Time is runing fast,

so let`s slow it down. When you browse the internet sometimes you come across some very usefull things. I got a new plugin for my Premiere video editing program that can slow down the video with adding the frames, so the video stays nice and smooth.

My first attempt was to see the slow moition of my landing. Still a LOT to learn with TWIXTOR plugin but it looks good enough. Computer had to burn for 3 hours to render this shot.



Kermit, my last glider went to a new owner to south Italy and I am super happy to see it flying already in videos that are coming from Francesco.
I got a lot of answers from Jeff O`brien, Gerolf and Primoz about gliders for 2011 but in the end I choosed for me the cheapest option to buy a brand new Combat 13.5.
Well the cheapest in the way that I get new wing for the first time in my life.

Aeros made a new glider with 13.5 square meters with aspect ratio of 8.5. The tail worked out good for me last season as I felt really safe with it in the air. I am looking for something the same this year. It is a question of handling with this aspect ratio but they say it should be the same as previous models. We will see soon enough in February. Long wating for me.



So when I wait, I clear up my head with some small jump with a paraglider. Last time I was on take off and noticed woman and a man preparing for base from paraglider. I started behind them and tried to catch the jump with the camera. Here is the shot from 2 days ago.



So my friends, we`re in the end of 2011, whish you all the best in new year, many and
safe landings.

Chasing the sun

One week of nice weather and almost no work during the weekend. Seems like the stars aligned for me after long 2 months with pouring rain. On Friday I woke up with a flu but I was consistent to fly next day no matter what.

Me, Alan and Italians Lupo and Davide, went to the ramp above Gorica, it is nice that here you get company to fly almost any day you go for it. Ramp is nicer then paragliding take off as you have enough of space to start your flying in a normal way and it takes you more time to get bombed out.

Well, December and sun here in Slovenia truly makes a hang glider pilots dream. Where else you can fly such a thermals in middle of winter.
Few more weeks and the day will start to get longer again, thoughts are in 2011 already.

In two days I took GoPro with me and made this nice little video of us chasing the sun in the middle of winter. Enjoy it!

Chasing the sun in December (Winter hang gliding in Slovenia) from Matjaz Klemencic on Vimeo.

Talking about winter in Slovenia or better, Nova Gorica

Winter came with lots of snow also here in Slovenia. We had a price giving of Slovenian free flying association on Friday last week. Next day, paragliders had a Winter leauge competition at Lijak in Nova Gorica. The day was predicted to be a good one. Snow almost to the landing zone provided good gradient from the Vipava valley so they had a superb day in the air. I used this day as one of rear free days to chill out my head from every day working. Well it was a mistake...

You can look at the video of Primoz Susa, one of the Slovenian top pilots, also a Red Bull X-Alps contestor from 2009.

Paragliding WinterCup - Fantazija, Task2 from primozjavascript:void(0).susa on Vimeo.

This years prices of me and my club

Aeros WINTER race

It is on again. Aeros was so satisfied with last year organisation that they decided to do it again in Vipava valley. It started with winds over 200 km/h but already next day we flew. This years date is set to 16th to 20th February. If this date does not provide enough good weather then there is a reserve date 23th to 27th of February.

It is going to be cold this year, I guess, but the area of Vipava provides some of the most amazing flying in that period. So, are you willing to start early this year? Go and check the HOME PAGE of Aeros winter race.

Drowning land

Slovenia is in past month a land of rain. I think I saw sun for 3 times this month. Doesn`t help you with your thoughts either not with your general feelings.
Seems like it autunm is an era of problems which feel even bigger when you don`t get the satisfaction of flying for a long time. I was working late this friday and woke up to a strange light out of the window. THE SUN!
As I had to work early again I woke up my room mate and beggged him for his paraglider. While still half sleeping he asked me why the hell I will fly and why he won`t. Don`t worry you can sleep longer today as weather is like sh.... I said to him :)

It was like sh.. but it was possible to just jump down and have at least a small spark in this era of rain. Here is a shot from Saturday.

