NO RECORD, because I did not declare my Waypoints before the flight. So just a fast flight over 200km.
Fast Flight, long
Story:
I was planing to fly a 200km FAI Triangle for two years now.
2014 I was flying from Hochfelln on a perfect day. However, messed it up over
my home mountain. I started another try from my home mountain the Unterberg in
Koessen. I wanted to launch early to have enough time for a long flight, so I
ran of the cliff on a realy good predicted day in June. But I did not get any
lift till I landed in the next valley. Rigging my glider together and looking
back up to the mountain. I saw hundrets of paraglider thermaling up to 3000m+.
I started just minutes to early…
Last year I did not have the time on good days, so I tried
everything in
August after me and my friend Markus fought against the weak
thermals on the south side of our home mountain. Again the Unterberg had some surprises
for us and didn´t help us with good thermals. But after the second glide it was
a pleasure to thermal up at the
WildenKaiser. So the fight we fought on the
south side of the “ActionHill” got rewarded. I flew to the
Pinzgauer-Spaziergang over the Wildkogel. Unfortunately, the hour which we
messed around at the launch brought the thunderstorm in the Zillervalley into
the Pinzgau. I struggled around on the main ridge but had no chance to get away
from the increasing clouds and the big shadows. This results in two years of
not flying into the Pinzgau.
Two weeks ago during the German Open the weather at my home
place was predicted perfect for flying cross country.
On the 5th of May the wind was still a bit
strong. So I had a nice day with my family. In the evening I prepared
everything for my first 200km flight. The glider was already packed on the car.
The Harness was ready, the GoflyInstrument was loaded, the Camelbag was filled
and I had a planned route adapt to the predicted South - East wind in my head.
Starting from the Unterberg I planned to go to East first. Just
like the paraglider pilots used to fly the triangle course in our place. on the
first ankle everything ran perfect. Just some problems at the turnpoint. A big
strong thermal sucked all the other expected thermals away… I found it and was
able to use it and glided straight forward into the southeast direction. My
GoFly told me, that I was 65km away from my launch. So I turned and flew back
to the Hundsstein. But I had some prolbems finding a real thermal again. Scratching
the trees and getting over the ridge into the southern luv side brought me into
the core of a shaking thermal which beamed me back up to cloudbase. Next to the
Zeller-Lake I had doubts, that there might be too much wind, because I did not
see any other pilots around. Gliding to the Schmittenhoehe and centering an
6m/s thermal, because the 3m/s where just to weak I saw some paraglider at the cloud
base and realised, that the doubts from before were just a weak moment in a
place where the wind got focused. So gogogo, flying to the Pass Thurn and not
realy thermaling up till the cloud base brought me down to 1500m over the
valley. I found a weak thermal over the trees which slowly got stronger after
the sun shined through the clouds again. Gliding over the snowy mountain range
of Gerlos and looking at the time 4:30pm let me realise, that I could not
expect good thermals over all this snow at that time of the day. So I set my second
turn point over Koeningsleiten. Gliding back to north I saw two paragliders and
two sailplane over an mountain peak. Perfect, a marked thermal on my way home. But
as soon as I got to them they all left the dying thermal. So no climbing for
me. Gliding with full VG on and 22km/h Southwind in the back was just great.
But I wished, to be a 1000m higher. At the end of the ridge I expected a strong
thermal and I have to fly into this direction anyway. Under me, there were no
landing places, so let’s go. The expected thermal was not where I thought it
should be. So VG back in and I wanted to sneak to the Hohe Salve. But as I wanted
to start the glide, which would not bring me till the Hohe Salve, because I already
was to deep, a strong thermal hit me. I had to fight to get the VG rope out and
release it. Unturnable 7m/s with 20km/h wind brought me 400m higher. But than
it was over. This 400m were enough to get me next to the Hohe Salve. A last
climb…. Please give me a last climb. Because the GoFly showed me, that I didn´t
have the 200km yet. The vario chirped slowly and I concentraded on this last
chance as much as possible. The thermal got so strong at the end, that I had to
struggle to stay under the controlled airspace. Gliding to the Wilden Kaiser
with 3300m and looking into the gullys with all the snow and the rough cliffs
made me smile over my whole face. Just gliding the hight away I finished the
flight over the Taubensee and landed at Sigis Bar. Cold Beer and good food. My
first 203km flight.
