Finally the forecast looks good. Huge area with good thermals and high cloud base. So I contacted my friends in Bielsko Biala if they would have time to meet there. The answer was yes. Since this would only be 230km, I planed a roundevieu with the high tratra before landing there... Up to now there was no chance on this trip to fly in the mountains. I picked a 2000m hill in the tatra as target point and made the glider ready. Here waiting for the clouds to reach the airport (Link to flight) Grrrrrr.... Engine did not start... So an alternative plan was needed. Since I did not want to risk an outlanding many hundreds kilometer away from home I decided to fly closer to my home airfield. Towing was available by Yak12. Weather was good ... no need to miss the engine The plan was to go to Rothenburg. Rothenburg has much to offer. E.g. a winch with 3000m cable giving heights of 1200m, a restaurant at the airport and a museum for old fighters... And very good thermals of course... Since I was worried that nobody would be there in the late evening, I contacted Rothenburg earlier and said that I intend to land at 6pm.... Later I got to know that this is really the time controller Uwe finishs his work. He took really good care of me, took me to the hangar, arranged a room, towing for the next day and breakfast for the moring. This week here is also the pulsatube radio controlled aircraft flying group from switzerland... These are the fastest models I heared. But today they flew "normal" jets, like this one, L39... In Rothenburg you can also see the real one

Surprise in the morning: Brunek, who neither speeks English nor German brought me breakfast...

(Link to flight) It looked like today I could make use of my Lithuanian map, so I prepared waypoints and airspace also for my backup cellphone. This map shows the small passage between Belorussia and Russia towards Lithuania. I orginized my transit through the TRA airspace. View before start View during start After 60km it was getting blue, I am not sure if it was due to the seabrease (25km/h) or because of the different airmass coming in. I decided to cancel Lithuania and concentrate on going to southern Poland to visit friends and afterwards goimg to Slowakia if possible. Therefore the new destination for the day was Grudziadz (100km west of Olsztyn), which is also registered at travelbyglider. Here is a picture towards Olsztyn on my way back... Clouds are gone Still enough clouds towards Grudziadz At the airport there is an agricultural festival this weekend After landing the president of the club invited me for a beer and showed me the airport. It was founded by the Germans, used as a pilots training center in WWII and later it was polish gliding centrum. Therefore a hotel was built. Due to the seabrease (coast is 100km away) the Mucha gliders sometimes could not make it back to the airport. Then the center was moved to Leszno. Here is the hotel, which is being renovated. The price of 9euro per night is very fair. The offer is used by many club members, who come also from far distance. After getting my room, I enyoy the rockband. The evening ended nicely on the hotel porch having a beer together.... 

... woke up due to the rain... Thought that it might have been a mistake to fly 100km more west than planed yesterday. Anyway, Jan picked me up in Dresden and we drove to Grossenhain. The rain stopped and I got the chance to fly wirh the VL3 evolution UL :-) Martin took me for a trip arround the airport so we could check out the weather.

...retractable gear, easy to use and efficient prop system, high speed due to aerodynamic efficiency and low noise... Its worth testing it ;-)  ... Anyone who is intrested can ask Jan for a demonstration flight, a rating or a sales offer, here is the contact to born-2-fly  Drying cloths. Looking for an airport with a hangar space Eisenhuettenstadt seemed to be a good choice. They have a flying camp, good waether, towing and hangar space available.

Weak conditions in the beginning, good at the end...

Reaching Eisenhuettenstadt was no problem

Landed too early, because I did not want to repeat yesterdays mistake of flying too far away after reaching the destination. Clever pneumatic glider lifting device JS1 engine... from MD

The evening ended at a camp fire after having dinner at a greek restaurant together with the very friendly Eisenhuettenstadt gliding club pilots.

Der Blick, heute morgen beim aufrüsten, war im Vergleich zur Wasserkuppe traumhaft!

Deshalb haben wir beschlossen zu fliegen! Nach dem alle aufgerüstet hatten kam unserer starken Motivation die Mittagsüause in die quere... Aber auch die Pause hatte eine Ende und dann waren wir alle Startbereit an der Winde. Nach dem wir uns alle gesammelt hatten ging es dann grob in Richtung Heimat, nach Westen.

Zwischendurch bekamen wir dann noch Besuch von zwei Wettbewerbsklassen, die uns alle auf die Probe stellten. Unbeirrt flogen wir dann weiter in Richtung der Kasselerberge.

Auf dem Weg dahin wurden die Gleitstrecken immer länger. Was letztendlich dazu führte das wir nicht mehr genug Höhe hatten um über den Meißner zu gleiten, zum Glück kann man sagen. Denn dadurch verschlug es uns auf den Flugplatz Stauffenbühl/ Eschwege. Dort wurden wir herzlichst aufgenommen und wir konnten viele nette und interessante Menschen kennenlernen. Außerdem durften wir die geilste Grillhütte benutzen die wir jemals gesehen haben!

Jedoch haben wir die Hütte nicht zum Grillen benutzt, sondern bei uns gab es Paella zubereitet von den Küchenchefs Waldtraud und Johannes. Trotzdem haben wir den Tag, am Feuer in der Hütte mit Mitgliesern des Veriens, ausklingen lassen.

Abschließend lässt sich über diesen Flugplatz sagen, dass er mit solch Gastfreundlichen Mitgleidern stets eine Reise Wert ist und sei es nur für eine Nacht bei einem Wandersegeflug!