hang gliding & paragliding vol41/iss11 nov 2011

Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero

NOVEMBER 2011Volume 41 Issue 11

$6.95

www.USHPA.aero

http://www.flyozone.com

MAGAZINE STAFFMartin Palmaz, Publisher: [email protected]

Nick Greece, Editor: [email protected] Greg Gillam, Art Director: [email protected]

Jené Jackson, Advertising: [email protected] Staff writers: Steve Messman, Dennis Pagen,

Christina Ammon, Ryan Voight, Tom Webster, CJ Sturtevant | Staff artist: Jim Tibbs

Staff photographers: John Heiney, Jeff Shapiro

OFFICE STAFFMartin Palmaz, Executive Director: [email protected]

Robin Jones, Communications Manager: [email protected]é Jackson, Program Manager: [email protected]

Eric Mead, System Administrator: [email protected] Hollendorfer, Membership Services Coordinator:

[email protected] Rank, Office Coordinator: [email protected]

USHPA OFFICERS & EXECUTIVE COMMITTEERich Hass, President: [email protected]

TBD, Vice President: [email protected] Bill Bolosky, Secretary: [email protected] Forbes, Treasurer: [email protected]

REGION 1: Rich Hass, Mark Forbes. REGION 2: Dave Wills, Urs Kellenberger, Bill Cuddy. REGION 3: Bill Helliwell, Rob Sporrer, Brad Hall. REGION 4: Ryan Voight, Ken Grubbs. REGION 5: Donald Lepinsky. REGION 6: David Glover. REGION 7: Tracy Tillman. REGION 8: Michael Holmes. REGION 9: Felipe Amunategui. REGION 10: Bruce Weaver, Steve Kroop, Matt Taber. REGION 11: David Glover. REGION 12: Paul Voight. REGION 13: Tracy Tillman. DIRECTORS AT LARGE: Dave Broyles, Bill Bolosky, Mike Haley, Dennis Pagen. EX-OFFICIO DIRECTOR: Art Greenfield (NAA).

The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association Inc. (USHPA) is an air sports organization affiliated with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), which is the official representative of the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), of the world governing body for sport aviation. The NAA, which represents the United States at FAI meetings, has delegated to the USHPA supervision of FAI-related hang gliding and paragliding activities such as record attempts and competition sanctions.

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine is published for foot-launched air-sports enthusiasts to create further interest in the sports of hang gliding and paragliding and to provide an educational forum to advance hang gliding and paragliding methods and safety.

SUBMISSIONS HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine welcomes editorial submissions from our members and readers. All submissions of articles, artwork, photographs and or ideas for articles, artwork and photographs are made pursuant to and are subject to the USHPA Contributor's Agreement, a copy of which can be obtained from the USHPA by emailing the editor at [email protected] or online at www.ushpa.aero. HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine reserves the right to edit all contributions. We are always looking for well written articles and quality artwork. Feature stories generally run anywhere from 1500 to 3000 words. News releases are welcomed, but please do not send brochures, dealer newsletters or other extremely lengthy items. Please edit news releases with our readership in mind, and keep them reasonably short without excessive sales hype. Calendar of events items may be sent via email to [email protected], as may letters to the editor. Please be concise and try to address a single topic in your letter. Your contributions are greatly appreciated. If you have an idea for an article you may discuss your topic with the editor either by email or telephone. Contact: Editor, Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine, [email protected], (516) 816-1333.

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The USHPA is a member-controlled sport organization dedicated to the exploration and promotion of all facets of unpowered ultralight flight, and to the education, training and safety of its membership. Membership is open to anyone interested in this realm of flight. Dues for Rogallo membership are $270. Pilot memberships are $75 ($90 non-U.S.). Dues for Contributing membership and for subscription-only are $52 ($63 non-U.S.). $15 of annual membership dues goes to the publication of Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine. Changes of address should be sent six weeks in advance, including name, USHPA number, previous and new address, and a mailing label from a recent issue. You may also email your request with your member number to: [email protected].

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING (ISSN 1543-5989) (USPS 17970) is published monthly by the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, Inc., 1685 W. Uintah St., Colorado Springs, CO 80904, (719) 632-8300, FAX (719) 632-6417. PERIODICAL postage is paid at Colorado Springs, CO and at additional mailing offices.

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DISCLAIMER The publication of any submissions, articles or advertising in HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine does not constitute an endorsement of the authors, advertisers, products, services, apparatus, processes, theories, ideologies, opinions, advice and/or recommendations presented, nor does it constitute an endorsement of the authors or companies involved. The statements of fact and opinions as well as any product claims in the submissions, articles, advertisments, artwork and photographs appearing in HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING magazine are those of their respective authors, contributors and advertisers and not of the USHPA. The USHPA makes no representation, express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, advice, opinion, recommendation, apparatus, product, product claims or process disclosed, in such submissions, articles, advertising, artwork or photographs. All individuals relying upon any materials published herein do so at their own risk. The USHPA is not responsible for any claims made in any submission, article, or advertisement. Advertisers may not, without USHPA's prior written consent, incorporate in subsequent advertising that a product or service has been advertised in a USHPA publication.

COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2011 United States Hang Gliding And Paragliding Association, Inc., All Rights Reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission of the United States Hang Gliding And Paragliding Association, Inc.

For change of address or

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call (719) 632-8300

email [email protected].

The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, a division of the National Aeronautic Association, is a representative of the Fédération Aeronautique Internationale in the United States.

On the cover, Judith Zweifel grabs a self portrait in between her tumbling training regime | photo by Andreas Busslinger. Meanwhile, goofing off

above Mount Sentinel, Missoula, Montana | photo by Chris Gibisch.

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

EDITOR

PILOT BRIEFINGS

HIGHER EDUCATION

CENTERFOLD

RATINGS

DISPATCH

USHPA STORE

PAGE 78

7

8

10

40

69

72

76

2011NOVEMBER

by Hugh Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

RED BULL X-ALPS 2011No one ever said it was going to be easy

GALLERY

60

by C .J . Sturtevant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

by C .J . Sturtevant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

by Hugh Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

by Christina Ammon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

by Anthony Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

by Dennis Pagen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

by Denny Pistoll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

UNDERwATER FLYING

CHRIGEL MAURER

wELCOME BACk, MORNINGSIDE

SNOwBIRDING THE wORLD wITH YOUR wING

FIA EL YELMO 2011

HANG GLIDING FINISHING SCHOOL - PART III

ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER

What are you afraid of?

Interview with a champion

Teaming up with Kitty Hawk

Where to go to ditch the snow

The hottest, driest paragliding festival

If you're an H2, this is for you

Training pays off when things go wrong

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Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero 7

Our season in the northern hemisphere has been wrapped up and packed away. The passionate pilot population is either looking for flying sites in other parts of the country, or the world, that afford

airtime in the winter or dedicating their concentration to other pursuits until spring. As another year draws to a close, pilots in the association are looking back on the flying season and remembering what was great and what they would change in the future. The magazine staff is going through the same process— identifying what we liked about this year’s issues and what we need to change for the upcoming year. If you have any opinion about the content and/or any suggestions for changes and topics that you’d like to see covered, please send them to us for consideration.

This issue is kicked off by Dr. Lisa Coletti’s and Dr. Tracy Tillman’s monthly installment of Higher Education—the Art and Zen of Tow Carts. Denny Pistoll sent in a piece on reserve re-packs, and the instructors who do them, that also could be considered Higher Education, reminding pilots that the angel on their shoulder will take care of them.

The Redbull X-Alps was won again by Chrigel Maurer, who has proven to be the world’s best mountain cross-country pilot by a long shot. Hugh Miller reports from one of the most grueling races on the planet.

CJ Sturtevant, USHPA’s prolific reporter, gives us pertinent information about Kitty Hawk’s newest flight park in Morningside, New Hampshire. She also sends in a story that provides ideas of great places to take in a little air-time over the upcoming winter, inspiring snowbirds who are able to escape to warmer climes.

Mr. Pagen is back with the next installment in his epic series, Hang Gliding Finishing School, identifying the trials and tribulations sometimes created when setting up.

Finally, the issue is rounded out by a look at a selection of shots from the photography book titled Dreams, by a travelling flying addict, Frank Fleishman, and by the ever-thought-provoking stylings of staff contributor extraordinaire, Steve Messman.

We look forward to hearing from you about changes or new topics you would like to see in the upcoming year and hope you have enjoyed the issues as much as we’ve enjoyed putting them together!

7

Flying in the Tetons. Jackson Hole

is both a great hang gliding and

paragliding site with tram access.

Photo by Dan Roof.

Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero8

CONTOUR VIDEO CAMERAContour, Inc. announces the

release of the ContourROAM

(http://contour.com/prod-

ucts/contour-roam), the

easiest, most versatile video

camera on the market. The

company’s first waterproof

camera also features a super

wide-angle, 170-degree

rotating lens to let explor-

ers record their adventures

effortlessly. The new design

includes an instant on-

record switch, enabling users

to instantly record, so there’s

no question as to whether or

not the camera is on/record-

ing. ContourROAM is now

available at Contour.com

and retail partners for $199.

“Contour ROAM is all about

capturing action video easily,

while having versatility

of use across all sports

and environments. We

created this new hands-free

video camera to take the

guesswork out of whether

the camera is recording

or not and to capture and

share video with the greatest

of ease,” said Marc Barros,

CEO of Contour. “Contour

ROAM is so lightweight and

compact you don’t even

notice it’s there. It goes

wherever the action is, from

action sports to team sports

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Just slide the record switch

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NEw GRADIENT PRODUCTSGradient has developed two

new accessories: a backpack

and a concertina bag. The

completely new backpack

has been especially de-

signed to meet the needs of

pilots. Features include an

improved carrying system

made possible by additional

straps that reduce the load

at the straps’ points of at-

tachment, reducing the

volume of the backpack. The

seams are reinforced for

higher durability. The back-

pack is lightweight and can

be quickly stowed in your

harness.

The backpack is avail-

able in two sizes: L, with a

volume of 135 liters, or XL,

with a volume of160 liters.

This backpack is included

when one purchases a new

Gradient wing.

Gradient’s new concertina

bag protects your wing after

the flight. It is well reinforced

and has soft inlays, ensur-

ing maximum protection. A

special strap that secures

your gathered up wing

makes your cell-to-cell pack

job easy.

info: www.gradient.cx

USHPA ANNUAL REPORTThe USHPA 2010 Annual

Report is available in the

member’s only section at

www.ushpa.aero.

AIRLOG APPThere is a new paraglid-

ing and hang gliding flight

book for the iPhone called

Airlog. It’s a free applica-

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details: http://itunes.apple.

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NEw FAI SECRETARY GENERALJean-Marc Badan Appointed

as new FAI Secretary

General

Jean-Marc Badan, the

previous FAI Sports Director

and Deputy to the Secretary

General accepted his posi-

tion as Secretary General of

the FAI—the International

Air Sports Federation. He

formally took up his ap-

pointment in Lausanne,

Switzerland, on October 1,

2011.

The Fédération

Aéronautique Internationale

(FAI), the International Air

Sport Federation, is the

world governing body of all

air sports and of certification

of world aviation and space

records. The FAI (www.fai.

org), founded in 1905, is a

non-profit organization. The

FAI has been a member of

the Olympic Family since

1986, when it was recog-

nized under Chapter 26 of

the Olympic Charter.

JOE GREGOR wEIGHS IN This year I have received re-

ports representing a total of

13 individual hang gliding ac-

cidents. It would be pleasing

to think that this dearth of

reporting is the direct result

of an exponential increase in

safety.

Unfortunately, based on

local reporting alone, this is

clearly not the explanation.

Indeed, it would appear that

only a very small percent-

age of the accidents and

incidents experienced by

our pilots is actually being

reported to the USHPA HG

Accident Review Committee.

Additionally, changes in

the internal processes used

to manage the hang gliding

accident reporting system

have inadvertently resulted

in dislocations, delaying the

publication of my last three

columns.

As a result, even those

13 have gone undiscussed

in the Magazine, and you,

the reader, have seen no

HG Accident Review articles

for the last six months. For

this, I must apologize. Rest

assured that we are aggres-

sively addressing the techni-

cal issues involved and will

soon have the Hang Gliding

Accident Review Column

back and in full vigor.

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THE ART AND THE ZEN OF LAUNCH CARTS

With appreciation and apologies to Robert Pirsig for yet another case of bromidic and platitudinous use of the title of his book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [ref 1] .

Lisa: That picture reminds me of a Dharma wheel. Did you put our carts with the black cradles on one side on pur-pose?

Tracy: No, it just happened—seems like good cart Dharma Karma, I guess.

Lisa: Ok, whatever. So, what does Zen have to do with launch carts?

Tracy: First, I think that every launch from a cart is spiritual and meditative, as it is a holistic experience that clears and

centers the mind to a singular focus.Lisa: Does that mean you have a

mantra?Tracy: I guess that you could say my

mantra is “HIERTow,” the acronym for our pre-launch checklist [ref 2]. I reli-giously go through it before every launch and maintain some level of awareness of it during the launch process.

Lisa: I know what you mean about being focused, yet maintaining external awareness. It is important to maintain awareness of one’s environment during launch, to avoid having to fix problems

“on the fly,” so to speak, while being fo-cused on the details of the launch at hand. I think that being able to focus on details while maintaining situational awareness is

the Zen mastery part of flying.Tracy: Also, it has been said that there

is a little Zen involved in all authentic cre-ative experiences [ref 3]. One example of that is the art of launch cart design.

Lisa: You ought to know something about that. You were an engineer and manager in industry and taught engineer-ing design and management as a professor for many years.

Tracy: Most engineering education is about teaching students how to apply science and crunch numbers to solve problems in theory. That science and math-based part of engineering design is necessary in our complex, technical world. However, engineering students have few opportunities to learn the art of using authentic experience to be creative and to solve real problems practically and prag-matically [ref 4], rather than just solving imaginary problems theoretically.

Lisa: How did you teach your students to do that at the university?

Tracy: I provided an authentic cre-ative experience to my students by estab-lishing a holistic and practical learning environment for them. I did that by de-veloping a series of junior and senior-level capstone classes that, all together, estab-lished an entire, integrated manufactur-ing business enterprise that required them to work together as departmental teams within classes and as a company across classes. Each year, the students initially performed a market study to identify a need or niche, followed by R&D and test-ing to create a working product concept, which they then would design for manu-facture, develop a manufacturing system, mass produce, and sell. Profit made from one year’s product sales would help fund a project for the following year. It was a thorough, integrated learning experience for them, as they learned not only prac-tical design, but also practical project, teamwork, and business enterprise man-agement skills.

Lisa: One of your university students’ most successful projects was the design and production of launch carts. You wrote an article about it for the July 1997 issue of Hang Gliding magazine [ref 5].

Tracy: Yes, that article described the students’ model “A” cart design. A differ-ent group of students incorporated some additional design features and produced

HigherEDUCATION by Drs. Lisa Coletti & Tracy Tillman


a model “B” cart the following year. We have been using both “A” and “B” model carts here at Cloud 9 for 15 years. Matt Taber now produces and sells a Lookout Mountain version of these carts [ref 6].

Lisa: Our pilots really like those carts. What, in particular, are some features that make them a good design?

Tracy: First, the frame is wide enough, and the cradle supports for the base tube are high enough above the frame to pro-vide clearance for almost any set of wheels commonly used on a hang glider, whether they are mounted on the base tube or as outrigger wheels that extend down and/or outside of the corner brackets.

Lisa: We all know that smart aerotow pilots use wheels to help prevent a nose-over in case of a weak link break, line break, or premature release—or if they are pushed into the ground or settle to the ground just after launch due to a prema-ture launch, downdraft, tailwind, or hit-ting the prop blast when just coming off the cart.

Other, more unusual causes of hit-ting the ground in front of the cart in-clude getting stuck to the cart for some reason, aborting the launch due to realiz-

ing that you missed something important in your preflight check (like not in a leg loop), a tug engine power loss, or abort of the launch for some other reason by the tug pilot. There is no good reason for an aerotow operator to use a cart design that doesn’t accommodate a reasonably wide range of wheels and wheel brackets that can be used on hang gliders. Although a wider cart is better, one simple fix for a narrow cart is to just use taller base tube cradles to provide more clearance above the cart frame for wheels on hang gliders.

Tracy: Another important feature of a good cart design is to be able to adjust the distance and height of the keel support relative to the base tube cradles, to pro-vide clearance for hardware and a correct angle of attack (AOA) for a wide range of

hang glider types and sizes.Lisa: Back when those carts were de-

signed, in the mid-1990s, the students de-termined that the optimal AOA for a hang glider on a cart seemed to be about 25 de-grees. It was found that most carts used by various aerotow operators around the country at that time provided for an AOA that ranged from 20 to 30 degrees. This is the angle as measured with an inclinome-ter placed on the keel, with the cart sitting on level ground. Some gliders from that time still had deep keel pockets; in that case, the angle would be measured with the inclinometer placed on the bottom of the sail.

Tracy: Right. So my students stud-ied the dimensions of the smallest to the largest gliders produced at the time and

“As a sail gets tighter and flatter, and

has less washout and more total AOA, it

should sit with the tail higher on the cart

to present less AOA to the airflow while

rolling on the cart.”


designed a keel support to be adjustable from 20 to 30 degrees, for all glider sizes. Their recommendation at that time was that a 25-degree AOA was best.

Lisa: Things have changed. First, you don’t even need an inclinometer any-more—you can measure the AOA of your glider on a cart with your cell phone! Second, not many pilots are still aerotow-ing those old gliders with deep keel pock-ets. Third, almost all glider designs from the mid-1990s, basic through advanced, used luff lines and lots of washout, thus creating less total AOA relative to the keel, and as presented to the relative airflow while rolling on the cart. Today, advanced gliders are topless and/or use sprogs rather than luff lines and washout tubes for pitch stability, and thus have a flatter and tight-er wing. And because these gliders tend to have high pitch pressure at low VG set-tings, pilots pull on a lot of VG to tow, all of which tightens the sail and creates more total AOA relative to the keel and as presented to the airflow. As a sail gets tighter and flatter, and has less washout and more total AOA, it should sit with the tail higher on the cart to present less AOA to the airflow while rolling on the cart.

Tracy: So today, a good AOA for most entry-level and low-intermediate gliders (as measured on the keel while sitting on the cart) is still about 25 degrees, but a good AOA (keel angle) for modern high-intermediate and recreational topless glid-ers seems to be about 22.5 degrees. The best AOA (keel angle) for very clean and tight competition topless gliders seems to be about 20 degrees.

Lisa: Twenty degrees is still too much AOA on a cart for a modern rigid wing. Some rigid wing pilots have experienced lack of control when cart launching, as the wing is in a stalled condition or a wing’s spoileron is not effective because it is not in an area of clean airflow. Rather than reverting to foot launching, they should just fly off a cart with less AOA. We have found that a 15-degree keel-angle AOA is good for most rigid wings, and we have also had success with 12.5 degrees.

Tracy: Back in the old days, at the end of the last century, we found that we could just keep our carts set at one keel support height, and that all but the smallest glid-ers could be launched comfortably from those carts. If someone did have a very

small glider, we would adjust the keel sup-port to be lower for them, to help prevent them from sticking to the cart. As we ac-quired more carts, we found that we could just leave most of our carts set to a normal keel support height setting and just have one or two carts set to a lower setting for very small gliders. When we did that, we just marked the carts to be used for small gliders with red tape, so pilots with larger gliders would not use them.

Lisa: As I said earlier, things have changed. Two standard height settings for our carts isn’t good enough any more. Now, we use Black tape to mark carts with keel supports set very high for rigid wings (12.5 to 15 degrees AOA as measured on the keel), we use Blue tape to mark carts set high for comp flex wing gliders and large advanced gliders (20 to 22.5 degrees AOA as measured on the keel), we use Green tape to mark carts set for entry-level glid-ers and smaller to mid-size intermediate and advanced gliders (22.5 to 25 degrees AOA as measured on the keel), and Red tape for the smallest gliders (usually about 25 degrees AOA as measured on the keel).

Tracy: We are lucky to have enough carts on hand to not have to constantly adjust them for different glider models and sizes. Rather, we can leave the keel supports of our carts set at specific heights and color code them for use with certain gliders. Even if we didn’t have that many carts on hand and had to adjust them from time-to-time, it would be useful to know the correct settings and color code them according to their adjustment. Obviously,

a standardized color-code system for cart settings would be helpful everywhere.

Lisa: For sure. A standardized color code system would help pilots know they are on the right cart, no matter where they are aerotowing. Real bad things can happen if a pilot launches from a cart with the wrong AOA. Too high an AOA is a problem for rigid wings, just as it is for flex wings. With too much AOA, one side of a wing can be in a stalled condition at take-off or be more likely to be lifted in a cross wind, either which can result in a high speed ground loop or lockout at launch.

Tracy: Too low an angle of attack is also a problem, as a glider may not want to lift away from the cart and can feel as if it is sticking to it. It may result in a very high speed take-off, longer ground roll and more likelihood of hitting the prop wash, and/or premature launch—with the glider being pulled forward off the cart rather than lifting away from it. This is particularly bad if you have a small glider with a long keel, as the tail of the keel will get lifted by the cart keel support as the glider gets pulled forward, thus lifting the tail, reducing the AOA, and pushing the glider down into the ground in front of the cart. Combine this situation with no wheels and perhaps an open face helmet, and the result ain’t pretty.

Lisa: We continue to hear reports about this kind of thing happening at comps and tow operations.

