This year our small Italian team was not lucky with the weather in Barcelonnette, France: during the whole week we had thunderstorms, rainshowers - a real nightmare for returning home with a glider. One day we even had hail at the airfield: luckily it was small dimension ice so the gliders were not damaged. 

On 15th August I flew in the local club's Duo Discus with a young instructor, Laurent. We took off quite early, around 12.30 because I knew that in the afternoon the nice cumulus clouds will quickly became thunderstorms again. It's always a bit difficult to gain the first few hundred meters in Barcelonnette, but then above 3000 m life gets easier and the fun can start. It was an additional difficulty that the e-variometer did not work in this glider so we needed to check the pneumatic one (which was also not working perfectly). Old style flying: relying on the pilot's sensations. 

We started the cross-country flight with the altitude of 3700 meters: let's go in the direction of the Italian border! Though it was early still, Monviso was not visible anymore from the clouds and it was clear that the first rainshowers might have already started on the Italian side. We headed to the north, passed by St. Crepin airfield and went nearly until Briancon. Slowly I gained confidence again with the Duo Discus: it's been a while I haven't flown with this two-seater giant. 

I wanted to enter to the Écrins National Park to see the wonderful glaciers from above so Laurent helped me to find the way for the entrance. I have seen some tricky places near "Montagne des Agneaux" where you could quickly lose 200 meters in the downwind. Well, flying among the high mountains always requires a careful attitude, even when you think that you can arrive anywhere if you're already around 4000 meters. 

The view was magical! Big birds accompanying our glider in the thermals, strange shapes of snow and ice, wonderful mountain peaks and rock shapes and you cannot see anyone for hours (if not in other gliders:))... Only the nature, the wind, the circling birds and the sky with a lot of dark cumulus. Well, dark cumulus... after quitting the area of the national park we passed under rain and snow. Before crossing above the Serre-Poncon Lake I did a few thermals again to gain some altitude and try to go to the south to discover some famous airfields of the zone from above (like La Motte du Caire, Sisteron, St. Auban, Puimoisson).

The weather situation was not so promising around Barcelonnette (Ubaye Valley) so finally we could not extend the flight to the south and we decided to return to the airfield to land before the coming storms. Again some rain, some turbulence, but close to the airfield it was still okay so we could land without problems. Tricky (windy) approach, no place for mistakes here. 

The next day I wanted to fly again to discover the southern zone but a very sad accident happened at the airfield so the take-offs were stopped and I remained on the ground. It's still hard to find the words to describe the feelings I have every time we lose people from the gliding community... 

If you want to see our flight on OLC/weglide, you can find it here:

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 15.08.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

208 km · Adrienn Kiss · Barcelonnette-Saint Pons 08/15/2025 (weglide.org)

The first Sunday of August seemed to be a beautiful day: according to the forecast the high mountains were reachable from Varese but there was again some N wind above 1500-2000 m which could have disturbed the thermals a lot. Based on the experience from the last weekend I lost hope for a really good flight...but as it happens often, when you want something so much, it does not happen. And if you have no expectations, the magic will be there and you will succeed.

I wanted to take off earlier than 1 pm but the queue was long on the runway, so I could have the aerotow half past 1 pm. Even the first meters were unusual in the air: a lot of turbulance! The city was boiling under me so when I released from the tow, I found immediately a good thermal which took me until 1676 m (the max. altitude above the city of Varese). I entered to the CTR of Lugano and started to search the second thermal. Nothing on the peak of Mt. Martica! I did not give up, I found a good lift on the southern side of this hill and arrived to 1950 meter. Super start!

Mt. Orsa was working well also so I was quite confident to fly to the next mountain which is Mt. Generoso. A nice cumulus above, what else I need? Well, a real lift under that cloud. I found absolutely nothing and under me a Ventus 3 was facing the same difficulty. I returned to Mt. Orsa to enjoy again that nice thermal and then tried again Mt. Generoso a bit later. Again nothing! I had the strange feeling that blue thermals may work even better so I made a strange decision: I won't insist anymore here to continue my way to the east, I will return to Campo dei Fiori and try the western side. I was in contact with other pilots and one of them told me that it is an unusual decision, there are no cumulus on the western side...but my intuition was right! Though it was not easy first to find a good thermal at Mt. Nudo, when I reached the altitude of 1800 m I continued my flight to the north, to Sette Termini.

