Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i Cross Country

I came to Queenstown, New Zealand in 2011 to do a snowboarding season. It got to the end of the season and I didn’t have enough money to fly back to Australia, so I stayed for the summer. At the end of the summer I decided to stay for another winter and here I am 11 years later. I’m originally from the UK. I was working as a chef for the last 10 years, now I’m a parttime tandem pilot. I was pretty addicted from the start. During my training at Coronet Peak I remember this cloud on launch. Flying along, I couldn’t really see where I was going, and then Boom! I burst out of the back of the cloud at 3,000ft. I bought an Advance Epsilon 3 as…

XC51 (June 1997): “A man who intended to try for Finland’s longest hang glider flight inadvertently gained distinction in another way: by becoming the first Finn to hang glide into Russia,” reported Mark Croas. “Kari Suhonen set off Saturday 26 April from Leppavirta, about 100 miles west of the border, hoping to break the Finnish record of 140 miles. Instead, strong wind carried him across the border, claims Lt. Col. Ilkka Laitinen of the Finnish border guard. “Suhonen landed safely in a field 18 miles east of the border. He called Finnish frontier guards for advice and spent the night in the custody of local officials. On Sunday, the Russian border guards returned Suhonen to Finland. ‘It is clear he got lost,’ said Laitinen, who added that nevertheless Suhonen was…

One of the common questions I get in my inbox from Cloudbase Mayhem listeners is about finding a mentor. Bill Belcourt, who is nearly everyone’s mentor who flies in the Intermountain West (as I do) was recently interviewed by this magazine as part of their Masterclass series and spoke about what to look for in a mentor and how to find one. When I look back at my own career in this sport there have been many people who seemed to almost magically appear at the right time and place to help me progress. Listening to Bill in his masterclass allowed me to take a little closer look at the ‘magic’ and identify the most important things I’ve learned over the years from my own mentors. What makes a mentor?…

Would it be dangerous for a casual, or occasional, pilot to buy and fly a competition wing? How about a mini wing? Yup. It certainly could be. First, some thoughts on what wings we’re talking about. Pylon racing competition wings typically have a large speed range to allow the pilot to slow down around the pylons and speed up on the straights. They put full speed control at the speed bar so there’s no need to fiddle with trimmers. Race wings are smaller, on average, but tight courses favour larger sizes. And ‘size’ is really wing loading – a large wing for my 85kg of self and motor will be small relative to heavier pilot/motor combos. Mini and speed wings are relatively simple, low aspect ratio designs, where the risers…

1996: Solo aged 14 1998/99: First trips to South America with the SAT team 2000: First comps, 7th in Acroaria, Italy 2002: Third overall in the Acro World Cup Tour 2003-6: Acro World Cup Tour 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 3rd 2007: Overall Acro World Cup Champion (Synchro with Hernan Pitocco) 2008: Overall Acro World Cup Champion (Synchro with Hernan Pitocco and Solo) 2009: Gold at FAI World Air Games, Overall Acro World Cup Champion (Solo); Infinite Tumbling world record – 281 in Nepal 2010: Overall Acro World Cup Champion (Synchro with Raul Rodriguez and Solo); First Red Bull contract; Infinity Nepal released 2011: Search Africa with Tom de Dorlodot 2012: Overall Acro World Cup Champion (Solo); Infinite Tumbling Guinness world record – 568 in Guatemala 2013: Overall Acro World Cup Champion…

TopMeteo update The weather forecasting service for aviators now has an hourly-resolution Potential Flight Distance calculator covering Europe; in addition, new lee wave and slope wind forecasting charts from the high-resolution DWD (German weather service) model covering central Europe are available for FL70, 120, 170 and 250. topmeteo.eu Ozone Session 15 Ozone’s Session acro wing is now available in 15m2, in addition to the 16m2 and 17m2. This is the wing Horacio Llorens flew to win synchro Gold at the last World Acro Championships. flyozone.com More speed for the Fuse 3 In answer to pilot feedback asking for more speed, Gin have added 4cm to the Fuse 3 tandem’s trimmers, giving an extra 1.5-2km/h top speed. The trimmers are now made from more durable webbing too. gingliders.com…

