Red Bull 400, run to the mountain

In the last post I was writing about going to Planica for the event Red Bull 400 run. I am still here, I survived with no real training and it was a lot of fun.
The competition was made from two runs, where 5 groups of 50 people rushed to the steep slope of Planica ski flying jump and from each group 10 people where finalists.

I was in the last group. I don`t know why, but I felt some adrenalin rush before the gun for the start. I learned to stay calm before take off in hang gliding competitions, but here I could not help myself :)
First run was made only to the place where ski jumpers jump. I came up somewhere in the middle of the group and definitely not in the final ones.
I was dead on top. Really dead, last 40 meters my legs where not working properly anymore and my lungs where catching last breath. I thought that I won`t go for the second run to the top.
As I came down I was soon feeling ok, but still had doubts about running to the very top. But, as the speaker announced the second run is about to begging for "lucky losers I said to myself: "I came here to run to the top".

Lumia 920 shot 

Feeling more relaxed and knowing that goal is just top, not to be there fast I started a bit slower and went on till the top with out any problems. First people passed me, after the point where we stopped in the first run, I was passing others. You really need to know how to do it, and people who have done it before, had a chance to make it better than the rest of us who came there totally unprepared.
I came to the top so easily that I even did not need to sit down and catch a breathe, I just walked back down. I think next time when event will happen, I will go again and prepare myself just a little bit. It is just such a fun competition.
I left my GoPros at home, but as soon as I came to our GoPro Slovenia stand who where also sponsoring the event, I had GoPro on me in no time :) If you have 5 minutes, you can look at how the pace goes down in last meters and with chesty mount, you can even hear my drumming hard beat in the end.

And the pro version video of the event HERE

Comp season?

I guess most visited web sites among Europe pilots now are weather sites,

well that might be always :) Austria open was postponed, so 5th competition was gone. I hope next week it turns out better to fly this competition. New area for me there but am really looking forward for some competition flying.
I tried a new mount that Alexandra is using on a daily basis. Batten sticking out from the nose, I don`t know how she makes it, I just strapped a batten to the keel hoping for a good landing. In case of bad landing it would punch trough the sail so better be confident about your landings before doing this.
As Austria open was postponed I rushed to work to change the free days, luckily I was able to switch the days and yet got a Sunday free. On Sunday, there will be an interesting competition in Planica. Red Bull 400 is a competition where runners compete against each other on running up to the flying ski jumping hill. It used to be the biggest in the world before they build a new one in Vikersund 2 years ago.
I remember the days when we went to train there when I was a young boy, we where jumping on 90m hill but I was always looking at the summer times to start the real flying. But, in the end watching them flying with skis makes me want to start it all over again. I think wingsuiters have some kind of same sensation when they fly over the rocks, changing their position with just a small moves on the body.
So, many years ago I was flying down, now I will try to run up. I am not in some great shape for running but I will give it a try and I need to get to the top, even on all four :D
Here is a video of the competition from last year

Busy week

Remember my trip to Australia for World Championship this January? I was
there for three weeks and have been lucky enough to sleep at Roylance family that kindly took me and Tyler under their roof for whole time of staying in Forbes.
You can not imagine how much important it was to have a cool down place to sleep, a truly relaxed family to carry our ups and downs trough the competition, a lovely lady that was always willing to cook something for us. All in all, Roylances had a big role in our relaxed mood trough out the hell a like temperatures and epic long flying down under.
We talked about their trip to Europe this spring where we found out that with a small detour on their route, they could come on a visit to my place which I was pleased to show.

Few emails and whola, I suddenly saw a familiar face in my street, Debbie and Chris at my door. World is small, when you travel it a bit :)
I thought of the options that I could show them in only 1 day time and got trough the main views in our valley with Tolminka gorge and few mountain rides up with the car to see the views of our nature around. I felt myself like a tourist and Chris ones asked me, do I appreciate the surroundings I have at my home. My answer was that, after you go around and see places, you see many beautiful places that your foot step on to but in the end you also start to see your home a little bit different, more beautiful, not just as something granted. How to give back as much as possible in one day, while we where making noise in their house for nearly 3 weeks? I thought of only one thing that could make Chris day a remembering day here, a tandem ride with a hang glider. Sun came out, wind was perfect so we took a ride from Kobala in to the air. Not quite long flight but am sure a memorable one.

After a nice dinner they went on to Italy, while for me, the air was waiting. We flew two days with quite stable conditions, the Rx is proving on every flight to be the best choice for any kind of weather, racing, punchy small thermals anything you name it. I am really satisfied with this glider.
I hoped to fly another competition in Laveno but it was a third competition that had to be cancelled this year. Hope that for Austria open, skies clear up enough that we go on with comp season that I am really looking forward to.
On Thurdays I stopped at the local airfield to meet the guy who runs the scholl for trike flying which I am looking a bit in to, maybe after the season. We ve meet an old friend that works at Pipistrel factory, running numerous hours in the planes, I see him there working every time I stop by. He offered a flight to us, so I was happy to have my camera in my pocket, ups, Lumia 920 that captured a bit of loops and spins we did with it. Loved it! I hope one day we make it to fly a Taurus sailplane up to our mountains, a sailplane where you seat next to each other not like normally behind each other.

