Another stinking hot day in the Kiewa Valley - temperatures went up to 40 degrees again today! This morning at briefing time, a great lenticular formed above Mt Bogong, and the day was cancelled due to windspeeds of 70 km/h. At midday, the first clouds started exploding, and soon after we had thunder, sandstorms and a bit of hail.
For tomorrow, there is a slight chance of a very short flight, but also predictions for showers and storms starting at midday. Today the big clouds moved over from Bright, usually they overdevelop on the Emu range first. Thursday again looks quite desperate. Michi, Robert and Elmar already left for Sydney. They were all really keen on fishing over here, but Robert was the only one who had managed to catch a decent size trout. Maybe they are looking for bigger fish in the ocean now? Before they left, Robert gave me a collection of his photos - one of them is the funny parrot. These parrots visited the Austrian house every morning and checked them out.
Oli proposed to delay next years Bogong Cup into March and combine it with Forbes or Corryong. Later in the year the weather mellows out and is not as extreme as at the moment when we are hit by frontal systems and trough lines every other day.
I really hope that the guys who are at Valle de Bravo for the paragliding World Championships have better luck with their weather!

Bogong Cup Day 6: Being on the safe side

6The forecast was for strong northwesterly winds, still we had a slight chance of a comp task and went to Bright. Up on Mystic take off, conditions were gusty and the wind was crossing in from the left. At 13.15, we decided to go down and meet again at 14.15 at the landing field to see if conditions have improved, but they didnt and the day was cancelled. I was glad about that, because I have flown in bad conditions at Mystic before and don´t want to do it again. It gets rough and turbulent in the air, and the space of possible lift is very limited, with a strong drift to push you into rotory lee. Then if you bomb out, you have to land in a rotory paddock with very switchy wind directions. If you make it up, you have to face even more narrow pine valleys in a 30km/h headwind... not something you really need.
Most people went to the Porepunkah swimming hole, the Austrians went fishing again after Robert had caught a huge trout the other day.
After coming back to Mt Beauty, I invited my team and cooked a Thai curry - the Alpenhorn Motel Balconies have a great view at Emu take off, so we enjoyed good food at sunset, also Jonny and Lotte, Oli´s niece, joined in. After all, a good day.
Today it looks like even stronger winds like yesterday, at Hotham (in the higher mountains a few kms to our south) speed is up to 70 km/h in gusts, and it is supposed to get above 40 degrees today. Probably another day for the Austrians to improve their fishing skills ;)

Mt Buffalo take off

Thanks to Jonny, I have a photo with my take off on Mt Buffalo! Spectacular launch site.

Bogong Cup Day 5: Olis Birthday Flight- 123km

Today Oli had one of his big dreams fulfilled with flying to Feathertop for the first time as a Bogong Cup task. It kept us well out of airspace, so we could use the much higher and nicer lift today to fly around 3 turnpoints.
Take off was my favourite cliff start, Mount Buffalo. It only has one disadvantage- lack of set up space. I was 15th off and had to set up down in the trees. For a small person like me it is superstressful to get across huge rocks with harness and glider - not today! Davis was last off (he scored 0 yesterday for having been in the controled airspace to high and long), so he pushed, and I panicked, asked for help. My teammate Ky, our driver Michael and my good friend Conrad carried my glider and me up to take off, even though they had to get ready themselves! Also Curtis offered help - I was very impressed and very happy to see that it is not just "competition" over here, but a lot more. That way, I had enough energy for a powerful, safe take off, so thanks a lot guys!
Jonny took a photo of me taking off, I hope I can post that later! He is way cool, taking off, then just taking some photos of us other pilots taking off, filming a bit, then getting on course - and of course, winning the day again!
Feathertop deep in the high Australian Alps was our first turnpoint, followed by Mt Porepunkah and Dederang in the Kiewa, then heading back to Mt Beauty Airstrip. Oli came in second, Curt 3rd, Lukas 5th, me 10th and Jonas 12, so the whole team Germany in goal. Also Scott, Gerolf, Nic, Phil, Blenky, Artur, 20 people made goal today after a very scenic flight. Jonas reported lift of 10m/s!
Davis is racing in his Litesport, he would have been in the top 10 yesterday had he not been penalized, and he was 15th in today. Makes you wonder if we should go back to kingpost gliders ;)
After two days, Oli is in 3rd, Lukas in 5th and Im in 9th. Keep your fingers crossed that we will have another 4 great flying days like today. Looking good for tomorrow anyway.
By the way, I came 15th yesterday and won a great bottle of Annapurna Estate Chardonnay... Heather and Carol have done a great job finding sponsors for the competition - they are calling for a big party in the end, as I can´t take that beautiful wine back home around the world with me, as Im already in trouble with overweight luggage.

Bogong Cup Day 4: 120 km task!

Today we took off at Mystic and flew a 120km zig zag with goal at Mt Beauty Airfield. A bit more than half of the field made goal, with Jonny Durand winning the day and Lukas in third probably. I wasnt too fast and came in around 15th, Yulia was already there. More results later.

Bogong Cup Day 3: cancelled on Mt Emu

After we nearly suffered a heat stroke two days ago, temperatures came right down to chilly today. We went up Mt Emu and had to put on all the gear that we usually wear for flying - I was so glad I brought my Icebreaker thermal shirts and the wind and waterproof Adidas winter jacket... yes, Im still in Australia ;)
A strong wind from southerly directions indicates that it comes straight from the south pole, and temperatures felt like 5 degrees. The strong gusts calmed down just a little bit, so we all started setting up, hoping for a flyable day. Out in the flats at Wangaratta they measured up to 72 km/h, so we kept waiting. Suddenly a wind dummie decided to take off. He was pushed around a lot by the turbulence and barely made it to the bomb out. Watching him, we decided it is not worth risking anything, so the day was cancelled. Nobody else flew, we all packed up and drove down.
At the moment, the wind picked up and it looks as if there is a high level sand storm moving through, the sky looks kind of sand coloured. I wonder what the weather will bring for us tomorrow. Hopefully a great flying day. HGFA fees for foreign pilots have risen to 100$, it would be quite expensive to have paid that amount just for a couple of flights!

