Long wings and longer distances

2025. június 02. - Glidingirl

29th May was a fantastic day for Alpine pilots: strong wind above 2500 m, good thermal conditions under it. These are the days which give the chance to experienced pilots to complete record flights and 750-1000-1250 km FAI diplomas.

As with my ASW15b it is quite difficult to enjoy and use efficiently these "extreme" conditions, I was happy to be the co-pilot in an ASH25, thanks again to Stefano! We took off around 11.30 am when some pilots were already in the air for a few hours. The self-launch nearly took the same time as a classic aerotow and we started our flight at Campo dei Fiori. We quickly did the max. altitude here and continued to Mt. Nudo. The conditions were not excellent, the max. altitude again was only around 1750 m. But with such long wings you can try to cross Lago Maggiore and see the thermals on the other side.

After reaching 1900 m at Albergone, we continued our way in the direction of Mt. Limidario. The thermal was quite weak at the south side of the mountain but I would have stayed there for longer...well, Stefano did not decide like this so we went to the northern side of Mt. Limidario in the Cento Valley. We were quite low here (under 1800 m) but we found a good thermal and did it with a DG300 above us. We did the ridges on the southern side but we did not cross the Valley at the end because we heard that some people got low and did not find wave as expected.

We returned on the same way and crossed again Lago Maggiore to try some spots near Mt. Tamaro....well, not so good again. Before doing the ridges of the Garzirola (to continue to Valtellina), we stopped near Locarno and gained some altitude (from 1800 m to 2200 m). The Garzirola was great with the wind, we gained again 200 m just gliding and not stopping anywhere. We tried to do a thermal at Mt. Bregagno but here we did not succeed. We crossed Lago di Como and arrived to the entrance of the Valtellina, Mt. Legnone. Very close to us there was a lenticular cloud so we tried to figure out how to enter to the wave. Near the mountain, in the middle of the valley, in the direction of the lake.... no success! We got stuck here for 1.5 hours!

Finally when we reached 2700 m, we decided to continue on the ridges. We stopped only 3-4 times and did the major part of this valley above 3000 m till reaching Passo del Tonale (1884 m). I have never been here before, finally, I have seen how is the end of the Valtellina. Snow, ice, frozen lakes, incredible rock shapes everywhere and a lot of lenticular clouds on the northern side of the Valtellina.

From here the return to home was quite smooth except for a little turbulance (downwind of Mt. Legnone). We arrived too high near Calcinate so we could glide with high speed at the end of the final glide (180-200 km/h). Long wings take you really far without any problem! For me it was a new experience to circle with 110-120 km/h and glide with at least 130 km/h, but even around 150 km/h-200 km/h. The only missing part of this flight was the wave: why we could not take it? We were too low for it when we were searching? The wind was not strong enough there? We did not find the right spot? Nevertheless it will be a flight to remember for a long time. Hopefully next time I will reach Passo del Tonale with my ASW15b :)