18th Model Balloon Meeting at Brigachtal

The Brigachtal Model Balloon Meeting 2003 was fully marked by this challenge trophy: The one who wins fifth place gets it for one year - the one who wins it three times (whether in a row or not) is allowed to keep it.

So, this year, there were two hot candidates for the trophy: Andrea Gloß from the balloon club of Kieselbronn... and me! ;-)

And even though the week before, it looked as if it would rain all the weekend, we were able to fly four times on Saturday and one time on Sunday morning. The traditional night glow at the childrens' hospital at Tannheim could also take place again.

When Richard Bölling speaks, everyone is listening: Briefing at the launch field

The tasks for the model balloonists varied from 'fox chase' and 'target flight' to the popular special task where we had to touch a horizontal rope with a tape hanging from our balloon's basket.

Together with the sun we rose into the sky for the first flight on Saturday morning.

This year, 30 participants had come to Brigachtal with their balloons. The family from Scotland was also there, but this year, they had preferred to fly to Geneva by airplane. The year before, they had come all the way by car.

Jerome Bassier from the 'Bergische Ballonfahrer Wiehl' had come with the youth's model balloon of the German balloon youth organisation.

It is indeed an impressive sight when over 20 model balloons lift from the ground and float gently through the air.

The pictures of this year were made by several photographers who busily rushed around with their digital cameras, while the pilots concentratedly followed their balloons. Thank you!

For several times, the road between Wolterdingen and Tannheim was the target line for the balloons. The penguin approaches to drop his marker.

Between the flights, we had enough time to do other stuff: Werner and me launched one of our plastic foil balloons, and Jan Gloß showed some stunt flying with his RC helicopter.

One can't start too early: Patrick, the little son of Andrea and Jan Gloß, takes up first contact to daddy's model helicopter

Before the Saturday afternoon flight, all the participating pilots posed for a group picture with three of the balloons.

Go for the fourth competition flight!

At most of the tasks, the penguin was doing quite well, and so I could, in fact, hope to win fifth place. However, Richard Bölling intentionally didn't publish any intermediate results, and so, all we could do was guess.

Lookout! The penguin is filled with cold air for the Sunday morning flight.

Werner was flying the D-KEPLER envelope that weekend, which had been a school project at my former highschool. To get used to this seldom used envelope though seemed to have a negative effect on his ranking... ;-)

On this flight, mist and almost no wind made it difficult to fulfill the tasks. More than one balloon briefly disappeared in the clouds, and only few made it to the target line - the penguin, too, went out of gas on the way.

An enchanting view, though.

Happy landing! I had guessed to be better than fifth place, and as I had not scored this flight, I could hope to fall back...

The prize giving then brought certainty: I had missed fifth place for about 250 points, Karsten Knechtel won the challenge trophy. Here you can see the winners with their trophies:
From left to right, standing: Karsten Knechtel, Bernard Bilquey, Jan Gloß, Richard Bölling. Kneeling: Matthias Schlegel, Rainer Vogler.

So, the thrill remains, and the race for the glass balloon continues next year!