Hohe Wand East

Hohe Wand is a limestone cliff about an hour southwest of Vienna, and it is Austria's classic east-facing cross-country training ground. The main launch sits at around 920 m, opens on winds from the northeast through the south, and starts working from the morning — a rare quality for an inland site. Two take-offs share the ridge: the woodland-clearing 'Oststartplatz' for NE–SE and the exposed 'Suedstart' cliff launch for SE–S. The site can get very busy at weekends, with paragliders, hang-gliders, sailplanes and RC aircraft all sharing the same lift band — separation is a real skill here. Leaving on cross-country is not easy: expect flatland work no matter what direction you take. Vienna's CTR sits over the top from 1,850 m (rising to 2,550 m further out) and you must NOT push XC toward Vienna itself — traffic and the closing CTR make it a hard no.

Launch & conditions

The Oststartplatz is a 15-minute walk from the Postl car park. Wind coming across the trees can create turbulence — read the flow carefully before pulling up. The Suedstart is a proper cliff launch a few hundred metres south of the Postl restaurant and is not the place to learn cliff technique. Westerly or northerly winds above 10 km/h can turn the site nasty, and stronger westerlies are outright dangerous. Lee-side thermal 'overlay' days are common — the thermal masks a wrong wind direction, and you only feel it once airborne.

Getting there & local rules

Drive up the toll road (about €3 per day) and park at Gasthof Postl. Give other pilots a lift if you can. Three landings are in use: 'Weide Kehre' just below the take-off in the first hairpin (also the local flight school's training hill), 'Mautstation' about 100 m south of the toll station, and 'Weide Maiersdorf' out in the valley (mainly used by hang-gliders — watch them). Top-landing next to the Postl is possible but not recommended. After landing, hitching back up is the norm; the Vöellerin-Steig footpath takes about an hour.

Local rules & hazards

Vienna's control zone caps height at 1850m locally, rising to 2550m further south or west, and cross-country toward Vienna is discouraged due to closing airspace and heavy traffic. South-west to north winds are flyable but stay sporty. Stronger westerly or northerly winds are genuinely dangerous, producing nasty turbulence.

Check conditions before you fly

A forecast for the valley is not a forecast for the launch. Before heading to Hohe Wand East, read the wind and thermals for the site itself, confirm the day's rules with the local club, and remember the standing rule — when in doubt, don't launch. In the free OutDare app you can open Hohe Wand East with a 7-day forecast built from high-resolution weather models, see who else has been flying, and get there with offline maps.