The history

Reporter: Hello, so you are the president of Licensed to Fly, Mr. Präsi alias Gerhard Wenty?

Präsi: Right.

Reporter: Well, how did it all begin, I mean, how did LTF start?

Präsi: Well, we, that is 5 or 6 people always went flying together, and as our members increased, we thought a club might be a good idea - and so we formed one.

Reporter: And when was this?

Präsi: About 6 or 7 years ago, sometime around 1989.

Reporter: How many members do you have?

Präsi: Counting our supporting members around 50.

Reporter: What are the aims of LTF?

Präsi: Mountains from above, churches from outside, pubs from inside!

Reporter: I see. And how do you realize these aims?

Präsi: Well, we are all very strict about it. Violations of rules are severely punished. We meet regularly and make a lot of day trips. So we can practice often enough.

Reporter: Interesting, tell me more about it.

Präsi: Well I had best give you a few examples. One of our members discovered a most beautiful site for flying in Slovenia and for two years we have been going there in august. We spend a few days together, kill a few sixpacks, have fun and if we cannot avoid it we also fly a bit.

Reporter: Oh, and what other places do you visit?

Präsi: Carinthia - more exactly Spittal an der Drau, Klagenfurt and the Mölltal where we often spend our weekends. And of course Windischgarsten in Upper Austria, which is a second home to our hanggliders.

Reporter: Interesting, what drags the hanggliders to Upper Austria?

Präsi: The "Kleinerberg", their mountain, so to say. There they sit on the summit and I presume they play "Schnapsen" all day. (Schnapsen is an Austrian card game, the red.)

Reporter: I have heard LTF is also internationally known, is this true?

Präsi: What do you mean?

Reporter: Well, nearly every winter you spend one or two weeks in Lanzarote and I was told that the beer consumption went up dramatically in the last three years. The population is afraid of the first "beer-plight" in the history of the island.

Präsi: How dreadful!

Reporter: Oh, well, a last question: You take flying very seriously?

Präsi: Usually it's raining.

Reporter: Oh, what is your alternative program?

Präsi: Then we go to the pub.

This Article is by Nici Lettner who has flown the wildest hang- and paragliders for years, and was our club champion for paragliding in 1994.