It is kind of a tradition that thurgorienta produces a new orienteering map every year. And this year again we don't break it. So starting late in the autumn - we had to find a date first to
explain the rules for this map to all the mappers - with my part in the very east of the Immenberg I had to fight against the weather too. Most of the time I did my fieldwork I was working in the snow. Not to say that the temperatures are around 0° celsius (brrr) . But this is no reason not to do the fieldwork. I had to stop only if there was also fog because it prevents my laser from working. And as you can see I always was carrying a thermos flask with hot tea with me. That helped me a lot.
After finishing my fieldwork in a reasonable time I start drawing my part of the map. Just a few days before Christmas I could finish the first version. As soon as the weather allows I will do a check of the map to see if I got everthing right. If you come to Thundorf on easter monday (13. April 2009) you can go for a competition on this new map Immenberg-Nord. Maybe you will pass this particular part, you never know .
Don't miss it. The details will be provided on the swiss orienteering website as soon as possible.

Coaxial e-helis are easier to fly than their cousins with main and tail rotors. Currently there are two of them in my hangar. When surfing the E-flite website recently I came across a new even smaller coax e-heli the Blade mCX.

Side by side to the Blade CX this is a realy tiny one but the flight characteristics are great I wouldn't have expected such a good performance. And because everything is so small there are only small forces e.g. if you do a 'hard' landing. You hardly can break something on it.
But this e-heli really just for indoor flying due to its size and weight.

just in time - today it starts snowing here in Winterthur - I have finished another heli model. It is a Bell AH-1G cobra with an outstanding scheme.

The 120th aviation company stationed at Ford Richardson (Alaska) used this scheme for their cobra helicopters during 1973. Joseph Osborn from Fireball Modelworks has released a decal set for the "Artic Knights". However finding the best kit on ebay wasn't that easy. But at the end I had everything together to build this special heli.

It's here! I was thinking of a GPS for my sport activities long time ago (around 2006 I bought a book about GPS) but now Garmin sells the Edge 705.
The Garmin Edge 605 and 705 are GPS with sensors dedicated to bikes (street- and mountain-bikes) and this latest generation can display maps too.

Using GPS to record training data and having a map that shows your course is somewhat different to a GPS in your car. I still have to learn a lot.

NVG stands for Nordvestgaloppen an orienteering event in the Vestland district of Norway. Nordvestgaloppen is held every second year. This years event center was located in Voss.

With 'only' about 1000 participants NVG is a small event compared to O-ringen but we enjoyed the ambience even more. Visit the album on my Flickr account to see more photos of our vacation.

in the following days Alain and me were travelling and hiking in Norway. Driving from Stöten (se) to Lom (no) and hiking in Jotunheimen one day.

We enjoyed this area because of the mountains. In Lom we could also visit the Fjellmuseum that provides interesting informations about the mountains in Norway.

this year we have spent our summer vacation in Scandinavia. First we were doing orienteering at the "worlds greatest orienteering event" O-ringen in Sälen (Dalarna) from 21. to 25. july.

We were staying at Stöten which is close to the Norwegian boarder (about 2km). This five day orienteering event is really big, around 23000 competitors in more than 120 classes had registered.

This weekend I have finished my work on the Hasegawa kit of an American WWII aircraft. The Grumman F4F Wildcat wasn't very high on my priority list. But kits from Hasegawa belong to the best models you can buy today. So I couldn't resist and bought one last december.

And as mentioned on the hobby page (plastic kits) I have added a few PE parts from Eduarad (cockpit, flaps, ..). The Wildcat was a carrier based aircraft mainly used in the Pacific theatre so I needed also a carrier deck to show the model. Just Plane Stuff is selling various carrier decks build in resin. After more than 50 hours this modell is now ready to display (see more photos on flickr).

Every year the young gymnasts of the cantone Zurich met for a competition. This year the "Jugendriege Tag" was held in Dinhard which is only 8 kilometers outside of Winterthur. But Alain had to get up early at 5.30 this morning to go the the railway station.

In the afternoon I went for a short bicycle tour and visited them in Dinhard. Driving with a bicycle is now possible again after my surgical operation at my right knee almost four weeks ago.

this website started around 1996 (see history) as a place where someone could find and see information about me and my life. The Internet is not only growing very fast but also has changed in different relations. Today many people do run their own websites and I was often asked why my website is in english. When searching for another domain name I decide to search also for an .ch domain and to start a german website.

Now the first Version of that german website is up and running. It is not just a translation because I assume other readers and have changed the information to give them more details about one thing and omitt others because they might already know it or wouldn't be interested in.

In the last year various heli kits in 1:35 came to market. It is amazing to see the details possible in this scale so I decide to start building such a kit myself. Since one of my favourite helis is the Hughes OH-6 I searched for a Dragon kit and I got one on ebay in december last year.

This kit is now finished but I am dissapointed somewhat. Because it is from the 90s there aren't such fine details as today. Luckily I found a detail set from Eduard to get a few details inside (cockpit, harness, ..) and outside. Next were the decals, because they are of age it was almost impossible (for me) to get them from the paper to the model and even if I sprayed it with a gloss primer first there were these ugly silver shadows on a few of them. Maybe there will be a new kit of an OH-6A in 1:35 in the future with all the bells and whistles. Then I'l buy one for sure.

after about 6 week of medical checks it turns out that I have to undergo a surgical operation on my right knee (meniscus and more).
This is a photo I got from the doctor after the operation. It show the two bones and between the red lines the damaged meniscus. Unfortunately the cartilage (Knorpel) on the upper bone is also affected.
Now I am doing exercises to recover as soon as possible. When writing this entry (it is now two weeks since the operation) I can do cycling on a trainer. At the moment there is no statement possible about my future sporting activites but I hope for the best (as always)

after more than one year of prepartion the long awaited event in Hüttwilen and its neighborhood toke place this weekend. Together with Marianne I was working in the team that was responsible for the courses and controls on both days. We started our work already on friday afternoon and it ends late on sunday.

Adi and me relaxing in the forrest watching the runners short after the start
Only during the competition time we had the chance to slow down a little bit being ready to replace a control in case of failure. This photo was taken by Sämi as an offical photographer of this event.

on this Saturday I need a break and Alain agreed to go for a short hiking. Only half an hour outside of Winterthur you can walk to the Schauenberg. It is a hill only 890m above sea level but you have an excellent sight from the alps in the south to the Randen which is north of the river Rhein.

Alain sitting on the wall of the former tower on the Schauenberg
In the back you may see the villages of Eschlikon and Aadorf.