Season 2010

Well, it is not over yet, but I took all of my videos and cut the best parts out of them to a nice video, that shows a bit of my flying this year. Since I got a GoPro in my hands this year I was finally able to show the beauty of our sport to many people. Before it was only possible to talk about how nice it is when you come in to the high peaks behind Tolmin and you enjoy the wilderness of nature. Now I can show that too. People start to ask about it. Publishing everything also to Facebook just adds the number of people that can actually get a feeling about our sport
.
I payed for the GoPro around 350 €. With it, I got a great footage of flying this year, I won the Cross Country video contest and got a paragliding harness which Nena will now use, so looking in another way I already got my money back :)

Yes, the era of having a driver at any time is ending for me as Nena is taking lessons to start paragliding. Seems like days will be longer as we will have to retrieve the car from the mountain everyday but still I am looking forward to see her in the air. It is going to be really interesting :)

I remember how it felt when I flew with my father, although he was way more experienced than I was, I was always scared for him. Wonder how it felt for him as I was buzzing the valley at 16 years of age. Those where magic moments.

Hang gliding season in 2010 from Matjaz Klemencic on Vimeo.

Girls being jellyfishes...

Free flying GOOGLE

In Slovenia, we can be pleased to have a man who spends a lot of time programing our own OLC sistem which works better then many others. You can see it HERE

Aljosa now went one step further. The original idea was to have a database of all take offs in the world but the idea grew to even bigger a GOOGLE like webpage where you can now find take offs, best flights from there, pilots and so on.

So, now if you will travel somwhere, you will just need to put in the name of the city you are heading or just put the coordinates in and enjoy the data you will get.

You can find it here

http://www.xcglobe.com

Skeletons in the closet (Ager pitch measurments)

My friend sent me this pictures of pitch measurments at Europeans in Ager this year. I remember from Laragne, they where published on net, well here we have them in picuture. Any anomaly?
Well let me help you. As you can see all Aeros models with a tail are on 0° all others are in the range to -2°. Why? Rule is that gliders can be -2° from DHV measurments, but for Aeros tailed models this rule was set to 0.
The problem was that FAI did not have an official measurments for tailed models. The glider was tested but papers somehow stayed somewhere on the desk. 0 points for Aeros here.
Looking now, I see that all Aeros gliders with a tail where set to 4 and 6° minimum, which is now the official measurment in the papers. So eventually if papers would be on the right desk at the right time we could go 2° lower. Suprisingly Aeros gliders where flying on top with the others even with this handicap. So this point goes to Aeros.
I just hope that next year papers will be, where they should be at a time.

And for the record: I am not an Aeros dealer as some thought this year :)





Too see the pictures click on them and view in the bigest size.

Brainstorming the season and looking in to the future

My idea of moving to Australia this winter ended with a possibility of work at the same place as last year in Nova Gorica under the, I think most flyable winter site in Europe.

So here we go again. Squeezing every coin for a maybe new glider, looking for sponsorships, or I could say begging for them as in this time it is hard to find someone that could give you the oppoturnity to represent them worldwide.
Competition hang gliding is indeed a very expensive sport that cost you so much that you have to push your life, your relationship and yourself to the edge. Last two years I have not been thinking of any other costs than hang glider equipment and costs that come with competitions.

If you are not one of the rear people who are either wealthy enough or are sponsored by some manufacturer then your life is competition for the coins that you spend on equipment.

Looking at the new glider(The see trough one) of Zippy I ask myself, where is this sport going. Will we fly gliders that will need to change sail every 100 hours? Is hang gliding becoming the “sport for elite”?

We all look for the best performance of our gliders but at a cost that could reduce number of hang glider pilots at the competitions (Which is not that big already). Sure, a see trough machine looks great but I would not never buy it as I don`t have the money to change sail every year. Of course there is not just sail, there is frame upgrade every year also, so changing just the sail does not mean everything.

COSTS AT COMPETITIONS

We pay for the worlds and Euros around 400 € entry fee (Australia just the entry fee could be 800€). We get launch packet, a guy who knows where to look for the weather, a guy who knows how to download tracks and maybe a party in between. With 100 pilots this means a 40.000€ to spend. Of course I know you have other costs with our dear FAI stewards who always need the best accommodation with best food in town and there is more of course.
I miss one big thing. Transport. Each paragliding competition FAI 1 or FAI 2 or PWC has transportation in cost of entry fee.
Usually FAI 1 comps are payed by national team countries, so this is the easy step. FAI 2 competitions with 100 to 150 € are organised usually without launch packets, about transportation we can only dream about.

