| Flight details: | After being disappointed by Kossen I moved on to Zell am See. I camped in a nice campsite in Kaprun and talked to the local pilots doing tandem PG flights to learn about the site rules. It turns out there are quite a few as it is a busy sky, with a small airport and an active sailplane club in the area.
Then I drove to the cable car where I found a massive queue, and learned that if you want to take a HG up you have to show up very early in the morning, or wait a long time. So I waited.
I got up around 1PM and I had to stop for a few minutes to enjoy the view. There's no surprise you have to queue for hours, your patience is rewarded with a breathtaking scenery.
The clouds were looking perfect so I launched with the most retarded flight plan ever conceived: I wanted to get back to the official bottom landing field so I decided to fly West along the valley for an hour, and then fly back. I made cloudbase easily and enjoyed the company of a massive vulture - the only one I've seen in Austria. Of course, on the day with the best visibility when you have the most beautiful views of the high Alps you remember that you should have charged that GoPro...
I carried on with my stupid plan, even when I went into a big blue whole, and by the time I realized that I should change my plan I was quite low and the foothills didn't work. I landed about 7km short of the bottom landing field and I found a train going back to Zell am See. Then a local bus back to the cable car to pick up my car and the drive back to pick up my glider. All in all a fantastic day. I will go back there. |
