German Open Tegelberg, Day 1

Today we started the German Open at Tegelberg with a pilots breakfast and the Mayor of Schwangau. Weather looked iffy, because we have a cold front moving into our area, but no forecast could tell us the exact time of storm development.
On take off, they set a fast 65 km task in this area to get everybody into goal safely before the rain starts.
It was a fun flight with very high cloudbase of about 2700 m, rare in this area. Still some places were shaded, so it was not just blind racing, sometimes you had to slow down, get high again. We all had tracking devices, so you can watch us online flying the task: DHV LIVE TRACKING (have a look at the cool device to recharge them all...)
It does not look like we will fly tomorrow, a lot of rain in the prediction, but Friday we will have a good day for sure, in nice clear air after the front went through.
Today Alex Ploner won the day, followed by Roland Wöhrle and Bob Baier. I really enjoyed flying with Bob again today, he is such a gentle man in the air! Always helpful, always happy, climbing well, making great decisions in this area. Mind you, his new outfit in white and blue looks really smart, on the ground and in the air!
I finished between 10th and 15th today, and first woman. Monique 2nd and Regina 3rd!
Rigid class was won by Norbert Kirchner, followed by Toni Raumauff and Tim Grabowski! Many happy faces in goal, and the Bavarian TV as well, they were happy about the filming today and I can´t wait to see their report.
Results will be published on the King Ludwig Open page.

Bayern 2 Talk

Right now there is an interview with me on the radio of Bayern 2. Presenter Stefan Parrisius talked with me for an hour about flying and the different perspectives of it. You can download the podcast here. Sorry, all in German! But it was a mere luxury to be able to talk about so many different aspects of our beautiful sport - I love radio!

Great weather!

At the moment, we are blessed with sunny weather day after day, this whole week has seen record breaking xc kilometers. I got back from Caracas on Friday and went to Hochfelln yesterday to try a German flight for the DHV XC.
We started at 11am and it was a bit slow in the beginning, only at Wilder Kaiser the day turned on. From there, I continued to Hohe Salve and into Pinzgau, where the conditions were just marvellous, you could just fly straight along the ridge. When I reached Schmittenhöhe and looked north, most clouds had disappeared, so I thought the Bavarian wind must have started and turned around to try and fly back. Valley winds had picked up and the strong north easter didn´t make it easier to get home. The turbulence kept getting worse, so I landed not far away from Kössen and thought I can visit Toni Raumauff. But he wasn´t back yet from his flight... in 8 hours he flew 316 km, crossing the main ridge of the Alps twice! What a great flight.
I hope this weather stays around for us next week at the German Open at Tegelberg as well!

New Red Bulletin

Now you can get the Red Bulletin also at kiosks and bookstores!

The Race!

While the guys are having fun and racing big tasks at the Florida ridge, I am "working" on the reputation of hang gliding in general. I was asked by the German TV channel RTL II if I can imagine racing a Ferrari California in the German Alps. Of course, I said, and thought, I hope the weather works for me, as the take off would be Tegelberg at Schwangau.
I had to fly about 26 km to Oberammergau, but every pilot who ever did the crossing behind Tegelberg to the east knows about the "Linderhoftal-Problem" - it is a narrow valley with trees down to the river, nowhere to land. Anyway, the Ferrari had about 50 km to drive, so I thought despite the difference of about 460 HP between us, I had a fair chance.
We had a forecast of 2500m cloud base and good lift for the Allgaeu area. Oh well - base was barely above 2300m, and when we were ready to start with 5 cameras fixed on my glider and one in my harness (for voice recording), the sky was overcast! Matthias, the TV presenter who drove the Ferrari, was laughing and sure to win the day. He raced away with a sound that I could even perceive in the air.
It was simply dark in the whole valley behind Tegelberg. Scary thought, but my plan B was that I got the two best aerial camera men I could imagine - Andi Becker and Tim Grabowski. Together we would find some lift for sure.
I did not expect that Tim´s radio didn´t work. I also wasn´t quite prepared to dive into the dark lee side (but at least with some fields in sight far away) so soon, with the two guys staying above in their rigid wings. I turned down my radio to Andi to just concentrate and find a thermal. I got stuck in nowheresland and was sure that Sebastian Vettel would never talk to me again after this day, even if I ever got out of this.
Suddenly I saw a ray of light. A turbulent, broken something let me stay in it, but I had to turn steep and work hard not to loose it. Centimeter by centimeter I climbed out and could eventually see Oberammergau.
Now the film crew had put down a landing spot for me, but I could not find it. Haha, I had taken coordinates of the paragliding landing field, and did not know there was a different place for the hang gliders. Ok, now I saw the blue spot in the green grass - but I also saw a slope, crosswind and a final glide through between a hut and some trees... Concentration again, our sport needs to look appealing, so I really wanted to pull off a beautiful landing. All my prayers were heard, and I touched down on the spot.
I am not allowed to tell you about who won the race yet, but you can watch the whole story on May 15th at 6pm (18.00) on RTL II in "Grip - das Motormagazin". As soon as the show has been aired, it will be uploaded on their own Grip youtube channel and I guess also on DHV TV for download.

