On 2 July, Max and Simon set off on an FAI 1,000 km triangle. By the end of the day, after over eleven hours of flying time, they had covered as many as 1,312 km. Max Schäfer recounts this very special day.
“Contrary to our expectations, the day began very early. It had rained heavily in the Swabian Alb the day before, which is why we hadn’t initially expected such an exceptional day for flying.
When we took off at 9.15 am and flew towards our departure point with the engine running, the first cumulus clouds were already visible. On the way towards Klippeneck, they developed rapidly and lined up perfectly. Everything went completely smoothly right up to the first turn at Schluchsee and then on to the edge of the Black Forest towards the Kraichgau.
Then things got a bit more challenging. The typical ‘Black Forest sausage’ of cloud stretched beneath Stuttgart’s airspace, whilst the Kraichgau – apart from a few isolated clouds – was still completely blue. With a bit of patience, we finally managed to enter the Odenwald. It was there that the thought first occurred to us: Wow – it’s only 12.30 pm and we’ve already covered almost 50 per cent of the registered 1,000-km FAI route. This could turn into something really big!
The only disappointment came on the south-eastern leg towards the Bavarian Forest. With the wind blowing across us, the thermals were much harder to catch, so we dropped below 500 m AGL twice.
From the turn onwards, we were flying into the wind again – and suddenly everything fell into place. Fantastic lines, easy progress and finally the big surprise: an incredible convergence in the Danube Valley all the way down to Zurich’s airspace.
This line was simply sensational – exactly the sort you’d normally only experience between Helmeringhausen and Rehoboth in Namibia. A true gift of nature, which ultimately made the 1,300 kilometres possible.
As always, it was great teamwork with Simon. And all of it in the Ventus 3M – for me, probably the best glider for days like this. The steerable tailwheel, an engine with enough power to quickly reach a more distant departure point, and handling that is second to none. This meant we could concentrate fully on route selection for over 11.5 hours, rather than having to constantly ‘fly’ the glider."
Congratulations, Max and Simon – we can't wait to see what you're doing next!
Be sure to check out their flight on Weglide: https://www.weglide.org/flight/1139330