Gaggle is a new flight app combining a flight instrument, recording device and online community all in one – think Strava for pilots, but with live viewing (your friends can watch live as you soar). Pictured left is the in-flight screen with vario, altimeter, map etc. Right is the post-flight analysis with 3D replay option. The app’s co-founder Hennie Brink says, “In future we also want to introduce events and spectating of events and much more to help elevate the sport a bit and get more people into the skies more often”. Download free for iOs or Android. flygaggle.com…

The Tapa X-Alps is a new ultralight square rescue from Skywalk. Designed for general hike-and-fly and competitions like the Red Bull X-Alps, it’s extremely light and small-packing. It is available in sizes 90 and 105 (these are the maximum loads in kilograms). The 24.8m2 and 28.05m2 parachutes weigh just 784g and 895g respectively, and pack down to 2l and 2.6l. Skywalk say they are strong and reliable, with fast opening times and excellent descent stability. They quote a descent rate of 5.3m/s and say there is no forward motion in the descent. skywalk.info…

Skywalk have released the serial version of their 2021 Red Bull X-Alps wing. The X-Alps5 is a light, small-packing EN-D two-liner with good performance and undemanding handling. It would be a good first two-liner, Skywalk say. Made for tricky launches Skywalk say the launch is very easy, and an 18cm-travel speed bar means there’s plenty of extra speed in reserve. It’s made from double-coated Porcher Skytex 27 and is available in four sizes. These are named 75+, 85+, 95+ and 105+ and go from 20m² (60-77kg all up, 3.38kg) to 23.7m² (85-107kg, 3.7kg). skywalk.info…

BGD say their new reflex paramotor wing is safe and forgiving, suitable for new pilots straight out of school. It’s made to encourage progression and has the handling, speed and performance to take a new pilot a long way into their flying career. It is easy to launch, with a solid and forgiving leading edge. Smooth-operating rollercam trimmers and a speed bar have 12cm travel each and can be used together, and the Blizard has tip steering. BGD say it’s nicely stable all the way to max. speed which is around 54km/h. flybgd.com…

We first saw the prototypes of the Crest at last year’s Coupe Icare. It looked like an interesting prospect: a reversible harness with airbag and under-seat reserve weighing less than 2kg in the medium size. Earlier this year a box arrived from Italy with a harness inside. I have been flying the Crest over the last month or so to get to know it a bit more. The rucksack The harness I was sent is the L size that weighs just over 2kg complete with the 70l outer rucksack. The rucksack is actually removable with four plastic connectors securing it in place; the process is slightly fiddly, but you won’t do it often. It’s available in three different sizes: 40, 55 and 75 litres so you can choose the perfect…

Though our tolerances may differ, at some point in our flying careers we all experience fear. Whether it’s prepping on launch, getting dumped out of a ratty thermal, or cascading out of the sky, ultimately, it doesn’t matter what gets your heart pumping, as long as you put in the effort to learn from those moments. Developing a long-term approach to analysing moments of fear makes it easier to handle when they happen again out in the wild. Teague Holmes is an accomplished ski mountaineer and a free pilot. He crushes big lines in the backcountry that most of us wouldn’t even dream of touching. So what does big mountain skiing have to do with fear in free flight? More than you might think. “Paragliding and backcountry skiing have a…

Mario Heller is a tandem pilot and climber based in Interlaken. This issue he tells the story of his team’s flight from the summit of Cerro Torre in Patagonia. “It was quite a thrilling experience to unpack the glider on top of Cerro Torre and get ready to launch on a take-off just big enough for a paraglider.” See p48 Keith Forsyth, 28, has been flying 11 years. Knee surgery and losing a friend saw him contemplating why we take part in adventure sports when he wrote Call of the Wild two years ago. Looking back he says, ‘My thoughts have changed a bit, but it’s where I was at the time.’ It got us thinking, anyway. See p68 Ruth Jessop is the voice behind the text of the commentary on the live…

In the June 2012 issue, Cross Country talked to the inspirational Andy Campbell. An abseiling accident in 2004 left him paralysed from the waist down and using a wheelchair, but he was about to set off on a round-the-world trip using his wheelchair, paramotor and kayak, to raise money for the Chutkara Initiative. The charity supplied inexpensive wheelchairs to those that need them in the developing world, giving them not only their freedom, but in some cases saving their lives. “Being paralysed is easily survivable”, Andy wrote. “But in some countries people literally die from it because they are left in bed, or they drag themselves along the floor and develop infections”. He would be purposely seeking out the challenging routes, not just wheeling along tarmac, and foresaw the moon-like…

