Oggy <<oggy>> writes

“Big landings, pretty girls, cheap beer” – became the motto for
the flying we had this summer in Bulgaria.

A group of six Swedish hang gliding pilots from Skone and Stockholm joined my
traditional summer trip to Bulgaria and we flew for two weeks from three
different flying sites. The prevailing westerly winds took us often to Pastrina
site, which was an excellent ridge and thermal soaring 400 m mountain. Pretty
easy to start a cross country flight above the flatlands.

Kom is definitely the highest launch – 1400 m above landing, Our best flight
from Kom challenged Hokan and me to fly across the wide Petrohan pass and valley
– to make it back to our comfortable hotel with a mineral water swimming pool
and SPA – for the body and soul. The hotel landing is enormous and Marcus marked
some of the low trees there with wind streamers – very useful when coming in
after a long flight.

We managed to land several days by the hotel. Our pick up service worked very
efficiently for those who landed short.

Okolchitsa ramp start we used more often with the ten paragliding pilots who
arrived after the hang gliders. This group enjoyed flying for a week only and
the last flying day was the most memorable. A beginner flew his first XC flight
– an out and return. The rest flew all along the crest of the Balkan mountain.

The video put together by Techo – a Bulgarian HG instructor gives an idea about
the flying. The song with this video has won a Grammy award and is sung by world
famous Bulgarian singer Stefka Sabotinova:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA38lJBKE_A.