Delphinus | Flying in Inversion

As promised, here more of an update on Delphinus, on my flight on September 5. Higher up wind from the east, but in general an inversion layer at 2000 m (as reported by Alex, from his ultralight).

I was soaring on the ridge itself for about 30 minutes. Good thermals, although pulsating, typically coming through for about three or four minutes, and then a break of around one minute. The thermal releases come up unevenly across the hill, with the strongest surges at 5.9 m/s. Typically you see the releases working their way up the hill, on the grass, or the trees below. You could probably sustain yourself up there for a long time, if you stay nimble.

At one point, I gained more altitude (see below) and then ventured east, hoping to catch thermals further out. There weren't any clouds, but I thought maybe the thermals would be blue. No luck! I slipped into the inversion, and it was all the way downhill from then.

The landing site is good, but as mentioned, plenty of sand.

The lesson is that this is a great mountain even during powerful inversions, but there's little to be gained further out. Stay close to the ridge.

Delphinus | new site!

We found a new flying location! Locals refer to the mountain as Delphinus, and it towers visibly over the road between Ananuri and Pasanauri. Yesterday, we finally decided to take a look at it. Locals immediately told us that the mountain was accessible by road, up to the main ridge.

As it turns out, there is a ridge that is almost 2 km long, running roughly east to west. You can launch at multiple points along the ridge, although the best point probably is close to the peak, since it affords a flatter takeoff point, as well as the opportunity to launch when the wind comes more from the east. At 2150 m, it is higher than Tianeti, and also seems to offer better opportunities for cross-country flying.

Two flights there so far, September 4 & 5, 2010. One took me quite a way out west, but that's a different story. The second one, on a day with strong inversion, gave good lift along the ridge, although no thermals to be found further out.

Landing in the Valley is not a problem, although you need to watch for various powerlines. Also, some of the landing sites have plenty of rocks, and several have lots of sand, which your wing may not like too much. (Obviously, watch the valley winds!)

On balance, this appears like a major new opportunity for flying in Georgia, even if Google Earth decides to show it in the darkest of colors. It may offer very significant cross-country possibilities. Even just for soaring, it presents you with the sight of beautiful mountains, church ruins, Kazbegi in the distance, two lakes, and much more.

It's probably only suitable for advanced pilots, or intermediate pilots with detailed guidance. On a day with strong eastward wind, I reached climbing speeds of 6.9 m/s. The next day, with little wind from the east, I still had short surges of 5.9 m/s, as the thermals punch their way up along the hillside. Flying needs to be pretty active.

More information and nicer photography to follow! We will also try and find out more about the mountain's great name.

Lawnmowers Fly!

Here you see a short clip with take off, ascent, soaring under clouds, spiral and then a (rough!) crosswind landing. Alex N. took me on a spin with his machine, in early September 2010.

The entire thing, except for the wing, is tiny.

In terms of paragliding, we noticed strong thermals high up. So once we have higher altitude, we should have a good chance to do more cross-country. To be explored in the next season!

Evening Soaring at TBS Sea

We have to get into the habit of actually capturing the weather data, and then comparing it with our actual flying experience. (Alternatively, we should build a small weather station at the radar station.)

It was a usual day, where at some point you get a little frustrated with the Tbilisi Sea launching site, since it's just too inconsistent. However, Irhan K. did at one point catch a thermal and managed to get up 700 m above the launching site, which probably would have put him on track for cross-country flying, but unfortunately he decided to come back to us.

At any rate, at 6:15 PM in the evening, the wind, which had been coming too much from the east, turned, and suddenly came straight from the south. Everyone else had left, I was the only one still up there. Flying until sunset! Remarkable: within three or four minutes of the sun going down, the wind slowed down, and I sank into the valley. I was surprised, since it had appeared to me that the wind was dynamic, with no thermal component. It could be that the drop was coincidental, but clearly we are still learning about this site.
One day, when we really have it figured out, and maybe if we do a little bit of landscaping, there will be better flights. More generally, a good illustration to how small sites can hold positive surprises.
One particular surprise that evening was that once I had hiked back up to the launch site, to the belongings scattered around my car, I encountered six Georgians having a feast, on the occasion of the date of Holy Mary. They had a campfire, which we later heard people saw in Tbilisi, since it's at an elevated spot. I stayed with the group until almost midnight.


After dusk, the launch site is totally magical: you see all of the city, you see the planes coming in, and reflections on the lake. The stars are clear, and there's a nice breeze.

Flying with an Ultralight

Yesterday, Alexander N. took me out on his ultralight, on a glorious day, from the Natakhtari Airport. The runway in itself was an experience (there was no runway). Flying in this ultralight felt incredibly immediate, and fun. The only thing that you crave is turning off the engine as you're approaching a big cloud and beginning to feel how it draws you in. But that is not what this toy is designed for.

Cloud base somewhere above 2200 m, which would be plenty for flying over land, even if it's on the low side for the foothills of the Caucasus. Again, we were thinking that the one thing we need is either a winch (the first thermals start 200 m above the ground, or less) or eventually one of the electric motors.

On a day like yesterday, after three days of strong wind from the Northwest, the Northwest wind breaking down around noon, there would be plenty of potential for epic flights -- to be sure, only in one direction, since the wind is pretty zippy up there (around 50 km/h above Mtskheta), but distance nevertheless. There is so much potential that's waiting to be explored...

[Pictures/film to follow soon.]

Israeli Pilots in Paragliding Festival

Among the guests in a paragliding festival we had two pilots from Israel, Teddy and Tal.



This was gentle evening soaring. Typical for mountain weather, it had actually been raining, briefly, around noon. The launch site is just about the Austrian hut, and accessible by car.

Caucasus Paragliding Festival | Gudauri

Irakli Kapanadze organized a great paragliding festival, the first Caucasus Paragliding Fly-In, at the end of June.



On the Monday, we went out flying to Gudauri. Here we are flying over Kudebi, with Mik Broschart from Nova. It's tough working your way up to over the peak, since you risk flying into an isolated valley. But if you stay close to the mountains, you can soar up. Launch is just up from the Austrian hut.

Georgian Paragliding on Facebook

For the day-to-day things, check out Georgian paragliding on Facebook. They have an excellent site, with many photographs, videos, and as you can see the group is very popular. The moderator does a great job of bringing nice new material in.


We are keeping up the blog with tags & labels, for more site-specific information. It's a little more searchable for people who want to figure out the main locations, their flying conditions, and also directed at more experienced pilots.

Paragliding in Armenia

Armenia has a vibrant paragliding club, with a good dozen experienced pilots, and formalized instruction.

There are excellent flying sites close to Yerevan, and Armenian pilots also participate in the Leonardo cross-country contests. Cloud base often is quite high, offering excellent opportunities.

The club has a good website, with much more information than we can provide here.

It's a great group of people to fly with!

Find their website by clicking here.