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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Gute Nachricht

Auf der Website der SSN (Soaring Society of Namibia) steht, dass Piloten mit einer SPL-Lizenz in Verbindung mit einem gültigen LAPL-Medical in Namibia Segelflugzeuge mit europäischer Zulassung fliegen dürfen. Bisher war das aufwendigere Klasse 2 ICAO Medical notwendig. Die SSN weist darauf hin, dass für Nachbarländer wie Botswana oder Südafrika keine endgültige, gültige Aussage getroffen werden kann.

Für Segelflugzeugbesitzer: Bitte erkundigen Sie sich bei Ihrer Versicherungsgesellschaft, ob dies mit Ihrem Versicherungsvertrag übereinstimmt.

Http://www.ssn.org.na

Die Segelflugsaison in Bitterwasser dreht noch einmal richtig auf

Obwohl Mitte Januar die Saison in Bitterwasser dem Ende entgegenzugehen scheint, zeigt sich das Wetter von seiner besten Seite. Piloten aus aller Welt genießen beeindruckende Thermik, atemberaubende Streckenflüge über 1000 km und eine einzigartige Gemeinschaft.