Flying in June

2025. június 24. - Glidingirl

As we arrive to the first summer month, the weather conditions in North-Italy are getting worse for gliding... but the days are also longer, so it is possible to take-off quite late and land around 6-8 pm in the evening so it has its own magic.

Before this flight I was working in the morning, I had a quick lunch at home and started to rig the glider around noon. Needless to say how heavy it's to rig the glider in this very hot weather, but I am not made of sugar so I did not completely melt under the sun. :)

Just before 2 pm I was ready for take-off. 39 degrees on the runway under the canopy of my ASW15... let's go! The tow was a bit unusual (I am usually towed by the least powerful towplanes because I am very light with my glider, but this time I was towed by a stronger airplane) but finally I arrived to Campo dei Fiori. After the first thermal I headed to Mt. Nudo to see if I can get higher than 1650 m... and the answer was NO! Xctherm was a bit optimistic again about the reachable altitudes, but I thought anyway that it will be difficult near the airfield as it's typical in summer.

Well, as with 1650 m I do not cross Lago Maggiore, I decided to try to the east. I wanted to try also the peaks in Lugano CTR but because of IFR traffic it was not possible again. A good thermal close to the CTR finally let me to go to Mt. San Giorgio and I reached a fairly good altitude here (1800 m). I crossed Lago di Lugano and I arrived to Mt. Generoso. Here I caught the best thermal of the day: I did not stop until 2200 m, wonderful!

Okay, but where to go now? I do not see any nice clouds in the east, the first little cumulus is very far... let's try to the north. Nothing. I returned to Mt. Generoso to try to reach again 2200 m but for the second time it was not possible anymore, the thermal disappeared. 2000 m...okay, let's try to the east, nothing to do, let's face the blue horror. I went to Mt. Bisbino, did some circles, but I did not find any good thermal. 1700 m... it might be wiser to return. That was also frustrating that the wind direction and strength was often changing and sometimes my instruments indicated important wind as well (20-25 km/h).

I tried again Mt. Nudo but I remained relatively low so it was not possible to go more to the west. When I reached Mt. San Giorgio for the second time that day, it was already late and some high clouds from the west covered the sky. The thermals got much weaker, I was circling in calm air and did not find strong values. But it was also magical to return to Calcinate after 6pm... I could do some experiments, try a small final glide with higher speeds. When I landed, there was only one more glider in the air. I needed to find help quite urgently to take back my glider to its trailer as they were cutting the grass on the runway.

It was strange to look at the sky after 6 pm because it was nearly fully covered so it seemed like it was impossible to fly some distance that day. And even though it was not a great distance what I did, I was happy, I missed flying so much... fingers crossed now for some instability and nicer days in June!