Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i Cross Country

“Pilots are very lucky people,” says the subject of our back-page interview this issue. At 71, and after a lifetime flying hang gliders and then paragliders, Ken Wilkinson flew his first 200km back in May – a six-hour downwinder from his favourite home site. He is probably still smiling at the thought of it. As we hear so often though, he also makes the point that it is the journey that matters most, not the destination. The people you meet, the friends you make, the time spent in the air doing the thing we love. At the end of the day it’s important to enjoy these things, and not simply obsess about the figure on the screen at the end of the flight. It’s important to remember that when you’re…

I first met Vijay Soni in 1999 at a paragliding meet in Pune. I had learned to fly in Himachal, and Vijay in Maharashtra. Though we both began flying around 1995/96, it took four years for our paths to cross. From that very first meeting, we saw each other as kindred spirits and quickly became close friends. At the end of that event, we tried some synchronised wingovers. Being in the air near him felt natural. Our non-verbal communication was smooth – perhaps because neither of us was great with words. We were also friendly rivals, both having sporting ambitions and a quiet need for professional validation, but the friendship always came first. Over the next 26 years, that balance never faltered. Vijay passed away doing what he loved –…

As autumn, or fall, arrives the environment we hike through and fly above changes dramatically – in fact for many, late summer and early autumn is their favourite time of year to fly. But things are shifting out there, and pilots see it and comment on it year to year. Michael Lavelle explains what’s going on in the forests in the northern hemisphere at this time of year… You may have noticed it too: it is becoming more common for leaves to drop later in the season. A 2015 review of 64 studies, with observations ranging from 1931 to 2010 across Asia, Europe and North America, found that rising global temperatures had delayed leaves falling in the northern hemisphere. To understand what is happening, we need to remember that trees…

Have you ever flown in a dream? Maybe in childhood? Or perhaps you’ve been flying all your life? If you recognise this feeling, then it hasn’t left me since childhood. I clearly remember and know the effort you have to apply to your body in a dream to start flying. It’s like a wave that you initiate from the very tips of your toes, which travels upward, and at the moment when it reaches the top of your head as you inhale, you begin to fly. And that’s it. The flight has started. I flew over cities, mountains, crossed rivers, jumped over houses – from one roof to another. I even showed someone in the dream how to do it, explained it. But, by the way, I don’t remember anyone…

Tim Rochas lives and breathes paragliding as a test pilot and designer with Niviuk. Born in the southern French Alps he skied and flew from a young age – he was 10 when he made his first solo flight. A top competition pilot he fell in love with the big skies out west in the USA. See p46 Steve Ham doesn’t need much introduction – he is the extraordinarily talented pilot and illustrator who specialises in turning his gaze on our sports. This issue we showcase his ‘Champion’ project – world champions over the years. Old-school legend John Pendry provides the words. See p64 Jon Griffith, pictured with his son, is an award-winning Alpine climbing photographer and cameraman who now specialises in adventure films for 360 VR – that’s immersive movies watched on…

I didn’t immediately become an obsessed pilot. I first saw someone paragliding on a little hill behind my university, Carnegie Mellon. I was 21 and he was an instructor and I asked him to teach me. I’m 32 now. For my ‘mountain flight’ he’d been thinking about towing behind an exercise bike. I was studying industrial design so my friend and I built him this tow rig. There was no way to disconnect so once you went over the bike you had to land, otherwise you’d drag the bike. That was our mountain flight and he gave us both our licenses. I then moved to San Francisco and worked at Apple and got into rock climbing, which is how I met Dave Turner in the Owens Valley. He did the…

25 YEARS AGO XC71 (October 2000) was a dedicated ‘Freestyle’ issue and came with a free giant wall poster featuring Greg Blondeau flying a wingover and a sequence shot of ‘The SAT’ as ‘invented by Raul Rodriguez’. Inside “aerobatics maniac” Dave Roberts explained how to loop a hang glider; the late Richard Gallon demonstrated the asymmetric spiral; Louise Crandal profiled the aforementioned Raul Rodriguez; and speed hang gliding star John Smith explained his passion for flying fast and low: “A healthy mental attitude is important … and aggression doesn’t do any harm.” The special came with a warning in bold: “Flying aerobatics is highly dangerous and takes hang gliders and paragliders out of the flight envelope for which they are certified. In no way should the following pages encourage you…

