23rd Model Balloon Meeting at Brigachtal

Brigachtal XXL - many model balloonists from Germany and abroad were looking forward to one extra day in the "Eldorado of Model Ballooning", as the Friday before the famous Brigachtal Meeting was a holiday that year. However, the weather was not with them - rain and wind made it almost impossible to fly.

So, on Friday morning, the teams gathered at the Linachtal dam, to have a first look at the location.

For the evening, organiser Richard Bölling was planning a model balloon night glow in front of the impressive building, which in its size and construction is unique in Germany: It consists of 13 small arcs instead of one big arc.

In light drizzle rain, the pilots launched their balloons out of the arcs of the dam.

Back in the festival hall at Überauchen, Klaus-Dieter Jahnke presented his newest indoor balloon, which was just perfect for the bad weather outside: The envelope, built by Matthias, has a volume of only 380 liters and a diameter of about three feet. The gondola, developed by Klaus, consists of two refillable lighters, a magnetic valve, battery and rc receiver, making the system the smallest radio controlled balloon in the world.

The little balloon with its two proud inventors - flights can last up to six minutes, then the gas tanks are empty.

On Friday evening, the big moment had arrived: Even hard showers of rain and gusts of wind couldn't keep the pilots from enlightening the Linachtal dam with their model balloons.

On Saturday morning, the organisers kept the teams entertained with marker throwing and balloon envelope bowling, but in the afternoon, despair about the weather was so close that some of the teams started putting up their balloons inside the festival hall.

The optimism paid: The rain stopped and the wind became weaker. Suspiciously, the pilots followed Richard Bölling to the edge of the forest near Tannheim, to see if it was finally possible to fly.

This afternoon, Matthias rented is second Penguin to the boys of the Balloon Club of Stuttgart who, after the balloon envelope bowling, had forgotten their envelope at the festival hall...

There it was, the first blue piece of sky... and the balloons launched immediately! Matthias and Werner did two flights each, Bastian even three. Our three pilots got rapid support by Basti's parents, who were visiting relatives nearby, and came to do some model balloon retrieval that afternoon.

On Saturday evening, the traditional night glow was held at the children's hospital at Tannheim...

...of course Pinguin and Sheep were right at the center of the action.

Finally, on Sunday morning, we had the weather that Brigachtal is famous for: Sun was there and winds were not too strong, so that at least one competition flight could be done.

Werner with the Cat played the hare in a hare and hounds, and the other model balloons followed him.

Different wind directions in different heights allowed the pilots to approach to the two targets - the hare and a line - quite closely.

These are the views that the Brigachtal Model Balloon Meeting is famous for.

While Matthias dropped his marker into a tree near the landing site of the hare (special thanks to the measuring team who measured the tree *g*), Basti had to stay on the ground with our new ballooning envelope...

... as his remote control, which he had left in the car over night, had become a victim of condensation and refused to work. Rumours say that he reached over 30 meters when he angrily threw the remote control over the launch site... ;-)

In the end, all the model balloons gathered for a large group picture.

The awards ceremony in the festival hall came with some surprises: Matthias had made 5th place again (although he wasn't aiming towards that at all), Werner was 4th, Susanne Wilhelm 3rd, Jean Bernard Moreau 2nd and Bernard Bilquey 1st.

So, see you next year... with better weather, hopefully... ;-)

The ranking of the 23rd Model Balloon Meeting at Brigachtal:

rank	pilot	points
1	Bernard Bilquey	2160,8
2	Jean Bernard Moreau	2109,2
3	Susanne Wilhelm	1913,0
4	Werner Schlegel	1829,0
5	Matthias Schlegel	1714,5
6	Roger Wilhelm	1624,0
7	Rainer Stiller	1602,5
8	Jürgen Meier	1498,2
9	Fabio Taroni	1432,5
10	Luc De Wulf	1390,8
11	Jan Beckmann	1237,7
12	Yves Gobin	1190,6
13	Eberhardt Leibfritz	1178,7
14	Frederic Bidault	1168,6
15	Tom Buekers	1133,2
16	BSG Stuttgart Team 2	1129,4
17	Sidney Sevrin	1085,5
18	Sven Grenzner	1074,5
19	Michael Kampmann	997,4
20	Jupp Hein	971,2
21	Stefano Scolari	945,0
22	Miriam & Christian Dehner	877,8
23	Ben Schaack	733,6
24	Fernand Schaack	651,4
25	BSG Stuttgart Team 1	626,7
26	Mathieu Decock	609,5
27	Andre Schulz	394,3
28	Richard Alt	388,6
29	Klaus-Dieter Jahnke	297,1
30	Sebastian Bölling	293,3
31	Matthias Leister	289,5
32	Antoine Alleman	286,7
33	Bert Broers	213,3
34	Wolfgang Leibfritz	198,1
35	Uwe Stober	160,0
36	Paul Lemmens	152,4
37	Bastian Schwarz	98,1
38	Claudio Pestalozzi	78,1
39	Sebastian Storch	0,0
40	Darren "big D" Lewis	0,0
41	Pietro Chegai	0,0
42	Stefan Rupp	0,0
43	Frank Schnelle	0,0
44	Michael Bölling	0,0
45	Olaf Schneider	0,0
46	Peter Waßmann	0,0
47	Mike Woodcock	0,0
48	Andy Booth	0,0

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