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.)

Season 2017 - A Retrospect

I was a bit lazy with posting regular updates on the past competition season. I was kept quite busy at work and finished my doctoral thesis in the last weeks. So I rather used every free minute to fly :-)

Nevertheless, I'd like to summarize a bit what happened.

Mosel Open 2017

After Trofeo Monte Grappa over the Easter weekend in March the next competition was the "8th Mosel Open" which was taking place in Zeltingen-Rachtig at the beautiful Mosel river. A wonderful four day competition with great organization. And despite an ambivalent forecast, we were able to fly three out of four days. Due to very weak conditions I bombed out two of three days early, probably only at 50% of the task. The last task I flew well and fast but made a mistake 8km from goal which brought me to ground early again. In the end I finished 5th in the Female Category and 65th overall.

Ammersee from above

After that there was a long period of cancelled competitions due to bad weather. I nevertheless had good free flying days. I flew from Schrattenbach to Ammersee, my current home, and had the possibility to first time fly in Pinzgau for a weekend. What a wonderful magnificent place with a convergence line over the main ridge and the snow-capped main alpine range to the south. I did some flights with close to 100km but didn't snap the magic line.

Picture by G. Hochmuth. Austrian Open Podium

On the first weekend of June, the Austrian Open took place in Zell am See (also in Pinzgau), where again an ambivalent forecast made many people think twice whether to go or not. We were able to fly on two out of four days, the first task with amazing weather and a long task which I again didn't finish by only 6km. The second task was with very weak conditions and in the end nobody made goal. I finished second in the female category by only 27 points behind the first and 53 overall. During this competition I had the impression that I finally found out how it works to keep constant and patient throughout the task. I had some parts where I wasted too much time to make height and was a victim to the cloud shadows in the end, which the first gaggle managed to avoid earlier.

All the following competitions mainly in Austria until end of July have been cancelled again due to bad weather and also the weather for free flying was - at least on the weekends - far below average.

Alsace, France

Finally end of July, the Palz Open took place one day later than planned due to rain, in Fellering, Alsace (France). On the first day we waited at takeoff until almost 4pm with strong winds, and barely sun. We didn't really believe, that a task would be possible. When we were finally in the air and started climbing to fly a 70km task, it was a big relieve. The wind calmed down and we were able to fly over Rhine river into Germany. I was in front with two or three others throught most of the task and only after Colmar took the wrong decision to go straight towards goal into the cloud shadow, making me land 8km from goal... again. The second task was a bit unfortunate for me from the very beginning. It took me long to gain height and when the race started I was still scratching below take-off. I landed after 30km.
Nevertheless, I  managed to become 3rd in the female category and 55th overall. And I had a good last training before the Paragliding World Cup in Disentis.

The PWC in Disentis took place in the first week of August and god was I excited to finally join my first world cup event. But as the weather was in the last couple of months, it continued during this week. We flew a task on Monday in strong southerly wind which I couldn't penetrate. I was forced to land after less than twenty kilometers. After that a week full of rain started and the mood of all pilots went down and down. On Thursday we finally decided to leave and head home to get the spirit a bit up again. We missed a task on the final day, Saturday, but it seems, conditions weren't that great on that day either. I hope, I'll have better luck with my next world cups to come.

Obermühle Mühlbach

Frustrated from this week, I went home to Altmühltal and on 14th August I finally made the obligatory 100km flight for this year. From Böhming to Crailsheim, over Brombachsee and Altmühlsee, with a quite low cloud base this flight was simply magic. One week later a flew to visit my sister, another great day. It paid off for all the frustration from the last months.

Take-off at Monte Pelpi

In the beginning of September, another highlight of this year was waiting for me: flying in the Apennines in Italy, my second home, were I spent a great part of my childhood. From Monte Pelpi I did a nice little round, watching the sea in 30km distance. A place I always loved and I definitely will come back to.

Picture: www.dhv.de - German Championship, Female Podium

The competitions season was finally closed by the German Open in Tolmin, Slovenia. And again, the forecast was not in our favor... The first two days out of six were cancelled right away. On Wednesday we then were able to fly a task at Lijak. Weak conditions, lots of shadow... not many made it to goal. On Thursday we  hoped for a task at Lijak again, but drizzle and strong winds made it impossible. With the forecast looking even worse for the next couple of days, we ended the competition on Thursday evening with the prize giving and pilot's party.
I finished 3rd in the female category and 28th overall. Despite the misfortune with the weather, my best overall result this season.

