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Finally, the last week of March had come and we could roughly estimate the weather at least for the first days of our gliding holidays in Slovenj Gradec. Since the outlook was quite good, we quickly decided to stop working Thursday noon in order to be able to become airborne already on Friday, 28.03.2014. The plan was good, and in fact we were really lucky! After two weeks in Slovenj Gradec we could look back to 9 days of flying, having made wonderful and interesting flights over Slovenia, Austria and Italy.
We, that’s Alexander, Hans, Janika and Wolfgang from Bavaria, Germany. We are at home in the Northern Alps, south of Munich. When the weather is good, our cross country flights cover a great part of the Eastern Alps and sometimes we succeed in making excursions to the Western Alps. It’s already 9 years ago when Alex and I were keen to go to Slovenia in order to gather detailed experience about the south-eastern part of the Alps and beyond. Since then, we were five times in Lesce Bled and five times in Slovenj Gradec, both airfields providing specific conditions which perfectly meet our objectives. One of our original ideas was to become well acquainted with the specific conditions of the Karavanke Alps, because the development of great FAI triangles having one turning point (or starting point) in the Northern Alps and the long side of the triangle in the Southern Alps required the definition of a turning point in the Karavanke Mountains. Furthermore, and this has certainly been our main incentive, we have always been keen to explore new landscape and its meteorological conditions. Thus, if possible, we do not limit ourselves to highly frequented “glider highways”, by we try to leave such well known regions in order to explore alternative routes and/or nice landscape which many glider pilots normally do not enjoy. Slovenia, though being a small country, obviously offers everything the glider pilot’s heart desires: Whereas the Karavanke Alps are certainly one of the best “glider highways” in the Alps, southern and western parts of the country offer lovely landscape which, however, appears to be covered only by few local glider pilots.
Accordingly, one of our favorite regions is the south-west of Slovenia. This year it was already the second day of our stay in Slovenj Gradec, March 29th, when the weather forecast was very promising for this area. Nice cumulus clouds, probably boosted by converging north-easterly and south-westerly winds south of Ajdovščina. It is wonderful to be on the one hand close to the sea, and on the other hand not far away from the majestic Julian Alps, which are still heavily snow-covered during spring. And each time we cross the Soča valley it is a great pleasure to marvel at the emerald green Soča River. On March 29th I decided to turn in the region of Divača and to fly back to Slovenj Gradec via the Julian and the Karavanke Alps, because south-east of Ljubljana it was more or less blue. Nevertheless, the route around Ljubljana was also possible, as impressively proven by Alex with his Discus 2cT.
Another fantastic day I’d like to particularly mention is April 7th. It was one of the days which provided very good thermal conditions, although the preceding afternoon and night were still rainy. Thus, in the morning there was of course still a lot of water in the air and low clouds shrouded the mountains. Nevertheless, we were quite confident, because the air was fresh, the pressure was rising, and last but not least the convection charts were really auspicious. Excellent thermal conditions were certainly to be expected for the well-known “glider highways”, however, it was more interesting for us to look forward to good thermals also in the most southern Alps in the direction of Belluno as well as the southern and western regions of Slovenia. Consequently, together our group tried nearly everything! Alex decided to fly to Tolmin, Enemonzo, Belluno, entering the Dolomite Alps from the south to pass M. Marmolada and finally flying back via the Carnic and the Karavanke Alps. Janika and Wolfi took the direct route to the Tre Cime de Lavaredo, enjoying the fantastic panorama of the Dolomite Alps. And myself, I was not able to resist the western and southern part of Slovenia, this time flying around Ljubljana via Ajdovščina, Postojna, Novo Mesto and Celje back to Slovenj Gradec. Yes, it was really a marvelous day! Nevertheless, during our debriefing in the evening we had already in mind that two days later there might come a day which would allow us to extend once again our cross-country activities: Strong northerly winds should provide excellent ridge running conditions …
The announced cold front passed Slovenia during the night bridging April 08th to April 9th. Of course it’s a strange feeling when you wake up after midnight, still hearing rain drops drumming on the roof. And you are evidently skeptic whether the next day would really provide good soaring conditions. But it was not the first time that we experienced a remarkable good day even though the night before was still rainy. It’s fresh cold air coming from the North, drying out in the lee side of the Alps, which provides this magic mixture for cross country glider pilots. Such cold air produces excellent thermals and, in addition, there may be outstanding ridge soaring conditions in case there is enough wind. In this regard it’s worthwhile to mention that the wind field should be present also at lower levels, i.e. significantly below the mountain peaks, preferably till the ground, in order to form extended lines of updrafts along appropriate ridges. This was exactly the case on April 9th …
Since the cold front had passed Slovenj Gradec just some hours before, wherein during the morning there were still showers, it was not possible or reasonable to become airborne already in the early morning. Thus, the first take off was at 11h30. As expected the northern ridge of Uršlja gora worked quite well, which in turn is a good indication that also the other ridges of the northern Karavanke Alps work properly. In such conditions the Karavanke Alps are really perfect in that the air coming from the North arrives at the ridges without being disturbed or manipulated by other mountains. However, the situation quickly changes after passing Villach in the direction of the Carnic Alps. Since the mountains north of the Gailtal heavily disturb the lower air flow, it may be a good idea not to fly too low, but probably to use some thermals in order to enter the upper convection area. This is presumably not always the fastest way, but in any case it’s the safest ways to avoid struggling with sometimes very turbulent and difficult conditions at low altitudes. Vice versa, at high altitudes, absolutely smooth conditions can be found in waves. Due to the increasing wind speed at high altitudes there were of course nice waves on April 9th, even though the wind direction was NW rather than N. We could find a favorable lift near to Brunico which allowed us to pass to the waves of the main crests of the Alps. It’s a great adventure to smoothly soar in 4000 m MSL, watching the clouds accumulating at the Northern Alps, and at the same time enjoying the fantastic visibility to the South, across all the snow-covered mountains till the Adriatic Sea. Nevertheless, loving the contrasts, we obviously did not stay in this almost surreal situation between heaven and earth, but we took advantage of the strong tail wind to fly back to the Karavanke Alps, using again the perfectly working ridges until the end of the day. Enjoy the pictures - you know, sometimes a picture can say more than 1000 words ....
If you are interested in viewing our flights, please go to http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightsOfAirfield.html?aa=SLOVE1&st=olcp&rt=olc&c=SI&sc=&sp=2014. Last but not least we would like to thank Damijan Cehner, director of AVIOFUN, for providing a perfect service at Slovenj Gradec airport! Furthermore, many thanks to our tow pilots, who have done a great job! And finally thanks to all our friends of the Koroški Aeroklub Slovenj Gradec for welcoming us on this nice airfield.
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