For my second flight with my new wing I thought I would fly back in the direction of home from Speikboden in Südtirol. The plan was to do the first leg of the classic 200km FAI triangle by heading along the Pustertal towards Sterzing, crossing the Brenner above Sterzing, before heading up the Ridnauntal to the Stubai alps. From the Stubai alps the plan was to head back down the Stubaital, cross the Brenner again to fly into the Zillertal next to Hintertux, before heading over the Gerlos pass and into the Pinzgau. From here I had a rough plan to fly north to either Kufstein or Kössen, depending on what the conditions looked like.
The first section of the route went very quickly and I was soon at the crossing of the Brenner pass above Sterzing. With the high cloudbase this was not difficult and then with one more climb at the start of the Ridnauntal, I was able to fly all the way up to the high Stubai mountains without making a single turn. Up here the thermals were weaker and I should have turned up to cloudbase just before the end of the Ridnauntal, however nonetheless the conditions were good and I was really enjoying the views down Glaciers in every direction.
My plan had been to turn around straight away when I arrived above the Stubai mountains, however I got taken in by the views and decided to fly further west to take in more of the wonderful views. When I reached the Wilder Pfaff I decided to turn around, rather than committing for a longer deviation. The flight back down the Stubai valley was very easy with the high cloudbase and strong thermals, in fact staying below the airspace required some careful attention.
From the end of the Stubai valley there was another long valley crossing back above the Brenner, and totally unflown terrain for me. I arrived on the other side with good height and just stayed on bar as I flew along the ridge until I finally found a strong thermal which took me up and over the pass into the Tuxertal. It was great to be turning up with wonderful views of the Hintertux Gletscher ski area and down into the Zillertal.
Unfortunately I read the next section incorrectly which led to me almost bombing out above Mayrhofen, however with some persistence, I managed to soar up in the very turbulent valley wind and eventually was back in the cool air high above the valley.
From here I made the transition over the Gerlos Pass into the Pinzgau, with wonderful views over the Zillertaler Alpen and the Höhe Tauern National Park. At this point I decided against my plan of flying north as there were no clouds and it looked like there was a much lower inversion, so I kept going down the Pinzgau with the aim of getting my first 200km flight.
The flight down the Pinzgau was brilliant with wonderful views up all of the valleys towards the main alpine ridge and some of the biggest mountains in Austria, including the Großvenediger and Großglockner. As I flew into the evening the thermals eventually turned off as forecast with the reduction in sun power and the increasing west wind.
As this happened I made my last climb out and went on final glide down the ridge above Rauris, which I had walked with Becky in the previous year, as the XC counter went over the 200km. I made a good landing in a village in the Ponzgau, before hitching to a train station to make the long journey back to Munich.
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