Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i Cross Country

Chrigel Maurer won the X-Pyr 2022 in July, making it his fourth win in a row. It brings his tally of X-Pyr and Red Bull X-Alps titles to a total of 11. Held every two years the X-Pyr is a 600km race west-to-east across the Pyrenees. Despite Chrigel being the favourite to win, it was not a done deal and it all came down to the wire on the last day. He, Maxime Pinot and hike-and-fly newcomer Pierre Rémy had to battle it out, switching positions in the air and on the ground. At one point it looked like Maxime was going to win and was in the lead after Pierre and Chrigel both landed on the north side of Canigó (2,785m). However, Chrigel put in a huge effort to…

Where is it? Clopotiva is a small Romanian village in the Retezat National Park (retezat.ro), about 450km northwest of capital Bucharest. The Retezat mountains reach 2,500m and are part of the Southern Carpathians. They rise between two major valleys, the Petrosani and Hateg. The closest town of any size is Hateg (population 9,000). What’s the flying like? With mountains behind and flatlands out front, the flying is suitable for everyone from beginners to competition pilots. If there is overdevelopment in the mountains, XC routes and tasks can be set out in the valley or along the ridges descending from the main range. What just happened? The Paragliding World Cup held its first ever competition in Clopotiva at the end of June. Some 121 international pilots converged on the village from…

Théo de Blic lives in Chambéry, France and has been flying paragliders solo since he was 12. He has won synchro gold in the FAI World Air Games, synchro silver at the Acro World Championships and is a five-time Acro World Cup champion. He competed in the Red Bull X-Alps in 2021 This year marks my tenth season on the Acro Paragliding World Tour. Even though I have been pretty successful lately it took several years to finally win – I spent many seasons oscillating between fifth and third without managing to get those extra points that make the difference. So here are my top 10 tips I wish someone had told me in my first season instead of having to learn them the hard way. 1. Learn the rules.…

Paul Haxby has been flying paragliders since 1991 and paramotors since 1998. An instructor, he runs AXB Paramotoring in the north of England Accidents can be useful learning experiences, for others as well as the pilot involved. So, on the anniversary of my paramotoring accident I looked back at it, to review what happened and why. It was 13 June last year and I’d had an early start to complete a flight with friends before a busy day as an instructor with my flying school at a site near York, England. Shortly after take-off though I had a complete engine failure at low level, and so I quickly turned to get back to the landing field. My desire to get back to my original take-off field, rather than choose an…

I didn’t know my vario could make this noise. It was almost passed beeping and into a continuous scream. On a quick glance down, it showed 12m/s. I was moving upwards at more than two houses a second. My glider felt more like a musical instrument with its lines all singing the tune and the cells humming with pressure and then belching air like an organ. It took everything I had just to keep the wing open and flying. Any control of direction I had was relinquished to the thermal. My only concern was not getting spat out. I was riding a bucking bronco that I knew I’d only want to ride the once. I tapped out at a lofty cloudbase of 7,000m, setting off along the longest glacier I’d…

The Core is Skywalk’s modular lightweight harness for hike-and-fly. It can be paired with an inflatable protector that uses Skywalk Permair technology, making it, Skywalk claim, the lightest harness with permanent protection on the market, and perfect for hike-and-fly comps that mandate protection. Design The base harness uses two leg loops and a solid back with a series of webbing straps for the structure. It’s not the lightest on the market, weighing 410g – nearly twice as much as the AirDesign Slip and nearly four times heavier than Ozone’s F*Lite. Skywalk have chosen to use heavier materials for durability and extra comfort. It certainly feels more substantial. The seat area has a 2mm layer of foam in it, as well as stiffening sheets in the leg loops to give a…

Greg Hamerton was fresh back from the X-Pyr when we dropped him a line asking for his next instructional article. What came back? An insight into how to perfect the art of slope-landing. If you want to string together XC flights, or are just fed up of landing at the bottom, then read this, see p34 Steve Ham is a regular in these pages and is a paragliding guide in central Spain. Flying for decades, he was thrilled to be asked to illustrate the new edition of the classic weather book Understanding the Sky. He shares a glimpse of that with us in Thermal Lore, see p70 ‘THE IDEA OF TAKING DESIGN CUES AND INSPIRATION FROM NATURE IS CALLED BIOMICRY’ Tubercle Technology, p52 Jake Holland is a Chamonix-based filmmaker and photographer. He’s written…

Chrigel Maurer won the the Eigertour in July, just days after he’d won the X-Pyr in Spain. Patrick Von Känel was first across the line by literally one second and would have won, but earned himself a one-hour time penalty for landing in a forbidden zone. That pushed him down into third. In the middle, and flying in mere seconds behind his brother, was Michi Maurer who took second. All three pilots took around 14hr45m to complete the 280km course around 23 turnpoints. Chrigel said good conditions meant the lead gaggle were able to fly much of the route. “Michael Maurer, Patrick von Känel, Sepp Inniger and I managed a nice lead, which we were able to hold over the three days. The route was super exciting and challenging because…