Tracy: What’s up with that? Why do you think it continues to happen?

Lisa: Insufficient aerotow training,

Black Cart

lack of knowledge and ground school training on use of carts, and lack of stan-dardization of cart settings. How about giving some examples of which gliders go on which carts?

Tracy: Sure. Our Black carts are set with our highest keel support setting for rigid wings like the Exxtasy and the Atos.

Our Blue carts are set with a high keel support setting for topless gliders like the Litespeed RS 4/3.5, Litespeed 5/4.5, T2C 154/144, T2 154, Talon 160/150, and for kingpost gliders with very long down-tubes like the U2 160, Sport 2 175, Falcon 225.

Our Green carts are set with a normal keel support height for topless gliders like the Litespeed 3 or 4, T2 144, Talon 140, Fusions, and mid-sized modern kingpost gliders like the U2 145, Sport 2 155, Sonic, Falcon 195/170, and most other older nor-mal-sized kingpost gliders.

Our Red carts are set with a short keel support setting for the very smallest top-less gliders and small kingpost gliders with short downtubes, such as the Sport 2 135 and Falcon 140/145.

Lisa: Are there any other features of your students’ cart design that has made them work so well over the years?

Tracy: They are robust, utilizing a rigid triangular truss design, and have held up well over time; they are relatively lightweight, for quicker acceleration and lift-off; the base tube cradles are well back from the wheel axles, thus helping to avoid tipping over in ruts or bumps; they use sufficiently big 13-inch main wheels, so they roll easily and handle bumps well; the cut-out for the base tube in the cradles has a shape that securely holds a round or streamlined base tube, yet allows it to smoothly leave the cradle at lift-off; and the casters don’t shimmy.

Lisa: Tell us more about what causes casters to shimmy.

Tracy: First, there is more likelihood of shimmy at higher speeds and lighter loading on the caster, meaning casters are most likely to shimmy just about the time a pilot is about to leave the cart. It would be nice to just buy and use ready-made industrial casters—but they are de-signed with little caster angle, so they can support heavy loads, and they utilize ball bearings so they can rotate easily under a heavy load. At higher speeds and lower

loads, industrial casters will shimmy due to insufficient caster angle and low fric-tion of the ball bearings.

Lisa: I recall that your students did some research on this.

Tracy: Right. They found that a brass

or bronze bushing, rather than a ball bear-ing, for the vertical swivel bolt provides a nice bit of friction to help prevent shimmy, and that high-speed shimmy was reduced with more caster angle. Shimmy disap-peared at a caster angle of about 40 de-

Blue Cart

Green Cart

Red Cart


grees, and they found 45-and 50- degree angles to also work well—but the higher angles produced more friction and wear of the bushing, so they selected a 45-degree caster angle. This worked great through-out initial hang glider launch tests, as well as in very exciting high speed tests behind a pickup truck in the football stadium parking lot. Since then, that caster design has proven to work well over more than 15 years of service.

Lisa: For folks who have these carts in service, are there any upgrades that you recommend?

Tracy: First, if you have a model “A” cart, it is good to replace the caster swivel bolt with a larger 5/8” diameter bolt, as

used on the model “B” cart. The smaller bolt works just fine, but can end up bend-ing a bit if heavy pilots stand on the cart or if pilots tend to pick it up and drop it a few feet from the air (which is poor launch technique). Also, it looks nicer and works a bit better if the pinch point protectors between the frame tubes of the model “A” cart are replaced with the style used on the model “B” cart, which are simply short PVC tubes cut at each end with a hole saw for snug fitting on the frame tubes.

Lisa: Anything else?Tracy: We have shortened the keel

support posts above the keel rests on all the carts to provide more clearance for gliders that require horizontal stabilizers, but we made them even shorter on our Black carts that are used for rigid wings. We have also replaced the original cross rope and looped rope handles on the cradles with a flexible plastic tube, used as a handle. Use of a flexible plastic tube handle helps to prevent problems like an instrument lanyard cord, harness cord, or vg cord getting caught on the hold- down rope. We use a 12-inch-long, 5/8” out-side diameter, bright orange plastic air line hose, fed snugly through a hole in the cradle where the original rope went through (2 inches below the basetube) and locked in place with a smooth round head carriage bolt screwed into the end of the hose that is in the cradle.

Lisa: What about proper technique for launching off of a cart?

Tracy: In the earlier days of aerotow-ing, when most tugs had less power, ac-celeration, and climb rate than tugs use today, pilots were told to hang on to the cart until it was lifted a foot-or-two off the ground and then drop it, to assure that they had sufficient airspeed to fly and get clearance to climb away from the cart.

Lisa: That approach still makes sense, if launching behind a very slow and very low-powered tug. But, most tugs now in service have much better performance. Also, a cart dropped from the air can bounce back up and hit or catch onto the pilot or glider, and the glider is likely to zoom up too high behind the tug, if it is flying fast when the cart is dropped.

Tracy: Right. So these days, the right time to let go of the hold down tubes and fly away from the cart is usually just prior to when the cart would be lifted off of the

ground. It is not that difficult for a pilot to be able to feel when they are holding most (but not all) of the weight of the cart up by the handles, and know that it is time to re-lease the handles to fly away from the cart.

Lisa: Another issue is where your body should be positioned relative to the base tube while you are rolling on the cart. It usually works well to position the base tube about where it would be at best glide speed for your glider in free flight. That is close to being where the base tube will be while you are on tow, if your upper tow point is located in the correct position on your keel.

Tracy: However, there is no upper tow point when pro-towing, so there is noth-ing but your body weight to hold down the nose of your glider while launching and towing. In that case, you should hold your weight farther forward than at best glide speed when lying prone in the cart just prior to launch, because your body needs to be farther forward while towing. In fact, vertical lockouts are all too common with pro-towing, because sometimes pilots cannot move far enough forward to keep the nose down. A vertical lockout is very dangerous for both the tug pilot and the hang glider pilot.

Lisa: Pilots should also realize that the cone of safety is much smaller when pro-towing than when using a normal 3-point aerotow bridle with an upper tow point, and that lockouts occur much quicker when pro-towing. For these reasons, we discourage pro-towing here at Cloud 9. It is a safety risk that some top comp pilots may wish to take for a miniscule amount of better high speed glide performance, but otherwise is a risk that just isn’t worth taking for the vast majority of other pilots who aerotow.

Tracy: Another thing that we can talk about is crosswind cart launch tech-nique. Pilots are required to get training on crosswind launch technique in order to get their AT rating. It’s fairly simple. The pilot should just hold his/her weight an inch or two toward the upwind side of the wing while rolling on the cart, then center himself and fly the glider as necessary when leaving the cart. The more cross-wind there is, the more the pilot should hold his weight over to the side while on the cart to keep the upwind wind down.

Lisa: And then there is the issue of get-

REFERENCES1.Zen and the Art of Motorcycle

Maintenance. by Robert Pirsig, 1974.

Harper Collins.

2. HIERTow pre-launch checklist. In

“Higher Education: How to Get the

USHPA Aerotow Rating.” by Lisa

Colletti and Tracy Tillman, Hang

Gliding and Paragliding maga-

zine, July 2011, p. 24. http://issuu.

com/us_hang_gliding_paraglid-

ing/docs/1101_web?mode=emb

ed&viewMode=presentation&lay

out=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.

com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.

xml&showFlipBtn=true

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

John_Dewey

5. “University Students Launch a

New Product.” by Tracy Tillman,

Hang Gliding magazine, July 1997,

pp. 34-37.

6. Lookout Mountain Flight Park

Launch Cart information: http://

estore.hanglide.com/Aerotow_Tow_

Dolly_p/14-9011.htm

7. A tool used for relief on record-

breaking flights, per Larry Tudor,

distance record holder.

http://issuu.com/us_hang_gliding_paragliding/docs/1101_web?mode=embed&viewMode=presentation&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey

http://estore.hanglide.com/Aerotow_Tow_Dolly_p/14-9011.htm



ting helped properly by a launch assistant.Tracy: Right. Make sure the launch

assistant is behind your side wires, and standing next to you—not behind you. It is difficult to communicate clearly with a launch assistant who is standing behind you, because you won’t be able to see if he/she makes an incorrect or premature launch signal to the tug pilot if they are standing behind you. Therefore, ask your launch assistant to stand beside you, rather then behind you, before you give the “go, go, go” launch command.

Lisa: Finally, we should mention the issue of stuff hanging out.

Tracy: Do you mean like a Tudor tube [ref 7]?

Lisa: Not exactly, but if it is real long and hanging out, that would be a problem, too. What I’m talking about are things like VG cords, harness zipper cords, and anything else that dangles that could get stuck on the cart when launching.

Tracy: That includes feet. Some pilots launch with a foot hanging out of the har-ness, thinking that it will be quicker for them to get the other foot out and make a foot landing if their weak link breaks—or they are using their dangling leg to help bring their weight forward when pro-towing.

Lisa: The smart approach is to not pro-tow, so you don’t have to use a dangling leg to help keep your weight forward and the nose of your glider down. Also, you need to have wheels on your basetube, so you don’t have to try to land on your feet

if you have a weak link break close to the ground. Rather, with wheels on your base-tube, you can keep your feet in your har-ness, while leaving your harness unzipped when you launch. That way you have the option of landing on wheels—if a weak link happens when you’re very low—or you can do a foot landing, if higher. And you don’t have to fumble around with trying to open your harness after the weak link breaks, because your harness leg doors are already open.

Tracy: Right. The problem with a dangling foot is that it is like a dangling harness or VG cord. A pilot’s foot can get caught on the cart just like a dangling har-ness or VG cord. It happens; we’ve seen it.

Lisa: And then the other problem is the Darwin Award approach of using launch carts—by lashing your glider to your cart to transport it across the field, then forgetting to undo the lash before launching. Just don’t lash your glider to the cart. If it is so windy that you can’t transport your glider across the field on the cart without lashing it to the cart, it’s too windy to fly.

Tracy: A related issue is mounting your instruments on to your glider when it is sitting on the cart and then lanyarding your instruments to both your glider and to the cart. That’s another Darwin Award approach. That’s not a Happy Ending.

Lisa: Speaking of Happy Endings, it looks like we are done with this article. Since it’s a bit windy for flying, you can take me on a date tonight and tow me up tomorrow.

Tracy: I’m up for that!!

Lisa is the Associate Dean and Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School, and is currently Chair of the USHPA Towing Committee . Tracy is a retired university professor, a past Chair of the Towing Committee, and is currently Regional Director for Regions 7 & 13 . He is also a FAAST Team Safety Counselor for the FAA Detroit FSDO area . They are both very active multi-engine commercial airplane and glider pilots, tug pilots, and tandem hang gliding instructors for the Dragon Fly Soaring Club at Cloud 9 Field (46MI), Michigan . Please feel free to contact them about towing related issues at cloud-9sa@aol .com .

http://www.kittyhawkkites.com


by Denny Pistoll

“I am out of

control and my

world is a spinning

blur…a situation

completely alien

to anything in my

life’s experience.”

So began the spine-chilling recol-lections of Mike Barbee, Lookout Mountain’s affable flight instructor.

In his early 40’s, tall, lean, and fit, Mike is a hill instructor and the newest desig-nated tandem pilot at Lookout Mountain Flight Park. It is a crystal clear July after-noon, a Tuesday—Mike’s day off—and, as usual, he spends his free time flying. After a short flight off the mountain, Mike prepares to tow up for some aero-batics and, for the first time, to execute a full aerobatic loop.

The crisp cool air of the tow masks the sultry Georgia day yet to come; at altitude it feels spring-like, a condition that has eluded so much of the country. Even better, the tow is butter smooth and

seemingly routine, masking unforeseen happenings to come.

Mike BarBee: “On previous flights I had flown some very steep wing-overs but never committed to the full over-head maneuver…this was to be my first.

John Souther, the tug pilot, towed me to 6000 feet, much higher than the 2500 feet I had anticipated or expected. Extra altitude, of course, is always a plus on aero-tow, but on this particular morning it would prove to be much more than just a bonus.”

Only a week earlier, Mike had attended an emergency parachute clinic facilitated by Jen Richards, Lookout’s charmingly efficient office manager. Jen, a Hang 3 pilot, was an instructor-in-training before

Angel Shoulderon my


opting for her management position.Jen richards: “I really enjoy con-

ducting the clinics,” says Jen with her ex-uberant smile lighting up the room. “The attending pilots realize the importance and are completely focused and engaged. The sessions are very interactive,” she adds. “We get to hang, spin as we might with a catastrophic failure, regain our compo-sure, and physically replicate the actions necessary for pulling and tossing the chute. It’s a dizzying experience and not an easy one, but that’s the whole point.”

The emergency parachute is attached to the pilot’s harness which, in turn, is mated to the glider through the carabiner. A fully deployed chute is designed to bring both pilot and glider safely to the ground. Look, Grab, Pull, Look, Throw, Pull. That’s the mantra we all memorize as we go through the drill—the mantra that gets us to look at the chute handle, grab the handle and pull it from the pack, and then look for an open space to toss it clear of the glider. Once clear, we pull back on the bridle to ensure full inflation and de-ployment. Easy enough... right?

Mike BarBee: “On the day of the flight, the air is refreshingly cool at alti-tude; I am loving the day.”

At 6,000’ John gives the hand signal to disconnect from the tug plane. Mike hits the release on his glider and, once again, enters the unique world of free flight. Clearing the tow and check-ing the area for traffic, Mike then

sets up for his loop by initiating a diving turn and rapidly gaining speed. Mike: “I’m thinking…what a wonder-ful opportunity…as I pull up and bank hard to slice my wingtip into a dive. The speed feels right as I level my wings to pull up but realize instantly that I didn’t pull quite aggressively enough. I pull again, secondarily, and feel the loss of speed but not as much G-force—one “G” being the force of gravity—as I have in the past doing steep wingovers. The evi-dent lack of speed becomes more appar-ent as I top the loop and realize that my maneuver is not going at all well. With the lack of a positive ‘G’ on my body, my weight overcomes the meager centrifu-gal force of the attempted loop. As I go inverted, the force that would otherwise keep me extended on my hang strap is not there, and I feel myself falling downwards

into the glider.“I hit the leading edge of the sail,

breaking the keel, and the glider imme-diately flips upright, with me underneath. I feel and hear the wingtip break as well, and the glider starts spinning clockwise. I realize I am in serious trouble but, oddly, the feeling is not overwhelming. I go into the ‘focus mode’ as I have some serious tasks to accomplish.”

dave MiLLer: Lookout’s veteran chief tug pilot is towing out Mike Mackinnon, a solo glider. “Climbing through 1500’ I see a sight that I instinctively recognize but still stare at in disbelief.”

Mike BarBee: “Crowded by the glider’s sail and impinged by spinning G forces, I struggle to make elbow room to access and throw my parachute. Despite the spinning and confused jumble, Jen’s words from her parachute clinic ring through my head as if she were clipped in right next to me: ‘look, grab, pull, look, throw, pull.’ “Still braced against the glider, I throw the chute toward the only clear area I can see, hear the chute open and feel the ac-companying jerk as the bridle line ten-sions. The glider swerves, forcing me into a position facing the under-surface and the control frame.”

dave MiLLer: “I first saw the para-chute and thought it was a weird para-glider, then saw a glider dangling below. This is not a normal sight—a picture of a hang glider in flight. As it twisted around, I could see the sail colors and instantly re-alized it was Mike.”

Mike Mackinnon: “On tow behind

[left] Mike Barbee with his angel, Jen Richards. [top] Mike Barbee flying aerobatics. [right] Lookout’s veteran tug pilot,“Kid” Dave Miller. Photos by Denny Pistoll.


Dave and staring fixedly on the tug, I see in my periphery an incredibly strange sight. At first, I couldn’t process what it was I was seeing and, for the first time in my towing experience, I found myself distracted from the very challenging busi-ness of aero-towing.”

dave MiLLer: “I saw that the para-chute emerged but evidently did not fully deploy. It was in some manner fouled, as it continued to spin and lose altitude at a frightening rate. So I could position myself to direct ground rescue for what-ever outcome this was going to have, I signaled my tow glider to release.”

Mike Mackinnon: “I realized I was seeing a glider in peril, and, as I saw a chute emerge, Dave signaled me off. I hit the release and turned back for the LZ, hoping this pilot would land safely.”

Jen richards: “If your chute doesn’t deploy, pull it back and throw it again,” she encourages, as her attendees struggle while spinning from the ceiling tether. “I know it’s not easy, but you have to get the chute pack out into clear air. We’ll keep doing it until we all get it right.” We all queue up for a second try.

Mike BarBee: “I heard the chute flap-ping and realized it must be caught. Then

I see a portion of the bridle line wrapped around the nose. Thinking back, I real-ize that I must have tossed the chute pack against the spin versus, with the spin that resulted in the tether line fouled both on the nose of the glider as well as bound around the control frame. I couldn’t pull it back, but recalling Jen’s instructions, I had to free it from the bind. ‘Get it out and into clear air,’ I heard her say. I step up on the downtube to extend my body and strain for leverage to free the line, but with my full weight, plus the effect of the spin, I feel the downtube give way and break under my foot. Damn, I just broke my down tube, was my strangely incongruous thought! The tether line was fouled too tightly around the control frame to free it there, so I continued to work to unbind it from the nose, pulling on the bridle.”

dave MiLLer: “The whole thing was descending pretty fast. I think that when he was around 1800-2000 feet, I saw the glider go horizontal. One wing appeared to be broken roughly 5 feet from the wingtip and was folded flat over the top of the wing. When it went to level, the glider slowly spun once, then again, then started spinning uncontrollably.”

Mike BarBee: “Yanking on the chute’s line, I was able to un-snag it from the wing and free the parachute. The glider immediately up-ended into a complete nose down, keel up attitude. As I looked out, I could see that the chute was straight up in the correct position and now fully deployed.

“I recall Jen saying, ‘…as you are coming down, try to remember to climb into the control frame and let it take the brunt of the impact; it’s replaceable, you’re not.’ As I was climbing back into the control frame, the glider started spin-ning very quickly and I shifted my body weight to counteract the spin…it worked!”

dave MiLLer: “It was at approximately 1,000’ above the ground that Mike’s chute fully blossomed. I could see his rate of de-scent had decreased as, gradually, did his rate of spin.”

Mike BarBee: “For the first time, I took stock of where I was and began to concentrate on the next task; where and how I was going set down on Mother Earth. Prior to this, I was so focused on the parachute that I was unaware of my altitude or surroundings. In almost stro-boscopic motion as the glider spun, I saw power lines, tree lines, and a house pass by my whirling field of vision. Stuffed into the control frame, I endeavored to exer-cise some control and tried to dampen the spin and steer towards friendlier areas and away from unfriendly ones, as they al-ternately whipped into view. Surprisingly, even from this awkward position, I could exert some control.”

dave MiLLer: “As he descended, I could tell he was going to land in an area that was about half trees and half open ground, dangerous for a hang glider land-ing under canopy. If the glider lands partially in a tree, the parachute deflates, allowing the glider to fall un-arrested to the ground. This could be disastrous!”

Mike BarBee: “Looking towards the ground, I could see that some of my steering, coupled with the fates, had me coming down in the vicinity of a narrow, partially clear, grassy area right between two rows of trees. Coming closer, I spot-ted a bush in my path and made that my target. Then, to the extent I could, I willed and muscled my crippled U-2 towards higher foliage for the final touchdown. As I came to tree level, I remembered to flip

“I step up on the downtube to extend my body

and strain for leverage to free the line, but with

my full weight, plus the effect of the spin, I feel

the downtube give way and break under my foot.”

down my helmet visor—my last cognitive memory prior to contacting the ground.”

dave MiLLer: “I watched from above as the glider continued to spin and finally just missed clipping some trees and going all the way to the ground. It looked like a hard landing. I feared the worst and kept circling.”

Mike BarBee: “With almost complete disbelief, but incredible relief, I touched down softly, without so much as a scratch or bruise. Remembering Jen’s last instruc-tion, I unhooked, clambered out from under the glider and, with my right arm extended, signaled the universal ‘okay’ to Dave Miller, who I knew was very con-cerned and circling above me.”

dave MiLLer: “After a few sec-onds that seemed a lot longer, Mike popped out from under the whole mess, waving. I was yelling, ‘YES!’ and waving

back. Managing to finesse a damaged glider into that very small clear area be-tween those rows of trees was an awesome maneuver. It was absolutely amazing and an almost surreal capstone to a scary chain of events. Seeing Mike get out from the glider and stand with his right arm raised was the one of the sweetest sights of my life.”

Mike BarBee: “Jen Richards saved my life,” avers a very emotional Mike Barbee.

“She was with me from the moment I was in trouble and walked and talked me through my greatest hour of need. I will be forever grateful for her unselfish efforts and in her debt for the valuable informa-tion imparted not only to me but to all who took the opportunity to attend her clinic.

Jen is a top professional, the nicest of people and, without question... she was an angel on my shoulder.”

“My fellow H2 Freedom pilots just love them and find them so easy to fly. We all feel that we will be flying Freedoms from our early days as H2s through to gaining advanced skills. My Freedom 150 has been a true miracle and I wish I had a Freedom 150 from my first flight off the mountain! I can't imagine ever outgrowing this glider. Thank you for making the Freedom 150.” - Cathleen, hang 2 pilot

Visit NorthWing.com to view the ATF Soaring Trike1st place, Sporting Class - 2009 King Mountain Nationals

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[below left] Megan McConnell with Mike Barbee. Megan, from the LMFP office staff, was one of the first to arrive at the crash site. [right] Rex Lisle of Lookout inducting Mike into the Mongo Aviation Hall of Fame!

