Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i Cross Country

“Faster, higher, stronger.” The motto for the Olympic Games has inspired people around the world for decades, so it was a real surprise and a joy to see the Olympic flame embarking on a paragliding adventure as it made its way through France in June. On its way to Paris for the opening of the Games the flame was flown from the summit of the Aiguille du Midi by local paragliding legend Sandie Cochepain. A chain of sports people in official red jackets helped carry the flame down the precarious Aiguille du Midi arête and then, we can presume, stood around stamping their feet and waiting for the wind to be just right so Sandie could launch and the flame could take to the air. Chapeau Sandie! Faster, higher, stronger…

Amir Ghasemnejad set what we think has to be a new unofficial world record for distance flown on an EN-A paraglider on 2 July when he flew 317.89km straight line in Iran. The flight was the best of the day on XContest and was flown on a Skywalk Mescal 6 (aspect ratio 4.8). Amir just went for it, staying in the air for eight hours and averaging 40km/h as cloudbase rose to 5,000m – his high point was 5,427m late in the afternoon before he started his long glide to the deck. He was one of a dozen pilots who flew more than 200km from Kerend Gharb, a site in the west of Iran; five of them made it past the 300km mark. In the States, Mitch Riley (Ozone Enzo…

I was born in 1999 and had my first solo flight at 11 years old. Before that, I had my first tandem flight, with my father, when I was eight. He was managing a paragliding school in Korea so I tried the tandem. It was an awesome feeling when I first tried it. At the time I thought, when I grow up, I really want to do this. When I was 11 I was still small so I couldn’t fly most of the gliders because of my body weight. But, eventually my father found a small glider and I was able to have my first flight. I needed a beginner glider, but there weren’t many that had the XXS, but the Ozone Element did, so I chose that. Later I…

25 YEARS AGO XC63 (June/July 1999): “Goa is an oasis state in the bedlam of chaotic India,” wrote Peter Groundsell in a 16-page India travel special. “The tiny northern village of Arable is a quiet and laid-back place (unlike the party town of Arjuna just up the road) with a beach, cliffs and a couple of shops and restaurants. The locals basically give their rooms to you. I managed to find a small house with a balcony for $1 a day, 300 metres from the beach. “The cliffs rise 80m above the beach and are 600m long. In winter it’s possible to fly virtually every day: top-landings, touch-and-go, tree-shaping, wing touching and whatever else you can think of doing in the safety of a sea breeze. “Nightlife is pretty quiet…

The art of flying fast is both nuanced and complex – it’s definitely not just about gliding as fast as we can. And having recently taken up gliding, I’ve been working hard this summer to increase my average speed in order to crack my 500km flight. Along the way, I’ve been lucky enough to talk with several glider pilots in my local club, and also go on a coaching week. And there’s lots we can learn from glider pilots when it comes to increasing our efficiency as paraglider pilots. In a recent issue, Baptiste Lambert gave some fascinating insights into how efficiency and tactics translates into the kind of speeds needed to break paragliding world records. He explained how efficiency means doing different things in different situations. It may indeed…

What is the best wing? There are so many wings available on the market today and even more opinions on which wing is the best. The best glider out there is the one suited to your own skill level and flying style. The vast number of wings available is great for us pilots as it keeps prices competitive and drives technology. This can, however, make it very difficult to choose a new wing. Who do you ask? Most will say to listen to your instructor, and this is the best advice, but it does come with a caveat. Your instructor will have seen you training and will know what wing suits your level, but some instructors may also select your wing based solely on the wings they stock. With this…

Colloquially, the new innovative thin protectors in paragliding harnesses are all called honeycombs, while strictly speaking only fused hexagonal tubes are real honeycomb structures. These are well known and widely used in the aerospace industry as impact absorbers in aeroplanes, helicopters and on re-entry devices. Most honeycomb impact-absorbing pads are made from metals or polymers and are very efficient at absorbing energy, especially when loaded axially (from the top or bottom). When loaded laterally (sideways), the energy absorption is lower. These new materials used in paragliding protectors work similarly. Koroyd The company Koroyd was founded in 2010 after years of research into a honeycomb structure of fused straws from polymers like polypropylene. The patent for the material itself, developed for body-protecting devices, is from 2004 and Koroyd is now in…

The total amount of energy that a honeycomb material can absorb is much higher at a given thickness than for foam or air, because of the crumpling. This is called efficiency. The efficiency of a given protector pad can be measured in g’s per centimetre using the EN-test values. More g’s per centimetre means that a protector can be thinner while still absorbing the same amount of energy. For foam protectors and inflatables this number is between 1.5 and 2.5. Honeycomb structures are of a different league: their efficiency is between 4 and 8g per cm. Honeycomb materials feel hard because they require exactly the same force to crumple whether they are a bit deformed or a lot (up to 80%). On the other hand, foam and air don’t require…

How did you get into flying? It was 1993. I was 15, and I signed up with a group of friends on a one-week course at the small hill site of Raná u Loun. My instructor knew how to soar… and I think he had heard about thermals. I was so excited by running up and sledding down that slope that it ended my passion for whitewater kayaking. What’s your earliest flying memory? Lots of walking up hills! It was real sport to learn paragliding! What got you hooked? About a year after the course, I went for my first competition in Slovakia. I found my first thermal and flew 12km. It was great success. I started to be a competitor forever. My main problem was navigation and photo evidence.…

