XC Camp Flex – The best place
The best four days of one week at the best place for the big line: we keep the week of 14 to 20 June 2027 free; which four days and where, I announce two days before. Prättigau, Engadin, Valais, Bernese Oberland, Ticino, Bavaria or Austria. For pilots who already fly the big lines of their home area.
For you if this is true: You have already flown several cross-country flights of 50 to 80 kilometres. Now you want to fly longer than four hours, fly the day out and learn the big lines, where the week offers the most.
The weather decides the week
We keep a whole week free, seven days. We fly the best four of them, in the best area: Prättigau, Engadin, Valais, Bernese Oberland, Ticino, and if Switzerland is bad, Bavaria or Austria. Two days before, I look at where the conditions offer the most and announce the days and the region. After that they’re fixed.
What that means for you: you book your accommodation yourself as soon as the days and the region are set and you get recommendations from me. As a small group of seven, we can find something at short notice outside the holiday season.
What you learn
Observe, analyse, decide. These three repeat all day long; with every round the chain gets faster.
Reading the forecast. Which day has something to offer and where its potential and its hazards lie.
Planning the cross-country flight. Going through the line beforehand: where the key points are, where the hazards are and where the landing fields are.
The day’s window. A big line has a beginning and an end: when you need to be up so that the last crossing still comes before the valley wind, and where you are when it sets in.
Recognising hazards. Where the lee is, how far it reaches behind the ridge, where the valley wind flows and how high. And which options you have then.
The second half of the day. The afternoon valley wind, the head of the valley, the switch to the sunny side: the places where a big line is won or broken off.
Staying on the line. Climb only when you have to. In between, use the lines that carry you and cover distance with them.
Flying Plan A and Plan B. The plan is set the evening before. In the air you compare it with what you actually see: that becomes a new Plan A plus a Plan B in case the first one doesn’t work out.
Key points and crossings. When you come off the speed bar, how you plan the spot beforehand, where you gain your maximum height before it and where you find thermals again on the other side.
Choosing the region. Why it makes sense to be standing on exactly this mountain on this day. Two days before, we go through together what the conditions offer.
Where a spot commands your respect. We go through it together beforehand: what do you need to see to fly it? Where is your turnaround point? Getting further and staying safe on the way are the same question here, not two.
Who this camp is for
For you if you have already flown several cross-country flights of 50 to 80 kilometres and now want to fly longer than four hours, fly the day out and learn the big lines. Or you already fly them and want to do it where the week offers the most.
The group that comes together here flies with ambition. The point is to get a lot out of these days: chasing a few kilometres, but also crossing the main Alpine ridge or topping out above a summit.
Who it doesn’t suit
If you need to know the place and the days six months in advance, this isn’t the camp for you: you keep the whole week free, and which four days and where is only set two days before. If you’re fine with that, the spontaneous XC Days are something for you too. And if your first cross-country flights are still ahead of you, you’re better off in the Goms or at Spring in Valais: there the group flies at the same pace.
Included
- Four days of guidance, in the air and on the ground
- Days and region chosen according to the weather, announced two days before
- A weather briefing and a site briefing every morning
- Guidance via push-to-talk app and radio: I give you the button for your phone to keep and lend you a headset and PMR radio
- Accommodation recommendations for the chosen region
- Sites chosen with public transport in mind: after an outlanding you usually get back by train
- Debriefing and track analysis in the evening: you come away from every flight with a takeaway
- Photos and video from the air: I take pictures of you along the way and my 360° camera runs for the whole flight, for the debrief in the evening
- Exercises for afterwards: what went well for you and what could go even better, I turn into two or three exercises for your next flights
- A one-to-one conversation about your goal for these four days
Not included
- Travel to the camp: by train or by car, you organise it yourself. During the camp we get around by train and bus: where we land is still open in the morning.
- Accommodation: you book it yourself. That is on purpose: some sleep in a camper van, others in a hotel and booking ahead for everyone costs time and money. You get recommendations from me.
- Cable cars, train and bus tickets, food
- Insurance: third-party liability is mandatory, accident and rescue insurance strongly recommended
- The way back after an outlanding: we choose the areas so that the way back works by public transport
What you organise yourself
- Licensed paraglider pilot: SHV licence or at least IPPI 4
- Your accommodation in the announced region: you book it yourself as soon as the days and the region are set. As a small group of seven, we can find something at short notice outside the holiday season
A day at the camp
- 08:00
Weather briefing
We read the situation together and set Plan A, Plan B and Plan Z.
