Akis and Lee have just returned from their XC tour of Brazil which saw some pilots breaking personal bests and Lee clocking up an 86K XC from the legendary flying site of Governador Valadares.
The trip was split into three locations, the first was Serra da Moeda, which offered some excellent ridge run XCs, with various members of the group making XCs from both sides of the 30K ridge. There was also some very relaxed evening flying to be had, which was a great way to enjoy flying in November whilst the UK was entering deep winter.
Site number two and the main event was the Ibituruna Peak in Governador Valadares. One of the things that we have noticed a lot in our 2014 season is the very odd weather patterns which seem to be effecting the seasons and weather all over the world. This was the case in Governador with a few days being lost to the weather, at what is normally a very good time of year for XC flying. However the weather didn’t spoil all the fun and we had several good days resulting in flights where we all got up and away from the hill.
In fact Akis led a gaggle directly from launch up to cloud base and away, which for some of the pilots was the start of their first ever XC flights, with distances raging being between 25k and up to 55k. Lee then followed behind with a smaller gaggle again getting to cloud base and running a beautiful cloud street that Valadares is so famous for. With a few of the pilots dropping out along the way at 30k – 40K Lee managed to push on and fly with Ian Douglas who achieved his new personal best of 83K, while Lee snuck on to 86K before the sun went down and the day was finished.
The third and final stop on the tour was to the stunning valley of Alfredo Chaves where we enjoyed a combination of relaxed ridge soaring mixed with some high cloud bases and out and returns along the valley. In Alfredo Chaves we had the luxury of the landing field being next door to our hotel, so there was no waiting for a retrieve just a very short walk for a beer after landing.
We loved Brazil and are planning our next XC trip already so keep your eyes on the calendar if you're interested!