I know it is easier to put 100 jellyfishes to the vans and drive them around but I am sure that there is a solution for hang gliders also. Greifenburg was a very nice example of good organised transportation. For 50€ we got retrieve and take off ride.
In Bassano you can look in the morning at jellyfish pilots, coming in to the vans and going for the take off much further away, we, hang glider pilots we are so wealthy and we have so nice girls around that for us is no problem with transportation. AND WE PAY THE SAME PRICE.

So call me a crazy guy, that I spend all my time in thinking about where to earn money so I will be able to fly in summer at some competitions. One day I might have to cut this option as will need to earn money to feed some mouths, and hang gliding will become a sport of elite number of people that will be able to pay for a glider that will last for one season. Change will be spend for briefings and download guy at the landing.

Yes it is a passion or addiction that is really hard to resist.

We´ve made it

The Cross Country video contest came to an end with my video in the first place. Thanks to all people who voted and gain me 145 votes in front of the second video Drop my self and I .

The paragliding harness will be soon its way to Tolmin. We will see what Nena will do with it, otherwise I know that I will be able to use it sometimes to have jelly flight :) No worries, not changing to the dark side but sometimes it just feels good to throw the wing out and fly, of course on a days when I feel safe in the air and there is no turbulence :)

So thanks again to help me win my first video contest :)

Cross country magazine video contest

I`ve been looking for a long time for a copyright music so I would be able to enter the Cross Country video contest. My friends from Tolmin an ex band Expulsion offered me to use their music for my video so the last obstacle was overcomed.
With some problems on Facebook, they decided to take the videos that have followed the rules, to their web page. Now everyone can vote for the video they like by only pressing one button before the desired video. No mail subscriptions etc.

Here is the video that me and Nena cooked at home to make a story of Substitute for a dream. If you like it follow to the web page of CROSS COUNTRY MAGAZINE and vote for the video (It takes less then a minute)

Buzzing the paragliding comp

Here you can see how it looks like when a hang glider pilot comes to the top where there is paragliding comp. Lots of interest in material, almost too much some times with touching and twisting :)
Kobala has some shade but for some time the best view to the valley was from my glider so jelly fish pilots soon sarcasticly said that there is actually a use of a glider :)
Well I flew with top guns yesterday in the air and was amased by the glides that those new Mantras,Bommies and Peakies are getting, ok speed is our side of story. They will need to make not two liners but wirelles paras to concure the side of the speed. Speaking to the pilots you realise that top gliders are flown only by top pilots, where I see a bit of difference here with hang gliding. Ussualy if you fly an intermidiate glider for so much time that you have some experience then you have no problem to fly a top wing. Here at paragliding comp you get the felling that not many pilots are willing to fly the true competiton wing (Open class). Even if they have lots of experiences. The stair between intermidiate and comp wings is smaller in our sport then in paragliding. At hang gliding competition I can glide with Alex, Primoz or Gerolf but in paragliding if you are not in some way conected to some factory then you are likely out of the game due to the equipment problems. Well Mantras made it a bit different this year.

End of Kobala open 2010

So it ended up, with three valid tasks. The weather this year was not on the side of the competition as we had to fly in strong east wind conditions. The overall winners where from 1st to 3th with Primoz Gricar on top, Franc Peternel on 2nd followed by Peter Kejzar. You even didn`t need to make a goal any day to be 5th overall, this tells the story of conditions we where in. My flying.... Phhhh, like sh.... I have to do something radical to change my flying here in my home valley :) The curse of home flying goes on, so lets hope for next year.

It was nice to see all friends again, some of them sadly went before the weather became better but timing with work is usually a big issue for most of us.

Now I will try to catch some of them in Greifenburg if weather goes as predicted. Maybe I get to fly Gerolfs Litespeed as I would like to see what else is in the hands of other best pilots in the world. It is going to be interesting for a pilot that likes the tail, to fly something different. We will see.

Here is a photo album from Kobala open that you might enjoy

Third day of Kobala open 2010

The forecast from yesterday was totally wrong for today. I woke up in to the rain. The forecast sure looks good for tomorrow again but I wont say anything as you can not trust late forecasts that are made on the internet and TV.

