FlyRanch Buenos Aires, Timezone UTC -3

Very often people ask me what I do during the short stays of my work layovers, and if it is enough time to recover. On my flight to Buenos Aires I got lucky - it was the perfect spring time weather! Blossoms everywhere, light wind, and sunny. Lionel picked us up in the city and took us an hour south towards La Plata, to the FlyRanch.
On my arrival day, I was too tired to fly by myself, so I was happy that Lionel and David offered me tandem flights! What a perfect day, feeling the smooth, clean air above the Argentinian pampas on my skin, enjoying the best view one can have! It was almost a meditation, charging up my batteries.
Flavio was busy fixing, repairing, and helping with instruction and tandems. He must be proud of this fantastic flying paradise that he has been running for so many years now! It´s been great to meet old friends, make new friends, share the mate tea, and hang out in the evening.
The next day we went out again, and I could try out Damian´s harness and glider, a Sting, while David was buzzing around me in a Fun. The Sting was trimmed really fast, so it turned into an interesting tow - good work out for my arms ;)
In the evening, Reinaldo invited us over to his beautiful house next to the FlyRanch.
The next day only left time for a short healthy lunch and for shopping some mate tea before heading home. 13 to 14 hours of flight time and a bit more work time is quite a lot, but that flight always makes me happy cause I get to see my friends, and sometimes I can even fly, while there was already the first snow back home in the Bavarian alps!
Thanks so much for a wonderful time in Argentina, my friends! It was only two and a half days, but it filled my heart with memories worth a few weeks! I can´t wait to get back to fly with you guys :)

FlyRanch Buenos Aires, Timezone UTC -3

Very often people ask me what I do during the short stays of my work layovers, and if it is enough time to recover. On my flight to Buenos Aires I got lucky - it was the perfect spring time weather! Blossoms everywhere, light wind, and sunny. Lionel picked us up in the city and took us an hour south towards La Plata, to the FlyRanch.
On my arrival day, I was too tired to fly by myself, so I was happy that Lionel and David offered me tandem flights! What a perfect day, feeling the smooth, clean air above the Argentinian pampas on my skin, enjoying the best view one can have! It was almost a meditation, charging up my batteries.
Flavio was busy fixing, repairing, and helping with instruction and tandems. He must be proud of this fantastic flying paradise that he has been running for so many years now! It´s been great to meet old friends, make new friends, share the mate tea, and hang out in the evening.
The next day we went out again, and I could try out Damian´s harness and glider, a Sting, while David was buzzing around me in a Fun. The Sting was trimmed really fast, so it turned into an interesting tow - good work out for my arms ;)
In the evening, Reinaldo invited us over to his beautiful house next to the FlyRanch.
The next day only left time for a short healthy lunch and for shopping some mate tea before heading home. 13 to 14 hours of flight time and a bit more work time is quite a lot, but that flight always makes me happy cause I get to see my friends, and sometimes I can even fly, while there was already the first snow back home in the Bavarian alps!
Thanks so much for a wonderful time in Argentina, my friends! It was only two and a half days, but it filled my heart with memories worth a few weeks! I can´t wait to get back to fly with you guys :)

New World Records in Brazil!

I was very happy to hear that my friends Glauco Pinto and Andre Wolf both flew a new declared to goal distance world record after a foot launch in Tacima. They´ve beaten Jonny Durands record of 557km by about 50km, which is huge!!! Some paragliders were on course as well, guess they also might have beaten some records. For the hang gliders, Andre and Glauco set the record up to 607km declared goal from a mountain take off!
I talked to the guys in the evening and congratulated them on their big flight. They were staying in the next village over night, celebrating, as the retrieve in Brazil can take a while longer than on a German Autobahn ;) What a great adventure!

Buenos dias, Argentina!!!

The last weeks were full of flights, Bangalore - Tunis - Boston - Tampa, my Dad´s birthday, my mother´s birthday, Oktoberfest with my Kiwi friends - in short, not much time at all inbetween.
In the meantime, winter started in Germany. After a beautiful late summer September with some sweet flights at Rauschberg, finally it got cold and even snowed in the mountains. Time to go south, like all those geese I keep seeing every day, flying in formation.
Buenos Aires promises some sun tomorrow, and my friends from FlyRanch are already alert. I love the country, and it will be great to see some of the guys again who were in Brasilia.
Oh, and I arrive on a Sunday, so the market in San Telmo is on, with music and Tango in the streets and all. Great atmosphere!

