21st Model Balloon Meeting at Brigachtal

No one would have guessed that there could even be more model balloons than at the jubilee event in 2005, but 65 participants made the Model Balloon Meeting at Brigachtal 2006 the probably biggest model balloon event to date.

However, the weather somehow just didn't seem to care, and so, all the teams could do was wait. Time for Matt's indoor balloons, which were of great interest for everyone again.

The Bölling family, who organises the event, of course had some alternative tasks in stock to keep the crews busy. Here, we had to land a model parachutist on a target... not as easy as it looks.

The second part of the indoor tasks was "balloon bag curling"! Similar to the winter sport, the pilots had to slide their own envelope bag as close as possible to a target.

Fly, Penguin, fly: Matt strikes out for victory

On Saturday evening, the weather became better, so that the traditional night glow at the childrens' hospital at Tannheim could take place with a record number of model balloons.

And on Sunday, the sun came. At temperatures around zero, with mist in the valleys and low winds, the first competition flight could finally be carried out. The teams had to drop their marker on a path and then land as close as possible to the fox balloon (in the front).

Bastian and Matthias (on the left) are ready to go.

And here we go! But as it seems, the Penguin is only interested in the other balloons. Here, he sniffles at Roger Wilhelm's balloon D-MAREN. Maybe he had something to eat inside his basket?

By the way, we wish to thank all the photographers who made their pictures available to us!

Werner unintentionally also belonged to the photographers this year: He had broken a rib only few days ago, what made it impossible for him to take part in the competition... but he at least took some pictures for us ;-)

After the first competition flight had been quite good, the same task was called out for the second flight again, but just the other way round: This time, the fox balloon went down before the path.

Up, up and away into a magnificent autumn morning

It is famous for such pictures, the "Eldorado of model ballooning"... Justified, as we have to say. You just don't see that many model balloons elsewhere.

And the weather is also fine... most times ;-)

On the way to the fox balloon: The Penguin is on track, Basti is already there.

With so many balloon teams taking part, Bastian and Matthias supposed to be "somewhere in the middle", though their results were quite good at the two competition flights... but they should experience a surprise...

...as the places 4 and 5 were theirs this year!

Organiser Richard Bölling with the winners: Jan Beckmann (Germany), Bastian Schwarz (Bavaria), Stijn De Wulf (Belgium), Matthias Schlegel (Bavaria) and Innes Worsmann (Scotland, from left to right) *gg*

And so, the race for the glass balloon challenge trophy is run: Donated by Markus Höpfler from Austria and awarded in 1989 for the first time, the glass ballon should be given away to the one who would win it three times.

And as Matthias has won this challenge trophy already in 2001 and 2002, it now belongs to him forever :-)))

Could we wish for a better end for our 2006 ballooning season?
Well... not really ;-)

The ranking of the 21st Model Balloon Meeting at Brigachtal:

rank	balloon	pilot	points
1	OO-BOE-tje	Stijn De Wulf	4757,0
2	ICKLE GIGLE	Innes Worsmann	4705,0
3	Dinkelacker	Jan Beckmann	4442,0
4	D-OABS	Bastian Schwarz	4384,3
5	Penguin	Matthias Schlegel	4077,0
6	Let'z Fätz	Rainer Vogler	3597,5
7	D-ONILS	Nils Wilhelm	3572,5
8	MACO	Friedhelm Schwuchow	3569,8
9	DoDo	Richard Alt	3492,5
10		Yves Gobin	3358,0
11	The Face	Michael Kampmann	3343,5
12	Dansk FolkeFerie	Hendrik Vedel Jorgensen	3321,3
13	D-OHEXE	Susanne Wilhelm	3163,0
14	Neuffer Sanitär	Hardy & Paula Neuffer	3060,5
15	D-MAREN	Roger Wilhelm	3011,3
16	Kieselbronn	Jan & Andrea Gloß	2932,5
17	multicoloured	Jerome Bilquey	2908,8
18	multicoloured	Fabio Tarino	2895,0
19	G-HONY	David Thomas	2791,5
20	multicoloured	Herve & Patricia Lemaire	2775,0
21	Pepita	Rafael Stauber	2748,8
22	D-OLEG	Sven Grenzner	2700,0
23		Roberto Barchella	2601,3
24	multicoloured	Regis Capet	2600,0
25	Warsteinchen	Sebastian Bölling	2555,0
26	Chio Chips	Ben Schaack	2552,5
27	Stuttgart	Götz Brachert & Crew	2437,0
28	FFAM	Bernard Bilquey	2402,5
29	multicoloured	Wolfgang Tost	2384,5
30	Gosau Panorama	Martin Kaiser	2305,0
31	Vedel	Niels Hivd	1965,0
32	multicoloured	Wolfgang Leibfritz	1961,3
33	multicoloured	Mathieu DeKock	1803,0
34	Crocodile	Michael Gminder	1799,0
35	Olaf Schneider	BallonTEC	1795,0
36	multicoloured	Riccardo Giambrone	1705,0
37		Valentin Menardie	1670,0
38	multicoloured	Jürgen Meier	1595,0
39	Wagner Pizza	Walter König	1563,0
40	Fire Bunny	Frank Schnelle	1547,0
41	D-ONICLAS	Ralf "DüsenDoktor" Kursch	1530,0
42	Kilroy	Uwe Stober	1522,5
43	Flamingo	Andy Booth	1492,5
44	multicoloured	Marcel Prevotat	1492,5
45	D-OKID	Sebastian Storch	1432,5
46	D-MOKI	Daniel Mokosch	1405,0
47	multicoloured	Fernand Schaack	1388,0
48		Michel Hartenberg	1324,0
49	SKY	Klaus-Dieter Jahnke	1240,0
50	Garten Moser	Eberhardt Leibfritz	1000,0
51	Warsteiner	Rainer Stiller	986,3
52	D-IKARUS	Andreas Baus	962,5
53	Ladybug	Jupp Hein	824,0
54		Jean-Luc Menardie	812,5
55	D-OGFR	Günter Frerichs	807,5
56	erdgas	Istvan Csernik	757,5
57	multicoloured	Miriam & Christian Dehnert	722,0
58	Gärtner	Michael Bölling	565,0
59	multicoloured	Sidney Sevrin	0,0
60	multicoloured	Geert Plukker	0,0
61		Claude Vergon	0,0
62	multicoloured	Matthias Leister	0,0
63	Panda	Andreas Schmiauke	0,0
64	D-OKÄFER	Sigrid Schnelle	0,0
65	multicoloured	Stefan Rupp	0,0

(No points were given for the start this year.)

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