Intro Burki
Some time ago, when I didn’t know where to fly in the Alps, I purchased several different flying guides, which were helpful to varying degrees. In some cases I was really taken for a ride – dangerous launch sites or even launch sites that didn’t exist! The best way to judge a flying area is to look at lots of different photos, or better still, look at it all on video. This is the flying guide I wanted to make. My wife and me choses the sites according to the following criteria: they should be suitable for every pilot, and they should be special in their own way. For example the super soaring site at Meduno, or the wonderful scenery at Jenner. Other criteria were that the sites shouldn’t be overused or crowded, and we wanted to include more from the lesser known site. Bischling for example, is well known to the locals, but often passed by other pilots who don’t know what they’re missing there.
We didn’t think making this film would involve quite so much work. My wife and I spent 45 days on location filming, and a further 10 with the DHV film crew. There we made the “Thermal” film – luckily, we could use some of theat material for this project. As a rule of thumb when cutting, it takes two hours work to make a minute of processed film, my average is somewhere aroand three to four hours per minute. Al together I have cut about 250 minutes of film – all self-taught, first filming and then cutting. I chose license (Gema) free music for the background to help keep costs to a minimum. Writing the book was easier as that is no longer something new – my “Thermal Flying” book has been translated now into seven different languages, “Cross Country Flying” is even available in Russian.
DVDs can be copied easily – we hope that the additional information and the important vouchers in this book will make the two inseparable, and that copying won’t be worthwhile. The Pilots who will visiting only the sites Speikboden, Oetz and Lienz in the next years, and will convert the vouchers, they have the price of the book back!!!
I’d like to appeal to all buyers of this DVD not to copy it anyway. The flying community is relatively small and I make my living from selling books, giving presentations and seminars, and hopefully now also from selling DVDs. If this enormous project turns out to be financially worthwhile (in spite of my underestimation of the work involved), then I will make more films and books for the flying community. If you like the material here – please be honest and don’t copy it for anyone else.
I hope you enjoy the DVDs; I’m always grateful for comments or constructive criticism – feel free to contact me with your ideas and wishes.
Happy flying!
Burki