Hi there, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Cloudbase Mayhem. I have no housekeeping today. We can jump right into this. My guest today is Serena Ronchi. 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 Sertão in Brazil. And she was flying down there on an ENB wing and got under the wings of Dominique Rohner, who we've had on the show. Very accomplished, another very accomplished Swiss pilot, and uh, 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, uh, all the things she was chasing, and then it all came to a pretty abrupt and scary halt, or a pause, I guess it would be About six months ago, I got hit by a—she thinks 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 hard but inspiring and very real. So 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, XCMAG, 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 Sertão, 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 to have eight months free to fly, and it wasn't planned to go to Brazil. It was first planned to go to to Turquoise, to all the knees, to start acro flying, and then I learned that Dominique Runner, 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 love to fly 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 from to fly in the in Switzerland where I live in the spring and yeah eight months to fly fly fly almost every day. That's
amazing. The Sertau, so I have done 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 Tesima mostly and then had a nice flight to basically put me down near Quixadá. And so I flew the rest of the trip out of Quixadá 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 bump 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.
You've
got some perseverance, girl. You are stubborn. I dig it.
And yes, I spent two months towing. It was first in Kaiko, and then it was in Asu. And it's two places where you can tow where the Swiss League is going to Kaiko to try to do some world records. And Asu, it's another place where you 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 Kaiko. And to Monster Wing and then I went to Keshada. It's a small hill where you foot launch and it's pretty, pretty windy and turbulent because, yeah, There is an 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 to start there, yeah.
I got, I got a sense for that in Tasima, uh, 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 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. That's it. 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 really strong wind. But if 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... 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 guy who sits up in this kind of tower in Quixadá and they call it for you. I don't think there's nearly the number of pilots there anymore because you run into the jungle and have 400K 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 Tesima and it was, it's pretty 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 I
bet you were. 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, your heart must have 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 Quixadá. So yeah, first you try and you're really scared, and you're 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, it was pretty recent, correct?
Yeah, it's um, my fourth year now. I started in 2018, '18, because I've done a lot of via ferrata and one day I saw two guys flying down the mountain after via ferrata that climbing way and I thought, "Wow, that's just amazing to to go down the mountain like this." I really wanted to do the same because I like to climb, but I didn't like to to go down. Will buy food, so 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 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 you just get together and support each other for flying?
that's the swiss club yeah club where all the pilots are there to to do some competition and some training together and yeah we have the xe league where some trainings are are made to do some long flights. Then we have the hike and fly league that's pretty new. That's the league to do hike and fly trainings. And then we have the competition league. That's where you can do some tasks and the
competition, competition how you do in in the pvc
is
Your is your? You said you're doing a lot of via ferratas before that. Is your background mostly climbing, or what was—what what did you do for sport before flying?
Before flying, I was... I was not often in the mountains, only for, yeah, the via ferrata. That's the climbing route. It's... It's not like climbing with the hand on the rocks. It's a way. I've done some CrossFit and fitness, but yeah, I didn't know anything about meteorology.
Can I ask, you look quite young. How old are you, just for the audience to know? I'm 29. 29, okay. Yes. 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 flatlands in Brazil. And for me, yeah, I maybe had a goal to fly 200K, but I really didn't expect that. But yeah, I was really lucky because there were not a lot of pilots in Brazil, Brazil, and the very good pilots, yeah, were blocked in in the where they like 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? It
was 315, I think. Yeah, there's
A fourth-year pilot? That's awesome! You must have been on the moon. Yeah, it's pretty exciting. It
was crazy and
What wing do you fly, I?
Flew the air design, I'm sorry, it's very light, be hot, be high, be wing, and then at the end of the holidays, I flew the air design vault. It's the sea glider, okay?
And you mentioned you you had planned on going to Olu Deniz to Turkey to do some acro training that that didn't end up working out because of covid, I assume, but the uh the have you done some SIV and acro training in this four years, yeah?
I've done three SIV, and that's why I wanted to start arco, because I like the sensation of the full stool and the wings over, and I wanted—I wanted to start to improve my skills and maybe to gain some confidence.
When you were down in Brazil and you started doing these bigger flights, you were flying with Dominique, who's an amazing pilot. What were some of the things that started clicking for you in terms of when you saw, okay, this is working, 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 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
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 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—the color of the grounds, the trigger points, and yeah, first you're 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 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, 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 will coat in the middle of the bush, and you really need to know where you can land because that can be really, really dangerous. And then, yeah, just try to see the clouds and to see the birds and the trigger points.
