Venice - Dubai - Sydney - Forbes

The day has come. A bit of tetris game with packing all the stuff in to my harness. The long trip is here, a trip to World Championship 2013 in Frobes, Australia.
I love how Matrix goes smaller when you put the plates out, plenty of room for other stuff to put in to the bag and use it as a baggage for traveling.
A brand new Litespeed Rx is waiting for me down under, I got pictures and people telling me day saw it :) It makes you feeling a bit anxious with news like that :) Many people are already down under, testing the air, I will get my chance on second of January I guess.

I will spend my new years eve somewhere in the air.
When I land in Sydney I will meet up with Tyler from Canada with whom we will be a team for next 3 weeks. I heard just good stories about that man and I am looking forward to meet him in person. He made a huge work with getting us a driver and a van with which we will travel from Sydney to Forbes.
So, now, first stop Venice, 2 hour drive from home, then on flight to Dubai with Emirates and then second leg with a huge Airbus to Sydney.

Looks like I will have WiFi on board so you might get some news already from the air at little bellow mach speed :D

Goodbye winter ;)

Well, not so much winter at home really ;)

Maybe last flight in this year

As my wings went to the new owner already I had a chance to have  a Litespeed S4 to test fly here in December. Not so much good weather this year but still I had a chance to taste some thermals also with this design of the glider. First day was not that promising as the glider had a strange set up so I took my time to make it different. Yesterday we went to Kovk where I had a chance to make some turns in uplifting air and the glider felt comfortable already after 5 meters in the air.
Second test yesterday was a new sonic vario that I integrated in to the helmet. In turkey I had big problems with vario sound as I did not hear it as soon as I was over 70 km/h. So, taking first turns in to the thermal where more vision like not just by sounds of the vario. Not nice to look at vario at what is happening while you should concentrate on making turn in the right area of the best lift. Looks like problem solved now, this small blue thing screams in the back of the noisy 4-fight helmet so there is no need to look at vario any more. However, I am missing one point with this small thing. You can set it to where is sink tone, you can change volume, but you can not change the frequency of beeps. It is quite a screamer at 3 m/s but I will just have to get used that while it is screaming like hell I am still not on my way to moon but in a decent thermal :) 

Working week ahead now, then it is time to start packing :)

    

Autumn sky dreaming

This was waiting for me at hard disk of my computer for a day when I will have a felling to edit some videos again. Well, edit them for my pleasure not by obligatory work :)
One of the last flights with my Rs that found new owner and am sure that he will have just as much joy with it as I had.
Enjoy it ;)

Home valley

Yes, I am starting to repeating myself with this Soča valley stuff. But, this one is worth of sharing. A team of filmers spend their summer filming all of the beauties around the hidden corners of this pearl. With a budget like this, they where able to come up with something really cool and I thought it is worth of sharing this with you.

December

It is my third winter now here in Gorica and maybe first normal one if we look at weather. Last two years we had lots lots of flying days, now, this year it is all about rainy days.
At one point rain was so hard that we had quite a flood in Tolmin. You can look at the picture and those who where here before will know where this lake is standing on now :) This used to be our landing place and now it was full of water, so no landing, maybe just a kayak session :)

Anyway, today was day with snow, but tomorrow looks like we will get to fly a bit, fingers crossed. I have a Litespeed S4 to test fly here for one of our club members. It is just amazing how many Moyes gliders turned out to get to Slovenia last year. Pilots young and old are admiring its handling and it is nice to see that picture when you come to take off when your glider has some brothers standing there waiting for a flight.

Australia,

lots of work, lots of emails but all made with joy. I am glad I have so much help down under and I can say it is all prepared now for me to sit on this plane and go down under for a dose of summer sun.
Yesterday I got a snap shot of my wing being prepared for the race. Thanks to Christina I got this nice picture to my Facebok wall. Happy about that :)

Season 2013. Unbelievable but yes :D It already started with signing for the first race in the year in my backyard Vipava valley. In March we will yet again open European season with this great racing competition. Last year we had a day with 60 km/h average speed on 95 km task. This speed belong to Tom Weissenberger who is on the mission to fly BIG in Chile. Looks like he found a nice place there with long ridge facing over the ocean to race on. Picture he is sending up on his Facebook profile are just amazing. I hope he wont mind if I steal one to show it to you :)

Things are rolling out fast

Next year in January there is World hang gliding championship in Australia, Forbes. I left my hopes about flying down and competing at this competition long ago.

