28 August 2009

New projects

Most comps of the summer season are over, congrats to Jonny Durand who won the Brasilia Race, and to Natalia Petrova who is Russian Championette again. At the moment, some young pilots are finishing a comp for new xc pilots in Greifenburg in Austria, but the next comp to watch out for will be the Canungra Classic in Australia. Wish I could go!
At the same time, beginning October, the Free Flight Hang- and Paragliding Exhibition takes place at Tegelberg in the south of Germany. Depending on my working schedule, I might be there to check out the new gear and gadgets for the next "big season". Meanwhile, there is a portrait about me in the german magazine "Myself" and in September, there will be a report on Salzburg TV where Regina joined me and we went flying at Hochries.

23 August 2009

Results Red Bull Air Race, Slovenian / Italian Open


US-pilot Mike Goulian (photo) won his first Red Bull Air Race in Budapest after a stunning finish, with Paul Bohnhomme 2nd, Kirby Chambliss 3rd, Hannes Arch 4th and a great success for newcomer Matthias Dolderer in 5th place. Have a look at my video-interviews with Hannes and Matthias here! Hannes is in 2nd place now and Paul in 1st, but there are two races to come, in Porto and Barcelona. With only 1 point behind Paul, Hannes has a great chance to overtake the British pilot again- let´s keep our fingers crossed for him!
In Slovenia, after 4 tasks Primoz Gricar won the Nationals ahead of Tom Weissenberger and German newcomer Gerd Dönhuber. Best woman of the 9 was Ukrainian Julia Burlachenko (19th place overall), Christa Aichner from my team was in 3rd place. On the picture, you see the girls playing with a Moyes Malibu on Tolmin take off.
In Italy, they also flew 4 tasks. World Champion Alex Ploner won the competition in Parma, ahead of his team mates Elio Cataldi and Christian Ciech. Also congrats to Carol Tobler from Switzerland - as 1st woman she ranks 15th overall, followed by my team mate Monique Werner on 20th overall.

20 August 2009

Slovenian Open, Italian Nationals and Red Bull Air Race

After two tasks in Tolmin, Slovenia, Primoz Gricar leads the comp ahead of Tom and Gerolf. In Italy, of course the National Team takes all top places, Christian, Alex, Elio, Davide! They already flew 3 tasks in Parma.
Meanwhile, in Budapest Hannes Arch is still leading the Red Bull Air Race Worldchampionship. Today will be an important day for Hannes to earn more points to keep his title - by the way, he is also the organizer of the Red Bull XAlps and one of the top pg acro guys in the world. Great to see him do so well will those fast little high powered racing planes!
The only German competitor, Matthias Dolderer, came 4th yesterday in the qualifiyng and surprised everybody with doing extremely well in his first year of participation.

16 August 2009

Flights from Tegelberg!

This is my friend Rebi, I taught her hanggliding in April at Wasserkuppe. She already flies paragliders so it was easy to convert her. And now she did her first high flights from Tegelberg and nearly finished all of them to get the licence for hanggliding too! Im very proud of her!
Also, they had a great comp at Monte Cucco and Alex Ploner won in the end, just a few points ahead of Primoz Gricar from Slovenia/Germany. The organizer made sure that down to 10th place, pilots got prizemoney and thus their entry fee back. Well done, Flavio!
In the Dutch nationals in Laragne, Malcolm Brown won and Koos de Kejzer is new Dutch Champion. In the US nationals in Big Spring, it looks like Glen Volk won after six rounds and quite a lot of kilometers.
Today the Italian nationals start in Parma and the Slovenian nationals start in Tolmin. I will keep you updated about tasks and results and wish I could be with my friends in either place. All the best to them, good weather and great flights!

07 August 2009

Loops above Munich


Standing on the balcony, I couldnt believe what I just saw. Two gliders in the center, a few hundred meters away from my flat, just around the German Museum area, which is pretty much Munich downtown! Then one of them pulled a couple of beautiful loops before they headed off towards Englischer Garten. I wonder who that was - and Im sorry that I cant pick them up ;) so nice to see some flying again!
While they flew 118 km task in Laragne (results), the guys in Italy had a 100km task. Primoz was first in goal, followed by Alex Ploner. Team Adidas - Regina and Christa - landed at 36 and 32 km, a good result for a difficult day. My Swiss friend Carole was best woman, she made goal and leads the women´s ranking. Scores here
The photo was made at Cucco South goal last year at the worlds with nearly our whole team at goal and everybody really happy about the performance.
The Austrian "Best of Diedams" competition is postponed to next weekend, as the prediction is for strong storms tomorrow and sunday in the Swiss, Austrian and Bavarian alps. So guys, enjoy France and Italy while you are still there, up here it is a mix like in April, one or two nice days and then a few days of storms with a lot of rain and hail.