I'm
curious for someone like yourself who hadn't flown very long and decided to go down to Brazil where it's quite windy. Like you said, it's a big undertaking. I'm curious what is inside you that allows you to push things like that in terms of the risk side of it. You know, you're, you're obviously, you were, you know, it was, it was scary when you got there, but you, you felt like, Hey, I'm, I, I need to go do this. What, what was it about you that felt, I'm imagining kind of, I have to go do this. I have to go to Brazil and see what this is all about. You know, that's not what I'm saying is it's not for everybody. It's a, you know, this is a, this is a niche part of our sport.
i
I knew that I have 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 passed 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 handle the wind in strong wind, and I was scared about the wind during the flight, but on the ground it was okay.
But yeah, yeah. in the flights, when you are high, it's just so funny because you go so fast.
It is nice when you're away from the terrain, isn't it? You're just cruising along. What do you love most about flying, Serena? uh
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 here.
When you, when you think about, and we're going to talk about the the accident a 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 are your goals? Where would, where would you like to see yourself in five years, for example, and
Now, it's pretty difficult to to talk about this because I had a very big accident six months ago and before that. But obviously, it was to do, my biggest goal was to participate at the X-Alts. And I was really, really motivated to train and to get the skills to participate. And for sure to do some long, long flights. 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 walk then more hours by foot. And yeah, it's, it's a, it's a good question. I am difficult to ask, no, 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... I wanted to do my first bivouac tour, and it wasn't planned, but a friend wrote me and said, "Hey, maybe tomorrow we can go to... to do some bivouac trip." And yeah, we moved to Ticino Tessin and we started to do a little tour. We don't have plan because we just wanted to follow the... the meteo, and we never flew together, and that was difficult because, yeah, after the first day we land at different places and we just lose...
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 a, 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, 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 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, that's not the valley wind, that's a big thermal." And I thought, "Okay, I hold my wing and I go land." I didn't, I didn't know that I was taking a risk there, and I went there, and I think 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 vertebrae and two broken bones in the leg.
And that I have to have surgery very fast because one broken vertebra was really bad. So yeah, I was operated and then I, I lose the sensitivity almost completely in one leg, and the other leg was maybe the half of the of the sensitivity and Yeah, it was really, really difficult because I had a lot of pain, and I, 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 I, 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 year of my home, and then I, yeah, I stayed there five and a month to learn to walk again and to do a lot of physiotherapy, swimming, fitness, to, 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 what
Is do you have how much sensation do you have now back in the leg? And the one leg you had none, and the other lady had some. Is it all back now, or is it still now?
It's still, still a long way, I think, to gain the sensitivity again, because 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 cause some problems with equilibrium. But yeah, it, it can take maybe two years or more to, to have it again like before, and I think I won't recover 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.
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 ex-Alps and then having this just, whoa, mentally that's got to be really hard. mm-hmm
Yeah, first of the the first day when after the accident, I I thought, I thought, yeah, flying it's over. I don't want to fly anymore, and it's can be so much cruel or so much, yeah, bad when you have something like this. But then after a few days, I I thought, no, maybe, I think 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 show them that's possible.
And I really thought about this. And then I started to walk again and I thought, But yeah, it's unbelievable. I will fly alone and I will fly again. And yeah, I've done 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 this helps me a lot because I was still in the sky and I didn't forget the happiness
of flying. And yeah, I think when I flew again the first time, I really, I forgot how magical is it to fly. 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 again so much, and if I will have fear. And yeah, it was really unbelievable, the feeling when I flew again.
It was because I, I've done a flight with Regal that's, um, that, that was such amazing because he write me, he wrote me on, uh At the Christmas time, and yeah, because it's he's in the exalps, he made the exalps 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 free girl on a tandem, and
yeah, special, really, really special. Yeah, and I flew the first time with him just four days when I, after quitting the clinic and yes, when we we flew together, it was so magical. The feeling of, yeah, this liberty, this levitation, it was just so amazing. And wow, I could I I think think I was singing the whole day and shouting of joy and wow, it was yeah, unbelievable.
And then I knew that I want to fly. I landed. I, I, I jumped in the arm of Krieger and I said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Now I'm ready to fly again." And I, I just want to go up again and 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 they were just perfect wind condition. So I put the wing over my head and I walked three steps and I was in the, the air.
