Julia Kucherenko

Russian team
Three years flying hang gliders
One year as a competition pilot
   
What’s your best individual result?

185km task in Australia, Forbes 2008. But I was out of comp-scoring, so an official result is just 165km at the Bogong Cup.

Your best flying experience?

Well, I flew not so many places: Russia, Kazakhstan and, as a great Christmas present, we went to Australia this winter. But the most significant impression was left by the 2007 Russian championships at Kuray, Altay, 4000km from home. It’s where four country’s borders come together – Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China – and is a bewitching, nearly uninhabited world. There is only one road in one valley for hundreds of kilometres around.  And truly hard weather, which I like: thunderstorms and +7m/-9m thermal-shaking!

Have you flown Laragne before?

I've never been to Laragne, but I’ve heard lots of great impressions from team members. So I'm really curious about this site and hope to find good weather, lots of fun and great people.

Your life in brief?

I'm a simple student, studying physics and IT at the MEPHI, living with my family, working as an airbrush painter and sometimes for AEROS, as a dealer.I’ve been thinking about free flight since childhood: when I was five-years-old the first idea of a glider came to my mind. I made several attempts to build a glider using polyethylene and wooden sticks. But it wasn't a "toy-glider" - the wingspan was about five metres. Luckily I was too weak to carry it up on the roof. Can you imagine what fun would it be if I had?