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But in the morning my lovely wife looked onto the Alptherm
Chart and told me, that I should not miss this day. She told me I should go
flying with my friends,
Georg,
Markus, Carsten and Toni. So unprepared as hell I jumped in the car and drove to
the cable car.
I did not even load the GoFly! 6h23min flight on Friday and
a very good predicted Saturday…
Rigging up the gliders with all the Koessner Hanggliding
pilots was pure pleasure. All knew, that this should be a good day. Toni told
us to fly the triangle in the opposite direction
than yesterday. Than he started. We met again over Zell am See but we had no
chance to greet each other. He was just too low.
Back to Launch:
Starting just after Georg reached the cloudbase, Markus and
me thermaled up with many paragliders in one thermal. But they all flew very civilised
and it was a pleasure to reach 2800m just before midday.
First glide: Wilder Kaiser. Normally this stony massive
welcomes you with good thermals, but today the mountain and its thermals were a
bit noncommittal. After finding the entry at the Ackerlcottage I got up to
3000m in a nice lift.
Second glide: From the Kaiser to the Hart Kaiser. Entering a
5m/s thermal and meeting up with Georg at the Cloudbase.
Third Glide: Gliding over the ridge to the Wildkogel with no
real thermals and many snow. I was a bit unsure where Georg was going and
thought again, that there is too much wind. So I turned away from the course line
to the east and flow over the Grossen Rettenstein ridge. I glided over the
ridge and hope to look into green slopes, but everything was still snow covered.
Just thinking about where to land in this nomansland a strong thermal hit me. Back
up at the cloud base gliding to the SouthWest again.
Thermal number five: turning up over the ridge between Wildkogel
and Gerlos. Gliding to Koeningsleiten and getting a bit low. Thermaling up to
cloud base over the Kreuzjoch and setting my first turnpoint.
Glide number 6 brought me back to Wildkogel where I turned
away next to the trees. Maybe I should have stayed high between Koenigsleiten
and Wildkogel, but I was not in the possibility to do so, so I glided to the
Pass Thurn where again I was at the height of the ridge. Meeting up with Markus
was great. He showed me a nice thermal and we got high together. Flying along
the Pinzgauer Spaziergang with not really having any stress and enjoying to fly
with friends. Georg high above me, Markus next to me and Toni under us.
Thermaling up at the Schmittenhoehe where I thought about the flight and how I should
finish it off. I thought 200km would be nice again and flew across the
ZellerLake. At the Hundsstein I turned in the 11th real thermal of
the day and then glided to the next cloud. Setting a turnpoint under a cloud is
always nicer than gliding into the blue. Turned around and flying through snowshowers
towards the Hochkoenigridge. Over Saalfelden I saw a glider turning deep. After
the flight I realised, that it was Georg. Crossing the valley and flying over
the Leoganger Steinberge Ridge gaining hight for the last glides. Over the Pillersee
valley I turned a nice last thermal. The day before thisone was the third
thermal. Today more or less the last. After reaching cloudbase I wanted to make
sure, that I flew over 200km and glided towards the Hochgern. Gliding with +4m/s
and finishing a flight this way is just great. Seeing all my mates at the
landingplace makes it even better. Meeting my Family at the landingplace makes
the day perfect.
After putting the flight online, friends of mine told me,
that i flew pretty fast. So I checked the speed world record over a 200km
triangle course: 42,4km/h from Attila Bertok in Australia. So my flight with 40,85km/h is not so far away from the record.
First of all: Thanks to Claudia. This flight would not be possible
without you, sending me to go flying.
Thanks to GoFly-Instruments for make it possible. A 6h28min
flight and a 5h29min flight in cold temperatures without loading the batteries!
I think not many flight instruments can handle this.
Thanks to Rotor for this nice Shadow2 - Harness. Now I am
fine with it.
And thanks to WillsWing for my nice Glider.
RotorShadowII
Wills Wing
GERMAN VERSION:
Aufgrund der Tatsache, dass ich nur den Freitasflug vorab ins GPS eingegeben haben, mir das aber am Samstag gespart habe ist es kein Europäischer Record. EGAL