The meteorologists where speaking about the mistaken forecast today even on the radio.
Well we hope for the best tomorrow.
Here is a video that I made to feel a bit of what the flying is like in our valley on good days. Sure we are missing a lot right now…

1. task stopped

The "organisers" :) stopped the task today after having low cloudbase and in the end rain at second turnpotint. We are strugelling for two days now to make a good day but since now the weather didn`t cooperate.
No one is not in the worries as the weather is predicted to be every day better and better. Tommorow I look for a first task in the valley of Soca.
Here is a picture of Julia having fun at the take off today

Kobala open 2010

Yet again, we are counting down the days to another, now almost traditional already, Slovenian open.

This time there is many more competitors signed in so we might expect around 60 to 70 pilots this year. We will have an honour to have here also a new European champion Gerolf, we will see how much will we have to speak about him :)
Then there might be Alex Ploner coming the world champion and many many other good pilots. We just hope for a good weather.

The official site can be find at http://hg.sffa.org/open2010/
Official blog where we will try to inform you all as much about the comp, can be found at http://slovenianopen.blogspot.com/

Monte Cucco 2010 (the video)

This time, no competition, just playing on top. Thanks to Wolfi and Laurent for taking my camera with them and making the video even a bit more interesting. Speakers loud!

My playground (Monte Cucco) 2010 from Matjaz Klemencic on Vimeo.

Playground garden (Monte Cucco)

So we arrived, with two of my ex-students to Monte Cucco, the site where pre - rolds are going on right now. It was nice to see many familiar faces again after Ager :) Really a long time :)
We came at 5pm when many pilots where in goal already, but the sky looked like it was worth a try already today. I will play a tourist this time with my camera and try to make something good out of it. Cucco is the perfect place for that, land and change the angle of the camera and fly again. Where is Malibu? :)

Vimeo works for all

As youtube was not working for everyone now you have the video on Vimeo.

European championship HG (Áger, Spain 2010) from Matjaz Klemencic on Vimeo.

Europeans the video

We need to work on focus on Nikon D90, enjoy!

9th and the last task Europeans

The overall new European champion Gerolf


Waking up in the morning showed overcastted sky with take off place in the clouds. Juaki sent us again to the top but we felt like this will only be the day for drying the gliders from rain in the morning. There was actually rain in the morning, but Gerolf rain dance was not enough to end the competition and we had to set up again on the take off. Clouds slowly raised up and the task of 87 km was called.




The task was set out to the flats and then with the tail wind to goal in Calaf. Waiting for the start gate was again crazy flying in between missiles in very rough air. Afterwards it was all much easier, it was so nice to see ground speed over 110 km/h without a big effort as tail wind helped us most of the way. I popped out of a thermal 10 km before goal as I saw Carl getting faster thermal but I was not able to find it. As I struggled to get back up for final glide Alex Primoz and the others went over me to the goal. I managed to get in to the goal behind second gaggle on 27th place.

Mario won the day quite in front of the rest but Gerolf was patience and came in to the goal with winning overall European champs.

I ended up on 28th place in overall, I am satisfied, this was actually my goal to make it in this years championship. It could be much better if I would not sit down two times just before goal but hey, it is a lesson learned every time. If I look at Gerolf I have at least 20 years more or 10 more chances to win this one day :)

The price giving ceremony took place late in the night and I seemed like it was all a really good party. We had to go home just after the price giving. I managed to get a soar muscle right after steping out of the van, better at this time then before :) I need to prepare myself for leaving to Cucco on Friday.

Here is a short video of price giving ceremony

Task 8, 67 km

Yesterday we had a short 67 km task flying from Ager valley to Vilamitiana goal again. There was really strong wind on takeoff with gusts up to 35 km/h. I felt really uncomfortable to take off in this conditions. By looking at the pilots in the air it looked like it is not turbulent at all. The hardest part was to get of the ground, afterward it was all ok. Nice lift with a low cloud base. I made a mistake on flats when I pushed out to low and got caught with strong wind which grounded me at 48 km. Many pilots in goal again with Christian winning the day in front of Tom by leading points. Tom was a bit faster in goal but leading points put Christian to the first place.