With a lot of patience I found myself again at 1800 m and did my first attempt in the direction of Mt. Lema... it did not go well, I returned quite low to Sette Termini and I was thinking about the risk of outlanding at this point. I stayed calm: I knew that there is a good field not far away. But the previously found thermal worked well again and with 2000 m I headed to the north. A very smooth, efficient glide to the next peak... I heard in the radio that it is possible to go at least until 2300 m there so I was optimistic. In the first thermal I gained 150 m, then again 100 m, 400 m and...I found myself at 3100 m! I did it, I can't believe it, my crazy idea worked! I felt cold but the view was amazing from the cloud base: Locarno & high mountains under me, Lago Maggiore on my left, Lago di Lugano on my right... so where to go when you are in heaven?

Definitely to hell! I had some memories from a flight I did with our club's Discus b some years ago in this area with a light N wind. And what I found here, near the peaks of Gazzirola? Of course, downwind everywhere! Well, at least I was not surprised when I found it again. I saw 2 options in front of me: I try to push until the northern side of the mountains but until reaching it, I will lose even more altitude. The outlanding options are not fantastic here... or I try to get further from the mountain range and I go to "Denti della Vecchia" and it might work out. Though I lost 600 meters during these few minutes passed here, I found a good lift under a very dark cumulus at "Denti della Vecchia". Again 3000 m, relax... I passed near the field of Porlezza (an important outlanding spot in this area) and I went to Monte di Tremezzo and found a weak lift there. I looked around to decide where to go next: I saw a very few cumulus in every direction so I had the feeling that the conditions are getting worse quickly as the sun goes down. But I was still very high, so I went to Palanzone to try the only cloud left in that zone (weak lift) and then returned to Varese with a very long glide. I wanted to land but a very strong thermal made me go until Mt. Nudo again to gain a few more points for this flight.

Landing, derigging, going home... I was very tired, but so happy! I did not expect anything from this day and I received everything I could have asked for: my navigation instrument worked again, my new e-ink cell phone passed the flight test and I did a nice flight because I sticked to my own idea and intuition. Fingers crossed for more days like this!

If you want to see my flight on OLC/weglide, you can find it here:

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 03.08.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

165 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 08/03/2025 (weglide.org)

The last Sunday of July was expected to be a complex day for gliding: 20-30 km/h NNW wind until 1 pm but then nice and high thermals and nearly no wind according to XCTherm. Well, the title of this post was a spoiler as well: it was a windy day and we did not find those nice thermal lifts at all, only some rotors above the city of Varese.

Though there was a task also for our local competition (Coppa Villa Pavesi), noone completed it that day. But my flight had another purpose, I needed to test a new cell phone with XCSoar running on it to see if it is suitable for navigation. Another big NO: it isn't! With the full brightness of the screen after 10 minutes the phone got overheated and it did not work anymore. It was a good idea to take with me my e-book reader (also with XCSoar on it) because though the screen is not always nicely readable under strong sun, it is much more reliable. The next candidate for the navigation will be an e-ink phone, it was already shipped so now I am testing it at home.

Instrumental issues did not finish at this point: I have XCNav-80 in my glider and it always worked perfectly with its super nice colorful screen. However, the past 2-3 flights I experienced a new issue: XCSoar indicated 'Landing' and then 'Take-off' several times during a flight while it did not lose the GPS signal. It means that at the end for one flight I have 5-6 igc log files separately. What a crazy problem, without any change in my settings it is not a nice joke. The investigation won't be easy, still ongoing.

