Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2023 i Cross Country

Hiking through the village fiddling with my phone, trying to get Google Maps to show me the way, a man asked if I was OK, did I need any help? I’d just landed and was keen to get back to fly again later that afternoon. “I can take you as far as I am going,” he said, “jump in the car.” It really was a jump because it was a high wheelbase Land Rover and well, you’ve sort of got to climb into those things. Safely inside he fired up the vehicle and off we set. It turned out he was a pilot too, of light aircraft, and had only last year spent his two-week holiday flying a Piper Cub (land anywhere) north from Italy to the Arctic Circle and…

Paragliding Worlds 2023 The FAI Paragliding World Championships comes to Chamoux Sur Gelon, France and promises to be huge. Some 150 pilots from 57 countries will vie for the title of World Champion in Overall, Women and Teams. Live tracking will bring the two-week long competition alive for spectators around the world. 20 May to 3 June, civlcomps.org PPG Slalom Worlds 2023 The FAI World Paramotor Slalom Championships will fly into Bornos, Spain for a week of high-G competition. The lake at Bornos in southern Spain is one of the world’s best spots for slalom paramotoring, having hosted numerous competitions. 10 countries will be competing for medals. 1-9 June, paramotorslalom.com SRS Gin Edition Round two of the new Sports-Class Racing Series heads to Montclar, France for a week of EN…

I started flying in 1982. First hang gliding, and then paragliding in 1983. My husband Hans-Peter started in 1978 and I had to retrieve him when he was flying XC. After some years I thought, “OK, if I don’t want to be the taxi driver I have to start!” We opened a flying school together. That was 1986 in Stubai, Austria. Since then I have taught around 200 pilots a year, mainly German, Austrian and Dutch. So let’s say more than 6,000. Flying is not just a sport. It’s also emotions, you are involved in nature, you are outdoors, you meet nice people. For me it is more a lifestyle, not just a sport. I always told my daughters that they did not have to fly. But they saw I…

25 YEARS AGO XC57 (June 1998): Bruce Goldsmith was writing about flying and thunderstorms, including the infamous 1989 Lake Como accident when several pilots died on the same day. “Since then thunderstorm flying has been regarded as lunacy.” Finishing, he added: “There is one story I must tell. A Spanish hang glider pilot had a lot of parachutist friends. One evening in a bar they were discussing freefall and showed him the freefall position. The very next day he got sucked into a cu-nim. At 5,000m, going higher, he calmly took his altimeter from the upright, stood up in the frame, unclipped and jumped. He stabilised in the freefall position he had learnt in the pub and, when the altimeter showed 1,000m, he pulled his reserve. Luckily it opened and…

This year marks my 14th season competing in acro paragliding and my 11th in the Acro World Tour. It is safe to say I am heavily invested in the scene. However, if acro in general has been getting more popular over those years, the same cannot be said for our competition scene. In fact, the competition scene has been slowly dying. Each year it has been getting tougher to find organisers willing to organise our competitions. And each year the events we have been going to, although organised by marvellous people, have been further away from the paragliding scene. Often we have used sites that are not usually used by pilots just because we need to be above water. In addition, beginner pilots who were interested in coming to our…

If you wanted to drop in to the newly re-opened and renovated five-star Maybourne Riviera, formerly known as the Vista Palace, in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin then you’d be better off walking through the front door – flying within 100m of this luxury hotel above Monaco is very much interdit. A long lens makes it look like tandem pilot Valentin Gilet from Azur Parapente is about to park his BGD Dual 2 by the hotel pool. This ultra-modern hotel sits high above the principality of Monaco, with views across the Mediterranean. Bought for €30.5m in 2014 by the former Emir of Qatar it has reportedly had more than €100m spent on it since. There are 45 rooms, including 24 suites, some with private infinity pools. But who needs an infinity pool when you…

Flow have not had an easy time of it since deciding to “go global” at the start of 2018. Set up by Brazilian/Australian designer Felipe Rezende, Flow’s first wing was the Yoti, a miniwing launched in 2016. At the time Felipe was still funding paraglider design and development from his day job working in surfing and kitesurfing. Architecture training, a love for “flow” sports (swimming, surfing, kiting, free flight) and an understanding of fluid dynamics led him to start toying with designing paragliders in the early 2010s, until eventually he bit the bullet and formally set up Flow Paragliders – the “first Australian paraglider manufacturer”. After the Yoti, Flow released the XC Racer (EN D) and Spectra (CCC), before releasing the Fusion (EN C) and the Freedom (EN B). Felipe…

This was a very much anticipated instrument, having been preannounced back in 2019. The forums lit up with chat about the new dual-screen design and the expected cost. Last year the first units were shipped to customers, and I was able to get my hands on one to fly in a couple of competitions during the summer. Firmware updates were coming thick and fast. Now that the instrument has matured a bit, what is it like to fly with? Out of the box The Live DS is Flymaster’s flagship model. It was the first to adopt the new architecture that has now been used to create Flymaster’s “M” series of instruments. It is an all-in-one instrument that brings all the competition and navigation functionality of the original Flymaster Live SD…

