Gizeh, Egypt

Making new friends today all around - there were lots of school groups of girls and they were all really keen to speak some English and didnt want to let me go ;) funny, they all thought I am Australian.
I found a cute little camel to ride around for a while, he was 4 years old, so a very young camel, but quite well behaved. I wish I could bring one home, but I think their soft feet would not like to walk on snow or ice too much...

Egypt, Heliopolis, Timezone UTC +2

Today was really a special flight - we arrived above Cairo just at sunset, and atc sent us straight towards the pyramids. They suddenly appeared in front of us in the mystic blue light of dusk, really big and powerful. I was jumping up and down with the joy and excitement of a child, as this rare sight was quite overpowering.
I love this job, it takes me to the most amazing places in the world!
Tomorrow we will go to the pyramids and I hope I can find a friendly, fast camel. Looking at Horus, I wonder if the guys a few thousand years ago already were able to fly?
Special wishes to my best friend, my "Bavarian sister" Regina - I hope I can bring her here one day.

...and the Snow must go on! Munich, Timezone UTC +1

For a while we have been waiting for spring now, but with loads of new snow in Munich yesterday and the forecast for more on Saturday and Sunday, it will be a while before we can land on snow-free grounds, let alone take off. The guys at the Aeros Winter Race comp in Ajdovscina/ Slovenia experienced really strong wind on the first day, then extreme cold on the second, but it looks like they might get a task in today. I keep my fingers crossed for them and I really hope it will be warmer when we go to Bassano in two weeks!
Im already packing my suitcase again to escape to warmer terrain for a short precious time. I probably fly to Egypt and Saudi Arabia next week, it will be around 36 degrees there, very comfortable. And a little bit of sun again is good to prevent a winter cold.
Apart from that, we are busy preparing the World Championship at Tegelberg. Im still missing a few names on the entry list - if you know them, please contact Jenny Buck (GB), Laura Bazan (AR), Natalia Khamlova (RU), Virpi Niemenen (FI) and all the other girls you think should be flying there. It will be a safe and fun event and I hope to see a lot of my friends from all over the world. Every country can enter a team of 6 pilots this year, plus 4 pilots per nation can enter individually! Only the top 2 pilots will score for the team this time, so you should make sure that your country sends at least 2 pilots, and you have the full chance to win the team competition! It would be great to see really big teams from Russia, Japan and the US, as I know that there are a lot of really good female pilots. In Swift class, we already have 8 entries, so it will be a valid FAI 2 World Championship as well. Come on over, Robin Hamilton and Jonny Carr, it will be a civilized towing competition for your class!
You can register here: World Championship Tegelberg

"Touch me..." Buenos Aires, Timezone UTC -4

What a birthday present! I worked on the flight to Buenos Aires this week to be able to go to the first a-ha concert of their "ending on a high note" tour. This morning I went training at the gym and met a copilot I knew and when I told him about my plan for the evening, he said that they brought the band and their crew over to Argentina on their flight. Choice I thought, and met another colleague of that crew - they had been invited to the concert but had to leave tonight (our stay here is really short), but she told me to enjoy the music and say hi to Morten. She had been absolutely thrilled to have been able to talk to the idols of our youth, and I envied her a little for that chance.
The concert was sold out, and the atmosphere at Luna Park was fantastic - a bit like at the soccer matches. And these Argentinians really sing well too, what a melodic audience! It was a mesmorizing show and a-ha's songs as beautiful as ever, with Morten's hypnotizing voice easily soaring up and down several octaves. I always feel like Im flying in the alps when I hear "Foot of the mountain" and of course "hunting high and low" (thinking of thermals...).
And now my Norwegian hanggliding friends will be very happy to hear that after the concert, a dream of my life came finally true when I was allowed to meet Morten and talk to him for a while. Choice! My knees were a bit insecure about the situation, I blame jet lag for it ;) Morten told me that they had just come from Asia so they got the full time warp hit with 13 hours difference, feeling upside down, yet Morten bravely had his photo taken with the group of Norwegian mountaineers, and me too. Sometimes it is a privilege not to be that famous I guess. But still with jet lag, they all look incredibly youthful, energetic and charismatic. Do Norwegians just have the genes, or do they sleep in ice beds to stop ageing? I have to ask Nils and Oyvind about that in Bassano...
When they led me out and the door opened, immediately thousands of cameras flashed and the girls started sceaming - like a reflex, I stepped back to hide... I never thought of the situation from that perspective, and at first sight, let me tell you it was a bit scary. Luckily we found a quiet side exit where i could just slip through and go home.
Looking back at the last four months, I think my karma likes me at the moment. With Hannes Arch, Felix Baumgartner, Sebastian Vettel, Mario Gomez, Prince Luitpold of Bavaria and now Morten Harket Ive been allowed to meet some of the most amazing personalities on the planet in a very short time.
Photos later when Im back in Germany, for the moment, you just have to use your fantasy and dream with me.