Bogong Cup Day 2: Still no task, cold front

This morning I got up early to give a radio interview to a local radio station. Exciting to be aired life when it is in a foreign language! They said they would call again during the course of the comp. Nice to find some interest in our sport!
Today we all went up to Mt Emu take off where we found still quite a strong west to northwesterly wind. No thermals, but wave like looking clouds ahead of a cloud cover line with a few drops of rain moving in. A trough line move right over our heads, cooling yesterdays hot air down - I even had to put on a jacket today!
The day was cancelled as there were no signs of thermal activity, but a lot of signs for worsening conditions. Oli testflew my glider down, as I didnt feel very confident with mammatus looking clouds above me. He said he likes that glider very much - and he found out that I had confused left and right wingtip, so the glider had a very slight turn. Lucky it was before the comp!
Tonight we are invited to dinner by the local cricket club. A great social event every year, with really good food! I always like to go there because I will meet one of the fire brigade guys who plucked me down from the eucalypt tree ages ago at the women´s world championships. Always good to be able to shout your guardian angels some drinks!

Bogong Cup Day 1: Cancelled due to strong winds

Today we had the first comp day of the Bogong Cup in Mt Beauty. Due to wind speeds of up to 70km/h from NNW, we didnt even go up any mountain to try - turbulences just get too strong. Yet some guys, including Oli, sneaked off to have a flight in a sailplane. Can´t wait to get their report!
I have moved in at the Alpenhorn Motel which provides Jonny and me with great accomodation as a prize of having won last years Bogong Cup! And lucky we have a pool here- temperatures are over 40 degrees today...
On the photo you can see my retrieve team, Sam, Michael and Curtis. Not much driving around today, just a day to catch up with other pilots, do some work and get prepared for hopefully really good flying days starting tomorrow.
Luckily we don´t have any bushfires yet this year, but with strong winds and the heat the risk is extremely high, so there is a "total fire ban" in our area, which means that we sometimes have to use different tracks to the normal ones to get up to take off.
From our living room and balcony, I can see Mt Emu take off, and we will probably go up there tomorrow. It looks blue and blown out, not a single hangglider in the air.
Our German group is smaller than usual this year. Katharina is here to fly as a wind tech and help with the organization, in the comp it is Oli, Lukas, Jonas and me. The Austrians have Gerolf, Michi and Robert here, and I guess the largest non-Australian group is from Russia. Their youngest member Yulia was very successful at the Forbes competition, she finished 13th! A great result for a tough comp.
Young Spanish superhero Blay is here as well - with Forbes he won his first big international competition and impressed everybody. Good to see that there are enthusiastic, talented new pilots in our beautiful sport!

From Albury to Wandiligong

I flew with Rex Airlines from Sydney to Albury and worried quite a bit - after having paid 30 $ for excess luggage (for 9 kilos), they asked me to choose one of my luggage pieces that I want to go. ?!? They said the other one might be unloaded if the plane gets too full... and please sign here that you pick it up later at your own costs. But don´t worry, usually everything gets on.
With my bad United Airlines luggage experience of a 5 day delay, I disappeared to the bathroom with my suitcase, put on all the gear I need for flying for a few days, running shoes, shirts, jackets, a few trousers, and then told her I definitely want my harness to have priority ;) Luckily both my bags arrived in the end, and I was happily waiting for Oli who came to pick up his niece Lotte and me at Albury.
We spent a beautiful evening in romantic Wandiligong, Carol had prepared a delicious thai curry with tofu and broccoli. It was good to see Luca rushing around the house being very active!
The next day, Lotte and I helped Carol to set up headquarter for the Bogong Cup in Mt Beauty, prepare the bags full of sponsored goodies for the pilots, pick up Oli who flew over and go swimming in the cold river. I enjoy the time here with my friends a lot!
Today we are all going to move over to Mt Beauty, register for the comp, get all the gear ready for the start tomorrow. My glider, an all carbon Moyes Litespeed 3,5s arrived last night with Michi Friesenbichler, and I can´t wait to get into the air again with that beauty! I will have to wait a bit though, it looks like today the northerlies might get really strong. That also means very hot days, tomorrow up to 40 degrees! Lucky that the Alpenhorn Motel has a wonderful pool for chilling...

Sydney sunrise

Heavily jetlagged I finally arrived in Sydney and was warmly welcomed by the Moyes family. At the moment, I wake up between 3 and 4 am, that is even earlier than all the lorikeets, parakeets, cockatoos and delete-birds start their wild morning chattering.
One more precious day in this beautiful city before I head out to Albury where Carol will pick me up tomorrow and take me to Bright. Im privileged to have a couple of weeks here in Australia, yet I wish I could go to NZ as well to see how my friends and their kids are over there.
At the Bogong Im going to fly a Litespeed 3,5 s full carbon, and I heard from several pilots that Michi Friesenbichler is doing extremely well on it at Forbes. Can´t wait to get into the air again, to smell the Eukalipt scented thermals, to land in a flock of kangaroos... to be harrassed by magpies and wedge-tailed eagles... to be scared by huntsmen spiders and red-bellied black snakes... and most of all, to get back together with a lot of really good friends from all over the world!

Hyderabad, Sao Paulo, Abu Dhabi...

...and a few work trips later Im on my way to Australia. I had a smooth flight to the UAE and I hope I dont get stuck here in the desert tonight, trying to catch a flight to Sydney. I will stay a couple of days with Vicki Cain´s (Bill Moyes´daughter) family, and then head on to Albury, where I will meet up with Carol. I cant wait to meet her, Oli and little Luca!
They are organizing the Bogong Cup again and Im looking forward to redeeming last years prize - I won accomodation at the great Alpenhorn Motel in Mount Beauty! Great views, a pool and a kitchen - luxury accomodation! It´s been a long time since I was in Oz and Im very much looking forward to meeting a lot of my good friends again.
More when Im in Sydney.

