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.

New projects

Most comps of the summer season are over, congrats to Jonny Durand who won the Brasilia Race, and to Natalia Petrova who is Russian Championette again. At the moment, some young pilots are finishing a comp for new xc pilots in Greifenburg in Austria, but the next comp to watch out for will be the Canungra Classic in Australia. Wish I could go!
At the same time, beginning October, the Free Flight Hang- and Paragliding Exhibition takes place at Tegelberg in the south of Germany. Depending on my working schedule, I might be there to check out the new gear and gadgets for the next "big season". Meanwhile, there is a portrait about me in the german magazine "Myself" and in September, there will be a report on Salzburg TV where Regina joined me and we went flying at Hochries.

Results Red Bull Air Race, Slovenian / Italian Open

US-pilot Mike Goulian (photo) won his first Red Bull Air Race in Budapest after a stunning finish, with Paul Bohnhomme 2nd, Kirby Chambliss 3rd, Hannes Arch 4th and a great success for newcomer Matthias Dolderer in 5th place. Have a look at my video-interviews with Hannes and Matthias here! Hannes is in 2nd place now and Paul in 1st, but there are two races to come, in Porto and Barcelona. With only 1 point behind Paul, Hannes has a great chance to overtake the British pilot again- let´s keep our fingers crossed for him!
In Slovenia, after 4 tasks Primoz Gricar won the Nationals ahead of Tom Weissenberger and German newcomer Gerd Dönhuber. Best woman of the 9 was Ukrainian Julia Burlachenko (19th place overall), Christa Aichner from my team was in 3rd place. On the picture, you see the girls playing with a Moyes Malibu on Tolmin take off.
In Italy, they also flew 4 tasks. World Champion Alex Ploner won the competition in Parma, ahead of his team mates Elio Cataldi and Christian Ciech. Also congrats to Carol Tobler from Switzerland - as 1st woman she ranks 15th overall, followed by my team mate Monique Werner on 20th overall.

Slovenian Open, Italian Nationals and Red Bull Air Race

After two tasks in Tolmin, Slovenia, Primoz Gricar leads the comp ahead of Tom and Gerolf. In Italy, of course the National Team takes all top places, Christian, Alex, Elio, Davide! They already flew 3 tasks in Parma.
Meanwhile, in Budapest Hannes Arch is still leading the Red Bull Air Race Worldchampionship. Today will be an important day for Hannes to earn more points to keep his title - by the way, he is also the organizer of the Red Bull XAlps and one of the top pg acro guys in the world. Great to see him do so well will those fast little high powered racing planes!
The only German competitor, Matthias Dolderer, came 4th yesterday in the qualifiyng and surprised everybody with doing extremely well in his first year of participation.

Flights from Tegelberg!

This is my friend Rebi, I taught her hanggliding in April at Wasserkuppe. She already flies paragliders so it was easy to convert her. And now she did her first high flights from Tegelberg and nearly finished all of them to get the licence for hanggliding too! Im very proud of her!
Also, they had a great comp at Monte Cucco and Alex Ploner won in the end, just a few points ahead of Primoz Gricar from Slovenia/Germany. The organizer made sure that down to 10th place, pilots got prizemoney and thus their entry fee back. Well done, Flavio!
In the Dutch nationals in Laragne, Malcolm Brown won and Koos de Kejzer is new Dutch Champion. In the US nationals in Big Spring, it looks like Glen Volk won after six rounds and quite a lot of kilometers.
Today the Italian nationals start in Parma and the Slovenian nationals start in Tolmin. I will keep you updated about tasks and results and wish I could be with my friends in either place. All the best to them, good weather and great flights!

Loops above Munich

Standing on the balcony, I couldnt believe what I just saw. Two gliders in the center, a few hundred meters away from my flat, just around the German Museum area, which is pretty much Munich downtown! Then one of them pulled a couple of beautiful loops before they headed off towards Englischer Garten. I wonder who that was - and Im sorry that I cant pick them up ;) so nice to see some flying again!
While they flew 118 km task in Laragne (results), the guys in Italy had a 100km task. Primoz was first in goal, followed by Alex Ploner. Team Adidas - Regina and Christa - landed at 36 and 32 km, a good result for a difficult day. My Swiss friend Carole was best woman, she made goal and leads the women´s ranking. Scores here
The photo was made at Cucco South goal last year at the worlds with nearly our whole team at goal and everybody really happy about the performance.
The Austrian "Best of Diedams" competition is postponed to next weekend, as the prediction is for strong storms tomorrow and sunday in the Swiss, Austrian and Bavarian alps. So guys, enjoy France and Italy while you are still there, up here it is a mix like in April, one or two nice days and then a few days of storms with a lot of rain and hail.

Results from Cucco and Laragne

This photo was taken at Cucco North take off, but the guys went to Monte Gemmo at Tre Pizzi for take off yesterday. Many people landed around the first turnpoint already, after only 15 km, that is why the day wasnt worth too many points, even though 7 people made it to goal, with Alex winning the day, Gerd 2nd, Davide Guiducci 3rd and Primoz 4th. Carole Tobler and Christa shared the first place in womens ranking. Results of task 1 here.
In Laragne, three pilots made goal, Koos winning and German pilot Markus Ebenfeld in 2nd place! He had flown quite a few kms for the xc cup last week from St. Andre, and now he can use his knowledge of the area for the Dutch Open. Best woman was Russian pilot Evigeniya Laritskaya, she was 12th of the day! Task 1 resuts Dutch Open
Malcolm Brown won task 2 of the Dutch Open, best woman was Hadewych, Koos is still in the lead overall. Dutch Open after 2 tasks
Both Gerd and Markus are my XC mates from Chiemgau here in Bavaria, on a good xc day we always meet on the same take offs and fly similar distances. This year we didnt have as many great days as last year, so they are off for more flying in the comps. Good luck!

