Canungra Classic Task 2: 72km around 2 TP

Northerly winds made us go to Flying Fox today. Not my favourite, because the bomb out is a bit dodgy. Only a few hundred meters below take off, still on the hillside, changing wind directions - and cows. Luckily, I didnt have to look closer at that place today. I got up right in front of take off, up to the clouds.
Going west was not as easy as it first looked like, as the wind higher up was a Northwest, and we were heading to Rathdowney, then to Lion´s Road, with goal past Mt Lindsay in Woodenbong.
About 18 pilots made goal, Glen McFarlane probably won the day. I flew about half the distance and we ended up with 5 pilots in my field, just between both turnpoints. As Im still working on getting rid of the bad cold I had caught on my long trip to Australia. I was happy when Luke offered help with acupuncture and put some needles into me. Corinna with whiskers must have looked quite funny ;) Hopefully it works and I will be back to my normal coordination abilities soon. No worries - I had great take offs and landings, just in the air I am slower than normal with my reactions.
On the photo my alltime favourite Canungra Classic pilot and friend for many years, Davo.
Oh and yes, there are too many big evil spiders around... at least the eagles here seem friendlier than the ones that got me in Forbes.

Canungra Classic Task 1: 75km around 2 turnpoints

After the Tour de France in Annecy, I was relieved that they didnt close down Beechmont today for the Tour Down Under, we could just drive up as usual and "share" the mountain with loads of cyclists.
The weather looked good, but it was more difficult than I expected in the air. A strong SE sea breeze didn´t create a smooth convergence with the strong W and strong N out in the flats, but a strong wind shear turbulence zone. I felt safe in my glider after a lot of pitch testing in the air today. Im glad the RX3 has such an easy handling! It was about 30 km/h, more in gusts, when I landed. Unfortunately far away from goal or any of the turnpoints.
About 8 pilots made goal when I passed it with the retrieve drive. Jonny probably won the day, I also saw Enda, Adam and Jonas there. Don´t know if any other guys made it, from my team Tony G. got closest to goal landing only 10 km short.
I havent found a link to any results yet, I will post a photo of the list when I see it at HG tomorrow morning.
Looks like a good day tomorrow and then a couple of days that might be blown out.

A Moyes coming home dinner

Bill, Molly, Jonny and Alaina, Jack, Rachel and I had just returned from all the different continents possible to Australia, so Vicki decided to take a day off from work and prepare a wonderful welcome menu for about 15 people. All vegetarian! And really tasty too. Here I am, having travelled half way around the globe, and I am warmly welcomed like their own family members. What a fun evening!
Sure enough Bill asked me to go swimming with him, so this morning I got to Bronte at 7am and had a swim in the crystal clear probably 18 degrees cold water of the Bronte rock pool. He is as fit as ever, it was a pleasure to see him and Molly.
The flight up to Brisbane with Qantas today was a pleasure, we had the best view of Sydney harbour bridge and opera house! And the guy sitting next to me told me he was into parachuting, but he also likes to have a look at hang gliding - after having shown him a few recent hang gliding videos on my computer, I guess I won at least one more visitor for the Canungra Classic starting this Saturday ;)
Blenkey and Ally are over for dinner at Michelle´s and Tony´s place which has the nicest tropical garden in the back yard, almost looks like mystical rain forest!

Suprercool new Lumia video from Matjaz

Here you find the new strange, cool video from Matjaz, hang glider racing mountain biker!

Arriving in Christchurch, Timezone GMT +12

Thanks to my Kiwi, Australian an American friends, I had a great welcome arriving in Christchurch after a 36 hour trip! Paris and Toni were on their way up to Auckland, when I was just flying down. I had to remind myself that I hadn´t arrived in Newcastle though ;)
And as Nichola remarked - you very rarely find a photo where the flying girls outnumber the flying guys, like on our photo! Great to be back here, even if only for a brief stop-over.

No beef no lamp

Going to Bangkok is always an adventure, food wise and weather wise. It was pouring heavy huge rain drops down and within minutes the streets were flooded when I was on my way to the weekend market. At least it was not cold like here in Germany, a pleasant 27 C.
Luckily I had put on a short skirt and outdoor sandals - I was wading through the muddy water up to my knees, learning that the huge cockroaches can´t just fly, but also swim! They floated all around me, yuck. A few meters further, on the market, they were already fried or grilled and set up neatly in pyramids. Grasshoppers here, roaches there ;) not my piece of cake.
Walking down Silom Road, I felt like "I have a hang over"... famous Scirocco building from the movie just there.
Beautiful flowers everywhere, great very spicy curries, foot massages - I like this busy place!

Wilder Kaiser

One of the nicest flights this summer, when I met Tom Weissenberger at the beautiful mountain range of "Wilder Kaiser", the "Wild Emperor" in Austria. Can´t wait for next spring to get back there!

Matthias Dolderer is the German voice of "Echo" in "Planes"

Matthias Dolderer, Red Bull pilot and with his sister Verena organizer of Germany´s largest fly-in Tannkosh, is the German voice of "Echo" in the new animated Disney movie "Planes"! Finally somebody who knows what he is talking about ;)
When I went to the Tannkosh meeting a few weeks ago, I saw this banner and had to take a photo for you. "Touch Heaven - kiss a pilot" I love it!

Red Bull Zero Calories

A mysterious but quite beautifully decorated parcel arrived for me today. I unwrapped a new product - Red Bull Zero Calories! I chilled some and tried it. Very nice design, very good new taste. Very light new wings!

Kössen

After flying in Kössen yesterday with Lisa and Jens, we visited Tony, Iris and Jakob. The crow chicken that had fallen on their car at the camp site in Annecy has grown significantly. Since new, bigger feathers are growing at the moment, Jacques looks a bit like a vulture at the moment. He loves to play, cheeky bird, and the nicest thing - he is free all the time, free to fly whereever he wants! And no worries about him being chased by cats - they have big respect for his beak!

Shanghai surprise

It´s always interesting to see the fast development of Shanghai. I guess it´s the worlds fastest growing city with amazing architecture. Only a few old temples and tea houses in the tourist areas are left in the original Chinese style, and even most of the Expo buildings have already been ploughed away.
I like the "bottle opener" building with the big hole for the dragon to fly through. I wish I could fly through it with my dragon! I was lucky to experience the clearest air Ive ever seen on any of my trips to China. Beautiful to see the Pearl Tower´s changing colours at sunset!
Back at the hotel room, a lot of loud music made me curious, so I went to the park opposite the hotel. Have you ever experienced Chinese Karaoke? Some guys had carts with huge sound blasting machines of almost "Trio electrico" size, and women and men were singing the lines shown on small screens.
On the other side of the park, there was a public outdoor ballroom dancing going on. I recognized a Waltz and some other steps, but because it was all danced to Chinese music, it was really confusing. Kind of like a mix of Brasilian Samba with Gangnam Style ;) Some couples had loud discussions about the correct steps, others swept over the ground perfectly - just their faces never changed a single bit, it all looked like very serious business. At about 11pm the party was finally over, but everybody met again at the next evening. No matter whether week-end or week day!
Of all the cities Ive seen in China, Shanghai is definitely my favourite.

Kompendium der Luftfahrt

I just got a very interesting compendium - all the technical terms concerning flying, both motorized and  non-motorized, the 3- and 4-letter-codes of airports, the history of aviation, the manufacturers and models... for the next long trip to Australia, or for some rainy days ;)