Kurt Frieden and Pascal Witprächtiger win 68th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett
The venue and therefore starting point for this year's 68th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett is Metz in the Grand Est region of France. The winners are Kurt Frieden and Pascal Witprächtiger. The Aero Club of Switzerland congratulates them on their victory!
On the evening of September 5, 24 teams set off for the first night. Saturday brought trips across southern Germany and Austria. Due to the extremely unstable weather conditions in the region, some teams decided to land prematurely between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. This included the balloon of SUI 2 with Balthasar Wicki and René Erni, who landed east of Lake Balaton in a field of sunflowers near Siófok, Lake Balaton. They finished the race in 11th place.
Challenging third night
The third night wasn't easy for Kurt Frieden and Pascal Witprächtiger either. They reported on the challenges in their blog. Sheltered by the rain canopy, but with temperatures of -5 Celsius in the basket, they tried to stay south to avoid the unstable weather in the east.
Germany-Switzerland
Five teams took to the skies on Monday afternoon. Finally, this year's Gas Balloon World Championships ended in Romania and Bulgaria respectively. Kurt Frieden and Pascal Witprächtiger held the leading position from the early afternoon and never relinquished it. Bravo, Kurt and Pascal - congratulations!
Blog by Kurt Frieden and Pascal Witprächtiger
A detailed article will appear in the next issue of AeroRevue!
We are overjoyed and incredibly proud that Kurt and Pascal have won the 68th Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett! 🎈💙
This most traditional and prestigious competition in aviation history requires not only skill and experience, but also endurance, precision and team spirit. Kurt and Pascal proved all this once again and showed that they belong to the absolute top class of gas balloon pilots worldwide.
A big thank you also goes to the Command Center with Roman Hugi and Gian Marco Nacht, who tirelessly provided the team with data, analysis and tactical support. Without this perfect teamwork on the ground, this success would not have been possible.
We at Blaser are proud to support such exceptional athletes and experts as partners and to be able to write history with them. Congratulations, Kurt, Pascal and the entire team - you are an inspiration to the entire ballooning community in Switzerland! 🚀✨
Congratulations! You did it again! Winning again is always an outstanding, fascinating achievement. Looking at the tracking app has been a must for the past few days! I hope that other channels will also report on your victory and the gas balloon adventure - and that the 2027 event will be held in Eastern Switzerland...?