hang gliding & paragliding vol44/iss06 jun2014

1HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

JUNE 2014 Volume 44 Issue 6 $6.95

2 HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

http://flyozone.com

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.

ADVERTISING ALL ADVERTISING AND ADVERTISING INQUIRIES MUST BE SENT TO USHPA HEADQUARTERS IN COLORADO SPRINGS. All advertising is subject to the USHPA Advertising Policy, a copy of which may be obtained from the USHPA by emailing [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.

POSTMASTER Send change of address to: Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine, P.O. BOX 1330, Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1330. Canadian Post Publications Mail Agreement #40065056. Canadian Return Address: DP Global Mail, 4960-2 Walker Road, Windsor, ON N9A 6J3

COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2014 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.

Martin Palmaz, [email protected]

Nick Greece, [email protected]

Greg Gillam, Art Director [email protected]

C.J. Sturtevant, Copy Editor [email protected]

Beth Van Eaton, Advertising [email protected]

Staff Writers

Christina Ammon, Dennis Pagen, C.J. Sturtevant

Ryan Voight

Staff PhotographersJohn Heiney, Jeff Shapiro

Hang gliding and paragliding are INHERENTLY DANGEROUS

activities. USHPA recommends pilots complete a pilot training

program under the direct supervision of a USHPA-certified

instructor, using safe equipment suitable for your level of

experience. Many of the articles and photographs in the

magazine depict advanced maneuvers being performed by

experienced, or expert, pilots. These maneuvers should not be

attempted without the prerequisite instruction and experience.WARN

ING

ON THE COVER, Jonny Durand breaking records on his home turf—Australia

| photo courtesy Red Bull Photofiles. MEANWHILE, All is good on the training hill | photo by David Hoffman.

YEARSof

http://flyozone.com

FLIGHT PLAN

PILOT BRIEFINGS

AIRMAIL

ASSOCIATION

CENTERFOLD

RATINGS

CALENDAR

CLASSIFIED

LET'S TALK

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JUNE 2014

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44

How to Get the Shot

Tips for in-flight photography

by Rebecca Bredehoftand Cade Palmer

Anti-Hardcore

A journey through Europe

by Nick Greece

Hombres Pajaro

Birdmen gather in Colombia

by Claudia Mejia

Favorite Weather Models

by Rich Jesuroga

High-wind LandingsA breezy days leaves lessons

by Mike Steed

Wing Go High, Wing Go Farby Jeffrey Gray

HG401: Advanced TechniquesMaking Strides

by Ryan Voight

Wingovers: Deceptively Simpleby Bruce Goldsmith

500 West Blueridge Ave . Orange, CA 92865 . 1.714.998.6359 . WillsWing.com

Make memories. Don’t dream them.

http://willswing.com


FLIGHT PLAN

The joy that is witnessed in the eyes of people who watch us fly and land is pure. A grand interpretation I heard

recently is “ joy personified.” The first avia-tion pioneers, and each of us individually when we took our early flights, experi-enced the exact same feelings mirrored in the eyes, laughter, and excitement in landing fields all over the world when a pilot touches down for the first time in the history of that place, and the horizon is slightly lifted thereafter. It is a small shift, but an important one. It is precisely this feeling that we must hold on to and remember with gratefulness every time we launch and land.

The June issue begins with a particular cool briefing regarding a new product put out by DeLorme that seems to move the benchmark for personal tracking and naviga-tion, substantially.

C.J. Sturtevant caught up with USHPA’s newest staff member, Julie Spiegler, a 20-year free-flight enthusiast who has been hired as the Program Manager and has already begun to make a big impact!

Rich Jesuroga is back with a piece on weather models to help members pick the days to skip chores or work and head for the hill. If the letters NAM, RUC, or GFS mean nothing to you, then you are about to be enlightened.

Mike Steed and Jeffrey Gray report from the Pacific Northwest from two very different flying sites. Mike writes about a particular windy landing, and possible future solutions if one encounters more wind than expected upon touching down, while Jeffrey reports from Lakeview, Oregon, and the Umpteenth Annual Festival of Free Flight that showcases some amazing flying options.

Ryan Voight is back with his educational series, HG401, discussing how to make your

strides count! Ryan’s evocative series has elicited very interesting debate, which will be featured in the Airmail section over the next few issues. If you have any questions for the authors of these educational pieces, please send them in.

Becca Brederhoft and Cade Palmer are two of the best in the world at capturing unique flying moments. Often using GoPro cameras mounted with unique angles, these two sent in a “how-to” guide, or a “master class” for the aspiring free-flight photogra-pher.

