Slovenia report Part 1

What a trip. I am still not home. I am at Penny's parents place in Calgary and have some time to write this blog. Once the City wakes up, I will have a couple meetings, some shopping to do and then back home to Invermere.
Most people would think I am crazy to travel to Slovenia for a weekend. It was not crazy at all. it was the best I could do. The only thing missing was Penny and the kids. Next time we will try to get them to come as well.

Hats up to all the Nova Team members. All you guys made this an amazing weekend. Starting from getting picked up by Mik, staying at his great place with his young family (Emila, what a cute 3 week old baby and Kristine his accommodation wife) and a comfortable drive to Slovenia and back.
Once we got there, things just got better and better. Thanks to Brigitta and Dusan who organized this great meet, job well done. There was not a boring moment at all. We where flying every day and had lots of great opportunities to socialize at launch, landing site, dinners and meetings at the hotel. Every day we could fly little x-country flight (about 25 km and more). Igor who runs the shuttle service and a kiosk place at the landing site is a very nice and funny guy serving the best Slovenian Igor Burgers. The only thing missing (and he will work on it) will be some cheer leaders at the landing site.
If you can fly, every meet is a good meet, but the best was sharing the fun with all the Nova Team members (plus 30 team members where there). I have to say, this is such a great group of people what makes flying a much better experience. The whole group is so diverse, from competition pilots, test pilots, x-country pilots, and to just for fun pilots. I have never seen such a diverse group of pilots having so much fun together. Most teams are either a local club or only competition pilots flying for one manufacture.
Nova, thanks for putting this all on, I had a blast and it was great to meet and experience in how you guys work. Watching Alex's top landings while testing new gliders, Tony Bender trying to fly with a sleeping bag (based on his face, I guess he picked up the wrong back pack and thought there was a glider in it, but you never know). The great and detailed conversations with Hannes about wings, flying and family live. Getting to know Peter (Manger of production plant) was a great experience and it makes you even more comfortable to fly a wing build by Nova as Peter strikes me as an extremely detailed and thought through person (by the way, his dad makes excellent wine). Finally I also got to meet Wolfi with his great sense of humor and Till (Public Relations) who started and maintains the "Nova Team" spirit. Well done Till and Wolfi.
I also like to say thank again to Wolfi and Hannes as it seamed they picked up all the bills for accommodations, breakfast and dinners. Thanks Nova, to give us this royal treatment and the sharp looking Goretex jackets, I will come again and the whole experience with everyone in the team makes me a very proud Nova Team member.
I will have to stop for now and will talk in the next blog about the flying site, my new wing and everything else I learned about equipment and the discussions about the x-alps.