Soon in China

Im nearly on my next work trip now, going to Nanjing soon. I will try to post some photos from there, but I don´t know if I can reach blogspot. Last time in Nanjing it did not work, but maybe this time it is not as censored, as I managed to connect from Shenyang as well, just a limited time. Storms are in the forecast, no flying, no football :( yet I keep my fingers crossed for the German team, specially for Mario Gomez - I was lucky enough to have met and talked to him a couple of times, and I really like his friendly, open attitude. He was like, "well Im just running and kicking a ball around in a field, but you are FLYING WITHOUT MOTOR, that is really daring and exciting..." I also met his girl friend Sylvia, super smart and super pretty. What a match! C´mon Mario, score some more of your brilliant goals, por favor! I keep my fingers crossed for you!

FAI triangle weather

Inbetween work, finally a day of good flying weather. Yesterday the wind slowed down and I met good friends at Hochfelln take off early in the morning. Dieter Müglich, Frank Schmid, Tom Becher, Alex Köhler and Toni Raumauf are also excellent xc pilots, so my hopes were up for a "big day".
We took off around 10.30 am got up to 2200 m and started out on course, into the blue towards Wilder Kaiser. Soon it was clear that the day was too slow for a really big FAI triangle, and the wind was still too strong, but who cares - it is great to fly with friends and go sightseeing around the steep cliffs of Wilder Kaiser.
Pinzgau wasn´t easy either, it got quite turbulent with a southwester high up and the easterly valley breeze. But with the small RX3, it was fun to even climb in very broken, tight thermals.
After Hundstein, I was rewarded for all the work - base got up to 3400 and I could fly along Steinernes Meer (petrified sea), and it really looks like waves out of stone! And due to the sw wind, it was really easy and quite calm to climb above those majestic rocks. Normally it is really bumpy there.
The best part is when you make it home. I landed at Wessner Hof where Oli Barthelmes held a take off and landing training, in the evening they made a barbecue. A six hour flight, 179km, not the furthest, but one of the nicest! Here the flight in the DHV-XC.
I will be back from work on Wednesday, so if you like to testfly the Moyes Litespeed RX3 from Thursday onwards, please contact me!

Silbernes Lorbeerblatt

Today I was officially invited by the German Government to come to berlin and receive the "Silbernes Lorbeerblatt", the highest award for successful athletes in Germany. Only one world champion title is not enough to get it - Sebastian Vettel got his in February.
Dr. Friedrich, Minister of internal affairs, awarded the leaf to a group of athletes today and started with Regina Glas, Monique Werner and me!

Charlie Jöst as the president of the German Hang Gliding association and Klaus Koplin, president of the DAeC (German Aero Club) were also invited to the presendation.

It was great to meet the Latin dance formation from Grün Gold Club Bremen - a while ago I also danced at their club house which is very close to my home in Bremen! I congratulated them for their titles and they asked me about hang gliding - half of them want to do a tandem flight now ;)

I had no idea that there are fishing and even under water rugby world championships! I found that hang gliding is not half as exotic as a lot of the other sports people do.

Thinking of the next European Championships - thanks a lot to all of you for assisting the petition so the Turkish hang gliding team can compete in Kayseri this year!

And, of course, the current European soccer championships - Mario Gomez did a great job with his goal against Portugal, I keep my fingers crossed for the young, German team tomorrow against the Netherlands!

Rain

Luckily it stayed dry for the big pilots party, organized by Flugsportclub Oberdrautal. I heard pilots stayed till 2am and tried to drink the weather for today nice, but they did not drink enough I guess. The cold front only came across to us this morning, with rain and thunder. But that also means it will rain all day and linger around until tomorrow.
Finally Wolfgang decided to hold the award ceremony today already, as the chance of a valid comp day for tomorrow is minimal. At 2pm, the winners of the Austrian Open will be awarded at Fliegercamp Greifenburg.

