Mat´s blog (Flying competitions and travels)

New world disorder (Paragliding landing camping)

2012-02-19T14:03:00.000+01:00

We consider ourselves a free flyers, yet, it does not mean we fly with out any rules. I found myself again walking trough the landing field trying to convince our jelly fish friends that inflating and ground handling does not fit to the middle of the landing field. If someone is in need of ground handling training please, move to the side of the landing field.

I kindly asked a guy to stop doing that there and move to the side, but I just got back a selfish smile and the procedure went on for next 20 minutes before he finally started to pack his jelly in the middle of the field.
Considering his fat jelly he must have been a beginner, so guilt is all on his very own paragliding instructor who must be another piece of human kind that thinks everything flies just like the paraglider does.

I don`t know how can you find something like this funny, when you are doing something that can cause serious injuries or even death to both.

Dear Jellyfish friends,

please do consider that not everything flies like your jelly fishes do. I fly both so I can argue about it. With the jelly you can land in the middle of the crowd with a speed that every idiot will be able to move away. I, on the other hand, come down with 120+ kg mass full of tubes, wires and myself. If I am 5 m above the ground pointing at you believe me, I will crash in to you. I can not change the path when I get that low, so my only save out of this will be to smack your head with the tubes and save my bones.

Do you consider yourself as a human being that wants to make air a safe playground? Well, it does not stop there, we need to behave like that also on the ground.
Why do planes don`t park in the middle of the air strip??? And I think that they don´t need to tell them to move away, because it is obvious.

It is every schools job, that teaches their students about culture behaviour both in the air and on the ground, moving to the side of the landing should be one of the main things.

It really pisses me off when I see that someone can be so stupid that he would actually laugh at you when you try to do something better in the way of safety. That is the main problem of paragliding sport, it is far to easy to learn, so if it is easy, everyone gets in to the air. People who have something in their heads, and people who just don´t have.

Please excuse me for some words, I am not telling that everyone is doing it wrong, but as we said before, bigger number of pilots brings also bigger number of idiots that don´t think outside jelly fish square. Landing field is called landing field because people land there, not camp there.

Ice age 3

2012-02-13T17:41:00.001+01:00

As you can see, not much flying past days... Only strong wind which cost town of Nova Gorica extra 2 million € in damage. Next to this the temperatures went down much bellow average and the nature started to build up ice sculptures. Even Soca river is getting ice where it has a slow current. All in all I have so much work past days that it would be really hard to look at flyable sky. Having a break in summer with comps is a must with a tempo where I work 10 hours a day and when I am off I have telephone calls all the time, which means zero free time... Really really looking forward for some time off at Winter race which is coming in 1 month. First race this year will be our league race in about 3 weeks from now.
So back to the cold. Kobala and Gorica are all with out the snow while east part of Slovenia is covered under half meter of snow. When the wind will drop we will fly, I think already on Friday.
Just to get the idea of how cold it is this days, take a look at picture of Kozjak waterfall I made yesterday.

Lanzarote video

2012-02-06T15:47:00.000+01:00

It took me some time to make this video. My laptop just got retired from video work as he refused to do anything more, or whatever he did was just to slow to keep the artistic amusement flowing.
Now I invested money in to new home computer which will be my working horse for future projects. Videos from Lanzarote where patiently waiting to be cut in to one segment that works together. Pity that I was not able to include interviews with Seppi and Bob, but the noise of Lanzarote wind was just too big to use this clips inside.

Hope you will enjoy this one ;)

Windsurfing Vipava valley

2012-02-02T19:24:00.000+01:00

Anyone remembers the 2010 Aeros Winter race when we had 200km/h wind, well it is on again now :) Self cleaning streets, cats that walk a little bit lower with the tail to the ground, these are the pictures you get to see everyday here now.
You rarely see some crazy pigeons in the air and that is about it. They closed the schools yet no one is not making too big deal out of it except television.
I think that after that long period of strong "burja" there must be some good weather coming :D Burja is what we call this special wind here, in Italy known as "bora" when the cold air mass falls down over the Vipava valley and makes this strong wind.

I heard a rumour that one famous guy is coming to make a TV show out of it. Found it on Facebook and laughed for some time :D

Would be fun do :)

Time flies

2012-01-30T19:37:00.002+01:00

I found out this one in an old album. At that time I think I have already started with my first jumps but this was a good training facility straight in our living room :) Here I am together with my brother :D Time does go fast :)

Needless to say anything

2012-01-14T19:11:00.000+01:00

I woke up with a wish of making a 100km in January but a quick look at weather report showed that it is not happening today. We went on take off, knowing that gradient is more like spring like and it should go high, but strong NW was predicted which brings a lot of turbulence.
Jellyfishes where already trying to catch their canopies when we rigged the gliders up.
Bomb up to 2200m, with some scary air in the beginning and after with fat thermal that was forcing me out to the sea. No long distances, but just freezing flight, for me it stopped at 2200m as I flew towards Gorica, Alan and Davide where up to 3000m crying for their fingers at landing :) Needless to say anything, who ever knows the area will understand all of it from the picture :D

January flying with a new toy

2012-01-11T19:23:00.000+01:00

I got my present from GoPro, after a long battle with border authorities. It lasted for 1 month but in the end they won. It is so good when you get something for free and then they call you saying: "Hello, we estimate the value of the package to 1k € as we checked it on the internet." Nothing helped, no lies, no arguing :D
GoPro helped me out big time with it, they have one of the best customer service I have ever heard. If anyone had a problem with the camera, they where eager to help and solve the problem.

The other part of the story next to this video is of course January and some good flying for that time :) Looks like it stopped at autumn and we are dealing some times with some small bubbles next time we get a strong thermal that makes you feel like you are flying in spring time. The only thing that remembers you of deep winter are the Christmas lights on a drive back home trough the city.

Here is my first test of a GoPro hero2 with very fast edit, just to see how it handles. Does not look bad at all :D

Enjoy

How much luck can you get? (Skydiving N8)

2012-01-09T11:38:00.001+01:00

After overall good time I had past months you would have expected

that it needs to turn around a bit one day. But not all on one weekend :)
I can say I had one of the most nerves breaking weekend as things went wrong one after another.

The forecast was good for flying for Saturday and Sunday, Regina came from Germany and many friends have shown the will to fly. I was really looking forward for flying but already on Saturday work came across my plans so I had to do the work in the morning and at 1 pm I was able t run out under a high cloud covered sky. Regina was at Kovk, I went to the nearest take off Lijak. Nothing showed any good signs of lift but I said I have to go in to the air otherwise why all the rush all day.
Rigged the glider fast, jumped in to the harness and took of. Nothing nothing, just a glide down close to the hill all the time. Last part I went out over some smoke, just to see if it is possible that fire underneath can make a beep in my vario. Well it did but just not enough for turns of course.
On landing I flared like always with Rs, normally with out any problems, but the mud on the landing made me slip a little so I was catched under the wire :) I had to go out of the harness just to start moving. Not a nice way to land in front of all the jellies :D
Parked the glider, had a laugh with Davide about my landing and started to look at my stuff and noticed an open zipper of my harness pocket!!! :S Nokia and my wallet :S
That really ruined all day to me. I de-rigged the glider very fast and went up to the take off as I presumed it fell off immediately as I took of flying low down the hill and then opened the glider. I called the phone which was still ringing.
My thought was for this day that I would open live tracking via www.livetrack24.com but as the day was so poor I had no intention to track my glide down. Well, it would be nice just to sit next to computer and look for the phone trough Google earth. Then another thing as well, I mostly film my flights, today I made a sequence for photos to 2sec. If I would film the flight, I could see it falling down and calculate the position of it. Well none of this was done...
I cam back to the take off which has a really nice drop after meters, so we tried to hear something while calling the phone but did not heard anything.
I went home to look at the pictures but I did not see it falling down at any of it. My guess was it must be at the beginning of the flight so I made turnpoints on my GPS with an idea to walk the track next morning.

