Bogong Cup Day 5: Lenticular clouds

After yesterday´s flight in quite strong wind conditions, the forecast for today was not too promising and very early we could see lenticular development. Strong high level winds of 50 knots might sooner or later mix into the lower layers. Briefing was postponed to see if the winds were easing off, but as they kept being stronger than yesterday, Davis made a safety decision and cancelled the day, we didnt even go up to Emu. I was very glad about that and I had voted not to go up in the safety committee, as flying in the alps at high winds is not desirable.
Quite a few pilots are packing up their gear, as we might not be able to fly for the next couple of days, and there are many other things to see and do in Australia than hangwaiting. Actually my neighbours are about to leave - we made up the Viking team, you qualify if you have red hair ;) it is Zippy Zac Majors (US), Shedsy (Dave Shields GB) and me.
And yesterday´s task winners, team Red Bull!

Bogong Cup Task 1: 99 km around 3 tp

Today we finally had flyable weather. As cloudbase was low and the wind still quite strong from westerly directions, the task committee set a 78 km task around 3 turnpoints in the Kiewa Valley.
After a good take off, I was lucky to be nice and high at the last start gate. The air was rough and bumpy, but with my little full carbon Litespeed, I felt safe and had fun climbing out with Jonny Durand. He left me just before the first turnpoint at Gundowring, as I had decided to fly a bit more conservative and stay high. Up high, I faced sometimes nearly 30 km/h headwind, so I had to fly a bit lower to move.
Carol drove our car down, and I teamed up with Oli and Tony Lowrey (on the photo) to go to launch and with Ashanta, Fredy and Thomas for retrieve. Luckily our whole team was in goal today! I had a good landing at Mt Beauty airstrip, but I was a little exhausted. Hadewych came over and helped me carry my glider and harness to the packup area- she is a fantastic friend and could tell that Im really tired! So nice when people care ;)
If the wind speed drops as predicted, we might be in for a really long and scenic flight for tomorrow, with a higher cloud base than today. Up on Emu take off it was freezing cold today and I was even wearing thermal underwear trousers and shirts! So lucky I brought them, that way I wasnt cold in the air.

Bogong Cup Day 4: Mt Emu

So finally we get started, after another rest day yesterday with strong wind and a lot of rain. There is still a bit of wind around, so we might fly a one way task from Mt Emu to Khancoban, which would be quite a long retrieve, so we will be back late tonight.

Bogong Cup Day 2: cancelled

While it was too windy in the mountains yesterday, we experienced a really strong wind of over 50 km/h in the flatlands today. Comp organizer Phil Schroeder and Meteo-support Oli Barthelmes were right with their prediction, sooner or later the flatland wind would turn into our valley and make it difficult to find taskable air. Im glad that they cancelled the day, as it is howling outside at the moment. The clouds broke up, but the wind kicked right in.
Tonight Phil set up a movie night and Jonny Durand is going to show his morning glory movie, that will be a nice treat for us.

Bogong Cup Day 1: cancelled, too windy

On the photo with Oli, you see Jonny Durand who just won the Forbes competition.
We had the initial briefing yesterday at Mt Beauty holiday centre. As the winds were quite strong from the north, we postponed briefing to 11. Then the day was cancelled, as the wind was still too strong to set a flyable task. Usually this weather means strong turbulence and broken lift, so I was happy with the decision.
The wind speed dropped down and Davis was positive yesterday that we will fly today, probably from Emu take off (on the photo), but at the moment we have quite a lot of clouds around. They can dissolve quickly as we saw yesterday, so at this stage it is difficult to predict the day. The forecast was for a coldfront moving through tonight, bringing snow (!) to the high mountains. I know it sounds ridiculous looking at the masses of snow and temperatures at home in Europe - but hey, it can get cold in the Australian Alps as well. Lucky that I am equipped for any kind of temperatures with my Adidas and Icebreaker gear!

