17th Model Balloon Meeting at Brigachtal

Though the weather forecast was quite bad for this weekend, we went to Brigachtal again in 2002 - we had to! The year before, I had won the challenge trophy, so at least I had to bring it back ;-)

And though it had rained all the way to Brigachtal on Friday, on Saturday morning, it was dry and we could launch our balloons.

The winners from last year were also there - Roger Wilhelm (in the middle with his balloon D-MAREN) and his son Nils (on the right with D-ONILS).

However, their friends Andrea and Jan Gloß had to stay at home: Jan had to work, and his wife Andrea meanwhile is occupied with another 'balloon': She is pregnant.

A 'fox chase' was to be solved this morning: Michael Bölling launched his white 'Dinkelacker' balloon first, and all the others had to get him. You can see him on the lower right on the field.

The penguin has dropped his marker, which is immediately measured. Go for the next task!

Again, my thanks for the photos go to Martin Kaiser, who had come to Brigachtal with his family and his digital camera (just like the week before at Altötting) to take pictures of the event.

Touchdown! The second task of this morning flight was to land as close as possible to this road. And as you can see, I wasn't too bad at it ;-)

This year, the team from Scotland had the furthest way to Brigachtal. The family of five had come from a place near Aberdeen all the way by car!

As they didn't have their own envelope yet, the borrowed the 'FlowerFly' balloon from Richard Bölling.

On Saturday afternoon, we had quite some problems with the wind, which had become quite strong. To be able to start nevertheless, we went to a wood which protected our launch site from the wind.

Again, a 'fox chase' and a target flight was to be held. The penguin and right of it our D-OWMS 'Urmele' are waiting for the signal to go.

At the ground, things were going quite slow, but as soon as the penuin rose his head above the trees, the wind hit him hard, making him tumble all his way onwards.

Less than two minutes took the 700 meter ride to the fox balloon, which ended with quite a hard landing.

But in the evening, the wind calmed down again, and the balloons' night glow at the childrens' hospital at Tannheim could take place without further problems.

And the kiddies were absolutely enthusiastic :-)

Another thank you goes to the hospital of Tannheim which invited us to have some drinks after the night glow.

The Sunday morning then brought a surprise: The mist was gone, a cloudless sky, and almost no wind!

Our new friends from Scotland had another surprise for us: The father and his youngest son showed up in traditional kilts for the morning flight.

And this morning, we were in for Richard Bölling's special task: He and his observers had put up a long horizontal rope which had to be touched with a tape hanging from every balloon's basket.

My Dad Werner with his D-OWMS 'Urmele' came quite close: He missed the rope for only five centimeters.

The penguin is on track...

Bull's eye! ;-)

Unfortunately, the wind direction made it impossible for me to fulfill the other two tasks, and so, I didn't see many chances to win a trophy...

But I was lucky again and won fifth place, which means I got the wonderful challenge trophy again, which you can see on the right.

And the law is, if one wins this challenge trophy three years in a row, he can keep it. So, next year, I'm gonna tremble for that! :-)