Competition News

As you all know, since 10 days now we are looking for Scotty. Please find below a short diary what happened during these days: 08.08.2003 Scotty left Rosis house, where he always lived when he was in Wasserauen and tried to fly the 200 kilometers from Ebenalp. Rosi planned to go flying in Fiesch and therefore she was absent and came back on Monday evening. At the take off Scotty told another pilot that he was planning to fly over Kandersteg as the wind was from north-east direction. One pilot who was sitting in a restaurant at \"Chäserrugg\" near Churfirsten saw him thermalling above him and crossing the Walensee to the south. As far as we know, this was the last time Scotty was seen. However it is not for sure that Scotty didn’t fly on Saturday or Sunday in another spot or location. 11.08. Monday evening Rosi came back home and Scotty wasn\'t there. But there was no reason to worry, as she didn\'t know he was probably missing since Friday... 12.08. Tuesday evening When Rosi came back from work in the evening there were still no signs from Scotty. So she informed the police in Appenzell. 13.08. Wednesday No helicopters were sent out on this day. The police said that they had not enough hints were to look for Scotty. And also an official missing persons report from the family was needed. This was the information given by the police. His relatives in the States were found and informed. The official missing persons report was done during the night (be aware of the time-lag). 14.08. Thursday Otto Voigt was the only one who knew, that the Swiss Federation has to look for any missing flying object due to an international law. Two helicopters took of immediately with Otto Voigt and Michi Kobler on board. Both are very experienced in cross country flying. As they are local paragliding pilots they know every valley and every corner around there. As the wind was north-east on Friday as well as on Saturday Scottys flight can be expected in the directions from south to west. So they searched the first 50 kilometers. Unfortunately they returned without success. 15.08. Friday Since Scotty was missing more than 7 days the official search by the Swiss Federation was stopped. Therefore we started a private search by airplanes. Two planes were searching on this day. One took off in Berne looking in Central Switzerland with Alex and Elisabeth and a friend and the other one with Otto Voigt took off in Altenrhein looking in eastern Switzerland. Alex Hofer is an experienced cross country pilot and flew many times with Scotty in Switzerland and knew the different options Scotty could have taken.. Both planes landed without success. We were impressed how huge the alps are and how difficult it is to find one little paraglider in the 200 km long area with uncountable glaciers, rocks and small valleys. Additionally the main color of Scottys glider is gray similar to the rocks, which makes the search even more difficult. 16.08. Saturday One plane was organized and Steve Cox looked out for Scotty. Without success. There was an article in Switzerlands biggest newspaper \"Blick\" about Scotty\'s missing. Due to this article some new hints were given to the police by different persons. 17.08. Sunday As the police had now new hints they sent out an \"official\" helicopter team to look again for Scotty. In Berne another plane with Steve, Elisabeth and Alex continued to search the last part of Scotty\'s assumed flight. Also these flights were without success. Now the whole area is covered. However it could be only a rough search as the area is so huge. Many thanks to the different persons involved in the search for Scotty so far. 18.08. Monday Jeff (Scotty\'s brother in law) will arrive today in Switzerland. The weather does not allow a searching flight today. Jeff will have to decide how to go on... We are all very shocked about Scottys missing.