Next morning I went up very early so I could catch the flying later. I started to walk down the track trough the bush and high gaps which I am not happy with :) Lots of pilots are afraid of big drops, but we are able to fly thousands of meters in the air :)
Dears, rabbits, you name it, everything was there just the sound of The naked and famous was missing. The ring I have on my phone that is thankfully really loud.

After some km of walking and almost climbing, I realised I am losing the game. The last part was made over the rocks and quite high so my guess was phone can not survive 50 m drop down to the rocks or grass field.

I came to the landing, with out any hope of finding my Nokia and all of my documents. I borrowed a phone from my room mate so I had to return it, but my car was on take off. I borrowed a car from one friend at the landing who had his students flying down and needed the car soon to retrieve them up. I was in a rush, too big rush. Just as I thought ok, if cops get me on the radar I am f... up. Nice long street where you easily go 20 km/h more then you should. Sun was shining straight at my face while I got to see someone waving in the middle of the street. Yes, police....
First thing I said to them I have no documents, no driving licence, no i.d. :D Yes, police man said, but you where too fast :/ As he had an excuse to write a bill he forgot about the documents and I drive further happy man with a 300€ bill.

We went on to fly which was, well, winter like. After all bad things I was happy to land and have a glider in one piece. My head was just not right for this bubble flying.

It is amazing how you see things missing after you loose it and not thinking of it before when you have it. I retrieve Luciano to the take off and saw one of the nicest sunsets from the ramp. Sun is so low now that it dives in to the sea and as the sky was so clear it dived to Venice area. You see, you could see that, if only I would have N8 with me! :D

I cam home at 5 pm when I opened facebook, my only connection to anyone while not having a phone. I open my computer where my brother is sending me a text with, one guy called, he found your wallet, call him!
1 in a million chances that someone just walking could found my wallet. I called the guy and found his son, he said they went on the internet and found me :) Called home and whola, I got my documents back.
Of course the idea was that maybe phone fell out at the same time. That was a place over one village whit vineyards around. He said they will left it in the bar where we used to go after the flying for a good pizza.
I called for some nice help to search the phone in the dark. I came to the bar where woman showed me the guy who found it, by some coincidence he was there at this time. He was very kind and offered me to show where he found the wallet. We went up the hill where we got to a nice open grass field and started calling my phone which was still ringing. Two pairs of better ears then mine heard it little bit more down. After few steps I heard it too and could not believe that I actually will get it back after 2 days. It lay behind one small house on flat with out a scratch. It fell down 50 m for sure and survived with out a scratch. Unbelievable!
I offered the guy all the money I had in my wallet but he was to kind to take it. Well, next time he comes for a beer in that bar, he has a credit there, prepared already ;)

How much luck is it needed that you find a phone and a wallet on like 20 km2 ? I am afraid to calculate. I will pay the speed ticket if this was a counter weight to all of this :D

Phiuuuuuu :)

1st day of the year

2012-01-02T12:25:00.000+01:00

I spent it at home in Tolmin. As I had all of my gear in Gorica I steal the jelly from Nena and went for a jump down from Kobala killing a bit of hangover in my head :)

First day of winter

2011-12-28T22:07:00.000+01:00

Ah winter, thought it will never come to Vipava valley. Today it was a sunny day

again, lots of Italians showed up at take off but the inversion just did not let us fly normally.
A true winter kind of conditions :) We are too spoiled, so then we argue when we get one day that looks like flyable but in the end it is not :)
There is a payback time coming for all the fun we had past months as most of the hang gliding caravan is down under at pre-Worlds in Australia, Forbes.
We are getting great photos already from Zhenya, Jamie is having her Spring break with guys at Warren windsports, Corinna is also down there with Timezone team and our Polona is coming from New Zealand to help only Slovenian at the comp now Primoz Gricar.
Wish them all long and safe tasks :) I will be crying at home :D

2012

2011-12-24T14:55:00.002+01:00

Safe landings, decent thermals and long cloud streets to all of you my friends.

Lanzarote wrap up

2011-12-15T13:16:00.002+01:00

Back in grey Slovenia where it is raining like h...

With the glider we survived the trip back for what I am really happy that glider survived the hostile environment of Lanzarote island and plane flying.

The organisation of Juaki and Benito was splendid again. This is the perfect way of keeping things simple and effective, running the comp like they do. Of course it helps a lot with relaxed pilots in the comp but I know Juaki from European champs in 2010 where he and the team did a good job to.
They helped me a lot as I was with out transport with out knowledge of where and how to get the place to sleep but they did it all for us pilots. 3 rented vans for everyone and nice discount on sleeping at Sands beach resort made problems with this things disappear. Thanks to the team for that.

Flying here is special. Only 30 to 50 km tasks but you get all of the obstacles you get on big tasks. Winds are high all the time so you may drift a lot with the thermals which I had to take more patiently after 2 days of mistakes. The ground is black and red with huge volcanic craters that make you feel like on the moon while you fly over them. The El Mirador flying was also something special to me. Over the ocean and back over one of a kind beach that stops with 700m cliff. I have to thank to part of AUT team for driving me around on days after the comp. Thank you ;)

I also had my first real gaggle flying with my new Moyes Rs 3.5 and have to say that I loved every moment of flying with it. After about 15 hours on it I feel like I fly with it for years. Mixture of relaxed flying and a really good confidence in thermal abilities of the glider is a hell of a ticket for hardly awaited new season in 2012. Really really looking forward to it.

For me it is March that Aeros Winter race is coming, for many others it is a long way down under to Australia for Pre-Wrolds in Forbes. 100 pilots are coming from around the world to compete few days after New years eve in the area that will hold World champs in 2013.

Here is an album of pictures that I have made during my stay in Lanzarote with my best travelling companion Nokia N8 ;)

Day dreaming

2011-12-13T10:05:00.002+01:00

How can I ever go back :)

Photo by Dietmar Tschabrun

Cheating Famara

2011-12-12T09:53:00.000+01:00

Since there was no competition any more, I was in deep search of how to get the footage that I need to have from this "one of a kind" island. Somehow Famara ridge with the West wind did not wanted to show to us, but we made a trick yesterday.
Austria and part of German team kindly took me with them to the El Mirador

take off on very North side of the island.
This is where the flight from Famara ends with the ridge. The amazing colours that are here on this side made us rig the gliders fast. Take off full of rocks, landing, hmm ,yp down there somewhere but that was a thing to think about when we go down.
Smooth air, really smooth air, we did some low passes with Seppi and my Nokia N8 finally got to see the blue ocean, finally the almost right conditions to have a proper video.
Lots of fun in the air, with close flying, looking at the clear blue ocean, watching thousands of seagulls bellow made the day worth of having it on video.
Today looks about the same, so we might do it all over again :)
Tomorrow winter will touch our skin again as I fly back to Munchen.

Last task Lanzarote

2011-12-11T00:42:00.000+01:00

I got my energy back to about 70% this morning and felt ok for a flight. IT is easier here as the tasks are more shorter, it would be definitely more difficult to have long races. Yet, don`t underestimate the flying here, so much tactic flying at just 30 to 50 km you wont get anywhere.
Some of the Austrian team have left already today as they had a plane back.
We rigged the gliders on Mala take off again with very low cloudbase. The task was again to Saint Bartolome. I took the second start gate and was with the first gaggle in 20 minutes. Really felling good for a good result I had to kiss the ground after flying to St Bartolome. No one made it to the goal today, I ended 6th for the day, Seppi Salvenmoser won the Canary open in front of Dietmar Tschabrun and Lucio Neli. Moyes gliders on first three places..

