”Windy Khao Sadao”

Saturday morning we were three pilots flying. When I arrived Bengt (PG) and To (HG) were airborne. To landed after a short flight. I launched when the wind slowed down. Up there the wind was from the west, and I did not penetrate very much. Sometimes my ground speed was negative. Did I want to wait for the thermals to pick up some hours later? I got two three hundred meters above takeoff. Turning all the way round in the thermals was possible, but the ground speed downwind was 60-70 km. The wind grew stronger, and the trees in the hillside got a lot of beating. I decided to go down and have one more flight later. I chose a big open field with no obstacles upwind.

The other pilots had another flight around five o’clock when I was sitting in a restaurant eating tom yam kung.

Much wind all night and thunderstorms far away when I was sleeping in a tent on the takeoff. And much wind all day on Sunday. 8 to 10 meter all the time. One pilot started when the wind slowed down . He went along the ridge, and we thought he had to land on the golf course. Suddenly we saw him thermalling under a cloud heading for Khorat.

Around three o’clock the wind slowed down, and we made ready. One pilot got up. The next one went for the landing. I tried a reverse launch three times, but there was not enouch wind to get the glider up. I felt very hot, bundled my glider and went to cool down in the shadow.

Once again the wind picked up, and Khao started. He got up fairly well, but then hit major sink and was grounded. He landed in ten meters a second and did not penetrate all the way down. The wind now was an and off, but off most of the time and probably impossible to get up. So I decided to go home.