Gerold is still winning the overall ranking. Today we have a cancelled task, a bit free time to relax. For tomorrow there is a question if we will fly or not. I hope that we will.

Overall very good organised competition with leading man Juaki who impressed me with his knowledge and authority overall competition. It is only the social part of the meeting that is missing. Usually we had something organised to get pilots together, here this is not existing. As long as we fly, there is no problem with that :)

Cucco? Maybe I will be actually able to go, but just to free fly and have fun with thousands of take offs and landings at the top of the mountain. Can`t wait.

Jonny's co-pilot here in Ager (Missing)

We got to know now, what is causing the problems to Jonny with his landings lately :) He had a co-pilot in Australia and now he has been left behind, the one and only BATMAN :)

Task 7 121 km

7th task was made to 127 km around two turnpoints, one near Turbon and then flying out in to the flats of Balaguer.
The weather was predited with thermals up to 2500m and later to 3000 but strong west wind and a storm in the Pyrenes killed the good air to us who where lower then we should be. I was hiting the wall on the start cylinder with a choice of going forward and fly in to the gorge but I ended up with choice for my safety and landed before after several tries. 19 pilots in goal with Tom wining the task before young Thevenot and Dan Vyhnalik. There where some scary landings again with few broken gliders as people pushed in to the areas with out a decent landing field of course too low. There is also quite a lot of words of gaggle flying in the start gates, people are either aggressive and pushing out or they connect to the thermal going straight in to the circle of others, so if you are in position to hit him you`re the one who needs to turn. I hate people going in to the thermal like this. There has even been an air collision between gliders on one of the previous days, now imagine how scary sometimes it is in the air with all of this aggressive pilots who are willing to kill themselves and others to gain this 3 m more then the others. I find myself many times going out from the gaggle to find my own spot and ussualy I found but in 10 seconds I was in the same mess as before. Guess this is my biggest handicap which I need to make it better.

Today a storm woke us so no flying today, feels good to rest a bit but I hope for some flying until the end of the Europeans. Weather prediction is not that good but lets hope for it. I am now 31th, one place less then my plan on this Europeans but still ok. Errors have been made but learning is learning.
Gerolf is still winning the overall rankings so he is now in good position to finally get the title.


Statistics in 7 tasks

720 km
Around 30 hours of air time

Task 6, 111km

Blue sky day day said. Yet again another day where we had to struggle with big gaggle in turbulent thermals. I stayed on the ridge for two hours being below the ridge for many times. We had to fly back from take off in to a “tiger land” like Corinna usually say. No landing fields or very few, usually with slope. I was not able to regain enough height so I took a chance to the flats close to the goal field. I was nearly grounded and with out hope of making it as I hit the thermal that made this hope reality back again.

I flew with Marc from Spain for most of the time, from the first turnpoint on it was quite easy. I was in goal among the last but happy that I eventually made it. As I took the last time I ended up at 36th position. Primoz was in goal a bit before me with Franc landing before first turnpoint and Alan landing earlier due to the GPS malfunction. Gerold won the day again. Seems like it is working out finally for him.
Jonny flew after yesterday`s crash, strong will I have to say, flying like this.

The retrieve yesterday was crazy, Alen from Croatia landed in small field before first turnpoint with 10 km of offroad. Imagine us with a van driving on a road for 4*4 vehicle….
We came back to the camping at midnight and fall to the bed again.
For today they say it is big chance of overdevelopment so we will see what will they prepare for us again. I hope I wont be looking at this area close up again… 

Task 5 around 140 km

Weather prediction was for more cloud cover today but with good lift. Well today they where wrong :)
The task was set to the west and then back on the main ridge of Ager to the end and out on the flats.
Soon after we came baxk to the ridge high clouds came in and killed good conditions. I stayed with the second group towards the second turnpoint. Coming back to the valley of Ager showed slow lift. I saw first group on top but by myself I was going up realy slowly. My impatience worked out again as I pushed to the flats by myself and landed on 110 km. After me I did not saw anyone passing towards the goal but still the forst group made it.
Alex Ploner won the task. Gerold is still in the lead.
Jonny Durand had a bad landing and doesn`t remeber anything but he is ok thankfully. Froum our team PRimoz and Franc made it t the goal.
A hard and long task. We will see the results.

