German pole vaulter Bjorn Otto with one of his model planes

Bjorn Otto and his flying machines

Just what is it about pole vaulters and their unusual hobbies? spikesmag.com has featured Toby Stevenson and his passion for motorbikes as well as Derek Miles and his love of paragliding. Next up from the pole vault family is European Indoor bronze medallist Bjorn Otto of Germany, who likes nothing more than building and flying model planes.

"My father was a World War II pilot and I have always had an interest in model planes and helicopters from the age of 10 or 11.
I am a member of a model aeroplane club and I maybe compete in five or six competitions every year, but, unfortunately, the standard is really high and it is very competitive – just like the pole vault.

"The models I build are between three and six metres and I’m building a five-metre long plane at the moment. They normally take about three or four weeks to build.

"My favourite plane is a Pilatus PC6 Porter which is the kind of plane people sky dive out from. I design my own planes and I now have somewhere between 16 to 20. Luckily, my parents have a big house, so most of my planes are kept at their house. I wonder whether they believe I have grown up properly because I still have a passion for flying model planes.

"The small planes cost only 50 Euros or the bigger planes cost between 1000-1500 Euros, although I have had a few accidents in the past. I had a big incident with my plane and I broke the wing. You can imagine what I was saying in the two seconds after it happened!

"Pole vaulters tend to be attracted to strange and special hobbies. I also paraglide and you get vaulters like Jeff Hartwig and they have an interest in snakes. I think it is because pole vault is not quite track and field and it’s not quite acrobatics, it is a mixture of both.

"By flying the planes, it gives me another life from track and field and I also hang out with a group of people in the club who are not associated with track and field. The club I am a member of is very old and they are like a family, just like the pole vault.

"Having said that I think it helps my pole vault because I have to fly my plane in the wind. This makes me very aware of wind conditions, which, of course, can help my pole vault in the outdoor competitions at least."