R/C Soaring DigestPage 12
HAVE SAILPLANE, WILL TRAVEL!
By Tom H. Nagel904 Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH [email protected]
This month’s travel saga is reportedby Erich Jost. To give you
somebackground, Erich flies with the TMSS,or Tidewater Model
Soaring Society, insoutheast Virginia - a very active club.You can
check out their web site for more informa-tion. Some TMSS members
fly slope onBrown’s Mountain just south ofCharlottesville,
Virginia, a beautifulhill flyable west, north-west, north-eastand
east; the place is private and oneneeds written permission. We
areworking on Erich to do a story on thissite, soon.
Erich is a service engineer for rotatingand reciprocating
equipment, travels
all over the continent and sometimesoverseas, and gets to visit
many placesinvolving model airplane flying. Hehas lived in Canada
and the US for thelast 25 years, and Chesterfield, Virginiasince
1995.
This month, Erich Jost takes us toSwitzerland.
Slope Flying in Switzerland
by Erich JostChesterfield, Virginia
Tidewater Model Soaring Society
As a lot of us “Slopeheads” know,everyone who flies slope has
afavorite hill, cliff or mountain side.Model planes big, small,
inexpensive,expensive, scale or not, it doesn’tmatter. We all have
fun, especiallywhen conditions are right. I would liketo share such
a story with my fellowslopers.
In August 2000, I went to Switzerlandfor two weeks to visit my
family, who Ihadn’t seen for six years. I was bornand raised in a
small village on LakeThun, in the beautiful BerneseOberland near
the famous tourist townof Interlaken. At a young age, I
wasintroduced to model aviation by myfather on the mountain slopes
in thearea, in the form of free flight. NearInterlaken, about 1.5
hours drive toanother picturesque resort town of
Adelboden, is the very famous moun-tain flying place called
“HahnenmoosPass”, 2000 meters or about 6000 feetASL. It was on this
mountain where Ihad my first slope experiences about40 years ago.
Mind you, there was nosuch thing as RC back then. The in-thing was
“magnetic nose ruddercontrol” which, in combination with afused
de-thermalizer horizontal stab,kept the models from
disappearinginto the mountains most of the time.Long flights were
not possible, espe-cially in strong winds. If the de-thermalizer
fuse didn’t work, themodel usually disappeared, never tobe found
again.
But back to the present day. On theweekend of August 19 and 20,
theweather was absolutely beautiful, withwarm moderate wind; a big,
wellattended two-day slope event was onthe schedule at Hahnenmoos
Pass.Guess where I went that weekend?
January 2001 Page 13
This column is dedicated tosoaring vacations. If you have
afavorite sailplane saga, considerwriting it down for RCSD. If
youare planning a vacation thatincludes your plane and
transmit-ter, consider making notes as yougo, and working up an
article later.Take photos. Collect maps. Andsend your story to Tom
Nagel [email protected] for gentleediting and suggestions.
Tom
Arriving at this hallowed site, I founda multitude of models of
every kindsuitable for slope flying, especiallylarge scale ships
and fast molded sloperacers.
Even though the wind was, at first, notconsistently from any
particulardirection, this did not present aproblem. It was possible
to get a lot offlying done just by switching slopes.The area
provides slopes in everydirection, so no matter where the windis
blowing from, there is a flyable slopeand, importantly so, a
suitable landingarea.
Additionally, massive thermalsdevelop way down in the valleys
andcontribute to the excitement of mag-nificent slope lift.
Landings are a pieceof cake on the lawn-like short grass.All you
have to do is be familiar withcross wind landings on slopingground.
Some landing areas areactually relatively level. It is truly aslope
flyer’s paradise, and the moun-tain scenery is spectacular. There
arealso very sharp crests with very steepdrop-offs to one side or
another, whichwould lend themselves to fantasticdynamic soaring
(DS) which, as Ifound out, is not known very wellamong the local
fliers. Some of themhave heard about America’s famousJoe Wurts DS
exploits, though.
The local hotel, the BerghotelHahnenmoos Pass (check out the
website), caters to model aviators, as wellas mountain climbers and
hikers in thesummer months, and to skiers in thewinter. The hotel
provides a largestorage room for secure safe keeping ofmodels and
equipment while staying
there. Most flyers going toHahnenmoos Pass stay there.
Duringcontests and fly-ins, the hotel is usuallyfilled to capacity,
so advanced reserva-tions are required.
I met several famous fliers fromaround Europe at Hahenmoos
Pass,and was able to check out the latest inairplanes. After the
flying ended andthe last whispers of air had beenexploited with
HLG’s, the social affairstarted. We indulged in some fabulousfood
and drink at the hotel and, ofcourse, engaged in a lot of
hangarflying. For me, it was particularlyinteresting in comparing
the slopeflying scene to the one in the UnitedStates.
One sleeps well in the clean mountainair at that altitude. The
next day,everybody was out again to enjoythemselves until,
unfortunately,Sunday afternoon came along andmost people had to
leave. Some of thelucky ones on vacation (like me) wereable to make
further use of the won-derful world of slope soaring.
Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my ownplane to Switzerland.
However, I washanded a transmitter from one of theflyers so I could
do some soaring. (Ileft the landing up to him though.) So,if you
find yourself in Switzerland andtime, weather and schedule
allows,visit this mountain slope paradise. Youwon’t be sorry.
You can check out the place on theweb at .Unfortunately it’s all
in German, butphone number and e-mail are univer-sal. For those
without the use of the
There is a growing interest in scale soaring inthe U.S. We are
dedicated to all aspects ofscale soaring. Scale soaring festivals
andcompetitions all year. Source for informationon plans, kits,
accessories and other peopleinterested in scale. For more
information,write to:
International Scale Soaring Association37545 Oak Mesa Drive
Yucaipa, CA 92399-9507e-mail: [email protected]
web site: www.soaringissa.org
InternationalScale SoaringAssociation
internet, the address is:
Berghotel Hahnenmoos Pass3715 Adelboden/Switzerland
Phone: 011 41 33 673 2121Fax: 011 41 33 673 4841
e-mail: [email protected]
Local flying contacts are:TUN ModellbauUeli Nyffenegger
Sagenfeld 35614 Sarmensdorf
SwitzerlandPhone/Fax: 011 41 56 667 2211
e-mail: [email protected]
links - Modellflugferien-Hahnenmoos
See you there!!Fly safe and think up!!
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