- 08:45
Site briefing
Launch and landing fields, airspace, the spots where you pay attention here.
- 11:00
Into the air
Cross-country with guidance over push-to-talk app and radio: sometimes I fly ahead, sometimes I fly with you.
- 16:00
Way back
Back to the starting point by public transport. Most of the day gets talked through on the way.
- 18:30
Debrief
The tracks side by side, mine included. The most important part of the day.
- 20:00
Evening
Dinner together for anyone who wants. Optional, four days in the mountains are tiring too.
Times are a guide. The weather moves them, not the plan.
Requirements
- A valid licence: SHV or IPPI 4
- You have already flown several cross-country flights of 50 to 80 kilometres. Now you want to fly longer than four hours, fly the day out and learn the big lines, where the week offers the most.
- Airworthy, checked equipment: your wing is expressly allowed to be an A or B
- Vario with GPS
- Third-party liability insurance with at least one million francs of cover, plus accident and rescue insurance
- Mobile phone with a data plan: communication in the air runs over a push-to-talk app (Zello)
- Four days in a row free. At shorter notice there are the XC Days.
I don’t much mind what is hanging above you: the line and the right day decide, not the equipment.
I fly with you, I don’t fly for you. Launch, route, turning back and landing are your decisions: my assessment is a recommendation, not a clearance.
Dates and schedule
- Whether it goes ahead
- By 24 May 2027 at the latest, three weeks before. From 4 people the camp is on; if fewer come together, I call it off and you get back everything you have paid.
- If the weather doesn’t play along
- If the forecast gives roughly two and a half flying days, the camp goes ahead. If a single day doesn’t work at the starting point, we go to where it does: your accommodation stays where it is and if the route calls for it, I organise a driver. If the whole week looks clearly worse, I postpone the camp. On a day when nothing works at all, we work on the ground.
- Which days and where
- Two days before the first flying day, I announce the four days, the region and the meeting point. Only then do you book your accommodation; you get recommendations from me. As a small group of seven we find something even at short notice outside the holiday season.
- Arrival
- The evening before the first flying day. Arriving the evening before isn’t compulsory, but it makes the first day much more relaxed.
- First flying day
- Meeting at 08:00 on the first of the four days
- End
- On the fourth day, around 18:00
Which camp suits me?
Every camp assumes that you fly thermals. Beyond that, the camps differ in what you bring along and what you want. Three sentences, one of them applies to you and behind it are the camps that are built for it.
- Learn cross-country flying
- You climb out in easy thermals. You have hardly flown cross-country yet, your flights have been shorter than about twenty kilometres.Afterwards you fly the same line again, this time without me on the radio.Season start in Ticino 15–18 Apr 2027The Goms 13–16 May 2027Thermal Camp in the Bernese Oberland 26–30 May 2027
- Fly further
- You fly thermals and have already flown cross-country: about twenty kilometres or more. Now you want to go further than before, longer lines, a new area or high alpine terrain.Afterwards you decide on the way yourself: when to go, where to cross, when to turn back.Spring in Valais 6–9 May 2027Between the four-thousanders 5–8 Aug 2027Between the four-thousanders, second week 12–15 Aug 2027The southern valleys of Valais 2–5 Sept 2027Autumn between the four-thousanders 9–12 Sept 2027
- The big lines
- You have already flown thirty to eighty kilometres and want to fly the big lines of an area together, from valley to valley.Afterwards you read the day yourself and lay your line by it, instead of following a ready-made one.XC Camp Flex – The best place 14–20 Jun 2027 · this page
Not that far yet? If you don’t climb out in every thermal yet, you don’t have to wait until it comes by itself: a coaching day for two shows where you stand and you take two or three exercises away for your next flights. Over the season add briefing and debriefing, so that every flight turns into a takeaway.
If you’re unsure which sentence is yours, write me one sentence on where you stand: flights, wing, longest flight. I tell you honestly which camp is the next one for you and if there isn’t one, I tell you that too. And if three or four of you are at the same point, I make days out of it just for you.