Day 1:
The first day of the first competition this year waited with sunny weather and a prediction for very stable conditions and a strong inversion. In the morning fog was lying in the valleys which quickly lifted up and brought us a bright blue sky.
The first day of the first competition this year waited with sunny weather and a prediction for very stable conditions and a strong inversion. In the morning fog was lying in the valleys which quickly lifted up and brought us a bright blue sky.
After the general briefing at 9:00am and some waiting time we went up to the take off at Breitenberg near Pfronten to have the task briefing there at 11:30.
The task committee came up with a task along the Falkenstein ridge going 5 Times back and further over 7 turn points.
I took off around an hour before the race start which was at 14:00 in NIL wind conditions. With quite some running through the heavy and deep snow I was in the air and soon after above Falkenstein.
With steep south facing rocky flanks, Falkenstein is known to locals to provide turbulent but strong climbs being disturbed by the Bavarian valley wind coming in from north.
Additionally the day was providing a stronger easterly wind which provided additional turbulences. After being one hour in these exhausting conditions between 1300 and 1650m, between strong ridge lifts and inversion, the race started just when I had the lowest height.
Additional cirrus clouds made the thermals on the south side of the ridge weaker and weaker and my impatience brought me back to the ground 10min later together with half of the other pilots. Only 15 made it slowly and patiently to goal with improving conditions later on the day.
On day 2 the conditions should be better. Let’s hope for more luck and patience!
Day 2:
The forecast for this day mentioned light Föhn winds. So I was sceptical at first how the day would develop. Having a deeper look into wind forecasts and the pressure difference between Innsbruck and Pfronten showed soon that there was nothing to fear for today. The day promissed to come with blue thermals with a max altitude at around 2200m and no low inversion like yesterday.
We went up to takeoff for a briefing at 11:00am and received a task of 60km from Breitenberg/Pfronten along Falkenstein to Buchenberg, Tegelberg, Trauchgauer and back over the flats to Pfronten. Weather on top was like in summer. Only the melting snow on the slopes along with NIL winds made takeoffs for many pilots difficult. Luckily I didn’t have any problems there.
The race was set to start at 14:00 with window open at 12:00. Having yesterday in mind I decided to start later to avoid staying in rough air before race start for too long. I took off 30min before start and it paid off well. I had a good altitude and Position when the race started and could easily make the first 4 turnpoints in the vicinity of Pfronten.
Day 3:
Today the forecast predicted even more Föhn than yesterday. When I arrived at the cable car in the morning I was pretty confident that we wouldn’t fly. Nevertheless a briefing was scheduled at 10:30 at take off so we went up. On the way up we checked the weather again and saw that the forecasts improved massively. The strong winds should now only start after 16:00 so a short task of 30km was set.
The race should start at 12:15 leading us over Falkenstein back to Breitenberg over Vils to Alpspitze and some kilometers into the flats to finally land at the official landing in Pfronten. I took off 38min before race start and other than many pilots at this time went directly to Falkenstein which again paid off. It was a bit chaotic right before start when all pilots were there since the maximum height we could reach at that time was only around 1600m.
Conditions were improving every minute though and so we could quickly make the first three waypoints. After that it took me a while to get up again but I found strong climbs on Falkenstein and could go on together with some other pilots. In the flats we found a nice climb again which brought as almost back to goal. Just some circles on the last turnpoint and we could make it - so I thought. In the end literally 3m lift were missing. I landed 20m before the goal line. I could have easily made it with just one circle more at the last turn point. But that’s the game :-)
I finished 90th overall. There’s definitely at lot of room for improvement.
Conditions were improving every minute though and so we could quickly make the first three waypoints. After that it took me a while to get up again but I found strong climbs on Falkenstein and could go on together with some other pilots. In the flats we found a nice climb again which brought as almost back to goal. Just some circles on the last turnpoint and we could make it - so I thought. In the end literally 3m lift were missing. I landed 20m before the goal line. I could have easily made it with just one circle more at the last turn point. But that’s the game :-)
I finished 90th overall. There’s definitely at lot of room for improvement.
Nevertheless it was a great end to this competition with a beautiful day and so much fun! I’m looking forward to the next (Mosel Open end of April).
Thanks to everybody who made it fun and especially to the organizers! It was really great!
Thanks to everybody who made it fun and especially to the organizers! It was really great!