Task 4 Europeans 198km

Realy fast as I sleeped to long today :) Yesterday we had a 198km task with 60 pilots in goal. Super great weather, fast flying and one of the most scenic flight in my life. Too bad that I was only one km short otherwise it would be top 20 again. Seems like I have to start working now, it is the last time :)
Franz Hermann won the day, Gerold is still leading.

Here is teh video that Jonny made on yesterdays flight

Gerolds dayzzzz

3. task was set to 111 km with start gate on the course that is already familiar to us with the goal in the flats where we have not been yet. I was 8 km short, when you got left behind it was a very slow and patiente fly over the flats to the goal.
I had problems with speed sensor as I pulled out the tbe too much, when you don`t have it then you seehow much you need all this data in the air.
The retrive was long, we came back at 12 in the evening falling down to the bed. Look at the score showed more then 40 pilots in goal, very good for condititons like this.
I did a mistake when leaving the last thermal too soon in hope that I will find another one but there was none anymore. I strugled above some electric wires for a long time but id did not worked out.

There is one more thing we NEED to add here, poor Austrian guy named Gerolf got a bit stressed while reading all this poetic blogs from Europeans and founding out that facts like his win yesterday and the task before this one was not mentioned in them :)
Seems like we can make a blog and publish link to the result, maybe we can mark his name with a screaming color so it will be seen to everyone and blog from Ager will be just another step to the official web page.
Gerolf is a big person in hang gliding comunity by his work and "personality", but there is one more thing left for him. Some kind of tittle like Euroepan champion or world champion. So many times so close but not made it, Gerolf we wish you to work out good, I mean, after all this years it would be time to have it :)

Another day, another flight!

A day to relax

Task 3 cancelled

Task 3 was cancelled today already in hq as strong wind is forecasted. We will hike in to the gorge in the back of Ager and try to fill up the energy for tommorow.

2. task Europeans

First of all, I have to tell a little a about living here. Nights are great for sleeping, the temperature is just the right one, but, there is another problem. Some small bugs are eating us here :) Little tinny flies that bite like hell. Every evening before sleeping there is a quest for those flies in the tent and afterwards you wish that you have made it to have a nice sleep after all.

Mornings are great relaxed, we start late at 11 to the take off so it is different to other European comps that usually get you to the take off already at nine. Primoz is making his delicious food, but we need to cook for our selves other wise he will be hungry at Monte Cucco :)

Tasks are set late, like somewhere around three and we fly until eight in the evening. I kind of like it.

Today task was set to 91 km in clear skies as they predicted. Mostly the same route as yesterday only a bit shorter on every corner of it.

People started to take off in to very bad conditions, they struggled for a long time at the ridge so I waited for quite long to start.

I slowly prepared myself and the conditions where getting better also as Primoz told on the radio. By taking some bad thermals I finnaly hit the good one with the gaggle. One group got further to the west and got already to 2200 m. We started together but they where quite in front.
After drifting over plato we found some good thermals and it seemed like it is going to be a short and quick race. Elio, Gerolf and some others got in front while I got a bit low coming back from first turn point. We flew back over plato not looking down :)
We got back together with leading group before the last turn point as they got a weak thermal, they poped out on top and raced to the goal and then we, 10 minutes after them.
Nce race, I think I was in the first 30, quite good after yesterdays 12 place. Seems like a like this Spain flying here :)
Today all Slovenian team made it to the goal.

1. Task European championship

So it finnaly began. They set up the task of 131 km around the Ager with landing Villamitiana.

We listened to Primoz carefully about flying here, how late is the task start, how are the valleys working… Well, we got in to the air and it seems it was very hard to even stay up. High clouds came and killed the lift so we started with the last start gate at 15:30 and start our voyage trough the valleys.

Beautiful scenery of Ager valley impressed me. I flew a lot with Primoz with whom I found nice track with good lift almost all the way.

Seems like Balazs won the day, but we have to wait until results to see what happened as pilots choosed different times.






I was happy to be in the goal after first day here in Spain. Long way to go, but am looking forward for it.

I will try to write more tomorrow…