Visit at Feringe.
In 1997 the german glider-pilot Hartmut Hummel made a gliding-safari through Scandinavia with a friend. This was the third safari for Hartmut, and at Feringe, we are very glad to have him visiting us as he did -95 and -93.
But here comes the story by the pilot himself.
We decided to realise our flight in the period between July 17th and August 10th. A good weather situation on the scheduled departure day made us happy. We got airborn at 10:30 with very calm thermal conditions which changed to a better one in the vicinity of Schw. Hall. Near Würtzburg we had some problems with 8 octar cumulus clouds and we had to circumnavigate these areas. Very low cloudbase at Fritzlar made it necessary to use our engines for 8 minutes. After this situation, it was no problem to reach the airfield Griffhorn-Wilsche near Hamburg.
The following day it was rainy, so we had to wait until July 19th.
We departed at 11:25.
The wind was very strong from NE with 40-50 km/h, so it was a hard work to fly north. Additionaly some rainshowers near the river Elbe made the flight even more difficult. We reached Maribo after crossing the Fehmarnsund at 17:08. The run-time of the engine was approximately 18 minutes.
July the 20th. We made a winch launch to save gasoline. No thermals above Lolland, so we needed two engine-lifts to reach Själland were we found sunshine and good thermals. Another problem which made it difficult was that the flight had to be carried out in controlled airspace.
Only with transponder it was possible to reach 4000 ft for operation. The transponder was switched on for two and a half hours before we reached free airspace at Fagerhult. The thermals worked with 3 m/s and more up to 1800 m. At 17:34 we landed at Feringe and met the "center of the wheel" of Feringe Flygklubb. Anders, Hans and all these nice fellows. We saw the sights of that wonderful new clubhouse.
Visit at Feringe.
Best weather conditions made sure that we covered a long distance. We got airborn at 11:26 and switched of our engines at 400 m. After we crossed Ållebergwe followed the east coast of Vänern to Kristinehamn and afterwardswe passed Munkafors and Torsby. In the mean time the cloudbase was 2600 m and we found very reliable thermals. We reached Elverum, but it was to early to land. So we made a sightseeing flight in western direction. There we cleaned our wings in a heavy rainshower and because of this we lost a lot of altitude. After that we landed at Elverum. Like everywhere, on this field we met helpful people. On this day we did not use our engines.
Despite of many thunderstorms we could realise a fantastic flight on July 22nd. We flew via Atna to Röros and later we passed the Swedish borderline east of Trondheim. On that day we flew over fascinating countryside with desertedareas, dazzling white snow fields and wonderful, untouched lakes. After a long final of 80 km we landed at Vilhelmina. There we read the headline above the gate-door "Välkommen till Lappland".
July 23rd.
At 12:33 we departed to fly to Kiruna via Malå. Mat Malå we visited our gliding friends Stig Lundblad and Åke Persson. After that we continued our flight via Arvidsjaur, Jokkmok, Gällivare to Kiruna. No problems during that flight, the cloudbase was between 2200 m and 2600 m and the thermal worked with usually 2-3 m/s.
The lady in the tower at Kiruna was very surprised about our coming without any flightplan, bur we could disperse her sorrows by explaining for her how thermals work and that this way of flying is much safer than flying with a motorplane.
After the flights preparation in the well equipped self-briefing room, we got airborn at 12:37. Via Pello which is a compulsary reporting point on the Finnish borderline, we reached the area north of Rovaniemi. The weather conditions were splendid and we could fly this distance without any stress. Rovaniemi Control guided us with radar around a dangerous area, so we reached Kemijärvi very safe. A short while before landing we met a Pik 20 and we flew a bit together. With Pentti Nishonen, the pilot of the Pik 20, and his friend Tapani Väänänen we had a great sauna-adventure till the next morning. We also learned to sing the old Samish Reindeer-song "Heya Heya Heya …"
July 25th.
After some rainshowers we departed so fly southbound as far as possible. The weather was becoming bad, so it was necessary to use our engines a couple of times. We had not used our engines since we left Elverum, so we did not like this situation. We took a lift up to 1600 m and after that two more small lifts to cover the first 80 km. We decided to fly to Pudasjärvi and there we found a better weather situation. At Pudasjärvi we met good gliding friends and we had to stay on this place because of rainy weather. July 26th we tried to continue our safari, but we had to fly back because of large thunderstorms.
At 14:33 we made the second try to go south. Poor thermal conditions and rainshowers made it difficult. After a very stressy final we reached Kivijärvi in rainy weather.