1. Task in Laragne, 1. task at Cucco

Seems like they flew a 70km task in Laragne yesterday with Dutch pilot Koos probably having won the day. Also they had a first task at Monte Cucco, 82 km with world champion Alex and German pilot Gerd Dönhuber first in goal, as Curt Warren reports on Twitter. Curt could not compete, as his team Tom and Jörg have already headed off to Austria to compete at "Best of Diedams" which starts on Friday (Curt is leaving for Australia on Sunday so he had to send his flying gear back to Austria with Tom and Jörg). Too many comps at the same time! Unfortunately, the weather will only be nice for Friday and then turn into a mix of rain and storms again in the west of Austria where the Diedams comp takes place.
As soon as I find a link to results to these competitions I will let you know the exact results. Seems like I dont miss too many great big flights at the comps in the moment, but the flatland skies of Germany look epic these days, Dirk Ripkens flew a 209km FAI triangle in the northwest German flats on his Atos yesterday. Well done Dirk!

Monte Cucco Trophy

No task yet at the Monte Cucco Trophy, the pre pre worlds. First day was cancelled due to strong wind, yesterday a front rushed through, today it is still raining. Hopefully tomorrow they can fly a first task. The last day will be Saturday, so they have 4 possible tasks. From our German team, Regina, Christa, Nikola, Jörg and "German newcomer of the year" Gerd Dönhuber are in the comp - he finished 3rd in the French Nationals in St Hilaire! Also nearly the whole Italian nationalteam including world champion Alex Ploner are in Umbria. One of the top Aussie pilots, Curt Warren, joined the comp as well as Austrian nationalteammember Tom Weissenberger.
It will be a hot race between such historical sites as Assisi, Gubbio and Perugia. There is a take off at Monte Subasio right behind the amazing Basilica of St Francis of Assisi facing west, but even if it is not flyable, there is a lot to see. Most of the frescoes in the Assisi Basilica have been restored after the last big earthquake, grand masters like Giotto and Cimabue painted the ceilings and walls with incredible detail. I definitely want to come back, compete in the Monte Cucco pre worlds next year and do more sightseeing.
Good luck to all my friends at Monte Cucco, and I will keep the world posted about flying and results.
Thanks to Flavios Blog for the photos!
The other half of the pack is again at the place of the world championship in Laragne, flying the Dutch Nationals. Or not flying too much yet, also here the first four days had to be cancelled due to poor weather, storms and strong wind. Only my Ager neighbour Malcolm Brown apparently had quite a long flight in wave. Have a look at the blog of British pilot Rich Lovelace here

More comps at the same time

At the moment, there are several comps in Europe. Furthest north 19 pilots are competing in Altes Lager, 60 km south of Berlin, at the German Flatlands. They already flew 3 tasks in four days, Lukas Bader is leading, Yulia Kucherenko from Russia is 2nd !!! and her Russian friend Artur Dzamikov 3rd. I know quite a few good flatland pilots up there, so Yulia is doing a great job, good luck for the last task tomorrow! Tonight a cold front will hit and move through, but the sandy soil dries very quickly and Im positive they will fly agian tomorrow.
Then My friends Regina, Christa and Primoz are in Buzet, Croatia, where we flew the Europeans 3 years ago. They flew the 4th task today, until yesterday Czech Dan Vyhnalik was in 1st, Primoz in 2nd and Alan Sattler, another Slovenian Pilot, in 3rd. A small country with a lot of great pilots, thinking of the great success of the Slovenian team at the paragliding world championship in Valle, Mexico.
Top woman is Christa in 26th, followed by a new German comp lady, Nicola Demmeler, and Regina. All the best to you for the last day- they will have to leave the comp before the end, because in two days, Flavio will run the Monte Cucco trophy in Italy. Quite a lot of pilots will migrate from Croatia to Umbria.
Thanks to Ashanta Carnieletto for the photo of me at Ager take off!

After a 65 km task on the final day, it was close to the very last second, because the top 4 guys were all within 20 points! Not many people there, and Jonny landing short.
Young Blay Olmos who had already won Forbes this year won the pre Europeans on his Litespeed, followed by Swiss Martin Harri and British Carl Wallbank, all on Moyes.
Also big congrats to the top woman in this comp. Kathleen Rigg finished 13th overall after six tasks, she was the 2nd best British pilot in the comp and showed that her great abilities dont just apply to Monte Cucco. She shares her Litespeed with husband Gordon who will now fly the British Open in Ager while Kathleen returns to son Tyler. Too bad that she can´t fly her own nationals, would have been interesting to see the results there.
I finished 2nd best of 11 women in the comp, Monique came 3rd. And after Tim and Joerg I also finished 3rd best German pilot. Still a lot to learn in that area, but a good start for next year.
By the way, thanks Gordon, Nigel and Miro for your wishes, just can´t publish them for insurance reasons!