For now the competition time is over for me but flying will continue. I hope for some good days in the Dolomites in October and will be testing some new wings for the next season. My LM6 has close to 200 hours now and I guess I need to find something new :-)
Overall I managed to fly more than 100 hours since the beginning of this year and managed to get up in the top 1000 in the CIVL world ranking. There's still a long path to climb up, but I think I'm finally on a good way!

I'm looking forward to the next year in the German Paraglding League, this time even as part of the committee. I'll keep my fingers crossed for better luck with the weather then and hope to be able to take up with my learnings from this year. Stay tuned for more news to come :-)

Landing after 100km near Crailsheim

Trofeo Monte Grappa 2017

This year I was lucky enough to be selected for one of the highest rated competitions aside from PWCs: Trofeo Monte Grappa. The competition - like every year - took place over the Easter holidays near the beautiful town of Bassano del Grappa, which since I started flying is one of my frequently visited home bases.

The level of pilots was as expected very high and among the 150 participants, big names were roaming around everywhere. Aside from that it was a great occasion to meet old friends.

The weather forecast didn't look too promising from the beginning, but we were in good hope for at least three days of nice task flying. The area around Bassano is generally well known for being flyable on almost any day through out the year. Being shielded by the Dolomites, Bassano's microclimate allows often to have good flights even if Föhn is forecasted. Or as some say: The best northwind-ridge in the alps :)

The take-off which is used for the competitions, Rubbio, however was new to me. It offers a huge grassy slope with plenty of space for even larger competitions than this.

On the first day, our race started due to some organizing effort pretty late at 2pm.
The task was set to be a 71km task towards Schio, then leading south into the flatlands and from there to the southern ridge of Monte Grappa. Unfortunately, the cloud cover made the day weaker and weaker and many pilots landed after a bit more than 30km flown, and so did I. Only 25 pilots managed to get into goal.

 Friday looked again promising for the morning with more cloud coverage in the afternoon. As we learned later during the comp, however due to a NOTAM which was applied for too late by the organizers, we were not allowed to start the race before 1pm. This day the race was set to start at 1:30pm and we were supposed to fly for 73km. The task lead us from Rubbio to the end of the Monte Grappa ridge, back to Schio and through the flatlands to the landing in Semonzo. Great I thought, this ridge I know like my own pocket. And so I went with a great height all the way to the first turnpoint. Unfortunately, since again the day started to get weaker, I didn't bear in mind that the ridge works great from below on sunny days, but didn't at all on a cloudy day like this day. Flying high would have been the key... but again, I had to land short after 35km. 95 pilots made it to goal and my positioning was therewith out of range.

Saturday was forcasted to be a rainy day and the day was cancelled. Many pilots used the opportunity to go to Venice for some sight seeing. I went with some friends hiking up to Col Serai and a little bit of free flying in the afternoon.

On Sunday we had a task set but it was cancelled after less than 60min due to heavy rain on course. The task was therefor not validated.

Monday, the last day of the competition looked similar than the day before forecast wise. The temperatures decreased over night from 25°C on the last days to only 8°C. We were skeptical when arriving on take-off whether flying would at all be possible on the day, since the dark clouds were slowly approaching from the east. However, a task of 52km was set, which should lead us away from the dark clouds and away from the mountains, where thunderstorms were predicted for later in the afternoon. We were flying towards Asolo over the small foothills and I was initially fast and in one of the first gaggles. The task was again cancelled, this time after 65 minutes and for that reason valid.

It hasn't been one of the best competitions weather-wise and the fact of starting late every day was annoying, especially with the rain predicted for every afternoon. It also hasn't been one of the most successful competitions, position-wise (I ended up 132nd out of 150). But I enjoyed the challenging tasks in the flatlands, which I normally barely use when flying in Bassano. And I definitely enjoyed the company of so many great pilots and am glad I could learn a great bunch of tactical skills from them. I hope to be part of the game again next year. End of April, the next competition for me will be Mosel Open 2017. Stay tuned :)

Breitenberg to Buchenberg (aka Breiti to Buchi) - Spring flying in the beautiful Allgäu mountains

Today I was for the first time flying from Breitenberg in the beautiful Allgäu. With just 11€ for one ascent by cable car, definitely one of the "cheaper" mountains. From the top station to take-off it is a 10min walk up the skiing slope, which was still covered with melting muddy snow. The take-off faces east.