Photos by Denny Pistoll.

http://www.northwing.com


Underwater FlyingWhat are you afraid of?


by Christina Ammon

But someone just told me that you PARAGLIDE! my scuba instruc-tor exclaimed. She was standing

next to me, incredulous, while I trembled on the edge of the boat wearing my fins and mask. It was the third day of an open water diving course on the island of Koh Tao in Thailand, and my instructor—let’s call her Bianca—and I weren’t getting along very well. She had little tolerance for my phobias. I balked at her Tough Love approach to pedagogy.

Koh Tao is to scuba diving what Point of the Mountain is to paragliding. Ideal learning conditions and lots of instruc-tors make it a magnet for eager students. Hundreds of tourists arrive on the island each day, and certifications are handed out like popcorn shrimp. Provided everything goes smoothly, in four short days you can be guided through a series of drills and emerge with a cool ID card that says you’re good-to-go, which is really great…… pro-vided everything goes smoothly.

“If you can PARAGLIDE, surely you can do THIS!” Bianca reasoned aloud. The boat bucked up and down, and I stared into the deep green water, trying to connect with my inner mermaid. I wasn’t at all afraid of stingrays or having a face-off with an electric eel. And breathing underwater seemed perfectly fine. What was really getting me were the emergency drills—one in particular—the mask-clearing exercise.

In the event that a mask should come off underwater, it’s important that divers be able to get it back on and clear the water out of the airspace in front of their eyes. It’s a simple procedure, really. You place the mask over your eyes, pull the strap over your head, press the top of the mask, and exhale through your nose. This pushes the seawater out, replacing it with air.

Everyone in my group—except me–had mastered the drill at six feet. Every time I removed the mask, I’d breathe in water and bolt to the surface in a primal panic (inhaling water is, after all, the first stage of drowning), and gag, cough, and spit. This was fine at six feet, but Bianca was now asking me to try the drill at 60 feet, where panicking to the surface was a whole different fish.

One of the keys to becoming a good

scuba diver is mastering the controlled ascent. Surfacing too fast can trigger nitrogen bubbles to form in the body’s tissues—with the possibility of causing anything from aching joints to death. Too rapid an ascent can also cause air in the lungs to expand, even to the point of caus-ing them to burst like a popped balloon.

Since I hadn’t figured out how to remove my mask without bolting out of the deep while I was at 6 feet, I knew I wasn’t ready to try it at 60. But Bianca was on a tight schedule and didn’t have time for remedial students; potential clients were already stepping off the ferry from the mainland, eager to drop 9000 baht for her scuba class.

So there we were, standing on the edge of the boat at an impasse.

“I’ll meet you down at the bottom, and you will take off your mask,” she insisted.

I looked at her squarely through my mask’s plastic lens.

“I won’t do it!” I retorted. I popped the regulator in my mouth and poised to jump.

As my fins smacked the water surface, I heard her voice behind me.

You WILL!I descended down the buoy line

fuming, pissed, despite the gorgeous an-gelfish that shimmied yellow and black in the undulating sea-light. It wasn’t just Bianca who was making me angry; I was making myself angry. I never thought I’d be the problem student. While I had never been the best student in school, I was never the worst one either. I was never that person who just didn’t get it, who didn’t understand the concept of prime numbers, while the whole class was ready to move on to quadratic equations. Now I was the one who was putting a cog in the works.

[opposite] The author kiting on a beach in Mexico. [above] Chris scuba diving.


The sea swells moved my body back and forth as I rode the pushy tides like thermals. I let air out of my BC vest, and gently sank to my knees on the sandy bottom. A stingray flew away from me like a spooked raven.

I didn’t get it: Wasn’t scuba diving just an inverted form of paragliding? Instead of worrying about going down too fast, as in flying, I had to worry about going up too fast. What was the problem?

Bianca descended last, her blonde curls buoyant and writhing around her head like a corona of coral snakes. She went around to each of us, and we performed the drills—regulator sharing, buoyancy control, and weight belt removal. Then she started around the circle and gave the cue to remove our masks.

I sucked rapid breaths from my regula-tor and prepared for the faceoff. Soon her bulging eyes were in front of me, glaring like a piranha. She gave the cue, and I shook my head no. She cued again.

No.Bubbles burst forth from her regulator

and she came at me. When she’d charged me the day before, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe her Tough Love ap-proach is good for me, I had rationalized, as she was pinning me to the seafloor at six feet. But when she lunged for my mask at 60, I knew Bianca was psychotic.

But she PARAGLIDES! Bianca pro-claimed to her fellow instructors over beer that evening, after our underwater brawl. At Blue Water Diving School, I had become a certified public nuisance, since I’d filed an official complaint with the front desk. But on the bright side, I was foisted on a better, more patient teacher named Javier, who also happened to be hot and in-training. I was happy to be his one-on-one case study and spend the next morning holding his hand underwater, as he counseled me through my mask-clear-ing phobia. Meanwhile, Bianca continued to tell everyone, “She PARAGLIDES, but won’t take off her mask.”

It seems there is an unwritten rule that once a person learns to paraglide, she forfeits her rights to be afraid of any-

[left, top] A start gaggle resembling a school of fish | photo by Andy Pag. [left, bottom] A photo from the author's scuba lessons.


thing else. If you have launched yourself into the sky, no one will understand why you would ever be afraid to jump off a three meter cliff into a deep lake, shimmy up a bolted rock face, or wince at spiders.

But what I am starting to understand is that fear isn’t a linear or orderly emo-tion. Just because one isn’t afraid of spiders, doesn’t mean that she isn’t going to be ter-rified by a cockroach. If fear were really logic-driven, a surfer would worry more about going to bed than swimming in the ocean. Each year, 600 people in the U.S. die falling of bed, while only 40 people are attacked by sharks—and most of them live to tell about it.

It turns out that for evolutionary pur-poses, the brain’s fear circuitry is mightier than its reasoning facilities—a phenom-enon that scientists say has something to do with the pathways between the amyg-dala and the neocortex. So, if getting water up my nose freaked me out more than launching off of Woodrat, scientists would understand, even if Bianca didn’t.

In the end, I passed my open water scuba diving course and even got to join my group for their final dive. When the underwater video camera came around, I took off my mask, replaced it like a Zen master, and gave a thumbs up in front of the lens.

Looking back to my course in Koh Tao, I realize that I wasn’t really a problem student—Bianca was a problem instruc-tor. She viewed all students like a massive school of anchovies that looked the same and swam in the same direction.

I am grateful that when I learned to paraglide, I was taught by a great instruc-tor, Kevin Lee. Kevin keyed into my learn-ing style immediately, and, when I needed a couple of more days on the training hill, he was cool with it. We mastered one set of skills before moving to the next, and, while he was always encouraging, he never pushed. This made learning to fly fun, in-stead of terrifying.

A good instructor like Kevin Lee gets the concept: Students get to decide what they are afraid of, not the Biancas of the world.

Christina Ammon lives in Ashland, Oregon . Contact her at

flyinghobogirl@gmail .com

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No o

ne ev

er sa

id it

was

goin

g to

be

easy

.

by HughMILLER


JuLy 17, 2011.

As the sun blazed down on Salzburg’s Mozartplatz and athletes stretched and warmed up, no-one could imagine what

changes and challenges would lay ahead. The start gun sounded at 11:30am, and thousands of specta-tors cheered on the 30 athletes as they raced up the Gaisberg, the first of eight turnpoints, on their route to Monaco. Atop the 1288m high Gaisberg, giant TV screens marked the athletes’ positions via Live Tracking, hosted on the official redbullxalps.com website. Spectators watched as they soared above their heads and made their way south to the Dachstein, the second turnpoint. Yet signs of the trouble that lay ahead were already brew-ing on the horizon. A wall of thunderclouds was steadily marching in from the northwest, and as

the athletes flew their paragliders deeper into the Alps, it was as if the race’s barometer was set to “all change.”

This was the fifth edition of the Red Bull X-Alps, undoubtedly the toughest in the event’s history. The concept of the race is simple, but quite mad: athletes must traverse the Alps with the contents of a rucksack. Either the paraglider inside is carrying them, or they’re carrying it.

Each athlete is allowed one supporter, who can provide food and shelter, but no other kind of assistance is permitted. Each year, the course gets harder; this time athletes had to traverse 864km—from Salzburg to Monaco, taking in eight turnpoints along their way. After the Gaisberg, they headed for the Dachstein, then west to the Grossglockner Pass. Next was the Tre Cime in Italy, before Switzerland’s Piz Palü and Matterhorn, France’s Mt Blanc, and, finally, Mt

[below] Toma Coconea of Romania hikes in the

Dolomites during the Red Bull X-Alps 2011, Italy | photo

© J√arg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool

“Jon Chambers, clad in down jacket and full winter gear, sent out a message saying, ‘Can the organizers please hold the next event in summer?’”


Gros, which overlooks the finishing float moored in Monaco’s harbor. The athletes carried GPS units which transmitted their positions direct to a Live Tracking special map on the official website. Hundreds of thousands of viewers watched, as athletes hiked in the rain over mountain passes or used thermals to gain height.

Within hours of the event’s starting, the race leader Kaoru Ogisawa (JPN1) was enveloped in a

snow storm, battling to climb an iron ladder up a cliff-face below the mighty Dachstein. Suddenly, things had gotten serious. The first night’s events showed just how many skills each athlete needed: top level paragliding skills and ultra-high levels of endurance weren’t going to be enough. First class mountaineering ability was a must, too.

During the night, several athletes sheltered from the weather in mountain huts on the massif. As

[above] Jon Chambers (GBR2) takes off from the Stelvio Pass towards Bormio | photo ©J√arg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool. [below] Event participants at the start of Red Bull X-Alps 2011 in Salzburg, Austria | photo by ©bergermarkus.com/Red Bull.Content Pool.

X-FACT | ATHLETE SELECTION Getting into

the Red Bull X-Alps is tough. Athletes must

be hugely experienced paraglider pilots; most

have competed at a high level. On top of this,

they must have massive experience in the very

technical alpine conditions and demonstrate

a level of fitness and toughness equivalent to

that of an Ironman competitor. Random drug

tests were carried out on athletes during the

race: all samples came up negative.


dawn broke, conditions remained poor and con-tinued to hamper the next two weeks of the race. At one point, Jon Chambers, clad in down jacket and full winter gear, sent out a message saying,

“Can the organizers please hold the next event in summer?”

Yet for one man, the challenging conditions were an advantage. Christian Maurer, who also goes by Chrigel, came to the event as the defending champion: in 2009 he had creamed the competi-tion, beating his nearest rival to Monaco by nearly

two days. Back then, the world had witnessed his skills in flying his paraglider in extreme conditions, and they were about to witness it all again.

On day three, Maurer broke from the pack. He launched into 45 km/h winds—way over the limit for paragliding—and surfed away through truly atrocious turbulent air to land within spitting distance of the fourth turnpoint, the Tre Cime. Maurer’s trick lay in his ability to fly in the shel-tered leeside of mountains, where the wind is less strong but is characterized by random gusts and

X-FACT | THE GEAR Most athletes flew

with enclosed “pod” harnesses and three-

line paragliders. Maneuverability and safety

are generally regarded as more important

than out-and-out performance in the Red

Bull X-Alps. On average, athletes’ rucksacks

weighed around 8 kg. Each athlete also had to

carry a Live Tracking instrument which directly

transmitted position, speed and altitude data

to the website.

[above] Andy Froetscher (ITA) hikes during the Red Bull X-Alps

2011, Italy | photo ©Felix Wölk/Red Bull Content Pool. [below]

Richard Pethigal (BRA) is waiting to take off in Riafiano, Italy | photo ©Olivier Laugero/Red

Bull Content Pool. [opposite] flying around Piz Palue area,

Switzerland | photo ©Felix Wölk/Red Bull Content Pool.


strong turbulence. At one point during his flight, Maurer lost over 1000m in less than five minutes, as he battled to keep airborne.

After Maurer landed, former Red Bull X-Alps competitor Will Gadd opined, “He has a far better understanding of mountain flying than anyone else alive, and just proved it convincingly.”

Maurer managed to maintain, then extend, his lead for the remainder of the competition, bust-ing out a 205 km flight right across the heart of Switzerland two days later. Joy for him, pain for the others who battled it out behind him in a

desperate attempt to regain lost ground. Yet suddenly, the race was turned on its head:

Maurer had entered a forbidden air zone. Live Tracking recorded each athlete’s track in great detail, and the Race Directors spotted that Maurer had just nicked the edge of a forbidden zone near Locarno, Switzerland. It was a tense evening for Maurer and supporter Thomas Theurillat as back-up data was analyzed.

At midnight, Maurer was informed he had been served a 24-hour time penalty for infringing the forbidden area’s 100m buffer zone. Maurer “A

fter M

aure

r lan

ded,

form

er R

ed B

ull X

-Alp

s com

petit

or W

ill G

add

opin

ed, ‘

He h

as a

far b

ette

r un

ders

tand

ing

of m

ount

ain

flyin

g th

an a

nyon

e el

se a

live,

and

just

pro

ved

it co

nvin

cing

ly.’”

X-FACT | THE RULES The Red Bull X-Alps

athletes’ positions were shown live online 24

hours a day using Live Tracking technology on

www.redbullxalps.com and Google Earth. The

athletes carry GPS instruments which trans-

mit position data every few seconds via Red

Bull Mobile technology to servers. The data is

then interpreted and uploaded immediately

to the redbullxalps.com website. As well as

being able to watch the athletes as they hike

over tricky mountain paths, fans were able to

take measurements between athletes, check

statistics and view their diary entries via the

Live Tracking map. Many spectators used Live

Tracking to find various athletes on the course,

offering them a hot meal, directions or just

wishing them luck.


explained that he had been caught in strong lift at the time and felt lucky not to have gone through the buffer zone, which would have led to disquali-fication.

An opportunity opened up for his rivals to catch him. Toma Coconea (ROM) took Piz Palü turn-point and led the charge, ahead of a squad of other European athletes, including Paul Guschlbauer (AUT4), Michael Gebert (GER), Ferdinand van Schelven (NED), Thomas de Dorlodot (BEL), Jon Chambers (GBR2) and Jouni Makkonen (FIN).

Van Schelven and Chambers, Red Bull X-Alps

newcomers, were the surprises of the race. The Dutchman showed true natural ability, often flying original lines to great advantage. He was philosophical about the suffering too. When asked if the race was what he expected, he drily replied,

“Yah, well, it is hiking, and some flying, you know?” Jon Chambers (GBR2) was equally impressive. Supported by his dad, he was in the top ten by day three and just kept climbing higher.

But Guschlbauer was turning the most heads. Few had heard of him before the race, yet he flew ferociously to move into third place, ahead of

[above] Jouni Makkonen (FIN) waiting for take off from Stelvio Pass during the Red Bull X-Alps 2011, Italy | photo ©Olivier Laugero/Red Bull Content Pool. [above] Athlete flies around Piz Palue area, Switzerland during the Red Bull X-Alps | photo ©Felix Wölk/Red Bull Content Pool.

Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero32 Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero32

[above] Toma Coconea hiking towards the last turnpoint pulled by

Christian Maurer near Peille above La Turbie | photo ©Olivier Laugero/Red Bull Content Pool. [below] Christian

Maurer rests in Le Borguet before heading to Monaco | photo ©Vitek

Ludvik/Red Bull Content Pool.

X-FACT | LIVE TRACKING The Red Bull X-Alps

athletes’ positions were shown live online 24

hours a day using Live Tracking technology on

www.redbullxalps.com and Google Earth. The

athletes carry GPS instruments which transmit

position data every few seconds via Red Bull

Mobile technology to servers. The data is then

interpreted and uploaded immediately to the

redbullxalps.com website. As well as being able

to watch the athletes as they hike over tricky

mountain paths, fans were able to take measure-

ments between athletes, check statistics and

view their diary entries via the Live Tracking map.

Many spectators used Live Tracking to find vari-

ous athletes on the course, offering them a hot

meal, directions or just wishing them luck.

several much more experienced Red Bull X-Alps veterans. This was a position he held to the finish.

What the chasing pack really needed was an-other great flying day, like Maurer had enjoyed, yet they were served up another dose of wet and windy conditions. There was nothing for it but to slog it out on foot.

On the eighth day, Maurer’s penalty was over

and he bagged the sixth turnpoint, the Matterhorn, then headed for Mt Blanc. He launched over Zermatt into yet more extreme conditions, climb-ing at 2,500ft/min and landing at a sailplane field—where even the glider pilots had decided not to fly due to the strength of the wind!

Meanwhile, a tight race developed behind him. Around the Matterhorn, a new sense of urgency


[above] Event Participant flying above Monaco | photo ©Felix Wölk/Red Bull Content Pool.

developed among those fighting for the remaining podium places. Guschlbauer took a risk, climbing the 3650m high Neues Wiesstor, the same difficult route Maurer pioneered two years earlier.

He emerged into the glinting morning light of the glaciers high on the shoulders of the Matterhorn and flew directly west to try to catch Coconea, who was already in Chamonix. Coconea had become both the hunter and the hunted.

Behind, Tom de Dorlodot had had a difficult day. The previous day he had awoken in third position, but had now dropped to ninth. In the morning he hiked for six hours to 2500m, only to glide to the valley floor. Dealing with such ups and downs is one of the main challenges of the Red Bull X-Alps. Renowned adventurer Brad Sander was in Europe following the race, and commented,

“This adventure is a true test of the human spirit and will to prevail.”

At the back of the field, a sense of unity through

adversity developed. “This is what it comes down to,” Max Fanderl (CAN) said, while hiking with Richard Pethigal (BRA). “It’s about not getting hurt, making it to another take-off, making an-other flight. When you get tired, you get hurt,” he said. Max said the spirit at the back was excellent. There was no envy, nor satisfaction to be discerned. It was about grinding on, getting as far as you can.

Maurer arrived in Monaco in a time of 11days, 4hrs and 22min, joining Alex Hofer as a two-time Red Bull X-Alps champion. The remaining athletes now had just 48 hours before the event closed, and the race for second place between veteran Coconea and rookie Guschlbauer tightened. Coconea had done it before, making it to Monaco in 2007, while for Guschlbauer, it was uncharted territory. After several hours of flying, they landed in the evening within meters of each other, with less than 24hrs to make it to Monaco.

As dawn broke, Coconea set off. He ran fast


through the twisting valleys that lead to Monaco, sometimes reaching 15km/h and living up to his nickname, “the raging Romanian.” Meanwhile, Guschlbauer bade his time. He knew good flying conditions were forecast and elected to hike to the same launch place above Isola that Maurer had used two days ago.

Suddenly, the final day had become synony-mous with a Tortoise and Hare race. Coconea initially covered big distance, getting within 20 km of goal by 9:30am.

But once Guschlbauer launched, the Austrian was able to fly much faster and straight towards goal. However, he soon ran into southerly winds, which slowed his progress. After 80 km of road running—the equivalent of two marathons—Coconea emerged at the Peille take-off just over two hours before the race closed. Crowds of Romanian supporters cheered him as he inflated his glider and launched into a gap in the clouds to fly down to the float in Monaco to secure second place. Guschlbauer’s race ended 9 km from Monaco. His tactic had failed, yet the Red Bull X-Alps newcomer was a solid third.

It was a thrilling finale to an amazing two weeks of racing. As athletes enjoyed the closing party, many reflected on how Maurer seemed to fly and race in a totally different universe from everyone else. France’s Vincent Sprüngli put it best when he said, “He is from the moon!” Yet despite the strength of Maurer’s victory, in this race every-one had to dig deep and triumph over themselves, again and again. It was this—the strength of their spirit—that captured the interest and hearts of spectators across the world. And with the an-nouncement of a new adventure race, the Red Bull X-West in 2012, there is not so long to wait for the next installment.

X-FACT | TRAINING

Athletes trained for up

to 18 months for the Red

Bull X-Alps. Jon Chambers

used detailed analysis of

his heart rate to help him

maximize his performance.

Most athletes put in gruel-

ing schedules of endur-

ance training and flying,

and some spent up to two

months scouting the route.

THE RED BULL X-ALPS IN NUMBERS

2 Only two athletes made it to Monaco.

4 Four of the top ten athletes were newcomers to the race.

8 Eight athletes were penalized for infringing upon forbidden zones: two were disqualified, six served 24-hour-time penalties.

9 Third-placed Paul Guschlbauer was just 9 km from Monaco when the contest ended.

18 Only 18 athletes made it to the close of the competition. 12 were injured, eliminated or disqualified.

205 The longest single flight—205 km— was flown by Christian Maurer.

[opposite] Christian Maurer flying towards the finish of the Red Bull X-Alps 2011 in Monte Carlo, Monaco on 28th of July, 2011.[below] Chistian Maurer relaxes at Monaco beach with his supporter Thomas after reaching Monaco. Photos ©Vitek Ludvik/Red Bull Content Pool.


[above] After a week of trying Andy Pag finally makes goal. The smile

says it all. [below] Pilot briefings at launch. The

Meet Director goes through the Race and Sprint courses.

