Hi there, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Cloud-Based Mayhem. I have no housekeeping today. We can jump right into this. My guest today is Serena Raunchy. You probably all heard her name recently. She won X-Contest this year, which was a phenomenal feat considering she started flying in 2018. And she did it by flying over 10,000 kilometers this last year. She quit her job and went on an eight-month sabbatical and spent three months, I think, down in the Sertau in Brazil. And she was flying down there on an ENB wing and got under the wings of Dominique Roehner, who we've had on the show. Very accomplished, another very accomplished Swiss pilot.
And, yeah, she really started putting it together down there and getting some big flights. That took her to the top of X-Contest. And so we talk about her progression and how she got into the sport and all the things she was chasing. And then it all came to a pretty abrupt and scary halt or pause, I guess it would be. About six months ago, I got hit by what she thinks is a pretty powerful dust devil coming into land. And she's had to kind of go through six months of really brutal. Rehab and that is still ongoing and basically learn how to walk again. So we, of course, talk about that and her accident and recovery and flying with Chrigel recently and getting back into it slowly, but surely.
So I really enjoyed this talk. Serena is a consummately optimistic person and has the hugest smile. And I think you'll find this chat. And I think you'll find this chat hard, but inspiring and very real. So enjoy this talk with Swiss pilot Serena Ronchi.
Serena, welcome to the CloudBase Mayhem. We've been trying to do this for months now. And I know we're both pretty hard to pin down. And you've been really busy there. We'll get into that later why. But welcome to the show. And thanks for giving me some of your time.
Thank you a lot. I'm so happy to be here. And yeah.
It's actually really good timing to talk to you because the magazine XC Mag just put out the latest issue with Russ Ogden on the cover. His amazing win down at the Worlds. And there was a really nice article about you in there. I didn't realize you flew over 10,000 kilometers last year. You spent a lot of time in Brazil. Down in the Sertau. So let's start there. That's a lot of distance in a single year.
Yes. So it was in July. I kept my job to have eight months free to fly. And it wasn't planned to go to Brazil. It was first planned to go to Turkey, to Uludeniz, to start acro flying. And then I learned. That Dominique Rohner, Swiss top pilot, was going in Brazil. And I wrote him. And I asked him if I can go with him. And yeah. Then he said yes. And I flew there. And yeah. First I was really scared to be in Brazil to fly with a lot of wind.
And then it was so magical. I really loved to fly. I really loved to fly on the flat. And I spent three months there. And then I went to Mexico for two weeks. And then I came back to fly in Switzerland, where I live, in the spring. And yeah. Eight months to fly, fly, fly. Almost every day. That's
amazing. Yeah. The Sertau. So I have done the Sertau. I've
flown the Sertau
once. It's actually where I met Dominique years before you're talking about. But he and I spent some time. I was flying from Ticima mostly. And then I had a nice flight to basically put me down near Quixada. And so I flew the rest of the trip out of Quixada and met Dominique there.
But that's a long time to be in the Sertau. Were you mostly towing? And how did you handle the desert for all that period of time? Because you're right. It's pretty windy. It can be pretty stressful.
Yeah. It's really crazy to spend three months there because there is nothing there. If you bomb out, you just turn at the hotel and it's so hot there. There's nothing to do. So you wait. You see the clouds over your head and you're asking you what I'm doing here.
And yes. You've
got some perseverance, girl. You're great. You are stubborn. I dig it.
And yes, I spent two months towing. It was first in Caico and then it was in Assou.
And it's two places where you can tow where the Swiss League is going to Caico to try to do some world records. And Assou, it's another place where you can fly. I can fly very long distances, but it's a bit difficult if the wind comes a bit more south because there is an airspace. So it's better to go to Caico. And two months towing and then I went to Quechada. It's a small hill where you foot launch. And it's pretty, pretty windy and turbulent because, yeah, there is an effect. It's a very, very windy, very, very windy. And with the effect of venturi and with the thermals, you can have wind to, I don't know, I had so between 55 and 60 kilometers per hour.
And yeah, it can be really dangerous to start there.
Yeah, I got a sense for that in Tissima. In 2016, I was there and oh my gosh, I mean, every night I would just lay in bed and prepare myself for the, you know, the inevitable wind. And I remember the windy launch at five o 'clock in the morning the next day, you know, it was just, oh man, it was madness. Some of the days were really crazy where you're just, oh, come on, give me a little bit of a break here. Give me a little bit of a break. And then you pull it up and just, you just skyrocket. Yeah. It's pretty wild.