The next day (July 30th)
was marked by bad and rainy weather too. To avoid the showers, we first flew near the coast. There we found good soaring conditions. Because of rain we had to wait for one hour to reach our destination airfield Jamijärvi.
Stuttgart weather-information reported better weather for the next days and we were very happy about this message. A aerobatic championship for motorplanes was established for the next week and we watched the training flights. In the early afternoon we departed to our destination Räyskälä. It was only a short distance, but we wanted to visit Tapani Uoti and his family at Räyskälä and also his nice place there. A short distance before the landing we flew through a rainshower, so we landed with freshly cleaned wings.
Aug. 1st.
We were very happy about the nice weather this day. Tapani and his wife helped us to push the gliders down the runway. This flight was fantastic experience because we crossed those wonderful islands of the skärgården between Finland and Sweden. The best of this flight was that we did not use the engines until we reached the westcoast of Kumlinge island. There we got a thermal up to 850 m and only a short engine-lift of 300 m wasneeden to reach Mariehamn Airport. After we had finished all the regulations we departed to cross the Ålandshaff to Norrtälje.
The met-report promised us thermal leftovers in the vicinity of Stockholm. Whatever that ment, it was not very good. We flew northbound first to circumnavigate the Stockholm area. North of Uppsala we found the last thermal under nearly 8 octar Cumulus clouds. Without the use of the engine the destination Borlänge was out of reach. Additionally, near Avesta we had 6 octar clouds at 150 m and we had to descend through a hole in the clouds to approach to Avesta Airfield. After a waiting time of nearly three hours we made the jump to Borlänge. Annica Wunge and Anders Zedin were our hosts and we could stay in their house over the night.
Aug. 3rd.
Another period of good weather was establishing, so we had enough time to visit Elverum for a second time. Anders flew a part of this way with us. We flew via Gagnef, Dala Järna, Malung to Elverum. The good weather made it possible to fly a 150 km sightseeing roundtrip to the western part of the Elverum area. Again we met these nice guys at Elverum and we had a lot to talk about our flight.
A view over Norway.
Monday, Aug. 4th.
It was time to fly back home now. Anyway, the weather in northern direction looked so fantastic that it was hard for us to fly southbound. Along the Glomma river to Kungsvinger and further on via Strömstad and Fjällbacka near the coast of Bohuslän, we reached Sweden again and approached Trollhättan after a long final glide. No engine use was necessary for this flight. Again we met friendly people and we visited the impressive locks of the Göta-Canal.
Very strong wind from the NE made the flight not easy. After our departure we found the first good thermals in the vicinity of Borås. From this point we had very good cloud-streets to the coast. At first we wanted to fly via Feringe back to Denmark, but in this direction the clouds became absolutely closed and no sunbeam was reaching the ground. So we flew along this cloud-street to the coastline at Falkenberg. Halmstad Control told us that it was impossible at this moment to fly along the coast to Höganäs because of a military exercise. We told Halmstad that we should fly back to Falkenberg.
Crossing Kattegatt
On this way we saw the island Anholt in the middle of Kattegatt and a spontaneous idea was growing up in our minds. We started to calculate, and the GPS indicated that the island could be reached without any risk and without using the engine. Win NE 38 km/h, distance 60 km, altitude 1450 m, arriving altitude at Anholt airfield 450 m, it was perfect! So we left Sweden without any bureaucracy and reached Anholt at exactly 450 m. This small island was not able to create any thermal, so we started our engines to get the altitude to reach the thermals on the Danish mainland. Near Randers we found the first poor thermals and we could continue our flight in increasingly better conditions, especially along the westcoast. After an eventfull flight we approached Rendsburg back home in Germany.
Aug. 6th.
Low cloudbase but good cloud-streets made it possible to fly. The conditions became better during the flight, only the mountain area of the Hatz made the flight difficult temporary. We reached Wolfhagen-Granerberg, a small airfield near Kassel as 18:03.
Aug. 7th.
The last distance of approximately 350 km were to be overcome this day. We got airborn at 10:51 and only in the vicinity of Frizlar it was difficult because of a very low cloudbase. Afterwards we reached our home airfields without any problems.
The route of the safari, note the crossing of the Kattegatt
After this exceptional flight, in which we reached the nearly deserted area of Lappland, we crossed the wide fjällregions of Norway and Sweden, we saw these fantastic swamp areas of the Muddus National-Parc, and in which we flew over these thousand of islandsof the skärgården between Finland and Sweden, we came back home very happy and with a lot of new experiences.
Finally we can say that a glider with auxiliary engine is the most economic conveyance system available at this time.
But some people may say: What about a bicycle? - My only reply is: Please tyr to cross the 120 km large Kattegatt with your bicycle.