Hopefully you’ll be inspired by the article, Anti-Hardcore, about choosing to travel in style and ticking off three classic routes in the Alps over an amazing week of incredible weather. You don’t have to suffer to get the best flying in the world, and this piece offers tips on how to creating your own anti-hard-core adventure.

Claudia Mejia contributes a piece about hang gliding in Colombia in the increas-ingly popular Valle del Cauca. This site has blossomed into one of the premier free-flying sites in the world, and this year US Team member Zac Majors and US legend, and world-record holder, Dustin Martin went south to race beautiful gliders in the skies of Colombia.

Bruce Goldsmith sends in a few words on how to perfect the wingover, and Christina Ammon rounds out the magazine with a witty piece about sitting around the table talking shop.

Before your next flight, pause in consider-ation that you are about to aviate and that in fact we do live in one of the best time periods in history for taking advantage of soaring with very minimal structure around us. It is “ joy personified”!

LEfT Jonny Durand pushing the limits | photo courtesy Redbull Photofiles.


BRUCE GOLDSMITH DESIGN WASPThe Wasp is designed for the pilot who

wants to continue to progress after

leaving flight school or the recreational

pilot looking for a safe, reliable wing

that uses the latest technology. At the

safer end of the EN-B range, the Wasp

is a rock-solid glider that everyone will

feel comfortable flying. BGD claims that

the wing's structure is clean and simple,

and the Cord Cut Billow technology en-

hances stability and performance of the

glider. They state that their Optimized

Line Layout system yields a total line

length of just 328m on the M size, pro-

viding less drag and better flying.

BGD notes that the profile of the

wing has been carefully selected to

provide stabilizing glider reactions in

turbulent air, and when the wing rocks

back or surges forward from turbulence

or brake inputs, it will automatically and

gently rotate back to the neutral posi-

tion above the pilot. Bruce Goldsmith

Design paragliders will be available for

demo flights in the US this summer. The

demo schedule, the gliders available,

and contact information will be posted

on the BGD USA Facebook page.

Contact BGD USA for dealer and more

information at www.eagleparagling.com

or http://www.flybgd.com/en/.

EAZY SUPER-SMALL GLIDERSAir Design announced the release of

their new EAZY XS, a certified glider

that covers a weight range from 55kg-

75kg, and the EAZY XXS for pilots in

the weight range from 50kg-65kg.

As flying equipments get lighter,

the take-off weight also decreases.

Particularly small and light pilots

don’t like to carry extra ballast with

them. Air Design claims that the

EAZY XXS is not a mini-wing, yet it

has similar properties. Its advantages

over a mini-wing are higher pas-

sive safety (EN-LTF A), easier flying

behavior and better glide as well as

its thermaling abilities. They also state

the glider is very forgiving, and its

easy take-off and landing behaviors

remain the same.

For more information go to http://

ad-gliders.com/en/.camera is mount-

ed securely and stays put on launch,

landing, and in the air. Also works

great with pod harnesses without

interfering with speed system. Tutorial

at: Vimeo.com/82320531

PILOT BRIEFINGS

INREACH EXPLORERThe inReach Explorer, incorporating a

new range of navigation functions, will be

available in stores in early May, and builds

on DeLorme’s award-winning technology

to keep outdoor adventurers connected

wherever they go. Now, in addition to the

messaging, tracking and SOS capabili-

ties, users of the inReach Explorer can

view, create or navigate routes and

waypoints. The built-in digital compass,

barometric altimeter and accelerometer

sensors ensure accuracy and provide

heading and bearing information, accu-

rate elevation readings, speed and other

useful trip statistics, making this the most

robust personal locator on the market

by a significant margin. The Spot tracker

set the pace in this market, but this new

device reaches so far past the current bar

it is worth taking a deeper look.