François Ragloski is a former FAI Acro World Champion (2016) and an accomplished adventure pilot – in 2021 he flew to 8,225m in Pakistan and last year spent two months in the Himalaya travelling from Tajikistan to eastern Nepal, see p52. Plus, explore his tracklogs at syride.com/en/team Bastienne Wentzel is editor of the Dutch Association’s free-flight magazine Lift and author of Paragliding: The Beginner’s Guide. She and partner Erwin Voogt were out in Bassano, Italy for early-season thermals and glider testing. This issue she has been flying Gin’s new Evora – p72 Théo de Blic is a regular columnist in these pages and famous across social media for his non-stop output. “I have no idea how to write a magazine feature,” he said when he came back from Socotra with Team Nova. Um,…

The Red Bull X-Alps has introduced a new “red card” rule in an effort to rule out unsporting behaviour or dangerous flying in this year’s competition. Announced on 13 April, just two months before the start, race organisers said the goal of this and two other rule changes was to “make the race safer”. The rules now state that the race committee, which this year includes DHV examiner Ferdinand Vogel as race director, “reserves the right” to give penalties and even disqualify a pilot “immediately” if they “act irresponsibly towards their own safety, towards others, the event organisation or sponsors, or bring the sport into disrepute.” In addition, “reckless, excessively risky and unsafe behaviour, such as, but not limited to, flying in clouds or reckless launches and landings will be…

For hang gliding racing, I use the tried-and-tested Flytec 6030. It’s a little different from paragliding instruments as it includes a Pitot tube ASI, MacCready speed-to-fly indicator and a fairly optimistic polar. All these are useful for the 17:1 glides and higher speeds we fly at. My 6030 has three screens: start, task, and goal. They all show my vario dial readout with average climb over 20 seconds, plus altitude ASL, a compass, and wind direction. A black arrow shows the next turnpoint – I like the simplicity. On the right is the MacCready speed-to-fly overlay with airspeed. I actually rarely use this. For me it’s all in the feel. And usually it’s telling me to slow down, a lot! Screen 1: The Start Getting the perfect start can be…

Imagine having to charge your GPS, but there’s no power. It sucks, right? Now imagine trying to organise an XC competition and not being able to buy fuel for the retrieve vehicles whenever you need. You can only fill up the tank once a week, but fortunately, you have contacts and they let you buy gas when you need to. Does it sound crazy? Well, that’s what it’s like to live and fly in Venezuela. In 2016, I left Venezuela to escape the complicated political and social situation and moved to France. I hadn’t been back to my home country since then, but earlier this year, I decided to go and visit. In seven years I’ve gotten used to the comfortable European life where problems like widespread criminality, food and…

Why are spring conditions so bouncy? Multiple reasons – and it’s not just because most of us have not had much flying in winter and have a lower bump tolerance. “Bounce” is turbulence, mostly due to strong thermals or a combination of wind and thermals. It is worth looking at spring soaring conditions through a lens of various meteorological principles. These include length of day, sun angle, heating rate, frontal passage, cold air advection, lapse rate, thermal strength, and wind strength. It is also important to consider the amount of snow cover in the higher mountains and its effects on the formation of a regional heat low and resultant valley winds. Cold air advection From the perspective of day length and high-noon sun angle, spring is just like summer but…

IN BRIEF Advanced Paragliding digital Advanced Paragliding by Cloudbase Mayhem host Gavin McClurg is now available in digital format. Split into three volumes for Kindle, it’s packed with insight from some of the very best paraglider pilots in the sport. xcmag.com/shop Dudek Duralight 2023 This super-light rucksack is made to fit hike-and-fly kit, and tailored for Dudek’s Techno 2023 light pod harness. Available in 65, 75 and 85l versions it weighs 450g in the 65, complete with pole and helmet attachment systems. dudek.eu Flow Mullet Flow say the Mullet flies like a hang glider, in that the angle of attack can be changed by moving the brake handles up or down. “Diving, swooping and converting that energy back to height are all part of the fun with this glider”. flowparagliders.com.au…

The Altirando Lite 2 is the updated version of Supair’s lightweight reversible harness and rucksack. It’s a versatile all-mod-cons harness with a self-inflating airbag protector and a built-in reserve, for hike-and-fly and everyday flying. I flew the original back in 2020, and commented in my review that the rucksack was a bit on the small side – it could fit a full kit, but you had to pack neatly and it was a bit of a squeeze. The rucksack on this new 2023 version is now taller and has a roll-top closure, which means it is expandable. There was plenty of room for my light XS glider, helmet, instruments, clothes and camera, and still some room left in the top for extras. For hike-and-fly, with no camera or instruments and…

