Hahnenmoos - A Gliding paradise,

Imagine if you will a place high up in the alps with crystal clear air, blue skies, stunning views and smooth lift.
Add to that a hotel complete with beer, good food and a building room stacked with fabulous models and you start to get an idea of what Hahnenmoos is all about.
Hahnenmoos pass is 1950m up in the Berner oberland near the small village of Adelboden, Interlaken being the nearest main town. The two main ridges for flying are the Schalmi and the Lavey but the whole place works at different times of the day as the sun moves.
This year a small group from the UK decided to join the Swiss IGG slope meeting held at the end of August.
Formed 20 years ago the IGG is an enthusiastic organisation dedicated to the building, developing and flying of large scale gliders. Many new techniques in wing construction and profile were tested here at the Hahnenmoos. Most members will buy a fuselage but then make their own wings to their own specification, every wing section you can think of has been tried at some time to get the best performance in thermal, speed and distance.
Robi Disler is a good example with his DG 1000, the model is just under 7m and is scratch built. It has an Eppler wing section and an all up weight of 15kg. Robi will often launch it by himself find a thermal and then walk long distances on to another slope or back to the hotel, believe me you need to be fit to keep up with him, this place is huge!
Conditions can vary from thermal flying in light winds, to a strong blow with the more dynamic slope lift we know here in the U.K. When the thermals are working they are very strong indeed with models specking out very quickly. Then it`s the turn of the speed freaks who like to test their latest carbon wings. Theo Arnold from Germany is one such flier, excellent at finding thermals and then with no fear will push a model to its limits in the thin mountain air. The read out from his on board GPS system was 312Km/H for one pass I saw him do, the 5m model sounding more like a jet fighter than a glider! Lots and lots of carbon, 8 servos on the control surfaces and HQW 2.5/10 helped him to get there.
Not every model is scale, there were plenty of F3F, F3B, F3J models and foamies throughout the summer but the focus is more on scale during the IGG weekend. The atmosphere was very friendly and laid back and all were very happy to share info on their models and techniques and in better English than my dodgy Swiss German!
The end of a hard days flying was topped off with the whole club meeting for drinks and then a large meal at the berghotel where much beer and wine was consumed and the talk was of the thermals that got away and even bigger/faster projects for next year.
My thanks must go to Jack Kagi for introducing me to the club, and also to the IGG members that made our visit so memorable.
Philip Hoegger