4,5,6th day

2011-12-10T10:03:00.000+01:00

Back with my powers so I am able to write again. 4th day was cancelled

where we where at La Asomada take off and it was to stable for 60 pilots to fly the task. Next day it was the same but we took the advantage of the wind and did a few flights with top landings. Good for filming as I was able to change the camera view more times in one day. Quite rough conditions in the air as you would expect smooth ridge soaring.
In the evening all the fun began. We went with part of AUT team to pizza. I came back to the hotel and felt like I am pregnant. Ok, too much pizza I would say, but evening revealed what happened to me.
All night hugging the toilet, next morning I leave no chance

for flying and went up with the guys praying that the task wont happen. I sleep the whole day in the van trying not to think about the pain :=
Some medicine in the evening and today I am feeling better. I went under the magic 70kg edge I think.
Looks like Mala again today. Lets hope for a good one.

P.s. Manfred Trimmel is making the same story as I have done yesterday.

Timezone UTC 00:00

2011-12-07T10:10:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I was doing my home work in the morning, home work that you start to do with joy. Back
in Germany before I started my trip down here, I got a news that I am expected in the Timezone team. You can find Timezone link under my sponsor section on the right side of the site.

I am truly honoured to be in the team of such a great company and be accompanied with such a great athletes as two hang gliding World champions and many more overall great personalities in our sport.

As for Lanzarote today, it looks like a new take off will be taken somewhere else as the wind turned more to the E. Looks like really no Famara flying for us this year. But, we never know.

Task 3 at Mala take off

2011-12-06T20:09:00.002+01:00

Another nice day at Mala take off today. The sky looked better then all days

so they called up a 50 km task. Almost the same as yesterday just on different point outside in Mala flats. I finally got myself in the right mode where I was able to watch the game from above all the time. As soon as we left Mala take off the struggle for the thermals started again. I did the cloudbase together with Bob Baier and then it was a gamble out to the flats. After San bartolome most of the pilots landed while few of us struggled in the drift of the wind. Thermal stoped so I had to make a choice where to go, while not having a clue which is the best way over vulcanic hils to the goal. I left one thermal in hope that wind and the hill will be a perfect combunatiin to get to the goal but I was wrong. I driffted around the hill and soon realised that I have to land as I saw nice wires just about 50m away so there was a turn and landing. This hiw you fly here, until you´re not doomed with 5m of height you might get a ticket back up.
Landed ok, Seppi came in behind in few minutes making a bit more km then I did.

I had quite a walk down to the civilization from the moon type area, but like that you get to see paces you would never have.
Looks like we will fly all days, hope for another good one tomorrow.

Second task at Mala, Lanzarote

2011-12-05T20:11:00.000+01:00

Picture from Bob Baier

First day when I felt like I am in summer again. Shorts, t-shirt was enough to

finally feel that I am out of the winter for few days. Amazing how body needs one day to react to the changes. I am sure it will react faster when I come back :)

A bit more windy day took us again to the Mala take off. Sunny sky, stronger wind, looked like we can make a longer task. 45 km south, with a bit of zig-zaging at Mala flats.
The air was a bit more lively today. Felt like it is going to be easier but as soon as we left Mala area the sky turned blue and there was no good signs to get a decent lift. I landed on half way with many others, I think 7 made it in. I tell you, it is not nice to fly behind a plant of wind turbines :D

A lot of Spanish guys made it in, Manfred Trimell made it in fast again, after yesterdays second place. We will see what the scores will be tomorrow. You can see the scores at their web page.

Marcelo from Brasil made a way back from 5 meters above the ground, it is amazing what you can do if you are able to soar the vulcanic hills, yesterday I stretched my flight with them for many km. Quite a lot landing fields in this area, all do it is good to look for dark spots where they use the ground for some plants and with that they have to remove some rocks. Otherwise it is like a knife land, rocks like blades, cactuses... Sometimes it is not good to look down :)

For next days they say stable, more stable, so my guess is we will be doing same home work every day. Well at least I know what is behind the hill now :D First day I had no clue where am I going, I saw the Famara ridge which I knew from videos otherwise it was just a play with coordinates on my GPS.

Tomorrow is another day.

Mala

2011-12-04T20:51:00.000+01:00

This morning was overcasted with strong winds. I woke up a bit late so I rushed to

get the glider together, find Juaki for transport e.t.c. Breakfast had to wait for today as it was a rush over since I opened my eyes.
We went to the bar where the first briefing was made. We went up to the Mala take off, where it was forecasted for wind to to drop down during the day. Well the wind was in the end too light. Mixture of wind and rain did not made anyone rush to the sky, those 3 that did payed it with a bomb out landing just 130 m lower from the take off.
The sky started to clear up slowly and suddenly we where up in strong thermal attacking the second start gate. Funny to fly between turnpoints for only few minutes as they where spread across the flat in front of take off. It all looked really easy until the time came to get the real height and fly back to San Bartolome. I had a hard time finding the decent lift which I got after coming back to the take off area. It looked like it will be a glide to the goal but I, yet again, went out of the thermal in hope that cloud street will work. Nope...
I was jumping then from vulcanic hill to hill, scraping one and another, until I finally landed 2 km short of goal. Looks like 9 made it in. Just when will I get my lesson learned about this very end patience things :)

Tomorrow looks like the same day as today.

Robbed

2011-12-03T23:38:00.002+01:00

I could say like that :/
I really hate it when you come to a place where you need to pay for the WiFi spot. And here they took even a step further, 25 € I had to pay to have 1 week of the line to tell about their place how cool it is e.t.c...!
All of this to have this page running and make my boos happy about the work I can do via on-line. But.. Lets go to the bright side of the news :)

Yesterday I drove to Reginas place to sleep over for the flight today. I ate two plates of salad and pasta that Primoz and Regina prepared, amazing what the flavours can do to your memory :) I felt like back in the summer again.
Primoz took me to the airfield and I was straight in before the gate wit Dietmar,

Austrian pilot drinking an easy coffee and chatting about our first experience with flight to Lanzarote.
My stiff box flew trough the door of the baggage place which made me think why it is much better to have the glider in the box then just rolled in to the foam.
They took me from the airfield to the Sands beach hotel where we are staying for the rest of the stay here.
I got a retractable bed for two :) But however only with the sheets with out a blanket so we will see how the night is going to look like.

The woman promised it is going to be prepared but... :)
After the waypoints upload we got a barbecue at the sea sight with great food. Never ever had a meal like that in the comp and we payed 60 € for the 7 day comp. Makes u think about the high prices we are paying for at every comp and not getting back much from it....

Juaki, the European champs organiser is here running things again and he said we fly tomorrow. Not Famara but the other part of the island.. Does not look for the great Famara in next days but we hope for the best.

Famara, Lanzarote

2011-12-01T16:11:00.001+01:00

I am counting down the hours to the start of my trip to Canary island Lanzarote.

The idea was growing for already two years now yet it never came to the point of realization.
Magic videos that where coming from the Famara ridge where just calling for an adventure with camera on board. Nokia came here with help, so now I am here, after months of preparation and lots of help by friends on organizing the trip, packed for the trip down there. I will be filming there the event and flying with N8 and hopefully produce enough great footage for a decent Lanzarote hang gliding movie.

I did my first short packing few days ago, Rs seems to be really easy glider to handle this

things. Few tips from my English friend Carl and so the glider was packed in a box that fits just to the size of the Rs. Stiff box cooled down my nerves a bit about aeroplane travelling, but with that box I am very much on the edge of weight allowance.