Now things turned around rapidly and I am glad people believed in me and made it happen in a few days time. Now I am already here with tickets to fly down on 30 of December. Yes I will be spending my new years eve on a plane and this is not just a plane :) A380 first whole double deck plane which I got a chance to admire when taxing on the airfield in New York two years ago. Since I was a kid I was looking at all the technical specs of big 747 so this is kind of kids dream come true to fly the biggest one.

After looking at great flying of a new Moyes gun and talking to many pilots that had a chance to fly the new Rx I was eager to have the top equipment in the home land of Moyes gliders. Really happy to be able to get one for the Worlds. I remember how it was to jump on Rs and think of how easy everything suddenly started to be, I really can not imagine how can something be even easier now :)

Hero3 is here, looking superb. I had to wait to get a new micro SD card to start working on it. I hope I will be able to bring some good footage soon ;) 

So, lets call it a dream come true, I got wings :) Looks like season 2013 should be one hell of a season :)

GoPro

Should I explain what does the header of this story mean?

I think not. Who does not know this small things that have changed the view of the world wide public also to our sport. People around the world can now sit down and have a brief touch of what we are doing among our flights, what do we see and how our life looks like trough this small lenses.

I grew up in a family where we never had a camera or a good  photo so I even did not knew about my love and dedication to that until I did not take my ex-girlfriends camera in my hand and started with it.
Just in time when I started to look what to buy to put it on the glider GoPro came out with their HD camera. Birthday was around the corner so I got little help to get my very first camera. Soon after that, GoPro made a contest where I got my second HD camera. I fet like the biggest producer in town with two cameras on board taking pictures and filming many times. The first day I took the camera in the air was one of my most viewed videos all time. I never got a chance to fly like this in that conditions after that.
Hang gliding high in the mountains from Matjaz Klemencic on Vimeo.

After HD version Hero2 came out and I was selling my GoPros HD and bought Hero2 straight away. Another GoPro contest was out and had this fortune to get another GoPro camera for free again. Of course just signing to contest is not enough, but after having good material and friends around the world willing to click while contest was running I was able to have my arsenal of GoPros full again. Hero2 made a video that was hosted on well known Infinity list web page.
Hang gliding Soca valley ride from Matjaz Klemencic on Vimeo.

Now, Hero3 is out :) More expensive, better smaller, with Wifi build in, a thing that just fits to a hg pilot when you can put this light thing on the wing with out having troubles in the air because of it and a WiFi to start it when things are looking the best around you.
I pre-ordered one to have the best possible camera now and am looking forward to get it around my birthday time again. Seems like they love November to put new thing out and I like that :)
However, while waiting for it I got a nice mail from GoPro itself saying that they appreciate my work so far and would like to give Hero3 in my hands to produce more stuff for the people to see it. The flying and the quality of the camera that will definitely bring new views of our sport as well. I am however honoured to get this chance of course :)

Oldies :D Interview about N8 producers at local tv

This one will be more interesting for people knowing Slovenian language as it is an interview that happened after the N8 Producer zero gravity trip.

