Ball of the Sport in Bremen

The final decision about the sports person of the year of my home city Bremen was made this Saturday at the Ball of the Sport. I was invited to attend the Ball and I could briefly present our small sport of hanggliding - the other four girls did swimming, hurdle-running and rowing. I thought I better wear some feathers so it is easier to tell which sport I come from ;)
Thank you for all your votes on the internet and on the evening of the ball! In the end, it wasn´t quite enough for me to win, but a lot of people that I had never met before came up and told me they voted for me and they are happy to see such a different sport for the first time. The winner was - again - Carolin Nytra, a hurdle runner. I wish I could have met her (I keep trying to talk other athletes into changing to our sport...), but she had to be at a competition that night and could not join the ball.
DAeC president from Bremen, Dirk Aue, was disappointed that I didn´t win, but I must admit that I didn´t expect to become first woman, as the lobby of the other sports is huge compared to ours. I was really happy that I had the chance to participate - and I love dancing, which I enjoyed the whole night! Those 10cm high heels were quite a challenge...
Tonight my family and I are invited to an honouring ceremony in our wonderful town hall of Bremen where we will meet all the other participants again.

Visit in Tokyo

I like work trips when I can meet friends! So I told Moyes Japan dealer Toru Goda san about my March schedule and he organized a dinner for pilots in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It was easy to find the trains to go from our hotel in Chiba to get there, as Japanese trains are very fast and reliable - I wish trains in Germany were on time again (the morning before the flight I had to call my friend to take me to the airport because the Munich s-bahn did not run when I arrived in the station).
It was great to see Homura and Mitsuko again, two women who had participated in the worlds at Monte Cucco. And I had brought some films about these worlds for them, also some new information about the next Tegelberg World Championships. We had quite some time for questions about training, physical and mental training. I always like to help my Japanese friends, because we suffer the same disadvantage in hanggliding - we are small and light pilots. So I try to help them perfom safer and better in the air.
Also I had the possibility to get information about the latest development of Sony video cameras, as there were two really well informed pilots who answered my questions. I would like to produce footage for television flying above and around castle Neuschwanstein, so now I know which cameras to look for.
Coming back from Tokyo, I flew straight up to Bremen where my parents expected me for the big Ball of Sports and an honouring in the town hall of Bremen.

New sprog measurement rules for Laragne

At the CIVL meeting in Hall, this was decided in the plenary meeting today, thanks to Dieter Münchmeyer for informing us so we can be ready:
Motion to add the following to the local regulation for HG worlds at Laragne 2009
All competing pilots’ gliders sprogs should be measured at registration, using the procedures established by the sprog settings working group, manufacturer and certification bodies that have certified the glider being measured.
If it is not possible or practical to measure a glider during registration the glider must be measured before the first flight in the comp. If sprogs settings are found to be too low during the measurement, pilots are allowed to adjust the sprogs, and new measures are taken. The pilot is not allowed to fly in the competition until the sprogs on the pilots glider are found to be within a measuring tolerance defined by the CIVL working group below the certified or manufacturers setting.
Pilots that are found to intentionally have adjusted and flown with too low sprogs after measurement, without notifying the meet director or safety director, are subject to the following points;

1. The pilot is not allowed to fly in the competition until the pilot have adjusted the sprogs back within the tolerances set by the working group to the manufacturer or certification setting, and this is verified by the official measurement procedures in the competition.

2. The pilot will be penalized if the sprogs on the pilots glider are below the penalty tolerance defined by the CIVL working group. The penalty system shall be worked out in the CIVL working group.

3. The incident must be reported to the pilots.
Mandate for the working group; - Deadline 8 weeks
Continue work with the manufacturers and certification bodies to establish the tolerances and procedures for measurement of sprog angles, including all needed technical details.
Work out a solution and procedures on how the sprogs could be sealed to make life easier for the pilots and organization.
Set the penalties to be applied.
Mandate for the organizer; - Deadline 8 weeks
In cooperation with the working group establish the practical procedures and local regulations to handle the sprog measurement.
Inform the pilots about the procedures, rules, and penalties at least 1 month before the opening of the championship.

Monte Cucco 2011!