Ager Day 5: 126 km around 4 turnpoints

Today our whole Team Timezone made goal! Primoz came in 2nd just after Jonny Durand who probably won the day (results are not published yet), Jörg came in 5th, Tim and I nearly crossed the line together.
A great fun flight after a cloud covered morning. It had rained during the night, so cloudbase was below take off when we arrived, but got up to 3000m during the course of the day on our task around 4 turnpoints. We had quite a lot of tailwind on some legs, and a significant headwind on other legs, specially around the last turnpoint I was careful not to land, as Primoz reported over the radio that he had seen Swiss Nick land after taking the turnpoint too low. We went to the east, then north and very far to the west, so it was a new direction again. We have covered quite some ground on our 4 tasks! It was an epic flight with lots of 5m climbs and a lot of vultures again. They are great fun to fly with - if we have better climb, they come over to us and join our thermal ;)
Pedro said this week is very bad weather for this area, so I wonder how really good weather looks like? At home the rain hasnt stopped and Im happy to be here and have already flown 4 tasks in 5 days with 3 more to go. Just Saturday might be a bit iffy with a strong wind from the wrong direction forecasted. More rounds than in any other comp this year, we are looking at a great European Championship for next year!

Ager Day 4: 70 km dogleg

Today we waited until noon to go up the mountain because it looked like overdevelopment. At 1.30 pm we finally started setting up, and a task around 4 turnpoints and 70 km/h was set. All a bit of a hassle to get ready with such short notice.
Even though the wind was a little off to the East, take off was ok. I took the first start at 15.15 but after the 2nd turnpoint waited a long time before jumping over the back of the ridge. With only 2000m of height, it just looked to overwhelming, the big gap behind us.
Eventually, I went over and along the course but wasted about 40 minutes up and down the take off ridge. Nevertheless, it was wonderful to see so many beautiful vultures in the air, getting really close to circle the best core of the thermal with me!
I was happy when I finally got to goal, the same field as two days ago. Lots of people there today, Tim or Jörg were the fastest Germans, but also Konrad Schwab and Stefan Boller got in. Monique landed about 3 km away from goal, but without the last turn. I think Kathleen was probably the fastest woman again, but there were also Natalia and Julia in goal today. Also British pilot Jenny Buck made goal, for the first time today! Good to see so many women there.
Gerolf was first in goal today, followed by Swiss Martin Harri, big cheer to them! Primoz and Jonny had a close finish today, but my father had radioed to Primoz about the height of the first guys at goal, and since Primoz knew at which height they had left the last turnpoint, he knew he would make it in and started speeding. He was about 7th today.
When we got back to HQ, we finally saw a few drops of rain and a bit of thunder. A very good and safe tasksetting for the day today, keeping us away from the storms.

Ager Day 3: Cancelled due to Levante

When we arrived on Montsec today, the southeasterly wind kept picking up. A task of 130 km was set, but the Spanish local pilots warned me of dangerous take off conditions and very rough air that would not take us up very high. Not too inviting.
Joerg is on the safety committee so I told him about the opinion of the locals and he managed to stop the first comp pilot from trying to take off. Soon enough the wind picked up even more, Jörg measured up to 48 km/h, the maximum to fly a task here is 37 km/h. At 3pm, the day was cancelled. Driving down, we saw amazing lenticular ufos everywhere and were glad to have stayed safe and sound on the ground!

Ager Day 2: 132 km

Today we flew another task, a long 132 dogleg flight around 3 turnpoints. The weather prediction sounded wonderful, base at 2700 m at 2 pm, but when we were in the air it was worse than yesterday, climbs only up to 2000m. Primoz, Tim, Monique and I waited for a long time and only started at 3.15 pm, Monique even later! Not so promising to start that late and know it is not yet a fast day...
Big difficulty in the beginning: a crossing with no places to land for some time. Soon the climbs were getting better, but also the westerly wind picked up, so we had a big headwind on the way to the 2nd turnpoint. Primoz and Tim voted for direct way, but I was too scared of the tiger country on their route, so I went back towards take off. A big cloud was developing there that took me up to 2700 m! Finally the promised height was there, and I needed it, because the gorges and mountains under me looked like Mars.
After a while, I caught up with a few guys and flew quite some time with Jonny - maybe he even filmed? I have to ask him, would be nice for Red Bull.
The final glide was against headwind again, and late, so it wasnt just the air temperature down low (35 degrees) that made me sweat. I reached goal and there were about 15 people in. I think I was first German, Primoz arrived just a bit later, and Tim didnt quite make it. Monique landed at Tremp before the 2nd tp, I dont know where all the others of Team D ended up. Jonas landed only a few km´s short of goal!
5 hours of flying, and 3h29 mins for the task, Im tired but wearing a big smile!
Young Spanish pilot Blay Olmos was in goal first ahead with a lot of time, so he might have won the day. Gerolf wasnt in goal, so Carl Wallbank might have moved into first place overall now.
Kathleen was very early in goal today, probably 4th, so she was the first British pilot who made it in, also first woman! I was very happy to see her performing that well, it is really encouraging for the girls in our sport. Congrats to her! Her husband Gordon is also an excellent pilot who finished 5th in the World Championships last week, at the moment he is at home with their son Tyler - as they are the highest profile flying couple in the scene at the moment, I can´t wait to see 6 year old Tyler starting to hangglide ;)