We talked about the contest, how I was invited in to it and how was the overall trip with Zero G flight included in it. This one will be fun to watch after some years for sure :D

Magic Lijak

So boring, yet so reliable :D

Why we come back

The tittle t this project came out of the way of how my life is travelling between working Gorica and home town Tolmin. Especially in summer I am like nomad with the pillow and a glider on top of my car coming back to this valley where soul rests out of the working rush days.
As I had an idea to film bits of places around this valley I was lucky enough to get latest machine, a phone :D, Nokia 808 PureView to film this.
It mad me hike around places where I have not been in years. When there is nice weather we are in the air not hiking up the mountains. So it was a good excuse for a bit of exercise during windy days.
The filming was with out any story I was just filming and filming and hoped I will come up with something good in the end. Well it satisfied me. I still need to work on my glide camera system as it is not working quite good, a motorised dolly is still in the making, buying a new one would cost me something more then 1000 € but when I calculated how much I spent already for small parts, well.... Price seems more reasonable now :D

Hope you will like it, please watch it in 1080p and with some good speakers to it ;)

No place like home

After Turkey, dust, flats etc. I was hardly waiting to get back on my home hill Kobala. Amazing how nice it is to see again the trees over the mountains :)

We had quite a dry summer here so the colours are switched a bit this year. It should start becoming brown from top of the mountains down but as it was so dry you could see brown spots lower in the valley on the ridges. Actually these are the spots where thermals are triggering as you can see that places facing most of the time to the sun where absolutely most brown of all.
I am back to Gorica now already, back to work back to my old life. It was nice to spend time around for nearly 2 months.
After Turkey we came home with hope of a bit bigger refunds for our silver medal as we would get higher rating in sports category at our Olympic association. But.... The drum roll finished two days before we got back home so in the end we will be left with huge portion of refunds for our Turkey competition. This is how things are done in Slovenia, you don`t know wetter you will get your costs back or not until the last working day of the year. Then suddenly your club gets refunds and club is the on then having problems to transfer the money to us pilots who have had to pay for everything before.
What does that mean now for us?
Team was well pumped up for Australia and there was a slight chance that we will actually get down in bigger number but... It all ended up with one phone call to our Flying association who refused to let us send filled contracts for the categories 2 days later.
So the wish for the Worlds in 2012 is cut down by bureaucracy.
I will focus now on Litespeed RX which I badly want for my next season. The level of my flying definitely went higher this year and I am sure that it can go even higher next year. Well, I will need to sort it out with my stupid "push on" flying :D

HANG GLIDING - Three steps to the flying itself

This summer I had a chance to work on a video project where DHV asked me to make a video that will catch up an interest in possible new pilots to our sport. They gave me all the rights to build it up from idea to the production. Since I bought some serious gear for filming I was able to say yes.
We did quite some filming in Germany and Austria, but with big lack of good weather all the time. I am used to have this epic shots which come from days of flying and luck wherever you go.
I had to get the best out of it and ones I sat down to my computer, the story started to evolve. Hope you will  like the outcome of the video.
In a rush of making and exporting it, I forgot about my dear friend Jochen Zeischka who made few shots in the video, so credits for this video go also to him.

Enjoy it, share it ;)

HANG GLIDING - 3 steps to the flying itself from Matjaz Klemencic on Vimeo.

Prize giving ceremony

I am back home after 30 hour drive. Smooth border passing made us come back fast. A good group of fun people in the van just made this trip easier.
We started our trip back right after the price giving ceremony which was held in one open restaurant in Talas city.
Nice breakfast for all pilots with lots of sugar included of course :)
It has been an adventure to me, flying in a different place with different culture. Overall great experience, only too bad we had the weather we had which was more of a gamble than real flying. Well, we still flew, 9 tasks, which is a lot.

The new Eropean champion is Alex Ploner followed by Dan Vhynalik and our best Primoz Gricar.

We where happy to have silver team medal behind team Italy and in front of team Spain

Task 9, 72km

Yesterday we had the last task of the European championship 2012. It all started with strong cross wind on the start and panic when dust devil came and flipped some gliders. I jumped over the fence while Swiss Nick ran just under me and I crashed him to the ground :D His glider was flipped over mine the same as I flipped over him but gliders where ok so where we after the small crash :)

It looked like that we will not have the task when it started to turn to the right side late at 2 pm. Briefing and a 72 km task was set.
I was thermaling up and looking where others are when I suddenly saw small spots over me and I was at 2500 m. Wow, it goes high today and a short task.
We ended up at 4000 some at the limits and some over the limit. Everyone started the glide more to the north over the hills while some of us went straight towards the turnpoint to the west.
It worked quite well but the day was soon shutting down and those who went to the hills came higher over the turnpoint and where able to continue back to the goal.