PLACE NAME NATION DISTANCE FROM GOAL

1 Christian Maurer SUI1 GOAL

2 Toma Coconea ROM GOAL

3 Paul Guschlbauer AUT4 9km

4 Martin Muller SUI3 77km

5 Jon Chambers GBR2 113km

6 Michael Gebert GER 172km

7 Ferdinand Van Schelven NED 173km

8 Clement Latour FRA3 174km

9 Jouni Makkonen FIN 176km

10 Honza Rejmanek USA 181km

Full results at http://www.redbullxalps.com

TOP

TEN

RESU

LTS

[above] (l to r) Coconea, Maurer and Guschlbauer | photo ©Vitek

Ludvik/Red Bull Content Pool.


©Vitek Ludvik/Red Bull Content Pool


CHRIGEL MAURER

interview by Hugh Miller

How much of your life has been devoted to the Red Bull X-Alps?

It’s been a big challenge. In 2009, I spent about eight months preparing, and, after winning, I did some presentations to give people an idea of how it feels to compete in the Red Bull X-Alps. In 2011, I thought long and hard about whether I could do it. I checked with my family and work and they all encouraged me. I guess all-in-all it’s been a major preoccu-pation for me this year for about the last nine months of my life! But it’s really nice to spend time in nature and to train and travel with Thomas (Theurillat, my assis-tant).

As we speak, I’ve just arrived in Monaco. I’m really happy to be safe and healthy, but it’ll take a while for it all to sink in…

What has the Red Bull X-Alps given you personally?

For sure, I’m a competitive guy, so it’s a fight to make the right decisions under pressure. When I hike up, I push the performance, I feel my body and heart working and get a good release of endor-phins—that’s a really nice part of it. And if I can, then I fly far…it’s amazing. Lastly, if I can do for two weeks what I really enjoy doing, it’s pure freedom!

So this is what you really enjoy doing?For sure—it’s a bit like a holiday for me,

even though it’s really hard. I’m always happy to go back to my family, but these two weeks off are like a holiday.

You talked about your competitive streak. I remember you walking with Toma Coconea (ROM) and Paul Guschlbauer (AUT4) on the third day; then you just left them! What happened?

I was faster at hiking up hills. There are different types of athletes. Toma was

strong on the flat, but I was quicker up the Grossglockner, about 30min faster than Toma. But on the last day, Toma did 80km in eight hours—that’s unbeliev-able! I would have taken four or five hours longer than he did!

You made your break later that day when you flew into the strong headwinds towards Italy. It seemed like a windy day!

Yes, I knew we had a forecast of strong southerlies before, so we pushed hard to be on the windward side of the Grossglockner that day. It was on the limit, about 40-45km/h. I knew from training and the last race that I could fly in those conditions, because I know what I can do with my wing. But it was really hard, because I was at take-off with Paul and Toma. I knew Paul is younger and thought he might follow me—that was a lot of pressure for me—but after he decided to walk down, it was easier for me to launch.

Did you enjoy the flight?Yeah, it was like working hard… like

working hard to develop a company that you eventually can enjoy. Day two I pushed really hard. I walked 100km, and I knew I couldn’t do that every day. Day three was the day I worked hard in flight, and, by the evening, I knew I was a bit in front of everyone. Those were days when I made investments in my race.

You’ve got all this skill and experience at flying in windy conditions, and you have a fairly safe, stable glider—but this is still the Alps, and there’s a lot of wind. How do you manage that risk of not knowing what the turbulence will be like?

It’s like driving a car fast on the high-way. You know you can be safe when ev-erything’s normal, but if other cars make a mistake—you can’t control what happens. Flying is in 3D; you can’t be totally sure, but I’ve had 13 years of experience, and the more I do and push, the more I can do in the race. I’ve had a lot of experience in taking collapses, they’re normal— you just have to know how to react, and I know how to react.

The way you fly in the leeside of the hills seems a bit like being a fish in a river,

©Vitek Ludvik/Red Bull Content Pool


swimming up behind rocks to make faster progress into the flow of the stream.

It’s exactly like that. Normally we learn to fly on the windward side, and flying in the leeside is seen as being very dangerous, but if you fly there more often, you learn and you find it’s much better in the leeside. However, you have to do more calculating. You need a lot of experience.

And it looks like you enjoy it, by the smile on your face!

I smile because from the outside it looks impossible to make flights like these, but I think of flying as being fun, and I start to play with the mountains and the wind, and when I can stay and play in the air, I can make unbelievable routes! The air is always different on the leeside. The wind and the slopes mean you always must have a plan B and C and be adapting to the conditions. It’s very tiring and hard work, but better than hiking!

What were your highlights from the race?For sure, the start in Salzburg and the

first launch from Gaisberg. There were so many people watching, with TV screens and loudspeakers—it was unbelievable! Also, pushing on the second day to be able to fly on the third day…the way the tactics worked. Then, of course, the flight of 205 km to Zermatt—that one flight saved me about three days of effort compared with the Red Bull X-Alps 2009!

What happened when you went into the forbidden zone on that flight?

I knew where the zones were, and I was taking care, but I forgot that the GPS can be up to 30m inaccurate. Normally, I take about 100m of safety distance, but on this occasion I was in a 1m/s climb and went into even an stronger 6m/s lift. I was flying away as fast as I could, but my glider collapsed a few times—it was really hectic for 20 seconds. In the end, I was in the zone by 4m, according to my main GPS. I was just happy to be in the buffer zone, not higher, or it would have been much worse!

You then had a 24-hour penalty. But you also spent your birthday just relaxing. Were you giving the others a sporting chance to catch up and make it to Monaco?

Good question! That was one point we talked about before the race—that if I were really fast again, it’d be good to wait, because after all the hard work, the best bit is making it to the sea and going for a swim. But the other reason was that I had flown in the morning, but sank out and landed, and I didn’t want to walk in the rain. The forecast was good for the following day, and I knew there were no take-offs further south, so it was tactically better to wait and fly in one move all the way south.

To what do you attribute your win?I know I can fly well when the condi-

tions are difficult. But I also know I was on the same wing as in 2009, and some others had chosen much higher perfor-mance wings. In normal conditions, they would have done better and easily caught me. But I’m sure the performance of the wing wasn’t the only reason: safety and handling were more important. The team, having Thomas, the tactics, the walking— all made a key difference too.

What have you learned from the race?It was good for me to see that just push-

ing on relentlessly is not the right way. It’s better to wait five minutes and know for sure you’re on the right path, making the right calls. Also, the teamwork plays a big part: helping and trusting someone else.

What’s the big difference between the Red Bull X-Alps and others competitions?

During flying, the rules are the same. But here, you are full-on on the road, too. It’s tiring, but addictive. The morn-ing after I finished, I woke up at 5:30am thinking about walking to the next take-off as fast as possible. Then I remembered I was in the hotel and could relax!

Which athletes do you really admire?Alex Hofer, for sure. He’s really good at

flying and tactics and has a great philoso-phy. Also, Toma Coconea. In 2009, he flew a bit like a beginner, but I was happy to see him fly very well this year, flying straight and fast. It was hard for Guschlbauer to catch him, and Guschlbauer flies well! I think if I race in 2013, Coconea’s going to be really challenging competition!

Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero 41John Wiseman captures a special moment at Hyner.


Morningside!Welcome Back,Kitty Hawk Kites and Morningside Flight

Park Join Forces in Teachingthe World to Fly.


by C.J. Sturtevantwith historical anecdotes from Jon Szarek

In September 2010 free-flight pilots around the world mourned the death of Jeff Nicolay, long-time hang glider pilot and instructor, and opera-

tor of Morningside Flight Park in Charlestown, N.H. Shortly after Jeff’s death, Morningside, which has been a significant segment of the hang gliding and paragliding communities for nearly 40 years, was closed. But thanks to some creative approaches to financing (“in partnership with wind energy entre-preneur David Blittersdorf,” according to a press re-lease from Kitty Hawk’s Marc Maready), Kitty Hawk Kites purchased Morningside Flight Park. Last July 16th, Morningside reopened, retaining its original name and with no major changes in park operations expected. Hang gliding and paragliding pilots in the Northeast, and around the country, rejoiced.

IN THE BEGINNING…Back in the early ‘70s, a hang glider pilot noticed a launchable hill on Phil Haynes’s New Hampshire farm and asked Phil for permission to fly there. An airplane pilot since his high school days, Phil was intrigued by this new form of aviation and readily agreed. In short order, Phil had bartered with the local club: access to his hill in exchange for what passed for lessons back in those days. By 1975, Phil, on his Pliable Moose, was enjoying a whole new perspective on his dairy farm.

Jon szarek: Coming to Morningside in 1977 as a 15-year-old, I was welcomed by Phil Haynes. Within 20 minutes, my buddy and I were riding around the fields helping load hay bales. Every time there was a project, Phil would tap the labor pool of pilots to

pitch in, but when it turned flyable, Phil was the first

one running up the hill to launch. When Phil was clearing the hill for training slopes, “picking rocks” was a daily event. Some days we’d fill the dump truck with so many rocks that the laborers (us) would have to push up the sides of the dump bed to assist the hydraulics to dump the load!

In no time at all, Phil became totally addicted to hang gliding and set about making his property the primo flying site in the Northeast. He buried the power lines that encroached on the launch and land-ing areas, groomed the slopes, hired a manager—cre-ated a flight park! With the addition of a road to the top of the hill and a ramp at the 450’ launch, students and pilots flocked to this site where they could easily rack up dozens of flights in a day or a weekend. Phil, of course, took full advantage of all his park’s ameni-ties, often squeezing in several early-morning sledders before settling down to serious work on the farm or in his auto body shop. One year he managed to log more flights—3800!—than many pilots accumulate in decades of active flying.

Phil would try to fly EVERY day. I watched him fly in rain, snow, fog, tailwinds, even by moonlight. Phil just looooved to fly by the light of the moon. Winter with snow was better because it was brighter, but winter trees have no leaves, and it was harder to see the small branches. I remember plowing through the top of a tree one moonlit night and doing a 360 back at the hill. I ground through the branches, exit-ing with just enough airspeed to get away. I would usually fly Phil’s glider, which was rigged “seated,” and this time it was adorned with branches when I landed!

[opposite] Morningside's amazing training hill is ideal for both hang gliding and paragliding. Photos by Marc Maready.


GROwTH SPURT With an active pilot as its owner, Morningside was on the fast track to becoming the world’s best flight park. Jeff Nicolay took over as manager in 1978 and retained that position until his death in September 2010. Jeff’s enthusiasm for hang gliding was argu-ably second to none, and his personal laid-back style of management was a perfect fit for a park dedicated to fostering fun and safety (as defined by a bunch of twenty-something guys back in the 1970s…) while learning and flying.

Jon szarek: Morningside was a working dairy farm for 40 years before flying took over Phil’s fancy. What is now the hangar was the barn, bordered to the west by an area called the “feeder,” an 80-foot-long structure with a conveyor belt to mechani-cally disperse the cows’ feed. The east side of the barnyard was open to the hill. Often Phil, Jeff and I (the only ones brave—or crazy—enough to attempt this) would spot land right in front of the hangar door in the barnyard. Overshooting would have put us in the feeder. I think these spot landing contests gave me the confidence to be able to land my hang glider anywhere over the last 30 years.

In the early ‘80s, Phil built a grass landing strip in the LZ pasture. For years it was used for vehicle and winch towing and for occasional tows behind trikes, when aerotowing was introduced in the mid-’80s. In 2002, local hang pilot Jonnie Benson brought his Dragonfly to Morningside, and full-time aerotowing

was added to the flight park’s attractions.Jon szarek: On one particularly cross and windy

day back in the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, a crowd of pilots at the hill had nothing to do. Jeff suddenly ap-peared carrying a three-point bridle and 200 feet of 3/4” bungee cord, wearing a very mischievous grin. We grabbed an Eaglet trainer with big wheels from the barn, and a guy from Maine volunteered to be the test pilot. The bridle was attached and 10 guys set off down the field holding the other end of the bungee. A pilot lay at each corner of the control bar, holding on tight, and I held tight to the end of the keel. As the 10 bungee-pullers got farther and far-ther away, the bungee got tighter and tighter—had it failed at this point it probably would have taken out every one of us!

When the bungee was at its max, all of us holding the glider started sliding. On the count of three, we all let go and that Eaglet, with the guy from Maine, rocketed up at a 45-degree angle at Mach 2! The 10 bungee guys were now running as fast as they could, trying to keep tension on the bungee. Suddenly the glider started to lock out at about 200 feet AGL. As it turned downwind, the bungee guys realized what was happening and released the line. The Eaglet and its passenger raced downwind directly at the hangar at 60 mph, trailing 200 feet of bungee. We all watched in horror as the glider climbed up the front of the hangar and disappeared over the roof into the barnyard behind, which was filled with sharp farm-

[above] A pilot on approach on the Farm | photo by Marc Maready.


yard implements and many autos from Phil’s auto body business.

We raced around the side of the hangar, expect-ing the worst, but instead found the guy from Maine, none the worse for wear, climbing down off the roof of a gold Cadillac that Phil had just finished painting for a customer. Except for Phil’s not being pleased about having to repaint the Cadillac, that day had a pretty happy ending!

One of the amenities that has made Morningside so perfect for anyone with a goal of several flights a day is the fleet of ATVs providing shuttle service from the LZ back to launch. Once the road to take-off was paved and cleared to the width of a set-up glider, pilots could tie their fully-assembled glider to the trailer, stand on the basetube to keep the wing stable, and, for less than the cost of their morning coffee, enjoy a five-minute tow from the LZ up to launch. One H-3 pilot from California, in need of some launch and landing practice, took himself and his short-packed Falcon 3 across the continent to Morningside, just because he knew he’d get more foot-launch mountain flights in one day (20 in his case) at Morningside than he’d manage in several weekends at his home site in California.

FUN AND GAMES AT MORNINGSIDE, THEN AND NOw The Intercollegiate meet: In addition to providing top quality instruction and mentoring by some of the country’s best pilots, Morningside has also hosted some amazing historic events.

In 1978, Bill Blood, an instructor with the UMass Lowell Aerosports Club, organized the first annual Intercollegiate Hang Gliding competition. Dozens of pilots from six colleges participated that first year; in 1979 there were 78 registered pilots from more than a dozen colleges.

Peter Shanelaris, a participant in, and occasional winner of, this unique hang gliding meet reminisc-es: “As I understand it, Morningside’s was the only International Collegiate hang gliding competition in the world. As we trained from Morningside’s small slope of the 150 to the cliff launch of the 450, that comp was all we dreamed of. It drew pilots from many New England colleges, as well as pilots from the Eastern seaboard, Canada and, occasionally, from Europe. In general, the competition boiled down to a healthy rivalry between Bill Blood’s well-organized, well-populated, and well-trained club from UMass, Lowell, and Plymouth State College’s handful of ragtag pilots reminiscent of the characters in Animal House. Plymouth took high honors their share of the time, perhaps due to our proximity to Morningside and, thus, our greater access to their instruction. We were the home team and we were always underdogs, under-funded and under-equipped, but totally com-mitted to flying.

“The competition included the typical tasks of those days: duration, best glide, a pylon course, greatest number of 360s—with all tasks requiring a safe landing, and points awarded for putting it in the target rings. During the competition, Jeff’s staff would whisper in our ears a hint or two here and there. Mark, my mentor, asked if I knew how to win the 360s round of the contest. When I shook my head, he said, ‘Do as many 360s as you can before you hit the ground.’ Well, duh! Then he added, ‘Do as many 360s as you can, and when you are positively certain you cannot do any more—when you are so convinced that if you do one more you will definitely crash—that’s when you do one more.’ That sounded reckless to me, but Mark continued, ‘A pilot is almost always higher than he thinks he is, and, when we do not have to challenge ourselves, we generally leave a

[below] Paragliders also train at Morningside Flight Park | photo by Marc Maready.


margin that is well in excess of the margin of safety. You will be a better pilot if you have a more realistic perception of what those margins are.’

“In another competition, after three days of flying, I was 20 points behind the leader. Conditions at the site were degrading, and the tournament was over for all but the advanced category. At launch the wind was gusting under dark clouds. A parked glider flipped. Jeff yelled through his bullhorn for us to get the glider righted and then returned to discussing conditions with his staff. They decided to put it to a vote of the pilots whether we wanted to fly another round. Naturally, since I was behind, my hand went up like a shot. But the pilot who was leading had his hand up even before mine!

“And that is what impressed me about this meet: It was always about flying, not about win-ning. At the awards ceremony Jeff pointed out, ‘Competition hones our skills as pilots by making us try harder. Competition makes us better pilots.’”

The Famous Morningside Glide Ratio Contest: In the mid-80s, the hang gliding world was experienc-ing runaway inflation—of manufacturers’ claims of their gliders’ performance. Dennis Pagen, who’d been pondering how to measure glide ratio for some time, conceived a plan to curb this inflation and pro-vide pilots with real-world data to compare perfor-mance. The concept was straightforward: Gather a wide selection of gliders at one site, fly several flights in still air, measure the glide of each glider, compare results.

Dennis selected Morningside for a variety of rea-sons, including its tendency to provide still-air con-ditions well into the morning, its hangar full of the requisite assortment of gliders, the ubiquitous pres-ence of pilots to fly said gliders, and the famed re-trieval system that could get gliders and pilots from LZ to launch in short order, thus allowing numerous flights before wind or thermals spoiled the game.

Jon szarek: I flew the contest each year with/for Rob Kells on the latest gear from Wills Wing. One year we realized that at 6:00 a.m., when the flying began, the ground was really wet and trac-tion was an issue. Rob and I went to the local hard-ware store and bought a box of 5/8” hex screws and screwed them into the soles of our sneakers. This significantly improved traction but the length of the screw was juuuust a little long. At every step we’d get poked in the bottom of the foot by a bed of spikes! We called them “Hang Glidin’ Cruel Shoes.” They must’ve worked—Rob won the contest that year.

The first contest was held in 1988, and the consen-sus was that not only were interesting data collected, but the event was full-on fun, and the participat-ing pilots were, to their surprise, discovering how much they didn’t know about coaxing a bit more glide from their gliders. The event was such a suc-cess that the second Annual Glide Ratio Contest was held in September ‘89, with the addition of a para-glider pilot and several paraglider wings to the mix. Morningside continued to sponsor the Glide Ratio Contest for more than a decade, and Dennis Pagen’s chronicles of the results provide interesting insights into what is now “ancient history” in hang gliding evolution. (Hang Gliding Magazine, October 1988, November 1989, November 1993, November 1997).

Although the Intercollegiate Meet and the Glide Ratio Contest have been relegated to history, Morningside continues to sponsor competitions to entice pilots to push their limits and hone their skills. The Morningside Bounty is a long-standing, ongo-ing challenge that rewards with $200 any pilot who launches from Morningside and flies to the coast.

Jon Szarek recalls the first time he collected the bounty: “I borrowed one of Jeff’s demo gliders, a topless Moyes, and launched, totally dressed for XC with warm clothes and water, but no cover bags, and not a clue on how to break down a topless glider. I arrived at the ocean five hours later with no plan on how to get back. So, naturally, I called Jeff at Morningside and told him where I was. He sighed, expressed relief that his glider and pilot were OK and said he’d make the 2.5-hour drive to come and fetch me. I asked him to bring the glider manual, as I had no idea on how to pack up a topless glider! During that long, late-night drive back to Morningside, I as-sured Jeff he didn’t have to give me the Bounty prize, but true to his word, he did!” Few have collected the $200 Bounty over the years, but even under the new KHK ownership, Jeff’s promise still holds good.”

Paragliding arrived at Morningside in 1992 or ‘93. Jeff first learned to fly paragliders from a French Canadian pilot, and in the mid ‘90s he traveled to Chamonix, France, for further training. Jeff’s six-day syllabus for the P1 rating uses Morningside’s 150’ and 250’ launches to provide training in flat slope

[above] Morningside has been a world class training

facility for many years.


and alpine (forward) launch techniques, as well as lots of kiting practice on the lower training slope. Paragliding instructor Heath Woods estimates that this summer the ratio of hang gliders to paragliders at Morningside has been about 70/30.

Morningside applies the same high standards for paragliding training and quality sales and ser-vice as it does for hang gliding. In addition to basic training for beginner through advanced ratings, Morningside’s paragliding curriculum also includes scooter tow operations, modern training and coach-ing techniques, video analysis, and continuing edu-cation opportunities for parapilots of all skill levels.

LOOkING TO THE FUTURE Now that Morningside Flight Park is part of the Kitty Hawk Kites family, KHK plans to work with The Foundation for Free Flight to place a conser-vation easement on the Morningside property to ensure its long-term use as a site for hang gliding and paragliding.

A Morningside pilot since the very beginning, Jeff Burnett sums up the essence of the deal: “Morningside has been an integral part of the history of hang glid-ing and its offshoots, providing the environment, the equipment and the expertise to help many realize their dream of flying and, some, to achieve World Class status. With Jeff Nicolay’s passing, the cara-biner is handed to John Harris of Kitty Hawk Kites. John has unquestionably the most experience and success of any person in the industry in running a hang gliding flight school. With Morningside under the wing of Kitty Hawk Kites, they will be able to continue that rich history of flight.”

Kitty Hawk Kites’ stated mission is to “teach the world to fly.” And that fits perfectly with what Morningside, the newest member of the KHK family, has been doing so successfully all these years!