Why right now? There is a competition in that period 15th open de Canarias de Ala Delta . Combining the trip with a competition in the middle of winter here feels like a best choice. I had a lot of flying past two months and am really looking forward to do my first comp on Litespeed Rs.

Tomorrow I am on my way to Munich and on Saturday I should be repacking my glider at Sandsbeach restort hotel. Spring here we come! :D

Here is a video from Robert that shows the kind of flying we should get there

Endless season

2011-11-23T14:09:00.002+01:00

Nice weather continued also in past week so I got an excuse to get out before

work and do 1 hour flight every day. It is a tight race every day like this, coming home at 3 pm taking a shower and eating before I catch work at 4 pm.
Very stable days but we still managed to soar the ridge here also this time everything was done much lower. Slowly I will get to know each rock on the ground here :) It all helps a lot for the days when we will get to race this one as it will all look much higher then this days :)
Aeros Winter race is coming in March 14.03.2012 - 25.03.2012 one of the two weeks in between, the we have nationals also in Vipava valley 25.06.2012 - 30.06.2012, traditional Kobala open in August 13.08.2012 - 18.08.2012 and Italian nationals in Gemona. Then we have Buzet with Croatia open and Bassano, so I have like 5 to 6 races in radius of 3 hour drive. Not bad :)

Since some day are just to stable for flying it is nice to walk up the mountains as well. You get to see places where you usually fly over. We went bellow Krn last Sunday where I got to see the small gap that saved me on nationals this year where I flew trough to the other side of the valley. Not making it would have taken me another extra 10 minutes. Nice to see things from the ground as well. Here is a picture taken at the place pointing at Polovnik ridge in Soca valley.

Oh and yes, I made it to top 50 in GoPro contest because of your votes. Thank you for that. Today they will publish the first 20 winners that get new Hero 2 and everything they make. First two even get the sponsorship worth of 2500$. Fingers crossed ;)

GoPro contest

2011-11-14T12:17:00.000+01:00

My dear reader, I will use my blog also to ask you for your help by voting on my pictures in GoPro contest. I entered the contest with 4 selected pictures from this year and I hope they will satisfy your eye with them.

Just follow this LINK and click VOTE for me.

Help me get this price so I will be able to make more interesting pictures and videos for you ;)

Thank you

The magic Vipava valley

2011-11-03T22:11:00.001+01:00

Bad weather in the beginning of October made last Thursday look like a day to fly. Even do I started to work at 4pm I was still in the mood to take a chance.

It was just a small bubbles flight. The weather for next days showed that we will have lots of flying days and reliable Lijak take off although facing to the West and with wind from the E, it was still possible to fly normally.
I worked all weekend late night and flew during the day so I was more like a zombie but the joy of flying during the day made me come back to work with a smile.
I counted more then 20 pilots on ramp take off on Monday. Many new Slovenian young faces on take off, many of them making the licences for pilots. Hang gliding in Slovenia is on the big rise for sure.
Friends from Italy and Austria just made it like summer has even not ended and our season is just on going, of course the weather made the whole thing more true :)
Flying trough and above the clouds, fast ridge runs, close formation flying, all the fun you can get in endless playground in the sky.
Better quit talking and get you to the real "show how" of last 6 flying days!

November

2011-11-01T17:55:00.000+01:00

6 days of flying behind me, here is just a shot of what is about to come in video edition as well :)

16th Ljubljana marathon

2011-10-24T17:49:00.006+02:00

Another goal achieved this year. The idea was to run the 21 km run, the half marathon as an excuse to start training again with running. I don`t know when I got back to the addiction like running can become. I was already doing runs in the summer when we had many off flying days like Worlds, so I tried to use every free time to do some running.

This is like a meditation, after 5 km your mind shuts down and you can go on forever. August was too hot for stuff like that, but after coming back to Gorica I soon started with a small runs in a forest area right next to my house.
My first attempt to try the 21 km was after we had a conversation with friends after ... beer and they all agreed it is not that easy to run that long. Next day I went for it with small "meoooww" in my head and did it with out problems and under 2 hours which I assumed was fairly good enough.
The next try was marathon. Don`t run the last week, eat pasta.... Ah... No, I still went for a run, because it felt good to me. My only concern was tarmac road all the way and my knees.

I felt good waiting in the box for the run, the band "The stroj" that plays only on instruments made of garbage, where playing loud music so it kind of felt like you danced your way trough the start gate. They are just amazing, I felt the bass in my loungs while I watched the start of a 10km run 2 hours before my attempt.

First 4 km where painful for my knees and muscles so I was looking strange as the marks for km where passing me so slowly. After that I got in to the right mode and on 15 km I started to race. I did not know if I am doing the right thing there but I felt I can do it. Like with comp flying, I was jumping out of the slow "gaggle" and tried to get free way to run faster then the other group. Mostly everyone where running on the right site of the road as we drive our cars, so I had a nice place on the left doing my own thing. Earplugs and some good music turned off all the noise on the way, I only saw people yelling and smiling but never heard them :)

Last 5 km I felt like a bullet and was passing most of the people and came in to the goal with 1:40:18 time. 10 minutes less then my "meoouw" run :) I think I could do it better but for the first run was ok.

So this goal is now behind and I can focus only on Lanzarote trip that is waiting for me in December. Our friends are now competing at Canugra classics, Jonny is already kicking some ass with overall lead after his knee surgery, bravo Jonny!

Anyway, here in this video you can see how it looked when runners from 10 km run started. 18000 runners showed up to show how much sporty nation Slovenia is.

Ok, I must admit, I walk like a duck today ;)

Run can be seen at sports tracker

Autumn

2011-10-19T12:11:00.001+02:00

It is all turning around so fast that it seems like I was writing that just few weeks ago.

Back again, back to Nova Gorica to work. But it is not all so dark :) as here I can fly mostly all winter, so a good spot to be if you are not on Australia :)
Imagine, just yesterday our guys flew for 92 km in the middle of October, well, I was grounded at work...
The week before I was on take off and got to flew for nice two hours, I should be happy to be where I am.

Cucco horses

2011-10-10T13:05:00.000+02:00

Searching your old videos sometimes come up with some interesting things. Then one day you learn new techniques and you can do old stuff better as well.
This one is taken from a video from my N8 Nokia and it got an artistic overdraw. I don`t know the names of the horses, I only know Zac Majors in the picture, waiting for the traffic at Cucco mountain :)

Another test flight

2011-10-07T11:03:00.008+02:00

Lots of videos in past days :) But it is all because I have some time to sit down now and actually make something out of the videos that I have made this year. Today I think we can say goodbye summer. Long time before it set up in August and long time until it said good bye just yesterday. We had some great flying days in September. I was just this week flying in the mountains behind Tolmin valley which for October is rather unusual but with big pleasure as all the autumn colours are out already. Of course I forgot camera at home (Murphy's law). We flew also in Carnia, Suan`s place in Italy. About 25 pilots showed up for "Festa del brutto tempo" festival that town organises for free flyers. We had a spot landing contest and with my second flight on a Ls I was happy with a landing 5 m next to the spot :D We have had a great day with climbs up to 2700m and I really enjoyed the race down the Zoncolan ski area :)

So, what to do to make this winter shorter.
My dream was to fly Lanzarote one day but the expenses are always those who are driving you to the other side of choice...
Thankfully this year Nokia will help me with the trip and for a favour I will have to produce something amazing with video there. The area is perfect for the N8 lenses so I am really looking forward for that new project.