And yeah, just first I was a bit scared when I, and when I went in the thermals, but then I, 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, uh, just magic. I could do my own game again and flying with the birds and on to 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. 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—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, you've still gotten into it.
It's a really difficult question, ah, it's so difficult because, you know, I, I have, uh, still a lot of pain and I don't know, yeah, how I will do the if I can do sport again without pain, and I really love to do some sport, yeah. But the flying is so amazing, but I think I, I, I will say yes because I think the accident, then it, yeah, it helped me to, to see the life differently and to see how the family and the friends are important, and sometimes you forget it, and I have, yeah, I think it was a really bad experience, this accident, but I, I
Grew up a lot with this, yeah.
that sounds like a hard takeaway but a good takeaway um hard lesson but a good lesson yeah we have to appreciate what we have 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 every material to children from eight to ten years old. Yeah, I really, really love this job. I love children and, but yeah, I wanted to do my my tandem license to to start to work a bit as a tandem pilot and to do some little job at the school in the in the winter time, maybe when one one 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.
Ah, you're still young. Look at me. I just started and I'm almost 50.
Plenty of time, plenty of time. Oh, geez. I kind of took the wind out of me there a little bit. 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 after the, the accident because I saw the, the progress, um, and I knew that, but I still can progress and I, I thought, yeah, with, 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 and 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 yet the last month, it 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, what's happening?
And, and 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 walk. And sometimes you can't understand because there was no reason that I can't walk anymore. And yeah, sometimes it's difficult. But I think when you see the progress, it's more easy because, you know, you're going forward.
Serena, in the last six months, I bet you've replayed that incident and the dust devil and the field and hitting the ground a million times. It doesn't seem like 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 an accident, but it wasn't, it didn't sound like you were really pushing it or, you know, in a particularly bad spot. lot, 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, "So, God, I wish I would have done X, or I wish I would have done something differently.
I
wasn't pushing hard at all. 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 in another place. Because the sinking air that I flew before land, maybe four or five meters per second, I should have have an alarm in my head and say to me, "Oh, now if there is this sinking here, 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, a lot more careful things like this, hmm.
more, more for the listener aspect of this, but you said you were probably 80, 90 meters off the ground. Was the reserve? Did you consider it?
and I was maybe 20, 30 meter from the girl you
Were really low, yeah. Okay.
yeah the first first thing I was thinking it's it's too too late. I just remember this sentence in my head, it's too late. And I don't know how I made it, but I felt on my two legs.
You said two years, you know, most likely, will there be more surgeries or if the rehab, is the rehab, the doctor's 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 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, 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 broken vertebra is too bad, and I have to leave it for my life.
When you get back into flying, it sounds like you're pretty excited to do that, and the body keeps working better. Will your approach to the sport be different than it was?
I don't know. I think so because now I have a lot more fear and I will need to gain confidence again. And I don't know if I will be able to gain this confidence again to fly with serenity in the Alps because there can be really strong thermals and strong conditions. aviation area that are difficult to fly. So yeah, I don't know, but first I, I really just want to, to enjoy the flying with friends and not concentrated on, on XF flights or, yeah, just
fun stuff yeah
just fun stuff, yeah, I
know there are many people unfortunately uh listening to this podcast to have had similar accidents, you know, this, this sport can be quite unkind. There's a lot of people who have had back injuries and other in, in this sport. Can you offer any advice to people that are going through what, what you are going through, Just in terms of what you've learned that has made this very challenging time better, better, and you know, that help the kind of daily grind of of getting through an accident, you mentioned you know that your appreciation for friends and family and you know, people like Chrigel reaching out, but you know, are there are there things this community can do for people like yourself who are in this position?
And also, just what you've learned about, um, you know, kind of getting to the other side, yeah.
I, I think every, every people is, is different, and some people maybe want to be, to be more, more alone when they, when they are bad, and I, I was lucky to, to have some very good, good friends that helped me a lot to, to be positive, and, and some other people that I really, really don't know, and they wrote me, and they, they just give me, give me confidence, and they told me, yeah, they had some accident, and, but they're flying again, and they're loving that again, and that was really, really helpful, and then, and 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. And that was, yeah, that was a beautiful thing, the accident.
So it sounds like there have been some little roses that have, you know, 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. Well, I really appreciate you sharing this quite difficult period of your life with us 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 this in the style that you have.
Hats off to you for having such a great attitude. too yeah
Thank you very much. We'll
See you at Cloud Base, I hope soon. Thanks, Serena, if
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