But how was this windy flight?! It was a good idea to do a 1000 m aerotow and start the flight above Campo dei Fiori (the closest mountain to our airfield) because the wind was still strong enough to lift me (20-25 km/h NNW) till 1600 m. The air was very calm here without wind gusts so we were enjoying some calm moments with two other pilots expecting news from the pilot who tried to go further. Bad news: though he could cross Lago Maggiore, it was not possible to continue the flight to the north-west because the wind was probably not strong enough to provide a good lift. 

After more than an hour of ridge flight the conditions became weaker so I lost some altitude. I decided to try to search something above the city because the forecast predicted strong thermals for that day. Nothing, only some rotors which allowed me to gain 150-250 m altitude but nothing more. I saw a quite big, dark thunderstorm near Mottarone so it was OK to land after 2 hours. What a windy approach! The runway of Calcinate is 10-28 and the wind was from NNE so it was a bit challenging but luckily no problem and I touched the ground. 

Hopefully I will have the chance to fly again once more from Calcinate before going to the French Alps because I'd like to test the new e-ink phone. Not very satisfied with this windy Sunday, but well, gliding is always magical.

If you want to see my flight on OLC/weglide, you can find it here:

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 27.07.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

32 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 07/27/2025 (weglide.org)

Those weekends in March when the sky is full of low but beautiful cumulus... they are tricky, they are not working always well but they are there as a hope for a nice flight. Those days when you do not sweat, you feel yourself comfortable, and you just know that it will be fun, no matter how much distance you'll cover that day. Such a day in March is normal, in July... normally impossible! But this is the coldest July I remember since I was bornt, so miracles happen in the Italian Alps.

The sky was so beautiful that Sunday that it was enough to do a 750 m aerotow above the city of Varese (not 1000 m to Campo dei Fiori) and I found immediately a good lift! After the first thermal I decided to try the peaks in Lugano CTR but I understood quickly that it will be impossible because of the heavy traffic in that zone. I wanted to continue my way to the east and I had the strange feeling that the clouds were functioning worse above the mountains (I did not find any lift at Mt. San Giorgio). The flatland was working way better, other pilots also confirmed it. 

I tried to go in the direction of Alzate airfield above the flatland but it was not so easy either - the clouds were quite low and I heard that some of the pilots got in trouble indeed and needed to fight a lot to be able to return to Calcinate. Well, let's see how is the western side!

Impressively dark clouds but it was functioning also... not excellent because the max. altitude was around 1550-1600 m here and I saw a few raindrops on my canopy. After 3 hours and 20 minutes I had the feeling that it is time to land, the sky is not so beautiful anymore. What a good decision, a kind of gut feeling which saved me from the coming thunderstorm. We could derig my glider without any problem, we put the fuselage to the trailer...and it started to rain very heavily, it was even a challenge to drive home. Just in time, thanks God, derigging a glider under heavy rain and lightning is very stressful so I prefer to avoid it. 

Though I could not complete the task of the CVP competition on that Sunday, I was quite content for this little flight with fresh spring vibes and pleasant temperatures.

If you want to see my flight on OLC/weglide, you can find it here:

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 20.07.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

131 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 07/20/2025 (weglide.org)

After the extreme hot weather of June, it was a relief to arrive to July and finally enjoy some cool nights (under 20°C)... and colder weather means also the hope that we'll have 'spring-like' conditions! That's not perfectly true because anyway we're in the middle of summer, but the forecast predicted some good days in the Alps - so I decided to take 2 days off from work and dedicate Thursday and Friday to gliding.

On Thursday we started to rig the gliders around 10 am - luckily my ASW15 likes summer so recently it was always easy-peasy to rig it (that's absolutely not the case in winter - early spring). I did not prepare any task for this day - I wanted to see if it is possible to arrive to higher mountains and enjoy the great view & the cool temperatures from there. Spoiler: it was not possible again for me (and for most of the pilots:)).