Many thanks to everyone who helped me gather material for this article: Mark Forbes’s “USHPA Magazine Archive” proj-

ect produced the DVDs that made searching back issues of hang-gliding-related magazines for articles about Morningside a no-brainer; Jon Szarek really got into reminiscing about the early days and sent me more Morningside anecdotes than I could possibly use—some of the most hilarious ones didn’t make it into this tale, but Jon promises he’ll be sharing them with you sooner rather than later; David Baxter com-piled an excellent collection of newspaper and news-letter articles about Bill Blood and the Intercollegiate meet, back in the day when college students could take hang gliding lessons for credit; Nick Caci found and scanned some of his vintage Morningside photos; Marc Maready provided the 21st century Morningside images. You guys rock!

http://www.ssa.org

Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero48 Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero48 Hang Gliding & Paragliding | www.USHPA.aero48

It is always too hot in Spain in the summer. If you’re not used to it, hiking, or even standing in the sun

for more than five minutes, can mean heat stroke will start to creep in. The FIA El Yelmo 2011 Festival set in Cortijo Nuevos, in the region of Jaén, Spain, is probably the hottest, driest paragliding festival in Europe. It seems only the hardiest olive

trees can survive here. Even most of the small white villages are perched high up in the surrounding mountains, attempt-ing to get out of the heat.

In the almost 100 degrees, I was forced to wear the same Sol team t-shirt three days in a row, when my baggage got lost by the airline. And, despite my spending all day performing acrobatic shows in the sun

in that shirt, they still let me into the bars, even on day three. For this I have to thank the experienced Spanish organizers who took care of the whole “Spain equals hot” equation. Above the open marquee, they arranged an intricate system of hosepipes and mist dispensers that covered every sunny inch of the football stadium-sized space. Cold beer was served from 7am,

El Yelmo 2011FIA

The Hottest, Driest Paragliding Festival

by AnthonyGREEN


and there was a 30-meter swooping pool in the landing zone for pilots to crash into after a hot flight.

Hot flights were exactly what the nearly 15,000 spectators saw, including acrobatic paragliding, wingsuit sky diving, and freestyle paramotor. From early morning until well after the sun went down, adren-aline-charged pilots were performing. There were veteran show pilots—Raul, Horacio, Pablo, Mathieu, Paco, Emilia, and I—as well as a few new faces who were D-bagging from Dani Martinez’s trike this year. Marvin Ogger, Veso Ovcharov, and Lino Oehl came up from Organyà to play. El Yelmo 2011 expanded its repertoire from flight alone, adding an intense 50 km mountain bike rally around the flying area. Without overheat-ing beyond recovery, Nestor Rico Mira hiked and ran up the 970 meter El Yelmo Mountain and flew down in just 1-hour-53-minutes, winning the IV Carrera de Paramontaña (hike and fly competition). Vice champion Mathieu Rouanet took first in the pylon racing/acrobatic mini-freestyle competition.

At about 12pm, when the temperature had risen well past a comfortable level, pilots and festival staff started disappear-ing or retreating into their dark dens for a two-to-three hour siesta, followed by a quick swim in the lake or a dive into an emerald river pool. After the hottest part of the day had passed, piles of bags started to form in front of the entrance to the marquee, and by 6pm the Land Rover 4x4 trucks were making their way up to the

top of El Yelmo. The temperature there is much cooler, but pilots still only need a t-shirt to fly for hours. At 9:30pm, some pilots were still climbing high over the middle of the valley, enjoying the epic glass-off that sets up every evening.

“The glass-off phenomenon,” as fully explained in the book ‘Understanding Flying Weather’ by Derek Piggott,

“occurs in the evening as the wind turns katabatic on the slopes and rushes down-hill and is then forced upwards over the valley center. It is also thought that the ground, which has been heating during the day, cools slower than the air around it and then feeds its retained heat back to

the air, well into the evening. Whatever the cause, there is no denying the exis-tence of this glass-off, evening restitution, or magic lift. It offers easy soaring and huge areas of smooth lifting air for quite some time at the end of the day.” Since El Yelmo is so hot and dry the conditions for this phenomenon to set up are ideal almost every day of the summer.

Once darkness set in and the last pilots landed, the beer flowed, accompanied by salted raw leg of pig. Many went to chill out in front of a huge HD screen show-casing the winners of the International Festival of Cinema in the Air. Lorenzo Montull won Best Film (all categories) and Best Aerial Film with Castillos en el Aire. Dr. Glenn Singleman won Best Adventure Film with No Ceiling, and Fernando Felicioni’s Guardianes del Viento and Anthony Green’s HERB re-ceived Special Mention awards. Shortly after the screenings, a Spanish-style con-cert boomed out through a massive audio system well into the early hours. Mathieu summarized the festival in three words

“volar, siesta, fiesta” and that was exactly how it was.

[opposite] Attacking the El Yelmo festival landing zone [above] Tumbling over the festival. [left] The playful feeling of the festival permeates the town. Photos by Anthony Green.


by C.J. Sturtevant

In the Pacific Northwest, winters tend to be cold and wet, and airtime-de-prived pilots tend to get cranky long

before the next flying season comes around. George and I make a point of escaping to somewhere for some sunshine each winter, either on our own, with a group of friends, or on an organized tour. Here, in chrono-logical order through the wet season, are several of our favorite (so far) international winter destinations.

NOVEMBER: IqUIqUE, CHILEWhen to go: November typically provides the best flying, with winds more consis-tently blowing in rather than cross.

Why here? Iquique is in the Atacama Desert, the driest spot on earth. If you want to escape the rain for certain, this is the place to be! There are options for both ridge soaring on huge sand dunes right next to the ocean, or long XCs in thermals that roll up the dunes and coastal cliffs and will carry tenacious scratchers a hundred miles or more.

Guided or not? We went with Todd

Weigand and Luis Rosenkjer of Atlanta Paragliding, who run annual paragliding tours for pilots ranging from P-2s with no XC experience through advanced pilots with many miles already in their logbooks. There’s also the option of hooking up with a local pilot as a guide, thereby getting the bennies of insider knowledge at less cost than a full-on tour.

A group of NW pilots all highly recom-mend Hernan ([email protected]) as a guide for both flying and tourist activities. The advantage of a guide who knows the area are many, not the least of

SnowbirdingWing

the World with your

mailto:[email protected]



which is clearing passage through con-trolled airspace that sits right smack in the middle of the long-distance XC route.

That being said, there are plenty of pilots who do Iquique totally on their own; hotels in the city are inexpensive and read-ily available, and two excellent flying sites, Palo Buque and Alto Hospicio, are a quick and cheap taxi ride from town. Some pilots snag a taxi driver for the duration of their stay, contacting him each day for the ride to launch and arranging pick-up later in the day. Most of the pilots we met who were on their own were flying exclusively at the two sites close to Iquique, whereas a guide will get you to several launches well beyond the city that are the start point for long XC flights.

HG or PG? Almost every site we flew with our paragliders seems perfectly suited for hang glider launches, landings and soaring, but we didn’t see a single hang glider during our 10 days of flying.

Other things to do: Iquique is not a par-ticularly family-friendly destination; other than at the beach right in the city, there are no trees—in fact, there is not a speck

of vegetation of any kind anywhere along the coast. There are some interesting tour-ist destinations (Humberstone mine, the Giant of the Atacama) farther inland (east), and it’s possible to drive from sea level in Iquique to above 10,000 in the Andes at the border with Bolivia—and back—in a day. Chileans do flock to Iquique for the duty-free shopping, particularly at a huge mall. We checked it out, but weren’t im-pressed.

Our favorite parts of the trip: Eating the local foods is always an essential part of our travels, and we enjoyed excellent meals both in Iquique’s urban restaurants and at tiny food stops alongside the coast road, where the catch of the day was with-out exception delicious and well prepared. Although we were typically clueless about exactly what we were eating, with a lot of charade-like gestures and references to photos hanging on the restaurant walls, we usually had a good idea of what our critter looked like before it was filleted.

George and I had booked this trip to Chile to celebrate our 30th anniversary (“Let’s bag a new continent!”), and cel-ebrate we did, with a 40-mile XC from Chipana, flying within shouting distance of each other almost the entire way, land-ing together and enjoying a group feast at one of those roadside restaurants on our

way “home.” This trip was an anniversary celebration we’ll be smiling about forever!

DECEMBER - MARCH: VALLE DE BRAVO, MEXICOWhen to go: Winter in Valle provides amazingly consistent flying conditions. Hang glider pilots have reported logging airtime on more than 40 consecutive days!

Why here? For us west-coasters, Mexico is close by, and airfare is relatively inexpen-sive. It’s reasonable to do a week-long trip without spending a significant portion of that time on an airplane.

Guided or not? Valle is an easy “do-it-yourself” destination. Food and lodging are cheap and readily available, launches are relatively close by, and since Valle is popular with pilots from around the world, there will always be some eager beaver to launch first and mark thermals. For those who want their vacation time to be fo-cused on flying rather than on the mun-dane details of getting around in a foreign country, there are plenty of guided tours that will take care of all your lodging and transportation needs, as well as provide mentoring and, in some cases, instruction and/or tandem flights for those new or still nervous in big air or going XC. Check the calendar section in the back of every Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine for a list of who’s running a trip that correlates with your vacation time.

Wingthe World [left] Thermal markers along the XC route from Ibituruna,

Brazil. [right] David Salmon kiting at Chipana, Chile, the take-off point for most long XCs. [below] George landing

near Rio Seco, Chile, just a short walk from the ocean.


HG or PG? The two main sites, La Torre and El Peñon del Diablo, are used by both hang gliders and paragliders. Some of the hang gliding tour operators offer op-tions for renting gliders.

Other things to do: You won’t need many no-fly contingency plans in Valle de Bravo, but there are plenty of sightseeing activities nearby to keep the non-flying members of your party occupied. The short list: the Monarch butterfly sanctuary (Valle is directly on the Monarch butterfly migration route—standing amidst a bliz-zard of butterflies is an amazing experi-ence); hikes to waterfalls and the nearby Nevado de Toluca volcano (extinct, or at least dormant since around 1350 BCE); waterplay at the lake adjacent to the La Torre LZ; walking tours and museum visits in the city; browsing the artisan and farmers markets.

Our favorite part of the trip: When we were teachers, our vacations were confined to school breaks, so we had to schedule our paragliding trip to Valle during the week between Christmas and New Years. Mexico City residents flock to Valle for the holidays, and the town was in full celebra-tion mode, with artisan markets and food stalls chockfull of irresistible bargains and treats. Yes, the flying was fun, but experi-encing the Christmas traditions of another culture was priceless.

DECEMBER - MARCH: AUSTRALIAWhen to go: Anytime you get fed up with the winter weather in your neck of the woods. The flying is good, and there are numerous opportunities for participat-ing in comps and fly-ins, all through the Australian summer.

Why here? We went to Australia back in 1996, when I was flying my hang glider in the Women’s World Championships in Victoria, and George was our team batten boy. This amazing country is chockfull of flying opportunities, weird animals and friendly folk, and any excuse for a visit

“down under” will suffice!Guided or not? There are so many

schools, dealers and pilots in Australia that if you’re flying independently at your home

sites you’ll probably get along comfortably enough hooking up with locals and setting up your own tour. Google hang gliding or paragliding Australia, and you’ll find more info than you’ll want to sift through!

HG or PG? A lot of foot launch sites are biwingual. Both hang gliders and para-gliders tow up in the flatlands—you can get your tow endorsement either before you go or in Oz. Davis Straub has a com-prehensive guide to planning a trip to Oz at http://ozreport.com/oz.php. Although geared toward hang pilots, most of the info is relevant to paragliding as well.

Other things to do: “Seeing Australia” on a vacation would be like trying to see the U.S. in a couple of weeks. Whatever your interests, you’ll find something to keep you happily occupied as a tourist in Oz.

Our favorite part of the trip: Soaring low over the gum trees and spotting wal-labies hopping around on the forest floor was pretty cool, as was driving the Great Ocean Road and visiting the national parks and aboriginal cultural sites and museums. We spent our entire month-long stay in Victoria, which leaves 90% of this vast country to explore on future trips.

JANUARY: ECUADORWhen to go: January through April is Ecuador’s “rainy season,” but strangely enough, this is often the best time to fly both the coast and the mountains, as there tends to be more sunshine between showers. Hang gliding comps on the coast are often scheduled for October and

[above] Mt. Buffalo launch, Women’s World Hang Gliding Championships, 1996, Australia. [right] C.J. and Karen soaring at Canoa, Ecuador.

http://ozreport.com/oz.php


November, with mixed success weather-wise. As somebody told us, the only thing predictable about Ecuador’s weather is its unpredictability, so just make plans that fit your schedule and go!

Why here? We chose Ecuador as a para-gliding destination because Kevin Lee of Thermal Tracker Paragliding was leading the trip, and we knew his tour-guide style fits well with our travel preferences. In spite of less-than-stellar flying weather, we thoroughly enjoyed our vacation.

Guided or not? Ecuador is a small country with lots of sites and plenty of pilots, both local and international, so a self-guided tour is a reasonable option. As always, an experienced guide will likely get you to places you’d never know you ought to visit, or wouldn’t have access to with-out insider knowledge. We were impressed that there were official signs indicating the

route to established launches, at least in the Ibarra area.

HG or PG? We didn’t see hang glid-ers either at the coast or in the mountains during our January paragliding trip, but most sites are appropriate for both.

Other things to do: Shop the artisan markets for incredible bargains in well-made clothing and crafts. Visit the na-tional parks. Explore Quito. Check out the Galapagos. Hike in the mountains or the rain forest. The list goes on, with enough options to keep you occupied for as long as you wish to stay.

One of our favorite parts of the trip: Soaking in the hot springs at 10,000’ at Papallacta on our drive from the moun-tains through the cloud forest to the coast.

FEBRUARY - APRIL: GOVERNADOR VALADARES, BRAZILWhen to go: February, March and April typically deliver big, fat, friendly thermals and cloudbase around 6000’ AGL, per-fect conditions for recreational XC flying. If you want stronger thermals and higher cloudbase, August and September provide opportunities for experienced XC pilots with high bump tolerance to rack up the big miles.

Why here: We’d heard only excellent reports of GV from our flying buddies and went with high expectations in January 2007. Unfortunately, we did not have good weather, but as with all flying vacations, the weather is what it is. And as with most flying vacations, you’re in a beautiful place, and there’s plenty to do without leaving the ground.

Guided or not? We went on a guided

paragliding tour with Brad Gunnuscio and Kevin McGinley of Eagle Paragliding and enjoyed the amenities that Eagle tours are famous for. Pilots without transporta-tion can ride the bus that makes regular runs up to the Ibituruna take-off, picking up both hang gliders and paragliders in town and delivering them to launch. The main XC route follows a major road, with easy bus service back to town, although that might be a bit awkward with a hang glider.

Other things to do: In GV there didn’t seem to be a lot to do besides fly, swim in the pool at the pousada, and eat. From fruit smoothies to seemingly infinite pre-sentations of that delicious Brazilian beef, the food was a delight and not expensive. We flew in to and departed from Rio and scheduled several days as tourists there. The weather remained uncooperative for paragliding, but we took a cab up to the Christ the Redeemer statue, and rode the tram to the Sugarloaf for fabulous views of this huge, crowded, mountainous city.

Our favorite part of the trip: Not fa-vorite, but definitely most memorable, was my way-too-close encounter with a huge spider in a field with head-high grass, where I landed after an XC flight.

“Favorite” would have to be the incredibly delicious beef dinners at the churrascaria— just thinking about those skewers of tender, juicy beef and grilled pineapple is making my mouth water!

[above] Brad Gunnuscio launching cross-wind at Ibituruna, Brazil. [below] Getting back from an XC flight in Brazil is part of the adventure!


FEBRUARY: NEPALWhen to go: Those who’ve spent a lot of time in Nepal say February offers the best weather, with light wind, good thermals, little chance of rain, and comfortable tem-peratures.

Why here? Even before we started flying, Nepal was high on our life list of places to see. The allure has always been those big mountains; add in an opportu-nity to do a Parahawking flight as well as fly solo with the vultures near the moun-tains—and an apparent decrease in local political unrest—convinced us that the time was right in 2010.

Guided or not? We chose to do a guided tour with Seattle-area pilot Matty Senior, but the Parahawking base town of Pohkara is perfectly set up to accom-modate pilots traveling on their own. Taxi service to launches and from landing spots is cheap and easily arranged. One advan-tage we had as part of a guided group was the option of traveling to sites outside taxi range. Our three-day catered camping trip to Sirkot ridge was an adventure, with new opportunities for XC flying and delicious meals of Nepali specialities expertly pre-pared by our local cooks.

HG or PG? We saw only paraglid-ers during our stay in both Pokhara and Sirkot, but all the launches looked hang glider friendly, and there are plenty of open areas where a hang glider could land. Transporting a hang glider on a taxi could be challenging, however…

Other things to do: We spent a couple of days in Kathmandu, and although the city is full of interesting historical and cul-tural sites, we were put off by the third-world grime and crowds and were glad to escape to the mountains. In and around Pokhara are lots of hiking options, and it’s easy to arrange trips farther afield. George and I arranged a surprisingly inexpensive three-day tour to Chitwan National Park, a side trip we’d both highly recommend.

Our favorite part of the trip: The whole trip was fabulous! A day of serious rain early on cleared the smog from the air, and our Agni Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara was breathtakingly beautiful.

[top left] Egyptian vulture Kevin coming in for a landing on C.J.’s gauntlet in Nepal. [top right] Soaring with the vultures in Nepal. [bottom] Bob ridge-soaring the Netanya bluffs in Israel.


Every one of our flights was five-star scenic, and joining the vultures in the thermals was really cool. If I had to pick one high-light, it’d probably be luring the vultures to perch on my arm and take food from my hand on my tandem Parahawking flight.

MARCH: ISRAELWhen to go: Late March is ideal: The rainy season is over, but it’s not yet killer hot, it’s too early for most tourists, and the north-ern part of the country is cloaked in bril-liantly colored wildflowers

Why here? For us, this was a spur-of-the-moment opportunity to escape an un-usually dismal winter, but we’d definitely go back, both for the flying and for the historic and cultural experiences.

Guided or not? We were fortunate to have informal guide service from a couple of friends who’d made several previous paragliding trips to Israel, but there’s lots of information about sites available online, so a do-it-yourself trip shouldn’t be over-whelmingly challenging. The pilots listed

as in-country contacts in my article in the August issue of HG&PG magazine will point you in the right direction—or offer to accompany you!—for the day’s best flying!

HG or PG? We flew with both at the inland sites. The coastal sites seemed to be solely paragliding, perhaps because there wasn’t much beach for landing, if topland-ing wasn’t an option.

Other things to do: This tiny country is so full of historical and cultural signifi-cance that we were bummed not to have planned at least a week for just sightsee-ing. Israel is definitely a good choice for a family vacation that includes flying!

Our favorite part of the trip: Our daily stop at the local falafel stand. Or maybe it was the wildflowers, or soaring the bluffs a couple hundred feet above the Mediterranean, or climbing to cloudbase over Mt. Tabor, or our too-short visit to Jerusalem… Among all our favorite travel destinations, Israel is currently on the top of our gotta-go-back-here list.

2012USHPA Calendars

Find out in the

Where on earth IS THIS?

USHPERKS As a USHPA member, you have access to some perks that help

offset the costs of international travel. If you want cushy accommodations

while staying in a city, Intercontinental Hotels gives a 10% discount to members.

Use corporate ID#100287797 and rate code IL6US; find them on the web at

http://ichotelsgroup.com/redirectbrandCode=IHG&regionCode=1&localeCode

=en&corporateNumber=100287797&rateCode=IL6U5.

Dealing with an injury in a distant or third world country and getting home

when you’re hurting can be an ordeal. USHPA members receive a significant

discount: $45 individual/$60 family on MedJetAssist emergency medical evac-

uation (http://www.medjetassist.com/), or a 10% discount on GEOS Medivac+

(http://www.geosalliance.com/medivac.html).

A friend’s experience getting home after spending time in an Israeli hospital

with broken ribs seems to suggest that it’s a good idea to set up your repa-

triation flight before being discharged from the hospital. Once you’re out, it

appears to the insurance company that you’re good to go, and they may not

cover a change in return date or an upgrade to first class.

When it comes to making airline reservations, finding accommodations,

locating local pilots or learning about sites, surfing around on the web can

uncover surprising bargains and interesting insights about your destination.

Viewing sites on Google Earth is almost as good as a fly-over orientation! Davis

Straub’s Oz Report site guide (http://ozreport.com/sites.php) includes a wealth

of information on flying in Australia and other areas where he’s traveled with his

hang glider.

USHPA’s easily searchable magazine archive disks contain a wealth of pilots’

perspectives on the popular flying destinations, as well as useful travel info,

such as how to short-pack your hang glider for airline transport. The DVD set

is being updated as I write this in August, and should be available through the

USHPA store this fall.

$15.00www.ushpa.aero/store

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http://www.medjetassist.com/

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http://ozreport.com/sites.php


by DennisPAGEN

Hang Gliding

Part IIIFinishing School


seTuP ProBLeMsWe offer another nugget for all past, pres-ent and future Hang II—Novice—pilots.

Over the globe there are no doubt more than 100,000 setups that take place every year. That’s a lot

of batten stuffing, pin pushing, sprog at-taching, tip inserting and haulback fixing going on. Even on the simplest glider, there are at least 20 operations required in setup, so we’re talking more than 20 million ways to do something wrong on an annual basis. Despite this eye-opening number, by far, almost every setup is flawless. But every once in a while, little gremlins creep in to monkey wrench the process of the unwary.