The wind was light, slightly taily. With my LM6 though, which is a wonderfully-easy-to-start wing in nil-wind conditions, the launch was no problem.

From the takeoff I followed the south-facing small ridge until the top station building and from there headed straight to Falkenstein which is a lower mountain range 4km north from Breitenberg.

There I found strong but rough thermals that found a sudden end at around 1800m ASL thanks to a strong inversion. I took the chance and followed the Falkenstein-range further eastwards against the wind and towards the royal palaces Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Both castles worked well today and arriving at each at eye level, I was able to thermal up to around 1500m, not being unnoticed by the thousands of visitors there.

Tegelberg with easterly winds was difficult to climb as usual and so I used some smaller climbs to extend my flight until Buching.

Nothing special, but a beautiful little spring-thermal flight on a wonderful day :) Thanks to all who where part of it and made it special!

Western Cape / South African Open 2016

From 9th December to 18th December, the South African Open (from 11th to 17th) should lead me for a short summer break in winter time to South Africa. Shortly after I've booked my flight I learned that a friend whom I know from the paragliding community in Singapore will be there for parts of the time as well. 

So I arrived very excited in Capetown, which many promised me to be the most beautiful city in the world. Although I arrived in rain, I already could guess what it meant. Nice little colonial style houses between Signal Hill, Table Mountain, the Lion Head and the Atlantic Ocean. 

Luckily the rain stopped around noon and after some lunch, my friend from Singapore, Stephane, and his wonderful fiancee gave me a sight seeing tour towards the Cape of Good Hope. The fresh air in my face with spring-like temperatures and watching the birds soaring above the cape's rocks made it a wonderful happy and refreshing day. Together we went for a beautiful dinner featuring the best steak I ever had in my life with some of Stephane's friends to a restaurant above the sea.

    

On Saturday, 10th of December, I got a morning ride with Flo (many thanks again!) from Cape Town to Porterville, where the competition was supposed to start the next day. We were planning to use the day for some training and getting used to the flying conditions there. We set ourselves a little task which a happily failed to complete, but is was wonderful to watch the endless flats and rocky hills from the air. And to finally after a long break get decent thermals again. 

In the evening we the first competition briefing took place.

The first task on Sunday, 11th a 81km task should first lead us down the ridge towards south and from there into the flats towards Piketberg and up towards north. I bombed out on my attempt to fly in to the flats with far too little height, hoping fore some decent thermals there (which there weren't). Some local kids came running towards me when I was just about to land and so my glider was packed quickly and retrieve already waiting (which is a big relief since temperatures reached soon over 40°C during the daytime).

The second task was a straight line from takeoff via Endekuil towards the north west of the valley. I was good on the way along the ridge and when heading out in the flats we had found some climb. The strong southerly winds  blew us up north with every turn and so, Bernd and I decided to leave the thermal together when it didn't lead to much of success anymore. I flew a bit more right than him. He found a thermal and I found myself in a 7m/s sink, not able to make it to the thermal against the wind. Minutes later I was on the ground and Bernd made it to goal on this day. Well, that's the game.

The third day was cancelled due tail wind on takeoff. So we went to the nearby waterfalls and climbed them up. What a nice and refreshing diversion. 

On the fourth day, a similar route as on day two was set, and strong winds brought me the same faith as on day two again. On that day, barely any non-CCC-wing was able to make it to goal.  

Photo by Stef Junker

Since the next day was cancelled again, this time due to too much wind, we made a nice little trip to Riebeek Castle, a small town with little houses, cafés and art galleries. And with a good sense of humor. 

On day 6, finally the luck was on my side. We had to fly a task of 67km which lead us first down south to Porterville and then up the ridge and into Citrusdal until the goal in constriction. I finally was patient enough to always make the required hight and I was finally flying full speed along the ridge. What a fun it was. And so I managed to get into goal only 25 minutes after the first pilot. Patience seems to pay out :D

Day 7 again found me impatient and the strong wind combined with not enough height made me land early again. Not the finish of the comp I was hoping for, but nontheless an experience to learn from.

