Festival is on!

Wow, things are getting really fun. 7th Babadag International Airgames are on! As per usual, the better the flying, the fewer the pictures but this time for a different (good) reason. Last night as I was registering for the festival I decided to check the "competing"/acro box. As one of the clerks put it - "do you best, have fun and if not... well we got the rescue boats!"

Blue Gorilla Tour, 25th of October

Started the morning by joining the acro pilot briefing and ended up sitting around a very small table with Felix Rodriguez of the famous SAT team, Mendo Veljanovski of Macedonia and a few others that I will add once I get the correct spellings/countries etc. To my utter surprise the number of acro competitors was under 10 - all I have to do is qualify! Now, that might be easier said then done...

The compulsory program by consensus of all present - as the number of competitors was low the decision was made to let the pilots make the flying as fun, safe and exciting to watch as possible. Felix assisted the judges with finer points of judging by going first and pointing the intricacies of newer maneuvers and transitions to the judges. SO, the compulsory program included the following in that order:

Helicopter
Wingovers
Asymmetric Spiral
Asymmetric SAT
Dynamic Stall
Tailslide

On the ride up one of the Turkish pilots noticed a cheat-sheet pasted to my flight suit and asked to consult with it. I had to point out to him that I have excluded Helicopter because I don't know how to perform that maneuver. At which point Felix said that I should try anyway, especially if I know all the other elements - i.e. tailslide, full stall etc. that can make the entry and recovery safe. So, there I am on a truck up to Babadag with Felix and Mendo teaching me how to do a heli! Does not come any funner than this! (for those not quite as excited - compare this experience with getting pointers from Andre Agassi on your serve :-))

Oh, I did forgot to mention, earlier in the day we had a practice run during which I got uncomfortably close to seriously messing up my full stall entry. Nothing like seeing ALL the lines of your glider go slack and violently falling under the glider, with no way to control the surge. Ouch.

SO. I also mentioned to the competitors that I have recently acquired http://www.psychiatry.aero and would really like to hear their opinions and ways of handling risk. This developed into several very interesting conversations. Needless to say, as I have suspected before - only one out of ten was joking around when conversation turn to the subject of risk and safety. Mendo probably put it best - "I am not brave. I fear death. That fear keeps me safe... ...if fear is not working something is wrong with that pilot... ...familiarity with the real risks and continuous practicing of the maneuvers prepares you to handle emergencies and decreases fear. Once familiarity is gone fear should and does return." Though a few pilots in the group have done other risky/adventurous sports not all have pushed themselves to the same limits in those endeavours... nonetheless most handle the issue in a similar way - practice, watch others and learn from each maneuver - good or bad to learn how to push the envelope in minuscule incremental and safe steps to get better as a group.

My qualifying run was fun. I did not get to do a heli - did manage to get about 3/4 of a turn with simple and clean exit - which will hopefully give me confidence to keep practicing and get this down. The rest of the maneuvers went smoothly with wingovers getting over the 90 degree angle with no collapses... and landing to a sizable crowd with Vertigo International cheering at the top of their lungs was definitely fun! I will know if I qualified by tomorrow noon - and will keep you posted!

Meanwhile, Othmar, Steve and Marko are doing 2 hours thermalling flights above the stunning scenery - but I am sure they will tell you all about it themselves! Another thing - great set of useful/interesting paragliding links http://www.circlinghawk.com/links.html