Day 1, Task 1: 65 km

Gone are the days of green (thanks to Christian Langbehn for this Greifenburg photo), here it is dry, the straw fields are harvested already (except for our goal field ;)), Camo said he feels really good to fly here, it is like home (Australia). All dry, red soil.
The weather forecast was poor, but the conditions improved and a short 65 km task took us around to the south into the hills and flat area, as cloudbase was rather low (when there were clouds, most of the time it was blue).
I took the first start and was quite slow, as I wanted to stay high and not get into trouble in those hills where it is difficult to predict the slope and wind direction. Eventually I got to goal, I think Kathleen won the day in the women´s race, Monique did well and was in shortly before me. Gerolf was first in of the guys, but he is not sure if he won the day, as we had 5 start gates... Primoz was in 5th, I will keep you posted about results tomorrow. I think about half the field (130 pilots) made goal today. Jörg, Stefan, Tim were already in goal when I got there, I think just Konrad Schwab had to land out of our German crowd here today.
Ignacio the weather man just told me it is going to be great weather tomorrow and there will be a long task. Today he was a little wrong, so I really hope he will be right for tomorrow!

The day before the Pre-Euros start

Today we went to see the goal landing field, some bomb out fields, up to take off, and got prepared for the start. I felt like a rest after two weeks of hard work, so I decided not to fly and be rested tomorrow. Up on take off Ive met Aussie hero Jonny Durand, the vice World Champion from Laragne and a fellow team Red Bull mate. Also Blenky and Camo stayed here to make this crowd more international and less "only European".
Headquarter here is very spacious, and the internet connection works well. Most the pilots are at the local camp site, as there are very few hotels or appartements for rent in the area. The next big supermarket is a half hour drive away, so stock up before you get here next year!
The area looks dry, and a strong inversion only seems to break through in the late afternoon, around 4pm. Looks like rather late tasks even though our take off faces the southern side of the ridge. The wind usually picks up more in the valleys than on the mountain.
You see Hadewych´s take off today, and the main goal landing field under her outer right wingtip, just next to the big farmhouse (pork farm).

Ager: Pre-European Championships

When we were on final into Barcelona airport today, it was pouring with rain. Walking out of the A321, the next crew was waiting for taking over the plane for the flight back, and I was very happy and surprised to see Walter Schurr as the captain! I told him I just arrived to fly the Pre-Europeans in Ager, and he just said, "what, you want to fly in this weather?!"
Well the thunder, lightening and rain wouldnt stop for the next 100km... Just at Lleida, about 50km from Ager, the skies opened up and the showed us the nice ridge that we will be heading to for take off. A lot of comp pilots are here and have registered already, tomorrow we will fly a test task, and on Saturday the actual comp starts. Flip is here as FAI official, and Claudia is taking an FAI training to become a jury member.
Great to see so many of my friends from all over the world here!
Thanks again to Christian Langbehn for the photo that I may publish on my blog!

Philly on the 4th of July

When I went to work on Saturday, it was a nice surprise to meet Uli Strasser at the gate to our flight to Frankfurt. Uli won last years paragliding German XC Championships and is already in 2nd place again this year. He was on the way to help building a "government palace" in Tashkent, as he called it. Sounds like adventure tour to me.
I was on the way to Philadelphia for the first time, and only realized during briefing that we were going to THE spot for the celebrations of July 4th, with lots of independence history having taken place in Philadelphia. After the rain in Munich, it was good to see that thermals still exist in the world: The skies above Pennsylvania looked epic!
Some of our crew and me went along to the park promenade where probably a few houndred thousand people gathered to listen to a Sheryl Crow concert and watch the big fireworks later on. I was too tired to wait until 11pm and went home to be able to explore the city the next day.
I returned late yesterday and now Im preparing my gear to go to the pre-Europeans in Ager. Im really looking forward to some sun again, as it is still raining and pouring in Munich.
I hope to find a WLan spot somewhere in Ager and will report from the comp in Spain soon.

New World Champion: Alex Ploner!

Looks like Alex Ploner from Italy is the new hang gliding World Champion! After six rounds in Laragne/France he overtook three times World Champion, the Austrian Manfred Ruhmer, on the last day. Congratulations to Alex, I´m very happy to see a friend win the big title. Alex belongs to our "Team Timezone" and we already planned a photo and film flying adventure for September in his home, the Dolomites! That is, if Alex hasn´t moved to Hollywood by then...
Also Chapeau to the Italian team for winning the Team World champion title! European Champion Elio Cataldi, Christian Ciech, Filippo Oppici and Davide Guiducci - well done! Can´t wait to fly with you guys in Ager at the Europeans.

Photos in Greifenburg

Despite marginal weather, I went to Greifenburg for a couple of days to take photos for a Lufthansa project with Christian Langbehn and Jochen Blum. Christian is a famous photographer from Hamburg who usually takes photos of the stars, the rich and famous, from Angela Merkel to Zinedine Zidane. Or Boris Becker´s wedding for example. I especially liked his paparazzo stories ;) And I adore Christian for being so down to earth, modest, patient and friendly. Project manager Jochen is just as easy to work with, so we had a lot of fun and created some amazing new photos. They will be available for magazines at Action Press.

