Hello all
On Monday evening I met with Yoram Agmon at the landing site of Mavoe hama, we left my car at the buttom and arrived to the takeoff site at 6:30 pm, Yoram was kind enough to allow me to switch gliders with him, my Thrust for His Epsilon for testing purposes since I am in the market for a new DHV 1/2
The wind was westerly at 45 kmh
Starting at around 7 pm the wind died down very rapidly and by the time that I took off it was around 15 kmh the time was 7:15 and the sun was kissing the horizon
The decision to take off after sunset was based on the fact that twilight will go on for another 30 plus minutes and the flight itself based on the dying wind should end up at the buttom within 8 minutes or so
Normal takeoff and 2 minutes ridge waiting for Yoram to take off,He was delayed since the wind drooped to Zero within does two extra minutes, Finally he took off, forward launch and I headed to the landing site directly
About 200 meters west and Bellow the ridge I met with the unexpected famous effect Kinneret that took me straight up to 700 meters above the landing site in smooth solid uplift
This wasn't good, only because of the darkening sky, I needed to go down, 90 degree turns to get out of the lift didn't
since EVRYTHING was going up, next was the famous big ears that only helped to take me up further into 800 meters
Time was closing on 7:45 and I understood that I better go down NOW. so I did a strong spiral that after 6 turns I had to stop because of nausea and the world spinning in my had to fast, I lost about 75 meters
The thought of a B stall did cross my mind but I decided against it since I didn't know the glider or which one of the lines will do the correct job
I decided to go over the water inwards half a kilometer hoping for a sink, that gave me about plus 2
At that point I was high enough to go back to Mavoe Hama for top landing, maintaining climb all the way back to the ridge I came to a sudden stop about 200 meters west of the ridge, It appeared that the Anabatic wind kicked in and the wind at Mavoe hama was 20 kmh from the EAST
The colliding easterly and westerly winds created a few scary moments for me in the air, the vario went from minus 5 sinks to plus six 6 uplift, I was able to center on a 5 m/s sink and within seconds was 200 bellow the ridge on my way to the buttom landing
site, uneventful touchdown occurred at 8:03 pm in almost full darkness, no moon
Yoram Agmon was able to land on top about 20 minutes before I did and landed with a 20kmh EASTERLY winds next to the main road
He saw my struggles and got into his car to go to the buttom to light up the landing site if the need arise, it didn't, and thank you yoram for forward thinking
What did I learn
Mainly, that no wind on top does not imply no thermals or up currents at night
Effect kinerret does exist
After sunset the wind on top changes direction, anabatic is for real
maybe 30 minutes twilight wasn't enough buffer for safe flight
Should I carry a flashlight for emergency?i
The Epsilon is an incredible paraglider that gave me confidence and a sense of security throughout the whole flight including the tough moments, It appears that this higher DHV is more relaxing than my Current DHV 1 glider
Moshe Grad
PS: this information is here to
all the people who are going to fly at effect kinneret in the next few weeks
Please add relevant clerfiying inforamtion if you have any, and please avoid the "you are going to kill yourself" remarks or the offers to take a "Night flying course" to improve my skills. Thank you