It's a tough way to start the day. You're quite relieved when you get in the air.
Yeah. And sometimes when the thermal is coming. You have a really strong wind, but if there is, there is not the thermal, you can start really easily because there is maybe 25, 30. And yeah, you just have to be very, very careful because sometimes you don't know if the thermal is coming because you see the bush. It's like dry, dry plants. And there are no leaves. So it's difficult to see if the wind is coming or not. And yeah, sometimes it's just luck or bad luck.
And it can be really, really dangerous.
Yeah. They have a, they have a guy who sits up in this kind of tower in Quichada and they call it for you. It's amazing. You know, there's three. I don't think there's nearly the number of pilots there anymore because, you know, you run into the. Jungle. No. 400 K out. So they ever, but everything's moved more to the. East, you know, to, to Keiko and Asu where you're, you were flying from. And, but there was, and they, they were really good at it. They would go, go, you know, and they put their hand up and, and yell at you to go. And then that was that you had to pull up right away. You just, you couldn't, you couldn't pause at all. You had to be really ready to go. And they would just, they call these lulls. And, but like you said, I, I, you know, we didn't have that in Ticima and it was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was really spooky. Had you done much towing before you went to Brazil?
I did once here in Switzerland and it was just like, I don't know, maybe 200, 200 meter high. And it was just for fun to, to try, but yeah, really, it was, I think the second time I did it in Brazil and I was really, really scared about it.
I bet you were. I mean. I mean, towing is always a bit nerve wracking when there's a lot of wind, but when you don't have, you know, to go into a place like the Sertau green hats off to you, that was, uh, you, your, your heart must've been racing.
Yeah. And, but you know, you, you do it maybe 10, 15 times and then you find it really, really cool. It's funny. And it's a lot more safe for them to foot lounge with a lot of wind in, in Quixada. So, um, yeah, first you try and you're really scared and you asking you, what are you doing here? And, and then you, with, with the time you have more time to, to see what's, what's around you and you can start to, to fly doing the tow. So you can start to, to see the clouds and to analyze the, the, the sky.
And see if you see birds and all the gliders. So then you can really start to, yeah, to start to fly and not just focus on, on your wing.
You're, you're living in Lausanne, you're Swiss. Uh, how did you get into flying and when did you get into flying? I understand it hasn't been, it wasn't, it was pretty recent, correct?
Yeah. It's, um, my fourth year now I started in. 2018 because I've done a lot of, uh, via Ferrata. And one day I saw two guys flying down the mountain after via Ferrata, that's a climbing way. And I thought, wow, that just amazing to, to go down the mountain like this. Uh, I really wanted to do the same because I like to climb, but I didn't like to, to go down. I didn't like to buy food. So I, I called the para gliding school and yeah, I started in 2018 and I had my license in, in November.
And then I started to fly in the winter and in the spring I joined the Swiss league and yeah, that was a nice group of, uh, of. Pilots where they're doing some trainings and we flew together. We had some good briefing and debriefings and yeah, that helps me a lot to, to start to fly better.
The Swiss league is, is race to goal, correct? It's it's, is it all oriented around racing or is the Swiss league also more a club where they, you just get together and support each other for flying?
Mm. That's the Swiss club. Yeah. Club where all the pilots are, um, there to, to do some competition and some training together. And yeah, we have the XA league where some trainings are made to do some, some long, some long flights. Then we have the hike and fly league. That's pretty new. That's, uh, the. The league to do hike and fly trainings. And then we have the, um, uh, competition league. That's where you can do some tasks and the, um, yeah, the competition, how you do in, in the PVC.
Hmm. Yeah. Is
your, is your, you said you were doing a lot of via ferratas before that is your background mostly climbing or. Yeah. What, what was, what, what did you do for sport before flying?
Uh, before flying, I was, I was not often in the mountains only for yeah. The via ferrata. That's the climbing route. It's not like climbing on the, um, with the hand on the rocks. The it's a way. Yeah. I've done some cross fits and fitness, but yeah, I, I didn't know anything about, uh, meteorology.
