The flights had to be fought hard. Only a look at the wind maps showed the problem. The working altitudes in the blue thermal in the afternoon were 5000 meters MSL and more, but in the heights and already well below it was blowing at 60 kph plus. Wind shear did the rest to stir up the thermals vigorously. Only the strong and then tight lifts made it all the way up. Lots of clubs and a high tolerance against shaking were the order of the day. If you liked that, you could also bring together decent daily distances, like the Italian TwinShark team Pietro Sileri/Gaetano Benincasa with almost 800 kilometers.
Another challenge awaited the returnees when they had to land in the 30 knots northwest with gusts of up to 46 knots. The photo shows the current weather on the afternoon of November 26th. In Bitterwasser that wasn't that big a problem. On the large pan, it was possible to approach and land exactly against the wind.
Early October is the ideal time to prepare the runways for flight operations. You can land at the Bitterwasser Flying Lodge in every which direction—depending on how you look at it, on 8 runways (plus one emergency runway), each in two directions. Jeremias carefully levels the landing area over the course of several weeks.
In early September, the containers holding the gliders for the 2026/27 season were loaded in Waghäusel. Transported by trailer, truck, and cargo ship, the gliders are now on their long journey to Namibia, to the Bitterwasser Flying Lodge.