Alain is doing Karate since autumn last year with the local club Karate-Do Winterthur. Last Saturday was his exam to next level which he passed successfully.

Yusof, Alain and Marco wearing their new belts
It is impressiv to see what these young men have learned in just one year. Congratulations and keep going!

After flying in our garden during this summer with my simple but fun Blade 120SR I decide to go the next level up. When asking about a follow-up heli to the 120SR my local dealer just pointed to the 130X. I was wondering why he didn’t recommend a model like the SR or the Huey-SR.

But after the first flights with the 130X I had to admit he was right!

A nice sporting sunday with friends, that’s what Marianne suggests to me. It turned out to be a test run for a possible upcoming trail running event by Siro Sport.

Starting from Amden and running uphill up to the top of Speer from where one had an impressive view to the canton Glarus, to the end of the lake Zurich and to the Toggenburg valley with the Säntis as its top peak. Of course we also take a break at the restaurant nearby before we continued our running trip. Overall that was a very nice Sunday.

Inspired by the September calendar picture I decide to build such a model of this British trainer airplane of the 30ies. My goal was to have the model ready before I had to turn the calendar page.

I got two kits, one from Eastern Express (the one I have built) and one from RS Models. Since the RS Model kit has a lot more details I will certainly need a few more evenings to finish that kit.

Every year the Eurobike is the place to be if you are in the bike business. Here you can see all the latest in bike development and a lot more.

This year I was invited by Thomas Juzi owner of the Radwerk in Winterthur to accompany him at this exebition in Friedrichshafen. A great pleasure indeed. And as often there are surprises like the boot of Pashley a real english bike manufacturer.

An airfield just outside of Winterthur, this is something unusual. An airfield just outside of Winterthur in Hagenbuch, that is very special since that’s the place where Marianne was growing up!
Therefore taking part at this air show is almost a „must“ to me.

On Sunday afternoon just in time to see the P-51 Mustang flying-by over the airfield I arrived in Hagenbuch. One of the main attractions were the two Antonow AN-2 double deckers by Starflight. They offered public flights. But there were far more interesting things to see on that day.

as I have promised I will put photos of the different excitements of the last threes week on my flickr account.

Now you can watch the albums of: Midnattsolgaloppen stage 1 and 2 at Sørreisa and the Midnattsolgaloppen stage 3 and 4 at Harstad (Medkila) along with the pictures taken at the Norsk Luftfahrtmuseum at Bodø Military and Civil section. There is even a short video from the Hurtigruten ship passing the Sortlandbridge.
Enjoy!

this years vacation are closely packed. After the midnight sun in Norway followed by the Aviation museum in Bodø there was an exciting open air event in Locarno on Thursday 11. July. Marianne invited me to „An evening with Mark Knopfler“ as a birthday gift. Excellent, thank you so much!
And only two days later we travelled to Rabland (Südtirol) to spend another week at the hotel Rössl.

Even at third time being there we still could discover new bike routes nearby or east of Meran. Thanks to Erich who now acts as some kind of bike guide for the guests at the hotel Rössl. Sure we will come again next year. Wonder why? Check the photos.

When I was planning my vacation in northern Norway early this year it was clear that my first stop will be Bodø, because the Norwegian Aviation Museum is located there.

So after finishing the Midnattsolgaloppen in Sørreisa and Harstad I was travelling back to Bodø where I visited this wonderful museum. The museum is really close to the airport, it was opened in 1994. Here again I could see very interesting airplanes like in Duxford or Hendon.
For example the Lockheed U2; this spy plane is bound with history to Bodø. Even a famous english DeHavilland Mosquito and a german Focke Wulf Fw190 A-8 are on display here.

As with the other museums that I have visited together with my brothers I will put my photos on two flickr albums: one with the military section and the other covering the civil section .

