What ever happened to the "Wings over Sweden" project?

[[email protected]]

Looks like they got around $50,000USD from 180 backers in 2013 and I haven't seen any updates since early 2014. Did someone use kickstarter to get themselves a new glider with the money or did this project ever produce anything? Still in production?

Bruno - B4

[[email protected]]

Even though I had a strong suspicion that this project would go nowhere, having known about Mario Hütten and his lofty ideas about establishing a sort-of Formula 1 in the sky with him being the gliding world's Bernie Ecclestone, I still backed the project with £35 - mostly because the Swedish juniors really believed in it and I felt bad for being such an old fart with negative attitude. I already owned a copy of "Sailplane Grand Prix in the Andes" but thought that in the event that this will not fly then at least I got another copy to sell on eBay or give away in the family.
Well, the project got fully funded, I received my copy of "Sailplane Grand Prix in the Andes" and that was it - complete silence. No answers to any attempts of making contact. Mario Hütten got invited to a regional gliding conference in southern Sweden, on which he had the stomach to tell everyone that even though they got all the money they asked for they still decided to not pursue the project further because it was too little. Really. The explanation was that the project got funded by glider pilots (surprise!?) and that they decided there to be too little public interest for the project. Therefore not even the promised promo was produced - nothing.
That means that we got cheated because everyone got really into this for the promo to be produced - the other gimmicks were never of any greater interest.

[[email protected]]

I am just sorry about the people having spent so much more than £35...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vingaroversverige/wings-over-sweden-0

[[email protected]]

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH "WINGS OVER SWEDEN":

Two glider pilots took it on themselves to finance, film, cut and market a seemingly similar film called "Sveriges flygande talanger" ("Sweden's flying talents"):
http://iof2.idrottonline.se/SvenskaFlygsportforbundet/Organisation/Grenforbund/Segelflyg/SvenskaSegelflygforbundet/Nyheter/Segelflyg-SverigesFlygandeTalangerPilotsextendedcut/

Again, this is not to be confused with "Wings over Sweden". Peter and Liisa Marin financed this all by themselves and managed to sell it (at a significant loss, I heart) to Swedish television for public broadcasting.

A DVD of the film (extended 1 hour version with English subtitles) can be bought in the shop of the Swedish Soaring Federation (see link above).

The only connection this one has with Mario Hytten's "Wings over Sweden" is that Hytten tried to make the Junior pilots sign exclusive contracts with his project and threatened with litigation (as I heart).

[son_of_flubber]

On Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 11:54:11 AM UTC-5, wrote:
> Mario Hütten got invited to a regional gliding conference in southern Sweden, on which he had the stomach to tell everyone that even though they got all the money they asked for they still decided to not pursue the project further because it was too little. Really.

Anthony McQuiggan is credited with creating the project on the kickstarter page.

[[email protected]]

So - um - where did the money go I wonder?

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, 22 January 2015 18:12:56 UTC+1, son_of_flubber wrote:
> On Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 11:54:11 AM UTC-5, wrote:
> > Mario Hütten got invited to a regional gliding conference in southern Sweden, on which he had the stomach to tell everyone that even though they got all the money they asked for they still decided to not pursue the project further because it was too little. Really.
>
> Anthony McQuiggan is credited with creating the project on the kickstarter page.


Yes and I have not heart anything from him about this, either.

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, 22 January 2015 18:34:25 UTC+1, wrote:
> So - um - where did the money go I wonder?

I don't know, perhaps the money got utilized in this wannabe-F1 venture:
http://www.skyraceworldcup.com/sky-blog/

[Tango Eight]

Surely a subject that a certain would want to weigh in on.

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 4:19:17 PM UTC-6, Tango Eight wrote:
> Surely a subject that a certain would want to weigh in on.

Tphill is busy talking to Mario, ALOT.

[[email protected]]

Sean, Mario is free to build whatever little empire he wants, if he pulls of a good promotion of gliding then I congratulate him. However, the question was about the Kickstarter project in which he was one of the four public figures. And there is no denying that this project did not deliver the promotional film promised and nobody knows where the money went. A case for the police, perhaps. Please talk to him about this. ALOT.

[Sean Fidler]

I do not have a position other than if "they" met their Kickstarter funding goal and did not deliver the promise (or changed the terms) you are absolutely right. But, as I am almost certain that nobody on this thread actually invested in "Wings over Sweden" and therefore has no stake in the discussion, I am not that worried about it. If you did, I would direct you to the Kickstarter FAQ here: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter%20basics#Acco

I for one applaud them for trying to increase the public awareness of glider racing. No easy task, especially in the US. But if they were not honest in their dealings, that is a problem. I just have a hard time believing that they would have done such a thing.

On Friday, January 23, 2015 at 2:07:19 AM UTC-5, wrote:
> Sean, Mario is free to build whatever little empire he wants, if he pulls of a good promotion of gliding then I congratulate him. However, the question was about the Kickstarter project in which he was one of the four public figures. And there is no denying that this project did not deliver the promotional film promised and nobody knows where the money went. A case for the police, perhaps. Please talk to him about this. ALOT.

[Sean Fidler]

Looks like it was successfully funded but, as a stage 1 of many, it only promised a "promo" video. Stage 2 was a full documentary but needed additional funding. Stage 3 was more yet, etc.

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A2J0DiRHJ8EoDv

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vingaroversverige/wings-over-sweden-0

[[email protected]]

On Friday, 23 January 2015 20:20:01 UTC+1, Sean Fidler wrote:
> Looks like it was successfully funded but, as a stage 1 of many, it only promised a "promo" video. Stage 2 was a full documentary but needed additional funding. Stage 3 was more yet, etc.

....and that "promo" never got delivered, that's what I'm saying.

And yes, I did invest, even though I had my suspicions, and I got cheated like the rest of the investors. And of course I knew the risk, Kickstarter gives no guarantees whatsoever.

[[email protected]]

This kind of thing sets any honest person with a new idea back.

If this guy were not a dirt-bag he would give the people back their money - it should not be that hard since they did not do the work as promised.

At the very least he should be able to say "this is what we did where the cash went".

This kind of stuff has a ripple effect that is very difficult to measure and sets sport promotion back - no one burned by this guy will fund the next idea - that sucks.

Hopefully he barred from our sport.

WH1

[Sean Fidler]

Yep. 50k approximately. I sent an email to the Kickstarter campaign "founder" and never received a reply. My question was simple. Where is the promo video? Link? If nothing exists yet, what is the status. Nothing yet...

At least I only gave $10. I just wanted to see the updates!

[[email protected]]

On Monday, 26 January 2015 22:18:37 UTC+1, Sean Fidler wrote:
> Yep. 50k approximately. I sent an email to the Kickstarter campaign "founder" and never received a reply. My question was simple. Where is the promo video? Link? If nothing exists yet, what is the status. Nothing yet...
>
> At least I only gave $10. I just wanted to see the updates!

I wrote an email to them in Mar 2014 and the answer back was that they are aware that they are really bad at communicating but it's a very ambitious project and there was an investor on the way in. Since then I haven't heard anything more.

Really sucks.