Training Day: Mystic

Yesterday we had northerly winds, so Tony and I drove over to Bright, and Oli took us up to Mystic launch. Toni´s glider had been ripped apart by a dust devil in Forbes, so he had to testfly his new sail just like I had to try the Litespeed 3.5 s Moyes sent me for the comp.
We were ready early, I had a little Red Bull shot - such useful small things! - and launched at midday.
I was lucky - a thermal took me right up to cloudbase. Up there the wind was 20 km/h north and I could even soar up the cloud a little and see my own little rainbow with the shadow of my glider on it. Beautiful! This little Litespeed, a full carbon version, is as sweet as ever ;) just what you need after winter break.
I flew around the area for about 3 hours, over into the Kiewa Valley, had a look at Emu launch, and then decided to land at Mt Beauty airstrip. And again I was lucky, just a nice northerly breeze made my landing supersmooth and elegant. Tony was already there and very pleased to see it. Later on, the winds started switching around and we heard a few quite rough landings.
In the evening, organizer Phil Schroeder held the opening briefing of the Bogong Cup. No shirts this year, but the famous Durand Tea Cups for everybody! What a treat, they are my favourite!
I also met Heather over there and talked about the Worlds organization - she is so motivated as well, it will be a great competition in May!
The weather for the first days of the comp looks a bit iffy, but we will make the best out of it. Gundowring launch has been re-opened - Mel Gibson has sold his property - so now we can fly in strong northwesterly winds again. And if there is no flying, it´s plenty to catch up with a lot of friends over here. It´s great to see them again. Christa and Jamie are here as well, Hadewych, Birgit, Zhenya, Julia and Virpi from Finland, we have never been so many girls in a comp for a while, it is great!

No place like cloudbase - Mt Beauty Timezone UTC +11

Oli took me up in the sailplane yesterday, winching up at Mt Beauty airstrip. It looked stable when we took off, but Oli managed to stay in the air, we eventually broke through 3 inversions and found cloudbase at 4000m. A great reward for the suffering in 42 C on the ground.
The 4 hour "walk" took us all the way to Falls Creek, Mount Hotham and Feathertop. The first time I saw that part of the Victorian Alps. Very scenic. And it was fun working together with Oli to find the fastest thermals and the best line to get there.
We met Craig in the air (can you find the tiny spec on the Feathertop photo?), he used to fly pg comps, and also Heather and Mart were at the airfield. Heather already soloed as well, seems like the club is taken over by hangglider and paraglider pilots ;)
The paraglider pilots who flew at Mystic yesterday reported that it was their worst flight ever, with a lot of turbulence - even in the sailplane we had zero gravity once, but it is still very comfortable in turbulence compared to the "biting base bar" of a hangglider.
Very good training for the Bogong Cup, and I hope Heather forgives me that we went flying cross country, as she had wanted to go up for a short flight as well. After two hours of hard work at Mount Bogong, it was just too tempting to try and reach the clouds further south...and I didnt have to beg Oli for too long to fly into the mountains that I had never seen before;) a great adventure.

Down under, Timezone UTC + 11

I finally managed to escape the tons of snow and arrived in Bright after a smooth long flight to Melbourne. Even better - also my luggage arrived! It´s a bit of a temperature change, when I left Munich we had - 15 C, now in Bright we get a few really hot days with more than 40 C! As it is in the mountains, it cools down nicely during the night, but during the day it is full on summer.
Oli flew to Corryong two days ago and just flew back yesterday to Mt Beauty airstrip - a great effort, since he was facing a 20 km/h headwind. It´s great to see Carol´s and Oli´s son Luca running around - he is learning new words every day, so it´s time to teach him some German as well ;) And by the way, yes, the old wagon still exists!
My glider will arrive from Forbes, they have another 3 days to fly up there. No rest day yet, no mercy. When it is more than 40 C down here in the mountains, they will face something close to 50 C up there at Forbes, out in the flats. The best (and only) place on those days is - cloudbase! Australian vice-world champion Jonny Durand is leading the Forbes competition at the moment, followed by Hungarian Attila Bertok. Lukas Bader is the top German pilot, currently in the top ten as well.
I will post photos once I settled in and set up everything.