Soaring pilots often learn about the basic concepts of valley wind formation and evolution early on in their flying careers. Those basics are: the wind in the valley flows up the valley during the day and a lighter reverse flow occurs at night. A rule of thumb when flying in the mountains is therefore that “rivers flow downstream, valley winds flow upstream.” A valley wind is a diurnal thermally-driven circulation that is highly predictable in its onset, strengthening, dissipation, and reversal on synoptically benign days. This means that when there is an anticyclone, or high pressure over your region the local and plain-to-mountain circulations are driven almost exclusively by the sun’s daily passage across the sky and the radiative cooling at night. If a similar airmass sits over your area…

August brought a heatwave to the south of Europe. “We were five days into it and we were flying over the Massif des Écrins in the French Alps,” reported photographer Jérôme Maupoint. “On Sunday, along with dozens of wings, we flew up to 4,800m above the Barre des Écrins (4,102m) and Mont Pelvoux (3,946m). We were not particularly at ease, the Écrins is punchy!” He added: “Back in the Pyrenees we were keen to rest a bit but the forecast for Tuesday 12 August was stunning. We went to our classic wild take-off at 2,200m above Lac d’Oô and launched before 11am. Twenty minutes later we were at 4,200m! Consistent thermals of pure enjoyment. “My friend Marc Boyer was flying the Gin GTO 3 for the first time, and so…

The FAI World Paragliding Championships have always carried a unique kind of magic. I stopped flying in 2000, so it has been some time, but the memories and the emotions that competition life gave me will last forever. Over the years I experienced many powerful moments, including some dramatic ones, but in paragliding, the event that stands out most is the 1997 FAI World Paragliding Championships in Castejón de Sos, Spain, where I became World Champion. Of course, you could say the victory itself was the defining moment – but no, it wasn’t only about winning and claiming the title. It was about everything that went into it: the long path that led me there, the lessons learned, the struggles endured, and the moments of flight that still rise vividly…

DJI is best known for its drones, but the company has steadily expanded into action cameras with the Osmo Action range. Now it enters the 360° market with the Osmo 360, competing directly with the Insta360 X5 we tested in the last issue. Design and build The Osmo 360 uses two “industry first” 1/1.1-inch square HDR sensors, slightly larger than those in the X5. In theory, that gives an edge in low light, though for free-flight pilots shooting outdoors it’s less crucial. Physically, at 6 × 8 × 3 cm and 183g, the Osmo 360 is similar in weight to its rival. But the camera has a squarer profile than Insta360’s models, with protruding lenses on opposite sides. As with all 360° cameras, these are vulnerable, and unlike Insta360’s replaceable…

We experienced the Maloja wind this summer when we had a ringside seat at the St Moritz turnpoint during the Red Bull X-Alps. Some of the Cross Country team were based in the mountain town for several days as X-Alps pilots came through, and we waited at the turnpoint, on the edge of the lake, for several hours at a time as they did. As the ‘X’ in the route pilots had to pass through St Moritz twice. The first time the lead group came through the Maloja wind was absent and pilots landed relatively smoothly facing the lake. Coming back some days later, however, the air pressure situation had changed, and the Maloja wind kicked in strongly. We watched as arriving pilots battled to land in the lee of…

The Verso 4 is a reversible open harness with a seatplate and airbag. The first impression is a beautiful piece of kit. It looks sleek and well made. The fabric feels sturdy but light. The harness is quite a bit lighter than its predecessor at 2.5kg for the M size (versus 3.9kg) including the rucksack. Features of the new version are a new ABS geometry and a new detachable rolltop rucksack of 65-70l. The rucksack weighs only 520g but if you prefer a different rucksack you can, of course, use your own. This comes in handy when your glider packs larger than compact. A compact or lightweight glider will fit just fine in the rucksack but I found that a standard full-fat glider was more difficult. The carrying system of…