Ecki repairs Natalia!

Yesterday I picked up Natalia from hospital in Altötting. Also Regina came by and we had a great dinner together. Ecki is our hero - when I called him about Natalia´s accident, he said, "Send her over straight away, and I will operate her arm free of charge in case she does not have insurance." It´s good to have great friends and to know idealists! By the way, it was Easter holidays. Did not matter to him, and also Ecki´s wife Ingrid is very understanding.
The fracture was complicated, but he and his colleague were able to fix it with the help of some metal.
Right now Natalia is already playing the guitar again (I must not tell Ecki....) and singing happily in my flat. Soon I will take her to Spain to join her friends there before she returns to Russia. We are positive that she will be fit in time to fly again at the Cucco World Championships in July!

Bassano Day 5

We flew again, 5 tasks in a row, I have only seen this once before here in BAssano! We were standing in the cloud for quite a while today, and base didnt get much higher than 1400m, so some of us protested when they wanted to send us over the no landing areas again low. Yesterday was low enough, and we got to 1700!
They cut the task down to about 90 km, again an air started race with two turnpoints in the flatlands - Asolo and Marostica castle. Quite a lot of us made goal, with Alex and Christian close together, but Primoz not in goal and Manfred much slower, so the ranking would be Christian Ciech in 1st, Alex in 2nd and probably Robert Reisinger in 3rd. Elio didn´t fly today, but luckily he only suffered bruises and no shoulder dislocation, he will be fine again soon!
I made goal in 2h 30min, and Im quite happy to rank around 30th place altogether (1st woman), it was a difficult, crowded competition.
Best German pilot is Roland Wöhrle, probably amongst the top 10, second best Andre Djamarani or Gerd Dönhuber!
Luca Donini won the paragliding comp, and Petra Slivova or Seiko won the women´s ranking.
The award ceremony will be at 8pm tonight, and there are still not all the pilots back from retrieve, so I could not check out the final results.
For pictures also check Matjaz´s, Zhenya´s and Ashanta´s blogs.

Bassano Day 4

The forecast was for rain in the late afternoon, so today we flew a shorter task of 85 km around Paderno, Rivit and Caerano as turnpoints. Base was only up to 1700 m at the most, so it was not easy to get across potatoe country without too many landing options. As there was plenty of shading too, sometimes the day was really slow and you had to patiently circle in some cm per minute, while at other times there were nice 3m/s thermals.
Alex Ploner won the day, and Primoz must have been in as well, but I don't know who else and the ranking yet, as I was the last one in goal. When I circled in a huge cloud of paragliders at Asolo, our top gaggle came already back from the last turnpoint. It was amazing to thermal with the top guys flying these huge aspect ratio paragliders. Very civilized, very beautiful to watch them in front of my nose ;)
I got quite low after the last turnpoint, but as there were plenty of possible landing fields around, I did not give up. Really nice air today, as the thermals smelt like a bunch of spring flowers. It got unreal when 4 buzzards showed me the better core of the thermal that saved me and eventually got me to goal.
Most people had already packed up when I arrived there, but I was happy not to need a retrieve. Also I heard that Elio had touched a tree on landing, Linda told me, apparently he has dislocated his shoulder and went to hospital. Coming in late at least has the advantage that there was nobody in the air anymore and no wind at all, so that made my landing pretty easy. It can get extremely crowded at times, with so many comp pilots and free flyers in the air.
Four days of valid tasks is a record I haven't seen here in about 10 years of flying the Bassano comp, and if we are fast, we might even get a last round in tomorrow. No storms or rain today, so maybe the conditions stay stable tomorrow as well, even though the prediction is for rain from 11 am.
No new results out yet, but retrieve can take a while in this area. Sorry that I could not post any photos yet, but I can't work on my computer here to upload them.

