”Great expectations at Khao Sadao”

and many pilots from Thailand, Australia, Germany, Sweden, and Norway. Everybody got nice flights. However, nobody managed to beat the cross country flight of more than 160 km from Khao Sadao to Khon Kaen from some weeks ago.

There was much wind in the evening from about 5 p.m. and all night to 10 a.m. In daytime the wind was changing in strength and direction. I had a nice evening flight after 5 p.m. on Saturday. There was lift everywhere and it went up with one meter a second all the time. The air and I were rising, and the sun was setting. A fairly black, but not threatening, cloud was above our heads. Every minute the sun grew redder, and soon there was an epidemic of big ears. Everybody wanted to get down before dark. I checked my watch; still half an hour before I had to land. At about 1.100 m asl the vario showed more than one meter a second.

Now there were multiple choices concerning landing. The golf course? The green fields of the agricultural college far away? The main landing where everybody else went? Top landing?

I decided to go for a top landing, pulled big ears, speed bar to the bottom and went for Khao Phrik. Slowly I descended. In case it was to much lift to topland I had 15 minutes to go to get down on the main landing.

A very relaxing flight in smooth conditions.