Innholdsfortegnelse for February / March 2023 i Cross Country

Two new sports class paragliding competition series have been launched for 2023, taking advantage of the new breed of two-line EN-C paragliders which are coming our way. The Sports-Class Racing Series (SRS) is being organised by British competition organiser Brett Janaway using the Airtribune competition platform, while the Paragliding Grand Prix is organised by Polish pilot Przemysław Czerwiński. Both competition series have adopted a similar concept, offering EN-B+ and EN-C pilots the chance to compete throughout 2023 in a series of European competitions. Both series have said they are trialling the concept for 2023 and might expand beyond Europe if things go well. Sports-Class Racing Series (SRS) “The idea for a sports-class racing series has been around for years, but it feels particularly timely with the birth of the two-line…

Whenever you fly, wherever you travel, you need to know about active flying – and apply what you know. So let’s cover it here. In smooth air, glider and pilot glide in unison. When you fly through turbulent air though, your wing can become disturbed, causing you to swing in an unbalanced way, which can expose you to greater risk of collapse and rapid height loss. You need to calm the movement so you fly in harmony again. This is active flying. Most wings are designed to recover by themselves, so why do you need to do anything? Paragliders are incredible aircraft, but a little corrective input can greatly improve their recovery time. Developing your active flying skills also allows you to reduce the movements and hugely improve your gliding…

It was 9pm and as an official photographer in the Red Bull X-Alps 2021, I was on the hunt for athletes in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps. The live tracking showed me that Tom de Dorlodot, after an exciting flight in windy conditions, was about to appear in front of me on the road. And so he did, deep in thought and without supporters, hiking alone through this empty landscape after a long day. We overtook him to take some pictures then my supporters dropped me off as I decided to run a few kilometres with Tom. As we did we talked about countless things – risk management, family, and his Search Project, which Tom started in 2008. The idea behind it still is to discover new flying areas…

We all know those moments when flying doesn’t seem real. Where you glide through three-dimensional space, absorb the environment and, in a certain way, make contact with it without touching it or leaving any trace. It is like being immersed in a dream – you are moving, but it’s other-worldly. It is my seventh visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina and finally I can see the large herds of wild horses on the plateau at Cincar Peak, in the Dinaric Alps in the west of the country. They gallop below me across the plain like it is the last free paradise on Earth. They are some of the last wild horses in Europe and, like bears, wolves and many other animals, they still find a home here. The people in this…

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France’s Timo Leonetti has had four paragliding records ratified for his 300km FAI triangle on 9 August last year. Flying from Col Izoard in the French Alps he claimed the Triangle Distance at 313.6km and Speed over a 300km Triangle (29.5km/h) world and European records. World record holder Sebastian Kayrouz meanwhile saw two of his record claims knocked back by the FAI in December. They refused to ratify his claim for world and North American records for “Distance via three turnpoints” for his 610km flight flown in June 2021. Having had his free distance (609.9km) and declared-distance-to-goal (556.8km) world and North American records successfully ratified in July, a CIVL/FAI review said a pilot can not claim more than four records for one flight. Seb said he was “very disappointed” and…

Tom de Dorlodot knows a thing or two about travelling and flying. A professional paraglider and paramotor pilot he has literally turned his passion for flying, adventure and travel into a career. He entered his first Red Bull X-Alps when he was 21, and has since travelled and flown in more than 60 countries around the world. He set up the Search Projects in 2011 to travel and fly remote areas, and has crossed Africa overland north to south, sailed the Pacific and Atlantic, and covered an estimated 13,000km during different vol-bivouac trips. Last year he was back in the Karakoram, where he has flown seven times over the last 12 years. At our Cross Country Subscribers’ Masterclass in November he shared some of what he knew. Here are some…

I learnt to fly in 2007 and 15 years of amazing experiences all over the world followed. My original intention was to get around the mountains in New Zealand, and to really explore these remote and often untracked areas. I discovered that not only were the scenic views too much to absorb, but the air itself added a unique dimension. Because the weather in New Zealand is so often too windy to fly, I felt I needed to maximise my experience and understanding of the weather so I could get the most out of every day. After many years this led me to develop weather-forecasting skills, which came in handy for the famous Red Bull X-Alps. Following my debut in that race in 2015 I enrolled to become a meteorologist,…

