Bavarian Open 2018, Bad Hindelang

From Thursday, 31st of May until Sunday, 3rd of June the International Bavarian Open take place in Bad Hindelang, Germany. In the beautiful landscape of Oberallgäu it is a pleasure to fly. The weather forecast for all four days predicts some thunderstorms in the later afternoon - normal summer days. 79 pilots are participating from both, the German and the Austrian league as well as further international guests.

Day 4: Sometimes it’s over before it started
The last day the the Bavarian Open was supposed to be the best day of the weekend with less clouds, no overdevelopments and stronger thermals than the days before. I took off 35 minutes before race Start (a 80km task was set from Spiesser via Neunerköpfle over the flats to Mittag and back over Nebelhorn to the goal in Bad Hindelang). I climbed my way up to cloud base quickly and already felt that this day would be more turbulent than the days before. A small collapse made me chose another thermal. I went over to Iseler where the others were thermalling and waiting for the race to start. Unfortunately I went to the south west flank which - as a learned quickly - is in the Lee of The Valley Wind instead of going to the wind facing north side. I had a collapse followed by a cascade and lost quite some height although I managed to get my wing flying again quickly. Also my motivation was gone and so I was on the ground 33s before the race started. This was definitely not my competition. Let’s hope for better ones to come.

Day 3: Cancelled due to overdevelopments 

Day 2: It was all about timing
When we arrived at take off the clouds were clearing and it looked as it would be getting better for a short time. Due to the strong humidity however clouds were forming up quickly again as soon as the sun came in and when we finally had a task of 30km set, it was getting darker and darker. The window was closed again and the finally opened at 13:30. Towards Nebelhorn we saw some rain and thinking that it would soon come to us, I and a couple of others took off to not get wet. We tried to make some altitude but none of us succeeded. As soon as we landed, we saw a couple of wing climbing better and better. Those who took of later were in big advantage and made it to goal easily.

Day 1: Some day you lose, some day the others win 
After after an early briefing at 8:30 at the Head Quaters, the busses brought us soon up as close as possible to the take-off, Spießer. From the drop off point at Hirschalpe we hiked up through grassy meadows to the final take-off for half an hour - quite exhausting for the body in the summer heat with 25kg on the back, but quite relaxing for the sole with so many flowers and nice landscapes around. On the-off a 54km task was announced leading us from Spießer through Tannheimer Tal to Reuthe and back.

The race was going to start at 12:00 and around 11:15 the first pilots took off. The lifts were very weak at that time and so I decided to wait longer. When it finally went up, I took off around 25minutes before start. Unfortunately it still took quite long to gain altitude and so when the race started I still had to thermal for some time before leaving for the first way point. After the talley crossing to Iseler it was very tough to gain altitude again and sow and a few other pilots had to work for along time to finally get up. The leading gaggle was already gone for a long time and so we followed them on our own route. Over Neunerköpfle the clouds already started getting bigger and darker. After the turn point at Hahnenkamm I lost my fellow pilots that I’ve flown with together since they went a route which I didn’t chose due to the knowledge that the north flanks of the Tannheimer Tal worked well before. I started climbing my way up again when I saw two pilots on a Zeno spiraling down and with a couple of others going to land. Not having heard anything through the radio I nevertheless thought the task was stopped due to the darker clouds and decided to land in Tannheimer Tal as well.

Well, the task wasn’t stopped. The pilots who spiraled down have been close to the cloud and it sucked quite heavily. Other pilots that stayed lower at that pint didn’t have any problems and made goal easily. It probably was a good decision to land with the overdeveloping clouds all around, but I’m still sad and a bit disappointed about my decision as it would have been easy to make goal. Let’s hope for better three days to come.

And here’s some cat content for the good mood :-) (The cats at my B&B.)