I took off just before 1 pm, perfect timing. The first thermal was not very strong and during the aerotow I did not feel many lifts and movement so I started the flight above the mountains of Lugano CTR. This time I was lucky, they allowed me to go from Mt. Martica to Mt. Piambello and I could reach 1900 m here! After I left the CTR, I followed the classic way to the east: Mt. Orsa (this is always a crucial moment to find a thermal here!), Mt. San Giorgio, Generoso. A group of 3 people was just in front of me so we talked quite a lot in the radio. As I knew that after the Generoso they went directly in the direction of Mt. San Primo and the glide was not so nice, I decided to try another way and remain closer to the flatland. It was a good decision, I did not have any difficulty to reach Mt. Bisbino and then Brunate (Mt. Bolletto). As during my last flight Mt. Palanzone worked very well, I decided to try to search the next thermal in that area. Well, it was a strange day, started in blue, but here, near Alzate airfield we met the first cumulus...though Mt. Palanzone was not excellent at this time! I tried Mt. San Primo as well (here I saw many other gliders under me) and I reached the cloudbase. 

The glide until Corni di Canzo was really bad, I lost more than 300 meters of altitude. Well, no worries, there was a nice cumulus here so I went until the base again. I crossed Lago di Como with big hopes: I saw another cumulus on the other side! The thermal was not so great but I insisted here as I wanted to continue my flight to the south, in the direction of Valbrembo airfield. I went to Resegone, which is a beautiful mountain near Lecco with an impressive rock wall and a small refuge house on the top. I remembered that I was here the first time when I completed my FAI silver distance (50 km). I had much less idea about flying, it seems like a long time ago! Under me there was a very nice, modern glider who followed me along the way to Roncola. Well-developed cumulus clouds, good glide ratio, and new mountains to discover! Finally I arrived here... I had a great view on the first peaks of the "Bergamasca" and I also tried to search an outlanding field (Kong) which was near here... funny, I was too high to see it!

I decided to start to return in the direction of Calcinate because I was 60 km away from home and I did not have so much time till the end of the day (around 6 pm). Looking back now to this decision, I could have made a slightly longer flight but I knew also that the next day I'll fly again so I did not want to make myself very very tired. I had no problems with the return, I went also to Mt. Nudo and Luino to make my flight a bit longer. Here, on the "western side" I found weaker conditions - but close to home it was not a problem. I left the glider rigged, I just needed to fix it for a short night sleep and the next day we started it all over again!

On Friday I met 3 foreign people at our airfield: two of them came from Austria and they continued their way to France with their gliders. How cool is this, gliding-backpacker vacations are more and more popular! This might be the effect of the world champion Stefan Langer who also does many trips with his glider. There was another guy from the Czech Republic with his Discus and we tried to help him to have a waypoint file with all the landable fields and give some advice about local procedures. He did not need much advice anyway, I met him in the air above Varese and he was quite expert in circling well in small and weak thermals. 

I had the feeling that I can't have so many very nice flights in a row and the magic indeed disappeared this day: I found myself many times quite low and always near our airfield. It was impossible for me to find a good lift at Mt. Orsa! The 15 km/h SW wind broke all the thermals. Finally I arrived to Mt. Generoso and I got confirmation that this is really a strange day: the lifts were not strong here as usually. I went until Mt. Bisbino but I did not want to get further from Calcinate because it was already late and the thermals were not so inviting. 

One of my friends did a nice little flight and finally we met above the Sacro Monte to take some cool pictures of each other. I tried again Mt. Nudo at the end of the day, but even the glide there from Campo dei Fiori was horrible: I lost more than 300 meters in a small distance. We landed and we de-rigged my glider because there was a low risk of rain and thunderstorms that night. The forecast was quite pessimistic for the next day so I decided to stay at home... but that was a mistake actually, the next day did not seem bad at all...with many cumulus on the sky which were not very high... but if there are small distances among them, that is not a problem. 

Now crossing my fingers for more fresh air & conditions like on Thursday so we could enjoy the last thermals of the gliding season in Italy a bit more. Less than a month, and I will fly from France. Can't wait to return to Barcelonnette!

