thermal, fully
expecting to soon land out and hop on a bus back to Cusco.
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| Looking down from launch |
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| Looking west |
But that's where the adventure began. I went on a glide after
my initial thermal petered out, following the road back to Cusco and
soon picked up another climb (flat land flying: you don't even need to
try). Another climb later and I had my first real decision to make. I
was drifting with a thermal and the wind and road direction parted ways.
There were some enticing sun clad slopes up ahead however so off I
went. It duly delivered: a strong smooth thermal taking me all the way
from the lower slopes to nearly 6000m - nice! Up at cloud base, Cusco
was suddenly within spitting distance, just behind the small mountain
chain I'd climbed above. 3000m above ground you can glide a long way! I
followed the edge of the hills to the east of Cusco but entering the
Cusco valley, things got a little more complicated...
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| Gaining some height |
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| Cusco |
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| Looking back north |
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| High above Cusco |
The wind namely. After flying back to Cusco with a nice
tailwind I hit an easterly coming over the mountains and across
the valley. My planned route, continuing up the valley past Cusco, was
therefore in the lee so I decided to cross the valley to see if it was
working better there.
There is an airport in Cusco, in the middle of the
valley. I'd already passed the length of it so thought I'd be fine with
a quick hop over to the other side of the valley. What I didn't
consider was the approach and having pretty much already crossed the
valley I was confronted with an oncoming plane - using the side valley
for a big u turn before straightening up for the landing.
Flying with big passenger jets is quite exciting! I made a
beeline for the nearest hill and we passed with a comfortable margin.
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| The final approach |
The ridge on the other side was generating some easy lift
so I cruised along that while I considered my options. Landing was one
but the best spot was kind of in the jet path so it did have its
drawbacks. Given that, I thought I may as well press on up the valley.
The wind was a concern though, especially given the narrow pass I needed
to get by, and I was struggling to work out what was going on. Wind
from the east, wind from the north, and the smoke on the valley floor
showing a strong southerly! Heading south however and still going up I
figured it would work out. Definitely a bit of convergence happening in the small side valley too.
I made it to the end of the valley where it opened out a
bit relatively easily, and identified a big flat area to land in where I
hoped the wind would be nicer given the more open space.
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| Landing zone ahead |
...SCHLAPP!
A rough frontal collapse got my attention and then a few minutes after, as I was arriving above my landing field...
BAMM BAMMMM SCHLAPP BAMM!!!!
I was thrown around by a violent sequence of collapses with
a big frontal and asymmetric that almost twisted my lines. I recovered
fine but still going up and feeling the strain of a poor nights sleep
and a tricky flight, I was getting a little nervous. I was
still above 4000m at this point (about 1000m above ground level but
definitely ready to land!) so I spiralled half way down and then just used
big ears to lose the rest of my height. At least it was clear where the
wind was coming from. I landed safely, just outside a small town called
Huacarpay, in a strong easterly, only going a little bit backwards as I
touched down...
The final challenge was getting out the field I'd landed in and I had to scale a big spiky security fence to break free. After that it was easy, with plenty of buses plying the road back to Cusco.
So, for a day that promised little, it was a surprisingly
long and interesting flight. Not technically difficult (the hard bit was
getting down) but mentally draining and certainly with its nervous
moments.
56km, 3:53 hrs.
Tracklog is here: http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:iamado/25.7.2015/18:19
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| Relieved! |
