Februar, marec 2013 - Adria Airways

ADRIA PASSENGER
Fotografija: Bobo
Initially, ski flights were somewhat overshadowed by ski jumping,
but they soon came into their own as an equally important
discipline and a prestigious sport in the eyes of the viewers.
At FIS, they were not necessarily impressed by your
ideas – it could even be said that you were usually in
conflict with them. Why is that
I don't like to brag, but I can safely say that Planica has always
been a step or two ahead of the times. As far as FIS was concerned,
our rate of development was too rapid. They were concerned
about the safety of ski jumpers. Obviously, safety should
always come first, but most of the time FIS really had no idea
about what it actually takes for a safe ski flight. Despite what you
might think, safety actually comes from length – it is much safer
to land after a long flight rather than a short one.
Another of your innovative ideas was to have computer-guided
balancing of lateral winds on a ski flying hill.
How far along are you with this concept
I was hoping that the system would be tested at the 2011 Winter
Universiade in Erzurum, Turkey. We designed the ski jump tower
that was built there. The designs for a computer-guided screen
that would balance lateral winds and increase the participants'
safety were developed at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana.
There are several reasons why the concept has not been realised
yet, but I hope that it will eventually become an important factor
in the future development of ski jumping.
You and your team were also involved in the reconstruction
of the Vikersund hill where Johan Evensen set
the current world record – 246.5m – in 2011, taking it
away from Planica after several decades.
I was surprised by the Vikersund record. It turned out that temperature
plays an important part in longer flights. It was very
cold there, 20 or 25°C below zero; when you factor in the low
altitude, the combination makes for ideal air density and lift.
But this is a good thing – it gives Planica some competition.
Ever since Bloudek's time, Planica has
been a testing ground where we tried
out new ideas, learnt from our mistakes
and gradually made progress. Of
course, safety always came first.
They had a bit of luck in Vikersund because FIS had just adopted
new rules, which meant that the K point on their tower was
placed at 195m, allowing for much longer jumps than before.
My team and I played a part in this change of FIS rules, because
we wanted to expand the Planica hill. The new profile with the K
point situated at 200m has been approved and our hope is that
the reconstructed hill will be ready for competitions in 2014.
What lengths will it be possible to achieve there
Much longer than in the past, I think. Perhaps even up to 270m
in the future.
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