Up to now, the flying site in Tianeti primarily worked for soaring. The peak draws the thermals from the entire region below, making it a reliable flying site in almost all conditions when the wind is from the South, or Southwest.
However, there have been a number of longer flights from this location, typically heading out East. Roland flew 15+ km, a good way towards Akhmeta, on our very first flight there in 2007, landing in a small clearing. Conditions that day turned rough, with the wind coming in from Southwest (unusual) with average speeds above 30 km shortly after Roland had launched.
The highest altitude in Tianeti was about 3800m above ground, which would be about 2000m above the launch site, on April 28, 2008. Above is the footage. We launched as usual, catching the thermal on the right shoulder of the mountain. Curiously, we did not find a single other thermal once we had topped out, when we were flying east, so that it ended up being a glide flight into the neighboring valley, north of Tianeti city. It seemed that we had found one rare day with one rare gap in the inversion, but we did not stumble on any others.
The key point here is that there is still a long-distance flight waiting to happen from Tianeti, on a good & strong spring day, when you pierce through that inversion, to then fly on and on.
However, there have been a number of longer flights from this location, typically heading out East. Roland flew 15+ km, a good way towards Akhmeta, on our very first flight there in 2007, landing in a small clearing. Conditions that day turned rough, with the wind coming in from Southwest (unusual) with average speeds above 30 km shortly after Roland had launched.
The highest altitude in Tianeti was about 3800m above ground, which would be about 2000m above the launch site, on April 28, 2008. Above is the footage. We launched as usual, catching the thermal on the right shoulder of the mountain. Curiously, we did not find a single other thermal once we had topped out, when we were flying east, so that it ended up being a glide flight into the neighboring valley, north of Tianeti city. It seemed that we had found one rare day with one rare gap in the inversion, but we did not stumble on any others.
The key point here is that there is still a long-distance flight waiting to happen from Tianeti, on a good & strong spring day, when you pierce through that inversion, to then fly on and on.