Day 2 Austrian Open: Day cancelled

Team Turkey at Emberger Alm launch

Strong wind was the forecast and clearly visible in the air. A short 60km task was set but then cancelled on the ground. Half the pilots flew - higher up they reported strong turbulence, and the wind changes and strength at goal were not funny. I packed up instead and watched it from the ground. Im sure there will be a better day.
A big wave cloud made it difficult to get down in the valley, and the forecast is for a cold front approaching today with rain and storms tonight. Hopefully after the barbecue party the organizers prepared for the pilots tonight! A little bit of rain has already moved through.
Tomorrow more rain and storms are predicted, so our hopes are on Sunday.

Jörg on launc

Austrian Open 1st Day: Moyes rules!

Results Day 1
Today we were not so sure about the conditions, but Wolfgang Sattlegger was positive that we will fly more than 100 km today. I am in the task committee with Tom and Raimund Kaiser, so we built a task around 4 turnpoints to Lind bridge, then Irschen, across into Gailtal to Windische Höhe and back over Gerlamoos church to goal.
Base was low, never higher than 2200 m the whole day, but the climbs were not as slow as predicted. Once we made the quite difficult crossing into the headwind to Gailtal, we could just race along the ridge. The reward of the day! But the crossing grounded the leading gaggle out in front - Friesi, Seppi, Döni and Christian had to land after having been drilled in the lee side of Reißkofel! Tom Weissenberger was first in goal (I lost him when we did the crossing back at Emberger after the 2nd turnpoint), Matjaz second and Gerolf 3rd. A good day for Moyes pilots! But also Primoz did very well. Having taken the last start time, he flew the fastest time of the day. Results are not out yet. Would have been great to watch our race online today. You find the link for live tracking here, so if we race again, you can be with us!

A launch should look like this!

I am quite exhausted, many people reported quite some turbulence on lee sides, the wind in Gailtal picked up to 30 km/h. But it is fantastic to fly a small, fast glider in these conditions! I love climbing in the RX3, it has a very small turn radius so it is easy to hook into the strongest lift! When Jörg, Stefan and I came back along launch from the first turnpoint, quite a lot of pilots were still on the ground, which seemed strange. After a while, I saw a helicopter parked at take off and they brought somebody towards it. I told Jörg and Stefan to head on so we are not in the helicopter´s way. A rigid wing pilot tried to take off with side wind and could not make enough speed for his "Phantom" to get off. He was taken to hospital, but luckily it looks good, he might get out soon and has no severe injuries.
It is great to see a full team from Turkey here! The six pilots drove up by car, 2500 km one way, two days and two nights of driving - that´s dedication!!! Of course I bug them to teach me some Turkish so I can communicate a little bit with people when I fly in Kayseri at the European Championships in September.
For tomorrow the forecast is for stronger winds from the south, but maybe we can fly another task.
A good day - Wolfgang did really well with the task setting and the weather forecast! I hope he organizes another women´s and rigid wing worlds here in Greifenburg. If you flying girls and rigid wing pilots would like to compete here again, please contact me on facebook, leave a comment here or send me an email. I will forward our wish to Wolfgang.
Results here!

Team Moyes at Austrian Open

Tomorrow the Austrian Open will start in Greifenburg, and Team Moyes already met at dinner, fully motivated for some interesting days of flying in the beautiful Carinthian alps! It is good to see so many top pilots in a comp again. Let´s hope for good weather...

The Dragon Princess, Shenyang, Timezone GMT +8

 Im in Shenyang for the first time - another one of those growing Chinese metropoles like Beijing and Shanghai. Not as many foreigners here, and not many people understand or speak English. Nevertheless, the people from Shenyang are very helpful and friendly. It is also nice to walk along in peace and quiet without hawkers attacking you, aggressively trying to sell anything, like in the more common Chinese cities ;)

First of all, I visited the great imperial Palace of Shenyang. It is a little like the Forbidden City in Beijing, just not as vast. Beautiful dragons everywhere, so I decided to dress up for them, trying to lure the dragons into coming to Germany with me. Did not work, I have to practice my Chinese.

If you like to see the movie from Red Bull Flugtag, it is on youtube now!

ps: The shoes are a bit exhausting here, quite a different concept of "high heels" - after a while, I managed to balance on them...