Welcome to my blog about paragliding, here you will find relevant information and reports. The blog exists since September 2022, all reports before that have been backdated.
Concept & Idea
Originally, the idea was to only publish flight reports on my blog. However, it soon turned out that, due to my intense interest in paragliding, my tendency to get to the bottom of things and my very good gliding training, I have more to tell than just flight reports.
The blog is deliberately designed to be as simple as possible, true to the motto keep it simple. This also reflects my personal attitude to life as a purist.
Expertise
I can’t claim to be particularly well versed in any particular area of paragliding. My strengths lie more in my general technical understanding. As a result, I believe that I can familiarise myself with new technical topics relatively quickly. In contrast, I find it difficult to report on emotions. That’s why I often use ChatGPT for this area. Posts created with the help of ChatGPT are labelled accordingly.
Here and there I have individual sections of ChatGPT checked for good wording, as the changes are mostly marginal, there is no labelling here.
Motivation
I think the biggest enemy of every blogger is their inner bastard. It’s not easy to get yourself up after a long day at work to write something for the blog. But one thing that motivates me is that you have to deal with the topics much more intensively than if you simply read an article in a trade magazine. I have also realised that certain topics are not or only rarely covered in magazines.
Name & Logo
Inspired by the cinema film Ad Astra (Latin: To the stars), I have named my blog Ad Nubes (Latin: To the clouds).
The logo shows a paraglider pilot flying towards a cloud above a mountain, in keeping with the Ad Nubes motto.
Disclaimer
The blog reflects my personal opinion, which is also the original purpose of a blog. Opinions are often very subjective. Therefore, you should not simply accept everything I write in the blog without checking it, but rather scrutinise it critically. Especially in situations where your physical integrity, your life or the lives of others are at stake, I appeal to your sense of responsibility. Under no circumstances can I take responsibility for your actions.
Copyright
I take meticulous care not to infringe any copyrights. Where I refer to a source, a corresponding reference is made in the text, stating the source. Quotations are shown in italics. Nobody is perfect – so please get in touch with me if I have inadvertently forgotten such references.
Finances & Funding
I work completely independently and finance myself exclusively through donations or by publishing individual articles in the DHV magazine. So you can be sure that this blog truly reflects my opinion – without economic pressure. For the sake of transparency, I mention in the posts if I am exceptionally provided with a product free of charge. However, my main source of income remains my job at an energy supplier.
If you find my blog useful, I would appreciate a small donation in recognition of my work. You can find information on how to donate in the Support menu.
Contact & Comments
I would be delighted to receive comments from you. Write me an e-mail at email@adnubes.info if you have any questions or suggestions.
As I receive a lot of spam comments, comments are only approved and published after I have checked them. Comments must not be immoral, must not contain advertising and must comply with legal requirements. Netiquette must be observed and comments should be written in German or English. If your comment does not fulfil these criteria, it will be deleted without consultation. Please contact me if, in your opinion, a comment has not been published without justification.
Contributions
The articles are selected according to personal interests. Most of them are topics that are easy to research. Even though I prefer to write about technology, you will find posts of all kinds, from products (software and hardware), hike and fly, my flying adventures, do-it-yourself projects, flying technology to lectures. I hope there is something for you. If not, please get in touch with me if you have a request for a new topic or interview.
I try to conduct the interviews face-to-face. The recorded audio file is then transcribed (i.e. converted from audio to text) using Microsoft 365. Since we don’t talk the way we write and transcribing doesn’t work perfectly, an interview requires considerable rework. The revised text is sent to the interviewee for correction and final approval.
Nobody is perfect, of course it can happen that a post is incorrect or incomplete in your opinion. Please use the comment field below each post or my e-mail address for your opinion.
Categories
The posts are each assigned to exactly one category, which can be accessed via the Category menu item. The posts in the blog are divided into the following categories:
Interview: In the interview category you will find interesting topics with experts who have special knowledge in their field. I prefer to find interview partners around Munich so that I can talk to them in person. But interviews via a messenger service (Whatsapp and Co.) or via video conference are also possible.
Reports & areas: Flight reports about my micro-adventures that I experience in the air with the paraglider. The reports are organised as systematically as possible, as this makes it easier for me to write a report. I cut photos out of the video recordings from the action cam. The reports are also published on the DHV-XC and XContest platforms, as I hope that they will remain there for a long time.
You will also find descriptions of the flying areas and my hike and fly adventures.
How To: As I like to test things in practice, it makes sense to describe the How To. The topics are wide-ranging, from how to call up NOTAMs to how to check the trim of a paraglider.
Know How: Background knowledge that I have built up over time or have to research. I benefit from my 30-year career (with interruptions) in motorless flying. But of course I also have to familiarise myself with new topics.
Review: As I like to test products, it makes sense to share my opinions in this blog. By review, I don’t just mean book reviews, but all kinds of products are scrutinised here.
Miscellaneous: All contributions that did not fit into any other category.
Keywords
To help you find posts more quickly, they are labelled with one or more self-explanatory keywords.
Social Media
I post all posts and more on Instagram (photo, excerpt and link only). If I do make a video, it will be uploaded to YouTube. All new posts are announced on WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram. There is no newsletter.
Speech
As is customary among paraglider pilots, I use the first name in the blog. If this bothers you, you have no choice but to accept it or leave the blog.
As a rule, I only use the male form on my blog for the sake of simplicity, but of course women and other people in between are also welcome and should feel addressed.
Languages
I usually write the posts in German and use DeepL to translate them into English. In the beginning I had to correct a few things in the translation, but now DeepL works very well.
By using one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, my blog is accessed all over the world, from Alaska to New Zealand and from Chile to Siberia.
Web technology
My web host is All-inkl.com, which I am very happy with, as the website build is very fast. I use WordPress as my content management system and the Ocean WP theme.
About me
In the Info menu you will find my flying vita starting with my gliding training until today, as well as the equipment I normally use when I am flying.