If you want to see my flights on OLC/weglide, you can find them here:

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 10.07.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 11.07.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

168 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 07/10/2025 (weglide.org)

114 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 07/11/2025 (weglide.org)

Checking the forecast for the weekend confirmed that if I want to fly the first week of July, I need to take a day off and try it on Friday. I worked until lunch but I got ready quickly because we needed to take off before the E-glide competitors again. 

A relatively early take-off in summer can mean very weak conditions in North-Italy and waiting in the air, trying to survive. And this was the game: from Campo dei Fiori to Mt. Martica, back to Campo dei Fiori, trying Mt. Nudo twice... and still nothing! There was no way to get further from the airfield...but it was not the case only for me, others also had difficulties, some of them finally landed after 1-2 hours in the air.

This year has already taught me that persistance and patience have a key role in gliding...so I waited 2.5 hours in the air until I circled in that first promising thermal above the city of Varese. And then Mt. Orsa, San Giorgio, Generoso, Mt. Palanzone... I did it! Under a nice cumulus at Mt. Palanzone I could climb until 2500 meters. From 30+ degrees to 12 degrees... fresh air, nice view, and a strange glide until the next mountains to the east...yes, because I probably finished above the active layer of the air, it was possible to reach 2500 m only at Mt. Palanzone and not above the next mountains. I went until the city of Lecco (Mt. Coltignone) but I did not really find any good lift in this area. It was already around 4 pm so I started to return to home.

On the way back luckily I found a nice little thermal at Mt. Cornizzolo with some paragliders which allowed me to return with a good altitude to Mt.Barzaghino. I decided to start the final glide from here as XCSoar told me that I have nearly 650 m of margin above Calcinate. It was not so promising that the required WP glide ratio was around 20 and I was keeping the glide ratio of 22-24.... so when I felt the first little lift (above the train station of Como), I decided to do some circles just to ensure that I arrive home without any problem.

And it went like that, I returned to Calcinate without difficulties and landed together with some pilots of the E-glide competition. I rewarded my resistence with an ice-cream and I promised myself that the next time I'll also jump into the swimming pool of our club! Glider cleaning, de-rigging.... though I would have preferred to fly among the higher mountains and not in the "pedemontana" region again, it was a nice closure of the week before the arrival of the storms and colder weather for the weekend.

If you want to see my flight on OLC/weglide, you can find it here:

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 04.07.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

166 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 07/04/2025 (weglide.org)

At the beginning of the season I decided to participate in a very interesting local competition at our airfield, called Coppa Villa Pavesi (CVP). There are several competition days throughout the whole season, typically during the weekends with AAT tasks for pilots with different level of skills: the circles around the waypoints are quite large - so experts can fly long distances but also those pilots can participate who do not have much experience & older gliders (like me:)). This competition allows us to learn to set the tasks in our instruments, follow a pre-defined task and compare our progress to other pilots. Especially because not only the gliders have their handicaps, but also the pilots!

Both days we had a task in the 'pedemontana' region: this is that area where the mountains meet the flatland - but it's difficult to find a good English translation for this Italian word, and Google Translate could not help me either :)

On Saturday I took off late, just before 2 pm. I wanted to start the flight in Lugano CTR (Mt. Martica - Mt. Piambello) but as said many times, there is too much traffic recently so it is nearly impossible to move around without limitations. One of the big learnings of this year was "don't stick to an idea if it does not work" so I left the area of the CTR and continued the flight on the traditional way to the east. And even though the sky was blue and the temperatures were very high, I found some nice thermals! At Mt. Generoso I climbed until 2100 m, pure happiness. I knew that from here it won't be so easy to throw myself in the dirty air without cumulus but I did... what can happen if everything goes wrong? I had plan B, Alzate Brianza airfield is close from here so I could even land there. But it was not the case! Though the thermal was very broken at Mt. Bisbino, Mt. Bollettone did not disappoint me (as usually): here I found again a nice lift. I reached the first waypoint at Mt. Cornizzolo (with some paragliders around me) and then returned to Campo dei Fiori. For the second time it was sufficient to go until Mt. Bisbino and then home: I did it, 150 kms, task completed and valid because three of us did it that day!

