X-atacama

17. November 2014 - La Portada

This is my leaving day for Iquique, I say good bye to all of my friends there, my supporters and others and start in the early afternoon to maybe can do a evening soaring at the La Portada natural monument, where I did fly in 2003 the last time. I arrive just in time for a late evening recreational hang-out-soaring flight into the dawn. What I did not know nor become aware of is, that flying there is forbidden in the meantime. The reason might be, that La Portada is a declared national park nowadays.

You Portada : La Portada flying

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:fritzdornat/17.11.2014/21:53

http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=334734

16. November 2014 - Tocopilla > > Iquique

Alex and I went half way up yesterday and we slept in the desert above the railroad track. In the morning we end our ascent to the peak and wait for the upwinds, which usually start very early on Cerro Cruz. Today it takes a bit longer and cloud base is very low as we decide to start. The fight for altitude in the first hour between Tocopilla and Cabo Paciqua is already known, but today is takes place at an even lower level than when I flew 10 days ago. During the ongoing flight the level of the cloud base turns better but not really good. But the southerly winds are getting strong and stronger. After Punto Patache I have to fly fully accelerated towards the west to get blown from the winds along the ridge to the north and not back easterly into the desert. After having passed leesides, blown towards air collision hillsides I am flying with 80+km/h low over ground. Sounds dangerous, but does not seem to be so as there the air flow is very homogen on those places, just ground rush is breathtaking. Punta Gruesa shows the awaited turbulences, but Punta Redonda presents the big surprise : I cannot overcome it because of strong northerly winds ! So I decide to fly back to the airport to beef up my flight. But at Punta Gruesa I cannot overcome this corner against the strong southerly winds. So I am captured on a sea ridge of 7-8 km length between Punta Gruesa and Punta Redonda. I spend the rest of the day there in the air and as the day slows down it is possible to soar up high and higher and finally I am above the costal ridge. Now I can overcome Punta Redonda and proceed towards the Alto Hospicio take off, but cannot reach it as winds form Alto Hospicio keep me in a sink and I have to land just behind the container depot next to the flight park. The locals tell me, that the phenomenon I was facing is a very common one for the month of january and february, called the mega-rotor. Just so early in the season, in november, it usually does not occur … I am really sorry about that, because I would have liked to enlarge my flight further to the north and time would have been really enough to do so.

YouTube : climbing out Tocopillas Cerro Cruz

YouTube : Crossing Cemeterio Sud

YouTube : Crossing Cemeterio Nord

YouTube : Arriving at Iquique´s mega rotor

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:fritzdornat/16.11.2014/14:09

http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=334731

15. November 2014 - Iquique . . . Tocopilla

Having arrived after midnight I get up not to early. It is a saturday and for sunday a permit to fly by the Iquique airport is given. Alex and I decide to go to Tocopilla by bus and try a flight form Tocopilla back to Iquique. The bus arrives in Tocopilla in the early dark and we walk up to Cerro Cruz about half the way.