Over all, the 10 days in South Africa have been amazing and the competition very well organized. Spending the time with old and new friends and flying this ridges and flats was just a big fun. On day 6 I seemed to have understood, how everything works and with this awareness I will go into the next portion of the winter-break. I finished 5th in the women class and 54th out of 98 overall. Not my worst result after all. 

To me it was a new style of flying again, even though I'm used to flat land flying. The strong winds sometimes gave me a hard time and showed me once more how important height and patience is. Also trusting the ridge to always provide climb, even though racing along it super low, was a new experience for me.

I hope, this experience will help me in the next comp season and I definitely hope to come back to this wonderful country and place again. 

Thanks to everybody who made this time so great and especially Stephane for the sightseeing and lovely dinner, Flo for the ride from Capetown, Kirsten for bringing me my radio back, Harry for the excellent shuttle and Bernd for some local guidance. The biggest thanks go to the competition organizers who really did a great job in making this whole week a blast.

The full competition results can be found here: https://airtribune.com/wcopen2016/results

Autumn Time is Flying Time - A long weekend above lakes

Since I discovered mountains and especially paragliding as my passion, October never failed to excite me. After a extraordinary cold and wet summer which luckily paid a little bit out towards the end, also in 2016, late October didn't disappoint us at all. 

Since 1st of November was a public holiday we decided to use the long weekend for heading south for some flying. While probably most people were heading to Bassano del Grappa, we were looking for some more quite alternatives.

Our trip started on Saturday, 29 October with a visit of Tegelberg (1665m) and Neuschwanstein Castle. Not having in mind that it was holiday season and weekend both at the same time, I was a bit shocked about the crowd that was queuing in front of the takeoff. It was not a big surprise, since Tegelberg is one of the most scenic sites in southern Germany,, offering views over Neuschwanstein castle and Lake Forggensee. After some 45 minutes in the queue, I finally was able to get airbone. Thanks to the very stable day with some southerly wind (the take-off is facing northwards), the flight was rather short. But nevertheless beautiful :) I was luckily able to take some proper shots of the castle.

In the evening we continued our journey towards Laion in Grödnertal, with the plan in our minds to fly at Col Rodella, probably the most scenic site in the world the next day. But already in the evening a strong North wind made us clear that this won't be the site for the next day. We instead headed towards Trento and from there to Lago Toblino, a smaller and almost unknown lake just north of its big brother Lago di Garda. A beautiful flying site at Monte Gazza (1583m) was waiting for us. It offers two different landings: the first one just on the southern shore of Lago Toblino, between some vine and apple plantations. 

The second landing is around 700m in altitude higher and a lot more spacious situated in the small village Margone (936m). We met a bunch of pilots from the local club at the second landing. They offered us a free ride to the takeoff along with some Maroni and beers. 

The takeoff is a big grassy knoll right on the top of Monte Gazza offering plenty of space for taking off in multiple directions. The conditions were again very stable and therefore the flight ended after 20 minutes. With the surroundings, the wonderful locals and a beautiful view over Lago Toblino and Lago di Garda, this site is a real gem with 100% no German masses (yet). 

Our last destination was Levico Terme on the other site of the Adige valley. After having driven to Bassano del Grappa probably more than 50 times in the last years, the place was familiar to me, but only from passing by. Paragliding365 suggested a takeoff at the very top of Monte Panarotta (1800m) so up we went. What we found was a very steep slope that offered no space for mistakes covered with slippery grasses. After enjoying the view from high up there towards the Brenta Dolomites and some Alpine glaciers, we went down to the takeoff in Vitriolo (1490). It is a easy and spacious takeoff for hanggliders and paragliders with a parking space and a little Café just next to it. 

Jump for Joy (Picture by Philip Boesecke)

The flying site offers again wonderful views over Lago di Caldonazzo and the smaller Lago di Levico. In the valley landing spaced are manifold  and some smaller XCs are easily possible. A small drawback are the larger amount of prohibited airspaces towards the west of the takeoff. Even though a strong inversion was damping a lot, we still were able to fly in thermals on both Monday and Tuesday for each more than 1.5 hours. Overall a wonderful place with a nice old town in Levico and by far less people than in Bassano. In future I will definitely stop more often here :)

Lago di Levico

Florian flying around

Barco

My beautiful Ozone LM6 (Picture by Philip Boesecke)

Happy Landing (Picture by Philip Boesecke)