Cerro Torre is a 3,128m granite spire on the edge of the South Patagonian Icefield. It has vertical rock walls and is capped with a crown of snow and ice, a “snow mushroom” through which climbers must dig their way to the top. For climbers that makes it challenging and potentially dangerous. But that snow summit also provides an opportunity, as it is one of the few big peaks in the region from which you can maybe launch a paraglider. In Patagonia for a climbing season this year it looked like the perfect challenge for my climbing and flying friends, Pablo Pontoriero, Roger Schäli, and me, Mario Heller. But just thinking about it gave me goosebumps. We started our planning while we were in Patagonia by watching Fabi Bühl’s launch…

The granite peaks of Patagonia have attracted only the most adventurous souls since the early days of paragliding. In 1988 German climbers Matthias and Michael Pinn flew from the summit of Fitz Roy (3,405m) after climbing a classic steep route called Supercanaleta. After spending a night bivvied wrapped in their wings, they landed after a 30-minute flight, saving them two days of abseiling and climbing back down. Later that same season they returned with Uwe Pässler and, making a film, got a helicopter ride to the top of Cerro Torre (3,128m), and all three flew off. Roman Tschurtschenthaler from South Tyrol repeated the same trick in 1991. More recently, Aaron Durogati was in Patagonia in 2019 and flew from about 50m below the summit of Aguja Saint-Exupery (2,558m). He described…

Stodeus’s new top-end mini solar-powered flight instrument, the UltraBip, is an alti-vario with a GPS logger and voice assistant. It has Instant Vario technology, which uses accelerometers and gyroscopes to ensure an instant vario response, and Bluetooth which enables it to connect to flight apps including XCTrack, FlySkyHy and SeeYou on iOs and Android devices. You can double-tap any time for a spoken readout of altitude, speed, average climb rate and flight duration. Flight logs can be exported in IGC or KML formats. The UltraBip will be available this summer. stodeus.com…

EFI for paramotors Vittorazi officially presented their Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) technology the Paramotor World Championships in Brazil on 21 April. Pasquale Biondo, pictured with the Moster 185 EFI, called the technology “a giant step forward”. It will be on production motors later in the year. vittorazi.com Icaro T-shirts Icaro’s latestT-shirt designs are made from ecofriendly Oeko-Tex® fabric. Icaro say it’s soft and comfortable to wear. The tees are available in men’s and women’s fits in dark blue and grey. icaro-paragliders.com Thermoactive clothing Tryfly’s thermoactive undergarments are made to keep you comfortable in hot or cold conditions. The moisture-wicking fabric contains antibacterial silver ions to reduce odours. The garments should be close-fitting and worn next to the skin. Tryfly.eu…

Mac Para say the seventh generation of their Pasha tandem is all about the fun factor, “so tandem pilots look forward to their day’s work”. They say it’s easy to launch and easy to land with better glide and speed than the predecessor. Light brake pressure and direct, responsive handling mean it’s easy to crank it into spiral dives or wingovers and exit safely. The sail is 32g/m² Porcher Skytex with 38g/m² on the upper leading edge and the nitinol rods resist permanent deformation so it’s easy to pack. The Pasha 7 is available in 39m² and 42m² sizes. macpara.com.…

Guiness World Record Ben Jordan’s epic vol-bivouac migration across the USA in the summer of 2020 has been recognised by Guinness as a new world record. He travelled 2,835km from Mexico to Canada, hiking and flying all the way. A* performance Toni Brügger flew a 214km FAI triangle on his Nova Aonic on 24 March, setting an unofficial world record for the longest FAI triangle flown on an EN-A glider. Toni was in the air for nine hours. “I really appreciate stress-free flying with simple gliders,” he said. Full bar in Bir Austria’s Philipp Zellner flew 272km from Bir in the Indian Himalaya on 7 April 2022, setting a new site record. His flight, on a Skywalk X-Alps4, took him deep into high mountains. He flew for eight hours, reaching…