Meeting Andy and Uli in Frankfurt

I just saw this wonderful tribute to Hannes Arch, so I set the link for you!
The last few days were really amazing. By chance I happened to be in Frankfurt when my friend Andy Hediger flew in from Buenos Aires. We spent his waiting time for the connecting flight together, remembering what friendship, life and flying means to us. Despite being individually very active in our different air sports and being spread out around the world, there is a really strong bond to our friends and fellow athletes, where ever they are.
Today, waiting at the luggage belt for my suitcase in Frankfurt, suddenly Uli Grill came up and said hi. The flights from Bremen and Salzburg arriving at the same time, meeting at the same luggage belt - Frankfurt isn´t really that small... Uli and Andy are part of the Red Bull Acro team from the beginning, like Hannes and Ueli. Meeting Uli today really got me thinking, cause it felt like more than coincidence.
We have all suffered big losses way too early in our lives. It never seems to make sense, feels unfair and cruel for the ones who stayed behind. But today, it was as if Hannes wanted to point something out - as I´ve met two of the most passionate people ever within just one week, who love the world of flying, filming, photography, sharing this wonderful passion and making it accessible for the rest of the world.
We should make an effort to get together more often, celebrating life with our friends! Be prepared to go out of your comfort zone to help your friends if they are in need - as other people would for me if I needed help, cause making other people´s life a bit easier, nicer and happier is a memory that will always make you smile. If we have a project idea,  let´s start on it right now, and don´t postpone it. Live your dreams and follow your passions, because that´s the only real drive to create extraordinay things and that will make you content and happy in the long run, even if there are numerous obstacles to master along the way. Be humble, open and thankful for the life we may lead, and find beauty and humour even in the most absurd situations, just to celebrate that moment. Mistakes are part of human nature, but that´s our chance to learn and grow. We just need the strength to admit that we made them.

Hannes Arch

Oh Hannes - dear friend, my flying hero for half of my life - I can´t believe it! The day in the alps was so beautiful, so peaceful yesterday - I thought of you when a helicopter passed me low at Loferer Steinberge in the afternoon, while I was dancing up to the cloud. My heart is broken :( so many crazy action flying adventures. So full of life and love for flying, every day in the air! How could you dare leaving so early? The sky will miss your wings!

Day 7: 67km/h of wind, day cancelled and Awards!

I just finished my German report for the DHV homepage here!
Final results are here!
When we arrived on take off for the last day of the preworlds, the wind was howling with up to 67km/h an hour, almost blowing anybody off the ground who tried to open a wing. After two briefings and a few hours of waiting and hoping for the storm to drop, the day was cancelled. Because of a military air show, we would have had to land at Esplanada before 4pm, but the conditions were not safe to have a comp day anyway.
Instead we just headed back to the city and prepared for the awards ceremony at sunset on Esplanada headquarter. The Italian team proved itself again unbeatable, even though their top guys Alex and Chris were not here to compete! The Brasilians tried hard to beat the Italians, but Flavios team showed once more an incredibly perfect team flying and working together in the air and on the ground.
The Australians finished 3rd in the team ranking, with a very happy overall champion Jonny Durand who said that this was his biggest comp success in his hang gliding career so far! Brasilian pilot Carlinhos Niemeyer finished in 2nd place, and Italian Davide Guiducci in 3rd was just the first out of 3 Italians ranking in the top 10 of the comp!
Françoise Dieuzede won the women´s competition, for me it was just a 4th place this time. Just like my team mate Primoz - this is what Tomas Suchanek always called the "potato medal" with a wink in his eyes. Chico Santos, head of the Brazilian hang gliding and paragliding association ABVL, came up from Rio to Brasilia just to host the awards ceremony, and he is great at entertaining the pilots and showing appreciation to every single competitor!
We had great flights anyway, and fantastic training for the "real one" next year!
Thanks a lot to the organizers Betinho and Cid, to Nani and her huge crew of incredibly friendly helpers during this whole week! Thanks to all the drivers for their enthusiasm to get us out even from the most difficult places with locked gates and all! It was a fun event, and I´m looking forward to coming back next year!

Task 5: 80km around 2 tp

The wind was howling with up to 50km/h on take off when we arrived today, yet an optimistic 109km task was set, again with goal Esplanada. I was almost ready to quit and just go there directly, when they decided to postpone the take off for safety reasons and cut the task down to 80km.
I didn´t realize that the first leg included about a 30km/h headwind and kept fighting hard, together with Françoise a lot of the time. Such a relief when we finally got the turnpoint and could turn towards Brasilia. I was slow again, but the clouds looked promising. I´ve never done the final glide so low, because we are not allowed to climb higher than 2745m sharp! The last 12 km you basically just find lake, buildings and highways, with one decent bombout field that Billy and Josh tried yesterday.
First my numbers looked a bit iffy, but with two crazy guys way below me just above the water, I thought I will be fine.
Esplanada at it´s best - landing here is just a party! So exciting to make your approach around highrise buildings and highways, with traffic buzzing around the goal field. Many happy faces in goal today, and finally I made my first goal in this competition as well!
Big congrats to Andre Wolf (BRA). At briefing he said that his arm hurts a lot, and he heard that I had taped Glauco´s arm already, so I pulled out the tricks - and his pain was gone ;) also I wished him all the best, hopefully to win the day. When I landed at goal, he smiled and said that he did - best day of the comp for him!
Also Primoz had the flight of his life - he made a 30km final glide, going along with 80-90km/h under a cloud street! He keeps climbing up at the rankings, currently he is placed 4th overall!