It is your choice...

Im very proud that my home city Bremen suggested me for the "Athlete of the year" awards. We are five different girls from different sports who you can give your vote to here: http://www.nordcom.net/balldessports/
if you click on the small arrow in the lower right corner.
One vote will be made by all the online choices, two votes will be made on March 7th in Bremen at the "Ball of sports" where we will be presented to a jury and to the audience. On Jan. 16th, a pre-result will be published.
I think it is a great opportunity to present our small sport to the media and to the public, trying to find more hanggliding and paragliding enthusiasts for our beautiful, amazing sport! This article was published in the Bremen newspapers "Weser Kurier" and "Bremer Nachrichten" on Dec. 11th.

Hyderabad, India - Timezone UTC +5,5

So I really went to India yesterday and enjoyed the hazy sun and 30 degrees in Hyderabad today. Walking around Banjara Hills, I had to visit the adidas store and saw the new collection of Sania Mirza, and Indian Tennis Star. Great new things, I wonder if they will be sold in Herzogenaurach as well ;)

Also I shopped for spices and had to smile when I walked past this Red Bull shelf.

On the road, usually women do the hard physical work and men "supervise". Hm.

The scaffolding picture is for my father. Interesting structure.

Life seems to be completely back to normal here, it is as busy and noisy as usual. I really hope the bombings in Mumbai were the last ones. In May, two places here in Hyderabad were hit, so I hope this place is not a target at this moment. Certainly the safety measures everywhere are a lot stricter right now. Whenever going into the hotel, or a mall, or just a supermarket, bags are controlled and I was scanned several times with a metal detector.

The quarry behind the hotel
When we arrived this morning at 3.30 am, I heard noise outside like from a huge building place. It stopped around 8 am and just started again a few hours ago. A marble quarry behind the hotel? I doubt they work during the night in Carrara. Our hotel staff could not provide any information, so I sneaked outside and had a look myself.
Huge trucks are driving up and down right next to the pool area, everything is lit up, large blocks of stone are loaded and transported away. Stones the size of a mountain for a person from Bremen like me ;) big enough to take off from. Next question: how long? About 6 or 7 months was the vague answer... at least now I know it is not explosions on Christmas eve, but the guys pushing stones in the crater next door. Yes, I will have to be here on work on Christmas eve too, and I will have heavy duty ear plugs with me!

The day I nearly flew in Israel - Tel Aviv, Timezone UTC +2

My standby line had another surprise for me - a layover in Tel Aviv! As soon as they told me, I sent a text message to Ilan. When I was in Tel Aviv last time, about 7 years ago, I didnt know any pilot in the city.
Ilan answered immediately, aksing if I could bring my harness. Not possible, as I was already in Frankfurt airport, waiting for a flight to work on. With a nice crew we flew to Israel and got to the hotel around 5 am. After a few hours of sleep, Ilan picked me up at the hotel and we went two hours north to Mt Tavor. He got his friends harness for me, but it did not fit, so he gave me his own Moyes harness and his new Litespeed 3,5 s, the same model that I fly.
The country looks beautiful, big dark fields to the southwest, the Golan heights and the sea of Galilea to our east. Take off was as flat as Monte Cucco, and the wind was not really there, just some smoke on the ground indicated not exactly a perfect direction. Ilan took off anyway, I was impressed with his power run.
I hoped the sun would create a thermal and some good launch conditions for me, but instead the wind crossed and finally came in from the back, unfortunately quite strong. I started packing up, much to the disappointment of the two young arabian boys behind me who had expected to record a cool film on their mobile phone... I communicated with hand and feet (I dont speak arabic) and got them to pick up the glider - I just wanted to show them how heavy it is so they could understand what was going on. When the first one lifted it, his eyes nearly popped out his head and the other one laughed. Well ok, we had a nice tail wind on the sail ;) then the other one tried, and they both said goodbye and left on their scooter.
Ilan was braught back up by his friend Miki and we had a short chat in German. On the way back to Tel Aviv, we had a falafel stop at the greatest falafel entertainer of Israel - the falafels were flying through the air! Then a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, and I decided I wont wait another 7 years before coming back to this beautiful country.
Our crew left at 3 am to fly back, I arrived in the afternoon in Munich and now Im about to leave for my next trip tomorrow - probably Hyderabad in India!

The sun rarely shines in Vancouver...

Since we arrived here in Vancouver, it kept raining and drizzling. Lucky that the hotel provides an umbrella for us! 3 pm feels as dark as late evening, it is difficult to stay up late here, specially with 9 hrs time difference in the back.
It is a bit warmer than at home, around 8 c above 0, so I kept walking around outside, because I like this city very much. Even when you dont exactly see that there is a waterfront or Grouse Mountain on the other side, because cloudbase is at sea level ;)
Every time there are more poor people in the streets, and yesterday I experienced a new sad record. I was asked for money by people living in the streets 26 times (in about 4 hours of walking around...) - that is more than in any other city I have been to.
But there are good news too - all our crew members who were in Mumbai returned home safely and are well looked after right now!

Standby

Way into December, I have to work a standby line at Lufthansa which means I dont know when or where I will end up. Today I called and offered to work a day early - with the latest news from Mumbai I can imagine that some people are scared to fly there, so I offered help.
A few hours later, I was called and got a flight for tomorrow - going to Vancouver. A relief on one hand, even though I would have been ready to go to India to help, get colleagues and other people safely out of the country. My thoughts are with the people who live in Mumbai as well as with all visitors - quite a few times I had the opportunity to enjoy the vibrant city for a day, to taste the best food in the world, to haggle on the markets for silk and mangoes.
Three times over the past 12 months I met extraordinarily strong Indian women sitting next to me on private flights to Australia or the US, hard working and successful women, medical doctors or professors most of the times. I admired them for their amazing stories, for their braveness and for their vision that India is on the rise and they can support their country´s reputation abroad.

