Gerjak Tago Settler

 

Neuveville, Switzerland

Neuveville is a quite, little town on the shores of Lake Biel in Switzerland. I made this quick watercolor sketch of the city gate, while I spend a day there waiting for some better weather to paraglide in the hills closeby.

It was a sunny day, people were having fun at the shores of the lake: sailing, walking, cycling, roller skating. Just having a good time on their day off at Ascension Day. Too bad I didn't fly on that day!

Essential equipment

First rule of paragliding is: safety. So before I go out for a flight, I check every detail of my flying gear. It's very important to have your equipment checked, at least the night before, so you don't get surprised the next day at the last moment when you're about to take of on some mountaintop and realise that there's something not working.
It's also very important to take care for another big issue when you're about to fly: water. I once forgot my waterbottle and landed far from the landingspot. So, finally, more than two hours later on a hot summerday (we always fly at hot days because of the thermals) I arrived at a little village closest to the place I landed just to find out that every store was closed because of the middaybreak. Luckily there was a fountain at the villagesquare...
So, from that day on I always look after a sufficient watersupply along with my flying gear. Two waterbottles, just in case one get's broken.

New work

May has been a very busy month. Not only started my wife at her new job, which meant a big break with the schedule of working days she had at her old job, but it was also the month that I had a short holiday-break on my own. That is: without wife and kids. That's something I experienced the last time for about seven years ago. Besides that the workload at the office reached a new hight, so you can imagine that I, sadly enough, didn't have much spare-time left for drawing.

Unlike my son who made a special drawing for me because he missed me during my short break. So, instead of some poor drawing of my own, let's enjoy this wonderful piece (out-of-his-head!) of daddy ready for taking off at paragliding.

Illustration Friday Talisman

It took me a while to find "the model" for this week's topic on Illustration Friday. A few years ago a fellow paraglider gave me an Italian talisman for paragliders: the "Madonna del buon volo". That's Italian for: "The Holy Mother Of The Good Flights". It says nothing about safe landings...
Because I'm not at all superstituous I've put it away and never thought of it again (and still made some pretty good flights, by the way). Until I read the topic of this week on the site of Illustration Friday and remembered that talisman. I've searched everywhere, until I discovered it hung right before my eyes: on the statue of the Madonna and holy child in our toilet. You probably wonder why that statue is placed in our toilet, but that's quite a long story and far off this week's topic on the Illustration Friday challenge.

Illustration Friday Instinct

Unlike birds we humans don't have an instinct for measuring heights in free air. That's why for instance paraglider- and hanggliderpilots use a so called variometer. With this device you can get a confirmation if your flying in a weak thermal or that you're sinking less faster then a few moments before.
Most important, of course, is that you try to look as less as possible to that little green screen and try to enjoy as much as you can your free flight. But that goes without saying.

Climbing

The German boot factory Hanwag is known for its excellent mountaineering boots. I'm glad that I have a pair of them, as you can see above, for about nine years now. The colourscheme is a bit different then what you usually expect for these kind of shoes. That's mainly because these boots aren't made for climbing, but for use by paragliding pilots. Look for example at the hight for better protection of the heels. Furthermore paragliding pilots are a bit different then ordinary mountaineers, so that's why Hanwag made the different colourscheme. Which luckily didn't really became a trend.