December adventures

I was lucky in December - a change of schedule usually means flights like Ashgabad or Teheran. This time, they sent me to Bangkok. Great place to find beautiful flowers for my mother and other friends. Usually I never get there, so I was happy to be able to explore a new place - and to eat loads of superspicy Thai curry ;)
Coming back, I was again lucky that I had Christmas off for the first time since I started working for Lufthansa - my parents had water in the cellar of their house, as a pipe had frozen and then burst. They needed my help straight away, so this year Christmas was a great workout of carrying buckets full of water out of the house.
On the 1st of January, I have another long flight, and then I start preparing for Australia again. I could make enough time to go to the Australian Alps and fly the Bogong Cup. Im not too sad to leave rain and snow behind for a couple of weeks.

China again: Nanjing, Timezone: UTC + 8

And again, no chance to update my blog while I was in Nanjing, China. This city is not as big and not as modern as the well known metropoles of China, but it is nice to see some history and traditional places. Even if they are re-built like the Konfuzius temple on the photos, as it was completely destroyed before.
Nanjing has a dark history of destruction, not only by Japanese, but also by British and American bombing. About 400000 Chinese people dwere killed in the Nanjing massacre.
I was surprised to meet extremely friendly and helpful people - who were even lining up in front of the subway ticket machine! No elbowing in this city, I was even offered a seat on the train. Looking on my map, a girl stopped and asked if she could help me, as she spoke English, which not many people in Nanjing do.
A highlight for me - 20 different sorts of Tofu in the supermarket, and great tasty dragon fruit! But horror just a few meters away - I felt very sorry for the poor frogs and cute turtles sitting in tanks and waiting to become dinner :( one turtle nearly climbed on my arm, I so wish I could have taken all of them and set them free somewhere.
Another speciality in Nanjing is "soup of duck intestines". The smell made me hold my breath and run for fresh air several times. Duck liver, bowels, kidney, stomach and a lot of msg really create a smell that I cannot cope with...
While it was end of the world weather in Germany, we enjoyed some bright sunny days in Nanjing, but it was not far from freezing temperatures and I was superhappy that we had just got our Adidas team clothes for winter in Herzogenaurach. It was quite chilly when I collected some of the famous agates "Rain flower stones" at Yu Hua Tai, the rain flower terrace.
It was great to discover new places, a new culture and meet new people. Just foodwise it was quite difficult for a vegetarian, even the noodles tasted as if they were cooked in animal fat. When I go to Australia in January, I hope I can assist Molly Moyes again, her Chinese cooking is legendary (as are the numbers of people she feeds - family, friends and visiting foreign pilots ). And I definitely need to learn more about Chinese cooking to find some edible vegetarian dishes next time I get there.

Shanghai Surprise - Timezone: UTC + 8

After returning from Mexico, I went to China for the first time. It was a lot of fun on board when my colleagues taught me the basics of Chinese - the right intonation! I was surprised to see that the structure of the language is quite basic and I could communicate drinks and food successfully to the Chinese speaking passengers who seemed to have a lot of fun with my efforts.
The city of Shanghai is stunning - so many modern sky scrapers with really interesting architecture, so many people everywhere. The pushing and pulling is amazing, a bit of a cultural shock. If you try just to cue up in front of a ticket machine for the metro, you will never get a ticket ;) same in the supermarket, same in noodle bars - you need to use your elbows to survive.
Going around the city in the subway train is fast, but be prepared for a lot of pushing and pulling and also some pickpockets.
The famous Bund is a large constuction place at the moment, as the city is preparing for next year´s Expo 2010 in Shanghai - sorry that I can´t get you the picture with the Pudong view.
By the way, it took a while for me to update my blog, because my blog is censored in China. Seems like all blogspot addresses are forbidden, for whatever reason. I could read the Ozreport at least ;) And sure, my next trip took me to China again.

