News

A couple of months ago we got an email from a group of young people, who presented their idea of  driving through Kazakhstan with a self made "windcarriage". Actually we were quite sceptic, but we liked the crazy idea. That's why we broke away from an old Phelix and we hoped it would bring the sailors good luck.

The tripartite wing did a good job and enabled an eight week trip through the vastness of the steppe. If you can't quite imagine how this has worked, then you are probably not alone. :-)

The five adventurers are working on a film, with the nice name "Hitchhike the Wind", which will show how they managed to do their journey. We will let you know, when the documentary is finished, and where you can watch it.

The new room for performing checks and repairs and Wolfi Lechners office

After almost 20 years in a cellar facility in the east of Innsbruck we moved to a new home about 20 kilometers east of Innsbruck in Terfens.

We are closer to our main testing area on the Achen lake and unlike in the cellar we can check if the weather is flyable without looking at webcam pictures. :-)

Philipp Medicus and Hilmar Gassner were in Namibia for 10 days and enjoyed nice soaring conditions on the dunes around Swakopmund. The region is known for its  reliable west wind, which was somehow only blowing on two of those days. :-)

But the namib desert offers lots of dunes for almost any wind direction. All you have to do is to  explore the dunes on foot, which can be exhausting, if you want to cover some distance.

Most of the time the wind was quite strong, mixed with some thermal activity. Philipp and Hilmar had 7 gliders (between 12 and 23sqm) with them, which enabled them to fly in different wind speeds and gather many flights.

Kerim Jaspersen is a pilot from Hamburg (Germany). Besides flying, one of his hobbies is film making. About one year ago, he started to work on a film project together with Christian Menn.

The production was premiered this September in St. Hilaire at the Coupe Icare, and won the critics' prize. This is quite outstanding for a german production at a french film festival.

Thanks Kerim for this great video, which shows the beauty of our sport in a very special way!

Youtube HD-Version

Urs Haari proves, that the MENTOR is the perfect XC tool, by winning the overall sportclass ranking of the XContest. This means, that Urs was able to outpace all pilots with higher ranked wings. When we asked him about his recipe for success, he told us the following:

I think, that my endurance and patience are quite important factors. Further more I am in good physical and mental shape and planned all my flights quite well. And last but not least, I need an equipment that provides top performance and a comfortable and secure feeling. For me the Mentor combines those properties in a perfect way. Even in very rough conditions I  can focus on my task and don't need to bother about the glider.

I had lots of fun and now at the end of the season it looks  like I was performing really well.

After Marcel Dettlings world record (223km FAI triangle, standard class) and Wolfgang Bernhards OLC overall victory (2008, standard class) Urs proves in an impressive way, what the MENTOR is capable of!

Congratulations, Urs!

Alex Höllwarth testing a prototype at the Achenlake

Despite the early winter, we are continuing our testwork at our local flying site, the Rofan. The winter weather is perfect for performance comparisons, as well as for several test manoeuvres in calm air.

Further more the snow covered landscape is a nice foto scene and we want to share the picture above with you: It shows Alex provoking a front stall with on of our latest developments.