Adi Geisegger doesn’t pause long in between travels during the flying season, but this year he fulfilled a long-held ambition to fly Castelluccio in early summer, just as the wildflowers in the valley start to bloom. A pro photographer and hike-and-fly fanatic, this ws a perfect trip, he said. Join him, p62 Bastienne Wentzel is a science journalist and writer so has the perfect background to go on a deep dive into harnesses and back protection. Having explored the basics of back protection last issue, this issue she takes a look at the low-profile honeycomb protectors on the market. It’s quite a buzz – p100 Jack Sheard and Henry George headed to Mungyeong in South Korea to cover the FAI Asian-Oceanic Paragliding Championships for this issue. They were both on hand when Vietnam’s…

Timo Leonetti was one of the brightest young stars in the international paragliding scene. Only four years ago, aged just 17, he shot to attention in the international free-flight world when he flew six 400km flights in one season in Brazil. Launching by tow from Assú, his longest flight was 459km and was flown on 8 November 2020. Flown early in the XContest season, which runs from October to October, it put him at the top of the XContest leaderboard – where he stayed for the rest of the year. Those big flights were enough for him to win the 2021 Serial Class competition and put him in second place overall. It was a remarkable debut for such a young pilot. The big numbers in Brazil don’t do justice to…

Abel, wow, you’re tall – how tall are you? Nearly two metres! (Six foot six). And you are the new Hungarian record holder. Tell us about the record. How far is it? It was 330 kilometres from Szeged to Sopron, from border to border. And what was special about the day? Did you see it as a record day or you thought, “Oh, I’ll just go flying?” I think the second option. We saw the wind direction would let us fly that far. On an earlier day we tried the same route, but it didn’t work as well. So we had a chance and it worked out well. You tow-launched. What’s the set-up like? Yes we tow-launched, it’s flatland flying. It is a small operation at Szeged Airport. The guy…

The Olympic flame took flight above Chamonix on 23 June, on its way to Paris for the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games on 26 July. It was carried by paragliding legend Sandie Cochepain, who flew it from the Aiguille du Midi to the Chamonix valley on a Skywalk Masala 4 XXS mountain glider. The day’s events saw the flame pass through many pairs of hands, athletes from various disiplines from skiers, ski-alpinists, highliners and climbers. A 24-strong team of Winter Olympic and Paralympic stars formed a roped team that descended the ridge from the Aiguille du Midi station at 3,800m, passing the torch between them as they went. The event was filmed by alpinist and cameraman Bertrand Delapierre. (Watch the film at xcmag. info/OlympicFlame). The filming of all the…

You’ve got to roll with it here if you want to fly with a view of the deep water and strong tides of the English Channel and the vertical white chalk cliffs of this dramatic coastline. The site is the White Cliff at Ballard Down on England’s south coast, looking towards the chalk stacks known as Old Harry’s Rocks. It’s a soaring site with top-landing only – the wind has got to be on. The area is known as the Jurassic Coast, a 150km stretch of coastline in the counties of Devon and Dorset. The entire stretch is designated a Unesco World Heritage Site for its outstanding rocks and fossils that can be found. A busy place in summer you’ll find hiking, coasteering, rock climbing, sea-kayaking and sailing all within…

I started to question why I’d been handed this assignment as the plane concluded its 12-hor flight from London to Seoul. Apart from a few trips to European flying events, I’m less travelled than I’d like to admit. Asia was an exciting new culture for me and international FAI competitions were far outside my comfort zone as a hike-and-fly pilot and speed flyer. There was a lot to learn in so many ways. The competition was held in Mungyeong, a three-hour drive from Seoul Incheon airport. As I left the city, the landscape gave way to pointed hills covered top to bottom in trees. Islands of high-rise buildings were dotted in densely packed concrete forests, separated by rice paddies on the flat valley floor. It was about 7pm local time…

GIN CALYPSO 2 Gin have updated their lightweight B. The Calypso 2 is for “leisure and progressing pilots who travel, hike and fly XC”. Available in five sizes from XXS (21m² for 55-75kg) to L (28.7m² for 95-115-120kg) it weighs 3.22kg in the XXS with Dyneema risers, or 3.4kg with standard. Gin say it is one of the easiest gliders in their range to launch and has precise and progressive brake pressure with coherent, controlled feedback. It is made from 27g/m², 32g/m² and 34g/m² Porcher cloths and has sheathed lines for ease of use and durability, and nitinol rods. gingliders.com SOL SYCROSS 3 Sol’s Sycross 3 is an EN-B “with EN-C performance”, aimed at cross-country pilots. Sol say this version has optimised cell tensions and lower-drag stabilos. By combining 29,…

