Everything looks good in Bassano. The 5 pilots on the last course I’m running this season are happy to hear that the forecast is looking great for the coming week. Most pilots are of relatively low experience so the XC Intro course should suit them well.
I’ll be posting day by day accounts of what we attempt & how there get on here, plus some photos too…
Day 1, 07.10
We awoke to a cloudless sky and very light winds at all levels, classic conditions for here or anywhere for that matter. We arrived at launch and it was pretty busy but no problems. There was the usual Bassano idiots hacking off the hill with no self preservation instinct! All the group got off first time with great control. Unfortunately first day erves got to a few of them and bythe time I launched they’d decided to land.
I flew around for about 50mins then landed to have lunch with the guys but had I known that the cloud cover would have shut things off in the afternoon I’d have stayed airbourne. Oh well tomorrow is looking fantastic too. I’ll post details when I have them…
Day 2, 08.10
Again a cloudless sky greeted us in the morning, we rolled up the hill at around 1030. It was pretty obvious after the first guys launched that it was a little inverted over launch. We all launched together at around 1215 after a briefing on the 20km FAI triangle we would try to fly round.
John and myself managed to get through the main inversion. It was quite active air and we headed off to the first turnpoint. John was slightly lower but managed 2 climbs before turning back to launch. I pushed on, got the turnpoint quite low then headed back to launch. By this time most of the guys had glided out to the main LZ.
I decided to try to complete this short task and managed a lowish save out in the flats about 150m over the ground. This turned into a 2,5m/s climb and then glided out to Leidolo and back to goal. All the guys went back to launch and had a nice afternoon fly around for an hour after. Tomorrow looks also pretty good 
Day 3, 08.10
High cirrus in the morning then I slightly stronger than forecast easterly wind meant that XC flying wasn’t possible. We first went up to Costa Lunga and it looked pretty good. However by about 1130 the wind had picked up to a level not good for low airtime pilots. John was in the air and had no chance to make the LZ but landed safely in one of the fields at the foot of the mountain.
After a bite to eat we went back up to the east launch and everyone got off for an hour plus flight around the main launch and out in the flats. Amazingly that even with all that cirrus there were still good well formed climbs wherever you expected them.
Tomorrow is looking less windy & sunny so should be good. I’ve flown 3.5hrs here without even trying so far. The guys have flown slightly more than that…
Day 4, 10.10
The east wind was still there and we headed up to the Costa Lunga launch. Even though the navette insisted on taking pilots to the south, dodgey in an easterly. The guys got off in good form and started to climb in front of launch in smooth luv side climbs but they were quite weak. We pushed on to the south-east facing ridge and there were strong 6m/s+ climbs there, a little too windy for those type of thermals. I decided it better to push out to the flats and cruise around out there. We all flew for about 40mins in quite lively air.
Later in the day we cruised up to the east launch again and I dummy’d it and found it ok for the guys with around 20kmh of wind and soft edged nice thermals. We stayed there for around 40mins again and then push out into the windy flats.
Tomorrow is looking less windy but we’ll see… So far I’ve managed just under 5hrs without pushing that hard, I reckon with some motivation 10hrs would have been possible 
Day 5, 11.10
The forecast was correct, the east wind is gone but the sky was a little overcast.We drove up to launch at around midday expecting just a sled ride. John launched first and spun up in good thermals. Everyone was off the hill pretty quick after that!
I got pretty low in front of launch as the next lot of shade came over but managed to core a 4m/s climb just to the left of launch. Once high it was evident that there was an inversion at about 350m over launch. It became rougher and a little windy. We all pushed out into the flats but there wasn’t much out there due to shadow.
We then launched again at about 1500hrs, climbs were weak due to high stratus but most of the guys enjoyed a technical flight in light conditions for about an hour. Well done to all you stayed up in the face of adversity! Tomorrow looks sunnier and stilll light winds but from the SW… Thanks for reading
Day 6, 12.10
We arrived on launch at aorund 11:15 it wasn’t busy. We laid out and I gave the brief on the task, a 25km route around the ridge and then out into the flats. The weather looked fantastic but on closer inspect the wind seemed to be more westerly and picking up. Not the best direction.
I would normally go last but as I wanted to test the conditions for everyone I launched into pretty lively air. A little too lively for the guys on the course really. I flew around close to the limit of the gliders stablility until I pushed out to the flats, it was early but sunny. I found a few climbs but nothing that went that high so I landed and went back to launch.
As if the conditions were trying to tell me something the clouds came over and everyone just managed about 30mins in weak conditions before the day totally died.
Summary. i think everyone learnt alot this week. From not being scared to forward lauch with a bit of help, correct thermalling technique using the outside brake more and a new reverse launch for everyone to practice at home. I’ll be running some courses in Feb & March next year so check site for dates if you want to fly in this fantastic area.
KF