"We planned our vacation here a year in advance," said Christopher as an explanation. However, the two of them did not marry spontaneously after all. They got to know each other during their shared hobby at Akaflieg Frankfurt at the Ring Ziegenhein site. Christopher is also a flight instructor there, but he has not trained Marie, who started gliding four years before. “But he let me go for the first solo flight,” says Marie. In the meantime they have covered big distances together in the Duo Discus. With two LS4s they also covered distances up to 600 km. Sometimes the tasks were distributed differently: At the German championship of the 18m class in Stendal Marie was Christoph's helper. In Bitterwasser they now share an Arcus cockpit. Almost a 1000 k flight is already in the flight log.
After two weeks of gliding, they will go with a camper with a roof tent on a discovery tour through Namibia.
The Bitterwasser Flying Lodge was the main sponsor of the Junior World Gliding Championships, where from August 2 to 17, 2026, around 80 pilots from 22 nations competed for the titles in the Standard and Club classes. The grand prize for the JWGC winners was a one-week stay at the lodge, including travel and an airplane.
Largely unnoticed by the public, the 5th Red Bull Global Aerial Performance Camp 2026 took place in Bitterwasser, Namibia, from April 21, 2026, to April 30, 2026.
A few videos and pictures on this page offer a glimpse of the athletes and their performances.