Can, can I ask you look quite young? How old are you just for the, for the audience to. I'm 29. 29. Okay. When you're, you're yes. Uh, so you're, so you started flying in 2018. You're going into your fourth year. Uh, for those who are listening, who don't know this, you won X contest last year, which is no small feat. Uh, I guess that helped with the very long stay. In Brazil. Was that a goal was to, to win X contest or did that just something that happened that you weren't even paying attention to because you were in Brazil? Yeah,
that wasn't a goal at all. I, I just started to fly in the flat lands in Brazil and for me, I, yeah, I maybe had a goal to, to fly 200 K, but, um, I really didn't expect that. But yeah, it was really lucky because. There were not a lot of pilots in Brazil and the very good pilots. Yeah. Were blocked in, in the, where they live because of the COVID. So I was lucky to, to go there and to be there three months to try and try and try. And yeah.
That's amazing. What was your, what, what ended up being your longest flight?
Uh, it was. It was 315. I think. Yeah.
There's a fourth year pilot. That's awesome. You must've been on the moon. Yeah. That was pretty exciting. It
was crazy.
And what wing do you fly?
I flew the air design. So it's, um, very light, uh, B hot, uh, B high B wing. Okay. And then at the end of the holidays, I flew the air design. Well, it's the sea glider.
Okay. And you mentioned you, you had planned on going to, uh, Ola Denny's to Turkey to do some acro training that that didn't end up working out because of COVID I assume, but the, uh, the, if you've done some SIV and acro training in this four years.
Yeah. I've done three SIV. And that's why I wanted to start our crew because I liked the. sensation of the full stall and the wings over and I wanted to start to to to improve my skills and maybe to to gain some confidence when
you were down in Brazil and you started you started doing these bigger flights you know you were flying with Dominique who's an amazing pilot what were some of the things that started clicking for you in terms of you know when you saw okay this is working I'm I'm figuring this out I'm starting to go further what can you chalk that up to was it any particular thing that you started figuring out
yeah but first I I really was very stressed because I didn't know the the condition I was scared to fly with the wind and after a few flights I felt so good because it's just so nice to fly there because yeah flying with the wind it's it's really funny because you can do some really big distance and when you thermal it's it's funny because you can do a thermal like for five ten k's and and then I learned a lot about the the the sky the clouds because yeah I really didn't know a lot of the clouds forming before and I think yeah it it takes some times when you start to fly in the flatlands because first you're you don't know what to do you don't know how to fly you don't know how to fly you don't know how to fly you don't know how to fly what to look after and then when you train train train you can see the clouds are forming or not you can see the birds you can see the color of the grounds the trigger points and yeah first you lost and and then you see that slowly slowly you you start to to learn and that's so yeah that's that's so grateful because
sometimes often you land first and you don't know why you land and you're really really sad and you want to know why but you don't know and you just say staying at the ground
what we're saying is that what were some of the things you would hear pretty regularly from people like Dominique or other mentors that were there what were they what were they telling you just out of curiosity what were the things that were they were saying hey you did you know that this was great but you could work on this
I think the most important thing is the security first because you have with the wind you have to know that if you try to catch a thermal over the bush you maybe will caught in the middle of the bush and you really need to to know where you you can land because that can be really really dangerous and then yeah just try to to see the clouds and to see the birds and then yeah that's that's the most important thing and yeah the trigger points
I'm curious you know to for for someone like yourself who was you know hadn't flown very long and and decided to go down to Brazil where it's quite windy I mean it's it's it's like you said it's a big it's a big undertaking I'm curious what is inside you that allows you to push things like that that is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is
is is is is is is is is is is is the skills to to handle my wing with the strong wind because i very often was ground handling here in switzerland with a lot of wind and yeah my my teacher always said you have to yeah ground handle is very important and so i i've i don't know some i pass so many hours to go in fields and try to ground handle and try to do some exercise and i really love that i really love to to handle the wing in in strong wind and i i was scared about the wind during the flight but on the ground it was okay but yeah in the flights when you are high it's just so funny because you you go fast it
is nice when you're away from the terrain isn't it just cruising along what do you love most about flying serena i
think the the liberty and the sensation of yeah levitation and then the landscapes and to be with the friends uh in the train or at the takeoff but i think the first thing it's it's the liberty yeah
when you when you think about and we're going to talk about the the accident a little bit later on obviously that has changed things but the when you think about your future and flying do you what what drives you about it what what do you think about what what are your goals where would where would you like to see yourself in five years for example i