The bid for the next worlds in 2011 was won by Flavio Tebaldi and Monte Cucco (Italy) by 16 over 13 votes for Forbes. Berlin and Turkey did not get many votes. Im looking forward to another worlds organized by Flavio - he did a great job for the last Women´s and Rigid wing Worlds, we all enjoyed the flying and the comp very much, we did not have a single accident, but we flew many tasks and they had found great sponsors too.
Well done, Flavio, and thanks to the delegates for their great decision!

And yes, Davis is right about his comment of another hangglider designer to join the sprog working group - it was mentioned in the meeting to invite other designers too. Davis and Juaki have mentioned that they tried for a long time to get Steve Pearson (Wills Wing) into a working group and were not too successful yet, good idea to ask Scott Barrett as he is not involved with a hangglider manufacturer anymore, but used help designing the Airborne gliders. Of course, everybody is free to make suggestions of people or ask to be in that working group. At the meeting, I suggested to get Davis into the working group, but that was rejected by the US delegate. The German delegate didn´t suggest me, so I wont be in that working group either.

CIVL-Meeting day 2

Today the second half of the long list of topics was discussed, with one hanggliding and one paragliding group. Specially interesting the long topic in the end: sprog measurements. Dennis Pagen mentioned two major problems experienced so far by the CIVL:
1. How to find standards for the measurements
2. How to find enough people to do the measurements with all the gliders
Christof Kratzner from DHV explained the two types of measurements, the "old" method of using a string to measure the height of a batten above the keel. The dihedral of the glider can cause a problem. Secondly, you can measure angles with an electronic angle gauge. But not all the glider models flown in comps have manufacturers data for this kind of measurement.
A working group was formed with Koos (NL), Klaus Tänzler (DHV), Raymond Caux (F), Dennis Pagen (US) and probably Gerolf Heinrichs (AUT, to be asked) to discuss:
- the next step to assuring that sprog settings are at a level of being safe
- the method of measurements, how will they take place, on which comps and how can it be implemented
- who will do the measuring and how will these people receive a training to do it?
- how can liability (CIVL, manufacturers, comp organizers) be limited?
- how should a rule look like to increase safety?
- how could a penalty look like?
- what can be done with prototypes?
A lot to do before the start of the next worlds in Laragne!
Tomorrow the Plenary meetings start, and only delegates are allowed to speak in those. Also the bids for the next worlds will be made. It looks like a close race between Forbes (Australia) and Monte Cucco (Italy).
It was snowing the whole day today and hasnt stopped yet. Here at Reginas place it is a meter high (at least it feels like that), and I dont know if I can make it back to Hall/Austria tomorrow, even though I would love to be there for the bids.

CIVL meeting in Hall, Austria

After a real quick trip to Orlando (work) and meeting Jamie for a cuppa in the afternoon, I flew back to Frankfurt and Munich - and was shocked how much snow and ice there had been in only a couple of days that I was gone. Complete winter again!
Last night I got back, early this morning I left and drove to the CIVL meeting in Hall (Austria), where important decisions about hanggliding and paragliding are being made. Main topics are safety and the bids for future competitions. The bids will be made saturday at midday, and the decision first thing on sunday morning.
The bids for the next hanggliding worlds are Monte Cucco (Flavio will present it), Forbes (Vicki Cain and Jonny Durand are here), Turkey and Berlin (Markus Hanisch will come and present it).
Lots of people are here whom I met last week in Valle de Bravo (Mexico) at the paragliding worlds, like Didier Mathurint, Martin Scheel, Harry Buntz (as German alternate delegate). German main delegate is Klaus Tänzler.

Red Bulletin Clip

A few weeks ago, we shot some scenes for a cool clip about the new hip magazin called Red Bulletin - quite a lot of Germany´s top athletes in it:




Tomorrow I will be off to Orlando where I will meet my team mate Jamie Shelden. She is preparing a big new comp in Florida, the Flytec Rallye, taking place in May. I wish it wouldnt collide with comp dates in Europe! Sounds like a great concept, trying to cover 1000 miles in a week by hanggliders. No worries, I guess they will start north of the Everglades...

