Saturday, October 13
    Saturday morning is a little sleepy. The first pilots begin to show up with their bags on their backs only after nine, and the loading moves very slowly today. The sun is long up above the crest and is beginning to burn once again. Even the first ride up the mountain is late today. Could it be fatigue from three days of flying?




    Today's take off is again from the higher launch ground, and for those interested in eating up kilometers, the discipline is short. Even if the risers are tired today and their velocity rarely gets over 6 meters per second, it's possible to turn in the cloudless sky up to 3000 meters. A good height for mid-October.







    In the damp sea air, a strong mist is visible from this great height and the southeast wind has a decided down pull. The temperature at 3000 meters drops to a few degrees above zero, while down on the beach it's over 30°C around noon.






    With intense interest I've been watching, for several days now, the precision landing of local tandem paragliders. They don't land in the sand on the beach, but on a grassy plain that's about 10x10 meters square, or right on the sidewalk. With utmost precision they just barely skim the roof of the shops, squeeze through the little crack between the huge inflatable Red Bull can and the nearby tree, swoop down to the ground and in the usual windless air they land in a way so that the passenger doesn't have to make a single step. It must be the daily practice.

    In addition to the powered hanggliders and model builders, the powered paragliders of Viktor Prochazka are being demonstrated above the beach today, and that three at a time. Flying together in formation with Viktor are David Bzirsky and Martin Kokes. The anchored hot-air balloon shuttles up and down today, taking sightseers up to a height of about 50m over the beach. Simultaneously the acrobatic paragliding competition takes place, performing prescribed numbers.





    In the distance one of the powered paragliders leisurely nears the beach and I admire his courage, and how at such a low altitude he set so far out to sea. If by chance his motor stalled, he'd have no chance of gliding back to shore. He's getting closer, and I see he has neither a paramotor nor a propeller! He is nearing the beach, but he's getting closer to the surface of the water much faster. Now the poor guy has brought up his knees as he begins to leave a white wake with his butt. But there's no way he'll make the good 50 meters remaining to the shore. He's sinking and his parachute is falling in front of him. Several tourists immediately run into the water and two motorboats move in from a distance. His white helmet bravely remains above the water's surface, as the rescuers reach him.



    "Look, you owe me 200 dollars, because I did that for you", says Mirek Pechmann coming towards me in about 10 minutes in a soaked flight suit and his drowned variometer in his hand. Well I'll be! Czechs are going swimming fully dressed in the Mediterranean Sea. Mirek had been going for a truly great spiral far off shore, which seemed a pity to interrupt. By the time he thought better of it, he could already see the fish below the water-surface.





    In the evening the Cloud 9 bar is truly packed, and even the bar dancer gets her 15 minutes as she lets pilots stick bills practically everywhere.