The holy land

The first sunshine in weeks! After a lot of rain in Munich and a bit of rain and grey sky in Vancouver, the sun in Israel was beautiful and promised a hot day.
I successfully managed to change my work trip from Teheran into Tel Aviv and was really looking forward to getting back to places that I had visited with my friends Carsten and James ages ago. After having contacted Lufthansa security about the local safety situation in Israel and also talking to Miki, a hangglider pilot and also police man in Israel, I knew that I would be safe along the way that I had planned to drive, just straight from Tel Aviv to the Dead Sea.
People at the check points always waved us through with a friendly smile, it was an enjoyable drive without much traffic and with incredible scenery coming down the hills behind Jerusalem towards the Jordan plains. As it is more than 400 m below msl, the air is clean and full of oxygen and mineral salts, great for your health. The air feels kind of "thick" and I think landing there is really easy and enjoyable! When the first cu´s started popping up around 3pm, I thought of Miki and Ilan who were probably flying at Mt Tabor today...
Instead, I floated on the Dead Sea, soaking in the hot water - about 35 degrees celsius! - rubbing the black mineral mud on my skin, feeling like I was on a cure in a spa. It is difficult to get under water, as it is so saturated with salt. Swimming is slow, more like paddling along on top of the water. I was so lucky that I had the perfect bathing shoes with me - my Lizard Five Fingers had a good grip on the slippery yet sometimes sharp salt cristals in the sea. They saved me from getting cuts, and you definitely dont want to have any wounds in that salty water...The water is so saturated that the rocks are covered in salt even under water!
Despite a very crowded flight back home in the middle of the night, I felt very energized and healthy after this natural bath tub experience.

Barely at home...

As I checked my post box at LH headquarter yesterday after the flight, I found a real surprise - they asked me to do another flight out of my free days, as they don´t have enough staff at the moment apparently. And the flight was to IKA, meaning Teheran. As it would have been impossible for me not to take my paraglider and have a flight in the incredible mountains above Teheran (which is of course totally inappropriate with the hot political situation at the moment), I asked them if it is possible to swap the flight with one to Tel Aviv.
I was lucky and now I´m looking forward to having some nice hours in the real summer. Back in Munich it is cold, rainy with some hail every now and then. Not flyable at all for at least a few more days.
All the best to my friends at the World Championships in Laragne - I heard they are also affected by bad weather and won´t probably be flying until Tuesday. Well, the Mistral means strong wind and turbulence, not necessarily rain, so plenty of time for kayaking, hiking, climbing...

Vancouver

In Vancouver, they are obviously preparing for the Olympic Winter Games next year. Apart from these olympic circles, everybody seems to be really laid back about the whole event.
I like the eagles that you find everywhere in the city at the moment, designed by different native Canadian artists.
It´s cloudy at the moment, but an ideal temperature to go for a run to Stanley park. Also, there is a big exhibition about Rembrandt and Vermeer at the Art Gallery, so plenty of stuff to do and see in this great place, before I have to return to Germany tomorrow.

Black and white

Another cool photo from Mike that I can publish here thanks to
adidas/PLANET TALK 2009.
Im already ironing my white blouse for another work trip that will take me to Vancouver again. I wish Brett, Bernie or Vincene were in Vancouver, as time is too short for a quick visit in Calgary... I wonder why they don´t go to join the World Championships next week in Laragne/France, Rob Clarkson seems to be the only Canadian pilot there. I heard rumours that Bernie and Brett were preparing to get on the paragliding national team?!
Yesterday I watched an amazing documentation about chasing photos and film footage of twisters for three years during hurricane season in the USA. I knew that my friend, the photographer Carsten Peter loves adventures (flying in a motorized paraglider above active vulcanos, diving through glaciers to track the water lines inside the ice...), but next to him my life is really settled and normal ;) have a look at his incredible photos here. He was one of the last guys to leave our World Championship Party in November, because people just can´t let go of him and want to hear more stories!

How to make new friends...

Before filming with Salzburg TV, I put a new Red Bull sticker on my sail. I tried to do that in the park around the corner, but soon these young soccer players closed in on me and changed their game from shooting goals to shooting glider and jumping it.
No explanation helped, the big guy even asked me to leave, as it is their park because they were there first. Hm. Then I turned around and promised them each a can of Red Bull. "A real one?" - Sure! "One Red Bull each?" - Yes, as long as they managed to leave my glider untouched with the soccer ball and their feet.
Straight away, they sat around my stickers and the glider and started asking questions about hanggliding and found everything really cool. After I finished my work, they couldnt wait to get the cans. By the way, the guy on the left is Bavarian, then there are two Iranian brothers, one guy from Georgia (eastern Europe), and one boy from Armenia. Nice to see that sport connects them all!

New photos

Thanks to Sonja and Mike, I have a whole lot of new great portrait photos for my sponsors. On Friday we went to a few spots close to and also in Munich, and Im happy to be able to present a few of these pictures on my Blog, thanks to adidas/PLANET TALK 2009!
While we were taking some cafe style photos, my father called - I didnt realize that Mike took a photo of me talking to my father as well.
At the moment, it is quite hot in Munich, but a layer of clouds is moving in extremely fast with the strong northwesterly high up. I decided not to go flying today, instead I finally manage to do some laundry and this time it is even dry before my next trip- Vancouver on Wednesday.

