Flying Werfenweng

The original plan was to fly at Werfenweng, Austria, for the day, leave early and head to Slovenia. But at the end of his first flight, one of the guys in our group fell while landing, broke his wrist and hurt his back. He took a taxi into town where they put a cast on his wrist, did a bunch of tests on his back and kept him overnight for observation and pain control.

We spent another night at Zell am See and the rest of us were quite happy to fly again at Werfenweng as it was a gorgeous location and we all got some good flights in. I'm so glad that Andrew and I often practice forward launches at our little sledding hill at home (Pest Hill, for those who know Saskatoon) as we've had to do some forwards here due to the light winds and some in our group are definitely not comfortable with them. I'm even remembering to look back and check my lines before takeoff!

On the first day, Andrew was thrilled to get up high over one of the big rocky peaks in the area. Of course, that was the flight he didn't have his video camera on and the flying was "active" enough that he didn't take photos.

The second day was a bit cloudy but I managed my best flight as I was getting more comfortable with my turns and getting into some thermals. The great thing about this launch is that there's a gondola to the top and the landing zone is about a five minute walk from the gondola so it's easy to get back up to launch. We would definitely come here again!!

Launch on the front side. All the students launched from here so they didn't have to worry about getting around the ridge from the back side. 

Launch from the back side. Head to the right to get around the ridge.

Another nice big landing zone (one person just landing; several gliders on the side getting packed up) and the training hill between the line of trees in the middle left of the photo.

Andrew, still high over the LZ.

Lots of people packing up in the LZ.

Lots of wings in the air! And this wasn't at the peak time.

In-flight selfie.

The big peak that Andrew spent some time over.

Love the view!

Gondola to the launch site. A few gliders soaring the ridge.

The gondola is set up for hang gliders too.

At the top of the gondola. Day 2 here was a lot cloudier. 

Waiting for some of the clouds to dissipate.

Launch areas on either side of the top of the hill. This clear ridge line provided some good lift!