Sunday, October 20
    The culminating acrobatic competition makes this morning's atmosphere sizzle with excitement. The judging committee is back in place, staring at the sky from their little chairs and trying to give points objectively. For the locals, however, it is a day just like any other.



    The careful evaluation of the results means a rich harvest for the Slovaks and Czechs. The overall winner of the "Acro" competition is the Turkish racer Kemal Buhara, followed by Juraj Kleja, Tomas Lednik, Tonda Pallas and Vasek Motycka, respectively.



    "Look, the main thing is you have to get absolutely plastered right at the start. That's the only way to survive the trip.", states one of the pilots in regards to the afternoon bus trip home. About 50 Czech daredevils decided to try the relatively inexpensive transport variation to Turkey, renting a bus with two drivers for 125,000 Czech Crowns, for the 6,000 km trip. The trip to Ölüdeniz took them approximately 50 hours, but divided among 50 travelers, that's only one hour each, which isn't too bad. It all depends on your point of view.



    The opportunity of flying in balmy Ölüdeniz, in the time of autumn fogs and rains, is even less expensive than it was last year. Some Czech travel agencies even offer, under certain conditions, airfare and accommodations for two weeks at just around 10,000 Czech Crowns, with the option of flying from Prague or Ostrava. The local pilots, in contrast to last year, have totally revamped their website at www.babadag.com and a large part of it is dedicated to the annual festival. And following this year's experience, they will gladly welcome Czech pilots in Ölüdeniz again.

    Turkey is a big country whose area is ten times larger than that of the Czech Republic, and the length of the seashore alone is four times longer than the entire length of the Czech border. More than 99% of all Turks are of the Islamic religion, while our largest percentage (40%) is that of non-believers, and only in second place is the Catholic group, (39%). In comparison with Turkey, then, we are an unbelievably unreligious nation. Maybe that's why we fly so well?

    There were a lot of cooperators on this year's festival. One of the major, and most visible ones was SKY Paragliders, which organized the "Acro" competition and as well was the only Czech company to have a permanent booth on the beach, from which they rented and sold their products.



    My thanks go foremost to the main organizer, the "Cloud 9 Café", the owner of which, Kadri Tuglu, as usual provided me with pleasant accommodations in the center of Ölüdeniz and, thanks to a special card, enabled me to get access practically everywhere, and poke my nose into things that are none of my business. And of course also deserving of my thanks is tandem pilot Luboš Noga, who can manage doing a spiral and a wingover without dumping the contents of my camera bag into the sea and after whose soft landing I don't even have sand in my shoes.



    This year's third annual festival received a record number of visitors. Among the registered participants alone there were 270 pilots from 31 countries, and not only European. Surprisingly, the best represented country, in numbers, was the Czech Republic. Then came the Russians, English Albanians, Bulgarians, Iranians, Italians, Greeks and others. The pilots who came from the greatest distance were those from the United States of America. Who knows? - maybe before next year at Ölüdeniz, despite the strict regulations, they'll have to build more hotels or enlarge the campground.