10 years ago
Bulgaria's well know acro pilot, Veso is one of the most skillful acro pilots. He is a successful competition pilot, and an always ready to go adventure pilot, flying in remote places like Pakistan or Africa. We sat down with him, and he told some funny stories from his flying career and latest passions.
Born: 28.09.1982 Sofia, Bulgaria
Job: Pilot and Snowboard freestyle coach
Flying since: 2001
Best results in Acro: 10th in APWC Austria 2012 , 7th in Spanish Championship 2010, 249 Infinity Tumblings in Peru
Best Result in XC: 1st Pirot Open 2002, 1st Mounteq Open 2006,
XC Personal bests: 200km in Bulgaria, 199km in Pakistan
Hoobies: Kite Surfing, wave surfing, skydiving and targeting BASEjumping
Website: www.flytheearth.com
Sponsors: Red Bull, Sol Paragliders, Sony, Pamifid sa, xcosports bg
How did you start paragliding?
I saw it when I was little kid over the mountains next to my home in Sofia. That time I was just able to ski. Later in the university I met a guy who told me he flies with paraglider. That was the moment for me. I got his phone number and called him 6 months later. The moment was so funny and impressive, I still remember it clear. I was with 2 friends from my hometown waiting on a square between buildings. Suddenly I saw a shadow and looked up. It was the instructor and he landed right in front of us on the square. From this moment all of us believed that it is a safe and cool sport…
6 months later I were flying on a DVH 2-3 glider, landing in front of my house that was even more crazy and dangerous...Something I would not repeat now even for a money!
What made you to start acro?
I got the inspiration from our pioneer and best pilot that time: Dimitar Mihov / Mitco. He was the father of Pargliding in Bulgaria and the first pilot in the country who mastered Acro at a high-end level flying an XC comp glider! Also he was the first Bulgarian to represent the country in XC World Cups. Unfortunately he died at 2002 from braking all the lines in a Tumbling near the ground… At that time it was still not very well known what are the limits of the equipment…
I remember watching him was like between real and unreal on same time he had so much sense for control and feeling for the glider.. Amazing personality as well!
How is the flying in Bulgaria?
Actually Bulgaria is great place for paragliding perhaps one of the best in Europe. The flying season is really long from early April till late November it is possible to do big distance flights even over 300k. Many mountains and flats with different options and conditions…
Currently in 2013 we have 2 major Events in the country: the World Championship of XC at Sopot and the 1st Acro Free style Competition at the sea coast: http://xpoint.bg where flights will be done by helicopter jumps.
At the same time we are having a project with Red Bull which is presenting the country in 3 different episodes: Urban, Mountains andSea Cost. This will be great review of the best paragliding and adventure spots in Bulgaria
What is your favorite trick?
Mactwist to heli any other dynamic connections.
What are your plans for the future?
To master BASE jump and combine with acro paragliding around the globe, the list is too long…
For the end of the 2013 me and Petar Loncar will have two projects in Hawaii and Namibia with pro photographer Predrag Vuckovic
How were your latest experience in Pakistan?
Pakistan is place which you can only dream about because of it’s natural beauty, dimensions and flying conditions... But when you are there it is even beyond imagination… Basically you are able to do the same game Paragliding but in unreal dimension. For example we flew nearly 200km and saw our take off point the whole time and our goal as well sticking high over the horizon, something which can't experience in other places simply because they are smaller. Together with Petar Loncar (SRB), Francois Ragolski (France) and film maker Adrien Shams ( France) we spent 43 days there.
The journey started with a bit of a shock as our sponsors and supporters contacted us that it is a really bad moment to be there because of political situation, and that it is not safe at all. Regarding that I remembered my trip from last year and decided that it’s not disturbing us much as these are more interior, local issues. So the trip kicked off!
In fact there were lots of complications mainly because of the transportation logistics. Thanks to that, we collected hundreds of hours Jeep off-road…including some heavily armed escorts for some parts. But nothing really bad.
We visited and flew almost the entire Karakorum range: from Chitral – near the Afghanistan border till to Hushe – K2 area near the Indian Border with many stops in between. Because of the early date of our trip the conditions in the beginning were magical. Lots of snow, completely white mountains, very impressive. The highlights of the trip were:
scratching below Masherbrum summit (7821m) at 6.600m just few kilometers from K2 with epic scenery. The flights in Hunza near the Rakapishi summit (7788m) and the 199km flight from Booni to Gilgit with 6.500m highest altitude. That was an epic for 9 hours fight against the wind.
Unfortunately we could not reach the altitude of 8000m because of the conditions, but feeling motivated to try next time! Reaching this goal is not easy you need to spend more time exploring the region and conditions and be ready for the right day!