Bassano Day 3

Even though the sky was overcast, we started into a very late, short 63 km task yesterday. Lift was light, but it was there, so we went to Marostica castle, Asolo, Marostica, and back to the Trofeo goal in Semonzo. Barely 10 pilots made goal, Christian Ciech was followed by Primoz and Elio. I got furthest in women's score, about 18 km short of goal, but it still took two hours.
The only German pilot in goal was Stefan Boller, he is doing really well in this area.
The guy who tumbled two days ago is an Italian local pilot, flying a T2. He had to release the reserve and did not get hurt, even though he touched down high in the rocks.
Sunny again today, but rain is predicted for this afternoon. We will see if a short task is possible.

Bassano

Sorry for the late report, but internet is still not for free and not so easy to find at the Bassano competition.
The first day, we had a task around 4 turnpoints with 138 km, but only about 20 of 110 pilots made goal, as the flatlands didnt work well on Thursday, and the whole day was not as fast as expected, with blue conditions and not the highest base.
Elio Cataldi won the day ahead of Friesi and Primoz. Tim was 2nd in rigid class, Walter Geppert from Austria won the rigid class.
I landed 15 km short but was still the best woman. Linda (US) is competing here for the first time, and Virpi, Monique and Natalia are in the comp as well. Zhenya does not compete as she destroyed her leading edge before the comp started and could not find a spare. Unfortunately, Natalia broke her arm on the first day.
Luc Armant won the paragliding task, best woman was Petra Slivova, and German Yvonne Dathe was second best woman. Elisa Houdry is here, but she is ill and took a break after the first day.
Top German paraglider pilot in the first task on 10th was Thomas Ide.
Yesterday we flew to Belluno and then over to Terme Levico, a very scenic task, we had clouds and strong thermals, 5m/s up was the average ;) the task was about 130 km, and I think they wanted to keep us out of the landing area. With the big tent of the exhibition, it gets a little crowded when 200 paragliders and 110 hang gliders come in for landing...
Manfred won the second task, a few seconds ahead of Christian Ciech. Many people made goal yesterday, then it was an hour to drive back to Bassano.
Today the sky is overcast, but as long as there is no rain, I think we will fly and try anyway!

Antenne Bayern Sunday 17.04., 11.45 am

This Sunday at 11.45 am you can hear an interview on radio if you can receive Antenne Bayern (mostly in Bavaria). Florian Weiss interviewed me for "People on Sunday" - I like radio very much, it is a great challenge to find the right words to take people up into the air with me, let them feel the wind and smell the clouds!
When I was at the studio just north of Munich, I had to laugh when I saw the sign on Florian´s studio´s door. And when I carefully opened the door, a really big dog was looking at me and happily greeting me ;) so cool that they can take their dogs to the studio!

Back from Delhi

After a brief work trip to New Delhi, I just arrived in time back home for the next high pressure system. Today it was still raining along the alps, but it looks like there is a really good flying week end ahead of us. It got cold again and some take offs had some snow, but it will hopefully warm up again soon.

Early season

The cable cars to the mountain tops are barel running yet, but the weather decided to turn spring on already. When I left for Sao Paulo, it actually felt like summer in Munich, and it was warmer at home than in Brazil. I was sitting in pouring rain, while my friends flew the first large xc distances...
Yesterday I was lucky and enjoyed my first spring flight at Tegelberg - it was more stable than we thought, so we didn´t quite reach our goals of meeting in the air: Regina started in Bad Tölz, while Ute and Christa were trying to start at Chiemgau. I could hear them on the radio, but it was no day for big crossings. Anyway, it was good to see that the snow was gone. Great training and good fun to soar around with friends! (I haven´t received the Tegelberg photos yet, so Florian Wagner helped out;))
Rebi flew with us yesterday, so I guess there will be some photos uploaded soon on Rebi´s page!