I knew that the forecast predicted similar conditions for the next day: so why not to leave my glider rigged and fly again on Sunday? (Well, the temperatures were around 35-36°C - it was super exhausting, but my passion for gliding did not let me to waste a flyable day.) And what a good decision it was! On Sunday in the morning I followed the weather forecast appointment from home so I arrived to the airfield quite late, around 11 am. But my glider was already rigged so it was comfortable and quick to prepare. I took off around 12.30, before the E-glide competitors. And the forecast was not so correct, the conditions were even better than the day before! Nice cumulus clouds, strong lifts, what else we need? The daily task was slightly longer, I went until Corni di Canzo (most eastern point for me) and then back to Mt. Nudo (though it would have been sufficient again to touch the western point of Campo dei Fiori). 

The most difficult part of the flight was exactly here: I knew that I need to return again to Mt. Bollettone to complete the task - but the air was really on fire, my necklace, my earrings and the seat belts were burning my skin. I tried to gain some energy for the rest of the flight by eating some Haribos and drinking but it was a weak help. (Did you know that even gummy bears start to melt at a certain temperature?! :) This was that temperature!)

The task completion was guaranteed when I reached the super altitude of 2050 m at Mt. Uccellera... final glide! I had nearly 650 m above Calcinate but I knew that I will go through some strongly descending zones. I was right, when I arrived home, my instrument gave me the arrival altitude of 350 m above the airfield. It was fun to accelerate close to Calcinate until 150 km/h - I was happy that I successfully completed the task two consecutive days. After this flight I needed to de-rig my glider and then I needed to drive home (50 mins from the airfield, so a bit of energy was still needed:)). What a great flight anyway: 180 kms, a bit more than 3 hours, 55 km/h. I wish to have more weekends like this also in July!

If you want to see my flights on OLC/weglide, you can find them here (competition classification available on weglide (without the correction of personal handicaps - but I was too slow to win:)):

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 28.06.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 29.06.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

153 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 06/28/2025 (weglide.org)

178 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 06/29/2025 (weglide.org)

As we arrive to the first summer month, the weather conditions in North-Italy are getting worse for gliding... but the days are also longer, so it is possible to take-off quite late and land around 6-8 pm in the evening so it has its own magic. 

Before this flight I was working in the morning, I had a quick lunch at home and started to rig the glider around noon. Needless to say how heavy it's to rig the glider in this very hot weather, but I am not made of sugar so I did not completely melt under the sun. :)

Just before 2 pm I was ready for take-off. 39 degrees on the runway under the canopy of my ASW15... let's go! The tow was a bit unusual (I am usually towed by the least powerful towplanes because I am very light with my glider, but this time I was towed by a stronger airplane) but finally I arrived to Campo dei Fiori. After the first thermal I headed to Mt. Nudo to see if I can get higher than 1650 m... and the answer was NO! Xctherm was a bit optimistic again about the reachable altitudes, but I thought anyway that it will be difficult near the airfield as it's typical in summer. 

Well, as with 1650 m I do not cross Lago Maggiore, I decided to try to the east. I wanted to try also the peaks in Lugano CTR but because of IFR traffic it was not possible again. A good thermal close to the CTR finally let me to go to Mt. San Giorgio and I reached a fairly good altitude here (1800 m). I crossed Lago di Lugano and I arrived to Mt. Generoso. Here I caught the best thermal of the day: I did not stop until 2200 m, wonderful! 

Okay, but where to go now? I do not see any nice clouds in the east, the first little cumulus is very far... let's try to the north. Nothing. I returned to Mt. Generoso to try to reach again 2200 m but for the second time it was not possible anymore, the thermal disappeared. 2000 m...okay, let's try to the east, nothing to do, let's face the blue horror. I went to Mt. Bisbino, did some circles, but I did not find any good thermal. 1700 m... it might be wiser to return. That was also frustrating that the wind direction and strength was often changing and sometimes my instruments indicated important wind as well (20-25 km/h). 