14. November 2014 - Pisaqua > > Calheta Buena > > Calheta Camarones

As the day does not look bad I suggest we should try another triangle like we did the day before, but Alex is not so confident and offers to take care of our van, so I start alone with the will to top the triangle, Alex flew yesterday. Things run pretty smooth to the south towards Calheta Buena. At the corner above Calheta Mejillones del Norte I know from many former occasions, I could catch a collapse and I do. And what a big one ! Huge frontal and than one side really deep down. In the meanwhile I have got so much confidence to this wing, so I stay calm, don't act and want to closely watch, how it will rebuild itself. But it doesn´t. Of course I hold back the wing on its flying side, but first I do nothing to get the collapsed side refilled. Then I understand, it would not work without my input, so I first try to pump it up, but only pull the wingtip deeper into the lines. The released lines now hang like deep slings way below my harness. So I let go the brake handle on this side and try to pull about every outer line on the damaged side to see, if I could produce any kind of positive reactions. What I miss at this time is, that the wind is wrapping my brake handle and brake line around the c-riser again and again and again. As I realize it, it is to late to open the built knot, also not using my fingernails. I steer a bit away from the ridge and let the flying side enter a spiral dive. It accelerates very fast and on the other side braking line and stabilo line hold each other, shortened and making the blocking knot even stiffer. So I have to kill the flying side and prepare for deploying the reserve. But surprise, surprise : the hard pressure I apply on the flying side does not put the wing into full stall, but empties the outer wing and the center remains stable and flying ! Now I´ve got two big ears, a blocked cravat on one side and a big emptied ear on the other. I am able to steer the wing with weight shift and hold the big ear side down, that it won't refill again and try to open the knot from about 900 m above sea level to about 300 before I give up and decide to steer to a proper landing place on the beach - exactly this one, where I got grounded on Oct. 12th without enough food, water and batteries. This place must be something special for me. To mention: during the fight with on the center wing only I fly into a thermal and am climbing with the reduced wing, but the additional time does not help me in antangeling the knot. Finally on the ground it takes me about 5 minutes and a lot of fingernail work with both hands to open the brake-stabilo-blockade. Whats to learn : no matter what, don't let the brake handle freely flock around. Put it around your wrist on treat it like pilots do it on acro wings. I pack my stuff, walk up about 300 meters of altitude onto the dune side and start again. I fly back towards Pisaqua, overfly the peninsula and the Tiliviche canyon and fly on towards Calheta Camarones. With the last uprising air of a rather peaceful afternoon I reach the village. It would not be possible to cross the valley or to fly into it towards the Panamericana or to fly back to Pisaqua, so probably a big triangle like yesterday would not have been in the cards today anyway. My fishermen friends take me to the bus station on the Panamericana and after a bus ride I am back in Iquique, whereto Alex had driven the van. My confidence in this unbelievable wing is now bigger than ever - the attitude of emptying to outer wing sections while remaining a stable flying center before stalling opens a wide range of chances, beginning from handling in rough turbulences to top landing in turbulent strong wind conditions - I really enjoy this and use it a lot on future occasions.

YouTube : Calheta Buena to Calheta Camarones

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:fritzdornat/14.11.2014/14:56

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:fritzdornat/14.11.2014/18:13

http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=334730

13. November 2014 - Pisaqua

Alex and I decide to start from the south side of the Pisaqua peninsula and try to enlarge my record triangle from 2009. Between Calheta Junin and Calheta Buena a rather unlandable, at least hardly retrievable - neither by land or sea - territory has to be overflown. But it works out good. On our flight back we meet a Hercules C130 military plane, which is on its way to a maneuver of a low overflight of the Pisaqua airstrip, which is a not any more or at least very seldom used airstrip, but it still is shown on ICAO maps. The pilot passes us on the land side and in front of us turns out over the sea to proceed with his task. We witness his low overflights, that he repeats twice over the eyes of a lot of military observers on the ground. As soon as his work is done everybody leaves the place and it is time for our overflight of the peninsula and the airstrip. As two dusties are now running over the flat land around the airstrip I back of a bit, but Alex flies right towards them and receives the donation of nice additional height and over he is. I on the other side loose height and have to build it again, back on the southern side of the highest point of the ridge. Now, also super high I pass the peninsula, but Alex seems to be gone. I fly on to the north, overfly the Tiliviche canyon and fly further north, but cannot see Alex any more. If we both fly out to far and would not get back, our car would be left in the desert, were no public transport is going to, comes into my mind. So my motivation for a big triangle gets a bit damped and I stay in save distance. As Alex comes back from the north I know, I was wrong or at least to cautious. He finishes a new record triangle for Pisaqua and also one of the best of Chile overall - not bad ! In the afternoon recreational pilots arrive by car and we spend the evening on campfire and the night in the desert together at the mouth of the Tiliviche river / canyon.