magazine articles about the zillertal - author: K. Farina

A great way to while away an afternoon could be to browse our previous magazine articles. It's a great way to get acquainted with the areas we offer.

Over the many years I've spent flying around Europe I've been a long-time contributor to both Cross-Country (Austrian Newshound since 2002) & BHPA magazine, Skywings.

For those of you who either missed these early editions or wish to recap I've included most of the Skywings articles I've written since 2002, when I started the Austrian Arena. They are all clickable links in the right hand column.

The most recent piece in XCMAG is one I'm most proud of as includes the Zillertal valley in all it's glory. As it was featured in the "Classic Routes" and still relevant today as it is still one of my favorite routes to complete with groups here. Always around safe places to land and some easy fast paced glides and technical pieces throughtout it's entire 4-5hrs journey.

A Perfect Day was the first piece I wrote and is about a 140km Out and Return flight I made back in 2000. Following on from that is a piece Ed Bishop was kind enough to write about his time here back in 2001, pre-Austrian Arena.

There are a few pieces in a "how to fly..." series that ran for a few years. From how to fly the Zillertal out and return, cross the Gerlos Pass, make it to the Ahorn Spitz & lastly the Road to Mayrhofen. A short eye candy rich article which showed the way back to Mayrhofen from the Hintertux Glacier.

More recently there was an article by Steve Newcombe who was very complimentry about his time with us in the Dolomites, entitled "A Spiral Around the Dolomites". In 2010 I wrote about a long flight I made back in 2009, 186km, just one thermal short of closing a 206km triangle. Also my mug graced the pages of the Attitude page of Skywings, explaining the virtues of flying lower performing , safer gliders. This was quite well received by hobby pilots even if my friends just ordering the new comp weapon scoffed!

Finally I penned an article that was slightly hacked to pieces by the editor (a hang glider pilot) about how to thermal properly. It lost a little in translation but the main points are still very valid. Sorry Joe if you are reading this...

More will come as I write more. Let me know on the contact page if you have any questions about any of the articles and I'll do my best to answer them.

Hope you enjoy the read, sorry we can't include the Strudel and Zillertal beer but there you go!