know it's pretty difficult to to talk about this because i had a very big accident six months ago and before that obviously it was to do my biggest goal was to participate at the x-hats and i was really really motivated to train and and to yeah to get the skills to participate and for sure to to do some long long flights and yeah now i think i don't know i just want to gain confidence again to fly in the alps and then we'll see i don't know i don't know how my recovery will go if i can work then more hours and then i don't know how my recovery will go and then i don't know how my recovery will go and then i don't know how my recovery will go and then i don't know how my recovery will go by foot and yeah it's it's uh it's a good question i difficult to ask now to answer well
well let's let's talk about it then i was planning on talking about this later but six months ago what happened yeah
i've done um i wanted to do my my first um b-walk uh tour and it wasn't planned but a friend wrote me and i said i want to do my first b-walk tour and i said i want to do my first b-walk tour me and said hey maybe tomorrow we can go to to do some b-walk uh b-walk trip and yeah we moved to ticino this scene and we started to to do um a little tour we don't have plan because we just wanted to follow the the material and we never flew together and that was difficult because yeah after the first day we land at different places and we just lose ourselves so yeah i i continue on my own and it was five days a trip of five days and yeah the last day it was we had always good weather it was really really hot um low wind and the last day i flew two and a half hour and i wanted to land in in a in a valley and yeah in this valley there was not a lot of wind it was like maybe 10 or 15 maximum kilometer per hour of wind and i decided to land in uh
in the grass field
and just before landing i felt some sinking air but really really strong like four or five meters per second and i thought oh okay it's good for me i i i want to go down so i stay a bit there i made two three six to go lower and then i saw my field and i saw the trees moving very very fast and i thought oh no uh that's not the valley wind that's a big thermal and i thought okay i i hold my wing and i go land i didn't know that i was taking a risk there and i went there and i think like like 20, 30 meter high, my wing collapses and it was too late to do something.
I think I flew in a dust because it was a really, really strong thermal and a really hot day. And yeah, then my wing collapses and I felt on my two legs and yeah, I saw that my legs was broken and I had a lot of back age. And yeah, two guys were there, saw me and called the ambulance. And yeah, at the hospital, they told me I have two broken lumbar vertebra and two broken bones in the leg and that I have to be...
to have a surgery very fast because the broke... one broken vertebra was really bad. So yeah, I was operated and then I lose the sensitivity almost completely in one leg and the other leg was maybe the half of the sensitivity.
And yeah, it was really, really difficult because I had a lot of pain and I didn't know if one day I will walk again. And yeah, I spent two weeks in this hospital waiting to a place where I can go to do my rehabilitation because it was impossible to go at home because I couldn't walk. I was just laying in the bed and yeah. So then after those two weeks I went in the rehabilitation clinic. It was a bit near of my home. And then I stayed there five and a half months to learn to walk again and to do a lot of physiotherapy, swimming, fitness to gain the muscle again.
Yeah, it was a pretty hard time but now I'm since three weeks out of the clinic and I'm back home and I flew. I flew again and yeah, that makes me really, really happy because yeah, it was all my life flying before. And I'm really happy that I can fly again and food lounge again alone. So yeah.
Do you have, how much sensation do you have now back in the leg and the one leg that you had none and the other leg that you had some? Is it all back now or is it still?
No, it's still a long way I think to gain the sensitivity again.
In the left leg, it's almost completely there but in the right leg under my feet, I don't feel yeah, under my feet and that's caused some problems with the equilibrium.
Equilibrium balance.
But yeah, it can take maybe two years or more to have it again. I believe it's a long way. I mean, I had so many issues before and I think I won't recovery fully because I have one feet that is that lose a lot of mobility. There is some atrophy and yes, in six months it's not moving a lot so I'm doing the physio for this but yeah, it will be difficult to gain again the mobility of the feet.
I mean, so it's so hard. Obviously, this has been incredibly hard physically to go through six months of rehab. It sounds like there's still much more ahead. What's it like for up here? What's it like in your mind? Knock on wood, I haven't experienced an injury like this, but I can't imagine chasing it as hard as you were and, you know, thinking about the X-Alps and then having this just, just, whoa, mentally,
that's got to be really hard.
Yeah. First, the first day after the accident, I thought, yeah, flying, it's over. I don't want to fly anymore. And it can be so much cruel or so much, yeah, bad when you have something like this. But. And then after a few days, I, I thought, no, maybe I think I will, I will fly in a wheelchair and I will try to do something, some flying with wheelchair and that will be fun. And maybe a lot of people want to fly with wheelchair so I can, I can show them that's, that's possible.
