Soaring conditions are pretty standard, as for the flatland. Cloud bases are from 1,000 up to 2,000m, and usually stronger in May and June. July is still stable but cloud bases go lower and in August there are more cloudy days.
Nevertheless, next to the Paluknys we have Varėna forest. Even of totally overcast days, conditions may seem hopeless at first but are actually soarable. You may not be a fan of slow flying, but you're still in the air, right? Forest connects to Merkine and from there, by following Nemunas river to the North, you would reach Pociūnai airfield.
Further to the west, we only have flatland with open fields. It usualy gets tricky, challenging and fun. Fun for someone who likes to travel by car -- not that bad, but reasonably different. Even though Paluyknys is very close to Vilnius airport we have a ceiling of 6,500ft (2,000m) just 1km to the southwest, and we can go up to 9,500ft (2,900m) just 30km away. Compared to other airfields, I would say we are OK.
First leg of the task is similar due to airspace, but after that it could be very different day to day as after 30km there are a lot of options in directions. As SGP qualification is at the end of May, I expect nothing more than strong weather with high speed. But as most of the pilots have been in Lithuania you just could get the opposite.
Karolis Mikalauskas
lithuania22.sgp.aero
