Naked pilots: Vera und Wolfgang Kaiser
Bastienne Wentzel


Vera: "In '85 a hang glider pilot invited me to fly with him. I had never seen a hang glider flying, I was stunned. I didn't know you could fly like that. The flight was a mind-blowing experience and changed my whole life. I left my job and became an instructor in paragliding and hang gliding, I met Wolfgang in 1995, we moved to Bavaria and we started Icaro paragliders.

Wolfgang: "I was a keen hang glider pilot in the eighties and early nineties. I was selling hang gliders for the US company Wills Wings and later Icaro 2000 in Germany and Austria. While the market for hang gliders was decreasing, we had the brilliant idea to start our own paraglider brand.
We were no paraglider pilots but I learned quickly. I got my licence with Sepp Himberger in Kössen. Today, I only fly paragliders. In 2000 we started Icaro paragliders and we moved to Bayern. Icaro 2000 were willing to let us use their brand name so we would have a head start with a well-known name." ...

...read the original article in Cross Country Magazine no 213, May 2020.

Photo credit: Icaro