Fours of Slovenia pilots made it to the goal so second team place was in our hands. Primoz was 4th so he will get 3rd place. Alex Ploner is continuing his very good form also here with a new European champion tittle. Dan, who played a back game whole competition ended up at 2nd place.

This is however first team medal for Slovenia at FAI 1 competition in our history and we are all very happy about it. Italy was class of its own here and we congratulate them for very good result. On third place there was a battle  between Spain and Germany, but Spain remained its position after the task yesterday.

Now we are off for the price giving ceremony and then straight in to the van for 30 hour ride back home. End of the season? Competition season for this year yes, but I have one more jolly in my pocket :)

I dreamed about this place for long time, see you there ;)

8th task, 134km

Finally they called a better day which was still totally blue but with a bit more decent thermals on the way. Beginning was traditionally slow with bad thermals but as we moved on it was getting better and better. I was in a good position on the half of the race where Primoz went on alone and got in to the best air quite faster then gaggle behind him.
We enjoyed the views of high mountains, no grass, no trees like we Alp pilots are used to, but magical in its own way. The most hard part was in the end as there was a 20 km dead glide from 3400m to the last turnpoint where we got low and found a wick lift. Here I got together with our team mates, Joze Frim and Franc Peternel where we where putting this hard puzzle together like a team.
The day was ending, you could see and feel that when Peternel suddenly got a kick in front of us in the middle of the valley which was already in shade. Here we tanked up the 300 m needed for a final glide of 15 km.
I was 20m bellow Frim and Peternel when I headed out by myself as thermals was dying. Nerve wrecking glide in the lee of small hills but I made it to the goal as 8th for the day. Finally a proper flying conditions and in the end also a place for the day. I feel a bit better now after all of this bad flying in the past days.

Flight

Franc and Joze made it in as well, so did Primoz well ahead of us in first place. Really good job from our team in this competition. Like we would have arranged who will be resting for the day as every day someone makes it in and good.
Stanko had a bit of stomach problems yesterday but he and Alan still did it to the last turnpoint.

Today is the last day. Fingers crossed!

Task 7, 70 km

Another day, another blue sky, another work out. Today it was a bit better on the take off as we got a bit more height in this area where we had really bad conditions in past days here. With start gate open I was just in the right thermal and waited thinking of taking next start gate. Balasz was just above me but after 10 minutes thermal slowed down so I had to choose. I went on, with 10 minute delay but as I had thermals marked in front I was just a little bellow the first gaggle at the half of the task. We split in to two gaggles one more to the south where I was as well and we went up slower than the one a bit to the north. Once we started the glide towards the last turnpoint near the big mountains I waited to have people in front and see what is happening.
I went more to the right as it seems there is better air but got suddenly in to a really bad air, few seconds of -7 m/s and my gaggle was way above my head.
You can get quite bad areas here, the day before I nearly landed with the same sink but it got better later. Yesterday, when you where low you got slow. Gaggle to the North got a screaming thermal and just glided on to the goal while I drifted until I landed on the last turnpoint. One bad moment with bad air and you are done, while there is nearly 55 pilots in goal. I was soooo pissed off.
Guess I forgot this bag of luck at home...

Slovenia team went on and got to the goal a little bit slower than team Germany and Spain but remained 300 points in the lead.
They say weather should get better now for two days, but... Let us see, no signs of clouds outside, another gamble day...

Task 6, 87km

Another day that started with blue thermik and ended with it as well. The only difference today was much less wind. The beginning

was hard again, I got very low again but managed to climb back up and get together with the main group on 4o km where we went to 3000m and went on a bit easier. I missed one good thermal on the way to the south and ended up back in the 7m/s sink that lasted for quite long. Scratching back up and then to the north with one climb to the goal.

Seems like Macedonian Nikola won the day with about 30 pilots in goal. Our Frim was 4th with me and Stanko coming in later. Franc got unlucky with power lines right on the goal cilinder so he had to land 100 m before.