My Blog is back!!!

Hello to everybody around the world, Im very happy to announce that my Blog has been unlocked again! It had been blocked for the last 2 weeks and I was just as disappointed as you that it took so long to verify that my blog is not spam. I hope that this won´t happen again. Specially since soon another big comp starts in Ager, the pre Europeans.
The past couple of weeks I worked quite a bit, Regina and I had two days filming with a team from Salzburg TV about hanggliding - we were really lucky that we managed to get into the air and we even got a really good pg tandem pilot from Flugschule Hochries for the camera guy (he enjoyed the flight a lot). The film will be aired in September.
Now I just returned from a work trip, a very strong westerly is blowing, but Sunday or Monday might be flyable.
Good to be back!
Corinna.

Late at Hessische in Greifenburg

I arrived a few days late at Hessische in my all time favourite Greifenburg, but I was rewarded with a fantastic flying day! It must have been around 160km out into Italy towards Pfalzen and back, and it was great after a week of having been grounded to be back in the air with all my friends. Oli Barthelmes is here with a group of xc students, my hero Walter Schurr, a Lufthansa captain, is leading the comp in flex class at the moment, it is a great atmosphere!
I put some photos and a report in German on the DHV website
Maybe you feel like joining in this comp next year? The organizers really take good care about everybody´s safety, fun and learning to fly cross country in competitions safely are the main aspects.

German Open Day 6 - we finally give up.

The cold front was held back by the strong southerly yesterday that unfortunately made it impossible to take off for us (so did the low clouds that surrounded take off most of the day). Later the Föhn stopped and it started to rain and didnt stop until 11 the next morning, with very low cloudbase around the Allgäu area. At 10.30 the meet was cancelled at at last briefing where a few presents were given to the pilots who had come from furthest away - the two Japanese rigid wing pilots, Claudia from Colombia and Julia and Natalia from Russia.
I went back home and at the moment Im preparing for my first flight this week, probably from the fantastic Hochfelln tomorrow, as it looks like a southeasterly wind direction.
Sad that we did not manage a single flight at Tegelberg, but we were able to see and discuss quite a lot of aspects that can be improved for next year.

Day 4 no news - rain, hail and thunder

We set up gliders at take off as there was the chance of a flight today. The task should be small (46km), as there were lots of clouds and not much sun. Women should take off before rigid class today. As a dark, long cloud moved closer that looked at least like rain, if not more to me, just before they wanted to start the task, I asked them to postpone it until that dark cloud has moved past us. As Rosi and Kathleen are in the task committee as well (the officials said that it is our decision to fly now or later), Rosi also said she wanted to wait (which meant letting rigid class go first), and Kathleen didnt mind either way.
When they wanted to send the rigid guys out, they didnt look too happy at the dark stuff moving towards us. 10 minutes after our "waiting decision" it started raining, 20 minutes after the decision, we heard loud thunder and got hailed on for quite some time. Even though the hail stones were about 10mm in diameter, they did not hurt our sails (or us hiding under the sails). It poured down for a while and then the task was cancelled. We tried to dry our sails and packed up again, leaving the gliders on the mountain.
The forecast for tomorrow looks like a better chance to get a flight in.

Women´s Pre Worlds Day 3 - rain, storms, hail

Quite a few people left yesterday when the day was cancelled for more bad weather. Instead I went to check out the thermal bath in Schwangau - it was great to float on salty, saturated water and look at take off and the two castles at the same time!
In the evening, nearly the whole competition met at the little Asian shop "Wok-In" in Füssen where we had great Thai curries for very reasonable prices. While we were waiting for the others, it started hailing outside like crazy - I thought Rebi won´t make it... she and her father arrived soaking wet a few minutes after the hail had stopped and turned into pouring rain.
Today we are sent up to the mountain, we have a bit of sun at the moment. The southerly is quite significant, that is why it blows away the clouds from us. We call it "Föhn" in the alpine area. There is still a lot of moisture in the air, with low clouds forming. So it will be a day to watch wind speed, direction and turbulence to make sure it is safe to fly, if we fly.
Good to get up and going again, as it was obvious that various DHV people tried to put quite a lot of pressure on me for my report on the measuring process.

Women´s Pre Worlds Day 2

Same procedure today - we went up to the Tegelberg take off, at around 11 am we were rained on, with more rain moving in, then the prediction for storms in the afternoon. There was a very brief window around 1 pm when a few pilots took off, but now half an hour later they are all landing before as it is already raining again. Take off has been in the clouds for quite some time now.
By the way, if you like to see German TVs report about the German Open with my nice little "whack" in the end, it is on Youtube
Thanks for your comments Davis and Gordon, over here Im kind of in a minority at the moment ;)