… with sunglasses on, well almost!
This year I travelled far north to Bodø and from there to Finnsnes where the Midnattsolgaloppen (MG) toke place. Every second year the MG will be organised by a club in northern Norway where the sun never sets during the days from mid June to end of July.

With starting times from 6 pm to 9 pm this is an unforgettable event for every orienteer. And what impresses me every time when starting in Norway is the friendly atmosphere on such events.

From the competition arena in Sørreisa I had to drive to Finnsnes where I stayed in a hotel. This photo is taken on my way back around half past nine.
Photo albums from stage 1&2 and from 3&4 are now ready on flickr.

it’s true the Fokker triplanes aren’t yet finished and now a new and even more interesting kit will become real. While surfing my bookmarks searching for WW I airfield accessories I found Attack Squadron a small company from Poland. They have almost finished a resin kit of the K-Max in scale 1:72. I have already preordered it!
A few years ago such a model kit was already announced but never had been released. Things look much better now.

I have been in contact with Attack Squadron and I know that they will release it as the unmanned version of the US Marines. But I will build a civil version of the K-Max.
Rotex Helicopter AG is operating the last two K-Max in Europe. Rotex Helicpoter is located in Balzers (FL) just about one hour away from Winterthur. I asked for details about their helis. Willy Gantner kindly invited me to come to Balzers and take some photos of the real helicopter. Together with Sam who is a professional photographer I visited Rotex Helicopter last Thursday afternoon. His and my pictures are already on various Flickr sets. I will now design my own custom decals to build that helicopter in 1:72.

last Sunday the 15. Winterthurer Marathon was held in our city. But don’t panic, I didn’t start at the marathon. Instead I run in a relay. As last year Siro-Sport, a local sport shop, together with Mega-Joule has five teams in the relay class. Five runners will do the 42.195km in legs of 7km up to 14km.

Marianne, Nadine and me were running in different teams. It was fresh air and rainy the days before but for competitions this are almost ideal conditions. It was an interesting mix of sportsmen running for the Siro-Teams I enjoyed it very much even if I get slightly hurt (adductor strain). At the end on of the Siro-Teams wins the Relay, and the others perform also well.

once again after a long time I feel like building a plastic kit again. There are still a few kits of WWI aircrafts on my stash. First I decide to start with a kit of a Fokker Dr. I from Roden. What a difference between the first model I did in the 80th. It was an Airfix kit with only a minimum of details (compared to todays kits).

It is amazing to see what’s possible today: engine, machine guns and cockpit interior are all there in this tiny little models. But I had another Fokker Dr. I to build, a Profipack kit from Eduard. This one was top-notch. The plastic parts fit excellent and they were cleverly designed. This was by far the easiest and best model to build; a real pleasure!

I have finished the Eduard kit over Whitsun. Ok, they are not completely done. Both kits are just assembled and ready to paint. But there will be soon another rainy weekend to paint them. That’s for sure.

I almost forget to mention my (our) new mountain bikes. Radwerk a local bicycle dealer with excellent know-how and great enthusiasm convinced me to buy a MARIN 29er hardtail.
When it comes to xmas time Radwerk offers a special deal: you get the daynumber as a percentage of the actual price. Too bad that December only has 31 days and Radwerk is closed from 24th until the beginning of January

Now I am driving this MARIN CXR 29er hardtail. No more Cannondale since the support from Radwerk is important for me.

Marianne also bought a similar mountain bike to have equal opportunities again. She got the I.F.T. 29er. Now we have to wait for better weather to go for our rides.

indeed there is almost a gap of 7 months since my last entry which is quite unusual.

I have been busy all the time: from October to December I did the fieldwork together with three club members for the new orienteering map Ottenberg. Along with this work I took photos to document my progress. Then after a short break during Christmas time I’ve started drawing the map on the computer. Again there is a short documentation about that work. The new map was finished in late March 2013 just in time for our big event on 13. and 14. April 2013.
I will fill this gap in the next few weeks with additional entries.