Spring is here

This weekend there where two comps scheduled in Austria and

I really looked forward to have a competition again, but the weather took its roll again. For Vipava however, it was looking great, so I choose to stay here and take as much flying out of free days that I got for myself.
Stephan and Achim from Germany contacted me, they wanted to escape from Germany and get out to the sun that was coming this weekend after long time of rainy weather.
My living room changed to a hostel again :) It is nice when you have a place to offer to people when they come to enjoy our sky.
On Saturday me and Davide where planing for big triangle but in the morning high clouds made us rolling out of the house really slowly, so we took off at 2 pm, but still I had a nice flight around Gorica area with nearly landing in Deskle after clouds shaded the valley off Soca and made

me scratching trees for quite some long time.
Next day was looking quite average, Polona and the rest of the young hang gliding team went to Kovk, we went to the ramp here thinking about flying to Ajdovscina and joining them.
After take off, we all found nice lift and suddenly clouds started to appear on the edge of Banjska plateau, ticket to Tolmin I said. Only one cloud and then a 25 km flight over high plateau but at 2000 m I decided to go for it. Davide changed his mind and went flying far to south to Vremscica, while Achim and Stephan tried to get higher. Flying to Tolmin went smoothly, so with both of my GoPros ready, I was looking at the white summits of our Julian Alps, hoping to get up to them and film this big amount of snow.
After returning from Stol I suddenly found Achim next to me, so we went straight to the mountains behind Tolmin. It was impossible to get back to Gorica, we tried but all clouds where gone already.
A bit of fun before landing with swooping the castle ruins above Tolmin which are clear of high trees now, be aware tourist now :) There will be quite some fun up there from now on I think :D
Needless to say that there where two happy faces on landing that day :)
After all, I had also filmed all of it, so I can share this moments with you. Speakers loud on, 4 minutes of time, 1080 HD please and... Enjoy :)

Tracklogs from Worlds in Forbes

Sander van Schaik made this nice photoshop file of the tracks that we have made in Australia marathon World Champs in January. I came up with an idea to imprint them in to the map of Slovenia with the same measurements and look how it looks like. Nothing special to a XC pilot but I think very nice shot to show to people who are not familiar with our sport. I get this questions lots of time, how far can you fly, how long time etc. This picture tells a story how it looked like to fly this epic Worlds. Imagine you fly exhausted for many days and you land nearly in Munchen, then you rush back home, throw something in to yourself and next morning you need to be all prepared for another round of 200 km of flying.
I remember that when we took of with a plane from Sydney I fell a sleep and woke up 3/4 way to Dubai. I sleepd for nearly 9 hours. Iranian guy next to me was nearly laughing when he saw my face looking at the screen where we are. He said: "Man you had to have hard time in Australia". Hard, but sweet! :D

As we are looking at the picture of Worlds track logs, each line represents one task of 10 days that we flew. Some went far away, some where triangles, so you even don`t get the right impression of all the long flying. But, lets take a look at the World record that Jonny and Dustin where on too and was made by Dustin in the end. This is how it would look like to fly a hg World record from Nova Gorica.

Quite impressive I would say :) Imagine your phone call after landing. "Hey there, you have some time to come to pick me up?". Hm, yes... "Ok, I am close to Netherlands, take your time" :D

Dreaming awake

Basssano ended up in rain for whole 5 days. Last day they manage to set up a small task but no one made it quite far. I used this time to work more and get my days off for upcoming events. Kulm cross country looks like might be the next, but, again there are some strange forecasts for the weekend.
Primoz called me from Bassano to join me on Monday to fly on Lijak as it looked like the only place to be flyable this time. I found out that getting my GoPro hero black on the sprog in our, "big rotor" conditions, is not the best idea. It worked nice in smooth Stanwell air but here it was sometimes to much as you need to jump in to the small cores of bumpy air over Lijak. I will need to make this magnetic stuff for the wing.
Never the less we flew, which is like a miracle gift this spring.
I use the days with too much wind to bike a bit and get some condition training with that. It is just nice to be outside after such a long period of rain.
Yesterday I got to find a new cut from Dreaming awake movie that is in the making under David Aldrich control. Really really quality stuff, I hope they come out with great story that will connect this amazing footage from steady cam systems and helicopter filming. If you have few minutes to sit down and relax take a ride with Dustin Jeffs and David on a flight over Big Sur.

Dreaming Awake in Big Sur from David Aldrich on Vimeo.

Bassano Deja vu

Another Easter is coming soon this weekend with traditional Bassano competition in Bassano del Grappa. However, as you might have noticed, Europe is still deeply in winter. I massive turn around with cold that was not present like this in last 50 years.

Looking at Ilmeteo and speaking to our team, we decided to stay at home and look if some miracle happens in terms of weather. Staying there in caravan while it is snowing 500 m above your head is not a nice experience, at least not for 5 days in a roll. So, like last year, a bit of gamble at home, I am sure organizers will push for a 40 km tasks to hold in the funds they got from entry fees, but this year with out mine. I decided not to pay in advance as last year, first they talked about some refunding, but in the end they stopped answering the emails we where sending down to them. At least they could say, no.

Shot with Lumia 920

Last Friday was great for flying already trough forecast. We had

an yearly meeting with our club so I choose to go to Tolmin and try the low take off just above village Volče. Few years back I was taking of here on a something like this day and got to fly to 2500m in strong N wind to Italy and back. I rigged the glider on top all alone as I left the car waiting on top. It is a 10 minute drive from landing area. I was prepared already at 12 but it seems like this is the best time to be there in early spring. Really light wind that had some windows of stronger wind, so I waited for this interval. 

I took off and went straight up slowly to 2000m when I crossed over

to the white circus. I tried to fly close to the ridge but it was not working like we are used to so I had to climb up outside where it was screaming up at the moments. Somehow my camera decided not to work so I was left with out epic shots of flying in this vast area of snow. Guess I will have to try again after this bad period of weather goes over. It was amazing to fly at home again after a long time. I have not seen no one in the air for 2 hours of flight, only birds and lots looots of snow. Lets hope for another day like that.