More pictures from Playa

Actually these photos were taken in Tulum. We saw the Papantly flyers there - they keep turning around the pole while the ropes on their feet get longer and they eventually get down to the ground.
The highlight at the pyramids of Tulum weren´t actually the buildings for me, but the Iguanas, lots of little dragons were sitting everywhere and smiling at us. If you ever go to visit Tulum, go early - bezillions of large tourist groups are being moved through from about 10 am! And also be prepared for lots of large mosquitos...

Ueli

I had wanted to write about my current trip to Playa del Carmen, my Spanish course, meeting adorable Mexican people, learning how to cook tortillas and snorkelling, but but these everyday tidbits sound so unimportant compared to the sad news I learnt last Friday. Another lovely guy joined the heavenly league. I have known Ueli Gegenschatz for many years, I adored his acro team and base jump actions, and I loved his modest, straightforward Swiss temperament, his witty jokes, his enthusiasm about being in the air. Ueli together with Hannes, Guido and other Red Bull athletes - we had so much fun, it was always living life to the fullest, making the best of every minute and every situation. From my selfish point of view, you left this world way too early, Ueli! Not fair. We will dearly miss you. My thoughts are with Ueli´s family and friends.
And please guys, whereever you go, whatever you do, please be thourough and careful, as this year has really been marked with freak accidents.

More pics from Sao Paulo Grand Prix

More photos for you to share that incredible event, the race of the year, as Matt predicted, where everything was decided. An incredible privilege for me to have been able to participate "backstage", to meet the athletes and their fantastic teams. Im still over the moon that Sebastian´s team mate, Aussie Mark Webber, won the race, and I was allowed to hold his trophy and what was left of the champagne. Who do I have to bribe that we get these magnum bottles for our worlds as well?

I am dreaming.... (Sao Paulo, Timezone UTC – 2)

... and I won´t open my eyes so this incredible dream can continue. I had a Lufthansa work trip to Sao Paulo yesterday, and since we arrived early on Sunday morning, I had wondered if there was a tiny chance to get to Interlagos to see my first Formula 1 Grand Prix live. Matt, my friend from the Red Bull Air Race, is also working at F1 and had informed the Red Bull organizing crew here about my intention.
When we arrived at our crew hotel in the morning, it was obvious that a lot of the F1 teams are staying at the same hotel, as a lot of them were in their official gear, ready to go to the race course. I spotted two guys in Red Bull shirts and introduced myself – sure enough, it was Dominik who already knew I was coming over, and he pulled out a pass for me! Big smile, and my heart started beating faster. Unreal.
I changed, got down to the lobby and tried to find a lift to the race, when I met two Lufthansa pilots and Irmi, a colleague from Munich. They were also going to the race and let me join their group, patiently answering my bezillion questions, as they were big fans of F1 with a great knowledge.
Arriving at Interlagos, we were embraced by the Red Bull family. I found out that my pass took me right to the center of action, pit lane and all... Matt gave me a tour around the „paddock“ (I like that expression, reminds me of flying in Australia ;)) and had the next big surprise – I was allowed to meet and talk to Sebastian Vettel. I must be in humungous jet lag, still dreaming away...
I drank a can of Red Bull to get the energy to strengthen my wiggly knees, took a deep breath – and was overwhelmed by Sebastian´s modesty and openness. He told me that he had been out flying the helicopter with Guido, and the ice was broken immediately. I can´t give away all we talked about now, but I can tell you that it let my dream continue...
One hour before the race. To make it superspecial for me, the Red Bull guys take me to the box where the race cars are prepared. Tyres, spare parts, carbon elements – and a team of about 40 suprerorganized busy technicians who – despite of the stress and suspense – seem to share Sebastian´s friendly spirit. Suddenly Niki Lauda walks past. He is co-moderating the race for RTL German television.
Time for the ear plugs – Sebastian is in his machine and the engine is about to being started. An amazing sound, and a little earthquake. The vibration of the floor tickles my feet, and off he goes. Im not the only one convinced to have met a truely grand champion.
Please forgive me my lack of appropriate vocabulary, but I only just got back from the big Red Bull after race party at 5 am this morning... What a privilege to be part of the Red Bull family!
Time for training now, the big pool is waiting for some brave laps. I hope the 16 degrees of water temperature won´t wake me up from my dream ;) if they do, I might be awake enough to upload more photos for you later.

