Gliding in Liberec: Raná Hill
This hill with its rich history offers real quality conditions for flying. Not only soaring pilots use the slope but also hand gliders and recently it became a great site for paragliding (which you can see on the flora of the hill - the top is down-trodden to rocks, the times when you could see the green top of the hill covered by grass from great distance are long gone). The entire massif is composed by "The Big Bump" and "The Small Bump". Access to "The Small Bump" is prohibited (it is a preserved natural area), therefore, we do not fly there. The advantage of the "The Small Bump" was its southern bearing.
It is a great joy for the pilot to launch his model a let it glide against the hinterland set a 100 meters meters below. Not many slopes offer the possibility of checking your plane out from the top. For some people, landing can be a problem - you will not find a huge field or meadow behind the slope here - you must, in this case, land on the slope. This can be tough in strong winds. On the other hand, the stronger the wind the better the flying conditions. The conditions on the slope are great so there is no need to worry about turbulence caused by the terrain.
The best soaring is probably over the quarry (eastern slope), where during warm weather you can enjoy great thermal soaring. The western slope is facing the airport. The only problem are northern or southern winds since in this case, wind is blowing alongside the hill, but dont't worry, you will always find a place to fly anyway.
Few times a year we take a one day trip to Rana - get in the car real early in the morning and hit the road. After a nice dinner in the local pub Ponorka ("Submarine") we return home. However, every year by the end of July we come to Rana to camp here for two weeks. Everything is organized under the patronage of the village of Rana - it is the urban land of Rana that we build our shelters on. Slope modellers from the entire Czech Republic come here as this is considered as a sort of a practice camp. For many of us it's the ideal vacation, just check out the pictures below.
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