From watching the Live Tracking we knew that the flying had been pretty hard all the way through, and both Ferdy and Honza confirmed this. Ferdy:  "It was quite scary most of the way. I had only flown two XC flights this season before I arrived in Salzburg, and there's no doubt that I was in deep some times. As usual, you think you're the only one suffering when this happens, but speaking to the other competitors in Monaco now it is clear that we were all scared in the air much of the time - it was really rough! But the Trango XC3 was simply the perfect tool for the job - for walking it could have been a little lighter (it is not a diehard lightweight wing - just a light'ish standard wing, Ed) but for flying it was just ideal - very reassuring at all times, and with heaps of performance. In fact I think it may have been the highest-performing of the wings in this year's event.

I only had one collapse during the whole race, and in spite of it being a big one it was really a non-event. This allowed me to concentrate on the race rather than the wing, and it was great!" Honza is in line with this: "For me the windiest was in the Southern Alps. The valley winds seemed to couple right up into the prevailing winds with no nice mid level like up north. I would not go fly this region in July again. Especially if I had to push upwind. On day 11 I landed in the lee in so much sink that despite a flying wing with a strong flare I still hit hard. Luckily it was grass. It was gusting over 25kmh down. Then I had to hike 150 m over just to launch in very strong wind on the front. Got catapulted 50 vertical meters almost immediately despite launching into a lull. The adrenaline for the day was spent and I realized that day with those moves was too similar to Russian roulette. I have too much to lose to be doing this and realised it is time to retire (from future X-Alps, Ed.). But the worst collapse I had during the whole race was about 35%, and the wing simply behaved impeccably."

Honza highlights two days in particular for their positive memories: "The highlight was the seven hour flight where I rounded the St. Maurice turn pt. Quite stable conditions and it required a lot of patience.
Two days later I transitioned into wave lift for the first time and got above the tops of the cumulus clouds. Wind speed a t 4,350m was 28kmh. If I had had the time I would have ridden the .5m/s lift much higher."

At UP we're well pleased to hear comments like this from people who obviously know the wings better than most by now. We also find it hugely inspiring to see how guys like Ferdy and Honza, both flatlanders by birth and by no means professional test pilots, can show up in a world-class event like this one and still mix in the top of the stack. Ferdy commented that as long as you know the basics (!) and are motivated, XC flying is just coring thermals and linking them together (!!!) - this advice is now passed along to all of our readers out there - core the thermals, link them together with intelligent transitions, and you're on your way to making goal in the Red Bull X-Alps, should such an endeavour be on your bucket list!

We'd like to once again thank these two extraordinary athletes for choosing our wings to fly, and if Honza ever changes his mind to return to the game we'll be there with a wing for him to fly!