Although the summer is moving away, the season this year presented amazing conditions for cross-country flying, especially in NE Bulgaria.

The “wet” beginning of the season prolonged the low cloud base periods till late in the season. May and June had many sunny days, but the high humidity and the consistent raining kept the cloud-base low in the flatlands. The extra long rain season delayed the crop harvest as well, which additionally delayed the opening of out landing fields for safe XC

Despite the hard conditions however, May and June allowed for some 200 km distance flights. The atmosphere was dynamic with quick changes in the conditions. Very often separating from the home airfield was easier than the return due to the quick weakening of the conditions in the afternoon.

In July the conditions improved and allowed for some bigger tasks in the “Ludogorie” region. A few 200 km triangles were achieved and some out and return tasks.

The classically strong conditions came traditionally in August. With the arrival of the seasonal NE winds the instability in the Danube flatlands improved dramatically. Cloud-base went as high as 2500-3000 m (10 000 ft) and thermals varied between 3 and 6 m/s. The good conditions allowed for the first flights of over 300 km after an almost 20 years of no gliding activity in the Bulgarian sky.

On August the 18-th Ivelin Kalushkov on a Standard Astir II – “BJ” managed to complete a 308 km FAI triangle. The flight lasted a little over 4 hours with average speed 72 kph. This is the first 300 km flight after a long period of no cross country flying in the country. The flight is valid for a Gold Badge but since he has the badge, flight was not declared.

The same day Samuil Kazakov on Valentin Mistral – “ОЕ” managed to complete a 184 km free triangle. This is the first serious XC flight for Samuil. With this flight he managed to complete all norms for a Silver S badge. This is also the first Silver C for Bulgaria after the almost 20 year gap in the sporting representation of Bulgaria in the FAI. Congratulations to Samuil with wishes of more sporting success.

Todor Simeonov managed to make his first solo XC flights on a Bergfalke 3, under the watchful ye of the former women European champion Tatiana Obretenova.Тодор Симеонов направи първите си самостоятелни прелети под ръководството на Таня Обретенова на Bergfalke 3. The “flock” of Bulgarian pilots increases with new birds and we’re more than happy to see some of the big birds in the sport helping them.