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Season, month by month
What we expect, kept separate from what we have actually logged.
Every operator answers "how many days will I fly" with a number designed to close the sale. We split expectation from measurement instead, because a table that mixes them is worth nothing to someone buying flights six months out.
Two different kinds of number live in this table and we keep them apart on purpose. Expected is our operational judgement from running ground logistics in the Almaty region — it is an opinion, not a measurement. Observed is the count of days our own groups actually flew, filled in at the end of each season from the flight log and never overwritten by a deploy. Where Observed is empty, we have not logged that month yet and we are not going to invent it.
| Month | Expected | Good for | ✈ Expected | ✈ Logged by us |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | Ushkonyr opens. Clean weak thermals, green steppe, cool air. The best month of the year for a first flight and a poor one for distance. | first flights | 4–5 of 7 | not logged yet |
| May | Strengthening and less stable. Good XC days appear; so do the first thunderstorm afternoons. | pilots and first flights | 4–5 of 7 | not logged yet |
| June | Strong, early, and blown out by afternoon more often than not. Launch before 11:00 or do not launch. Assy becomes reachable towards the end of the month. | pilots and first flights | 4–5 of 7 | not logged yet |
| July | Hottest and most violent. Big climbs, big overdevelopment, short usable windows. Almaty city is 35 °C+, so flights leave early and finish before lunch. | pilots and first flights | 3–5 of 7 | not logged yet |
| August | Like July, calming towards the end. Second half of August starts to be good again. | pilots and first flights | 4–5 of 7 | not logged yet |
| September | The month to come. Stable, clear, still warm, apples and melons in the markets, and the European season is over so you are not choosing this instead of the Alps. | pilots and first flights | 5–6 of 7 | not logged yet |
| October | First three weeks. Short midday window, spectacular light on the range, cold at height. Tandem season effectively ends here. | first flights | 3–4 of 7 | not logged yet |
| November – March | No thermal season. Some local pilots fly dynamic and speedfly at the ski areas; we do not sell it. | closed | — | not logged yet |
The part that hurts
Almaty's advantage over Kyrgyzstan is not the air, it is the arrival: direct flights from most of Europe, the Gulf, Turkey and China, a paved road to the main launch, and a city with hospitals in it. Its disadvantage is airspace — you are flying beside an international airport. Pick Almaty for reliability and Kyrgyzstan for wilderness, or take the twelve-day trip that does both.
Tell us your dates
Send the dates you are in the country and we will come back with the slots that have the best chance of usable air. A person reads it and answers within one working day.
Or just get the season report
One email at the end of each season with the flyable days we actually logged, and one more if the SIV course opens. Nothing else, ever.