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<\/a>Urserntal with Realp landing options viewed from the west<\/p><\/div>\n
The village comes into view fairly soon after you have crossed the Furka Pass, depending on your altitude. The image above shows the view from about 3000m, above Tiefenbach (see map below), which is around 4km beyond the pass, with three landing options marked A, B and C (my order of preference).<\/p>\n
The valley breeze in Realp is nearly always an easterly, typically blowing at 15-25km\/hr in the afternoon.\u00a0 Having arrived in Andermatt from the north via the Sch\u00f6<\/span>llenen gorge, it swerves to the right to continue up the Urserntal, typically losing around a third of its speed on the way.\u00a0 In north overpressure<\/a> or very thermic conditions, 30km\/hr is not unusual, and occasionally it can blow even more vigorously, but this breeze is likely to be laminar.\u00a0 When I have found it too strong there for a safe landing, the lift which it produced on the slope where the Furka pass road zigzags back and forth (to the sout-west of the village) made it very easy to soar up there to land in gentler conditions on the flat alpine meadow at 2,000m (and then hitchhike down).<\/p>\n Winds which can affect Realp<\/p><\/div>\n A meteo flow from the west or south-west may produce a significant tailwind east of the Furka pass.\u00a0 If you can still feel it below 2000m, this westerly breeze can accelerate down the slope above the village and overpower the usual easterly, causing too much turbulence for landing in Realp to be safe.\u00a0 In that situation, I would fly a few kilometres downwind, but not as far as Hospental, in case there is a clash there with a breeze blowing down from the Gotthard pass.<\/p>\n Rarely, south overpressure or f\u00f6hn<\/span><\/a> can cause a southerly flow in Realp; I have only experienced this once, and the conditions were horribly rough, probably because of conflict with the usual easterly breeze or maybe a flow coming down from the Furka pass.<\/p>\n Approaching Realp from the west<\/p><\/div>\n My first choice these days is the area marked A, as it is a long flat field running along the valley (and hence more or less in line with the breeze at ground level).\u00a0 However, I have been lucky every time to find that it has been free of livestock and contained short grass, which may not always be the case.\u00a0 This area and C are shown on the club website<\/a> and Burnair map<\/a> as suggested LZs and I have seen XContest tracks ending here, so I can see no reason why they should be problematic.\u00a0 I used to choose area B because of some banners very close to it showing the wind direction, but these were not in place in summer 2024.\u00a0 This field inclines downwards slightly towards the road, which may be a help rather than a hindrance, as you are likely to be coming in across this slope, so can edge uphill to avoid overshooting.\u00a0 I would advise against landing to the south of the river, as much of this land is used by the military (you may be able to make out a firing range on the right in the image above).<\/p>\n Realp landing options viewed from the east<\/p><\/div>\n This short clip<\/a>, shot from a helicopter overflying Realp from the east, shows area A on the left on the far side of the railway line between 0:04 and 0:10, and area B beyond the church just as it fades out, but of course you are likely to be approaching from the opposite direction, against the usual valley breeze.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coordinates: 46\u00b035\u201958\u2033 N 8\u00b030\u201919\u2033 E 1540m ASL Although there is no official landing field at Realp, you may find that you need to land around here, and I have done so many times without anyone appearing to mind in the … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Realp-wind-map.jpg\")
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