“Not pretty, not fast, but rare and awesome!” writes Benedikt “Beppino” Hadersbeck on XContest about his flight on June 26, 2026. We wanted to know more about that.
This circuit flight was rare because, in his words, “nobody flies such a stupid line,” and it was awesome because he actually “thought after every thermal that he was about to land,” only to climb back up to the base at 3,300 meters. He reports: “If you look at the scoring line for the FAI triangle, it’s a lot of aimless meandering around the outside and not efficient at all. An average speed of 15 km/h is abysmal. 7.5 hours for 107 km is veeeery slow. So it was more of a haphazard and completely spontaneous flight, which isn’t outstanding in terms of scoring. More of a personal treat for me. I proved to myself that I can persevere and somehow make it back.”
As the saying goes: Life is what happens to you while you are making plans.
"Actually, I planned to fly from Blomberg toward Brauneck and Karwendel. But unfortunately, the east wind was a bit stronger than expected, and the thermals were weaker than I’d hoped. After a long back-and-forth over Blomberg, I lost my patience and decided to head for the lowlands - and, if necessary, land at a swimming spot (it was over 38° that day). So I chose my route accordingly - heading west with a tailwind and always keeping water in my glide path. After several weak thermals, I suddenly found myself at Staffelsee with the mountains back within reach. So I changed plans: head for the steep slope and stay on the windward side.
Bit by bit, I made my way to Garmisch and its Hausberg. Here, I played my “phone joker” to somehow wriggle my way out of the strong valley wind. The joker worked (thanks again for that), and I finally made it up to a cooler 3,300 meters! The return trip over the Karwendel was rather exciting, because there was a lot of wind there, too. Staying high was the name of the game. Choosing the Wörner Sattel over the Soiernspitze (another tip from a colleague) turned out to be the right call at that time of day. After that, I picked up the FAI sector at the eastern Karwendel peak and headed north toward Schafreuter and Gasköpfl. There were good thermals rising here again, so I was able to shoot toward Brauneck at around 3,100 m.
Flying into the wind, the glide ratio while using the throttle was surprisingly good, and I arrived at Brauneck with a comfortable margin. From there, it was a breeze to make it to Blomberg to wrap up the flight. By the time I touched down at Blomberg, the beer in my backpack was unfortunately already warm, but a warm beer is still better than no beer. 😉 Conclusion: The flight wasn’t a record (just a personal one from Blomberg), nor was it particularly fast, long, or efficient. But given the conditions in the area that day, it was definitely interesting. It was my first flight with the TORRE. The glider felt quite balanced to me and offered comfortable handling with good performance, especially into the wind."