Jonny flies the Morning Glory in Australia

This incredible rolling cloud is very difficult to catch, and after a long time of preparation, Jonny and his team created some amazing flying footage, you can watch some of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMdyT-rIXao
Also for more fantastic photos and the report have a look at Jonny´s blog
Currently our "flying video reporter" had just flown his first task in the Canungra Classic comp up in Queensland, from his home site Beechmont out to Lake Moogerah. I love that place because it offers a huge variety of different task types and conditions, but also because the people of the Canungra Club always make it a really special event. It is always a bit like coming back to family for me, and I hope I can join in again next year!

Orlando, Timezone GMT -4

25 minutes until briefing starts... this time my standby call was really with very short notice and I had to race to the airport to make it on the flight to – Orlando! What a lucky choice, two nights in Florida. Jamie is still in Arizona at the Santa Cruz flats comp (Kraig won, with Robin Hamilton in 2nd place), so I couldnt meet her.
But our captain is an aviation enthusiast and already mentioned going to „Fantasy of flight“ in the briefing, and sure I was interested in going there. Our two co-pilots joined in, one of them had been in Guido´s flight training course, so I was outed pretty quickly. I told them about Quest Air and Wallaby in the vicinity of where we were going, the chance of maybe taking a tandem flight in the afternoon. Not enough time – so many stories in one day.
Too late now to write all of it, I will do that later. Just this much: I was introduced to the pilot who has been holding the height record for parachuting, more than 100000 feet (right, outer space!) for the past 40 years! Patiently Joe Kittinger answered my bezillion questions, as it was difficult for me to imagine how a jump like that is possible. Oxygen, pressure, weight, heat and cold, speed, stability – all spinning in my head. He made it, having gone up in a balloon above New Mexico. On the group photo he is to my right.

Mysterious Castle flights

Today I went to Tegelberg, the place of the next Women´s World Championships in May 2010. Together with Mini from Red Bull Germany we checked out some locations for special flights to create an exciting flying movie before the worlds start so we can get the media interested in the event. The scenery is amazing and there are lots of possibilities of pictures that have never been seen before, so it was a very creative day. Just imagine flying across the castle yard between the towers of Neuschwanstein!
I just hope that the scaffolding of the castle will have disappeared in six months ;)

Cover of USHPA Magazine!

I am currently on the cover of the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association´s magazine, flying above Greifenburg and Emberger Alm! They sent me a few copies to Germany and I am very honoured to be on the US magazine, as 3x world champion Kari Castle from the US used to be my major competitor! To me, this is not just about a high quality photograph, but it shows sportsmanships and an open mind to present the German world champion on the cover of a US magazine, specially as I´ve never managed to get a flying photo of me on our German DHV hanggliding magazine;) Thanks to the USHPA, and I hope your readers enjoy their September edition cover girl!
I had hoped to be able to surprise my parents with this cover, but hangglider pilot Konrad Kurp, a school friend of my father´s and now living in the USA, was faster and already told them about the magazine... they are very proud!
We are very busy at the moment organizing the next Women´s World Championship at Tegelberg for May 2010, there are lots of unique ideas and I can´t wait to see all the girls going on final glide from the last turnpoint which will always be the famous castle Neuschwanstein.