Mike Harker

Last year at Tegelberg during the World Championship, we were honoured to have a special guest. Mike Harker (USA) was the first hang glider pilot who ever flew from Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. With his flight in the early seventies, he started the sport and got quite popular in Germany.
He went for one last flight last year before retiring - he had a big smile in his face after landing right at the bottom of the castle of Neuschwanstein. I felt privileged that he enjoyed spending time with us, and due to the bad weather, many of us had the chance to talk to Mike. Both Bavarian TV and ZDF made a film about his last flight.
Sadly I have to inform you that Mike had suffered a stroke on April 1st and died at the age of 63. He seemed much younger in mind, way too young to leave! We will miss you, legend!

Lucky Day in Miami, Timezone GMT -4

I was really lucky last week when I had a short stay in Miami - the weather was beautiful, on the photo you see the view from the balcony when we arrived at the hotel in the evening. No clouds! After the flight back, our captain was going to fly straight to Orlando, as he wanted to see the "Sun & Fun" festival at Lakeland, after Oshkosh the second biggest aeronautic meeting in the States.
I hope he did not get into the big storm - apparently a tornado ploughed through the planes and left wing carnage behind. Heavy rainfall and strong wind - difficult to imagine such a change just two days after we left... hope the weather improves again befrore the Flytec Race & Rallye starts in early May.

By the way, sand castles in Mexico look different - I took this photo on the beach of Akumal, just north of Tulum. A great little model of the great Maya pyramids! I wish I could have stayed there long enough to see the equinox at Chichen Itza, the descent of Kukulkan on March 21st.

Venus

Lucky that this shell in Beijing was not quite big enough to give you a proper image of the "Birth of Venus" by Botticelli, yet I could not resist jumping in before some guards came to send me away...
Thank you all for your great offers worldwide to help our Japanese friends in any way you can! It is good to know that if times get tough, we are not just "friends in mind", but there is real support, trust and the will to help each other in any possible way!
The news are that the Japanese managed to start to stabilize Fukushima and I hope this situation will keep improving. Still Lufthansa is offering comparably cheap one way tickets from Osaka and Nagoya to Germany, just in case.
Weather over here in Germany is great at the moment and it looks like the flying and thermal season in Bavaria will start this week. I will need some training flights from Tegelberg for a cool project in April, just before Bassano... can´t wait to hear all the stories from Down Under and Africa and Brazil and where ever my friends were to avoid winter in Europe ;)

Flights from Osaka and Nagoya

To my dear Japanese friends: Lufthansa is still operating flights to Munich and Frankfurt, there are 3 flights a day now from Osaka and Nagoya! If you need help finding a place on these flights, let me know, I will be back in Germany soon. I got messages from many of my flying friends in Europe, the US and South America, they are all willing to help you, many of us can host you! Please get in contact if you are in a position to leave Japan, and don´t worry about the finances. The rest of the world suffers with you and is more than happy to support and help you! For my email, contact me here on my Blogpage or contact Toru Goda or Mitsuko Yako.

To the Japanese pilots

My dear friends in Japan - I know that quite a lot of you are following my blog. And of course, I follow the news and Im horrified to hear about the earthquake and the shutdown of the nuclear plants. If you live in an affected area and you can get a ticket to Germany, to Munich or Frankfurt, please contact me, here or on facebook - I can host a few, and my parents in Bremen also have space in their house, and I have quite some great friends who would like to help you, assist you, accomodate you. My friend Tascha turned her place in Christchurch into a shelter for the people who lost everything - now it doesnt look better in many places in Japan.
A lot of us are thinking of you and hoping for things to get better! Please don´t hesitate to get in contact with me!

Flying into Munich

Here´s a really nice video of my friends Guido and Steffen and their flight into downtown Munich. I was standing on the balcony in the evening in mid summer, when I suddenly saw two hang gliders flying overhead, heading towards Marienplatz. I was sure one of them must have been Guido, and I waved, but I could not find that on the video ;) Thanks for this beautiful little film, guys!

Bavarian Radio life today

I am invited for a life interview at the Bavarian Radio today, it will be aired between 10am and 11 am (utc +1) on "Bayern Plus" which you can receive digital or through medium wave. Hope I find good words to let the listeners feel how it is like in the air!