This month’s installment of our early pilot guide is about what can go wrong and what to do when you detect some-thing wrong. The more you know about potential problems, the more alert you will be to catching and avoiding them. We will not talk much about what to do if you take off with these problems in evidence—that’s for another article—but we will mention what the effects are. We assume your pre-flight will catch most of these problems, but it doesn’t always. To help provide the right mindset, we’ll start with my favorite cliché: “A word to the wise is sufficient.”

SLIP HAPPENSOk, you’re human; sometimes you futz up. Maybe you missed a batten on your last breakdown and find you’re one short when the wind is coming in on a perfect day. What to do? The answer is noth-ing fun. You cannot fly missing a batten. Break down, and rather than drown your sorrows in evil alcohol, offer to drive a car down, then head to your last landing field ASAP to see if you can find the errant batten. BUT, you can easily avoid such an occurrence by simply counting your bat-tens as you put them away EVERY time, on every breakdown. If you follow this smart procedure you’ll avoid a world of hurt. If you can’t find your missing batten it will probably be weeks and $$$ before you get another. A word to the wise…

While we’re talking battens, here are a few other problems: broken battens, broken batten tips, and broken batten ties. We deal with them according to the McGyver method. If you break a batten on setup you may still be able to fly. (Usually it was stressed in a bad landing or breakdown mishap, so inspection of battens after such an event can help avoid a setup crisis.) I have fixed many a batten for pilots on takeoff with a straight rod inserted inside the batten with tape (fiber or our old friend duct) around the outside of the batten. Even on the curved portion this system works. The rod can be a solid stick, a piece of antenna or a pen (for large diameter battens). My favorite batten-fix-ing rod is a large nail. Leave the head on and wrap tape around the shaft until it just fits inside the batten, then wrap tape on the outside to hold the two pieces of batten together. (You may have to bend out or tap out any bends in the batten at the break in order to get a tight fit of the rod. Use the unwrapped rod to insert inside the batten to help fix its shape). If the head is too big to fit inside the batten; not a problem. Just find a flat rock and start grinding around the outside of the head by rubbing it on the rock while turn-ing the nail. The main idea is to get the two parts of the batten aligned in flight. When the repaired batten is in place, usu-ally the battens on either side of it hold the sail shape properly. If you cannot get the batten to be reasonably shaped in the first 25% of the area from the nose to tail, you probably shouldn’t fly.

The next problem—a broken batten tip or flip—can usually be dealt with on

launch (we’re assuming you don’t have an extra in your bag of tricks). The most critical battens are at the tip—say the last three outboard. So if one of those have a broken tip, you can borrow one from the innermost batten. You won’t notice the difference in flight—guaranteed. If you have a tip batten with the Y-shaped tips to accept a batten ties, you can’t replace it with a flip tip. I have seen setup area repairs of such a broken tip done with a forked stick inserted in the batten end. Sometimes you will have a problem get-ting the broken tip out. But that’s why the Swiss invented army knives. You do have one stashed away in your drive up vehicle, don’t you?

Broken batten ties are most common out at the tips, because that is the area that gets the highest tie tension, and the tips often drag on the ground and wear the cord out. You could replace this tip tie with one from the number one batten, but often the interior ties aren’t as beefy as the tip tie. The usual repair here is to use a shoelace. It works for a flight or two. Be sure to tuck the excess shoelace length up in the tie so it doesn’t catch on anything during launch.

TUBE OR NOT TO BE On a hang glider, usually physical damage leads directly to fiscal damage—as in erosion of your bank account. Have you priced control bar uprights lately? Forget about leading edges, unless you have a child to sell on the black market. But slight bends in both of these items may be repaired on launch.

Most likely, a bend in an upright oc-[left] Dockweiler Beach, California | Photo by Bob Bendetson.


curred during your last landing, or several landings ago(!). DO NOT fly with bent uprights. In flight they are in compres-sion, so any bend seriously compromises their strength. You can fix a slight bend in an upright (slight means about 1 tube diameter out of straight, at the most). The best way to do this repair is with the glider set up and the keel on the ground. In this condition, the upright is well supported. Now, place your hands at the bend and push in the direction to straighten the tube. Usually this direction is inward, but if the tube is somehow bent inward you’ll have to pull. The sharper the bend, the closer you’ll have to have your two hands together, as shown in figure 1. If the bend is gradual, spread your hands apart, as shown. For a slight bend, use gentle pres-sure. For a greater or sharper bend you should push hard with a sudden force.

Bent leading edges are another matter. Usually they are due to a land-ing mishap—you do a ground loop or hit a solid object. In any case, you should inspect your glider after such a landing. In general, you can’t detect a bent lead-ing edge when the glider is set up unless it is bent quite a bit. That’s because the sail tension and weight bends the leading edge anyway and it is hard to sight the left and right leading edges to make a

comparison. However, if your glider gets flipped at launch and you suspect a bent leading edge, it is possible to fix—with a bit of effort and expert experience. The place a leading edge bends on a modern glider is on the outboard tube (the one furthest out from center) right where it plugs into the inboard leading edge tube. A bend may be very slight and hard to see, even if the outboard tube is pulled out. So, the only way to truly sight for a leading edge bend and actually straighten a bend is to pull the entire leading edge. This job requires tools (wrenches and maybe a screw driver) and experience (there are several ways to get cables and sail ties wrong during the replacement of the lead-ing edge). That being said, I have straight-ened several leading edges for newer pilots on launch at fly-ins when we were waiting for the winds. But don’t expect to get your glider fixed at launch when the conditions are a go and pilots are launching. It’s your turn to drive.

There’s one more launch fixer-upper: that’s a small sail tear in the forward 1/4 of the sail (near the leading edge, not the trailing edge). There is more tension in the trailing edge, so a tear in this area re-quires a serious inlay of sail material sewn in place. But a small tear—say two inches or less in length—can be repaired with

any sort of well-sticking tape. Duct tape is the old standby, although a good qual-ity clear packing tape is my choice. A new sail tape known as Tenacious tape (avail-able at outdoor stores) is probably the best choice. When making such a repair, make sure the sail is clean, and round the cor-ners of the tape patch for best permanent application.

FUGGITABOUTITSometimes you can’t fight fate, or even city hall. There are certainly things that go wrong on launch to the point you have to forget about it—flying, that is. You can’t fix seriously bent tubes (see above) and especially leading edges without tools. You can’t fix dented tubes. The bent and dented repair prohibition applies espe-cially to crossbars since they are in high compression in flight.

You can’t do an ad hoc launch repair of a seriously torn sail, especially if it’s torn near the trailing edge. You can’t fix a broken fiberglass tip wand. You can’t fix a seriously bent bolt or cut flying cable. You can’t fix a blown zipper unless you can feed the closure device back to the start (flying with a sprog or center zipper open would seriously affect your control). And you can’t fix a missing essential part (tip strut, tip wand, batten, corner pin, nut,

http://www.lazerlink.com/~pagenbks


safety ring, etc.). Some manufacturers supply a little bag of little parts with their new gliders. It behooves you (me, us) to have these parts in our flying kit. You never know when a safety ring or pin will go zinging off into the bushes. A word to the wise…

SETUP AIR-ERRSTo complete our compleat guide to launch setup woes, here is a list of things that can go wrong–and will–if Murphy has any-thing to say about it.

kinked caBLes: A fairly common error is having cables kinked at the corner of the control bar. In this case the thim-ble hooks improperly through the tang. Another place this can happen is where the rear cables (upper or lower) meet the keel. If you feel it is difficult to pull back your crossbar to attach it at the keel, never force it. Inspect the cables; often the prob-lem is a kinked one. If you find a kinked cable, loosen everything up. Bring the wings in a little (for a side cable) or un-latch the front cables (for a kinked rear cable). If the thimble is a little bent (which means you forced the crossbar haulback), you can still fly with it, but if the thimble is too bent or popped out of the cable, you can’t fly without a repair.

Loose TiP wands: On curved tip glid-ers it is possible to insert the tip wand and not get it all the way in. As soon as the wand is curved to attach the end, friction keeps it where it is. The result will be a turn in flight. You probably can’t detect this problem in your pre-flight inspection, so avoid it by always feeling the wand clunk against the stop when you insert it and making sure you don’t pull it out a bit when you slide on the end cap.

unziPPed sProgs: Newer gliders have sprogs that must be put in place and zipped in the sail (usually for double surface gliders). Don’t forget to close the zipper or you will have a seriously unhap-py turn in flight.

hooked refLex BridLes: Older glid-ers and some single-surface gliders have reflex bridles. An occasional problem with these items is they get hooked under a batten during setup. If one side gets hooked you will have a bad turn in flight. If both sides get hooked it will be like an up elevator on a plane and the glider will have a tendency to stall. The best way to

avoid such a mistake is to be sure reflex bridles are a redline item on your pre-flight. Also make sure they are free when you attach them.

foLded MyLar: On a few occasions I have seen folded Mylar (the leading edge inserts on some gliders). This mistake typically happens when inserting a batten with a fairly strong wind blowing on the rear of the sail. It normally occurs only with the inner three battens. A Mylar fold at only one batten can be very noticeable in flight and will cause a glider to stall in a turn on that side. It can be very mysteri-ous to the inexperienced. The fold may be quite small and barely show and still have such an effect. Look for it near the highest point of the batten—it will show up as a slight bulge in the sail. To fix it, pull the batten back and straighten out the Mylar (you may need to insert your hand inside the sail from the nose), then hold it down while someone gently pushes the batten back in. You may need to pull the Mylar out later to flatten out the crease that will be formed by the original bend.

MisfiT TiP sTruT: Some double sur-face gliders have tip washout struts that insert in a hole in the leading edge along with a straight tip batten that inserts into a plug on the leading edge. The tip batten sits above the tip strut and thus is prevent-ed from moving down beyond a certain point (the effect is to assure a minimum wing twist or washout for pitch stability). It is possible on some gliders to get the tip batten under the washout strut. The result is a possible uncontrollable turn in flight. This setup mistake can happen when set-ting up in a strong tail wind that blows the tip down. Avoid it by inserting the batten above the sprog and inspecting the tip area carefully if you have a glider with this type of arrangement.

While there are many operations involved in setting up a glider, there are only a few ways to

really go wrong. Hopefully this little review clues you in on most of them. Be careful setting up and keep your glider in good shape. Oh yeah, don’t forget the pre-flight inspection, and now you know some of the lesser-known things to look for. Finally, we have a sufficient word (or two) to be wise.


GALLERY | Frank Fleishmann

61

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

- Henry David Thoreau

by Craig Papworth

It’s been six summers since I first met Frank Fleishmann on the Tegelberg launch high above

Neuschwanstein Castle. I had just begun working for a flight school, flying tandem paragliders over that fairytale castle in Southern Bavaria, Germany, and had begun living my own flying dream.

My first impression of Frank was that he was living his dream. The large Nikon dangling from his neck and the glider on his back gave away part of his story. Frank was easy to talk with; we quickly struck up a friendship based on our flying experiences and places we had both traveled to.

Frank told me he had begun his flying career by flying sailplanes and hang gliders back when hang gliders first appeared in Germany. Consequently, he knew most of the flying pioneers of the 70’s.

I recently bumped into Frank in Fuessen (the village near Neuschwanstein Castle). When I an-nounced that my partner, Christa, and

For information about these photos,

including where they were shot,

check out Fleishmann's book at

http://frank-fleischmann-foto.de/

I had been married the week before, he smiled and said he had a suitable gift for us. We were led to the back of his camper from which he extracted an impressive hard-cover book en-titled: Dreams Flying with the Sun.

Frank had created this! Thirty thousand photos and thousands of flights later, he had published his book and was now on a self-promotion tour, retracing his steps in Europe and the world over, stopping along the way to share the fruits of his labor of love.

That evening, Christa and I and some flying friends got together and pored over the pages of our gift. We were awestruck. Frank had captured a well of emotion in his photographs.

We’ve all experienced moments of flying bliss, delicious places in time where everything is exquisitely perfect. Frank Fleischmann’s photo book, Dreams Flying with the Sun, is certain to remind any pilot of the sheer mag-nificence of our sport and the nature we drink in around us. It is bound to conjure up one’s own flying bliss from the past and provide inspiration with its breathtaking beauty.

For more information on Flesihman’s book go to

http://frank-fleischmann-foto.de/


HANG GLIDINGRTNG REGN NAME CITY STATE RATING OFFICIAL

H-1 1 Stas Zabolotny Kent WA Jeff BeckH-1 1 Blake Richards Hood River OR Patrick DenevanH-1 1 Jud Hobbs Oak Harbor WA Alan PaylorH-1 2 Michael Meier Dublin CA David YountH-1 2 Ben Reese San Martin CA Patrick DenevanH-1 2 Ronald Nevels Antioch CA John SimpsonH-1 2 Christoph Abe San Francisco CA John SimpsonH-1 2 Jose Caetano De Castro Hecht Gilroy CA David YountH-1 2 Dmitry Lepikhin Mountain View CA Eric HinrichsH-1 2 Adam Cole San Jose CA Eric HinrichsH-1 3 Aaron Levinson Los Angeles CA Greg DewolfH-1 4 Gary Pavkov Phoenix AZ Mark KnightH-1 4 Scott Shroyer Peyton CO Tracy TillmanH-1 4 Lindsay (neal) Oberg Salt Lake City UT Shadd HeastonH-1 5 Steven Gertiser Bozeman MT Jeff ShapiroH-1 5 Lee Collins Boise ID David YountH-1 5 Patrick Mccaffrey Boise ID Alan PaylorH-1 5 Donald Mccue Emigrant MT Alan PaylorH-1 6 Mohammad Akand Edmond OK Gordon CayceH-1 6 Stephen Longmeyer Pleasant Hill MO Gordon CayceH-1 7 Matthew Geisler Janesville WI Gordon CayceH-1 7 Jerry Geisler Janesville WI Gordon CayceH-1 7 Sam Shroyer Muncie IN Tracy TillmanH-1 7 Stanley Shroyer Muncie IN Tracy TillmanH-1 8 Robert Stewart Ii Pelham MA Paul VoightH-1 8 Griffin Ian Hochstetter Sharon CT Greg BlackH-1 8 James Picton Falls Village CT Greg BlackH-1 8 Joel Bishop Woburn MA Dean SlocumH-1 9 Ryan Tosto Boalsburg PA Randy GroveH-1 9 Charles Davis Lebanon Jct KY Gordon CayceH-1 9 Matt Young Woodbridge VA Gordon CayceH-1 9 Mike Zasadil Silver Spring MD Michael AppelH-1 9 Joshua Mazzoni York PA Robert MorrellH-1 10 Roland Brown Macon GA Matthew TaberH-1 10 Sebastian Pardo Key Biscayne FL James TindleH-1 10 Evan Nighthawk Palm Beach Gardens FL Jennifer CoppleH-1 10 Justin (blake) Lance Gainesville GA Gordon CayceH-1 10 Sthithaprajna Garapaty Alpharetta GA Gordon CayceH-1 10 Daniel Browning Attalla AL Gordon CayceH-1 10 Daniel Asher Burnsville NC Gordon CayceH-1 11 Taylor Jordan Jasper TX Gordon CayceH-1 11 Mike Voth Austin TX Jeffrey HuntH-1 11 Alex Brewer San Antonio TX Zack MarzecH-1 11 Eric Garrett Austin TX Jeffrey HuntH-1 11 Reed Hutchison Dallas TX Gordon CayceH-1 11 Michael Yager Austin TX Jeffrey HuntH-1 11 Robert Parker Deer Park TX Jeffrey HuntH-1 11 Cade Parker Deer Park TX Jeffrey HuntH-1 12 Christopher Turner Pittsford NY Moritz WagnerH-1 12 James Wolff Union NJ Gordon CayceH-1 12 Christopher Cormier Cochecton NY Greg BlackH-1 12 Chris Loyd Rockaway NJ Greg BlackH-2 1 Stas Zabolotny Kent WA Jeff BeckH-2 1 Blake Richards Hood River OR Patrick DenevanH-2 2 Ben Reese San Martin CA Patrick DenevanH-2 2 Robert Booth Vallejo CA Eric HinrichsH-2 2 Keenan Pepper Berkeley CA Barry LevineH-2 2 Christoph Abe San Francisco CA John SimpsonH-2 3 Aaron Levinson Los Angeles CA Greg DewolfH-2 4 Gary Pavkov Phoenix AZ Mark KnightH-2 4 Lindsay (neal) Oberg Salt Lake City UT Shadd HeastonH-2 5 Steven Gertiser Bozeman MT Jeff ShapiroH-2 5 Donald Mccue Emigrant MT Alan PaylorH-2 6 Mohammad Akand Edmond OK Gordon CayceH-2 6 Stephen Longmeyer Pleasant Hill MO Gordon CayceH-2 7 Matthew Geisler Janesville WI Gordon CayceH-2 7 Jerry Geisler Janesville WI Gordon Cayce

J U L Y | 2 0 1 1 RATINGS

69

DON’T MISS OUT.RENEW ONLINE.

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take advantage of online renewals

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Initiative. Online renewal is only

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members will not have access to

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PARAGLIDING

HANG GLIDING (continued)

RTNG REGN NAME CITY STATE RATING OFFICIAL


P-1 1 Lenard Leslie Freeland WA Douglas StroopP-1 1 Mike Canifax Port OR Brad HillP-1 1 Zachary Carbo Lakewood WA Chris SantacroceP-1 1 Heather Koon Swanson Maple Falls WA Jaromir LahulekP-1 1 Leif Swanson Maple Falls WA Jaromir LahulekP-1 1 Ralph Turman Seattle WA Marc ChiricoP-1 1 Mark Canifax Camas WA Brad HillP-1 1 Jeff Weimar Renton WA Marc ChiricoP-1 1 Chris Irish Kirkland WA Marc ChiricoP-1 1 Paul Bezilla Anchorage AK Peter GautreauP-1 1 Alan Roberts Eagle Point OR Samuel CrockerP-1 1 Scott Steele Bend OR Mike SteenP-1 1 Matthew Huntington Bremerton WA Douglas StroopP-1 1 Kevin Nichols Portland OR Kelly KellarP-1 1 Travis Bonnet Wasilla AK Frank SihlerP-1 1 Lee Overton Seattle WA Denise ReedP-1 1 Roger Graham Kirkland WA Marc ChiricoP-1 1 Christopher Boeger Tumwater WA Douglas StroopP-1 1 Daniel Wilkinson Anchorage AK Bruce Kirk


P-1 1 Randy Lewis Kirkland WA Denise ReedP-1 2 Theodore Rassieur Reno NV Mitchell NearyP-1 2 Johnathan Nordstrom San Jose CA Justin BoerP-1 2 Joe Andolina San Francisco CA Gever TulleyP-1 2 Rachel Nanni San Francisco CA Julie SpieglerP-1 2 Mark Grismer Sebastopol CA Wallace AndersonP-1 2 Thomas Gerber San Francisco CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-1 2 Erik De Jong San Francisco CA Klaus SchlueterP-1 2 William Beuck Fpo AP Mike SteenP-1 2 George Bristow Oakdale CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-1 2 Joseph Breen Santa Ynez CA Rob SporrerP-1 2 T Cooper Bethea San Francisco CA Klaus SchlueterP-1 2 Elizabeth Mackey San Francisco CA Klaus SchlueterP-1 2 Keith Cloutier South Lake Tahoe CA Mitchell NearyP-1 2 Jeremy Vaughn Fresno CA Rob SporrerP-1 2 Celine Richard Saratoga CA Klaus SchlueterP-1 2 Eiji Kobayashi Hillsborough CA Klaus SchlueterP-1 2 James Feil Santa Clara CA Andy MacraeP-1 2 Rick Lewis San Luis Obispo CA Hugh MurphyP-1 3 Kiarash Karimi Los Angeles CA Bruce KirkP-1 3 John Vaughn Lemoore CA Rob SporrerP-1 3 Charles Bedell Haiku HI David (dexter) BinderP-1 3 Richard Lemoine San Diego CA Rob SporrerP-1 3 John Earney San Diego CA Rob SporrerP-1 3 Gavin Fridlund Long Beach CA Magno De BarrosP-1 3 Rob Newlin Menifee CA Rob SporrerP-1 4 Tyson Reed Santa Fe NM Charles WoodsP-1 4 Gary Waterman Frisco CO Etienne PienaarP-1 4 Caroline Kidd Lewis Pagosa Springs CO Jonathan JefferiesP-1 4 Michael Walterman Midvale UT Mike SteenP-1 4 Sharon Daivs Farmington UT Jonathan JefferiesP-1 4 J Mark Wirthlin Sandy UT Kevin HintzeP-1 4 Jacob Hampton Midvale UT Mike SteenP-1 4 Charles Rang Boulder CO Granger BanksP-1 4 Brian Jones Ft Collins CO Andy MacraeP-1 4 Andrei Simon Snowmass Village CO Etienne PienaarP-1 4 Amy Paquette-nelson Thornton CO Granger BanksP-1 4 Attaya Joseph Ogden UT David HanningP-1 5 Chris Mathies Bozeman MT Andy MacraeP-1 5 Jason Griffiths Jackson WY Trey HackneyP-1 5 Drew Rush Jackson WY Scott HarrisP-1 7 Chad Bohannan Albertville MN Andy MacraeP-1 9 Mert Kacmaz Cinncinnati OH M Can GulP-1 9 Krista Auchenbacn Arlington VA Peter HumesP-1 10 Paul Clarke Atlanta GA Kay TauscherP-1 10 James Giancola Pensacola FL Steve SirrineP-1 10 Pawel Bekasz Roswell GA Luis RosenkjerP-1 10 John Zuliani Palm Beach Gardens FL David BroylesP-1 10 Edward Lyon Columbia SC David HanningP-1 10 Eric Carter Miami FL Kevin HintzeP-1 11 Jennifer La Combe Northlake TX Bill HeanerP-1 11 Cory Prostebby Houston TX Anthony (bud) WruckP-1 11 Denell Mcclure Lake Jackson TX Anthony (bud) WruckP-1 12 Andrey Hermawan West Orange NJ Terry BonoP-1 13 Serge Feller Dubai Bruce KirkP-1 13 Lorian Campbell-clause Naivasha Max MarienP-1 13 Jeff Andrade Woodbridge, Ont David BroylesP-1 13 Drew Sagar Vancouver, Bc Charles (chuck) SmithP-1 13 Russell Smalley Vancouver, Bc Dion VukP-1 13 Jeff Neale Langley, Bc Dion VukP-1 13 Benjamin Silva Cuevas Villa De Alvarez Miguel GutierrezP-1 13 Mark Carter Coquitlam, Bc Dion VukP-2 1 Lenard Leslie Freeland WA Douglas StroopP-2 1 Zachary Carbo Lakewood WA Chris SantacroceP-2 1 Heather Koon Swanson Maple Falls WA Jaromir LahulekP-2 1 Leif Swanson Maple Falls WA Jaromir LahulekP-2 1 Jeff Weimar Renton WA Marc ChiricoP-2 1 Alan Roberts Eagle Point OR Samuel CrockerP-2 1 Scott Steele Bend OR Mike SteenP-2 1 Matthew Huntington Bremerton WA Douglas Stroop

