Stubaicup -day 3 :-))

Sunrise at Thalerhof - looking promising

Great flying day here in Stubaital! In the morning, the gondola to Elfer broke down and was out of service for about an hour. Therefore everybody had to go to Kreuzjoch/ Schlick 2000 for launching. This actually is the better launch in the morning, but much smaller. So there has been a queue for setting up and then also for launching. But already some small thermals had devellopped :-)

Today I could test fly:
- AirDesign Rise4 (L)
- MacPara Eden7 (L)
- Icaro Buteo XC (L)

Kreuzjoch/ Schlick2000

AD Rise4

AD Rise 4: easy launch, good performance in thermals; But I cannot reach the (left) A-riser in order to make big ears :-( 
Martin from AD said that this could be fixed if I ever wnted to buy this glider...

MacPara Eden7

By now nice thermals could be found in several places.
Mac Para Eden7: good launch, good performance; but I didn't like the glider very much: the C-steering is very hard to use; big ears are also quite hard to pull. I didn't feel very comfortable by the way the glider 'transmits' what's going on.

above launch (Schlick2000) looking east towards Innsbruck/ Patscherkofel

Looking S-SW: Neustift/ Elfer; Habicht; Stubaier Glacier

Icaro Buteo XC

Unfortunately by the time I was ready on Elfer for my third flight, high clouds from the next cold front started covering the sky and only very weak thermals could be found.

Buteo XC: good launch, great performance in (weak) climbs; agreable C-steering. BUT: the canopy is way too heavy and it has too many cells, that means it is rather difficult to pack.

Conclusion: I liked the Buteo XC best. But I won't buy any of those tested here. I'll wait for the Rook3 (777), Ikuma2 (Niviuk). A friend of mine from Switzerland flew the Kangri (UP) today and liked it very much; but the 'L' only goes to 115kgs. He also tried the Rook3 (in MS) and I'm awaiting his feed back.