I’ve flown with my Charly No Limit full face helmet since 2012. It’s just such a good helmet, and I’ve enjoyed hundreds of hours of flying with it. The latest lid from the German brand is the EN966 certified Vitesse design. It’s marketed as a hike-and-fly design but actually it’s a solid lightweight all rounder. I won’t be replacing my No Limits for XC flying, but the Vitesse has been really enjoyable for smaller adventures, and will stay in my kit cupboard. Lightweight build My small/medium size checked in at 430g including visor. This is a tad more than the 340g marketed for the smallest version, but Charly are an honest brand, and a correct weight of 390g without visor was printed inside my helmet label. The weight is comparable…

The spring season in Bir/Billing saw some huge flights in April, with Austria’s Philipp Zellner flying two huge FAI triangles through the big mountains behind the site. On 9 April he got the ball rolling with a 235km FAI triangle that lasted eight hours and saw him flying at up to 5,700m. Starting in Bir he flew “over the back” towards Manali, before continuing on to a turnpoint in the Solang Valley. Coming back south he cruised through the mountains way above 5,000m before gliding towards his second turnpoint in Mandi on the front of the range. His third turnpoint was out west, beyond Dharamsala. He closed his flight by returning to his take-off at Bir/Billing. Five days later he was back, repeating the route and extending the turnpoints north…

Peter ‘Jodok’ Joder died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the end of last year, aged 71. A busy entrepreneur who was committed to free flight and light aviation all his life, in 1983 he co-founded Flytec with co-owners Lorenz Camenzind and Alois Sigrist. An electronics engineer and hang glider pilot, he was not enthusiastic about the flight instruments then available. He decided to develop and produce his own, with the goal of becoming the world’s leading supplier of sophisticated electronics in free flight. The company’s slogan set the tone: “High precision and high-quality flight instruments made in Switzerland.” The Flytec name went on to become a byword for the highest accuracy, reliability and technical innovation among paraglider, hang-glider and balloon pilots all over the world. In 1999 round-the-world balloonists…

“You are the pilot in command.” This is the key mantra whenever we fly. But we’re not the only variable in the system. While we (hopefully) can control when we turn, how much brake we apply or whether we land or carry on, many other factors are at play – from the weather and terrain to other pilots. We must respond to these variables to fly safely and well. The same is true for how we make decisions. We might assume we’re the ‘pilot in command’ of our minds, but the truth is more complex. As Miriam Frankel and I explored in our book, Are You Thinking Clearly? 29 Reasons You Aren’t and What To Do About It, our thoughts and choices are influenced and manipulated by dozens of factors,…

A few years back, paramotorist and virtual reality star Rob Catto lured me back into writing software – flight dynamics for his paramotor simulator. That eventually led to developing autoflight for my company Reaction Simulation’s 737 Simulator, which got me thinking: what about automating paramotor trike launching? Could it be done? Software would use “fly-by-wire” controls, sensors, and actuators to tame the challenging inflation, throttle use, and steering. Physical controls would remain as a backup and new pilots could learn from the automation. Electronic controls would behave like regular controls with actuators doing the work through bungees or clutches. That way the pilot could still override the computer. For example, pilots would pull spring-loaded draw-wire sensors for brakes while linear actuators actually do the pulling. For new pilots, it could help…

The “easy B” class is crowded nowadays. New pilots and those who wish to fly for fun and keep things super simple often look for easy intermediates. Launched at the start of this year the Gin Evora is the latest member of this class. It is designed to be “undemanding for relatively inexperienced pilots, yet at the same time offer more than enough performance for the category” say Gin. To see what it has to offer I flew the Evora for a week in the fresh spring thermals at hotspot Bassano del Grappa in northern Italy. First impressions Unboxing the Evora the first thing that popped to mind was that it was a small package which didn’t feel heavy at all. The XS size I flew weighs 4.5kg, which is…

It’s no secret that AirDesign’s Sock shares its base with the Little Cloud Grasshopper Mk2 that I reviewed in the last issue. AirDesign’s French office saw Little Cloud designer Tom Bordeau’s prototype, liked what they saw and agreed a cooperation where they would help with production in return for being able to use the base of the harness. I had both the Sock and the Grasshopper at the same time to compare. First look The first obvious difference between the two harnesses is the colour. While Little Cloud’s Grasshopper is vibrant green, AirDesign’s Sock is subtle grey with a coloured fairing. The colour depends on the size: large is green; medium blue; small red. Like the Grasshopper, the Sock is a hammock-style harness with two leg-loops sewn into the seat…

What were your early days like? Some of my most special experiences with flying were at home in the early days. I started in 1999 and I was lucky to survive some of the crazy urban missions in Caracas. In those illiterate days, flying felt like skateboarding. We’d take off from a private garden surrounded by buildings and power lines, land on the small roof of our house, or stop the traffic so our friends could land in the main street. Those were the days that inspired me to learn a bit more so I could survive this crazy addiction. I miss those early days – but not how much luck was involved in them! What keeps you flying? I keep flying because it reminds me, all the time, that…