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...

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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