Sportlertag DHV 2008

Today we are still in Bruchsal at the "day of the sport pilots" - we are listening to different presentations about hanggliding and paragliding. Torsten Hahne (on the photo) just showed us the most amazing photos of his cross country flights around the greatest peaks of the European Alps and glaciers. And by the way, he is 3rd in this years DHV xc contest in sport class.
Now Peter Achmueller is teaching us about how to improve performance in cross country flying, and how to work in the hanggliding and paragliding clubs - how to raise motivation. We are laughing a lot, Peter is a real comedy talent!
Soon after lunch, we will also get the awards for this years cross country contest, also for German leagues and German Cup. Soon more.

DHV annual meeting: Honourings

Today we met in Bruchsal, close to Heidelberg, for the annual meeting of our hanggliding organisation DHV. First they started with honouring the pilots who won medals in European and World Championships. Rebekka Speckenheuer started with her song and video "Hammer" that she wrote for our women´s team - I dont know who was more nervous, me or her!
Then Monique, Regina, Ute, Christa and me were called to the stage and got a big applause from the about 150 delegates of all hanggliding and paragliding clubs in Germany. We got a great present - as a memory we got a real book filled with photos from the worlds at Monte Cucco.
After that, Ewa was honoured for her European paragliding champion medal - here we are sisters, I also won the gold medal at the hanggliding Europeans at Greifenburg, where the men´s team won the bronze team medal, so Andre, Lukas, Hans, Jörg, Gerald and Roland were called to the stage as well.
Now the political part of the meeting is starting, and tonight we will have a party for all the pilots. Tomorrow we will have the awards for the DHV XC flying contest with interesting presentations of some of the best cross country pilots.

"Hamma" (Hammer)

After a couple of work trips last week (Orlando and Portland), I finally arrived back home, picked up my parents in the airport and we started preparing the big "gold party" that Regina and I celebrated with the German women´s national hanggliding team at Reginas place in Riedern last night.
But not only our team and people who helped us win this summer at Monte Cucco were there, also our families and friends, lots of pilots of different kinds. Regina and I loved to prepare the best food in the world for our loved ones, all tasty, healthy and vegetarian. And I heard quite a few people raving about the Indian and Thai curries, the pumpkin soup or the veggie chilli ;)
Unfortunately, a lot of our friends from further away could not make it this time - we hope they are all well and that we see them sometime soon anyway. Music, food, lots of flying action projectored to the wall and even a dance floor!
But the best surprise was our young friend Rebekka - she and her friend Sandra have created a video for us about the worlds, they dubbed a song and cut a whole film. Incredible job! We love "Hamma" - have a look at it here: Hamma you will see quite a lot from the women´s worlds and I wish all of you could understand their German lines of the song. Those two girls are great, incredible, and that is what "Hamma", actually "hammer" means in colloquial German. Thanks a lot for the song and the film, and we hope they will be successful on MTV ;)

My Australian Hero

I had intended to write a bit more about Jeddah and also about Ewas movie, when I read about great news from down under where the Aussies already had 6 rounds in the Canungra Classic comp and they fly the final round tomorrow/in a few hours.
Local boy and top Australian pilot Jonny Durand bombed out the first day because he was very sick, and is now in first place!!! Believe it or not, it really sounds incredible! World Champion Attila Bertok is close behind him, so it will be a very nerve-wrecking last round!
Unfortunately I couldnt make it there this year, but every morning when I have a cuppa and look at Big Jon´s great Canungra mug, I think of my friends down under and hope that they get great thermals and a safe flight. And I keep my fingers crossed for Jonny the legend - he deserves to win after that incredible week.
By the way, to get one of those great mugs, you have to be in the top 10 of the Canungra Classic comp, which is quite difficult with all those Australian guns racing there. Results and pictures here: Canungra Classic 2008
By the way - all you paragliding guys should consider trying hanggliding as well! Australian pg pilot Enda Murphy is currently ranked 5th in the comp in his second year of hanggliding. I bet he has a lot of fun!
Also amazing - young German talent Jonas Blecher won one round in this years Classic! I took me years to get there once... great on him, I hope he enjoys the great company and the parties just as well.

Ewas paragliding movie in the cinema!

I just returned from the premiere of the first paragliding movie in cinemas ever: "Reise zum Horizont" (Journey to the Horizon), featuring Ewa and her 69 years old pg student Dörthe.
The applause for producer/editor Thomas Latzel and for Ewa and Dörthe was neverending, about 200 spectators were deeply touched by their amazing story and incredible aerial pictures in different parts of the world. More tomorrow.

Jeddah - Timezone GMT+3

My last adventure took me to Saudi Arabia. The only way to enter the country is by work or with an invitation from a company or the Royal family, so I was excited to see a country that I usually cant travel to. We flew Frankfurt-Jeddah-Asmara (Eritrea)-Jeddah and arrived just after midnight.
Jeddah airport is quite small, with a large area outside for the muslim pilgrims who do the hadj and go to Mekka or Medina. No chance to get to those places unless it says "muslim" in your passport. Anyway, I could not have rented a car anyway, because women are not allowed to drive a car in Saudi Arabia. Really, no kidding! Also, women dont work, not on the market, not in restaurants, not in hotels... so there are a lot of Indians, Pakistani, Africans - people from other countries who do the work.

Back in Munich

Back in cold rainy Munich, I am still dreaming of Mexico. Just to give you a picture when you haven´t been there for a while - last year for the pg pre worlds, the take off at el Penon quadripled in size. Still sandy then, it is now beautiful green, grass everywhere.
Also amazing: The landing field at the lake looks really big enough now for a hangglider as well. I only landed there once years ago and just made it with dry feet... now it looks much nicer.
Tomorrow I will meet Alex Ploner, Regina, Andy, Jörg and Tim in the Dolomites. The weather forecast is great and team Timezone is going to take some photos and films in the spectacular scenery.