06 August 2009

Results from Cucco and Laragne

This photo was taken at Cucco North take off, but the guys went to Monte Gemmo at Tre Pizzi for take off yesterday. Many people landed around the first turnpoint already, after only 15 km, that is why the day wasnt worth too many points, even though 7 people made it to goal, with Alex winning the day, Gerd 2nd, Davide Guiducci 3rd and Primoz 4th. Carole Tobler and Christa shared the first place in womens ranking. Results of task 1 here.
In Laragne, three pilots made goal, Koos winning and German pilot Markus Ebenfeld in 2nd place! He had flown quite a few kms for the xc cup last week from St. Andre, and now he can use his knowledge of the area for the Dutch Open. Best woman was Russian pilot Evigeniya Laritskaya, she was 12th of the day! Task 1 resuts Dutch Open
Malcolm Brown won task 2 of the Dutch Open, best woman was Hadewych, Koos is still in the lead overall. Dutch Open after 2 tasks
Both Gerd and Markus are my XC mates from Chiemgau here in Bavaria, on a good xc day we always meet on the same take offs and fly similar distances. This year we didnt have as many great days as last year, so they are off for more flying in the comps. Good luck!

05 August 2009

1. Task in Laragne, 1. task at Cucco

Seems like they flew a 70km task in Laragne yesterday with Dutch pilot Koos probably having won the day. Also they had a first task at Monte Cucco, 82 km with world champion Alex and German pilot Gerd Dönhuber first in goal, as Curt Warren reports on Twitter. Curt could not compete, as his team Tom and Jörg have already headed off to Austria to compete at "Best of Diedams" which starts on Friday (Curt is leaving for Australia on Sunday so he had to send his flying gear back to Austria with Tom and Jörg). Too many comps at the same time! Unfortunately, the weather will only be nice for Friday and then turn into a mix of rain and storms again in the west of Austria where the Diedams comp takes place.
As soon as I find a link to results to these competitions I will let you know the exact results. Seems like I dont miss too many great big flights at the comps in the moment, but the flatland skies of Germany look epic these days, Dirk Ripkens flew a 209km FAI triangle in the northwest German flats on his Atos yesterday. Well done Dirk!

04 August 2009

Monte Cucco Trophy

No task yet at the Monte Cucco Trophy, the pre pre worlds. First day was cancelled due to strong wind, yesterday a front rushed through, today it is still raining. Hopefully tomorrow they can fly a first task. The last day will be Saturday, so they have 4 possible tasks. From our German team, Regina, Christa, Nikola, Jörg and "German newcomer of the year" Gerd Dönhuber are in the comp - he finished 3rd in the French Nationals in St Hilaire! Also nearly the whole Italian nationalteam including world champion Alex Ploner are in Umbria. One of the top Aussie pilots, Curt Warren, joined the comp as well as Austrian nationalteammember Tom Weissenberger.
It will be a hot race between such historical sites as Assisi, Gubbio and Perugia. There is a take off at Monte Subasio right behind the amazing Basilica of St Francis of Assisi facing west, but even if it is not flyable, there is a lot to see. Most of the frescoes in the Assisi Basilica have been restored after the last big earthquake, grand masters like Giotto and Cimabue painted the ceilings and walls with incredible detail. I definitely want to come back, compete in the Monte Cucco pre worlds next year and do more sightseeing.
Good luck to all my friends at Monte Cucco, and I will keep the world posted about flying and results.
Thanks to Flavios Blog for the photos!
The other half of the pack is again at the place of the world championship in Laragne, flying the Dutch Nationals. Or not flying too much yet, also here the first four days had to be cancelled due to poor weather, storms and strong wind. Only my Ager neighbour Malcolm Brown apparently had quite a long flight in wave. Have a look at the blog of British pilot Rich Lovelace here