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| Free Flight for Free Tibet
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| 11-11-2008 |
 Marlens - Novembre '08 |
On Octobre 30th I went for a long week-end to Marlens in France, it is situated not far from the Lake Annecy. I stayed at the Auberge des Aravis, formerly known as Espace Marlens Parapente. The gîte has a big landingfield next-door. Due to bad weather conditions on the first day, it wasn't ideal for any flying activities (quite normal for this time of the year, see first picture). But on Friday 31st of Octobre the conditions were much better than the day before and as a result I made 3 flights from the Col de l'Epine above Marlens. On that day I also met a dozen of sympathetic paragliders from the north of France, the 'Champagne Vol Libre'-club. On Novembre 1st, All Saints Day, the weather was delightful. For the first flight of the day on the Col de l'Epine I meet again the same amiable club from the north of France. At the landing field we meet Patrick Berod, the 2001 Paragliding World Cup Champion. He's authorised dealer of Gin- and U-Turn gliders and he tells us that conditions are also good at some other interesting spots in the area. We decide to leave Marlens and drive in the direction of Saint Jean De La Porte where we will find the MontLambert. On this site resides the club of 'Les Indiens de Montlambair', they have a magnificent totem on their startingfield and the view on the valley is sensational. We meet the members of the club while they are cleaning up their startingfield. Conditions are quiet good, we let the Indians continue their good work and take off into the air. This site is most interesting and needs another visit in better conditions, we'll see how it flies in Springtime! After landing and packing all our gear we decide to leave the area and head for Chamoux Sur Gelon. Here's another flying site with a difference in altitude of almost 1000m. Conditions are also good here, wind direction is okay and we take off for a long flight down. You can't see the landingfield from the startingfield because you must fly out of a small valley first. The landingfield is close to the village of Chamoux and can be found easily. When flying out of the small valley you have a fascinating and wide view of the area. This is our last flight of the day and we are invited for dinner at the gîte of the 'Champagne Vol Libre'-club. The French hospitality and warm-heartedness of these guys is natural and spontaneous. Paragliding brings people together, for sure! On Sunday the weather is still favourable and as it is our last day, we go up early to the startingfield of Marlens. The weather is sunny and stable, we fly a lot, I'm practising some steering manoevres and the day ends with a big banana on my face. We take leave of the club 'Champagne Vol Libre', we will see them again some day. Thank you Sylvain, Davye, Bibsi, Patrick Berod, the Club Champagne Vol Libre and the Indians of Montlambair for this unforgettable week-end. (link to Youtube-movie at the end of the picture-list)
 Bijlagen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNVdDcgt30o
11-11-2008, 00:00 geschreven door Primaxx 
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| 06-11-2008 |
| Flying in Coo |
In the weekend of Octobre 19th I went with Lena and Jean-Yves to the Belgian flying site of Coo.
Conditions were good and some other gliders were already in the air when we arrived.
We managed to stay up in the air for a while, conditions were a bit thermal and for a while soaring was possible too.
Enjoy the pictures.
06-11-2008, 00:43 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 19-10-2008 |
| K2-Parapente |
On Octobre 3rd 2008 I went - together with Sébastien - to the Annecy
lake in France for a steering & incident course with K2-parapente.
The main goal of this course is how to counter possible
flight-incidents and learn specific steering competences. The course
was a great succes thanks to the professional assistance of
K2-personnel Maxence & Christophe Waller. This was the first
course for me and there is much more to learn, but next year we'll be
back for other exercises. Thank you Maxence & Christophe. Thank
you Sébastien for inviting me to this course.
19-10-2008, 01:36 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 01-10-2008 |
| Dune du Pyla '08 |
On September 6th 2008 I went to Dune du Pyla - near Arcachon - together with Christine, Jean-Yves, Jean, Guido and Patrick.
The weather at that time of the year wasn't ideal, sometimes too much wind, sometimes only a weak wind. But the sun showed up almost the whole week. We had some days with nice temperatures around the 25C°. Ideal for an evening swim in the sea or to relax body and mind at the beach.
When the earth turned at the end of the day, before the shade turned into darkness, the mirroring sun spreaded magic colours in the sky and the sea.
We could fly half of the time during our stay there and we have trained a bit our steering and groundcontrolling techniques. It's the ideal spot to improve your skills. When the weather was improving, more and more paragliders came out of nowhere to richly colour the dune.
This spot is a magical place, we will cherish the memories it gave us and it's for sure, we'll be back.
Please find below some sweet pictures of Dune du Pyla.
01-10-2008, 00:40 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 10-08-2008 |
| Free Panchen Lama 08-08-08 |
When the Olympic games started on 08-08-08 I made a flight over the Belgian border in Fumay (France)
That flight is dedicated to the young Panchen Lama and his parents who were arrested in 1995.
They have never been seen again since then. Where are they?
(click on picture to see movie)
10-08-2008, 00:00 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 03-08-2008 |
| Atomium's 50th Anniversary |
On Thursday 17 July I went to the Atomium in Brussels. As it was the 50th Anniversary of the Expo'58 and also the Atomium's birthday, Belventura installed a death-ride from the top of the Atomium. As this installation stayed only for a few days and it will probably never be installed again afterwards, I took my chance. After queuing for about an hour, Jean-Yves and I went to the top of the construction which is about 100 meters high.
Of course I brought my small Tibetan flag. After 20 seconds the ride was over, but what a rush! Thank you Belventura and thank you Françoise and Patrick for the pictures.