H-2 8 Robert Stewart Ii Pelham MA Paul VoightH-2 9 Michael Stevens Effort PA Randy GroveH-2 9 Charles Davis Lebanon Jct KY Gordon CayceH-2 9 Matt Young Woodbridge VA Gordon CayceH-2 10 Roland Brown Macon GA Matthew TaberH-2 10 Sebastian Pardo Key Biscayne FL James TindleH-2 10 Andy Thompson Harrellsville NC Thomas (tj) BaumannH-2 10 Alexis Marion Kill Devil Hills NC H Bruce Weaver IiiH-2 10 Evan Nighthawk Palm Beach Gardens FL Jennifer CoppleH-2 10 Justin (blake) Lance Gainesville GA Gordon CayceH-2 10 Sthithaprajna Garapaty Alpharetta GA Gordon CayceH-2 10 Daniel Browning Attalla AL Gordon CayceH-2 10 Daniel Asher Burnsville NC Gordon CayceH-2 11 Taylor Jordan Jasper TX Gordon CayceH-2 11 Reed Hutchison Dallas TX Gordon CayceH-2 12 Martin Hughes Livonia NY Paul ShultzH-2 12 Timothy Higgins Jr Altamont NY Daniel GuidoH-2 12 Timothy Alimossy Hammondsport NY Paul ShultzH-2 12 Christopher Turner Pittsford NY Moritz WagnerH-2 12 James Wolff Union NJ Gordon CayceH-3 1 Blake Richards Hood River OR Patrick DenevanH-3 2 Ben Reese San Martin CA Patrick DenevanH-3 2 Michael Lichterman Berkeley CA Barry LevineH-3 2 Brent Sumner Los Gatos CA Harold JohnsonH-3 2 Karen Meyer Los Gatos CA Harold JohnsonH-3 2 Joseph Villaflor Daly City CA Eves Tall ChiefH-3 2 Richard Sibley Sunnyvale CA Harold JohnsonH-3 3 Kevin Lamkin Santa Barbara CA Zac MajorsH-3 4 Eric Tucker Tucson AZ Eric SmithH-3 4 Gary C Riding Santaquin UT Ryan VoightH-3 4 Cameron Winters Durango CO Charles GlantzH-3 5 Seth Warren Missoula MT Malcolm JonesH-3 7 Brian Deimling Haslett MI Tracy TillmanH-3 8 Robert Stewart Ii Pelham MA Paul VoightH-3 8 Daniel Boocks Derby CT Bryon EstesH-3 8 Peter Cassidy Putney VT Robert ReynoldsH-3 9 Paul Mazzoni York PA Jon ThompsonH-4 2 Ben Reese San Martin CA Patrick DenevanH-4 3 Steve File Jr Palmdale CA Malcolm JonesH-4 3 Wayne Craft Santa Barbara CA Zac MajorsH-4 3 Brian Mcmahon San Diego CA Rod MitchellH-4 8 Robert Stewart Ii Pelham MA Paul VoightH-4 8 Jean-joseph Cote Lunenburg MA Keith BeebeH-4 10 Louis Di Valentin Clewiston FL James TindleH-4 12 Amy Roseboom Richfield Springs NY Daniel Guido


J U L Y | 2 0 1 1 RATINGSRTNG REGN NAME CITY STATE RATING OFFICIAL RTNG REGN NAME CITY STATE RATING OFFICIAL

P-2 1 Kevin Nichols Portland OR Kelly KellarP-2 1 Travis Bonnet Wasilla AK Frank SihlerP-2 1 Lee Overton Seattle WA Denise ReedP-2 1 Christopher Boeger Tumwater WA Douglas StroopP-2 1 Daniel Wilkinson Anchorage AK Bruce KirkP-2 1 Randy Lewis Kirkland WA Denise ReedP-2 2 Norman (scott) Macleod Walnut Creek CA Wallace AndersonP-2 2 Johnathan Nordstrom San Jose CA Justin BoerP-2 2 Ryan Ollenburger Watsonville CA Klaus SchlueterP-2 2 Joe Andolina San Francisco CA Gever TulleyP-2 2 Rachel Nanni San Francisco CA Julie SpieglerP-2 2 Saami Siddiqui San Francisco CA Klaus SchlueterP-2 2 Thomas Gerber San Francisco CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-2 2 Erik De Jong San Francisco CA Klaus SchlueterP-2 2 William Beuck Fpo AP Mike SteenP-2 2 George Bristow Oakdale CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-2 2 Joseph Breen Santa Ynez CA Rob SporrerP-2 2 Jeremy Vaughn Fresno CA Rob SporrerP-2 2 Celine Richard Saratoga CA Klaus SchlueterP-2 2 James Feil Santa Clara CA Andy MacraeP-2 2 Rick Lewis San Luis Obispo CA Hugh MurphyP-2 3 Joseph Page La Jolla CA Max MarienP-2 3 Kiarash Karimi Los Angeles CA Bruce KirkP-2 3 John Shea La Mesa CA Max MarienP-2 3 John Vaughn Lemoore CA Rob SporrerP-2 3 Charles Bedell Haiku HI David (dexter) BinderP-2 3 Richard Lemoine San Diego CA Rob SporrerP-2 3 John Earney San Diego CA Rob SporrerP-2 3 Gavin Fridlund Long Beach CA Magno De BarrosP-2 3 Rob Newlin Menifee CA Rob SporrerP-2 4 Tyson Reed Santa Fe NM Charles WoodsP-2 4 John Harlow Vail CO Thomas KeoughP-2 4 Craig Davis Tempe AZ Chandler PapasP-2 4 Gary Waterman Frisco CO Etienne PienaarP-2 4 Caroline Kidd Lewis Pagosa Springs CO Jonathan JefferiesP-2 4 Michael Walterman Midvale UT Mike SteenP-2 4 Sharon Daivs Farmington UT Jonathan JefferiesP-2 4 J Mark Wirthlin Sandy UT Kevin HintzeP-2 4 Jacob Hampton Midvale UT Mike SteenP-2 4 Charles Rang Boulder CO Granger BanksP-2 4 Brian Jones Ft Collins CO Andy MacraeP-2 4 Amy Paquette-nelson Thornton CO Granger BanksP-2 4 Attaya Joseph Ogden UT David HanningP-2 5 Chris Mathies Bozeman MT Andy MacraeP-2 5 Jason Griffiths Jackson WY Trey HackneyP-2 5 Drew Rush Jackson WY Scott HarrisP-2 7 Chad Bohannan Albertville MN Andy MacraeP-2 8 Eduardo Garza Goffstown NH Benoit BruneauP-2 9 Mert Kacmaz Cinncinnati OH M Can GulP-2 9 Krista Auchenbacn Arlington VA Peter HumesP-2 10 James Giancola Pensacola FL Steve SirrineP-2 10 Pawel Bekasz Roswell GA Luis RosenkjerP-2 10 John Zuliani Palm Beach Gardens FL David BroylesP-2 10 Edward Lyon Columbia SC David HanningP-2 10 Eric Carter Miami FL Kevin HintzeP-2 11 Jennifer La Combe Northlake TX Bill HeanerP-2 11 Michael Sainz Plano TX Ron KohnP-2 11 Cory Prostebby Houston TX Anthony (bud) WruckP-2 11 Denell Mcclure Lake Jackson TX Anthony (bud) WruckP-2 12 Andrey Hermawan West Orange NJ Terry BonoP-2 13 Dr Joseph Will Q Roo Miguel GutierrezP-2 13 Serge Feller Dubai Bruce KirkP-2 13 Lorian Campbell-clause Naivasha Max MarienP-2 13 Jeff Andrade Woodbridge, Ont David BroylesP-2 13 Drew Sagar Vancouver, Bc Charles (chuck) SmithP-2 13 Russell Smalley Vancouver, Bc Dion VukP-2 13 Jeff Neale Langley, Bc Dion VukP-2 13 Benjamin Silva Cuevas Villa De Alvarez Miguel GutierrezP-2 13 Mark Carter Coquitlam, Bc Dion VukP-3 1 Roy Morris Stanwood WA Jaromir Lahulek

P-3 1 Leif Vick Fairbanks AK Jake SchlapferP-3 1 Mark Davis Black Diamond WA Douglas StroopP-3 1 David Kroeker Aumsville OR Kelly KellarP-3 2 Christopher Gamino San Francisco CA Bruce KirkP-3 2 Brian Hachtmann San Martin CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-3 2 William Fosdick Point Arena CA Rob SporrerP-3 2 Celine Richard Saratoga CA Klaus SchlueterP-3 3 Grant Meisenholder San Diego CA Max MarienP-3 3 John Mcmahon Los Angeles CA Rob SporrerP-3 3 Heidi Bednar Los Angeles CA Rob SporrerP-3 3 Sharon Au San Marino CA Max MarienP-3 3 Troy Hartman Carlsbad CA Chad BastianP-3 3 Marcus Meyer Mission Viejo CA Max MarienP-3 3 Graham Mitchell San Clemente CA Max MarienP-3 4 Rone Montano Franktown CO Granger BanksP-3 4 Evan Boucher Pagosa Springs CO Jonathan JefferiesP-3 4 Mihai Baltag Phoenix AZ Chandler PapasP-3 4 Mark Pehrson Layton UT Jonathan JefferiesP-3 4 Matthew Dynan Draper UT Jonathan JefferiesP-3 4 Jeff Ambrose Salt Lake City UT Jonathan JefferiesP-3 5 John Todd Boise ID Mike SteenP-3 5 Chris Mathies Bozeman MT Andy MacraeP-3 5 Matthew Paine Bozeman MT Jeffrey FarrellP-3 6 Mark Green Overland Park KS Nick CraneP-3 8 Donald Jacobson North Branford CT Benoit BruneauP-3 9 David Oneil Md Mclean VA Rob SporrerP-3 9 Mert Kacmaz Cinncinnati OH M Can GulP-3 10 Sharon Zucci Centerville GA Rob MckenzieP-3 10 George Ridgway Eden GA Luis RosenkjerP-3 10 Ian Hazelwood Zephyrhills FL Stacy WhitmoreP-3 12 Andrey Hermawan West Orange NJ Terry BonoP-3 13 Dr Joseph Will Q Roo Miguel GutierrezP-3 13 Serge Feller Dubai Bruce KirkP-3 13 Drew Sagar Vancouver, Bc Charles (chuck) SmithP-3 13 Benjamin Silva Cuevas Villa De Alvarez Miguel GutierrezP-4 1 Jesse Williams Seattle WA Lan ChiricoP-4 2 Sergei Gerasimtchouk Santa Clara CA Robert CookP-4 2 Neil Hiltz San Francisco CA Rob SporrerP-4 2 Simon Waddington Oakland CA Kim GalvinP-4 2 Jay Gordon Lincoln CA Jason ShapiroP-4 4 Ludovic Simon Snowmass Village CO Etienne PienaarP-4 4 Evan Boucher Pagosa Springs CO Jonathan JefferiesP-4 4 Paul Gurrieri Aspen CO Alejandro PalmazP-4 5 Eric Holifield Sheridan WY Andy MacraeP-4 7 Jonathan Sirrine Farmington MN Chris SantacroceP-4 8 Adao Barreto De Freitas Framingham MA Luiz Fernando CostaP-4 8 Jouberth Braga Medford MA Luiz Fernando CostaP-4 9 Mert Kacmaz Cinncinnati OH M Can GulP-4 10 Gregg Mcnamee Summerfield FL Paul VoightP-4 13 Benjamin Silva Cuevas Villa De Alvarez Miguel GutierrezP-5 1 David Norwood Wapato WA Brad Gunnuscio

CAPS | $18Our navy Baseball Cap is made with sueded twill and brandishes the association logo proudly.

Order online at www.USHPA.aero/store


SANCTIONED COMPETITION

March 17 - 26 Valle De Bravo, Mexico. Just af-ter the PWC Superfinal. Come race at the most con-sistent place on earth to fly, Valle de Bravo. We will host a full FAI Cat 2 weeklong event for Hang Glid-ers. Categories: Open FAI 2, Open Woman FAI 2, Sport (king post), Sport Woman (king post). More information: Manuel Ruiz, 52 5539994334, [email protected], or www.VueloLibre.mx.

FLY-INS

second sunday of every MonTh Torrey Pines Gliderport, San Diego, CA. The Torrey Hawks Hang Gliding Club hosts our “Second Sundays at Torrey” fly-in on the second Sunday of every month. We gener-ally offer free food, drinks, and our tandem pilots often offer free tandem flights to members and their guests (subject to any Gliderport fees). Come out and join the fun on any Second Sunday. More Information: Bob Kuc-zewski 858-204-7499, [email protected], or http://torreyhawks.org.

CLINICS & TOURS

ocToBer 15 - noveMBer 15 Peru. Join Jeff Cris-tol and Adventure Tour Productions on their Fall Touch-ing The Andes of Peru paragliding tour. Jeff has been visiting Peru since 1981, and exploring the country’s vast paragliding potential since 2000. He intimately knows flying sites throughout the Andes, and on the Atacoma coast. Please visit adventuretourproduc-tions.com to read articles Jeff has written about flying in Peru. Also paraglideperu.com and parapenteperu.com, or call 970-729-0078.

noveMBer 4-6 Santa Barbara, CA. Instructor Cer-tification Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, California. This three-day clinic is open to basic and advanced Paragliding Instructor can-didates, and those needing recertification. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more infor-mation.

noveMBer 7-8 Santa Barbara, CA. Tandem Para-gliding Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, California. Classroom and practi-cal training at our world class training hill. Visit www.paragliding.com, or call 805.968.0980 for more infor-mation.

noveMBer 8-15 &/or 17-24 Iquique, Chile. Fly sites w/Ken Hudonjorgensen and local guides. A great trip to what many pilots consider to be the best place to fly in the world. More information: 801-572-3414, or [email protected], or www.twocanfly.com.

noveMBer 19 - deceMBer 5 Iquique, Chile- Where can you ride thermals everyday of the year? Only in Iquique! Soar endless sand ridges high above the Pacific Ocean until you are tired, thirsty, and hun-gry, then land on the beach next to our 4 star hotel! Your guides, Luis and Todd, have been Iquique competition champions multiple times and have pioneered many new sites and XC routes, including the longest flight in Chile! Join them on a paragliding trip of a lifetime where most pilots collect more airtime and pilot skills in one week than they normally would in an entire year! With over 16 years of guiding experience in Iquique, they guarantee you will fly everyday, or get money back! More details at: www.paraglidingtrips.com

noveMBer 26 - deceMBer 12 Peru and Iquique Fly Like a Turkey. Combine the essential with the up-and-coming on our integrated fly-&-travel adventure. Enjoy MTBing, Sandboarding, Machu Picchu and 1ga-gillion hours of airtime. Contact Pete: 646-753-1040, [email protected], www.radventuretravels.com/peru-iquique.

deceMBer 1-10 & 11-20 Brazil. 10 days para-gliding in Brazil with Paracrane! From Rio, fly-ing over the tropical forest and 3000 foot granite domes, with toucans and monkeys below; an XC flight towards the statue of Christ, soaring the con-dos along the beach; enjoying a frozen asai drink by the ocean. A road trip exploring awesome lesser known sites; staying in historic colonial towns along the way to Governador Valadares, world renowned capitol of Brazilian paragliding. Airport pick up and drop off, all transportation, lodging, guiding includ-ed. More Information: Nick Crane, 541-840-8587, [email protected], or www.costaricaparaglid-ing.com/brazil.html.

January 21-29 & January 29 - feBruary 6 Join the Eagle Paragliding staff for a week of flying in Colombia. Pilots of all levels are welcome, and the big-gest staff on paragliding tours anywhere will continue to give you the attention you need to achieve your goals. We will team fly Cross Country, and offer tandems to give you the experience you need to get to the next level as a pilot. The tour cost is $2000. More information: [email protected], or call 805-968-0980.

FLEX WINGS

A GREAT SELECTION OF HG&PG GLIDERS (ss, ds, pg) -HARNESSES (trainer, cocoon, pod) -PARA-CHUTES (hg&pg) -WHEELS (new & used). Phone for latest inventory 262-473-8800, www.hanggliding.com

PARAGLIDERS

2008 GRADIENT GOLDEN II Paraglider, (blue/grey), backpack-harness (red/black) with reserve chute for $2400.00, or best offer. Less than 20 hours of flight time/UV exposure. Contact Matt, at [email protected] for more information

C A L E N D A R & C L A S S I F I E DDISPATCH



http://www.VueloLibre.mx

http://www.VueloLibre.mx


http://torreyhawks.org

http://www.paragliding.com





http://www.twocanfly.com

http://www.paraglidingtrips.com


http://www.radventuretravels.com/peru-iquique

http://www.radventuretravels.com/peru-iquique


http://www.costaricaparagliding.com/brazil.html

http://www.costaricaparagliding.com/brazil.html


ALABAMA

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN FLIGHT PARK - The best facilities, largest inventory, camping, swimming, volleyball, more. Wide range of accommodations. hanglide.com, 877-HANGLIDE, 877-426-4543, hanglide.com.

ALASkA

SKYDANCE PARAGLIDING and PARAMOTOR SCHOOL - Year-round; USHPA + USPPA certification. Novice, refresher training, equipment. Frank Sihler 907-841-7468 www.skydanceparagliding.com

CALIFORNIA

AIRJUNKIES PARAGLIDING - Year-round excellent instruction, Southern California & Baja. Powered paragliding, clinics, tours, tandem, towing. Ken Baier 760-753-2664, airjunkies.com.

EAGLE PARAGLIDING - SANTA BARBARA offers the best year round flying in the nation. Award-winning instruction, excellent mountain and ridge sites. www.flysantabarbara.com, 805-968-0980

FLY ABOVE ALL - Year-round instruction in beautiful Santa Barbara! USHPA Novice through Advanced certification. Thermaling to competition training. Visit www.flyaboveall.com 805-965-3733.

FLY AWAY HANG GLIDING - Santa Barbara. Best hill/equipment, glider shuttles up hill, tandems, sales, service, 20 years experience, Instructor Administrator Tammy Burcar. 805-403-8487, www.flyawayhanggliding.com.

THE HANG GLIDING CENTER - PO Box 151542, San Diego CA 92175, 619-265-5320.

MISSION SOARING CENTER LLC - Largest hang gliding center in the West! Our deluxe retail shop showcases the latest equipment: Wills Wing, Moyes, AIR, High Energy, Flytec, Aeros, Northwing, Hero wide angle video camera. A.I.R. Atos rigid wings- demo the VQ-45' span, 85 Lbs! Parts in stock. We stock new and used equipment. Trade-ins welcome. Complete lesson program. Best training park in the west, located just south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Pitman Hydraulic Winch System for Hang 1s and above. Launch and landing clinics for Hang 3s and Hang 4s. Wills Wing Falcons of all sizes and custom training harnesses. 1116 Wrigley Way, Milpitas, CA 95035. 408-262-1055, Fax 408-262-1388, [email protected], Mission Soaring Center LLC, leading the way since 1973. www.hang-gliding.com

TORREY PINES GLIDERPORT - This historic site, established in 1928, offers all of the services you need. We provide USHPA certified instruction, advanced training, equipment sales, tandem flight instruction, paramotor instruction, SIV clinics, cross country clinics, tandem instructor clinics, paragliding instructor clinics, and a fully staffed cafe. We also have an extensive glider sport shop offering parachute repacks and full-service repairs. We are importers for Paratech, Ozone, Skywalk, Independence gliders and are dealers for all brands! We also carry an extensive certified used inventory of gliders and harnesses. We are the primary Ki2Fly dealer, and also carry AustriAlpin, Crispi, Black Hawk Paramotors, and too much more to list! Check us out online at: www.flytorrey.com, or give us a ring at 1-858-452-9858.

WINDSPORTS - Don’t risk bad weather, bad instruction or dangerous training hills. 350 flyable days each year. Learn foot-launch flying skills safely and quickly. Train with professional CFI’s at world-famous Dockweiler Beach training slopes (5 minutes from LA airport.) Fly winter or summer in gentle coastal winds, soft sand and in a thorough program with one of America’s most prestigious schools for over 25 years. 818-367-2430, www.windsports.com.