So, I was test flying... My future wing

Tasting the States

2011-10-05T10:09:00.003+02:00

During the Kobala open in Tolmin I had a chance to test fly the WillsWing T2c wing as Carole came from Switzerland with a demo glider. I know now, how can USA guys play so much with this gliders as they are so easy to fly. With pretty high sprog settngs on this one it was calling for some crazy stuff but all in all I had just two flights down as the weather did not let me do the decent flight wit it. I did my first 1080 HD video while flying down with it late evening in December.
Hope you enjoy it:

Flats and tows

2011-09-27T12:17:00.005+02:00

So, I spent my 5 days in the Netherlands and I have to say I had some good time. First day it was a rainy bicycle run on the Ameland island where Desiree had a lot of knowledge about the nature there as it is amazing to see and even better to actually know at what you are looking at.
Second day I got a chance to have a try to fake the famous pancakes from Kobarid next to my home town :) Well, 4 man in the kitchen was calling for some extra testing with how to make a sweet pancake mass to a salted one :) We somehow made it and it was nice to see Caspar and Ivo after a long time.

Next day we went to Stadskanaal where Rinus has a Dragonfly on the airfield which is used to tow Dutch pilots in to the air there.
Desiree kindly trusted me and land me her Litesport and Matrix harness. Having all that new it was quite an expectation of what is going to happen when I will have to ride a glider fast and low behind the tow.
Rob was very very good in giving me the tips of what to expect and what he wants to see from me when I get in the line.
I had one of the best if not the best pilot in Europe to tow me up. Experienced and always calm Rinus showed me the signs that he is ready to pull the throttle.
I hold on to the the dolly with the plastics and went for a run. First 20 m in the air, the Alpine pilot was still catching the path with the hips movement, but I soon got the game how to go behind the tow.
I made three nice tows with strong wind, cross and a gentle evening one. On the firstone me and Rob even went on a cross country flight but it all soon ended up as the thermals where gone. I felt like a student again when Rob was serious explaining me how to do stuff, but yes I was also happy as a student in the evening because I tried finally the towing stile of taking off.
With good hints nothing really special, just you got to do it right, but hey, you got to do it right also on a mountain take off :D

I am grateful to have people like Rob Desiree and Rinus that gave me a chance to try it, so thank you all :)

Enough of talking, here is a nice video of the flights.

Netherlands coast

2011-09-21T22:59:00.003+02:00

Netherlands

2011-09-20T13:00:00.003+02:00

Checking the Ryanair one day I found a ticket for 40 € to Duseldorf and immediately contact my friends Rob and Desiree if they are willing to take me under the roof for some days. As they where not in Tolmin for Kobala open this year I had to turn the favour and get my self up there after many years of their visits in my country.
Today I am off to Trieste for a flight up there. Here is my luggage :) Sticking the socks in to the helmet is a good decision for a flight up, on return it is going to be harder :D

Blog gadget Nokia N8

2011-09-19T14:05:00.008+02:00

The main season has ended like this yesterday. I came out of the flat and saw this clouds and knew that when this thing passes us, there is autumn here. In last 14 days I had two really nice flights. As I was pushed down from the first place in Slovenian OLC I made a nice plan for 100 km FAI in Tolmin but I miss calculated myself with 2.7 factor in XCplanner and factor 2 in our system. I made the flight but lost first place for 7 points (7 km). Alojz Frelih got the first place (Congrats) with nice flights from Karavanke to Greifenburg and back. Definitely the flight to do next year.

So as there is rain outside after a loooong period, I have time to sit down and write a little bit about the gadget that I got this year to work with for my blog. Until now I was always equipped with computer and camera, always searching for a WiFi to do the job in the evening, by job I mean writing what was happening during the day in the comp on my blog.

Suddenly I had a Nokia N8 phone that was equipped with all of this stuff, really decent camera, internet connection everywhere where the signal was, and even an awesome video camera.

The real test where World champs, where I was live blogging from take off, landings and so on...
Somehow I found it relaxing when I had to sit down after taking picture and write about what is happening on take off. Nokia BH-505 earphones made the crowd noise disappear so I had my own relaxed world while doing the blogging and so I got prepared for the flying day.
On the first day I outlanded and we all know how it is when you have to wait for retrieve. At this very moment I was able to already publish the article about how the flying was and this is the easiest thing to do when it is all fresh. Waiting all day to make a blog in the evening makes you loose some senses about the day so readers got a better info like that and I passed my retrieve waiting time very fast :) At the same time I was able to see what is happening with the scoring as we had Live tracking, so I was able to see the standings already in the outlanding field.
With XCLeonardo app I was also able to do the live tracking from N8 as well as it has an integrated GPS so I did some flights here in Slovenia when others where able to look at my flying in Google earth while sitting in the office "working".
Built in GPS also helped me with sending the coordinates to retrieve van, I just opened the Ovi maps and had the coordinates in few seconds.
As we have so many internet media around, sometimes you don´t know where to publish any more so Pixelpipe app came in very handy here. I just marked the media I want to publish to, fb, blogger or twitter, with out having to write things more times.
I wont talk about the quality of the pictures that you can make with N8, we all know it is the best in phone industry and you have a good example also in the beginning of this article.
As we where many times more like tourists at Worlds it felt great to have the camera "phone" with you all the time. Maybe sometimes at some parties it would be better to not have it :D but it is good to have all the memories stored on a huge 16 GB mass memory.
I made my phone also a learning tool. We had quite many famous names in the Camp site Gabrje in my home town, I was kindly asked to film the seminars they where doing and the main question was with which camera we should do it as we had very low light situation there. I got quite many strange faces looking at the rig when I got my phone out of the pocket, slide the N8 in to te N8 producers rig and pushed the button for filming. One hour talks where a piece of cake for the N8. Sound is important too. The sound you get from this thing is just amazing. Before I started with the N8 producers project I tested the camera at a concert where I just filmed their performance and HERE is the video that makes the idea of what a good quality the sound of the Nokia N8 is.
I did some films for the place where I work. One with Canon 7D and one with Nokia N8. Check them both and try to see the difference :)
And at the end of it, of course I need to be in a good shape if I want to fly good, Sports tracker application is one of my favourite. I am able to see what is my progress with running, how long do I run, actually I see everything what a man or a woman needs to see when he trains for his fitness.
There is a marathon in Ljubljana in the end of October and this fellow is helping me to train at best for a 21km run that I subscribed to.
Who knows, I might make a Live tracking of the run :D
All in all it is a flexible gadget that you make it suit for your needs, it certainly helped me a lot during the season, and it will help me also in the future.

Tandem flying in Tolmin

2011-09-12T15:41:00.005+02:00

There are always many people asking about tandem flying with me but usually we are always with a lack of time for this things during the comp season. This weekend there was W wind for 3 days on take off so there where perfect conditions to do some tandems and show the people what we are up to up there. As I had my glider in Gorica I used my brother to have a flight on Friday, I needed a passenger and he was asking me about it for ages already. I got a bit of air time and he finally got to taste what it looks like to be up there with the hang glider. September is the best time for this things, air gets calmer so you can fly easily with this air bus and of course the landing in the midday is easier as there is less turbulence on the landing field. Here is a video from Saturday

Dennis Pagen and avoiding the storms in flight

2011-09-07T18:50:00.001+02:00

As we had Dennis in Tolmin this summer, we kindly asked him to give us a bit of knowledge he shared with the world already trough his books. Quite a lot PG pilots came as well to listen to this. There was a lot of people asking about it all around the globe so I decide to film it and share it on youtube. First my idea was to make it live web cast on internet which it would be possible with Nokia N8 but it would be just live at this very moment, now it is on internet and so in your video library where you can look when ever you want :) About 50 minutes video is set to 6 parts so start with the first one :) (The content of this is going to be also in new book of Dennis "Understanding the sky")

SerialCUP in Tolmin

2011-09-02T10:17:00.003+02:00

As for all the drama that is happening now in paragliding world, guys from Slovenia already made a plan in beginning of the year to make a only serial class competition. It is all happening now in Tolmin, you can find the link here They invited some of the best pg pilots in the world to share their knowledge trough the flying on relatively same wings (serial) and seminars that they organise in the evening. Here is a video of a Swiss pilot Michael Sigel that I made with my Nokia N8 as it turned out it was the best cam we had at the moment :D Maybe many pilots wont hear nothing new in it but I strongly recommend it to newbies to refresh some thoughts about the comp flying, you can connect it in many ways to our comps as well.