03-08-2008, 02:06 geschreven door Primaxx
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| Mieussy - June '08 |
On the 7th June I went together with Bart, Patrick, Seb, Danny and
Carl, to Mieussy in France. We hired the cosy Gite du Bois Riant for
one week. You can find the gite on your way up from Mieussy to
Sommand. Thanks to our well experienced and local paragliding-guide
Joël, we discovered several flying sites in the area. We have been to
Samoëns, Thonon Les Bains, Agy Cluses, Salève and where it all started
30 years ago, Mieussy.
We have made a beautiful flight at Salève
where some of us tasted some small thermal activity. From the
Pertuiset in Mieussy Joël and Seb made a transition to Samoëns. Below
you will find some pictures from that week. Due to bad weather, we
didn't manage to fly often that week. But we are happy that we had the
chance to fly. Special thanks to Joël for his guidance and support.
03-08-2008, 01:45 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 17-05-2008 |
| Soaring in Volmerange-Les-Mines |
Last monday 12th May 2008, I went to Volmerange-Les-Mines. It is situated just over the Luxemburg border in France and for flying here you need an eastern wind. Like the Zoutelande-dune, this site is very interesting for soaring. Arriving in the afternoon I first observed the other pilots at the start and before unpacking my gear I waited for calmer conditions. It was almost 18:00 when I took off for a flight that lasted 70 minutes. Instead of making a tricky toplanding I landed on the landing field some 150m below.
17-05-2008, 15:50 geschreven door Primaxx
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| Soaring in Zoutelande |
On Friday 11th April 2008 I went soaring at the Zoutelande beach/dune with the Free Tibet-paraglider.
Lots of other Belgian pilots were there.
17-05-2008, 00:00 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 31-03-2008 |
| Free Tibet in Crans Montana |
Last Friday 28th March, the Free Tibet-paraglider made a flight in the Swiss airspace of Crans Montana.
All week long the weather conditions were too bad for flying, even on Wednesday it was too bad for skiing.
On
Friday I finally managed to take off from Bella Lui at 2600m altitude
and thanks to my local guide (thanks Yves!) I landed safely a 1000m
lower on the frozen lake 'Etang Long'. On the attached pictures you
can see the take off at Bella Lui, the Abricot-glider of Yves and the
Free Tibet-glider.
31-03-2008, 18:52 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 20-02-2008 |
| Groundhandling |
Made some groundhandling a few kilometers from home.
I found a nice open space where groundhandling is possible in every wind direction.
I convinced Bart 'AWF' & Patrick 'PPD' to come over and they fully approved the new groundhandling-area.
Watch the pictures on next link and decide for yourself:
http://gallery.mac.com/bartpeeters#100181&bgcolor=black&view=grid
Cheers!
20-02-2008, 20:59 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 22-01-2008 |
| Stubaicup 2008 feedback part 2 |
It's saturday and the Stubaicup starts for real. Many paragliders found out the weather in the Stubaital was very flyable, so the sky was very crowded this day. On friday there were around 600 registered flights, today I think it must be over a thousand starts. There were some nice massive constructor-flights, some acro flights, the Renegades and some speedflying. Weather is sunny, not too cold, but we have still some backwind at both starting areas, just like yesterday. This day was very instructive, it wasn't easy to land together with another 10 or 20 gliders at same flight level. This day I made 4 flights.
It's sunday and the Stubaicup ends today. Temperatures are a little bit colder, we have still that same backwind on the mountain which means that we must give extra speed to get a nice lift off. In Austria they use to say "gaz geben" Wink This day I tried the high start at Schlick 2000, that's about 1000m above landing field and the starting area is much smaller than the boulevard at the Elfer where you can start with 20 gliders at the same time.
Many paragliders are queueing to start from Kreuzjoch (Schlick2000). After preparing my gear, I will have to wait for at least one hour before I can start. Same problem with the wind here, some are missing their start, others hit the small trees under the start and have to work hard raveling out their gear. This was worthwile waiting for starting here, a beautiful view on the Stubaital, the Elfer and the surrounding mountains. This is the best flight from the weekend for sure. I will make again 4 flights today and the counter for my first Stubaicup ends on 11... just like the Elfer-mountain.
It's Monday and we are leaving home, the weather looks still good in Neustift and most paragliders left home yesterday evening.
I want to thank all participating pilots, constructors, test pilots, the people of Neustift and the whole Parafly-team for making this event a massive succes. Special thanks to Lena for support.
Enjoy the pics!
Pic 1: How do we fix this? Technical instructions by Hannes
Pic 2: With a little help of my friends (Thanks Bart!)
Pic 3: This will take at least 3 or 4 hours...
Pic 4: Maidenflight
Pic 5: Elfer-start
Pic 6: Elfer-start (2)
Pic 7: No comment
Pic 8: Mass-launch
Pic 9: ...
22-01-2008, 02:22 geschreven door Primaxx
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| 18-01-2008 |
| Stubaicup 2008 |
Hello,
Yesterday we arrived at 15h30 in Innsbruck and we went to the Nova Wings-factory to put on the Free Tibet-message. Hannes and Peter showed us how to put on the imprint and after 2:30 hours we were ready. This morning the weather looked good and we went to buy our tickets for the cableway and to subscribe our participation of the Stubaicup. It is already crowed and at the start at the Elfer-mountain I had to wait a while for my first take off. Finally I made 3 flights today and got some nice reactions with the Free Tibet-glider. Uploading pictures is difficult here, so you will see them after the weekend.
Aufwiedersehen
Patrick
18-01-2008, 18:20 geschreven door Primaxx
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