Valle de Bravo - Timezone GMT-5

Today Miguel Gutierrez picked me up in Mexico City and took me out to Valle de Bravo. It didnt look very flyable, so we just cruised around and he showed me what he and Oscar are doing at the moment to prepare for the perfect paragliding world championships that will be held here in January 2009. I had flown a competition in the beautiful area two times and I was overwhelmed by the work they have put into take off and landing areas!
I will post more pictures as soon as I am at home - seeing how much work they all put into the event makes me want to be on the pg national team! Ewa knows this area very well and loves to fly in Valle, she will have the best chance to compete successfully in a really great event. With Nextel Miguel and Oscar have a really strong sponsor, and apart from amazing flying around the vulcanos of Valle, be prepared for some incredible events - these guys are really creative!
...by the way, the Monarca competition first week of January already has 91 entries, so if you want to go, you should consider entering now ;)

Screaming Mimi

Not exactly as pink as in the TV series "Riptide", but at least as screaming - when I joined a business event for Cisco a week ago, I was the only one allowed to sit in the cockpit during the flight in this great old Sikorsky helicopter. It had been painted in army green because it played a roll in the movie "the storm flood" some years ago. No digital screens in the cockpit, quite a different sight to the jet cockpits I usually see, only beautiful old instruments. The pilot was experienced and despite quite a strong sw wind, we had a really smooth flight.

Dieser Heli ist zwar nicht schreiend rosa wie die Sikorsky in der Serie "Trio mit vier Fäusten", aber mindestens genauso laut - als ich vor einer Woche einen Vortrag für Cisco halten durfte, wurde ich zu einem Rundflug eingeladen und war die einzige, die beim Flug im Cockpit sitzen durfte. Dieser Heli wurde in bundeswehr-grün angestrichen für den Fernsehfilm "Die Sturmflut", der vor etwa 2 Jahren im Fernsehen lief. Im Cockpit ein herrlicher Uhrenkasten, nicht ein einziges digitales Instrument! Der erfahrene Pilot flog uns sanft durch die Hügel von Heilbronn, trotz starken Windes kaum ein Wackler. Sah total einfach aus, vielleicht muß ich Guido anhauen, daß er mir auch mal Helifliegen beibringt...

Back to winter

It was superhot when we were setting up the glider at satellite beach in Florida. Had there been a dune like in Christchurch, we could have flown here all day with the pelicans.
Now back in Munich Im missing the heat - temperatures were down to 6 degrees celcius this morning, and the prediction is for snow in the mountains down to 1500m today! Winter cant be far away... lucky that there might be some flights to Mexico, Argentina and Brazil on my schedule soon!

Escaping the hurricanes

Long hours of work - I flew to Orlando with Jamie and Rolf Wenzel who is producing a film for the Lufthansa Magazine on Air. We filmed on board while I was working and Jamie was our very patient passenger. I had hoped to be able to fly and film at Quest, but we arrived one day too late- it was too windy on Monday and Tuesday with hurricane "Ike" passing along south of Florida.
At least Rolf could film my usual layover training - swimming, running, working out in the gym. In the evening we cooked porcini risotto and had a beautiful dinner on Jamie´s veranda 20 m away from the waves.
Thanks for your invitation, Rae-Ann, I only saw it when we were on our way back already. I would love to see you when Im around next time.
At the moment Im preparing a presentation about hanggliding and being successful in competition for some Cisco sales people - "The view from above". Tomorrow in Heilbronn I will present it and get to fly in a big helicopter with the guys, i hope the weather stays this nice ;)
More pictures soon.

Real people in every Timezone!

Walking through Manhattan, we had a lot of fun - but why keep people asking me for the way? Happened three times on this trip ;) do I look like a local?
Here on broadway a young guy walked past me and asked "Corinna? Bist Du Corinna Schwiegershausen?" I was stunned - out of all the 20 odd million people in Manhattan, I met a German pilot who said he knows me from the magazines and his friend who flies the competitions. Sometimes the world is small.
Now we are off to Frankfurt, then to Orlando to film on board and also hopefully at Quest if Hanna is fast and Ike is slow... Im not too keen on thermalling in the torandos of a hurricane!

Skyline Moyes Party in Marquartstein

I just returned from the great Skyline Moyes party at Weßner Hof, organized by "Mr Skyline" Wolfgang Genghammer and his team. About 60 pilots were flying from Hochplatte take off, or were aerotowed, came in from Kössen or Hochfelln or other mountains, it was a great fly-in! Star of the tug pilots was Dragonfly inventor Bobby Bailey who barely touched the ground today. He had fun taking passengers into the air, showing them the beautiful castles and mountains of Chiemgau from the air, or towing up happy hangglider and rigid wing pilots.
I saw some Slovenian national team pilots, some Italians, Hungarians, Austrians of course - it was a big international event, and I had the honour (and power) to present our sport to the audience, interviewing pilots and telling people what it is all about. Nice to see the big smiles in peoples faces who went up for the first time!
Now I will be off to Frankfurt and tomorrow to Newark. My sponsor Timezone had a large shop at the party with great trousers, so I will sport my new great pair tomorrow in Manhattan - maybe those hip and trendy New Yorkers will appreciate them ;) I was happy that my friend and team mate Jamie wasnt at the party today, she already has plenty of access luggage kilos when she flies back next week and Im sure would have ended up with a lot more today, as the collection was excellent!
A last time to meet Oli for a while, he will be off to Australia to stay with his family and escape winter. Of course Gerolf was at the party, presenting the beautiful new Moyes "Malibu" a mix of beginners and intermediate glider. Tonight they will have Tom Weißenberger talking about his "Island jump" and about the biggest triangle started in Germany this year, in May he flew a 320 km FAI triangle from Hochfelln!
With Primoz, Regina, Jörg, Andi and me we had a great bunch of Team Timezone pilots at the meet, and people loved to have their photo taken in front of our sails with the Timezone wings. For tonight or tomorrow, they also expect Alex Ploner to drive or fly over from Italy, the new rigid wing World Champion.
I wish I could party with all of them tonight, sitting at the bonfire, watching the best of hanggliding. These Skyline parties have a great reputation throughout the area.