MichelSigelPresentation from PARADAIS on Vimeo.

From air to the water

2011-08-31T10:44:00.002+02:00

I was always amazed by the people I watched kite surfing on the water and my wish was to give it a try one day. By the knowledge and feeling I have from hang gliding and paragliding this should be an easy one :)
Davide hang gliding friend from Italy is already master at it and as I live only 30 minutes from the coast it was matter of question when it will happen. After one hour in Marina Julia learning the basics of it I was eager to try it in real conditions. Saturday and late work time gave me a chance to try it during the day. First there was not enough wind but enough to remember the basics and drink a bit of salt water.
Then I was on the go :)
For those to whom the sound does not work click HERE

Winners

2011-08-21T10:10:00.000+02:00

The Kobala open 2011 came to an end. We had a very very good weather which had to happen as we had a really bad weather last year.
Cloudbase over the tops on most of the days where we had to experience the whole area with high mountain ridge included.
Too bad that on the last day one of the Ukrainian guys tried to glider over the no landing area and touched the tree. He was driven to the hospital with a helicopter, we hope that he will be ok.

Saun, who was on second place overall made a mistake yesterday and bombed out. You can see the picture from yesterday, where we tried to cool down our angry heads.
So, Primoz won again the overall Kobala open with Franc Peternel in second and Stanislav Galovec on third place.

Our club won the nationals team prize.

The bombouters waiting for the final glide of first pilots

2011-08-20T16:11:00.001+02:00

From hero to zero. First bombout with this glider.

We got a visit on Kobala today :)

2011-08-20T11:49:00.001+02:00

The last task

2011-08-20T11:37:00.001+02:00

No mercy :) 100 km task for the last day of Kobala. This is going to be 10th day in 14 day flying. Finally after bad weather season.

Kobala open the last day

2011-08-20T10:09:00.001+02:00

As you can see, clear blue skies today. We had a small front coming trough last night during the small party that was organised at HQ. There is again a decent chance of t storms also for today. For now it looks ok with out any clouds in the mountains which could show the chance of overdevelopment. East wind on top will make the start of the race a rodeo ride again.

Correcting error-ing....

2011-08-19T19:53:00.000+02:00

First start gate with Suan and 5 others but I spend 20 minutes on ridge just to climb back up where I got to the group who took the second start gate. Seemed like every turn was made wrong today, only straight flying made some beeps... Pilots will know about this conditions :)
Suan was first today with the first start gate, maybe Edoardo with first one as well, then there where Primoz and others with second one. Front is passing us at the moment so we will see what happens for tomorrow..

Task 4, Kobala open

2011-08-19T12:19:00.001+02:00

As we have t-storms predicted they made a race in the valley with 70 km run. Winds in the mountains are gusting up to 17 m/s so it is going to be an interesting low flight.

Morning present from www.be-xtreme.eu :)

2011-08-19T10:06:00.001+02:00

I got a nice tee from bextreme Slovenian company this morning. Thanks for that.
We are off again to the take off. Chance if t storms today, it almost feels good to have clouds finally after two very stable day. Lets just hope that we dont get it too unstable. Tomorrow looks like front will pass us with strong NE wind. I hope for two more days to correct the mess of the second day.

Task 3

2011-08-18T20:39:00.000+02:00

We all stud off on take off waiting for better conditions as we saw first guys coming up to 50 m over take off and then stopping there for at least half an hour.

Things started to get better later and we where all of the hill in no time. Start cilinder was bigger this time so we where able to make the start gate in the back mountains.
I was making a thermal when it beeped for a start gate but I still did not had a good height to make a pass over the high mountain pass but went for it and somehow made it over. I was all the time bellow the big gaggle pushing forward all the time until the last turnpoint where I found a nice thermal over the "boobs" hills where gaggle caught me at the same height for the first time in the day. Primoz Suan and Stanislav where already gliding to the goal when we went for the last turnpoint next to Kobarid.

Very very nice and scenic flight today in the high mountains, I enjoy them always aldo I saw them many times, but people who where there for the first time today must have enjoyed it even more for sure.
24 pilots in goal today, results are HERE

Task changed

2011-08-18T12:16:00.001+02:00

First turnpoint to Polovnik and the one far east is with 10 km cilinder. Can u see the stable air in the valley? :)

Kobala open, task 3

2011-08-18T11:34:00.002+02:00

Everything looks even more stable then yesterday. The idea is to get pilots to the high peaks above inversion layer. It is going to be a hard start as inversion is little above take off. Almost no landing area to the east turnpoint so organisers are playing on the brave site. Lets hope we make it to the mountain ridge.

Morning bussines

2011-08-18T10:14:00.001+02:00

Every day morning job. Wind is turning to the west and I hope for some clouds today as yesterday rodeo was a killer ride. 7 brave and patiente pilots made it to the goal yesterday with an average speed just over 30 km/h, data that tells how hard the task was but I am sure that our task comite, organiser him self wont spare us also today.

Every year the same field

2011-08-17T15:59:00.001+02:00

Looks nice but I would still be more happy tp fly over it.
Day is so stable that not many if someone will make it. Sky looks great but only when you are over 1800m, bellow it is just a bumpy rolercoaster. I am already back at hq where we wait for someone to close this long and hard task.

Second task, Kobala open

2011-08-17T11:57:00.001+02:00

As you can see our task rope is getting longer every day :)
122 km with the same turnpoint as yesterday and the long last one far to the east over the railway bridge. Still strong E wind on take off but it is predicted to go down. I think that rodeo is calling :)

Kobala open 3th day

2011-08-17T09:32:00.000+02:00

Needless to say that we have great weather again today so we will soon go up to the take off.
You can look at official blog as well HERE
And results HERE

Task 1, Kobala open

2011-08-16T17:59:00.001+02:00

We started with 100 km task as u can see it in the last post from the morning. That was a new kind of task here with a turnpoint far west in Bovec valley. I made a mistake on second turnpoint coming too low. I spent at least 20 minutes there in Bovec valley and had to go back for a turn point while others where racing from there to the Polovnik ridge. I was quite fast afterwards and got in to the goal as 4th of the day but Suan was maybe 2 seconds behind and with more leading points. Alan took the second start gate and came in 6 minutes faster then me and Suan, we will see what leading points will say.
Primoz won the day ahead of Edoardo and Peternel on thirdt third place. I think that there will be around 12 pilots in goal with 50 in the competition.
Great flying we had today with great views over Kanin ridge. Looks like a long race this week.
Finally :)
Sent from my Nokia phone

First task Kobala open

2011-08-16T12:06:00.001+02:00

As we have a better weather situation we will make a new task with flying in to the back of the mountain Stol. Should be an interesting one with early start gate already at 13:15.
Briefing will be now in a moment, window open at 12:30.

Kobapa open, second day

2011-08-16T10:06:00.001+02:00

We are packing for a trip to take off. Looks quite a lot of E wind predicted so we should have a bit more turbulent day if we get of the mountain. Yesterday we made a small flight in Nova Gorica before the rain. Looks like we should compete now every day untill Saturday. The race is on.

