1) mend up Laszlo! 2) jeez, some of you were almost nextdoor

[John Anderson]

Greetings all,
Always some shocks to the system when one only gets on the CHGPA Forum every 6 or 10 weeks and sees the news. So, first message is to Laszlo, to say I am happy you are recovering from your tree mishap. The commiseration part: I've had two tree 'landings', one HG and one PG, tho' nary a bent bone. The hang-gliding tree topper was worse only because of the time and misery to cut the glider out of tree on a 45 degree slope. You'll be back in the air before I'm back in DC area.
To others of you with who may remember me and with whom I've flown in recent seasons, mostly WS, Daniel's, Pulpit and the possible PG places... sorry I haven't been in touch. My job had me travelling beginning spring 2007, and then shipped me out in June '07, and I've been in Kosovo since. You'll maybe know of the newly independent country sandwiched in between Serbia (still in denial), Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia. Yes there is great flying, mostly PG, in all these places, and there is a club of friendly Kosovar pilots. We (Pristina Aeroklub) had our first 'Kosovo Open' in April '08, with all these countries (minus Serbia), plus Turkey, Bulgaria, Austria and US (yours truly!) pilots represented in the event, basically a 'precision landing' contest. But you can see club members, photogallery and readallabout it! at club site: http://www.aeroklubiprishtina.com/ ... if you can decipher the Albanian-- one tuff language, luckily a few know English or Italian.
The other shock: to find out that Ellis, Hugh, Dan, and Carlos were virtually next door!! And I just found out, too late, damnit, since only a 5 hrs drive from Sopot and who knows, I could have tried to pop over to conviviate on a slope. You'd have been invited here, too, and though the sites & conditions in Kosovo are a bit less wowsome than Bulgaria or Greece, we do have some comely mountains and local pilots are a fine bunch. Thanks to all of you for your tales of flights & etc, esp Ellis and Dan T. And congrats to both Dan and Carlos for finally hangin' out the laundry with the rest of us poor baggers!
Hugh, hopefully you read this (you will see why I never had time to get my trike legalized & etc) and maybe you will have an e-mail address (tel #??) or other for the Danish mil guy who works in Kosovo, since I am here and can help hook him up with local pilots and sites.
Charlie, greetings. By separate e-mail I'll tell you about a BAH colleague came thru, who knows you. And mainly send a note on site guide stuff. Good for you for being Guidemeister.
To all of CGHPA, if you find yourselves in the Balkans do be sure to write me at one or both of these addresses (joanderson@usaid.gov; jlamra@yahoo.com), plan to fly our sites and (with wee advance notice) crash in our spare room, or on couches, for plural bodies.
I should be back around the Beltway in another year, maybe two.
Meanwhile, buenos aires todos -- John

[John Anderson]

The other thing I meant to say was supreme thanks to our Forum guru for getting me back on for a post, since I'd forgotten all passwords, and my account had gone dead, or both. Much appreciated, Mark!

[laszlo]

John,

Nice to hear from you. Life must be interesting in newly independent Kosovo, and its great to see that there is flying, too, in the youngest of all countries.

Thanks for your well-wishes. I have received a clean bill of health from my doctor on Thursday, and hope to be back in the air as soon as the weather allows. Already did some windsurfing and kayaking (the weather here is good for watersports -- you get wet as soon as you step outside).

Cheers,

Laszlo

[pink_albatross]

Hey! Good to hear from you, John!
Well... too bad you didn't check the forum earlier. Would have been fun to have you along for our "XC" tours in Bulgaria and Greece! I'll try to see if I can get ahold of Mike (Danish pilot stationed in Kosovo) and get him in touch with you. I'm sure he would love to have a place to fly closer than Bulgaria. Send me an email to e46kim at that hotmail provider.

Laszlo, has it been 6 weeks already? Woohoo!! Did you know that some folks are thinking Woodstock (and might be on their way there) today? Glad to hear you survived your ordeal of recuperating. I hope you didn't go too crazy having to be inactive for so long (did Magda survive? Looking forward to flying with you again soon!

-- ellis

[charlieg]

Hi John! You kind of dissappeared on us - and I heard through the grapevine that you'd been assigned overseas again.
I was in Created Butte in August for a fly-in there. Got to fly off the top of the Butte! Pretty neat! Richard "Critter" Kocurek knew you, as did others there. Also ran into a guy I went to junior high school with here in Bethesda. Small world.
Regards,
Charlie

[mcelrah]

Wow, Lazslo, you are tough to bounce back from that so quickly! How's your wing? (This reminds me of the Doonesbury cartoon where the counselor for returning veterans reveals he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident. The guy says: "Gee, that's tough. Bike OK?") Cheers - Hugh

[laszlo]

Hugh,

The wing must be fine -- the folks at Superfly replaced a small cell that was ripped, and also did a line check (the latter had nothing to do with the accident -- after two years, it made sense to get it done). Hope to test how the wing flies at the coming weekend. Just don't expect me to do a running launch (or landing). I am still a bit slow...

Laszlo

[brianvh]

Lazlo - you must be a damn teenager. Dyed the hair gray to slip into bars, did you? We are no longer fooled.