6:1 vote for teamsize of 6!

We just discussed the issue of team size for the women´s world championships at the CIVL meeting in Lausanne (CH) in the hanggliding working group, and Im very happy that the vote of 6:1 showed a great support for our idea of having a team size of 6 women at the worlds and the top 2 women of every day scoring for the team score. That way it is fair for countries who only send a minimum number of competitors to the worlds, but it also encourages all the nations to promote the sport for women to enlarge their teams! Now our proposal will go into the plenary meeting to have them vote on this topic, make a final decision and then we can apply it for the worlds at Tegelberg!
Thanks to all the women and team leaders world wide who got back to let us know that they support the team size of 6 (as it used to be before the worlds at Monte Cucco) - your overwhelming positive reaction helped us to show the CIVL/FAI the need to adjust the rules.

Hyderabad-Frankfurt-Geneva-Lausanne-CIVL meeting

Big effort to get to the CIVL meeting in time, and thanks to my friends Helene and Patrick, I arrived in Lausanne, tired but fine. We already had interesting discussions about new comp formats, then the SaFly real time tracking device, now dicussions about the sprog measurement at comps. Manfred is here as he had been confronted by Gerolf about measurements at the last worlds, too bad that there are not more designers/manufacturers here to discuss the points.
Looks like a long day, and our proposal of the size of the women´s team at the worlds might come up tomorrow- so girls, keep your fingers crossed to maintain numbers at our sport high. More later...

Hyderabad, Timezone: 1001 nights

Ive never learnt as much about Indian culture, customs and especially hospitality as on this trip to Hyderabad. When we returned from dinner, fireworks had started at our hotel, a party crowd outside invited us to dance with them, everybody dressed up in vibrant colours for the party of a lifetime – a wedding! About 1000 people were invited, and they seriously asked me to join in as well to experience the hindu marriage ceremony.
What a chance! I thought I could be just a quiet admirer, taking some photos of Indian princesses, but soon I found myself inside, shyly hoping not to impose on anybody. No chance to shy out here – soon they introduced me to the parents in law, and let me take a photo of the wedding couple at the reception. In India, the reception takes 4 hours, as there are 1000 guests to be greeted! And the brides beautifully embroidered red wedding gown weighs about 20 kg...
I met friends and sisters of the bride, and they patiently explained the wedding customs to me. And were quite pleased to see how much I enjoy the Indian food. All vegetarian, no alcohol and no smoking at all, this comes close to paradise! The most heavenly food you can imagine (Just the rose water perfume of the „mouth freshener“ was a bit alien to me, and everybody carefully watched my face when I tried it. I bravely ate the second one as well, a small sacrifice for a big experience), I wish I had fasted for the day – which is what the wedding couple does until they finish their ceremony. After the reception, a lot of mantras are spoken – I wish I could understand the sanskit, I like the sound of it very much. The parents bond to their children is slowly loosend until they let them go a new path as a newly wedded couple. The highlight is the walking around the fire for seven times, which finalizes the new bond and symbolizes that the couple stays together for the next seven lives.
At about 4am, they finish the ceremony, but really it goes on for another week, where the brides goes back to her parents house, the groom will pick her up, and they go on to different events like these for a week before they may finally leave and get a rest on their honeymoon.
What a privilege to have met such generous, welcoming people!

Felix goes Stratosphere

When I went to Salzburg to Hangar 7 for an interview with Hannes Arch last September, base jump legend Felix Baumgartner walked past, saw me and turned around. So good to see him again - we have partied in Rio after his Christo jump, usually I meet him at Red Bull events, I was pleasantly surprised to meet him at the Ball of Sport in Cologne. Im always curious about Felix´ incredible projects, and it didnt take too much persuasion to get to know about his latest secret: Red Bull Stratos!
Top secret, he said. He wants to beat speed and height records, going up to the stratosphere with a balloon and jumping off, going supersonic. Heat, cold, friction, stability, weather, .... I must have had a million question marks in my face that made Felix laugh. Yes, another really big, difficult project.
A week later, I had standby at work. They sent me to Orlando, with a day off - choice! Our captain said he was going to visit the Fantasy of Flight museum (quite close to Quest Air and Wallaby Ranch), I reported on that trip earlier on. What I didnt tell you was that we got to know Kermit Weeks, the owner of Fantasy of Flight, and he introduced us to Captain Joseph Kittinger, the man who holds the record that Felix tries to break!!! I was speachless for a moment about this coincidence and then enjoyed the company of these extraordinary guys of aviation history.
Im happy that Felix and Joseph Kittinger work together on the new record, and I wonder if Felix gets the Captain to tell him some Roswell secrets that I couldn´t find out about... guess I have to get a flight to Los Angeles soon to interview Felix. And go for a heli flight ;)

