Austrian Arena

On the 13th May Sam Cullingworth flew a huge flat triangle of 164km with us. Being with a group of less experienced pilots I elected to fly slightly shorter tasks around the valley with them.

This week has been an incredible record breaking week with 4200m cloud base and even better almost no wind at all altitudes, after Tom Walder’s amazing 160km FAI triangle flight he proved yet again that he is still a force to be reckoned with. On Friday 9th May, still pretty early in the season, he and Stefan Steigler flew an incredible 252km FAI triangle, smashing the World Record.

The flight took Tom and Stef first to the Hintertux Glacier then out close to the border of German by the Wilder Kaiser then South east towards Kaprun and then all the way back to Mayrhofen. It took them just under 10hrs to complete the route.

Congratulations to you both guys! This season although slow to start off is now in full swing with all the XC pilots across Europe now waiting for another perfect day.

On this day I flew a short 50km triangle with the guys on the last day of the course and made a short movie, it’ll appear on the web as soon as I have time to edit it. I’ll post it on the site asap.

All the best
KF

After the terrible weather from April it finally got itself together in time for the first XC course in my home town of Mayrhofen. With much snow on the high launches we’ve had to use the lower free from snow launches. Not a problem as the lapse rate has been perfect the whole week with some nice flights on the first few days of the course.

This all came together today, 07.05.08, we arrived on launch at around 1030am with clouds already at 2500m and NO wind at altitude. We flew a 60km triangle first towards the Tux valley then out to the end of the Zillertal (Spieljoch) then it was a over to the Ahorn peak, a pretty high turnpoint at 2968m. Most of the group got a fair way round, most succumbing to fatigue, base rose to 3400m by the end of the day.

Tom Walder flew a 160km FAI triangle and made it all the way home, the first real flight since he got his Boom 5 08. He said the thermals were “boring” and that it was just an easy sightseeing flight & “a warm up for tomorrow”. With the forecast good at least until mid next week we’ll see what will be possible for the coming days. Also Wolfgang Rauch flew a 220km FAI triangle on his hang glider.

With little or no wind in the high level & cloud streets stretching to the horizon (see picture) it will maybe be a record breaking beginning to the season, I’ll write more as it happens.

All the best.
KF