Thermal Flights in the Valley
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2007
1
9
18
Trip End
Jan 21, 2007
Tunshi,
Ecuador
Friday, January 12, 2007
We left early around 7:30 from Banos in order to catch some thermal flights in the Rio Bamba valley in a small town called Tunshi. It is amazing how the climate changes rapidly within an hour or two from city to city... Banos was a sub-tropical location right next to the Amazon region on the other side of the volcano and Andes ridge. It was very hot and very humid. Now, in Rio Bamba, an hour and a half away, we find ourselves in an EXTREMELY dry mountain climate with cacti everywhere and dust blowing around us... The soils are very fertile (like most places in Ecuador), but the farmers seem to work very hard at getting water from the mountains into their crops. The launch site was very similar to our local site in the Gatineau Hills: rough rock, a steep cliff and a giant plain valley in front. The main difference is that there isn't a gazillion trees on the mountain waiting to catch you! It was also a lot bigger in proportions than back home..
A Small Sample of the Cacti
. Obviously! I have yet to see any 'gauchos' (cowboys), yet the place definitely has that cowboy feel to it. Also, the main city where we are staying seems to have an overwhelmingly large youth population... A nice change from past locations. I crossed a national university (McDonald) on my way to this Internet cafe, so that may be the reason. Either way, it's nice to see so many beautiful young latina chicas! ;) But back to the flying, we could see Mount Chumborazo from the launch and over the valley. We flew early from about 10:00 till around 15:00. The early flights were rather boring and the later flights were massively thermal! On my first flight, a big puffy cloud was slowly moving over the mountain launch... As I launched, I quickly gained altitude... That was fun. But I just didn't feel comfortable turning the thermal so close to the mountain and so soon after launch... I have little thermal experience so Henri and the guys are giving me pointers here and there... My second flight was later and more turbulent since the valley was covered in thermal air columns. It was pretty turbulent, although I did manage to control my wing very well... I wasn't comfortable turning into the thermals while actively flying my wing through the turbulence, so I kinda blew my long flights chances again... Nothing super exciting, just a lot of work to keep things steady. The valley was so warm that I hit a bunch of small lift bubbles while approaching the launch, so I landed with 'big ears' without issue. On his second flight, Benoit managed to climb a thermal or two to extend his flight. Michel also had some thermal fun I believe... Jean-Roch also got a few nice quiet flights and lots of active flying practice. Then, around 15:00, when we were all on the ground, the valley wind came rushing in on queue... The dust was flying all over the place and the wind must have been ramming through at around 30-40 km/h for sure! The only thing missing was the tumbleweed rolling by.
Benoît Executes a Perfect Landing in the Field
So, it was a good day, but since I'm not used to thermal flying that much, I didn't really enjoy my flights as much as I could have... Maybe this will change as I fly more thermals and get more comfortable in their turbulence. The only downside with the site was the rough rocky launch which, like at home, took it's tole on my wing's lines: one of my minor break line attachments got the outside protective layer stripped off. The internal core is what holds everything together, so I can still fly with it. But I will have to be careful not to damage it further since it is sensitive to both heat and humidity. The fact that it is a break line also diminishes the danger level to almost nil (according to all the experienced pilots around me). Lucky for me!