Beijing, China, Timezone UTC +8

I was in Beijing for the first time and I was surprised to see - nothing! The smog above the city was thick and sickening, a superstrong inversion keeps all the industrial fumes of the city down low, you don´t see the sky or the sun properly. My eyes were red, and my voice went croaky.
Yet my curiosity drove me around, first to the Tian´anmen Square - a day before we arrived, there had been demonstrations for freedom and democracy, inspired by the latest developments in Egypt and Northern Africa. Police and military quickly drove those protests apart. Just today there were more protests. While I was in China, I couldn´t access any social network on the internet, no facebook, no blogspot - quite a strong censorship at the moment.
I met with some friends from my crew and we visited the forbidden city, the emperor´s palace, the temple of heaven, and on the last day the Great Wall.
We were really lucky - only on the last day, the wind direction changed and we could see a blue sky for the first time! When we arrived at the Wall, we had a great view in clear air of this strange, huge building - massive blocks of granite high up in the mountains, just as bizarre as the pyramids. And well, it was the perfect wind direction, flying would have been possible. Just nowhere to land, there are tree plantations everywhere, mainly chestnuts and fruit trees.
On the way back, we stopped at the Ming tombs and later on at the Olympic stadiums. Difficult to imagine how the athletes had to cope with this really dirty air in muggy summer, even though the government didnt allow people to drive their cars.
I was impressed by all the friendly, helpful people of Beijing - whenever I looked at a map or on the plan of the subway, somebody stopped and offered help. The subway is the fastest way to get around in the city, but you have to be prepared for a really tight ride at almost any time of day.
I enjoyed climbing around on the Great Wall - we were there quite early, and it was winter, so we were on our own, which is nice after the overcrowded metropole.

Ski Flying on Servus TV!

On SERVUS TV you can watch a cool documentation about the top guys of "Ski Flying" - to me, flying without wings sounds fascinating, and in this program on Saturday, Feb. 26th, 18.15.-19.45 (German Time = utc +1) you can learn about the similarities and differences to our sport.
You will receive this program via cable or digital.
In any case, you can participate in a draw to win a PS 3 signed by Thomas Morgenstern with some of the best films of Red Bull TV here : www.servustv.com/überflieger

„Überflieger – die Kunst des Skispringens“ – im Red Bull TV-Fenster bei ServusTV

Dokumentation, 2009/2010

Samstag, 26. Februar von 18.15 bis 19.45 Uhr

Die Skispringer Gregor Schlierenzauer, Thomas Morgenstern und Janne Ahonen kommen dem Traum vom Fliegen näher als die meisten Menschen: Abspringen, abheben, schweben – das klingt leichter als es ist. Was treibt die Skispringer an? Was geht ihnen vor dem Sprung vom Schanzentisch durch den Kopf und welche Ängste haben sie? Alle drei Athleten springen auf Weltklasseniveau und wissen, dass es beim Skispringen um mehr als Sprungkraft, Bewegungsabläufe oder perfektes Material geht. Eine ordentliche Portion Mut ist die Voraussetzung, um neben der Schwerkraft auch die eigene Angst zu überwinden – vor einem Sturz, dem jähen Ende der Karriere oder sogar dem Absprung selbst.

"Überflieger - die Kunst des Skispringens" erzählt die Faszination Skifliegen entlang der Saison 2009/2010 aus den Augen der drei Top-Athleten - hautnah, authentisch und persönlich - vom Auftakt in Kuusamo (Finnland) bis hin zum Höhepunkt in Planica (Slowenien).

Die Dokumentation zeigt ein bislang unbekanntes Bild dieser faszinierenden Sportart und nimmt den Zuschauer mit in die Welt hinter der Schanze. Die Kameras haben Gregor Schlierenzauer, Thomas Morgenstern und Janne Ahonen auch in den schwierigen Momenten, die ein Sportler während der Saison durchlebt, begleitet – bevor sie als Sieger hervorgehen und den Traum vom Fliegen wahr werden lassen (mit Kommentaren der Sport-Legenden Toni Innauer und Walter Steiner).

New Video!

There is a new video on the adidas air homepage, showing Regina, Alex, Karl and me flying in the dolomites, having fun, just enjoying the great place and the air before the winter break. I hope you like it!

Free Egypt!

