sreda, 28. december 2011

First day of winter

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

sobota, 24. december 2011

četrtek, 15. december 2011

Lanzarote wrap up

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 ;)

ponedeljek, 12. december 2011

Cheating Famara

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.

nedelja, 11. december 2011

Last task Lanzarote


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..

sobota, 10. december 2011

4,5,6th day

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.

sreda, 7. december 2011

Timezone UTC 00:00

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.

torek, 6. december 2011

Task 3 at Mala take off

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.

ponedeljek, 5. december 2011

Second task at Mala, Lanzarote

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.

nedelja, 4. december 2011

Mala

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.

sobota, 3. december 2011

Robbed

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.

četrtek, 1. december 2011

Famara, Lanzarote

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

sreda, 23. november 2011

Endless season

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 ;)

ponedeljek, 14. november 2011

GoPro contest

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

četrtek, 3. november 2011

The magic Vipava valley

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!

torek, 1. november 2011

ponedeljek, 24. oktober 2011

16th Ljubljana marathon

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

sreda, 19. oktober 2011

Autumn

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.

ponedeljek, 10. oktober 2011

Cucco horses

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 :)

petek, 7. oktober 2011

Another test flight

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

sreda, 5. oktober 2011

Tasting the States

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:

torek, 27. september 2011

Flats and tows

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.

torek, 20. september 2011

Netherlands

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

ponedeljek, 19. september 2011

Blog gadget Nokia N8



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.

ponedeljek, 12. september 2011

Tandem flying in Tolmin


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

sreda, 7. september 2011

Dennis Pagen and avoiding the storms in flight

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")

petek, 2. september 2011

SerialCUP in Tolmin

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.

sreda, 31. avgust 2011

From air to the water

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

nedelja, 21. avgust 2011

Winners

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.

sobota, 20. avgust 2011

The bombouters waiting for the final glide of first pilots

From hero to zero. First bombout with this glider.

We got a visit on Kobala today :)

The last task

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

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.

petek, 19. avgust 2011

Correcting error-ing....

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

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 :)

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.

četrtek, 18. avgust 2011

Task 3

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

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

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.