Innholdsfortegnelse for June / July 2024 i Cross Country

Sometimes we have to wait for our fun. It might be until the wind calms down enough for us to launch, or for the rain to stop falling. It might be for the weather to pass, which can take a day or two, or three. It might be for a week, a month, or a year – “I’m getting married in September” – or it might be 15 years – “once the kids are out of school”. You can spend a long time waiting for circumstances, money, time, people, places and weather to line up. When it does, you better be ready! I was thinking about the amount of para-waiting we do in this sport when I read Gavin McClurg’s column this issue about flying in the Paragliding World Cup…

Julien Wirtz (FR) won the PWC Grindelwald-Interlaken in May, ahead of Seb Ospina (GB) and Chrigel Maurer (CH). Violeta Jimenez topped an all-USA women’s podium with Alexia Fischer and Jenny O’Neil in second and third. Poor conditions at the start of the week gave way to better and better racing weather as the week went on, with conditions and scenery prompting pilots to describe the event as “a PWC to remember!” The week started with a 32km task set in “unpromising” grey, low-cloud conditions. Things got more hopeful as window-closed time approached, and in the end 44 happy and slightly surprised pilots made goal. The next day’s task was cancelled, but the last three days saw good conditions and racing tasks of 60km, 120km and 111km in terrain that Seb…

“Undoubtedly my favourite flying event of the year”, as one regular put it – the North South Cup, an annual weekend battle between the UK’s northerners and southerners, was held in Glencoe, Scotland in May. After three tasks in the spectacular Highlands, the northerners triumphed, with team captain Jocky Sanderson lifting the trophy from the south’s Jim Mallinson. With pins and string on maps replacing trackers and leaderboards, the event is less about the individual and more about the collective. It’s an optimism-fuelled dash to wherever the forecast looks best, gathering with like-minded souls, flying and knocking back whatever’s behind the bar before doing it all again the next day.…

I’m a mountaineering instructor, first and foremost. The passion for mountains comes from Mum and Dad. They’re both in their 70s but they’re out right now, walking the coast-to-coast. I started out hill walking but once I learned to drive, I was able to go rock climbing and it went on from there. I’ve been running the mountaineering business for 22 years, taking people climbing and mountaineering. Then, in about 2013, the climbing company Mammut made a film on the Trango Towers in the Karakoram where they used a drone to film two climbers. I thought it was amazing. So, I bought a drone and started filming some of the stuff I was doing with my clients. This was about 10 years ago, in the days when you had to…

‘Your brain is not a computer’ Brains are not computers, and we are over-complicating matters by saying that paragliding is a “mental game”. That’s the take of Julien Garcia, French national coach – and he bases it on the observations of what has led to success in the past few years for the French. In the previous articles in this series we have already covered the importance of respecting a pilot’s history and personality in shaping their approach to flying, and the fact that there is no one ‘right’ way to fly. There is nothing wrong with a pilot sticking with the gaggle, nor another pilot relentlessly driving the group on in an attempt to shed the weaker climbers – both can work, when flown consistently. Now we’re going to…

The EN and LTF test procedure In addition to the integrity and safety of a harness (how strong the structure is and which safety measures are in place) an important part of the EN and LTF certification for harnesses is the impact pad test. This test establishes the damping of the protector by measuring deceleration (in multiples of g, the gravitational acceleration) versus time. For most harnesses, the test results are available at Air Turquoise (para-test.com) or DHV (dhv.de/db1/technicsearchpage.php?lang=EN). The test is done with a 50kg dummy: a torso without legs, arms or head. The dummy is strapped into the harness as usual. The harness is reclined about 20° backwards to simulate a flying position. Then the ‘pilot’ and harness are hoisted up to 165cm (5ft 5 inches) above a…

What’s your earliest flying memory? Other than the flying dreams many of us have, it would be with my Dad. Holding his hand while he was flying a line-controlled model aircraft round and round, both of us getting pretty dizzy. My first time leaving the planet was in a Cessna 150 in Dad’s hometown in Georgia while a five-dollar first flight promotion was running. I was a very lucky kid. What does flying mean to you now? It has always been my obsession, my career and my life. I value flying, friendship and family on an equal level, but that’s about it. I’m not active politically and I don’t believe in deity. I was very involved with the homebuilt light aeroplane kit business then the microlight industry for 35 years…