Looks like team Slovenia will hold strong on the second place with Spanish behind our back. 3 more days...

--

Sent from my Nokia N9

5th task, 82km

Killing the gliders with sand

Another blue day with inversion layer just a bit above the take off. The intervals in front of the take off where coming in 15 minutes and with a push system many where forced to take off to really bad air. When I got in the line to take off I saw that people are loosing height so I went back in the line and waited rather than bomb out and do a stressful reflight.
I got a nice timing and got a thermal up where most of the pilots who where cruising for already 1.5h joined bellow me. We got to the top of the thermal where me and Suan went out to the edge of the start cylinder to wait there. Well we, waited, on the ground.
Not one thermal to catch, Joze Frim our team member ignored the time and went on to the first group and flew the course.
20 pilots made it to the goal with Christian Chiech winning the day as he took the second start gate and others the first one.
Our Stanislav is rocking here with his Rs4, he flew the whole course nearly by himself where first group joined him at the last turn point.

Everyone is putting out their ballast here, I went down a bit but not enough, some even put out 8 kg. This tells you the story what is curving the most of the result list here.

German team games with us :)

Slovenia team had 2 pilots in goal so we got up strong 350 points ahead of Spain now.

Drama around telephones got its high point yesterday. We bought the Turkishcell SIM cards in faith that we will have cheaper calls and better coverage here. Well, seems like a lot of stolen phones are coming to Turkey so they just lock them until you don`t come there with your passport and they unlock it for you. We arranged all the papers for them but still, SMS that we got days before with warning that it will be all locked on 3th of September got true.
Pilots landed, phones where not working, so yes, you use your home SIM card, but bureaucracy is winning over healthy thoughts again...

Another weak day ahead of us.

Rest day in Cappadocia

Album entirely shot with Nokia Pure View 808

Yesterday we had a rest day after 4 tasks. I can not say I am tired at all as we did not flew for quite long time any day than the first one.
We are always late with briefing and taking off but it is all just because of lack of good conditions in the air. Things should change now in this week with weather and we should get some proper flying. I am looking forward to it as I need a bit more racing weather than this ballooning over the flats with distance counted as a portion of luck in your pocket.
If weather changes we will have briefings earlier and start before to get some distances to fly.

Cappadocia was interesting, the land of the smurfs with houses build in the rocks itself. Volcanic rock here is so soft that they where able to cut rooms in to the stone and live there long time ago. So, now I´ve been to Pamukalle and Cappadocia in Turkey and saw two Unesco protected places.

I have to say that this competition is something totally different then we are used to in Europe. On take off you hear the sound out of the mosques and with a proper wind and 2 million people city it can get loud and gives you a different feeling. Every landing is an adventure, kids, kind older people that want to give you some water melons or bunch of crazy kids and older women wanting money from you. An interesting mixture of everything, everything so different :)

Araldo, driver from Ducth team made this nice video where you can get a small feeling how it is here

Task 4, 71km

Today they told us already in the morning that wind will be stronger today. On take off it looked like less wind and really slow thermals if some. Our Franc was in line the first to go in this bad air so he waited for a push which we have every day from one of the Austria team.

They had big problems to climb up and next interval was even worse and many bombed out. I got lucky with a thermal. Today I put out a bit of led and suddenly I was climbing much better than previous days in this week conditions.

Day was better then yesterday afterwards with better climbs and I was on my way with leading gaggle.

I went bellow Chiech to find a climb that he had but got only some bubbles left bellow so we where all slowly drifting away fron the course line. I tried to go back but N wind was just too strong.

Alan and Primoz made it to the goal.

The whole competition is more like gamble with take off conditions and of course huge portion of luck on the course. Interesting but not satisfying.

Sent from my Nokia N9

52km too much

Well not for 8 pilots, that is the news for now. Organisers wanted to give us a goal day but it ended up with drifting over the flats at low altitudes. Nurve game again and one wrong turn and you where on the ground.