And I really thought about this. And then I started to walk again. And. And I thought, yeah, it's, it's unbelievable. I will, I will fly alone and I will fly again. And yeah, I've done some, a lot of mental flying. So I was in my bed and I was imagining me at the lounge with the friends and to start and flying with the birds and in the thermals. And I think it, this helps me a lot because I was still in the sky and I didn't forgot the, yeah, the happiness of flying.
And yeah, I think, uh, when I flew again, the first time I really, I forgot how magical is it to fly. Yeah. Because you can do this mental flying training, but with the time you forget how amazing it is. And yeah, when I flew again, I didn't know if, if I will like it, uh, again so much. And if I will have fear and yeah, it was really unbelievable. The feeling when I flew again, it was, uh, I I've done.
I've done a flight with Frigel. That's, um, that's, that was such amazing because he write me, he wrote me, um, uh, at the Christmas time. And because it's, he's in the X-Helps, he made X-Helps Academy in a group of training where I am. And he wrote me to ask me how I am. And. Then. He proposed me to do a flight with him because I, I'm not able to fly alone.
And when I, I read that I was just so, so happy because flying with Frigel on a tandem and yeah, special, really, really special. Yeah. And. I flew the first time with him just, um, four days when I, after that, I flew with him for
five days.
W It was just so amazing. And wow, I think I was singing the whole day and shouting of joy. And wow, it was unbelievable.
And then I knew that I want to fly. I landed. I jumped in the arm of Krigel and I said, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Now I'm ready to fly again. And I just want to go up again and fly. So yeah, then it took some three, no, 10 days. And I flew, I've done my first flight solo, solo flight. And I couldn't run very fast, but there were just perfect wind conditions. So I put the wing over my head and I walked three steps and I was in the air.
And yeah, just first I was a bit scared when I went in the thermals. But then I went on the flats. It was a day where the flatland was going pretty good. And yeah, when I went in the thermal, it was just. And just magic. I could do my own game again and flying with the birds and under the clouds. And yeah, I really, really loved it. And now I just wait to fly again.
I love that you're still so passionate about it. I'm sure there's some part of you who struggles, though, knowing the accident and what it has done. And, you know, if you could, I often ask this question to pilots that have been flying for decades. You know, if you could rewind the clock to your 50 hour self, what would you tell yourself? But with you, that's pretty recent. It's just four years ago. But if you had been able, you know, back in 2018, if you had a crystal ball and you knew that this was going to happen to you, would you still fly?
Wow. Would you have
still gotten into it?
It's a really difficult. Question.
It's so difficult because, you know, I have still a lot of pain and I don't know. Yeah. How I will do if I can do sport again without pain. And I really love to do some sport. And yeah, the flying is so amazing. But I think I will say yes. Because I think the accident, then it helped me to see life differently and to see how the family and friends are important. And sometimes you forget it.
And I have. Yeah, I think it was a really bad experience, this accident. But I grew up. I grew up a lot with this.
Yeah, that sounds like a hard takeaway, but a good takeaway. Hard lesson, but a good lesson. Yeah, we have to appreciate what we have, don't we? You mentioned that you quit a job to go on this kind of eight-month flying sabbatical. What was your job? What were you doing?
I'm a teacher in a primary school. I teach. Okay. Every matriculation.