No task today

2011-08-15T11:09:00.001+02:00

But we are leaving for Nova Gorica to free fly. Seems like we should have a bit of the ridge flying. I am driving down with Jochen and Tullio with some strange gliders on top of the car :)
Seems like very good weather is waiting for us next days. At least a bit of good weather in this year.

The shade

2011-08-13T16:46:00.001+02:00

At the last part of the task most of us got caught with the shade that came from NE. Elio took the first start gate while all others took second one, so he must have had a good run. Tonight the prize giving ceremony and after tomorrow our nationals already.

The task

2011-08-13T12:23:00.001+02:00

Last day of the Dutch open

2011-08-13T09:26:00.001+02:00

Looks like similiar day as yesterday. Some of the guys are already training in front of HQ :)

Stable became unstable

2011-08-13T08:52:00.000+02:00

Enough unstable for a decent race for this 55 km. I took out my weight which was a mistake, thermals where fast on some parts.
Elio won the day.Results can be found HERE

Stable

2011-08-12T13:53:00.001+02:00

As we have such a stable air here the task comite had come up with another idea. We did a race with elapsed time so everyone can take off when they want. 55km task seems big today, as long as the shade stays in. Jellies are thermaling but it all stops 100 m above the take off.

5th day Dutch open

2011-08-12T12:07:00.001+02:00

Looks like a very stable day with low inversion layer. Wind has turned to the E again. It all calls up for a long day :)

Second task

2011-08-11T23:03:00.000+02:00

We did a traditional task today as the cloud base was much lower and we wanted to have more pilots in the goal. We worked it out.
Everyone was surprised about the low cloudbase, but the first day got us spoiled with the cloudbase that is usual for spring time, not now in the middle of the summer.
So we raced the ridges low all the time and I got in decent enough today.
Since I got away with the first group out of the gaggle I was easy going all the way and got in goal 5th today.
Elio was first in goal, leading most of the task, Carl was in second with Paolo from ITA third. 4 minutes afterwards I was coming in with Jochen close but he beat me by some seconds and leading points. I think around 25 to 20 pilots made it to the goal so the task was set quite right.
Tomorrow I guess another stable day with low cloudbase so we will play the valley again.

2011-08-11T22:57:00.001+02:00

Second task

2011-08-11T12:15:00.001+02:00

We set up a 75km task up and down the valley as it looks quite stable. Should be a quick race.

Briefing

2011-08-11T09:55:00.001+02:00

We are just having a briefing, no need to say that we go up as u ca see in the picture. Maybe we make a task to Bovec today, we just need to see what the cloudbase will be.

Another good day

2011-08-11T08:36:00.000+02:00

Another good day ahead of us, well yesterday was a strange day :) Results can be found HERE
Forecast for today is great.

First task too much?

2011-08-10T17:55:00.001+02:00

Even I was surprised by the views today we had over Tolmin, you could see from Venice to Croatia. We have had a nice thermal up to 2200 m where at some point things rolled down in the mountains, so we went back out to the first hills. North wind was not such a problem as I thought we will have more turbulence then we had.
I wanted to go back to the hills next to Kobala while others went in to the start circle. Well they got up to 2600 m and I got stuck in the valley scratching to get back up. Did not worked out...
Seems like no one made it to the goal as the valley was hard to fly low.
Tomorrow looks like a another good day.

Here is Jamie landing in official landing field.

19:40 pm News is that 2 pilots made it to the goal today.

First task

2011-08-10T12:30:00.001+02:00

52 pilots showed up for the Dutch open and this is the view they got from Kobala take off. We made 82km task up and down the valley with tricky points on the other side of the valley (left side on the picture)
We have a window open at 1pm and first start gate at 2:15pm. I will open my live tracking for the flight which u will be able to find it at leonardo livetrack. Google it, I dont have the right adress at the moment ;)

Dutch open 3th day

2011-08-10T10:13:00.001+02:00

As u can see we are ready to leave landing field for Kobapa take off. Weather looks good with a bit of N wind, so it might be quite lively in the air. See you on top.

Second briefing

2011-08-09T09:58:00.004+02:00

Strong wind came as predicted, but however this is good as it will dry the valley and make the good weather that is predicted for tomorrow. We wait untill 11h to make sure miracles don't happen :)

10:30 am, day is cancelled due to too strong wind today. Sun came out so it is a good sign for tomorrow.

Registration

2011-08-07T19:20:00.001+02:00

Bad beggining good ending? :)
We are already used to this, this year :)
Should be good later on.

Two week race

2011-08-06T17:58:00.000+02:00

After three days at work while the weather was good for flying I finally got my day off on Friday and went in to the air after Worlds.

Now I got back home to Tolmin for 2 week racing at two comps. Dutch open and Kobala open. I will help Harm and Annet a bit with organising things here in Tolmin and try to spare myself for a race in my home valley Soca valley.
I got a new skin for my Viper S harness, looks great and I hope I can test fly it before the comp starts. Changing it was a piece of cake as I watched Primoz doing the same thing with Reginas harness. Only problem is attaching all the ropes at right spots otherwise it would be a matter of 10 minutes.

The weather.... Ah weather this year.
Seems like first day will maybe be Tuesday or Wednesday for sure. From then on we should have good conditions for racing here.
This is one way good as we will get a fresh old and new Belgian champion on its way from Laragne, Jochen. Congrats Jochen :D
Jamie and Carl will come and many more, so nice to have them all here in Tolmin.

There will also be an event where we will have Dennis Pagen talking about Secrets of thunderstorms, avoiding them, predicting and so on. Seems like many pilots both HG and PG will come to the event.

Tolmin is going to be very crouded place in the air for next month. 14 days of our race, then the first ever in the world Serial class PG comp and Polish open PG as well.

Dutch invasion

2011-08-05T20:35:00.001+02:00

So nice to come home and meet familiar faces from hg world in your home town. I should be lucky to live where I live ;)
Just when I came to Tolmin I saw field full of hang gliders which made me think of 2 weeks ahead. Race race race :D

World championship "wrap up"

2011-08-03T12:37:00.001+02:00

So it ended, my first World champs with only two flying days. This is ringing the bell from Greifenburg, but still, we flew there 3 days, yet it stays in my mind as a comp with one black dot over it.

Safety
I was reading over internet how we had days where we could fly and so on. I want to say that I am for the first time happy with work of organisers and safety committee who did a good job at preventing the task to be dangerous. Last day was the last day, but somehow you can understand their decision as well. Some pilots where arguing about terrible conditions others about wanting to fly, it is not easy to judge while watching pilots get thrown around in the area of competition.

They should be a good example to all organisers as we almost everywhere experience the great need of getting competition scored or just organisers wanting to show the chances of their local areas while the weather is not suitable for this flights.

My flying
How much can you tell from a result that was produced in two days. I could be 20 up and 40 down, just by one wrong or right decision.
After crouded skies in Ager gaggle waiting was here piece of cake compared to the between rockets flying in Spain.

On both tasks I got up on 3/4 of task with the leading gaggle but here is my mistake. I saw that already from my long runs, when I am coming to the end of the run, last km I push on to finish fast, but, hang gliding is not a long therm run, there must be patience involved as well. I saw a gaggle going forward to the blue sky and went behind them aldo I knew that there is a big chance of getting grounded there. And so we did, all of us. Dan Vyhnalik was behind us and thermaled up to the cloudbase and got in to goal on a first day. Point one, trust yourself more.
So, after 3/4 of the task I start to make my own decisions of pushing forward which usually don´t end up with good result.