Antenne Bayern, Anastacia and GO on TV!

I just came back from a radio interview with one of the biggest private radio networks in Germany, Antenne Bayern. They have an impressive studio at Ismaning, a few kms north of Munich.
When I arrived, there was excitement in the air - they told me that Anastacia was there, right now next door. And she outed herself and admitted for the first time that she turned 40, not 35! Great on her. I love her music, her incredible voice, her passion - and she patiently gave lots of autographs and had photos taken with fans, she seems to be a great person too! (no, I didnt dare to ask her for a photo or autograph, I just admired her from a few meters away and thought what a great job she does with her inspiring music).

For the very positive side of the German Open, I forgot to mention Henry Maek who put a lot of effort into the comp. He managed to get two TV stations out and they some great shows about the comp, one of the shows was even broadcasted life!!! Have a look at the impressions here: http://www.dhv.de/typo/German_Open.
There were also big articles in two local newspapers, which is a great advertisement for our sport.Thanks, Henry, I know how much effort it takes to convince those guys that it is worth coming over and filming a story! When I waited for the copy of the show, I heard that the RBB guys were really pleased, they all agreed it had been the nicest story they had done all week!

German Open – some Highlights

The nicest moment of this years German Open was when Sarah, the cute little daughter of Henry Maek (he is one of the organizers), gave a great bunch of flowers to me for having won the German Champion title. Konrad Lüders played a song for the rigid wings on his violin, but I only knew the „Hungarian Dances“ that he played for the hanggliding pilots. Very fast run up and down the keys, very inviting to dance (at least for Regina and me), good job, Konrad!
Also special thanks to Wulf, one of the hardest working volunteers Ive ever seen in a comp. And my flying highlight was Harm the Dutch Dragonfly pilot when he dropped me off directly into a thermal yesterday – not an easy task up here in the north!
Uli Eysel was lucky and he is fine after the towing incident on the first day, but he has to have a gum surgery on Monday.
Im extremely happy that my Slovenian friend Primoz (Reginas boyfriend) is now German Champion in Class 5.
And now some of the controversies of the comp for dear Davis.
Concerning the competition, Im still not sure who really deserves the title.
On that first day, I didnt even get a chance to leave the airfield. I had two tows of horror with huge lockouts and decided it is not safe for me to try and tow in a 90 degrees crosswind of up to 30 km/h in gusts. Call me chicken – anyway, I was still disappointed that I didnt even get a fair chance on that day, because I didnt get higher than 50m off the deck.
Elio and Lukas looked at the towing conditions, also at the strong southerly and just shook their heads and also did not get on course. When even the towing pilots call it Russion Roulette and have doubts to tow in those conditions...
Second day that we flew, the pitch measurement discussion started. We had to change towing directions and move our glider about 800m along the field – when Lukas moved the other way. I asked what happens, and he said they want to measure his glider´s pitch in the shelter now... in the beginning of the competition task? Lukas is very strong, but after carrying his glider over and back, take off had already started and he was exhausted. They did the same thing with Andre Djamarani, the top ranked German pilot of the Europeans. Lukas and Andre could only start really late into the task on that day and I suppose both of them were physically and mentally quite exhausted, so they did not get a fair chance to compete in their own national championships.
On the other hand, winner Roland Wöhrles glider was not measured once. It seems like similar problems as last year – lack of concept, thus more disturbing than helping or working together. I had my glider measured in the goal, in the morning of the last task and in goal again, and was able to find agreeable settings, I could move my glider over in time, so I was lucky. Andre and Lukas have been the best German pilots this year, always highest ranked in the competitions they flew, but even the best guys can´t perform properly when they are forced to cross the line of their stress level.
We had a lot of discussions about how to do the measurements and how to deal with them at the Europeans, and there it seemed quite constructive and positive. Over here, that system was not adapted. Numbers and names were published so everybody knew who were the „bad guys“.
Out of the seven comps I have flown this year so far, this was definitely the most disturbing one.

German Open finish

Yesterday Lukas and my glider were measured before the task and after we landed at goal. My glider was found ok, but they zeroed Lukas for the day because they measured lower settings than they allowed (just to explain the results).
Overall Oli Barthelmes came second, Hans Kiefinger 3rd, Jörg fourth and I ended up 5th and as I was the top ranked woman, I was also able to defend the title as German Champion.
In rigid class, Primoz Gricar became German Champion, Toni Raumauf placed 2nd in the German Open and Dirk Ripkens 3rd.
Elio Cataldi had a problem with his gps yesterday and landed at the airfield, so he lost his 3rd place.
Japanese pilot Akira Mutazono finished 11th.
My gear is packed, early tomorrow morning I have to work on the flight to Vancouver.
Next weekend I will be back to go to the Skyline Moyes party at Marquartstein and I hope to see a lot of pilots and friends there.

German Open Day 5, 80 km out and return

Again a significant southwester, also some high cirrus moving through and shading off some areas. Still the task committee set an 80 km out and return to Golssen and back to the airfield Altes Lager.
Today I only needed one tow, Harm dropped me right into a thermal with his Dragonfly today! Lucky, because the tow was quite turbulent, the air was really rough.
I got high and decided to start out on course because it didnt look like conditions would get better. I was on my own, just a rigid wing in sight every now and then. It wasnt easy to get to the turnpoint even thoug we were flying with a tailwind, because the ground was shaded sometimes. I guess I rounded the turnpoint first, and only flying back Oli and Hans nearly caught up to me, but I made it in first, followed by Oli and Hans. Maybe 8 flex pilots made goal, and quite a few rigids, Toni Raumauff won the rigid day ahead of Primoz and Tim.
Looks like quite a lot of rain moving in tonight, we might not be able to fly tomorrow.
Thanks to Willi for the great picture of my father!

