Nokia Lumia 920 project is alive and online ;)

Enjoy this video :)

Speedgliding Tolmin 2013

For the first time we did a speedgliding event in Tolmin. Friends who where organising Soča Outdoor festival where happy to invite us hang glider pilots to make something new at event.
Th eidea was to have two virtual cylinders one on castle top above Tolmin and one in center of Tolmin with goal at official landing.

The weather seemed perfect for the race, a bit strong wind on take off but September already killed most of the "lively" air, so we had quite a smooth run down.
In the end only 5 pilots showed up so we changed the mode gear from competitive to show and fun.
I made a goal line right after the festival area so we had to zoom in over people at 4pm when there where lots of spectators there.
In the morning other pilots convinced me that turnpoint in the middle of the town is too close and we wont be able to get down low enough to make it look good. Well, I listened and changed...
We made a lottery with starting numbers and I got the last one :) I never tried the course so I did not knew what to expect. Stanko went first... They where all calculating the glides and where saying we will have to be on full speed all the time.... :)
Stanko did it so fast that he in the end missed the castle, first turnpoint :D From there on it was just pure show for the people.

I took of did, the castle and then went of another one which was far far far, I had to slow down a bit to make it to the line just 3 meters above the ground. Seems like I should not listen to our smart guys as my turnpoint would work out great. It was nice to hear people cheering for the pilots when they came low over their heads and speaker who was explaining to the people what we are actually doing.
In the end best time was from Franc but he never looked at the gps so we have him on suspicious line :D Second was me and then Alan.

I got a nice feedback from people that it looked nice. They only see us from far away but having a chance to listen to the glider at top speeds was something new for everyone.
Next year I will make it bigger, but pilots will have to pay in advance as I had to pay big portion of transport for many pilots that did not showed up ... :)

Here is a raw video from a friend who was filming at the castle with his GoPro

Teaser from Nokia project

Something BIG is coming up :)

I was working on a nice project with Nokia in the beginning of the summer and it is coming out soon! :D

Weeks among the jell... pilots

After Kobala open I was kindly invited to help people at Camp Gabrje
at their two paragliding competitions with my video and picture skills.
First there was German open and then Serial Cup last week. Specially Serial Cup stayed in nice memory as it is kind of different format of the competition. Fun like, with a note to give knowledge of best guys forward. Few best pilots sat on more slower school gliders and where marked with a plastic rope behind them. In the evenings each of them prepared a lecture for the new upcoming pilots.
It was nice to see the organisation from this point of view. Gasper the organizer has miles behind him in this business and you can see that straight away. FAI 2 cat competition, but organized nearly like FAI 1.

I got a chance to fly new Pawn a school paraglider from Triple Seven Paragliders

and actually flew half way of Vipava valley. It would be interesting to see my face during 5 m/s thermals when paraglider suddenly goes far back while entering the thermal. I was told Pawn is really good at that, so it does not go so far back, but for a hg pilot this sensation is just weird, even if it goes back just a bit :)
When I left the thermal, normally I hit the sink, but with my hg wing I just pull in and get out, here I was stuck in this sink for seconds and was already pulling my legs out at 200 m over the ridge :) You just need to get used to the new feelings.

This weekend we will have a small speedgliding event in Tolmin which I will organize. I hope there will be enough curious people watching it at the landing as there is major party afterwards at Soca Outdoor Festival.


In the mean time, my brother got instructor for him and started the course of hang gliding. He was asking m but I said he needs to arrange it all by himself to show that he really wants that :) Well, I was impressed to see the skills on the training hill and I am looking forward for some winter flights with him. Family tradition goes on :)

As I said we had a lecture from Markoo Hrgetic, one of the best if not the best Croatia pilot who presented an lecture on how to make the best position at starting cylinder. Most of you will know all of it but I think it is a good refreshment and really good lesson for the newer pilots coming up. Here is the video: