Delta News

Weather on day 4 looked to be very diffcult with lots of cirrus in the morning and a strong west wind. Nonetheless, a short 44.4 km task was set on the flats, which were more sunny than the Schwarzwald hills. Nobody could make goal, the best pilots completing a bit more than 20 km. Bänzli ended second of the day with 21.5 km flown, while JD, Rolf and Simon bombed out around the start cylinder, as many of other pilots.

Day 5 was much better with strong thermals, fairly high cloud base (up to 2300 m) and north wind (up to 20 km/h) . A 92.4 km task was set to the east of Schwarzwald (almost on the flats), then to the south over Titisee and back to goal from the north of the valley. Bänzli came 13th in goal after taking the 1st start gate. JD, Simon and Rolf had more difficult flights. Rolf and JD made a bad decision right after the start, which put Rolf on the deck while JD had to fight a long time to get back up, and Simon had to pull a low-save out right after the 2nd start gate. Simon landed after 28 km, but JD could make his way through the task, and finally came last (and very late) in goal.

After 4 tasks with 51 competitors and world-class pilots, the world champion Alex Ploner (ITA) won the competition, with Primoz Gricar (GER) coming 2nd and Gerd Dönhuber (GER) coming 3rd. Regarding the Swiss pilots, Bänzli ended up to an excellent 6th place ! JD came 23rd, Rolf 32nd and Simon 40th.