I truly hope for some normal weather to get a proper flying here in Turkey.

Kids story went on another level, today they where trowing stones at me :) They did not want to stop but I wanted to film them, I took my Nokia out and they started running down the hill away from me :D

Lets hope weather improves a bit...

--

Sent from my Nokia N9

2nd task, 92km

Day was forecasted for blue with less wind so it called for a though day. I had to take off 5th, I really don't like this system when you need to go in order and you can only wish for a good air when you come out. Many people bombed out today, I had luck to climb out and start this though survival game over the flats to the E. 

I was a bit to fast and was in front when I noticed they catch a small thermal behind and it was too late to turn back. I was drifting over the flats but with no good thermal. I landed soon after 20 km.

Pedro from Spain made it far to 4 km before goal while most of the pilots went down at first turnpoint at 45 km.

After my landing the fun began. Look for your self and multiply this to two hours :) (Shot with Nokia Pure View 808)

Some pictures from yesterday

Pictures with Nokia Pure View 808

Take off Ali Mountain

...

They brought water melon to us :)

Children everywhere

Postcard from Turkey

First task 87km

As the forecast was not so good they decided for a smaller task with 87 km. I had to start among the first ones as 5th so I had to spend 1.5h in the air. Once high it was not a problem but quite a struggle to get there.

I saw first four in the air, where they had no lift but someone pushed when I was in the line to take off. Number 47 if I remember right and without number I assume who can be that stupid to push 46 pilots in to really bad air. Well was not that bad but ugly. Who ever does not know what push system is, it shortly means everyone before him must take off in 1 minute also he. So he rolled out everyone in to the air.

After that quite some hard termals but I was doing good with Cristian Chiech and Gerd. At the second point I saw first gaggle of 5 pilots and rushed to them while Gerd and others found a nice lift behind me. Wind of up to 40 km/h stopped me so I pushed out in to the flats while others where able to glide back to the ridge with clouds. I landed 5 km before the last turnpoint and I think around ten made it over high enough to go on. Few more landed a bit further. All in all nice flying and a long way to go.

Soon as I landed a man came to see this wonder and called someone who brought water melon. Nice people :)

I am here with Tiffy where we are having a deja vu from firat task of worlds where we where together and few where making it further.

Now lets see how retrieve system works :)

Sent from my Nokia N9

1st day, cancelled task

Yesterday we have set on the Ali mountain where we had quite a cross wind already early and it was getting stronger.

In the distance it was possible to see a nice wave cloud coming in which was calling for troubles. I was second to start derigging and when I finished it must have started to blow in gusts up to 60 km/h. Task was cancelled of course.
We had rain in the afternoon and today we have a clear sky with very clean far view and a bit of wind. Temperatures went quite down but they say it should be a good day. I am screaming for another off day as I got a nice pain in my back due to all the open windows but I in case of task I will have to squeeze my teeth and fly the task.

Test day

Yesterday we had a test day which one I used only for a free flight while others have flown a small tinny 50 km task. I spare my energy for next days as I think we should fly a lot, for tomorrow yes it looks like overdevelopment but it is hard to believe that big clouds can actually form here as it is every day dry as hell. When you fly you drink a lot as you feel the dust in the air in your mouth and when you land you change in to a camel with water close to you.

The land is Lanzarote look a like as it is mostly volcanic made and rocks are here and there waiting for you. I have this my way of landing with my leg on the ground on the glide but it seems I will have to change this technique here as yesterday I played football with three heavy rocks and today my feet is a bit soar. Well, we go to fly not to walk so no problem.
This year I am going to team leader briefings so spare me for some late reports, but be sure there will be plenty of live news over my Twitter to your right and here on blog as well.

Today we start the game :)

Sprog measurement and opening ceremony

As I wrote yesterday, the idea was to fly today, but in the end new system of sprog measuring was no working quite as it should.
Now the system is that we need to measure the gliders and come up with the numbers to the almighty Pelici from where on we where free to go. Simple as it should be.