Pre flight preparations
I see that by getting a bigger number of comps in my flight book makes me more chilled after few years of competitions. At the beginning all the rush from moving to take off, rigging, briefing and so on, it all made me quite nervous, now I enjoy it in one way.
Nokia gave me nice bluetooth earplugs that made my rigging on take off a party of its own. Combination of more experiences and this unplugged world made me really relaxed for the task every day.

Somehow even my live blogging made me relaxed as I had to sit down and think about what will I write and not think about the rush of people next to you.

So, satisfied with the results, I can not say, satisfied with my approach to the overall comp, yes, I am, and this is a good path to take all of this experiences to the next round of FAI1 comps, to Turkey next year.

I would like to thank all the staff at World champs to make this 14 days as they where. Really good job! They could talk better with the one in charge for the weather but, we all know that he does not want to listen many times :)
I meet some really great people here at Worlds and spend some great time there either on the ground or in the air.

Now, as we had so much bad weather, I hope it all clears up for Ducth nationals and Kobala open in Tolmin.

Come come people :D

Prize giving ceremony

2011-07-30T12:15:00.002+02:00

First three

New and old world champion Alex Ploner

2011-07-30T10:52:00.001+02:00

As the first guys went out in a rough air, thez canceled the task. Alex is agaon a World champion, Christian Ciech second and our Primoz Gricar third. Thanks to organisers for wise desicions.

Flying?

2011-07-29T13:17:00.001+02:00

When pilots saw the wind dummies the mood switched to no flying. Safety comitee is just discusing the task today.

Task is set

2011-07-29T11:56:00.001+02:00

Aldo the wind dummie had a rough time down, organisers are sending us out to fly 90km task.
n

Task?

2011-07-29T11:22:00.001+02:00

They are setting it up.

Last day

2011-07-29T11:10:00.001+02:00

We are on Cucco north take off where we have quite low cloudbase and strong gusts at moments so we will see if we will have a task or not.

Friday the last day

2011-07-29T08:26:00.000+02:00

Winds have turned to the North so we should be taking off from North side today. Looks like a flying day as predicted.
Yesterday we had a flight down with a 3 hour waiting in the rain after the flight. Lets hope for the best today.

Thursday

2011-07-28T10:56:00.002+02:00

Again, overcasted sky with another team leader briefing where they will decide about the day.
It does not look good at all. But for tomorrow they say we fly.

Here is a picture from yesterday flight down the hill

Flyable taskable....

2011-07-27T11:05:00.002+02:00

That is the picture we have on take off now, overcasted sky with cloudbase over the take off. We have a briefing in one hour so then we will see if they will send us in to that weather.

Wednesday

2011-07-27T08:33:00.002+02:00

Looks very good here in the morning, but the forecast says rain quite soon so we need to wait for a decision from team leader briefing at 9:00 am.

9:50 am We go up to south launch. Does not look like task able.

Chasing shadows

2011-07-26T21:16:00.000+02:00

Or we can say that shadows chased us.
Beginning with strong thermals was telling us to start fast on the ridge down to south. But the first turnpoint already got us to the top of the trees and got us fighting for the heights. Strong lift back to the wind mills where shadows started to spread over the Sigillo valley.
I was pushing in front of the gaggle as I was far behind the first one and was trying to come to a better position which almost grounded me at Gubbio.
Magic happened when a spot of sun started to grow in the valley and pushed us all to the heights where we could go back to wind mills and further down south where a shower was waiting for us 5 km from the turn point.
I was always running low behind all the gaggles.
About 70 pilots got in in 15 minutes which was crazy at the landing. I was far behind and now am at 39th place overall. I hope for some more flyable weather to get a better result but so I can make it worse :D
Do the sun dance for us! :D

2nd task

2011-07-26T11:46:00.001+02:00

114.5 km task. Chance of overdevelopment and t storms. The fun begin at 13:20pm

Top

2011-07-26T10:53:00.001+02:00

Looks like a great day to fly. Only one thing, thermals should stop at 5pm. Race race!

Same spot, different...

2011-07-26T10:12:00.001+02:00

Can u see the difference from yesterdays picture? ;)
Light winds are predicted as we had out to Cucco south. There will be chances of overdevelopment but I hope we get the task and finish it as well.

Tuesday

2011-07-26T08:46:00.002+02:00

Looks like we will fly today. I can not say Cucco south or Cucco North as the winds will be very light but at last, we will go up the hill in the sun.

Live tracking button on the right will take you to the page where you can track us. If only my tracking device will work today ;)

See you on take off.

Mare it is :)

2011-07-25T20:37:00.001+02:00

Hang waiting

2011-07-25T11:33:00.001+02:00

Since take off is in fog all the pilots went to the bar closr to the take off. At least we are in a hot and dry place. Doesnt look like the weather could improve so much that we would have a task. Ground is just too much wet. Picture tells a thousand words they say, well this one for sure tells the mental stage of pilots here at the moment :)

Optimistic

2011-07-25T10:26:00.001+02:00

Would you considere this as a flying day? :)

Monday

2011-07-25T08:52:00.001+02:00

Yesterdays storm leaved us a lot of humidity and quite cold night so now team leaders will hear what we will be up to today. Tre Pizzi with North wind? Yesterday they said so... We will see.

9:23 We go to Cucco North with out assembling the gliders, we wait on top and see.

Rules and stupid rules

2011-07-24T12:08:00.001+02:00

Every CAT 1 competition brings out many issues with safety sistems that we are trying to make them work in the best way for all. However, things may look good on paper but in practice it is all different.

Sprog measuring

How many issues where here again and we are taking this now for a 4th time already. We still don`t know how to measure everything.

Factories put out the measurments that they think are safe.
One factory put out the numbers that are higher then DHV measurments, then another one stated numbers that are on DHV measurments but have the ability to go lower as the factory stated it is safe.
Why do we need DHV measuring then if every factory tells which are the measurments.
Measurments are also changing from year to year for same models, so we experience people running in circles to get their gliders at the right spot. Maybe it all should be published before the comp starts so pilots that are not willing to spent all day re-measuring the gliders, would get their gliders at the right spot before.

I guess spending the words about people being polite at the measuring process is useless. Pilots are pilots, but staff working on this should know exactly about everything so there wouldn`t be an if option.

PENALTIES

If you get your sprogs re-measured at the landing lower then they should be then you get a warning the first day. Then if they find you again you get 20% score down for the day...

If you make on point in the "No flying area" then you get scored ZERO points.

Where is the meaning of that?

We are more afraid of that pilot will interfere the airfield zone then pilot get killed due to too low sprog settings...

I could go down now, as I know that I will get the warning first. Or I will say like that, those who will not get the warning will all go down on the last day and so everyone will fly dangerous gliders because they can, because CIVL and FAI say we can.

If we eventually get the last day.

Paraglider pilots already made their own group of where it is able to speak about the problems at competitions, now, Americans made a group for competition pilots on fb where it is possible to speak up about the problems we get on comps. See the group HERE

Second briefing

2011-07-24T10:31:00.003+02:00

We wait for a second briefing for a decision about flying today. Does not look that good at all.
Here are some pictures from last two days.

11:00 am (In the middle of team leader briefing it is raining again)

11:30 am Day cancelled :(

Sunday morning

2011-07-24T09:44:00.000+02:00

We are waiting for the news from team leader briefing if we will go up or not. Looks grey sky at the moment but at least the winds went down a little.
Yesterday we went to Frasissi caves which was really interesting, but we need flying and we need it now.

Another cancelled day

2011-07-23T10:27:00.000+02:00

We woke up to the rain so it was obvious that we wont fly today. Yesterday some pilots got 0 points for flying in Perugia zone, sadly also our Pilot Iztok.
I guess I am on 25th place out of 150 pilots which is a good jump desk for flying days that I hope will come.