Munich: ISPO and Red Bull Athlete´s dinner

Another big day for me today. Most my sponsors are at the biggest sports exhibition of Europe, the Ispo in Munich. Regina and I went around to see them, trying various new gadgets on the way to the different locations. Always a good place to see innovations, but also to meet old friends.
In the evening, Red Bull invited their sponsored athletes for dinner - a fantastic occasion to meet extreme artists of various sports. Snowboarding, mountain biking, free skiing, skateboarding, marathon running, motorbike racing, and even one of Germany´s best soccer players is part of the colourful Red Bull family. Luckily he didnt mind that I support Werder Bremen as I am from Bremen... too bad that Werder can´t afford a player like Mario Gomez, he is a great guy. Makes me very happy to see that somebody who has everything - big success, money, youth, breathtaking looks, most beautiful girlfriend you can imagine, respect of other players - is still so down to earth, so much fun to talk to and so interested in other sports too. He said that Guido offered to take him flying, and I reassured Mario that he can´t find a more talented, enthusiastic and trustworthy pilot than Guido. I hope I can work on the flight to Johannesburg when the national team flies down to the worlds, would be fun to be running for the guys who usually have to do the running ;)
Ah yes, this day nearly had 24 hours now, no time to celebrate jet lag.

Back in summer: Caracas, Timezone UTC -4.30

So nice to be back in a warm climate, even if only for 22 hours! The work trip to Caracas meant a lot of running up and down the A340-600, but it is very rewarding to be in this "pais rico". Makes me think of my south american hanggliding friends - I really hope I will meet a lot of them at Monte Cucco at the preworlds in Italy this summer.
I went swimming this morning and had the whole big pool on my own, great training for the flying muscles. The beaches are packed today, as the families are out on Saturday. It is humid and about 30 degrees, not much wind yet, but the clouds definitely too low for much flying action. Thermals were looking nice though, watching the fregate birds circling up together I was a bit jealous ;)
They have new currency here, the new Bolivares have less "000" on them. I guess my old ones are still worth some few cents ;) And President Chavez also changed the timezone - it used to be UTC - 5 hours last time I was here, but to not run on the same time as the east of the USA, he had it changed to - 4.30.
Now I better iron my uniform and prepare for the flight back, back to winter, boots ´n´coat ´n´all.

Castle Kaltenberg: How the Prince won our hearts

Today our national team was invited by the honorary patron of the World Hang Gliding Championship 2010 at Tegelberg, Prince Luitpold of Bavaria. He is a direct descendant of the last king of Bavaria, Ludwig III. Regina and Ute picked me up in Munich and together we drove to Geltendorf, about 40 minutes west of Munich. At 10 o clock we met Monique and Benno at the castle Kaltenberg, home of the royal family and also the king Ludwig castle brewery. We were a little nervous, as none of us has ever met a real Prince.
Prince Luitpold broke the ice straight away - he told us he still has an ancient hangglider in the garage that he had bought in 1973! He flew it successfully and even went for skiing take offs. He said it appealed a lot to him that there were no rules but total freedom, you just got the glider and tried. We were stunned and in awe, the Prince had conquered our hearts within seconds. We are all very happy that the pilots who compete at the Tegelberg worlds will be able to meet this charismatic man, our great honorary patron, who´s ancestor has built the wonderful castle Neuschwanstein.

Back in ice age, Timezone UTC + 1

Hey I just found my car again! Not so easy when you were away for nearly four weeks and they all look the same - white! You lucky basterds down under, we have huge amounts of snow here, in case you are too hot, you can have buckets full of ice from us... the roads are really icy too and Im glad that my friend Regina will come to pick me up tomorrow to go to an audience with His Royal Highness Prince Luitpold of Bavaria - yes, we even won a real Prince as a supporter for the World Hanggliding Championship at Tegelberg, and our team is invited to castle Kaltenberg tomorrow. I will take lots of pictures for you. If Im not frozen to death before I get there. Kaltenberg means "cold mountain"...