We have all seen the videos of two gliders flying next to each other, and one ends up higher than the other. It’s very tempting to draw the conclusion that the glider that ends up the highest has the best performance, but often this is not the case. This is because there is so much more than just glider performance to take into account, and the other factors can make the same difference in glide performance. Here is a quick list of the most important factors affecting glide performance: 1. Glider 2. Harness 3. Pilot skill 4. Air conditions 5. Pilot position 6. Wing loading 7. Glider size Also we should not forget the trim of the glider lines and the condition of the cloth. Let’s go though each of…

Russell Ogden Current Paragliding World Champion and an Ozone test pilot. Flying since 1994 he has been British Champion multiple times and a regular on Paragliding World Cup competition podiums for two decades. Matjaz Klemencic A hang glider and paraglider pilot who made his first flight aged 11 when he “borrowed” an old club hang glider, Matjaz lives and flies in Slovenia where he works for the team at Triple Seven. He also runs a flying school, and is a former Red Bull pilot. Michael Sigel A Gin test pilot and longtime competition pilot, Michael has won the XContest twice in a row (2018 and 2019). He runs the SHV cross country league, has several 500km flights to his name and regularly works as guide with Fly With Andy. Théo…

Different layers exist in the air above us at a particular location on a given day. ‘Coupling’ or ‘decoupling’ refers to how two layers blend or connect into one layer, or conversely, how a particular layer can split or disconnect and form distinct layers. Whether two layers become one or vice versa has to do with stability. When looking at a temperature profile of the atmosphere, also known as the environmental lapse rate, it is easy to pick out distinct layers by first looking for temperature inversions. The next slightly more subtle clue to look for is large changes in dewpoint temperature over a relatively small change in height. Layers that are decoupled will not mix much, like oil and water. To illustrate the concept of coupling and decoupling we…

Mario Heller Is a climber, paraglider pilot and adventure filmmaker from Switzerland. His love affair with the mountains started with rock climbing but a move to Interlaken 10 years ago opened up flying and mountaineering. Pablo Pontoriero Is an international mountain guide and tandem pilot who lives in Bariloche, Patagonia. He has made numerous climbs and ski trips throughout South America and has flown numerous 100km flights in the Argentinian Andes. Roger Schäli Is an internationally recognised alpinist and lives in Switzerland. As well as climbing around the world his special passion is the Eiger: he has climbed the infamous Eiger North Face over 50 times.…

There’s now a second generation of the eVario iOs app with a new user interface that makes it even easier to use. The app uses the accelerometer, gyrometer, magnetometer, barometer and GPS in your iPhone, iPad or Apple watch, and functions as a full-featured flight instrument with a sensitive lag-free vario and flight recorder. The cockpit view can be customised and viewed split-screen on the iPad. An external power bank is recommended: the team say a 5,000mAh battery will power it for up to fifteen hours’ flight time. The eVario app is on the App store priced at €14.99. evario.variosoft.eu…

The Syride app is for users of Syride’s Sys’Nav XL flight instrument. It allows live tracking and reception of real-time weather reports. With the latest version Syride say you can easily create and edit navigation routes on your phone and then transfer them to the Sys’Nav XL by Bluetooth, or by simply scanning a QR code. The app supports the following waypoint formats:. wpt,. cup and. gpx; and. kml and. xctsk route file formats. It’s also now also available in German. Find it on the App Store and Google Play for your iOS and Android devices. syride.com…

BGD say the Epic’s successor is a “fun and accessible” low EN-B wing with “impeccable safety and fun handling”. It’s suitable for low-airtimers, has cross-country performance and, like the original, BGD say it’s also a good wing for those starting out in freestyle. Its 45 cells and 5.2 aspect ratio are both a bit higher than the original’s, and the internal structure is more intricate. It’s slightly faster with better glide and improved launch, “very easy, rising with no sticking points or overshooting”. It now has B/C steering too. The Epic 2 is available in five sizes and three bright colourways. flybgd.com…

The Knight 2 is the second incarnation of Slovenian manufacturer Triple Seven’s low-B wing. It sits between their entrylevel Pawn (EN A) and high-B Rook 3, which was updated last year. The new Knight is “designed to inspire confidence” in pilots stepping up from their first wing and starting to fly XC. It has already been joined by the K-Light 2, which shares the same basic design but is made from lightweight materials. We tested the fullfat version. First impressions Opening the wing for the first time it is obvious that the Knight 2 is related to the Rook 3. It has similar construction, with the same small cell openings and optimised lines. It also now sports the standard Triple Seven colour scheme of a single colour over the whole…