Leaving for Miami

I will be relieved when I can tell you in 48 hours that me and the glider arrived safely at Quest. Keep your fingers crossed. In never tried to board a plane like that...

Almost ready to go

Loads of things needed to be done in the last few days. Cleaning up the mess from moving, looking for insurances, hoping that the speedbar will get in Belgium on time, packing the glider for transport, doing my administration, swimming to get a little bit in shape for the season, ... I didn't realize there was still such a lot to do. Tomorrow I'll pick up a Handirack, so I should be able to transport the glider from Miami to Orlando.
The flight to Florida (over Berlin) leaves Thursday at 9 A.M. Can't wait. Hope the glider will be intact when I re-assemble it at Quest, which will be my home base for 3 training weeks before the Rob Kells Memorial.
Still a long time to go, but if the long-term weather forecasts are right, I'll get a couple of days with great flying conditions immediately after arriving :-)

Trip to the 2011 Aeros Winter Race

10 Days ago, I drove towards the Alps for the first competition of the 2011 season, the Aeros Winter Race. Combined with some skiing and some visits to hang glider and harness manufacturers, it was quite a trip:


The conditions during the Aeros Winter Race were far from ideal. The Bora wind was blowing with local wind speed far above 100 km/h. The Lijak take-off was situated above an area which is very much protected from the Bora and allowed us to fly twice. You wouldn't think that that was possible, standing at the headquarter, which always was exposed to the wind.
The first flight was really uncomfortable for me. Last year, I've constantly been searching for a better position in the Tenax harness and I ended up putting extra foam in the boot. I put in too much and ended up restricting the blood flow to my arms. And I needed my arms that flight, because it was very turbulent. That turbulent that the task was canceled. I was a passenger under my wing by that time...
During the evening I removed some of the foam and elongated the shoulder straps a bit. The second flight I did not have a problem with my arms anymore, but somehow I managed to make really bad decisions and didn't even make goal on a day with many, many people on goal. Let's do better next time.
It was nice to meet everyone again and fly my first thermals of 2011. I underperformed, but I had a great trip.


Waiting for launch in the winterly (maybe early spring?) sun.

New logo for Trike Valley

Almost 4 years ago, I had my first hang gliding lessons from Tom Haagdorens at Trike Valley. Tom's someone who's extremely passionate about our sport and is as passionate about teaching our sport. You can read more about my first 2 years, during which I was constantly given good advice by Tom in this post.
Anyway, Tom's hang gliding school now has a new logo. And I think it is the best hang gliding logo I've seen so far. Here it is:

I wish Tom all the best with his hang gliding school! He's doing an outstanding job.

Change in plans

Wasn't I supposed to be in Australia? Yes, I was, but I couldn't interrupt my job from mid December due to some Belgian rules. I have to wait until April. So instead of a 9 month journey, it will be 6 months of flying.
And the schedule is getting clearer and clearer. My plane leaves for Florida on April 7th. I will have almost 3 weeks of training there before the Rob Kells Memorial is held. Immediately after, we fly north (towards Huntsville, Alabama?) in a rally comp, the Flytec Race and Rally. And that is immediately followed by the Midwest competition, taking place just south of Chicago. By then it is late May and I will return to Europe to fly the comp season there. Highlights are the World Championship in Italy in July and the Belgian Championship (first week of August).
So, what am I doing right now? I'm planning what to do in between competitions in the summer. I would love to go flying in Piedrahita (late June or mid August). So, if you're interested, send me a mail!
And I'm getting physically prepared for hang gliding. I started swimming, because I want to strengthen my shoulders. That should have a positive effect during the longer flights...

2011 has started

Today I had the chance to test the new sail. I was a bit nervous because it was the first time I disassembled and assembled a glider and it had to fly of course. But it was looking good and it also felt good during a run on the grass.
And, it flew straight with VG of and VG full on. And that is very, very important. So that's a big relief. Now let's hope it also glides as well as the previous sail.
It was the first flight with the Combat after 4 months of inactivity and I definitely lost some of the feeling for it. 2 Nice landings and one rather sloppy landing. Not the landing itself, but the approach wasn't nice. I was overcorrecting a little. Will be fine again after the next serious flight ;-)
Here's the revamped bird:

Not very daily yet

I retitled my blog to 'The Daily Thermal' because I was anticipating very frequent flying, starting from mid december in Australia. I had already booked my plane, but I was unable to get my 9 sabbatical months from mid december. I have to be patient until April.
So, I missed the Aussie comps. But, apart from one 300 km task, they didn't have the usual (for us Europeans exceptional) Oz conditions due to a strong La Nina. You all know about the floods...
I didn't miss to much. And I guess they'll be organizing the worlds in Forbes in 2013, so let's hope our planet goes completely berserk and we have a strong El Nino in 2013, because I plan to be there then!
We must survive the legendary year 2012 first of course... Belgium might even have a government in 2013.