Valle de Bravo PG Worlds Movie

Video from the Worlds Paragliding Valle de Bravo in German
Here you will find our little movies about the paragliding worlds. Sorry it is only in German, but the Worlds finished quite recently and it was a lot of work. We are thinking about a version in English and Spanisch ;)

SYD-AUH-MUC-FRA-MEX-FRA-MUC-Tegelberg-Ispo-FRA-MEX-FRA-MUC

So finally I get back to my blog... as you see in all those 3-letter-codes, I whirled around the world quite a bit lately. Two days after I was back from Aus, I had to go on a work trip to Mexico - on purpose, so I could go to Valle de Bravo and cheer for my friends at the paragliding world championships.
What a perfectly organized comp! Miguel Gutierrez and Oscar Sanchez from "Alas del Hombre" and 60 other people set up an incredible event for the 150 competitors from 44 countries. On the photos, you see Pepe and Ulli from team Germany, also my friend Ewa. I also met my friend Kari Castle over there (photo below). She´s not only one of the best hangglider pilots, but also ranks very high in paragliding- for most of the comp she placed 3rd, trying to pull a Judy Leden (our idol who won both hanggliding and paragliding worlds).
I was very impressed with an Austrian pilot, Heli Eichholzer. I met him on La Torre take off where he helped my friend to get off the mountain safely- just like that, even though they never met before. Two days later, he decided to land at El Penon where Stefan from the Swiss team had crashed into the rocks. Heli is in the mountain rescue squad in Austria, so he quickly knew how to climb down and try to help. Sadly, it was too late. Heli got the sportsmanship trophy, and Im honoured to have met a real hero (who is very quiet and modest too) - I still have no idea how you can possibly land at that place without getting hurt, but he did.
At take off and goal, my heart raced imagining I was in the air in my hangglider, trying to fly with those incredible gaggles full of colourful jellyfish ;) Incredible, a competition with 10 valid tasks, 11 days flown, unnoumerous kilometres, a record World Championships!
We also filmed quite a bit, and the film will be online soon! Special gratulations to Torsten Siegel on 7th and Ulrich Prinz on 9th (his first worlds!) from the German team. They use a different scoring for their teams, they have to pre-nominate 3 pilots who always score, the 4th pilot only flies individually. That way, the Swiss didn´t win the team score, even though their pilots were in 1st and 2nd place! The Germans would have placed 2nd or 3rd with our "normal" hanggliding rule. It seems to be a question of coincidence rather than performance which team wins. The Czech and Slovenians of course have strong teams and deserve to be up there.
Still I think this rule puts a lot of pressure on the pilots and doesn´t make a comp safer, doesn´t make a team work better if one pilot is "excluded" and the other team pilots need to prove the team leaders choice right. This might have played part in the tragic accident of Swiss pilot Stefan Schmoker - my hearfelt condolences to his family and friends. A topic that will hopefully be discussed on the CIVL meeting next week in Hall/Austria.
Before that, I will see Ewas movie "Die Reise zum Horizont" tonight with my friends Regina and Rebi - Ewa and Doerthe, the cast, will also be at the cinema in Munich just around the corner from my place.
And then I caught a quick trip to Orlando to visit my team mate Jamie for a few hours, and to escape winter. It is snowing right now, the wind is still howling... but tonight we will have a hot meal with the goodies that I brought from La Merced market in Mexico - tamales with Nopales, salsa and fresh veggies!

Trophies

I forgot to post the award photo- last night we had a great party, it was very difficult to get up at 5.30 this morning to get to Sydney in time for my flight...
Carol and Heather have organized wonderful trophies again, I won a feather made from wood! and also, for 5th place overall, a very clever, useful holder for winde bottles (and of course the wine with it, I hope the bottle survives the trip). Best prize again is the stay at the Alpenhorn Motel during the Bogong Cup next year! My favourite place. And Im going to have Curt and Louise as flatmates, I couldnt wish for more.
On the photo, you see Yulia from Moscow to my left and Hadewych to my right, Heather, Carol and Luca in front of us.

Mt Beauty-Sydney-Abu Dhabi-Munich...

Today Ky took me from Mt Beauty to Sydney and dropped me off at the airport. I was lucky and got on a flight to Abu Dhabi, where I am right now. Lots of women in long black Abbayas and veils...
Soon my connecting flight to Munich will start boarding, the numbers are looking good, I couldnt be happier! At home, Lufthansa cabin staff was on strike today, and I really hope they will be successful.
My next work trip takes me to Mexico on Tuesday, and I just ordered a spare Brauniger Compeo for our paragliding national team, because Stefan Mast just told me online that they have already destroyed one.
Time to go and find the next ticket, time to get home to the cold. I heard there is a very big low pressure system rushing across Germany, strong wind, rain and snow and all... lucky I brought my warm coat ;)

Last day in Mt Beauty

Wind speeds today made the decision easy: The day is cancelled, awards party tonight at 7pm at Settlers Tavern. Time to pack my gear and get ready to leave very early tomorrow morning to catch the flight out of Sydney tomorrow afternoon. I so wish I had another week or two to stay a bit longer in Sydney. I enjoyed this trip and the flying very much and I hope I can come back soon.
Thanks for all the support over here, thanks to Moyes for a great, fast little glider that is fun to fly, thanks to Red Bull, Adidas, Timezone and Icebreaker for perfectly suited equipment, and, most of all, thanks to Heather and Carol who again put a huge effort into organizing the Bogong Cup. Thanks to my team, especially to our driver Michael who helped me a lot with carrying my glider to take off! It was his first comp as a driver, and I think maybe not his last. He is one of Curt Warren´s hanggliding students, and Im sure he will be competing soon.
I just wish Australia was around the corner and I could meet my friends more often. Lucky that every now and then I have a good excuse to come to Australia because I "have to fly a competition". Can´t wait for Canungra!

by 18 points....

The results today changed the top ten quite a lot - I came 4th of the day- my best Bogong cup result ever, and Blay the Forbes wonder-chico won the day, followed by Ben Dunn and Pedro! Curt Warren is on 1st now, beating Jonny by 18 points.
In the overall list, there are still 3 Germans in the top 10, with me in 5th, Lukas in 6th and Oli in 9th. Mind you, with the Austrians and Norwegians missing today, a lot of really strong pilots have already left the scene.
Jonny and I cooked dinner for our teams tonight, Mexican and Indian, also Anousha, Conrad, Oli and Lotte came around, we had a great evening on the Alpenhorn balcony with mountain view. Forecast for tomorrow looks dreadful, but then today was also way better than forecasted, let´s see tomorrow morning.

Bogong Day 8: 80kms around 3 turnpoints

Just a short blog, more later when we know the results - yes, we flew today! We went up Tawonga gap take off, as there was a total fire ban at Mystic, which means it would have been extremely difficult to access. Both Jonny´s and Davis` weather models suggested that there would be no rain, so no overdevelopment in our area today. And they were right!
Cameron Turnbridge went as wind tech and told us about conditions, and at 12 I took off as well. Not my favourite launch, because it has high trees to both sides. The wind was coming up, so I started. Once in the air, I found lift, but also quite a strong northwester. Hard work going up the Kiewa in headwind. I remember that from the women´s worlds here years ago. So I stayed patient and always went up as high as possible. Running Creek was our first turnpoint, then coming back to a bridge a few kms north of Coral bank, then out to Dederang - and then I got low. Harness already open, I found some lift in the trees, it smelled like eukalypt! so it must go up ;) and it did. Slowly I worked my way up to enough height to fly to goal. I expected the cracks already there and was surprised that we were the first five in - Ben Dunn, Pedro, Blay, Tony Lowry and me. Mind you, quite a few people took the 2nd start time, I took the first at 1 pm. But it means I might stay in the top ten!
Unfortunately, Jonny, Oli and Lukas didnt make it into goal today (and Gerolf had already left as he thought we would not be flying today) - they tried the fast route through the valley. Jonas said he flew straight to goal as he got low after gliding out from take off.
Will be interesting to see the results of today.
Forecast for tomorrow looks dark, but Im happy that I had another flight in that sweet Litespeed 3,5 s that everybody loves - Blenky, Michi and Blay did well in it, it must have really good Karma. I wish I could take the bird home with me!

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

Bogong Cup Day 6: Being on the safe side

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

Mt Buffalo take off

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

Bogong Cup Day 5: Olis Birthday Flight- 123km

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

Bogong Cup Day 4: 120 km task!

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

Bogong Cup Day 3: cancelled on Mt Emu

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