Records fell like rain in France on 23 April, when the top tier of French paragliding went flatland flying. Around 30 pilots headed to Jeufosse, northwest of Paris, on the strength of a classic post cold-front spring forecast and set off south. Ten hours later six of them had landed together in the same field after 460km, while others set Junior and European records. France’s team leader Julien Garcia (see also p84) was one of the six pilots who flew the furthest. Julien, this was a massive day. How did you spot it? Maxime Pinot had been watching the weather since Friday. He told me, “The weather will be rubbish in the Alps. Let’s go north.” I was a little bit sceptical, because of the organisation required, and also because…

Arthur Moindrot (FR, Ozone Zeolite 2) won the 2024 edition of Bornes to Fly. He finished what was his first supported hike-and-fly competition on the morning of day two, just ahead of new hike-and-fly world record holder Tanguy Renaud-Goud (FR, Niviuk Klimber 3 P). Although a newcomer to hike-and-fly competitions Arthur has been flying since he was a child and flew his first XC flight when he was just 11 years old. A former student at France’s Pole Espoir Vol Libre in Font-Romeu he was a championship gymnast as a teenager but is now focusing on flying full time. Bornes to Fly is an annual three-day hike-and-fly race which takes part in the Bornes, Aravis and Bauges ranges of the French Alps, north and south of the Annecy region. The…

When we’re looking ahead to good days, we usually mainly focus on the height of cloudbase and the strength of the thermals, and we concentrate most of our energies on looking at lapse rates and the quality of the air mass. However, soil moisture levels are critical – and often ignored. Indeed, they’re one of the most important factors for thermal structure and strength, but the nuances of how soil moisture varies across different terrain is often overlooked, meaning our forecasting is far from accurate. Why it’s critical Let’s think about why soil moisture content is so critical. As we know, thermals are created by solar radiation heating the ground. However, we need to also account for how much energy is ‘lost’ as moisture evaporates out of the soil. Of…

Col de l’Izoard, 19 August 2023. What to say? Where to start? How to be concise? (Spoiler: brevity is not my strong point.) It was Fabi Buhl who shed a new light on the Col de l’Izoard (Queyras, Southern French Alps) two years ago and it is from this now legendary take-off that several 300km FAI triangles have now been flown, notably in the bag of Edouard Potel. Of course it’s tempting. In 2022, I didn’t have the opportunity nor the energy to go there, so I put the idea on the back burner. But then came 2023, a new XC season and new energy. Unfortunately, with a persistent west wind the site remained a no-go for a long time. And then, miraculously, in the second week of August, flights…

I’m feeling nervous. Conditions are top-end and I know as soon as the sun hits the huge southerly cliffs the unstable spring air will come alive. I’m nervous about flying and I’m nervous at the alternative, a steep pathless descent over rock and heather, possibly in the rain, right back to the beach. Ben Mor Coigach is a huge coastal mountain with a commanding presence on the shore of Loch Broom in the far northwest of the Scottish Highlands. At its western end the cliffs fall dramatically into the sea, losing 700m in a kilometre. Because the summit falls slightly below the 2,500ft mark, the mountain fails to achieve the much-coveted “Corbett” status, a list of popular hills which walkers collect. As such, it is much less frequented than it…

The Woody Valley Race Pro was developed exclusively for the Red Bull X-Alps 2023 and was flown by three pilots: Eli Egger, Ondre Prochazka and Aaron Durogati. An ultralight competition harness for adventure racing it weighed just 1.12kg. When it was revealed ahead of the race, Woody Valley said a serial version would be released shortly after the race. It took a little longer, but just before Christmas Woody Valley announced the new Race would be available in the new year. Weighing in at 1.8kg for the smallest size, it is pitched as a “super light” harness born from the Race Pro and aimed at hike-and-fly, vol-bivouac and XC pilots alike. Available in four sizes, with a choice of two different types of back protection – half-rigid or inflatable –…

