At the beginning of the season I decided to participate in a very interesting local competition at our airfield, called Coppa Villa Pavesi (CVP). There are several competition days throughout the whole season, typically during the weekends with AAT tasks for pilots with different level of skills: the circles around the waypoints are quite large - so experts can fly long distances but also those pilots can participate who do not have much experience & older gliders (like me:)). This competition allows us to learn to set the tasks in our instruments, follow a pre-defined task and compare our progress to other pilots. Especially because not only the gliders have their handicaps, but also the pilots!
Both days we had a task in the 'pedemontana' region: this is that area where the mountains meet the flatland - but it's difficult to find a good English translation for this Italian word, and Google Translate could not help me either :)
On Saturday I took off late, just before 2 pm. I wanted to start the flight in Lugano CTR (Mt. Martica - Mt. Piambello) but as said many times, there is too much traffic recently so it is nearly impossible to move around without limitations. One of the big learnings of this year was "don't stick to an idea if it does not work" so I left the area of the CTR and continued the flight on the traditional way to the east. And even though the sky was blue and the temperatures were very high, I found some nice thermals! At Mt. Generoso I climbed until 2100 m, pure happiness. I knew that from here it won't be so easy to throw myself in the dirty air without cumulus but I did... what can happen if everything goes wrong? I had plan B, Alzate Brianza airfield is close from here so I could even land there. But it was not the case! Though the thermal was very broken at Mt. Bisbino, Mt. Bollettone did not disappoint me (as usually): here I found again a nice lift. I reached the first waypoint at Mt. Cornizzolo (with some paragliders around me) and then returned to Campo dei Fiori. For the second time it was sufficient to go until Mt. Bisbino and then home: I did it, 150 kms, task completed and valid because three of us did it that day!
I knew that the forecast predicted similar conditions for the next day: so why not to leave my glider rigged and fly again on Sunday? (Well, the temperatures were around 35-36°C - it was super exhausting, but my passion for gliding did not let me to waste a flyable day.) And what a good decision it was! On Sunday in the morning I followed the weather forecast appointment from home so I arrived to the airfield quite late, around 11 am. But my glider was already rigged so it was comfortable and quick to prepare. I took off around 12.30, before the E-glide competitors. And the forecast was not so correct, the conditions were even better than the day before! Nice cumulus clouds, strong lifts, what else we need? The daily task was slightly longer, I went until Corni di Canzo (most eastern point for me) and then back to Mt. Nudo (though it would have been sufficient again to touch the western point of Campo dei Fiori).
The most difficult part of the flight was exactly here: I knew that I need to return again to Mt. Bollettone to complete the task - but the air was really on fire, my necklace, my earrings and the seat belts were burning my skin. I tried to gain some energy for the rest of the flight by eating some Haribos and drinking but it was a weak help. (Did you know that even gummy bears start to melt at a certain temperature?! :) This was that temperature!)
The task completion was guaranteed when I reached the super altitude of 2050 m at Mt. Uccellera... final glide! I had nearly 650 m above Calcinate but I knew that I will go through some strongly descending zones. I was right, when I arrived home, my instrument gave me the arrival altitude of 350 m above the airfield. It was fun to accelerate close to Calcinate until 150 km/h - I was happy that I successfully completed the task two consecutive days. After this flight I needed to de-rig my glider and then I needed to drive home (50 mins from the airfield, so a bit of energy was still needed:)). What a great flight anyway: 180 kms, a bit more than 3 hours, 55 km/h. I wish to have more weekends like this also in July!
If you want to see my flights on OLC/weglide, you can find them here (competition classification available on weglide (without the correction of personal handicaps - but I was too slow to win:)):
OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 28.06.2025 (onlinecontest.org)
OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 29.06.2025 (onlinecontest.org)
153 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 06/28/2025 (weglide.org)
178 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 06/29/2025 (weglide.org)