I wrote already last year FAI and CIVL should be the one to have measurements before the competition on some web page either competition web page or some more fancy one of our highest bodies by that I mean official settings for all the manufacturers.
I thankfully knew exactly what I needed to do with the glider as I did quite a lot of settings in the past month with the inclinometer that I bought myself. Many others did not had that chance and had to ask for the numbers at the desk. Numbers that where proposed where varying from pilot to pilot so overall mess was here again.
I was very quick with my glider as it was prepared for this settings, while some where struggling to get the knowledge on "how to" do it.
Is it that heavy to write it before???

We were to late to have the flight today as we were too much laid back and were slow on getting back to the head quaters.
We had to go to the Turkcel office to find the credit for our SIM cards that where sold by two guys here previous days. With broken English I somehow knew that I can get he internet I by sending an SMS with certain words inside. Non of it was true and we had to buy the credit and then send this SMS.
We where told about the package for 12 Lyra where we will be able to communicate trough our cells by sms and talk but today the package was suddenly not available at the office. It did not exist. So... :D We could by for 10 € 1000 sms but we could not talk or just buy a credit where our SMS will be nearly as costly as from our home cells..... Quite a punch in the head for today. Thank god we had found alll this info by ourselves before the real thing starts to happen with retrival and stuff.

Then we had an opening ceremony where we walked down Talas streets with a small concert. In the end our stomachs had to be filed so we went trough the streets for a taste of real Kebab. We got a grilled meat plate that was spiced with a huge bill. Punch in the head second time for today :D But it was good to taste. Seems like cooking by our selves will be the best option for next 14 days.
Tomorrow we have to go to fly as many pilots had to change their settings a lot. Then, on Tuesday, the real thing begin.

P.s.: People that have flown today reported flying up to 5000m with cold. Lets hope for something like this tomorrow :)

Landing in Kayseri (Shot with Nokia pure view 808)

This is how it looked like yesterday when we landed :D

Testing the Kayseri sky

I was really looking forward for this day, to finally see that take off with big tribunes especially made for this competition. Well, Ali Mountain hosted many huge PG comps and am sure this tribunes will be used for next competitions as well.

When you walk trough the first part of the Kayseri city, Talas, you see buildings being made 4 at the time. Huge flat houses and it rises the question, who buys all of this. We, young people of Europe hardly afford a place to rent, not thinking about buying something for yourself, while here flat houses they grow like mushrooms.

After the registration we went to the city to change our Euros for Lyra money and where already talked many times for some deals to buy carpets, but yes this is the part of it here.

After that we went on the mountain, huge open space where most of the Europe pilots where here already. We took off and enjoyed the area around Ali Mountain while some tried the small task to the flats back but it all ended up soon as the sky was totally blue. 

I choose the landing next to the headquaters with very changing wind but at our landing at home it is the same every day so the landing was nothing special. 

The landscape is nice, flat, dry, but I am quite sure when the day is good it must be really nice to be fast over this fields and read more the sky then the ridges like we have to at home. 

Tomorrow we have an opening ceremony in the evening, but we hope we get some flying tomorrow as well. Sprog measuring in the morning and then straight up.

Kayseri (Turkey) European championship

I am sitting in HQ of this years biggest event in hang gliding world, European Championship that is held here in wonderful Turkey.

We head out on the road with the van yesterday, and finished our 2400 km trip in about 30 hours. Good company in the car made the trip a bit shorter with lots of fun but today we are quite tired from everything. Tomorrow we will get our first taste of Turkish sky above huge enormous Kayseri city.
Really looking forward for some flying here. More pictures are coming tomorrow.

Kobala open 2012, 2nd task

Second day of Kobala open was again set up with a very technical task. Quite a lot of crossing over the valleys. Getting the start point was very technical, air around Kobala was good but as soon as we went on to the edge of 5 km cylinder the air was not that good so I ended up low on the first start gate with Elio. We got back to Kobala and thermaled up and got a nice second start gate quite high.

