You may have read my previous articles on the flying conditions at Altes Lager Niedergörsdorf or my comparison of its flying conditions with those found at Montecucco in Italy and Forbes in Australia. Recently I have been made aware of another issue with respect to Altes Lager Niedergörsdorf, its changing airspace regulations. But this reminds me that I should be looking at the airspace issues at all the proposed site (there may be more that I am not aware of).

But first, what's the story with Altes Lager Niedergörsdorf's airspace? You may have heard that they are going to close down Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport in 2011 or 2012. They are going to open a new airport at Schoenefeld, so they will restructure the control zones and air traffic will likely cruise in right above Altes Lager. At the moment, it is my understanding, the current rules restrict all flying to flight level FL 75 (7,500' by barometric pressure). The only recompense is that you rarely get that high there, according to my sources (and the experience of the 2008 Gliding Worlds).

You can see more about airspace restrictions in the general area at the site for the 2008 Gliding Worlds, in the blog of the US National Gliding team here. You can also find the previous air space restrictions in SeeYou here.

I don't have the airspace restrictions for Italy as they aren't available from Naviter (SeeYou). I didn't experience any restrictions when I flew in the Worlds there in 1999, but maybe I wasn't really paying attention or just don't remember. If you know what they are or where I can find them, send me a note.

The only restrictions near Forbes in Australia are the 10,000' MSL restriction on hang gliding and as I reported earlier there is an ongoing attempt to get this non airspace restriction lifted. Sometimes we do get higher than 10,000' (say once or twice each season) but given that we start so low, it isn't much of a restriction.

I have already pointed out the weather conditions at a site, Altes Lager Niedergörsdorf, where you can expect about two or three hours of flyable air on a typical day. Markus Hanisch <<email>>, who has organized the bid for the Worlds for this site, has not been very happy with me and in addition to some wild misplaced rants (sent to me directly) has upbraided me for not posting all of the weather data I received from Andreas Ernst Becker at Flugschule Drachenfliegenlernen <<email>>. What I did publish (http://ozreport.com/12.249#0) was the data for July and August 2005, the only data that Andreas sent me that was in English.

I didn't publish the other 2005 data because it seemed (again it was in German) to just be an extension for April, May and June which didn't apply for the time frame for the proposed Worlds.  It was also a much bigger file.

But I'm more than happy to make it available for those of you who can follow it. You'll find it here: http://ozreport.com/data/WettervergleichSHFlaeming.xls.

While Markus can't see it, I have attempted to be honest and clear about the weather and airspace issues at the proposed sites for the 2011 Worlds. I do hope that the reader without a particular interest in any of the sites can use the information that I have provided (and what they can find on their own perhaps using some of the links that I have published) to arrive at their own conclusions based on their own values of what they would like to see at a Worlds level site.