First Day at Valle

John Mann and I travelled down to Mexico city together on Jan 1st  and joined Gordon Grice for a shared taxi trip down to Vallle de Bravo. Flights were pretty good actually and we cleared custom and baggage in no time at all. The taxi ride took 2hrs and we arrived at 11:30 at night pretty tired. For some reason I only managed to get about 3 hours sleep and having a dicky tummy on the plane down wasn't a great way to start a flying week!

The Meson de Viente hotel where I am staying at is pretty nice. It has a nice garden and pool at the back and is run by Alex who owns FlyMexico. It was a bonus to find out that breakfast was free and that he provides shuttle rides and pick ups for his guests also for free!. When i went down for breakfast I found a bunch of Seattle pilots already there including Pam and James Bender, Meredyth, Arun, Stefan, Randy, Steve and Gordon. Quite a turn out. Later that day I saw Constantine and Frank.

After breakfast it was up to launch about 15km from downtown Valle.  We arrived at 10.30 am to about 40 people already on launch. I took off at 11:00pm and had my first flight in Valle.

Thermals started quite mild but by 12:00pm they were a little punchy in places and not well rounded. But it was a blast!  Biggest issue was getting used to flying in big gaggles again…and turning right all the time. I spent quite a bit of time just in front of launch going up and down up to around 9000ft (1300 over launch) thermaling with John. Eventually I decided to head over the back and take the direct route towards town following the main road for a bit. I headed for the first hill behind launch called Penitas (about a couple  of miles) and didn't find much lift there until I got a punchy lee side thermal after scratching low for a bit that took me up to head towards Sacamacate the next hill. There I got stuck and just couldn't get any higher. It had become overdeveloped and I looked skywards to find a few other gliders that were on the same route also get stuck and have to land.

Landing was fun to say the least. Very active and I took a couple of collapses trying to get down. But I got down eventually to about 10 kids running to come and help me pack my wing. I then headed to the road and got a taxi back to town for $2. :-) Sweet.

Back at the hotel the other Seattle pilots arrived over the next few hours. John had a great flight going North to Maguey alttough he tought he was going to town! :-)

Now relaxing in the hotel writing this blog and getting 40 winks ready to get some real good flying in tomorrow.