To all who posted suggestions for my Vacation Flying in Switzerland,

Many, Many Thanks!

I flew with Simon Waddell at "The Martinets" club in Bex, CH. Simon
gave me a great overview of the Alps in that area and we flew for over
3 hours in less than average conditions. As you all know the summer
has been very late coming in CH & Germany this year, so this was only
the 4th day of good/average flying conditions for them. Thanks to
Simon's introductions I flew again on Sunday with the club instructor,
Daniel, and we did a 4.5 hr flight covering an even larger area in the
club K21, which included flying over Lake Geneva and the corner of
France near the club. Coming down the valley in France I thought for
sure Daniel was planning on landing in France so I could have a
"French Landout", but he knew how much it drops from there down to the
field and we approached the landing with over 2000 ft. They have a
beautiful club and field with a 4 star restraunt as a part of it.
Everyone was very freindly and took my poor excuse for French in
stride to make a wonderful stay there.

From there I went to meet Bob McDowell at his club in Gratshof near
Munich, and we flew his Nimbus 3DT almost to the Alps! Conditions
there were also average to poor with an inversion that wouldn't allow
us enough altitude to make the hills for the jump to the mountains.
They too had only seen summer weather for a week, so the season was
just getting started. I paid Bob the obligitory fee of all the biers
he could hold at the local Biergarten and had a wonderful dinner
before returning to Ramstein AFB to catch my flight to Iraq.

When I got to Switzerland the week before, the weather was so poor at
Hahnenmoos Pass Lodge that I turned around and went to sunny Italy
when I saw cars with 3" of snow and ice coming down from the
mountains! On my way south to Italy the pass over the Alps had snow
flurries for several miles before breaking into the Warm Mediteraian
zone.

Many thanks and Happy Thermals to all,

Wayne