Women´s Pre Worlds day 1

First day of the women´s, swift and rigid wing pre worlds. The rigids started first, and also a few of the women took off, but after about 15 minutes in the air were rained on, with a dark sqall of clouds moving towards us. We radioed that to the officials and the task was cancelled. In time to land and pack before the strong rain and a storm arrived at Tegelberg.
An early day, so I can give you an update on yesterdays post that apparently started some discussions.
The measurements of my glider were taken by a thin rope and ruler, because other data (degrees) does not exist in the papers. My glider was found ok one day before the German Open (the inside sprogs just inside the limit with 40 mm and 37 mm, the outside ones higher above). Both sprogs on the right hand side were sealed with a sticker.
My glider was measured again, but in degrees when I set it up for a TV team to show the measuring process – now Andreas measured with a gauge in degrees, so he has the numbers to compare to the mm version.
I got to goal late on the last day of the German open and whacked in, so when I asked them if they want to measure my glider, they said not now. But the next day, before the pre worlds start.
Now they measured 44 mm on the left inside sprog, the others were still in the limit. I set the inside sprogs up quarter of a turn, and Andreas looked at me in a strange way, because now he even measured less! I put them up another three holes (and yes, always in the same direction), which is a full turn, before Andreas and Hannes were happy with the result.
Today I talked to Klaus Tänzler about the problem, but also about the difficulty that we can´t testfly the glider after this change and before the comp and might risk a turn this way. In „real life“ when we tune our gliders, we have a testflight after every adjustment and definitely before a comp task.
I never fly my glider with full VG (they put it superextremely tight at the measurements), as I can´t steer it then, that is why Gerolf had adjusted my settings to 3/4 VG. But I do fly my glider a lot, and in very different, also turbulent conditions. And yes, I experienced weightlessness, my feet against the keel, dives down more than once - hey many of you know Drautal on Northwind days. So far, with the settings of my VG and sprogs as Gerolf set them, the glider always recovered, and that pretty fast. So far I can only "prove" my several Litespeeds safety by about 1600 hours of airtime altogether. To get real numbers, Klaus Tänzler agreed to put my glider on the DHV test truck with my settings of pitch at 3/4 VG and put in a limit so I definitely can´t pull more – my glider was never checked for pitch safety at my settings so far, as apparently there is no data yet, so for me and probably for many light competition pilots this would be a great way to keep handling, performance and safety. I will need Gerolfs help to find these perfect settings again, as I was stopped to fly with them two years ago at the German Open in Ruhpolding.
Hopefully my case can help to sort problems out before Laragne starts. I have no idea why 4 mm need an adjustment of a full turn, but I did not get the measured numbers in the end when it was agreed to let me start with the settings.
By the way, if you send comments to my blog publishings, sign them with your name or I can´t be bothered to publish them ;)

German Open finishes

So today they measured my glider again, „because it was a hard landing yesterday“ (I was asked by one official to go and have it measured again). The inside sprogs were 4 mm off and pitch police made me set the sprogs up another full turn. The seals from the first day of measuring were still on, so I definitely didnt touch anything. I nosed in yesterday, but no upright was bent, no part of the glider or me harmed, not even a bruise – does a nose in change the sprog settings so much?
When my tracklog was downloaded yesterday, I said that they could watch how slow I was and they could see that my bar pressure is way too high for me to keep up, as I cant fly with VG full on like it is measured by the pitch police. Charlie Joest, DHV president and one of the main persons who pushes the measurement process,turned around and just said to me „Maybe it is time to change the glider“ – I was speachless!!! I had just come into goal on a really difficult day with only 3 people in goal, I had my best German Open result ever, and that is the advice of the head of my own hanggliding association. Shocking.
And today I was taught by Andreas and Hannes (the guys who take the pitch measures) that the seals are meaningless – if the settings were measured correctly and the sprogs sealed, then in a next measurement the numbers changed and are below the allowance, even if the seals are still on and prove that I didnt change anyting (which I thought was the sense of all this measuring and sealing process), they would still deduct points or disqualify or whatever is the punishment. So for Laragne, there won´t be seals, as this concept doesn´t seem to be working.
I will keep you up to date – maybe the measures change miraculously again, by whatever factor that is not in (or through) my hands, maybe I will be fun flying around here soon.
Moyes and Gerolf created my small glider that has a great handling, performance and safety. Many different Litespeeds have taken me safely and successfully through about 200 hours of airtime every year. With this glider, my results improved a lot over the past few years, I even qualified for the open German national team as I am ranked 3rd or 4th in our national ladder. Now there are people who just know without testing what is safe and what isn´t, regardless my personal experiences and needs as a very light pilot. How safe is it if my glider pitches up extremely when entering a strong thermal now? How safe is it to fly a long time with a lot of bar pressure and getting tired?

German Open Task 2

Today started late, as the wind was over the back for a long time. Good for me, because I was 6th off and I knew that with all the rain from the night it would be better to wait. Not possible in an ordered launch.
We set the task fairly small, 89 km around 5 turnpoints, all not further than 30 km away from the goal field, because the forecast was for overdevelopment. But the high cirrus stopped od and we could enjoy a slow and difficult day. The strangest thing is that you thermal up right in front of the castles... and they usually work pretty well too! I had a close look at the yard of Neuschwanstein and decided it is impossible to land in there as they did in the movie "chitti chitti bang bang" with a flying car.
Only 3 pilots made goal, and I was the third after Alex Ploner and Bob Baier! Bob is the new German Champion, and Alex wins the German Open overall. Natalia did well again and was 8th for the day, but I was able to overtake her, even though the day was only worth about 380 points. Took me 3 hours, because I got low regularly and you had to be very patient to get back up again and away. The overall results are not out yet, but I guess I might be 4th or 5th of the German Open. In a field with so many top class pilots my best result ever.
Tomorrow at 11 am we have the award ceremony, then registering for the womens pre worlds. I will have more pictures tomorrow. On this one you see our young stars Tim Grabowski and Christian Zehetmaier with their new glider, the purple people eater!