Greg Hamerton has been flying and teaching for 30 years. He is an instructor, reviewer and film maker. This year he competed in the X-Pyr again. He runs the Online Flight Academy for progressing pilots at flywithgreg.com A slope-landing is when you land across any steeply sloping terrain, usually on the face of a soaring site. It’s a good technique in an emergency, or if there are no safe landing alternatives. Also if you stop dropping out on a good day! But it can be risky, and leave you in a place that is hard to rescue you from. How do you do it right? Try to find a part of the hill that has a wind across it (at an angle), not perpendicular to it. Approach from the slow side…

There are few things that we do that are more elemental than breathing. It’s not something that we do consciously nor do most of us spend time thinking about it. And breathing is certainly not something that most people practise. However, let’s focus on three ways that we can use “ breathing practice and techniques to improve our daily lives – and even help while in the air. There are legions of books being written these days about breathing techniques and various schools of thought about their implementation. My goal here is to get you to try some breath work, and if you see results then dig into one of the more structured practices. Calming down Our first task is to look at how breathing can enhance our everyday life.…

“That’s a nifty idea,” I thought, pausing the Instagram story longer than usual to think and take a screenshot. “I wonder what the patent says.” Gin Gliders had just announced their Wave Leading Edge design, though it had appeared in numerous cameos for at least a year prior, notably on a few podiums. This was the first time I’d seen a patent number referenced, so I began to read. Some dozens of hours over a few weeks, and an hour-long 1am chat with Gin Seok Song, founder of Gin Gliders, later, I emerged from the legalese and ink drawings with excitement. For most of us, the imperatives of pilot knowledge and currency exceed the need to understand the wings we fly, just like we don’t need to understand how a…

This is the second incarnation of the Gracchio, an intermediate wing that is aimed at, “pilots looking to start cross-country. It’s not for pilots straight out of school, but those with 200 or so flights. Like a pure B wing.” A quick look at the specs shows this is a complete redesign rather than a slightly reworked version of the original. Little Cloud designer Tom Bordeau sent us two wings to try in the southern French Alps. Like a B, but not a B As with all Little Cloud wings the Gracchio Mk 2 only has a load test. Tom doesn’t feel the need to certify his wings, in fact he deliberately chooses not to. “In my opinion [certification] does not reveal the whole real-life situation,” he told us in…

My father used to take me tandem when I was little, often in the autumn when we went to Saint André-les-Alpes. When I was 14 I spent my afternoons groundhandling. At first my parents were a bit reluctant for me to fly, but when I was 18, in the summer of 2017, I learned with Pegase & Particule school in Allevard. The thing that most attracted me about learning to fly, is how easily you can travel long distances in the mountains, and the pleasure of discovering places from above. My father was my biggest influence in the beginning. I flew my first few flights with him. After that it was my friends from Annecy, who fly at a similar level to me. I enjoy other sports too: skiing, climbing,…

The Ozone Chabre Open came back with a bang in June after two years away. The fun comp, which was celebrating its 15th edition, attracted 120 pilots from around Europe and beyond and was heavily over-subscribed. Hosted by British team leader and SIV guru Jocky Sanderson, the competition – which is for EN A, B and C gliders only – saw mixed conditions, with three scored tasks and a couple of stopped tasks. As is often the way, those who had turned up a week early and those who stayed for the day after enjoyed 3,000m base and perfect skies! Steven Montfoort (Ozone Alpina 3) won the Overall competition, with Lisa Davis (Ozone Delta 4) first woman. Other winners included Matt Wilkes who was third overall (Rookies and Recreation class,…

Flying requires clear thinking as much as skilled handling. As Advance test pilot Sepp Inniger says, “Over 80% of flying is the brain and psychology. If I have a bad day and my brain isn’t ready, I can’t do anything.” In our new book, Are You Thinking Clearly? 29 Reasons You Aren’t, and What To Do About It, science writer Miriam Frankel and I explore the many internal and external factors that influence and manipulate the way we think and make decisions, from genetics to intuition and personality to marketing – even the microorganisms in our gut. As a paraglider pilot, I’ve discovered that many of the lessons can be applied to the psychology of free flight. Here are some easy-to-apply tips that could improve your thinking and help your…

Jonathan Bussard is a PhD student at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. A paraglider pilot for three years, he flies a Skywalk Masala 3 Eleven people died when a large slab of the Marmolada glacier broke off and collapsed into the Fassa Valley below on 3 July this year. The Sunday afternoon timing meant there were many hikers on the mountain and authorities used the unclaimed cars in the nearby car parks to help identify the missing over the next week. Incidents like this will become increasingly common, warns Jonathan Bussard, a paraglider pilot and PhD researcher at the University of Lausanne, who is studying the impact of changing mountain landscapes and climate on recreational activities. “It’s been a very dry winter, so…

The Nova Mentor 7 Light, released in March and with genes of Nova’s two-liner Xenon, is a “hybrid 2.5-liner” – a construction that is supposed to bring two-liner technology to the EN-B class. It means that there are no outer C-lines. The tips have only A and B attachment points, effectively making the tips a two-liner and the centre of the wing a three-liner. The compact bundle we received just before leaving on a trip through the Alps is, at 3.9 kg for the XS (up to 95kg take-off weight), even light enough for the occasional hike-and-fly. Even better is that the Mentor 7 Light looks, feels, handles and flies like a full-fat wing. There are no compromises of weight versus ease of handling such as softlinks or shoelace risers…