Opening Ceremony/Preparations/Roland goes vulcano

 It is nice to meet all the pilots in the relaxed atmosphere before the opening ceremony and chat to all my friends from around the world, on this photo with Blay Olmos, a young gun pilot from Spain with a good chance to win the Euros - he is used to flying in areas like these here from his home sites in Spain, dry, high, blue!
Christian managed to fix his harness problem, while I went out to find healthy food and juices and little useful things I forgot to be prepared for at least four days of full-on flying. Looks like it´s never unflyable here.
Today, like yesterday, guys went up to over 4000m, yesterday even 5000m. I gave my GoPro to Roland and he flew to the vulcano, the highest peak of this area. Could be Mars as well - it looks great, and he reported that the colours up there are unreal. On the radio he sounded hypoxic to me, talking very slowly and not stopping to talk, but his mate Andre confirmed that Roland always talks like that when something unbelievable happens. Like "I can´t believe it, flying 5km straight line in 3m/s integrated..." I hope we have the same conditions tomorrow!
After a safety briefing, some guys flew the small 56km test task - Wolfi said he did it in 1h15min ;) racing!
They reversed the top 25 pilots, which means - I will be first off the hill in tomorrows launch order, I will be the pilot to open the 2012 European Championships in Kayseri! Many pilots don´t like to go first, I love it ;) keep your fingers crossed that I find good lift, it is only 300m between launch and bomb out ;)
I will cook dinner for my team, especially for our fantastic, voluntary assistant Uli Schid - it is his birthday today! Spelt pasta and a spicy tomato sauce with fresh capsicum, aubergine, zucchini and onion, will be a feast of taste and energy, who wants to join us?