This evening, Hosni Mubarak stepped back as Egypt´s president after the brave people in Egypt had been protesting against the regime for nearly a month. My last flight had been to Cairo in January, just 3 days before the protests started and the country closed down. Now everybody hopes for a more democratic and just government, but it will take a long time and big efforts to create more constructive jobs. Many Egyptians in Germany are partying now as well.
Tourism has been the main income of the country, and after it stopped for the last weeks, I hope it will pick up again soon. To me, Egypt is very close to Europe, even though it is part of Africa. I often flew to Cairo and always visited the pyramids - riding on camels was just as much a highlight as learning about and touching those huge buildings of the past, the incredible National Museum, had a look at the back streets of the big bazaar, trying to lure out the secret recipe for the best falafels...
Also, many Germans love to fly to the diving places of Hurgada and Sharm el Sheik for a relaxed holiday - our team doctor Ecki got stuck there with his family during the ash cloud last year!
I really hope many people decide for a holiday in Egypt now to support the great people who stood up for their rights and beliefs!
All the best to everybody in Egypt - I admire everybody who fights for freedom and justice!

Sueddeutsche Zeitung today

If you get a hold of Süddeutsche Zeitung today - Charly Forster, my favourite writer, published an article in today´s edition of one of Germany´s major newspapers, with great photos by Florian Wagner. Both are pilots too, that helps a lot ;)
Amongst other things, it is about the question of me doing well in what people usually regard as a men´s sport, and how the guys cope when I sometimes get ahead of them. Well in many ways the guys do better than me too - on this photo, you see the current World Champion Alex Ploner (our gliders look extremely similar from above, and we both were at the photo shoot in the dolomites). His aerobatics are beautiful, Alex is just as skilled a pilot as Guido, and Im happy that he sneaked into this article in a subtle way!

Article in the Red Bulletin about the BD-5J

In the current Red Bulletin you will find an article about Guido´s new toy plane, the BD-5J. You can download the magazines with the article in German or in English. If you like the full English version (I could not find it for download yet), please let me know and I will email it to you.
And be sure that Guido will be buzzing around the classic Red Bull fleet in this little superfast jet on one of the next air shows where Red Bull participates!

Timezone at Flugschule Hochries!

Now you can buy the great Timezone gear online in the shop of Flugschule Hochries or when you walk into their shop at the base of Hochriesbahn. I was happy to see the nice photo of Regina, Alex and me on their page today.
Helene´s and Robert´s team of teachers and tandem pilots from Flugschule Hochries have often helped me when I needed a reliable tandem pilot to take photographers or camera guys from TV crews into the air while I fly around them. Sometimes this has to happen with very short notice, plus we have to rely on their weather forecast for the shooting. I am really glad that I always had such a good support from Helene´s team and the DHV in this matter, which I think is important to show the media people that our sport is professional.

Where´s the weather?

The Brazilians had some tough weather at their first comp of their nationals in Sapiranga, with Andre Wolf doing really well - good training for the worlds, the Brazilian team will be hot as they won the worlds at Cucco a decade ago.
Also the about 20 Norwegian guys in Lanzarote have been hit by some really strong wind and for that reagion cold weather. Well Im sure they are sweating, as it is much colder at their home. Would have been interesting to see the check-in guys faces at Oslo airport when they rocked up with 20 glider boxes ;)
At some stage, the weather must swing around and be really good for a comp, and I keep my fingers crossed for Matjaz and his Winter Race in Slovenia in a couple of weeks, even if I can´t come to compete. He just released a great little hang gliding film and linked it on his blog - also Regina is in the video that they shot just a few weeks ago.

Our Team Doc

Last week I visited our Team Doc, Dr. Eckhart Schröter, in his practice in Altötting. He is specialized in orthopedics and surgery, but whenever he travelled with us to World Championships, we realized that he is also specialized in the psychology of team dynamics, physiotherapy, retrieval - in short, a perfect and superreliable assistant for the team leader.
Ecki will come to this years world championship at Monte Cucco, and whoever is on the team, is really lucky. Thank you, Ecki, for all those years of professional help, assistance, fun, fast retrievals, for sevillana and salsa, and an even bigger thanks to your family for granting you and us the time and for understanding how important your role was and is in our team! I will do all I can to qualify for Monte Cucco.

Oliver Schmidt

I know that many of my international friends around the world knew Oliver Schmidt, as he loved to travel as much as he loved to fly, and he had been a member of the German National Rigid Wing team for quite some years. Sadly, Oli´s father Manfred informed us that Oli died last Wednesday in Mainz, never having recovered from a severe accident.
My heartfelt condolences to Oli´s family and friends.