German Open Day 4, 120 km to goal

Today the wind calmed down, cloudbase was at about 1500 m and a task of 120 km to the Polish border was set. I needed two tows to find some lift that took me up - the others had already left, so I was on my own most of the day.
Primoz passed me and for some few kilometers we flew together, but I couldnt keep pace with his Phantom. Anyway, I made goal, about 8 people were there already.
I just got back, results are not out yet, but it looks like Hans won the day, followed by Oli
Thanks to Christiane Kappes for the photo.

German Open Day 3

Today the wind is really strong again, so the day was cancelled for the flex wings, for the rigids they are still waiting for a decision.
Yesterdays task was apparently valid, as the protest did not get through. Again not exactly a decision for safety and fairness, just a decision to keep enough tasks for a maybe valid German Open, if the weather turns flyable again this week. Disappointing.
On the photo another impression from the Orangerie at the castle in Postdam.

German Open Day 2

We tried to fly a 53 km task on Monday, but it was extremely difficult to get into the air and stay there. The wind was blowing hard from the south, we were starting with a crosswind into a lee side situation, thermals were light and broken, drifting was not possible because it drifted you into tiger country.
Oli landed again and got up very late, then Lukas, Hans and Elio came back even later. Hans was the only one who had a reflight at about 5pm, and he was the only one who made goal. About half of the field signed a complaint that was turned into a protest because the flying was not safe and also the ordered launch did not properly work, it was more than one and a half hours to get 23 pilots into the air because we had many lock outs and weak links broken. The chances for the pilots were not fair, depending on when they got into the air they ended up on course. After the protest, the day was neutralized.
Today the wind was even stronger than yesterday and was cancelled straight away, with the prediction of gusts up to 60 km/h on ground level. I had seen a huge line of cloud cover on the satellite, moving at about 200km/h, it arrived here just after midday.
My Mum always wanted to see castle „Sans Souci“ at Potsdam, a 45 km drive from here, so today we went there and had a look at the grand gallery of portraits. The most famous one, a Rubens, had been taken to Russia after the war and is currently in St Petersburg at the Eremitage. The castle and the beautiful gardens and fountains reminded me of Versailles close to Paris. Definitely worth a visit!
Tomorrow the frontal system is expected to be through, and I hope the wind will ease off as well. There is plenty of space for towing at Altes Lager, the runway is big enough for a 747 to land there, but it is only straight east-west, and the grassy areas around it are not prepared for towing, which makes it difficult to take off with a strong ssw wind.

German Open Day 1

Here at Altes Lager, 60 km south of Berlin, we have covered skies and not a great forecast. So far we postponed the briefing to 13.00 hrs because the sky was covered, every now and then a shower. Maybe it will improve a little, maybe not. I would not mind a rest day today, because I have to fly with somebody elses harness and helmet, because Oli forgot my equipment at Skyline ;) at least he brought my glider! And Wolfi sent the harness up today, hopefully it will be here tomorrow.
We have Elio Cataldi (European Champion) and his family here, also a Japanese and a few Hungarian pilots. We are about 55 pilots, I dont know how many trikes, and one Dragonfly. As soon as there is another decision, I will let you know.

Meeting a friend in Munich...

Last night Ewa was on her way to Greifenburg where she is helping to organize the Junior&Ladies-Challenge, when she stopped by my place and we had dinner. Great to catch up with the paragliding world as well. On the picture you see two happy European Champions, two girls who love the sky! This year the flying women of Germany were very successful. Ewa finished the Europeans on 18th place overall as second best German pilot!!!
Today Im leaving for Jüterbog, 1 hr south of Berlin, to fly the German Open. And I keep my fingers crossed for Ewa at the Worlds in January in Mexico. It is her favourite place to fly, so I hope she will have a lot of fun, success, and - most of all - a really safe meet!

More photos!

Today I went up Rauschberg with Chrissy and Stephan to take some aerial shots from my glider. It was the only possible flying day with a bit of sun this week and we were lucky to catch it. At the moment there is already thunder and lightening outside, another huge front will roll through tonight. I really hope they dont get too much rain in Wuppertal, as they will launch the Red Bull X-Fighters event on Saturday. Motocross drivers won´t mind the mud, but the spectators I guess...
Later I will go and pick up the photos from Chrissy and then post one or the other for you, so you can have a look at the beautiful Ruhpolding, the place where we had our German Open last year.

Slovenian Open and British Open

Congratulations to European Champion Elio Cataldi (ITA) - yesterday he won the Slovenian Open in Tolmin, ahead of my favourite Slovenian Pilot Primoz Gricar. Also great performance: Stefan Boller in 8th place (best German pilot) and my Timezone team mate Jörg Bajewski in 16th place! Have a look at Jörgs Blog here: http://joergbajewski.blogspot.com/

After four rounds at the British Open in Laragne, the winner is Moyes Litespeed designer Gerolf Heinrichs from Austria. With Walter Mayer the Austrians also won the team score way ahead of any British team.

Next Monday, the German Open will start in Berlin, I also hope to see Elio Cataldi there. After the German Open, see you at the Moyes-Skyline-Party at Weßner Hof on the 29th and 30th!

