28 September 2009

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.

22 September 2009

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 ;)

13 September 2009

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.