I tried again Mt. Nudo but I remained relatively low so it was not possible to go more to the west. When I reached Mt. San Giorgio for the second time that day, it was already late and some high clouds from the west covered the sky. The thermals got much weaker, I was circling in calm air and did not find strong values. But it was also magical to return to Calcinate after 6pm... I could do some experiments, try a small final glide with higher speeds. When I landed, there was only one more glider in the air. I needed to find help quite urgently to take back my glider to its trailer as they were cutting the grass on the runway. 

It was strange to look at the sky after 6 pm because it was nearly fully covered so it seemed like it was impossible to fly some distance that day. And even though it was not a great distance what I did, I was happy, I missed flying so much... fingers crossed now for some instability and nicer days in June!

If you want to see my flight on OLC/weglide, you can find it here:

OLC Flight information - Adrienn Kiss (HU) - 20.06.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

130 km · Adrienn Kiss · Calcinate del Pesce 06/20/2025 (weglide.org)

In North Italy the best months for gliding are March, April and May. In the past years the season started a bit later so often we had the chance to fly cross-country in June as well - but unfortunately this year June was not very generous so far (and indeed it was possible to do some nice flights already in March). High temperatures, extreme humidity, dirty air, strong inversion - these are the typical summer conditions if you fly from Calcinate - and the blue sky of the high mountains is often unreachable. 

But it cannot stop a determined pilot who dreams about flying during the week... so on Sunday early in the morning I was driving on the highway in the direction of the airfield. It was important to listen to the weather forecast of our 'meteoman', Piero (always at 9.30 am) because there were some NOTAMs for an area very close to Calcinate because of the World Hang Gliding Championship. After this we started to rig the gliders: first a JS-1 and then my ASW15b. Even though I do not like this very hot weather, my glides does: the rigging was very smooth and quick. 

As we knew that we need to wait for the good weather, we had an early lunch together at the airfield's bar: they know that pilots like simple & light food before flying so while some of us chose the classic ham-cheese toast, I ate a salad with mozzarella. Hours of waiting might be frustrating, but we had a good time together under the wings of our gliders, we laughed a lot.

After 1 pm the director of the airfield arrived to tell us that one of the towplanes need to return to its home airfield (Masera - this is where I bought my glider) so we should take-off. Well, it was already late so there was no point in waiting anymore. The conditions were not the ones promised to us by xctherm: the max. altitude was only around 1350 m and the thermals were very-very weak. After a while I decided to try the peaks in the CTR of Lugano but that was a mistake: I did not find anything and I got very low. To make things worse, there was SSW wind (10-15 km/h) which was disturbing the thermals. I found myself again just 250 m above the airfield together with a Discus b in a very weak thermal. But who am I to give up?! And as usually, the determination paid off, that thermal got stronger, I increased the banking angle and I succeeded to reach the top again. What a pity that in the meantime the clouds started to disappear and with that low altitude in the blue it was more and more difficult to catch good lifts. 

I completed the shortest flight distance of the season - but some little pieces of satisfaction were mixed among my feelings for the day. The "never giving up" attitude gave some power and a shy smile on my face after landing. Expectations were clearly much higher than the reality - 2-2.5 m/s lifts with 2000 m cloud base were just a dream for most of us. 

The training part of the day did not end at this point, we needed to de-rig my glider - each wing weighs 71 kg so it is a nice exercise under the sun with extreme humidity. And even though the conditions seem to be similar again for this weekend, I have an eye on the forecast - because I already miss flying!

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 :)

If you want to see our flight on OLC/weglide, you can find it here:

OLC Flight information - Stefano Ghiringhelli (IT) - 29.05.2025 (onlinecontest.org)

399 km · Stefano Ghiringhelli · Calcinate del Pesce 05/29/2025 (weglide.org)