Mac Para’s previous mountain wing, the Outback, came in one size only but with a huge weight range. Its replacement, the Aravis, comes in six sizes covering weights from 55kg to 115kg. We took the 19m² XS into the mountains of the southern French Alps to try it in hike-and-fly and thermalling modes. The size issue Unrolling it, you quickly realise this is a much more sophisticated wing than the Outback. The cell count has gone up from 36 to 50 and the aspect has risen from 4.7 to 5.16. It looks like a higher performance wing. Those extra cells mean the weight has risen too: the original Outback came in one size, 21m², weighing 2.7kg; the Aravis in 21m² weighs 2.97kg. This is a bit heavier than some of…

Ozone won the unofficial manufacturers’ competition at the PWCA Super Final in Mexico, with eight out of the top 10 pilots flying a wing/harness combo of an Ozone Enzo 3 glider paired with a new Ozone Submarine harness. Only Women’s winner Constance Mettetal, who was flying a Niviuk Icepeak X-One paired with a Niviuk Drifter 2 harness, stopped it from being a clean sweep on the podium for Ozone. Super Final organisers said the competition had been “a real showcase” for new gear. “Submariness, Gin’s new leading edge, Kortel’s prototype harness and Niviuk’s Drifter 2.”…

“The Forbes comp is definitely going ahead. Steve, one of our tug pilots, was out at Forbes last week to prepare the airfield and he said there are already cracks in the ground!” Vicki Cain from Moyes in Australia was adamant that the Forbes Flatlands hang gliding competition would take place as planned from 18-27 January when we asked in December, just a month after Forbes had experienced its worst floods in 70 years. “We have a 50-acre property which is affectionately called BMI, Bill Moyes International,” Vicki said. “Steve took 13 hours to mow it as he said the grass was so long he had to go really slow.” The town of Forbes and the surrounding region in New South Wales saw record flooding in November. After an unusually…

August 2022. For almost a week summer had been delivering its most generous conditions, allowing some pilots to make 11-hour flights in the Haute-Savoie and Southern Alps. Every day the triangles got bigger and record-breaking performance became commonplace, if you follow the XContest news. But flights like that hide the reality – because they concern only a minority of pilots! For most of us, a day’s paragliding cannot be summed up in numbers. Although always breathtaking when they appear on the networks, they trivialise the exceptional, a drift of modern times that distorts reality. Today, therefore, we were going vol-bivouac on the crests of the Vercors Massif, to exploit the “pleasure hours”, those that would engrave themselves onto our memory. Clément Cruciani and I took what little we needed to…

My biggest goal in a season is to clock up as many hours in the air as possible. In a good year I can manage around 800 hours; in 2022 I was at almost 900. There is only one way to spend that amount of time in the air: you always need to be at the best flying spot possible. Chamonix in January/February If you want to log flights in winter in Europe there is no better place than Chamonix. The weather is usually fairly nice and Chamonix is protected from windy days due to the huge mountains surrounding the narrow valley, which makes it pretty reliable. Add to that the winter landing is just a three-minute walk from the cable car and the daily paragliding ticket is around €20…

Cape Verde sits 620km off the westernmost cape of Africa (go West from Dakar, Senegal), South from the Canaries. An archipelago of ten islands divided into two groups – Barlavento (Windward) in the north and Sotavento (Leeward) in the south, it’s a wild climate, dominated by the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone which fluctuates here, bringing rain or drought depending on the year and how far north the ITCZ reaches. It is also the birthplace of hurricanes: clashing fronts near Cape Verde generate hurricanes that travel west across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean and eastern coast of the United States. February is the coolest month, when temperatures dip to 20°C, in summer the rains come and temperatures rise into the 30°Cs. The wild climate offers some wild, unexplored but also…

The original Run&Fly was released three years ago, when it was the first production wing ever made that weighed under a kilo. Less than a kilo! As its name suggests, the low weight and tiny packing size was perfect for pilots who wanted to run with their wing, or mountain adventurers who wanted the lightest possible descent tool. Although it’s very niche, there are now specialist running-vest rucksacks on the market for those who genuinely want to go trail running with their single-skin wing (the K17 from Kortel we reviewed in XC236 is one), and we are sure to see more pilots crossing over between the sports. But the one group that has wholeheartedly welcomed the wing are high-altitude alpinists, for whom the low weight and compact size mean it…

Think compact as well as light. How small your equipment can pack is as important as how light it is, especially with limited luggage allowance. A well-packed travel wing can fit in the overhead locker on a flight, or under your seat on a bus. Bulky gear is a pain when you’re travelling long distance overland. Know before you go. Look ahead at where you are going and assess what sort of flying there is. Are you heading to an XC mecca or a beach? If you want to go XC then a lightweight pod paired with a standard sized light XC wing will be perfect. If you expect to be beach-soaring, then you can pack a string harness and a smaller glider. Think about wear and tear. Some of…