There are some unique features of the British scene. The weather of course; the mix of flatlands, coastal and mountain flying. But there is one thing every site boasts – and it’s a man, always a man, usually someone who’s been flying decades – proudly sporting their trusty one-piece flying suit. They may be a retro throwback and easy to mock, but at least they’re designed for the job. Like most pilots, I wear a mishmash of mountaineering and outdoor gear; hiking pants, ski gloves and a down jacket with a hood that’s designed to go over a helmet – and loves to flap around, catching lines on launch. Why don’t we have more clothing purposefully designed for our sport? And so we come to the Salewa Fly Jacket, released…

The biggest paramotor fly-in in the USA saw 347 pilots converge on Hodges Field in Georgia in May. “I’ve had the pleasure of attending lots of fly-ins around the world, and I can honestly say Bad Apples is on a global scale,” said Parajet’s Tom Prideaux-Brune. “We don’t have anything like this in Europe,” added Ozone Power’s Emilia Plak. The team at Vittorazi could not have been more positive: “Bad Apples 2024 was an edition full of twists and turns. We had a tornado threat and a 24-hour storm, then stunning Northern Lights and afterwards hundreds of pilots celebrating their shared passion for flying. What a fantastic edition!” They added: “It’s not just an event, it’s a celebration of the positive values of the paramotor community, growing each year in…

The Northern Lights made a rare appearance at the eighth Dragon Hike-and-Fly in Wales, which was won by Dougie Swanson-Low. He came first among 58 pilots in what was the UK’s first FAI Cat 2 hike-and-fly competition. Jack Sheard reports The queue for registration flowed directly into the queue for bacon sandwiches at the start of the Dragon Hike-and-Fly race, which took place in Wales over the weekend of 11-12 May. But, there was a sense of apprehension beneath the fun atmosphere. Last year’s winner, Tom Hodgkin kept his tactics secret but his intention was clear: “It’s going to be a tough race,” he said. “No one’s won it twice, but we’ll see.” The route was approximately 60km through the steep hills and ridges of the Brecon Beacons National Park…

Learning to control your glider on the ground and all the way through the launch phase will give you huge confidence. But it’s not something many of us focus on, and in fact lots of us are pretty poor at it. In the worst-case scenario it means you can miss out on a great day’s flying because you can’t manage your wing in the conditions on the day, or you might even injure yourself or others. Fortunately, good launch technique, whatever the conditions or situation, can be learnt. Here are some key pointers on how to do just that. 1. Change your centre of gravity One of the simplest ways to give yourself more control over your glider while you are on the ground is to get into the habit…

Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa are the two largest lakes in a north-south chain of mountain lakes in North Macedonia, close to the border with Albania. Formed around six million years ago Lake Ohrid is is one of the oldest lakes in the world, and the deepest lake in the Balkans at 288m. Unlike most lakes in the world, it never fills up with sediment – tectonic shifting means it just continues to get deeper. Sitting at around 700m on the mountainous border its unique ecosystem supports more than 200 species. The launch at Lake Ohrid is grassy and easy and lies just off the road at 1,600m, between Lake Ohrid and Prespa. Landing is 900m lower by the lake. The west-facing slope has a steep rocky face which can…

The hill: Ben Mor Coigach (743m) Where is it: Approximately 15km north of Ullapool, Scotland The hike: Three approaches are possible. From the west the walk from Culnacraig on the Loch Broom coast is the shortest and most direct, but requires a long drive. From the east near Drumrunie is probably most popular with hill walkers. We approached from the south, starting at Blughasary. This is not the most scenic walk, but it gave us the best option for landing by our car. Note the last section of public road is not suitable for any vehicle larger than a VW camper! Any walk to take-off is physically challenging and mostly pathless, with some steep scrambling over rocks (use of hands). The approach from the east up Speicein Coinnich has a very…

My kit felt super light with this harness. It’s 1.5kg lighter than my Woody Valley GTO Light 2 and you could really feel it on the carry up. My wing is less than 3.5kg so the whole pack was 6 or 7kg. Brilliant! The harness folds down easily too. However, the test harness had the semi-rigid PRS protector, which is lighter than the inflatable version, but bulkier when packed and I couldn’t fit both my wing and harness into the 65l Alaska bag we were sent. My friend Brian, who also flew the harness, was not a fan of the semi-rigid protector. “I didn’t really like the look of it,” he said. “It doesn’t compress like a normal bump-air and so that meant I had two concerns: crash impact and…