German Open Day 3 - cancelled

Today was cancelled again - some rain moved through in the morning, a cold front is predicted for the early afternoon, and the wind speed picked up to 40 km/h in 2000m. Yesterdays winners got nice Timezone presents, Natalia had 6 kms on me and won the women´s score yesterday. Some 30 points ahead - I hope we get another chance to fly tomorrow, it looks a bit iffy, Michi and Seppi have left already.
A day to relax, get the glider up the mountain (the cable car always takes only 3 gliders, so it takes a while to get everybody up there.

German Open Task 1

We had to stop Rudl today from setting a 200 km task. The weather forcast was good, but a 30 km/h west wind makes a big, closed task much harder. Bob Baier is the local hero here, and he managed to cut Rudls proposition down to 126 km. Only five guys made goal, so it was definitely not too easy. I nearly bombed out and grovelled my way out of way low. Also Manfred Ruhmer had a tough time, it took him an hour to get above launch again.
The first crossing was difficult, and we were careful heading to the first turnpoint towards the west at Sonthofen. Nice climb up to 3000 m on the way back, but quite rough air at times.
Then we had to fly northeast out into the flatlands, quite low. That´s where I lost Bob – I was so proud that I managed to fly with him for about 70 km, he is such a gentleman, and his calm flying style is adorable.
Anyway, I got low and had to slow down, flying out into the flatlands against a strong headwind towards the 3rd turnpoint. All hills below and around me, very difficult to tell the sloping sides, so once I saw a safe field, I decided to not take a risk at the last 3 km to the 3rd turnpoint and had quite an enjoyable, safe landing. Packing up, I was watching three more gliders just going for it as far as possible, getting thrashed from the lee turbulences ahead. I hope everybody is ok!
Five guys made it in, Alex won the day, Robert Reisinger got in and three Germans, also Bob made it. Wish I had managed to stay with him ;)
Tomorrow looks iffy because the wind will pick up and some rain and storms are in the forecast. We will see.

No flight today, but a great one last Sunday...

Today was cancelled due to rain and strong wind. German television station BR visited us and filmed a short portrait about me at the German Open and Pre Worlds, they filmed the pitch measurements and the show will be on air tomorrow night at 7.20 pm on BR3.
As Charlie didn´t arrive in time to provide the team with some aerial shots, I had to go home to Munich to get great on board film footage from me flying at Greifenburg during the Europeans and Oli filming me from above, flying around me. Lot´s of driving for some three minutes of tv time, I hope it is a good advertisement for our sport and for Tegelberg and the next two weeks. Would be great to have some visitors during the weekends.

A short look back at the weekend – I arrived home from Buenos Aires late Saturday night, and the forecast for Sunday was for a nice flying day. We decided to go to Rauschberg and set up in the snow. I met good old friends up there, and soon I needed their help. When I wanted to put in the battens, I saw that five tips had been broken, and I remembered that I had had help packing up my glider after the course at Wasserkuppe a week ago... and I hadn´t checked the battens before I went to Rauschberg... first I thought that I have to pack up and take the cable car down again, but then Dieter Kamml asked every Moyes pilot for spare parts – four guys offered help, and I found three tips that fit! So I left the inner two batten ends open and took off quite late, around 3pm.
A good time to fly, the day had been overcast until then and only just opened up. Flying over to Hochfelln, I could easily try and make a crossing to Hochplatte. With base at around 2300m, it was possible to fly to Hochries – so good to see lots of paragliders and hanggliders there, since that cable car had nearly closed down some months ago. Later I heard that Guido and Steffen had started their xc flight from Hochries, so we must have met briefly.
It still looked good past the Inn valley and since Yves had offered to drive the car home, I could go on trying to head home. I had never crossed that big valley and gone on into the Bavarian flatlands along the autobahn towards Munich before, so I gave it a try. Got really low but found a save and had a few more cu´s that took me past Gmund where the DHV resides, past Regina´s place and finally I decided to land about 800m away from my friend Peter Achmuellers place. It would have been about 15km to go to my home (with nowhere to land), and 17km to go and land at Englischer Garden in the center of Munich, but I didnt want to hurt any air spaces, so I decided better to turn around at Neubiberg and land next to the Autobahn. Only about 100km, but a flight that hardly anybody had ever tried before ;)
Many thanks again to Dieter, Thomas and Achim for finding spareparts for me, and to Wolfi Genghammer from Skyline for providing me with new batten tips! And most of all to Yves for bringing the car and picking me up on the way home.

Tegelberg German Open

Today the pitch police measured and sealed most of the gliders who are going to compete in the German Open, starting tomorrow. My Litespeed 3,5s had the same settings as requested and measured by Christof Kratzner during the German Open and was approved straight away. There are lots of international pilots here, the French national team, I saw Kathleen Rigg and the Russians, quite a lot of Austrians are participating, it will be a colourful crowd of about 67 pilots.
Tomorrow the weather looks iffy, probably rain and strong westerly wind, but from Thursday to Sunday we might get some good tasks. On the photo you see the "good souls", the girls who organize everything behind the scenes, at registration.
Im staying right below the famous castle Neuschwanstein and I can see it when I look out of my window. Time to watch "chittychitty bangbang" again ;)