Aw ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya teacher is waiting a kid or is sick do
you have kids no
i don't have i don't know if i want to have some kids
you're still young look at me i just started and i'm almost 50 yeah plenty of time plenty of time oh geez i kind of took the wind out of me there a little bit this i i just can't imagine what you've been through i've you know since i've been following you for quite some time now just getting ready to have this chat with you and you seem consummately optimistic in your posts and you've really attacked this with what seems to be from an outside perspective with a very good attitude yeah
um i i was really i was really positive the the fourth first month the accident because i saw the the progress um and i knew that i still can progress and i i thought yeah with this positivity you go you can go faster and when you're more motivated you can go faster but yeah then i i i think i i've done too much with my body i i trained too much i had a lot of pain so for three weeks i had to yeah to to rest and to stay a bit calmer and that it was difficult because in a recovery like this you it's always like waves it's going better and then it's going a bit bad and it's difficult mentally but because when you see the progress it's it's easy you you know you you're going forward but when you have more pain and you can maybe walk it's it's more difficult you have to be really really patient and yeah the the last month was really difficult for me because i could walk without the crutches and suddenly one day it was not possible anymore and i i thought oh no
that yeah it was for i don't know maybe three weeks like that and i was just waiting that my body was okay to to walk and sometimes you you can't understand because there was no reason that i can walk anymore and yeah sometimes it's it's difficult but i think when you see the progress it's it's more easy because you know you're going forward and you're going to be going forward
serena in the last six months i bet you've replayed that incident and the dust devil and the field and the and hitting the ground a million times uh it doesn't seem like you know there wasn't there wasn't an obvious mistake you know these these things are obviously obviously they're usually and it sounds like in this case you know a series of things that that led to a an accident but it wasn't it didn't sound like you were really pushing it or you know in a particularly bad spot but what is there anything where you when you look back and you think you know that and maybe not even that day but six months private prior to that you know were you were you pushing it too hard were you doing something were you being complacent were you you know all the things that we talk about on the show over and over and over again you know is there anything where you go
god i wish i would have done x or i wish i would have done something yeah
i differently i wasn't pushing hard at all i i just wanted to go land slowly and in a safe way i really didn't know that it was dangerous to land there but yeah after reflection i think i could do something else and land and in another place because the this sinking air that i flew before land maybe four or five meter per second i should have have an alarm in my head and say to me oh now if there is this sinking hair here next to this place there will be a very big thermal and yeah i should have landed maybe far from this area so yeah now i will really really be a lot more careful to things like this
more more for the listener aspect of this but you said you were probably 80 90 meters off the ground was the reaction to that or was it just a little bit more of a reaction to that reserve did you consider it
um i know i was maybe 20 30 meter from the ground oh
you were really low yeah okay
yeah the the first first thing i i was thinking it's it's too late i just remember this sentence in my head it's it's too late and i i don't know how i made it but i i felt on my two legs you
said two years you know most likely what well there be more surgeries or if the if the rehab is the rehab the doctor is basically saying now it's just rehab it's just a matter of training
maybe in in the bone in my leg i can i can put away the the metal because i have a long metal stick in in the tibia i don't know if you say that and now my my knee is hurting a lot when i walk uh i think because of the this metal thing and when the knee when the bone is okay i can put the metal away but in my back the the broken vertebra is too bad and i have to leave it for yeah for for my life when
you get back into flying it sounds like you're pretty excited to do that and you know the the body keeps working better will anything about will your approach to the sport be different than it was
i i don't know i think i think so because now i have a lot more fear and i will need to gain confidence again and i don't know um if i will able to gain this confidence again to fly uh with serenity in in in this life because i don't know if i will be able to fly again ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya So, yeah.
Just fun stuff.
Yeah, just fun stuff. I
know there are many people, unfortunately, listening to this podcast who have had similar accidents. This sport can be quite unkind. There's a lot of people who have had back injuries and other in this sport. Can you offer any advice to people that are going through what you are going through just in terms of what you've learned that has made this very challenging time better that help the kind of daily grind of getting through an accident? You mentioned your appreciation for friends and family and people like Chrigel reaching out.
But are there things this community can do for people like yourself who are in this position and also just what you... You've learned about kind of getting to the other side?
Yeah. I think every people is different. And some people maybe want to be more alone when they are bad. And I was lucky to have some very good friends that helped me a lot to be positive. And some other people that I really, really don't know. And they wrote me and they just give me confidence. And they told me, yeah, they had some accident, but they are flying again. And they are loving that again.
And that was really, really helpful. And then, yeah, the family is really, really important. Because you live with them. And I wasn't near from my father. But my father was there every day. And he phoned with me a lot. And I was really surprised of that. Because I didn't have a lot of contact with my father. That was, yeah, that was a beautiful thing, the accident.
So it sounds like there have been some little roses that have grown from this experience. Things that are, I guess, quite unexpected. So that's nice. Serena, that's probably a good place for us to wrap things up as well. I really appreciate you sharing this quite difficult period of your life with us. And, yeah. And your exciting year. Both good and bad, obviously. But this has been a real treat. And I wish you the best of luck with healing and getting back into flying. And managing all of this in the style that you have.
Hats off to you for having such a great attitude.
Yeah, thank you very much. We'll
see you at Cloudbase, I hope, soon. Thanks, Serena.
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