Weather is looking good for our Stuttgart Linde Open on Saturday

Our 12 balloons will be splited in two groups. One group will be hunting the hare balloon (meaning one balloon flys off first with an 15 min. advance and the otherones try to land as close as possible to him) and an the second part trying to go for the longest distance within 24 hours of flying.
While the first group will stick to whatever the hare balloon will be doing, the second group has a couple of options in order to reach the distance:
They may stay low and try to go to the north eastern part of Germany. But it will be very hard staying low, since heavy thermal activity is expected and bad weather may come in on sunday to the northern parts of Germany. An other option is to fly in approx 2000m bringing you to Austria and maybe even to Hungary or Slovenia. This is a feasible alternative, but if you fly too low, you will be too slow - if too high, you get stuck over the alps.

And now the most beautiful alternative: Flying high (4000m or more) Will bring you across the alps to the area of Udine or Triest. This is on the one side only for skilled pilots and flying in that altitude requires oxygen, but the impressions of such a flight are unforgetable. The disadvantage is, that you are not allowed to fly at night in Italy, so the flight might end by dawn and a pilot choosing an other strategy going over Austria might go for the longer distance.

Interesting, which strategythe pilots will follow.