I’ve been flying with the AERIALIS Team Flyers since 2003. Wow, that’s 16 years now!

Team flying surely has added several dimensions to my flying. The satisfaction of carving those crisp geometrical figures in the air with exactly the right speed and the perfect spacing between the kites. Or all pilots nailing that trick within the same split second, super synchronised!

I’ve also taken part in far too detailed discussions about the nitty gritty of our flying and tried to work out a level of ambitions that comprise all team pilots and other … bumps. Somewhat frustrating when you’re in the middle of it, but always a lesson or two to be learned.

Off course, we have been flying a lot both in competition mode and in a more recreational way. We have prepared for both STACK and Freestyle competitions and a few demos too, topping it all with the Freestyle World Cup in France in 2005 and performances at the Cuxhaven Kite Festival in 2005 and 2006.

Along this journey, I’ve gained a lot of experience and I still love flying in a team with my buddies.

Now I’ve taken a bit of time to jot down a few words of what I’ve learned along the way, and hopefully, these are thoughts that our team and pilots – and maybe others in a similar situation too – will benefit from in the future. I might think so.

One thing though… All of my thoughts are based on *my* history with the ATF and the team’s current situation. So all of my writing is biased from this fact. 

…and also… There is no such thing as “one truth”, just views, and this happens to be my view on things. Yours might differ! However, I think there’s a little something in this regardless of what situation you and your team is in and maybe we do have a few things in common!

Happy reading!