Flying at this time of year is more of a weather lottery than in January ... this morning at La Tulia we were rained on and then had to deal with side wind, back wind & falling down wind!
Even so, as usual in Rolda it turned out to be much better than it looked!

Wearing ALL my flying clothes at the Take Off ...
NEVER a good sign ;-)

A short sight of blue between the rain showers ...

For some unfathomable reason the guys here like the shorter drive to the Tulia launch in spite of the fact that its usually in cloud, totally in shadow in front and a much more random to get up and away from than Los Tanques (the competition launch). I tried to convince them this morning but ears were deaf and I was too fed up to argue with them.
After hiding under plastic and waiting through all the wetness, when the breeze finally came on a few pilots got airborn but a snarl-up in the launching queue caused the rest of us to be stuck in the next rain storm, back wind and then nil wind conditions. Launching with my 'old-lady-knee' and all my extra ballast is OK when we have some breeze on a reasonable sized hill. From the short side of Tulia with no space to get up any speed and too much weight hanging on the risers to generate any upward movement in the wing, todays start was a nightmare.

Flooding all the way to Ricaute

Finally, I succeeded to get airborn under a very black sky and climbed to base over the power cables before running bravely away towards the slightly sunnier valley and a short but sweet flight landing together with Judith at the airfield.

spot the thermal ...

sparrows Colombian style!