Australia Day

At 9 this morning, the flying girls met for breakfast at Brighton le Sands. It was great to have some time with Jorj, Kathryn and Jamie, I wish we could do that more often. That´s one good thing about the competitions- you get to spend some time in the same place, no matter which continent you call home!
After breakfast, Jamie and I had the silly idea to drive over to Bronte Beach to see Jonny and the guys at Bill´s place. Not good thinking, as it was Australia day, and Sydneysiders had congregated numerously at Bronte. We had to walk about 1,5 km from where we found the last half-legal place to park. I took the picture for you, it reminded me strongly of Rimini at peak season... Too much for me, so I left the city and started driving up to Newcastle to meet Adam Parer. He has survived a severe accident and is recovering really fast. He looks very fit and healthy now, and when he described his injuries to me, it seems like a miracle that he is already up and running - and soon he will be back in the air again;) Well, I guess with Dr. Conrad Loten being Adam´s doctor he was just as lucky as I was with Dr. Schroeter and Dr. Obersteiner.
Time to leave today. I hope I get to meet the whole Moyes clan and the guys at the factory to say good-bye. And then the hardest part of my trip - back to winter...

Home

Back in Sydney, I was welcomed again in Vicki´s and Greg´s house in Coogee where I had stayed for quite some time while I was working for Moyes. It has always been a great privilege for me to have been able to live in what is for me the nicest city in the world, and to have been welcomed with open arms by the unique Moyes hospitality.
Great weather, close flying sites, crazy birds, funny traffic lights that sound like crazy birds, interesting festivals (right now it´s Sydney Festival again), beautiful city beaches and a bunch of really relaxed, cool people. And yes, again I feel very much at home.
Im looking forward to meeting up for a brunch with the flying girls tomorrow morning, somewhere between here and Stanwell. The only downside is that I have to leave too soon. And that I won´t have time to meet my friends in New Zealand this time.

Back in Sydney

I just arrived fine in Sydney after a pleasant drive up from Mt Beauty with Davis and Belinda. It was great to meet up with Curt at Stanwell - they were flying in a beautiful smooth breeze today - and a wonderful surprise to meet "DJ Rudy" Gotez from Mexico, he is working with Curt, doing tandems and instructions, one of the best Mexican pilots and a good friend.
On the pictures you see a dead brown snake - there were quite a lot of snakes around this year, then our group from the trip to Mount Buffalo in a howling 100 km/h up there, and the award ceremony, the top 10 of A-grade, B-grade and the top 3 women.

Bogong Cup last day: 113 km around 3 turnpoints

Finally another task, and quite a big and demanding one too. Most of the day we flew with blue skies, up to Gundowring, over to clear spot at Mystic launch, then up north again to Dederang and to the airstrip. I was in the air for 4,5 hrs and had a lot of fun racing along with Olli most of the day. Late about 10 pilots made goal, Rohan Holtkamp won the day, overall winner is Jonny Durand, B-grade won Glen "Junior" McFarlane (Glen McLeods younger lookalike).
I came in 6th of the day and was first German pilot in goal, followed by Oli, Hans and Lukas. Christa managed to fly to Bright, also a very big flight for her. In the women´s ranking, she was in 3rd place, Yulia from Russia 2nd (10 overall) and I won 1st place (7th overall). Quite a good result, but then many of the guns had already left the comp as they didnt think we would get another task.
More details and pics tomorrow.

Bogong Cup Day 6: cancelled by pilots!

The forecast was for strong winds at our flying levels again, so we postpones briefing to noon. Nevertheless, Davis decided to send us up to Emu. When we arrived, the upper level winds hadn´t started mixing in, so most of us started settung up our gliders.
The wind on take off was off to the right, a slight nw direction mixing in, showing a rotor in our little gap between the gum trees. Rohan wanted to set another task to Khancoban, while Lukas didnt regard these conditions as taskable at all. While the task briefing was hald, strong gusts moved through and the first dust devils started. Im on the safety committee, so I let the other members and Davis know that I regard the conditions as unsafe to fly because the wind was not straight in on take off, there was strong wind and strong turbulence in the air (as reported by Oli from the sail plane and Cameron our wind tech, also we saw lenticular clouds again), and it didn´t look like it would calm down too soon.
No words about cancellation were heard, but when Lukas started packing up his glider, it was a clear sign for other pilots. Jonny hadn´t even started setting up his glider then. Most of us just packed up even before Davis called the day. Pilots sometimes make sensible decisions!

Bogong Cup Day 5: Lenticular clouds

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

Bogong Cup Task 1: 99 km around 3 tp

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

Bogong Cup Day 4: Mt Emu

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

Bogong Cup Day 2: cancelled

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

Bogong Cup Day 1: cancelled, too windy

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

Training Day: Mystic

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

No place like cloudbase - Mt Beauty Timezone UTC +11

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

Down under, Timezone UTC + 11

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