12.03.2022: Lommis was reopened with some restrictions at least two weeks ago, but I was too busy to be able go go flying due to work, as well as our aging parents. Today however, I unexpectedly had a free afternoon, so off I went despite the weather not looking too good. The moutains were reported as being mostly in clouds, so I headed towards the Rhine falls, to check whether the rain we had over the last weeks shows in the amount of water over the falls.

The falls showed indeed more water than what we normally see in winter, but this winter has so far been warmer than usual, with more rain than snow up to quite some altitude. It’s however not yet the big run-off we see in spring.

I then headed east towards Lake of Constance, passing Schaffhausen…

… with the Munot, the fortress built between 1564 and1589. We recently took a guided tour of it, which was organised by my Alumni. Despite it’s age of more than 400 years it is essentially in it’s original state, which makes it quite unique. It s open free of charge thoughout the year, but with the guided tour one can go into some of the hidden underground tunnels built for defence purpose. Despite it’s age it has never been used in any form of hostility.

I then continued east, passing Stein am Rhein and the Untersee, the lower part of Lake of Constance.

The visibility improved, and at one point I could see the Säntis, so I decided to head into the moutains.

Above around 6’000 ft I got out of the haze, and the visibility improved significant. Looking west I could see that the western part of the alps was indeed in clouds …

….but towards the east it looked much better, with larger sections of blue sky.

What I did not expect to see were gliders, but there were several of them at altitudes of up to around 10’000 ft. They definitely did not go up for thermals, but the 20+ knots of wind at altitude must have resulted in good flying for them.

I did my usual pass of the Säntis, where conditions had improved quite a bit due to the wind from a southeasterly direction.

Another day were just giving it a try was rewarded with a nice flight, despite the rather “pessimistic” weather forecast.