Always good for a stunt

The picture was already a rarity yesterday: A lonely Arcus in the sky over Namibia. The morning briefing had announced an explosive thunderstorm situation and all but one team in the gliding centers in Namibia had preferred to stay safely on the ground for the day – only Dmytry Borovyk with his student Alexander Ivoninskii not.

Nobody in Bitterwasser was surprised. The Ukrainian Dimitry has a special reputation here. During his first flight in Namibia eleven years ago, he practiced slope flying on the Gamsberg (2347 m), over a terrain that, in its ruggedness, makes normal pilots shudder even when looking at MSL from 5000 meters. At that time Dmytry tinkered from one mini-updraft to the next to the south, until he finally managed to jump to the east side of the mountains into the Kalahari. If you want to tremble again: The flight is shown in the OLC 2011 (12.12.2010). Dmytry in his comment: “My first flight in Namibia. I'm happy."
On the other hand, yesterday's 769-kilometer flight looked downright unspectacular. He found the best conditions on the west side of the thunderstorm line. His conclusion in the evening: “Without my student Alexander, well over 1000 kilometers would easily have been possible.” Alexander from Petersburg in Russia before had only made a few starts with the Ukrainian in Vinon, where Dmytry works as a flight instructor. Four hours would have been a long flight for him.
It was simply impossible to foresee that such a well-flyable line would develop over the course of the day in the west. On the contrary, in the early morning the Cbs shot threateningly into the sky and also confirmed the last doubters in their decision to stay on the ground. And at noon the first violent thunderstorm swept over Bitterwasser. In the evening the weather had calmed down over Bitterwasser and so the approach from the west was possible.

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Wir trauern um Dieter Schwenk

Dieter hat sich als Mitglied des Bitterwasser Board of Directors und CFI der Soaring Societey of Namibia um den Segelflug in Namibia besonders verdient gemacht.

An seinem Lieblingsplatz in Bitterwasser sitzend hat er uns für immer verlassen.

Wir werden ihn nicht vergessen.

Saisonfinale

Langsam neigt sich die Saison in Bitterwasser dem Ende zu.

Nach und nach werden die Segelflugzeuge in die Container geladen. Und trotzdem fliegen täglich einige Teams über 1000 Kilometer.