Snowsnowsnow in Oslo

Hei Øyvind, be happy that you are in Australia, there is plenty of snow in Oslo - stunning to see, as the rain has washed away all the snow in Germany, and there had been lots too. But where are all the elks, again I haven´t seen a single one. Maybe just a myth for the tourists. How does a Brazilian survive a winter in Norway?
Very foggy here at Gardermoen too, not much to take a photo of. And the rest of this trip is a secret ;) I admire all my Norwegian hang gliding friends for flying even in winter conditions, very brave and dedicated!

Falaffel instead of Aloo Ghobi: Cairo, GMT +2

Originally I should be in Bangalore, but our work schedules often change at the moment, so I got a tour to Cairo instead. And for the first time here ever, I saw rain! And rain means big puddles on the roads, or even flooding here and there. In Egypt! So instead of a tour to the pyramids or a treck with a camel, I stayed in the hotel. Must be a very rare wind direction too, as I never saw the planes from Cairo airport taking off and leaving directly above our hotel.
I was the only one counting tiles in the pool, as it kept raining every now and then, and the water temperature was warmer than the air temperature. I also realized that they have a good gym and a nice hot whirlpool in the fitness club area. But the falaffel can´t quite compare to the great paneer tikka masala and aloo ghobi I enjoyed last week in Chennai.
Looks like they might get some great flying weather next week for the Bogong Cup. Not too many pilots have entered, which is a good sign for great big flights ;) I hope I can come back to Oz for Canungra in autumn.

Tim in Africa

A group of pilots, amongst them Tim Grabowski and Toni Raumauf, is in Namibia at the moment for record attempts. It looks that "La niña" even changes conditions in Africa, not only Australia. While Davis Straub called the Forbes Flatlands this year the "Forbes Floodlands" (congrats to Jonny Durand for having won both competitions in a row! Forbes results here), Tim tells us that they experienced heavy rain in the Kalahari desert... you can read his news here: Tim in Africa He just flew over 200km yesterday, with a great, high cloudbase: dhv xc
Rain and floods everywhere, here in Germany it got quite bad over the past few days, but nothing compared to Queensland. People drowning in Toowoomba, I hope my Canungra/Brisbane friends all built their houses on top of a hill... The Durands´house is high up on Beechmont luckily, but I really hope the others don´t get troubled too much by the floods. Neil, Davo, Glen, Tim&Sue - are your feet still dry?

Shanghai Surprise, Pudong, Timezone GMT + 8

This is the Chinese version of Red Bull - in a yellow can, and not quite the taste I am used to, as you see in my face ;) But I was curious when I saw "Red Bull" on the menu of the Park Hyatt, so I had to try...
The view from the 87th floor of the World Financial Center in Pudong on Shanghai is spectacular. In the background you see the Oriental Pearl tower, changing colours rapidly with the different sun angles. Full view on the "Bund" with it´s grand old buildings, and you really get a feeling how vast this city is and how fast it grows.
Yet no fireworks to be seen for New Year´s - too dangerous, forbidden by the government, and I could find no place to buy them... guess I have to wait and come back for Chinese new year!

Good-bye to some legends..

I just got to know about the deaths of Jos Guggenmos and Craig Worth, two hang gliding legends - both have done a lot for our sport.
Jos Guggenmos from Allgaeu has dedicated most of his life to the development of glider design. He was one of the first to experiment with a glider without kingpost. He has also been a successful competition pilot for many years and has helped me to improve my landing skills - even though I could never pull it off as smoothly as he did. Jos has had a heart condition and had been wearing a pace maker for many years, that´s why he had stopped flying a few years ago. My thoughts are with his partner Rosi Brams.
Craig Worth has done a great deal to push hang gliding in Australia. He has run the Australian HG and PG Federation for many years and he has also organized the Women´s World Championships in Australia in 1996 which is where I met Craig for the first time. We´ve had our clashes ("we don´t want Mickey Mouse tasks, so no women on the task committee..."), but it was good to see somebody so involved and dedicated to push our sport. Just last January I talked to Craig when he had briefly taken over the HGFA matters again while they were looking for a new manager. I heard that Craig had suffered from cancer for a while.
These two guys were some real characters who pushed our sport a lot and loved flying. I will miss you.