Briefing at 8:30 and forecast good to make a a Alpine Flight. So we prepare clothes, hook the tràiler and go to the launch field. We got stocked in the snow and after trying during some time to move from there, finally we got the help of several friends and could move to a spot to inflate the balloon. Wind was down to the road ad we had a power line behind far enough we thought. Balloon is inflated with no wind and when we were almost ready to take off a strong gust oposite to the direction of inflation, approached us to the wires. Fortunately again with the help of several people we could fix te balloon after it touched the power line slightly. No damage, so we took off as soon as we could to avoid any other gust.
Scenary was wonderful and much more clear sky than we could expect. So with this nice mountains we start to drift North. To stay some more time over the mountains, we climbed up to FL 125 after got authorization of Wien Info, so we changed direction to about 40º.
We stayed for 2 hours at this level to arrive East of Linz, so we crossed the Danube river when it joins with Enns river.
We had most of time clear sky and also mostly we could see the ground n the direction we were going, so we were flying very comfortably all the Flight. Dark color in the picture is the shadow of the higher clouds.
After passing the Danube, we started our descent and fortunately near the ground was calm. When approaching for landing, some unexpected gust changed sudenly the direction 180 º. We were aware, so it was not a problem and we could land safely in a big field. Retrieve arrived just after packing the balloon, so we could go alltogether to have lunch in a nearby restaurant.
Consumption after a 2 hours and 34 minutes flight with 5 persons on board and 180 Kg of gas was 52 Kg. Always including inflation and waiting time.
Afternoon was to drive back to Salzburg to have th time to visit Hangar 7 and after have a nice dinner with Rudolf Schneider and family.