easiest day of the trip, because we were flying in a team (Kestrel piloted by Torsten) and the weather was easy...
OLC-Flight-Route
a small group from Rostock and Torsten and Juppi enjoying the view from the tower

no hurry, yet... the weather window is not expected before 1:30pm...

time to get ready...today Torsten will fly the Kestrel.. we decide to aim for the Wasserkuppe.... 130km away

preparation

Jena

30km/h headwind ... fortunately the day starts with 2-3.5m/s climbs...

less clouds and more bubble-lifts while flying towards Thueringer Wald

near Alkersleben we have to search a while in order to gain height before jumping to Thueringer Wald ... and have to go around restricted airspace ED-R95

... now everything is easy...

we enjoy the good climbs...

cloud street to Wasserkuppe...

... home for tonight... the Wasserkuppe... craddle of soaring

Team-mates: Jantar Std. 1t and Kestrel

... Juppi and Torsten point out that here in Gersfeld the German Aeroclub was founded... also the first record in "long distance" gliding of 6.7km was made here...
... nice evening in very tasty restaurant (the sun/die Sonne)...

see also: TRAVELERS BLOG FROM JUPPI AND TORSTEN (in German):
https://torstenbeyer.wordpress.com/

... planing the day was never this difficult during this trip... the original plan was to head towards Germany via Vrchlabi. The forecast showed very good weather in northern part of CZ... but 15-20knots head wind speed. I was not sure if 300km against this wind would be possible.
OLC-Flight-Route

... an alternative airport which was closer was required..... I was in Mikulovice (100km south-east of Vrchlabi) a few years ago for wave flying... so I called Vlasta and asked her if towing tomorrow would be possible.... she said no problem...

... furthermore I decided to skip the jump over the first ridge into the Dubnica valley by taking a longer aerotow (31km)... during my flights I always had to pass Hranice valley (Ostrava TMA IV) with the help of the engine, so the longest leg would start after Hranice.

...good clouds and 1.5-3m/s climbs when passing CZ/SK boarder...

... as expected at Hranice Valley... only a few clouds which did not provide lift... picture was made just after starting the engine...

... after 8 minutes the engine was switched of and a feasible lift could be found... destination for today was still Mikulovice... wind is as can be seen 35km/h from Vrchlabi direction

... after about 40km very nice cloud streets provided an easy ride against the wind

...pumped storage plant near Jeseniki... circling was not often necessary and Vrchlabi became the final destination...

... great fun.... very easy flying... OLC statistics gives a gliding ratio of 40 over 192 km with 30-35km/h head wind...
... arriving at Snezka...

The hangar was already full, so today "4W" stays outside... I got a room in the flight school, but the restaurant is closed today... so dinner was provided by the gas station...

... the forecast for tomorrow predicts good flying conditions in Poland with the center in Cestochowa... so I decided to go there. If the good predicted area moves, then I still have a good chance to reach it from there.
OLC-Flight-Route
blue sky in the morning, but overcast is coming from CZ...

... patience was required for the first 40km... just 0.6m/s climbing...

First real cloud ahead!

... many cloud streets developed... but often in airspace were I am not allowed to go...

... strong thermals :-)

... home for tonight Cestochowa... I flew a competition there in 2011... when I went there in 2011 I got stuck in a traffic jam.. can not happen this time :-)

Lots of glider activity.... I got a bed and the Jantar a place a the hangar... a restaurant is at the airport...

... got to know Oskar from Gdansk, he will be the Polish admin to the TravelByGlider-Project.

... smart solution for the glider movement in the hangar...

It was raining during the night, up to 12:00 I did not think that flying today would be possible.
OLC-Flight-Route

.. but weather to the north developed... the overcast disappeared. So packing needed to be done... the canopy cover is not included here

large distances between clouds... unfortunately there was a headwind of 15km/h, hence before reaching a cloud over a ridge, there was a down-wash... flying directly was not always possible


finally in Poland.. the fields become tiny...

again, against the wind... could not reach the clouds because of downwash... turned around before the top of the mountains, flew back and used the engine... just about 100m were missing to reach these clouds... reaching them would have been possible, but I try to be on the save side and have 400m altitude above ground level when starting the engine...

Lake south of ZAR airfield....

home for at least one night.... Bielsko Biala / Poland

Bocian glider antenna... I have not seen this solution, yet

One reason to fly to Bielsko was to meet friends from my previous job. I was very happy to see Dawid again and also meet his family.

the forecast for tomorrow looks bad... luckily the Jantar got a dry place.... I got a dry place to stay as well. The parachute club was so kind to let me stay at there club house