Getting into Florida

... still had some surprises on the way. As written in the last post, Air Berlin was really helpful with the glider. We took off from Koln Airport and I was happy that everything ran smoothly. I had to make the connection to Miami and needed to pass the 'flight-to-the-US' security check. The officer looked at me and said "didn't they tell you in Koln"? I had to say "no".
The problem was that I booked a one way ticket to the US and so I needed a visum. The ESTA waiver was not enough. And that meant that I needed to book a return flight, or else I wouldn't be able to board the plane to Miami. I tried to book online, but the redirect for the payment didn't work, so I eventually went to the Air Berlin counter and booked a flex ticket out of the US. Much more expensive than I would have liked, but I had no option anymore, time was ticking.
I was boarding the plane from the tarmac as the last passenger and someone from the ground crew told me they had taken good care of my glider. It was on the plane.
After a 10 hour flight we landed in Miami. 1,5 hour wait at the immigration service. Picking up everything at the baggage claim. That's one piece of 'normal' baggage, my harness and the glider. Quite a lot to handle when you have to walk through customs on your own. On to the exit to pick up the rental car. I was looking for the signs and noticed the "rental car shuttle" sign. O-oh, I couldn't take my glider on that one! And of course, I couldn't just leave it unattended, I asked security staff what to do and they confirmed my problem. You can't leave it here and you can't take it with you on the shuttle. I had to take the glider to storage room on another floor, pick up the car, retrieve the glider from the storage and than drive on to Orlando. That is, if they would accept my glider at the storage. Which needed some convincing...
Landed at 4 PM and finally left the airport on 7.30 PM. The slow, sleep-inducing cruise (fastest sections at 70 mph) to Orlando ended a long day. The handirack worked well. It kept the glider on the roof during the obligatory "left-foot-on-the-brake" mistake.

I received a very warm welcome at Quest. And Timothy had a beer in the fridge :-)

The adventure starts

Sitting at the gate. Still an hour until boarding. Ok, there were strange faces at check-in, but the Air Berlin and Koeln Airport staff where really, really helpful. No problems at all handing them the glider over. I didn't even have to ask them to be very careful with it. They said to me themselves they would handle it with care. Let's hope the guys in Berlin and Miami treat it the same way.
The security check did have a good look at my lead ballast. 8 kgs of that stuff, what do you want to do with that? "Hang gliding" was the answer. They didn't immediately see the link, so I had to explain that we can use it for extra speed. The officers rubbed some brushes and paper strips over it and asked me not to touch anything anymore, I couldn't even put my glasses on. Someone ran off asking us to wait a little and 5 minutes later, everything was ok. Was it drug testing or will they have done some internet research on hang gliding and ballast? I guess they learn a lot in that job :-)

And I can't phone anyone at this time while it's my mum's birthday, so mummy, I sent you an e-mail, happy birthday!

Mechanical bird

My dad showed me a video about a mechanical bird. Nice one!

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.