With a slightly challenging forecast due to the good airmass but strong north westerly winds it was hard to work out where to go in order to make the most of the day. I elected to stay within a day trip of Munich, but made the long drive into the Bregenzerwald in the Bregenzerwald, in order to fly from Niedre, which is above Bezau.
As I arrived in the carpark it became clear that I wasn’t the only one with this location as an idea, but that should be no surprise as it is one of the few lifts which are still running at the moment. It was also because there was a competition on from the same launch, but I didn’t know that at the time.
After taking the lift to launch I was pleased to see that despite the meteo wind from the north, which was demonstrated by the summit windsock, there was a good thermal breeze flowing up the south facing slopes which created nice launch conditions. After a leisurely setup and a small wait until the thermals became strong enough, I launched and immediately found a climb.
Once I had climbed away from launch I was able to look around and start to take in the breathtaking views, it is certainly a beautiful area to fly. My plan was for a short xc to the Widderstein and back, the route there was just a pleasure with a mix of weaker and strong thermals and only some turbulence. For the entire flight I was just soaking in the views as I was flying towards the bigger and snowy mountains, it was just a delight.
This all changed as I approached the Widderstein, the last thermal before there was very cut up and I took a collapse, so I decided to move on. This was a bad idea, as it turns out at this point a strong outflow from another valley was washing over the tops and with a mixture of the north wind which was blowing up from the Kleinwalsertal to the north meant I was quickly flushed down in front of the Widderstein.
At this point I thought I was definitely going to be landing, but due to the strong thermals, I managed to sneak my way back through the col, in the lee from the Kleinwalsertal and heading into a strong Venturi. This was very turbulent and I couldn’t turn to gain height, but eventually, with little airspeed, I made it back around onto the windward side. Here the air was still very turbulent and I decided to just keep heading out using the grassy slopes to keep altitude. This worked and eventually I found a strong thermal which took my back out of the turbulent valley air and back into the smooth high air.
At this point I got a bit carried away and thought that I would try and extend my route, which was a bad. idea, as I flew to a ridge which I thought was a dead cert for lift and just found heavy sink due to being on the lee side, I wasn’t expecting the westerly to be so strong that high up!
From here I decided to bail and head back to landing, but due to the headwind I didn’t quite make it over the final ridge, by about 10m, and landed in the next valley over. The valley wind was surprisingly strong as I landed with almost no forward motion at trim speed, a surprise for early April!
After a 4km walk I was soon back at the car to enjoy a cold drink before the long drive back to Munich.
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