The writer

Burkhard Martens was born in 1962 in Lower Saxony, Germany. After completing his studies in 1989 he moved to the south of Germany and took up paragliding. For several years he managed to work as an environmental engineer and be a very passionate pilot, but from ‘94 his life has been inseparable from flying. From ‘94 to ‘97 he worked for paraglider manufacturers, and from ‘97 to 2003 he owned and ran a paragliding school.
Since ‘03 he has worked freelance as a paragliding instructor, journalist and author. He took up hang gliding in 1998.
For 10 years Burkhard did the comp thing, flew in the German league, the Nationals and in the World Cup. He bagged several national and international records during this time, and some of them still stand. His most recent German record was a 280 km flight-to-goal in 2011.
Burkhard’s passion is cross-country flying, and after flying in the German XC League for twenty years he finally managed to win the Sports Class in 2004 and the Open Class in 2008. This success was followed by the publication of the book “Thermal Flying“ in German in 2005. This book has since been translated into nine (!) languages.
In April 2007 the next book in the series, “Das Streckenflugbuch für Gleitschirm- und Drachenflieger“ (The XC-Flying Guide for Paraglider and Hang gliders) was published. Although it has only been on sale for a very short time the sales figures are already impressive. In 2010 the impressive DVD guide to the best flying sites in the eastern Alps was released (still on sale). In 2011 the third edition of “Thermal Flying“ was published in German. In 2013 the English second edition of “Thermal Flying“ and the long-awaited “Cross-Country Flying“ books have been published

Information about the book see: Pages to read