NDR 22.45 tonight

Tonight I will drive to Hamburg with my parents and some friends from my hanggliding club here in Bremen, because I was invited to a sports program of the North German television NDR and Radio Bremen. They will show a film about the worlds in Italy and interview me. Helmut Wilms set up his glider in the studio! They sound very interested - they insisted on me bringing my vario and explaining it, Im very happy to have a chance to show more people what our sport is about.
The show starts at 22.45 until 23.45, very late.
I only just arrived back from Hyderabad/India yesterday, so tonight I will bring plenty of Red Bull to the studio to stay awake ;)
Heute Abend werde ich mit meinen Eltern und ein paar Freunden von unserem Bremer Drachenflugverein DFC Weser nach Hamburg in Fernsehstudio vom NDR fahren. Ich wurde zur Sportschau eingeladen, um etwas über unsere WM zu erzählen. Außerdem hat Helmut Wilms seinen Drachen im Studio aufgehängt, darin soll ich mit anmoderieren. Es wird sicher ein Spaß werden - obwohl ich gestern erst aus Hyderabad/Indien von einer Arbeitstour zurückkam... zum Glück hab ich für diese Fälle den richtigen Sponsor und werde einfach das ganze Fernsehstudio mit Red Bull versorgen, dann schlafe auch ich nicht ein. Die Sendung fängt nämlich erst um 22.45 an und geht bis 23.45 Uhr.
Die Redakteurin scheint sehr interessiert, ich sollte auf jeden Fall mein Compeo (Vario/GPS) mitbringen und erklären. Wie schön, daß ich unseren tollen Sport der Öffentlichkeit vorstellen darf!

Heut

tonight on TV

Tonight between 18.00 and 18.45 on Bayern 3 there will be a report about the hanggliding world championships on television.

On Sunday, August 10th, I will be in Hamburg life at NDR between 22.45 and 23.45, they will show footage of the Worlds and interview me.

Meeting Steve Morse again

Sorry that there was nothing on TV last night, they must have changed their programs last minute - but we will go on trying and I will let you know if anything is on.
As a little excuse, I have this exclusive picture for you from the Deep Purple concert in the cloister of Benediktbeuern last night.
Some of you might remember that I landed in an airfield at the world Championships two years ago that is owned by Steve Morse. He is not only one of the best guitarrists in the world, but he is also a keen pilot and interested in anything that flies. When I landed in his front yard in Florida, he smiled at me and asked if he could help me pack up the glider and wanted to know everything about my instruments. Charlie who made the film about the worlds told me who Steve is - difficult for me to imagine that this modest, friendly guy is a show biz mega star.
Steve invited me to the concert last night and even though the schedule was supertight, we managed to briefly meet yesterday before the concert started.
I was blown away, Steve was so friendly, happy to see me, congratulated me for the new title and told all the other guys as well about his encounter with that hanggliding girl. Then he took his guitar and we followed the band on stage, staying right next to the guy who was looking after Steve´s guitars.
Peter Achmueller was with me, and we both could not believe that we were standing next to the great band Deep Purple, rocking away on stage. Amazing music, and an incredible flair under the clear bright milky way. A warm, perfect evening for that open air concert, and a location to give you goosebumps. For the first time I heard and saw Steve playing life, performing with great virtuosity. How adorable when a genius is so down to earth - or should I say, up in the sky ;) ?
I just wish Steve had had a bit more time, I would have loved to take him and his family flying into the alps - it was a perfect sky with beautiful clouds yesterday... maybe next time!

Fernsehen heute / on TV today

Wenn ihr deutsches Fernsehen bekommt, heute im ZDF um 17.55 Uhr läuft ein Beitrag über unsere WM im Sportblitz, später gibt es auf RTL 2 um 20.00 Uhr einen Film in den News.

If you can receive German programs, today there will be a film on ZDF at 17.55 in the sport, then later on RTL 2 at 20.00 a film about our worlds in the news! I hope I manage to record it.

Mega-Campioni!

We just finished a very beautiful and emotional closing ceremony of the World Championships. I cant post photos right now, will do that tonight when we arrive in Munich (if we ever arrive...). Manfred and me were called "Mega-Campione", because we both won the Worlds in our class for the 4th time!
What a great event! Thanks to Flavio and all his helpers who made a dream come true - we had a safe competition, a lot of fun, great tasks - 8 days of flying with 6 interesting tasks! - and, most of all, everybody enjoyed themselves and wants to come back next time!
Thanks to all the people who believe in us and helped us so much - the DHV, Rudl, Ecki, my parents, Rebi and Klaus, Luise, Charly and Rafael, all the people who kept their fingers crossed for us and enjoyed reading the news. It is very encouraging for new pilots to try competitions, because we obviously learnt a lot and also had fun.
And - by the way - Jamie, Monique, Ute, Regina, Christa and me did not need a single upright over these two weeks of flying!

Now we will head back to Munich, tomorrow night Im invited to the Deep Purple concert in Benediktbeuren by Steve Morse - so more interesting news later.
And thanks to Jamie, I already can show you a photo of our gold medal team on the podium today!

World Champion/s !!!

It`s pouring with rain outside, thunder and lightening and all. Today we went up Cucco South, a 92 km task was set. It got really dark when we started on course, and the storm development over our 2nd turnpoint Scheggia was already inevitable. About 15 minutes into the task, the day was cancelled. I put my legs out of my harness to let everybody know who doesnt have radio contact, and then went back to land in Sigillo.
This was the last day of the comp, and that means Team Germany is World Champion again, and I am World Champion for the 4th time! And it was bloody hard work too, a lot of fun to race with Kathleen, Francoise, Carole, Natalia and the others! The Russian team is vice Champion, Team Japan is on a great third place - this time, next time the Japanese want to win, they said! With Aki and Akari they have two great young pilots on the team who will be very strong soon.
On the photo you see Alex Ploner, he is now FAI Class 5 World Champion for the 2nd time! And the Italian team won the gold medal as well, Germany came 4th.
Manfred Ruhmer is old and new World Champion in Swift class.
Now we will party and party and party... it has been a pleasure to fly here, to be on a new team who is fresh and motivated - and they all did better than ever before! I guess RED BULL gave everybody wings, not just me ;) So did Adidas as our team sponsor - watch out for more pictures tomorrow after the award ceremony!
Thanks to Moyes for a great glider, Woody Valley for a supersleek and comfy harness, Brauniger for the most reliable GPS and Vario, also to Timezone for the great leisure wear. Now I cant wait to see Charlies film footage out on dhv.de, you find it soon on dhv tv. l