Everything went smooth on, on the glide to far SW point we already saw first group coming back and everything was fine. I turn around as it beeps and go back 4 km to the ridge. It was strange to me as it felt like I turned before, but in the area was another turnpoint which is a bridge as well so I assumed something was wrong but was not sure. I lost quite some time here and went on with a bad feeling of the task. I came in  little bit behind Elio but yes, I turned the turnpoint on 2 km as I wrote in the instrument wrong task.
Yet another year with the worst comp at my home yard....

Primoz won the day ahead of Pedro from Spain and Tom in third. Today the forecast is not so good and overcasted sky is already at the sight. We will see. From here on it is all just good training for Turkey. I guess I will sit down long at the task board now to get things written right!

Kobala open 2012, 1 task

It started all bombastic with a great weather for the day.They set up a really interesting task for which I was really looking forward.
Already two days before we had quite rough air with thermals with sharp edges and today was no exception. I took of the first and was 2000m before first even started behind. There was a small mistake in opening the window as there was only 50 minutes from briefing to the race but with 44 pilots this should not be a big problem. We gathered in high mountains to start the race and went on to Stol.

Here I thermaled up and saw guys flying to the ridge in the back when it enlighten me that I forgot to make a curve out in the valley for the point. I thought we need to race Stol all the way to the end... 4 km behind me and Elio we where trying our best
We flew all the way to the far back in the high mountains where things where really strong and then out to the small hills. I went on in hope for a decent air but air was really bad on the way so I nearly got stuck in a forest valley. I jumped over the ridge in to the lee side and had quite a rough flight back. In the end I made it to the goal landing field but with out Kobarid turnpoint.
Tradititonal Kobala open for me. I just hope that we get more good weather these days so I can correct everything a bit.
First in was Franc Peternel, followed by Tom Weissenberger and Primoz Gricar in third place. Tom had a problem on the landing field as someone drove over his harness braking his gps. Bad situation.

Results can be found HERE

Flying for Simon festival

Such a great weekend spent in my home town. A group of very nice people organised an charity event in Tolmin where we where raising money for Simon a paraglider pilot who accidentally landed in the mine field last year. He was lucky to get out alive as the bomb exploded and he was left with out both legs. A strong persona as he is, made him go on with his life and is now raising funds to get a proper prosthesis for his legs so he can go on with his life in an easier way.

A huge group gathered to organise this event that was mostly held in Camp Gabrje from where every day, transportation was organised and pgs had their own competition while we hg pilots where there for fun flying with all the friends from both hg and pg world. Of course it was all spiced with nice concert on the Saturday evening.

Big congrats to Spela who was at her first comp and won the comp in women category. Great job by making the goal on her first task.

Bora bora

Strong winds at home but it feels good when you can take some time for outdoor sport relax.

4th task Italia open

Yesterday we where back on the mountain above Gemona. They managed somehow to get an airspace to run the race even do we had listen to the fighter jets over our heads high all day. Even now at 7 am they have  a practice.

They set up a small 82 km task down to Cividale and out on the flats. Quite a hard one as there was not so much lift as there was two days before. A long leg out in the blue flats and back. I went away from the first group to take Cividale turn point and got back hoping for a nice thermal to get me over the stack. I managed and from there on the game was easier to play. Suan pulled out to the flats and got a thermal on the way. We rushed there and climbed a bit. I pulled out again and found another one just 1km before the turn point in blue sky. Flying back to the ridge I was with Suan, Manfred and Ploner. I choose to go more south to the ridge where we climbed before while others went straight to the ridge. I got a nice lift so from here on only me Manfred and Alex followed on the course.
The last kicking thermal we had I went a bit out to search for better lift where they passed me by 100m. Small mistake but enough to get me 6 minutes behind. I chose the ridge flying back while Alex and Manfred went straight out to the flat and got a better air.
As I saw no one behind I chose to get more height and make that goal. Strong wind valley just pushed me in to the goal so I could make it a lot faster but as there are rare landings around the landing, only river calls for an adventure.

Finally I sort it out a bit in this comp :)
Looks like today is the final day of the competition. Weather forecast is not so good, maybe something small. We will see.