COLORADO

GUNNISON GLIDERS – X-C to heavy waterproof HG gliderbags. Accessories, parts, service, sewing. Instruction ratings, site-info. Rusty Whitley 1549 CR 17, Gunnison CO 81230. 970-641-9315.

FLORIDA

FLORIDA RIDGE AEROTOW PARK - 18265 E State Road 80, Clewiston, Florida 863-805-0440, www.thefloridaridge.com.

GRAYBIRD AIRSPORTS — Paraglider & hang glider towing & training, Dragonfly aerotow training, XC, thermaling, instruction, equipment. Dunnellon Airport 352-245-8263, email [email protected], www.graybirdairsports.com.

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN FLIGHT PARK - Nearest mountain training center to Orlando. Two training hills, novice mountain launch, aerotowing, great accommodations. hanglide.com, 877-HANGLIDE, 877-426-4543.

MIAMI HANG GLIDING - For year-round training fun in the sun. 305-285-8978, 2550 S Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, Florida 33133, www.miamihanggliding.com.

QUEST AIR HANG GLIDING - We offer the best instruction, friendliest staff, beautiful grounds with swimming pool, private lake and clubhouse, lodging, plus soaring in our super-famous, soft, Sunshine State thermals. Come fly with us in Groveland, FL! More information: 352- 429- 021, www.questairhanggliding.com

WALLABY RANCH – The original Aerotow flight park. Best tandem instruction worldwide,7-days a week , 6 tugs, and equipment rental. Call:1-800-WALLABY wallaby.com 1805 Deen Still Road, Disney Area FL 33897

6020

http://www.flytec.com

http://hanglide.com



GEORGIA

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN FLIGHT PARK - Discover why 5 times as many pilots earn their wings at LMFP. Enjoy our 110 acre mountain resort. www.hanglide.com, 1-877-HANGLIDE, 1-877-426-4543.

HAWAII

PROFLYGHT PARAGLIDING - Call Dexter for friendly information about flying on Maui. Full-service school offering beginner to advanced instruction every day, year round. 808-874-5433, paraglidehawaii.com.

INDIANA

CLOUD 9 SPORT AVIATION - See Cloud 9 in Michigan

MARYLAND

HIGHLAND AEROSPORTS - Baltimore and DC’s full-time flight park: tandem instruction, solo aerotows and equipment sales and service. We carry Aeros, Airwave, Flight Design, Moyes, Wills Wing, High Energy Sports, Flytec and more. Two 115-HP Dragonfly tugs. Open fields as far as you can see. Only 1 to 1.5 hours from Rehoboth Beach, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia. Come Fly with US! 410-634-2700, Fax 410-634-2775, 24038 Race Track Rd, Ridgely, MD 21660, www.aerosports.net, [email protected].

PARAGLIDE TANDEM – Spring, summer, fall, paragliding instruction in the MD, VA, WV area. Beginner through T-3 training. World-wide tours. Contact Peter 304-596-7442 or [email protected]

MICHIGAN

CLOUD 9 SPORT AVIATION (hang gliding equipment), North American Soaring (Alatus ultralight sailplane and e-drive systems), Dragon Fly Soaring Club (hang gliding instruction), at Cloud 9 Field, Webberville, MI.More info: (517) 223-8683, [email protected], www.DFSCinc.org.

TRAVERSE CITY HANG GLIDERS/PARAGLIDERS Put your knees in our breeze and soar our 450’ sand dunes. Full-time shop. Certified instruction, beginner to advanced. Sales, service, accessories for ALL major brands. Visa/MasterCard. 1509 E 8th, Traverse City MI 49684. Offering powered paragliding. Call Bill at 231-922-2844, [email protected]. Your USA & Canada Mosquito distributor. www.mosquitoamerica.com.

NEW YORk

AAA MOUNTAIN WINGS INC. - New location at 77 Hang Glider Road in Ellenville next to the LZ. We service all brands featuring AEROS and North Wing. Contact 845-647-3377, [email protected], www.mtnwings.com,

FLY HIGH, INC. - Serving New York, Jersey, and Connecticut areas. Area’s exclusive Wills Wing dealer. Also all other brands, accessories. Area’s most INEXPENSIVE prices! Certified instruction/service since 1979. Excellent secondary instruction! Taken some lessons? Advance to mountain flying! www.flyhighhg.com, 845-744-3317.

LET'S GO PARAGLIDING LLC - Paragliding flight school offering USHPA-certified instruction for all levels, tandem lessons, tours, and equipment sales. www.letsgoparagliding.com, 917-359-6449.

NORTH CAROLINA

KITTY HAWK KITES - FREE Hang 1 training with purchase of equipment! The largest hang gliding school in the world. Teaching since 1974. Learn to fly over the East coast’s largest sand dune. Year round instruction, foot launch and tandem aerotow. Dealer for all major manufacturers. Ultralight instruction and tours. 252-441-2426, 1-877-FLY-THIS, www.kittyhawk.com

OHIO

CLOUD 9 SPORT AVIATION - See Cloud 9 in Michigan

PUERTO RICO

FLY PUERTO RICO WITH TEAM SPIRIT HG! - Flying tours, rentals, tandems, HG and PG classes, H-2 and P-2 intensive Novice courses, full sales. 787-850-0508, [email protected].

TENNESSEE

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN FLIGHT PARK - Just outside Chattanooga. Become a complete pilot -foot launch, aerotow, mountain launch, ridge soar, thermal soar. hanglide.com, 1-877-HANGLIDE, 877-426-4543.

TEXAS

FLYTExAS / JEFF HUNT - training pilots in Central Texas for 25 years. Hangar facilities near Packsaddle Mountain, and Lake LBJ. More info: www.flytexas.com, (512)467-2529

UTAH

CLOUD 9 PARAGLIDING - Come visit us and check out our huge selection of paragliding gear, traction kites, extreme toys, and any other fun things you can think of. If you aren’t near the Point of the Mountain, then head to http://www.paragliders.com for a full list of products and services. We are Utah’s only full time shop and repair facility, Give us a ring at 801-576-6460 if you have any questions.

SUPER FLY PARAGLIDING – Come to world famous Point of the Mountain and learn to fly from one of our distinguished instructors. We teach year round and offer some of the best paragliding equipment available. Get your P2 certification, advanced ratings or tandem ratings here. We have a full shop to assist you with any of your free flight needs. 801-255-9595, [email protected] , www.superflyinc.com.

WINGS OVER WASATCH HANG GLIDING - Salt Lake / region 4 area. Certified HANG GLIDING instruction, sales, service. World class training hill! Tours of Utah’s awesome mountains for visiting pilots. DISCOUNT glider/equipment prices. Glider rentals. Tandem flights. Ryan Voight, 801-599-2555, www.wingsoverwasatch.com.

http://www.parasupply.com

http://kootenaytwistedflyers.ca

http://minigliders.com


SPECIALTY WHEELS for airfoil basetubes, round basetubes, or tandem landing gear.(262)473-8800, www.hanggliding.com.

PUBLICATIONS / ORGANIZATIONS

SOARING - Monthly magazine of The Soaring Society of America Inc. Covers all aspects of soaring flight. Full membership $64. SSA, PO Box 2100, Hobbs NM 88241. 505-392-1177, ssa.org.

SERVICE

CLOUD 9 REPAIR DEPARTMENT - We staff and maintain a full service repair shop within Cloud 9 Paragliding; offering annual inspections, line replacement, sail repair of any kind (kites too!), harness repairs and reserve repacks. Our repair technicians are factory trained and certified to work on almost any paraglider or kite. Call today for an estimate 801-576-6460 or visit www.paragliders.com for more information.

GET YOUR ANNUAL INSPECTION, repair or reserve repack done quickly and professionally. Super Fly does more inspections, repairs and repacks than any service center in North America. Call or email for details and more information. 801-255-9595, [email protected].

RISING AIR GLIDER REPAIR SERVICES – A full-service shop, specializing in all types of paragliding repairs, annual inspections, reserve repacks, harness repairs. Hang gliding reserve repacks and repair. For information or repair estimate, call (208) 554-2243, pricing and service request form available at www.risingair.biz, [email protected].

WANTED

WANTED - Used variometers, harnesses, parachutes, helmets, etc. Trade or cash. (262) 473-8800, www.hanggliding.com.

VIRGINIA

BLUE SKY - Full-time HG instruction. Daily lessons, scooter, and platform towing. AT towing part time. Custom sewing, powered harnesses, Aeros PG , Flylight and Airborne trikes. More info: (804)241-4324, or www.blueskyhg.com

INTERNATIONAL

BAJA MExICO - La Salina: PG, HG, PPG www.FLYLASALINA.com. by www.BAJABRENT.com, He’ll hook you up! site intros, tours, & rooms [email protected], 760-203-2658

COSTA RICA - Grampa Ninja's Paragliders' B&B. Rooms and/or guide service and transportation. Lessons available from USHPA certified instructors. USA: 908-454-3242 Costa Rica (Country code 011) House: 506-2664-6833 Cell: 506-8950-8676 www.paraglidecostarica.com

MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA - Flying trips all year in and around Medellin, a world-class city that is extremely safe for tourists. Proof of Colombia's amazing skies and safety was the success of PWC in January 2011 that ledthe World Cup to choose Colombia for 2013 PWC finals. Led by Ruben Montoya, pioneer pilot in Colombia and Champion mutiple times. With more than 7 flying sites, wonderful year-round weather conditions, lanch 5.000 feet above LZ and in-flight views of 5 waterfalls. Join Ruben for this amazing experience. Details at: www.ParaglidingMedellin.com

MExICO - VALLE DE BRAVO and beyond for hang gliding and paragliding. Year round availability and special tours. Gear, guiding, instruction, transportation, lodging - all varieties for your needs. www.flymexico.com 1-800-861-7198 USA

PARTS & ACCESSORIES

FOR ALL YOUR FLYING NEEDS - Check out the Aviation Depot at www.mojosgear.com featuring over 1000 items for foot-launched and powered paragliding, hang gliding, stunt and power kiting, and powered parachutes. 24/7 secure online shopping. Books, videos, KITES, gifts, engine parts, harness accessories, electronics, clothing, safety equipment, complete powered paragliding units with training from Hill Country Paragliding Inc. www.hillcountryparagliding.com 1-800-664-1160 for orders only. Office 325-379-1567.

GUNNISON GLIDERS - X-C, Factory, heavy PVC HG gliderbags. Harness packs & zippers. New/used parts, equipment, tubes. 1549 CR 17 Gunnison, CO 81230 970-641-9315

HALL WIND METER – Simple. Reliable. Accurate. Mounting brackets, control-bar wheels. Hall Brothers, PO Box 1010, Morgan, Utah 84050. (801) 829-3232, www.hallwindmeter.com.

OxYGEN SYSTEMS – MH-XCR-180 operates to 18,000 ft., weighs only 4 lbs. System includes cylinder, harness, regulator, cannula, and remote on/off flowmeter. $450.00. 1-800-468-8185 STAINLESS STEEL! $10

www.ushpa.aero/store

Flytec - Blueeyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Flytec - 6020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Flytec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Foundation for Free Flight . . . . . . . . . . .11

Kitty Hawk Kites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Kootenay Twisted Flyers . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Lookout Mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Minigliders .com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

North Wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Ozone Paragliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Parasupply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Soaring Society of America . . . . . . . . . .47

Sport Aviation Publications . . . . . . . . . 58

Superfly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Thermal Tracker Paragliding . . . . . . . . . 23

Traverse City HG & PG . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Torrey Pines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Wills Wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

USHPA | Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

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ADVERTISERS

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SALE! LADIES FLEECE JACKET | $25HG & PG MAGAZINE ARCHIVES ON DVD | $30.00

SALE! FLEECE VEST | $30

CAPS | $18

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HG or PG GREETING CARDS | $16.00NEW! 2012 USHPA CALENDARS | $15

Wear your passion proudly with this top shelf soft shell jacket embroidered with the USHPA logo and

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PUBLICATIONS

ACROBATICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $41.95AND THE WORLD COULD FLY . . . . . . . . . . . . . $32.95ART OF SKY SAILING - A RISK MGMT MANUAL . . . . . $14.95ART OF SKY SAILING - A RISK MGMT MANUAL & DVD . . $55.00 AVIATION WEATHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24.95BEST FLYING SITES OF THE ALPS . . . . . . . . . . . $47.95BIRDFLIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19.95CONDOR TRAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24.95CLOUDSUCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17.95FLY THE WING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12.95FLYING RAGS FOR GLORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $47.95FUNDAMENTALS/INSTRUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . $12.95HANG GLIDING TRAIN. MANUAL . . . . . . . . . . . $29.95INSTR. MANUAL (HG or PG) . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15.00THE ART OF PARAGLIDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $34.95TOWING ALOFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $29.95PG-PILOTS TRAIN. MANUAL & DVD . . . . . . . . . . $39.95PERFORMANCE FLYING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $29.95SECRETS OF CHAMPIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $29.95SLOVENIA: GUIDE BOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $31.95THERMAL FLYING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $52.95UNDERSTANDING THE SKY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24.95FLIGHT LOG BOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2.95

DVD

BIG BLUE SKY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $29.95BORN TO FLY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $34.95BROKEN TOE ACRO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $44.95DARE DEVIL FLYERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24.95FLIGHT CONTROL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35.95FLYING OVER EVEREST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $47.95FRESH AIR RIDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $22.95FROM NOWHERE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $41.95GROUND HANDLING & THE ART OF KITING . . . . . . . $36.95HANG GLIDING EXTREME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $34.95INSTABILITY II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $41.95LIFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19.95LIFTING AIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $39.95MAGAZINE ARCHIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30.00NEVER ENDING THERMAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $41.95PARAHAWKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35.95PARAGLIDING:LEARN TO FLY . . . . . . . . . . . . . $44.95PARAGLIDING: GROUND HANDLING TECHNIQUES . . . $35.95PARAGLIDER TOWING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24.95PARTY/CLOUDBASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24.95PERFORMANCE FLYING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $42.95PLAY GRAVITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $41.95PLAY GRAVITY 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $38.50RED BULL X-ALPS 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45.95PURA VIDA FLYING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24.95RISK & REWARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $29.95THE PERFECT MTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $36.95SPEED TO FLY/SECURITY IN FLIGHT . . . . . . . . . . $48.95SPEED GLIDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24.95STARTING PARAGLIDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $29.95STARTING HANG GLIDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $29.95STARTING POWER PARAGLIDING . . . . . . . . . . . $36.95TEMPLE OF CLOUDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $31.95THREE FLIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $37.95TO FLY: HANG GLIDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.00TO FLY: PARAGLIDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.00WEATHER TO FLY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $39.95

ACCESSORIES

IPPI CARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10.00GREETING CARDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $16.00LICENSE PLATE FRAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6.50MAGAZINE BACK ISSUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6.95MUG - STAINLESS STEEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,00ORNAMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12.00RATING CERTIFICATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10.00USHGA / USHPA STICKERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.00

PARAGLIDING - PILOT'S TRAINING MANUAL | $39.95

UNDERSTANDING THE SKY | $24.95THERMAL FLYING | $52.95

BEST FLYING SITES OF THE ALPS | $47.95

FLYING RAGS FOR GLORY | $47.95WEATHER TO FLY DVD | $39.95

PERFORMANCE FLYING DVD | $42.95

THE ART OF PARAGLIDING | $34.95 !

CAPS | $18

Excellent illustrations and a

companion DVD make this

paragliding tome a must-

have in any pilot's library.

As an introduction or a

refresher reference you'll

find what you're looking for.

You'll read Dennis Pagen's

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tempts to wrap itself around

one of the most complex

topics in the history of

topics. A must have–period.

Thermal Flying is a compre-

hensive guide to the art of

thermaling and XC flying. This

260 page book is packed with

clear diagrams, photos and the

knowledge you need to make

the most of each flying day.

Is there some

reason you wouldn't

buy this book? OK,

maybe you don't fly

in Europe, but you

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Dixon White left a powerful

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it. He explains weather

concepts in an approach-

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weather seriously, you'll

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Join Jocky Sanderson

for one of the best master

classes out there. Learn to

thermal smarter, have more

fun and sample French

wingovers. "Light in zee

seat, heavy in zee brake..."

This thorough guide by Dennis

Pagen is a must have for any

paraglider's library. Get started,

keep flying, or go back and

review. An excellent reference.

The A to Z of Competition

Paragliding: For the beginner or

experienced pilot.

B O O k S | F I L M S | A P P A R E L Call 1-800-616-6888 or order online at www.USHPA.aero/store

Reduced shipping chaRges when oRdeRing online!

BROKEN TOE ACRO DVD | $44.95

Join Enleau O'Connor and

friends as they examine the

ins and outs of SIV and acro.

Get out your airsick bag and

call the attendant because

you're in for a ride. A full 2

hours and 20 minutes!

This DVD features great footage

of soaring flight over the rolling

hills of Washington. Dixon White

talks you through climbing and

taking that first cross country

leap. An excellent refresher or

introduction.

LIFTING AIR | $39.95

Through Pilot-Colored Glasses78 |


by Steve Messman

When I outgrew my first paraglider, I sold it to a student in Texas. He first talked to his instructor, and

then he phoned me before purchasing the wing. He was a new student, and he was smart. I spoke to him about clouds and wind and grass. We talked about how he would learn to kite a paraglider, and how he would eventually look to the swirling grass for clues as to what the winds were doing right where he stood. I described how he would see distant grasses begin to move, how that motion would draw closer and closer, how the swirls and twists would tell him about speed, direction, force. We talked about learning to watch the clouds, to understand whether they were going to provide lift, to judge which direction the upper winds were blowing, and how hard. We talked about how he was about to become a pilot, and how, be-cause of that simple fact, nothing in the world would ever be the same. From now on, he would view the world through pi-

lot-colored glasses.It’s amazing, isn’t it? The way a pilot

sees the world. From the very first moment my feet left the ground, noth-ing has ever been or looked the same. My first flights were in hang gliders. The old, floppy-sailed deltas. I remember exactly what it felt like the very first time I stood on that hill, alone, without an instructor. I remember the hill, the wind, the landing zone, and the sheep. I especially remem-ber that sheep teach you a singularly dis-gusting lesson about not landing prone in a hang glider.

Since that day I have never viewed the wind, or clouds, or grass, or any hill the same as I did before I flew. It’s impossible for me to stand on a hill and not think of flying. It is impossible for me to stand anywhere and not measure the wind. How fast is it blowing? Which direction is it coming from? Is it laminar, or is it frappy? Is it cross? Or is it straight in? I cannot stand on any hill and not “feel” flying, not feel the wing lift a weight off my shoulders, or not feel the lines move

through my fingers. Flying has changed me. I don’t even remember what wind was before I learned to fly. Now, I view the world through pilot-colored glasses.

I no longer see “just” clouds. I can no longer look at them and wonder at their simple beauty. Instead, I wonder where they are being formed. How fast are they moving? Are they actually forming, or are they dissipating by the time they are over-head? Could I reach them if I launched from that hill, or that one? What direc-tion are they traveling, and could I follow them if I were up there with them? I can no longer wonder at their billowing shapes or their variety of colors because they are no longer just clouds. They are goals, guides that point toward lift, paths to somewhere out there. I see them through a special color of glasses—pilot-color.

Nothing looks as it did before I learned to fly. New clear cuts look like potential launch sites or landing zones. Every pas-ture or logging road looks land-able. Every large yard looks like a bail out: “doable if I have to.” This “pilot’s view of the world” is with me constantly, reminding me of this passion every time I walk, or run, or bike, or drive. I see the world through pilot-colored glasses, and every time I open my eyes, I see something, everything, that has to do with flight.

Even relationships take on that special hue. My children’s earliest memories are of life on a ramp and sweeping views from a mountain top. All of my grandchildren have shared the same. My wife is so much more: a driver, a vehicle retriever, a person to share my pilot’s view of the world with. My mother says extra prayers just for me.

Nothing is the same. Pilot-colored glasses do far more than just change the way we view the world. We pay attention to wind and clouds, the texture of water, and weather in general. We see moun-tains as far more than simple forms of recreation. We study the flights of eagles, hawks, and seagulls. As pilots, we are stu-dents of the world of nature. We watch it. We learn from it. More, we actually live in it. Nothing will ever be the same. This is a wonderful view we share. This view through pilot-colored glasses.

Fiesch, Switzerland | photo by Matt Beechinor

Safety Handling Speed Range Glide Ratio Sink Rate Sizes Colors

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AXESS 2 AIR•Light&Compact

•Comfortable

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The AXESS 2 AIR is a very light and comfortable compact harness with an airbag. Suitable for everyday use as well as for Hike & Fly and travel. The innovative self-contained airbag provides a full level of protection at takeoff because the airbag does not need external airflow. This LTF/EN certified light harness comes with an integral reserve pocket.

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Mexico 2011-2012 Winter trips for all

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December11-18 January1-8 January8-15

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Advance Impress 3 A new generation harness.

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Time For Your Annual Re-Pack And Gear Inspection

Beat the seasonal rush, get your gear inspected and re-packed by our industry professionals in time for your winter trips! Call for special pricing and shipping deals.

Learnmore

Call, Click or Visit…

[email protected] www.superflyinc.com 1- 8 01-2 5 5 - 9 5 9 5

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Super Fly:

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hang gliding & paragliding vol41/iss11 nov 2011

Documents