I have been working for paragliding companies for years now and I have a pretty good understanding and knowledge of how our wings are made. So here I will try to explain this process in 10 steps. Step one At the very beginning there are two options. The first is the most common: the brand has an existing glider, for example Nova’s Ion 6, and it needs to be updated. This is the easiest and the most complicated situation because you have a base to work on, you know what people liked, what people disliked and you want to improve your wing, whether it’s performance (most common) or safety, handling wise. So you create a new project with a clear idea of what you want. The difficulty then is that you…

Hang Gliding Back to Back Laragne in France sees two of the biggest hang gliding competitions of the season run back to back, The French and then British Championships are from 3-10 and 11-17 August civlcomps.org PPG Endurance Worlds The paramotor world will converge on Kent in England for the first World Paramotor Endurance Championships in August. A new event, the competition is based on classic paramotor competition tasks, but with a focus on distance and hours in the air – thus maximising the time comp pilots get to fly. The plan is pilots will be flying for 20-25 hours over the week. 3-10 August, wpec.co.uk Junior Worlds The first FAI World Junior Paragliding Championships is being held in Tolmin, Slovenia. A new initiative, the Junior category is for pilots…

Simon, give us three words that summarise the race. Rainy, booming and hot. Has the news sunk in? It feels fantastic to win such a race. But the funny thing is that my fourth place in the previous edition also felt like winning because I reached goal as fast as I could. It’s reaching goal with the team that is even more special. Did you set out to win? I try not to have the idea of winning in my head because it forces me to do things that are not the best. I tried in this race to be safe, to not push too much. How was the weather overall? We were lucky. We had good flying weather, not so much wind. Last time was way more demanding. This was the…

Italian paragliding legend Maurizio Bottegal published his book Signori del Vento in Italian in 2020. Now available in English, it’s the history of paragliding from Maurizio’s perspective, recalling his own experiences and adventures up until 1999 which he feels was a “natural watershed”. A car electrician, Maurizio started to fly in 1987, experimenting with friends by watching videos, followed by an actual course. An avid competition pilot since 1989 he has won many national trophies and team silver at the 2009 world championships in Mexico. He became an instructor in 1991 and took over the Monte Avena paragliding school in Feltre soon after to start importing and testing for Swing. He only sold the school this year and still helps develop Swing gliders. With his wide view of the sport,…

Warning! Achtung! The thin, yellow, horizontal warning sign displays a caricature of a crocodile, mouth open, ready to snap at an imaginary Captain Hook. This is not your average paragliding destination. Scant information gleaned from a site guide and messages from pilots suggest that access to the ridge involves crossing the mudflats, mangrove swamp and a river at low tide. The reptiles are at home here, in their element, waiting to ambush. Google states that a crocodile can move at around fourteen kilometres an hour in short bursts on land. At the first sign of snapping jaws, we plan to dump the bags and leg it. Hopefully, they see a glider bag as a tasty snack, if not, as there are three of us, I just have to outrun one…

Gliding along the side of a cloud is an unforgettable experience. Being able to soar up the face of a cloud is icing on the cake! There are multiple ways to achieve either scenario. However, safety and legality are a function of pilot skill and location. To fly along the face of a cloud the simplest way is to pick a day when there are fair weather cumulus clouds forming and their bases are not very high. If a mountain exists nearby that is higher than the cloud tops, and the mountain itself is not enveloped in cloud, then it is possible to launch and glide to the cumulus cloud and fly along the face. This is preferable on a light-wind day, before noon, to minimise turbulence. Nonetheless, despite smooth…

Honeycomb protectors are fairly new in paragliding harnesses. These absorb energy by deforming, as opposed to displacing air like foam or inflatables. Koroyd, the green material that looks like fused plastic straws, has been around the longest. Recently, two new developments appeared on the market. Alumina from Nova is similar to Koroyd but made from aluminium instead of polymer. Orikami from Niviuk, technically not a honeycomb, looks like a hard plastic version of the Japanese paper art. All have pros and cons, but being so different from the foam pads and airbags that we are used to, there are a lot of questions around these protectors. Let’s look at the most important issues. First developments Paraglider pilots first heard of Koroyd when Neo applied it in their 2017 Suspender pod…

When studying materials it’s useful to determine how much force it takes to deform a material. During this test, the material is deformed slowly from zero to 100% and the force needed is plotted in a stress-strain graph. The area beneath this graph (green for Koroyd, light grey for foam) is the amount of energy that the material absorbs while deforming: generally the more the better for a harness protector material. Many materials show a threshold or stress peak for deforming: up to a certain amount of pressure almost no deformation is observed and the material then suddenly ‘gives in’ and starts to deform while requiring less force to keep deforming it. Foam or airbags do not display this behaviour, honeycomb materials like Koroyd usually do. It should be noted…

1. Trimming an X-Alps EN-D for Gradient. We spent a week in Bassano in December. The wing had some issues with front collapses but it never had issues with side collapses on bar. On the last flight of the last day I re-did all the manoeuvres, without brakes. I was low and, of course, that one time the glider re opened strongly, shot forward and I almost touched it, finishing with a 50% cravat at 100m. Had to find the brakes again… 2. Certification of the BiGolden437. I had to be the passenger for the test centre. We arrived at launch and it was fully in the cloud. I naturally thought we would wait, but no. They gave me a GPS and told me, “Tell the pilot where to go”!…