The company also recently announced

the launch of Freedom subscription plans

for all inReach products, allowing users

to pay for satellite service only when they

need it, on a monthly basis (i.e. during

flying season). Various plans offer track-

ing intervals from two minutes to 10 min-

utes. For more information go to http://

www.inreachdelorme.com/.

http://www.eagleparagling.com/

http://www.flybgd.com/en/

http://Vimeo.com/82320531


Martin Palmaz, Executive [email protected]

Beth Van EatonOperations Manager & Advertising

[email protected]

Eric Mead, System [email protected]

Ashley Miller, Membership [email protected]

Julie Spiegler, Program [email protected]

USHPA OFFICERS & EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Rich Hass, [email protected]

Ken Grubbs, Vice [email protected]

Bill Bolosky, [email protected]

Mark Forbes, [email protected]

REGION 1: Rich Hass, Mark Forbes. REGION 2: Jugdeep Aggarwal, Josh Cohn, Jon James. REGION 3: Corey Caffrey, Dan DeWeese, Alan Crouse. REGION 4: Bill Belcourt, Ken Grubbs. REGION 5: Josh Pierce. REGION 6: David Glover. REGION 7: Paul Olson. REGION 8: Michael Holmes. REGION 9: Felipe Amunategui, Larry Dennis. REGION 10: Bruce Weaver, Steve Kroop, Matt Taber. REGION 11: David Glover. REGION 12: Paul Voight. DIRECTORS AT LARGE: Ryan Voight, Bill Bolosky, Steve Rodrigues, Dennis Pagen, Jamie Shelden. 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.

for change of address or other USHPA businesscall (719) 632-8300, or 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.

SEND US YOURCALENDAR PHOTOS.

2015 is the year of YOU.

Because you're awesome!

Go to www.ushpa.aero/calendarproject.asp for details.

SAFE PILOT AWARDS

G. Wayne Maxwell (#70540) has

earned a second paragliding

Diamond award for completing 2000

safe flights.

Michael Estrada (#83495) earned his

first paragliding Diamond award for

1000 safe flights.

Luis Rosenkjer (#66597) earned a

paragliding Gold award for 500 safe

flights.

Maedeh Moghimi (#94563) earned

a fifth diamond for 5240 flights be-

tween Jan 1998 – Present

Seyed Hamid Amidi Namin (#94562)

earned a fifth diamond for 5170

flights between Jan 1998 – Present

Seyed Majid Amidi Namin (#94561)

earned a fifth diamond for 5210

flights between Jan 1998 – Present

The levels of the USHPA Safe Pilot

Award, and the number of required

consecutive safe flights, are as fol-

lows:

Bronze Award: 100

Silver Award: 300

Gold Award: 500

1st Diamond: 1000

2nd Diamond: 2000

3rd Diamond: 3000

4th Diamond: 4000

5th Diamond: 5000

For more information on how to

apply for safe pilot awards go to

http://www.ushpa.aero/forms/

Form_Safe_Pilot_Application.pdf

http://www.ushpa.aero/calendarproject.asp

DeAR eDItoRs: I’m continuing to read the “Hang Gliding 401” series by Ryan Voight with interest. The ar-ticle “Transitioning” was timely—my transitions could use some help these days! However, the article “Variable Geometry” is in need of a correction. Ryan mis-identifies the key difference be-tween cam and pulley VG systems. Both systems remove sail billow and washout by pushing the leading edges forward. With both systems, this has the side effect of reducing the sweep angle and increasing the nose angle. With the cam VG system, the crossbar and the sidewire attachment points remain stationary while the cams move the leading edge tubes forward in the plane of the keel tube. As a result, the glider’s “airframe anhedral”—the downward “droop” in the leading edge tubes relative to the keel tube—remains unchanged. As Ryan notes, with the pulley VG system, the ends of the crossbar and the sidewire attachment points are pushed forward as the VG is tensioned. Since the sidewire length is fixed, the leading edge tubes get pulled downward as the VG is tensioned in flight. This increases the “airframe anhedral”. The differences in the way the two VG systems affect a glider’s handling in flight are entirely due to this difference in “airframe anhedral.” Both systems increase a glider’s “effective span” by removing washout or twist. When the glider is unloaded on the ground, the situation is different—in a king-posted glider with a pulley VG system and no special compensation system for the upper side wires, the leading edges actually have the most downward droop or “airframe anhedral” when the VG is loose, and this creates unhelpful slack in the lower side wires.

There’s a bit more to the story. “Airframe anhedral” is actually a rather poor measure of the true anhedral geom-

etry contained in the three-dimensional shape of the sail. We can define “aerody-namic anhedral” as the anhedral actually “seen” by the wind as it encounters the sail. We can very loosely quantify the “aerodynamic anhedral” by measuring the downward droop in the leading-edge tubes relative the mean chord line of the wing, rather than relative to the keel tube. It turns out that sail billow contrib-utes strongly to “aerodynamic anhedral” in modern gliders. (The opposite was true in the old Rogallo “standards” with extreme taper ratios.) As a result, when we remove sail billow and washout with-out changing the “airframe anhedral,” we decrease the “aerodynamic anhedral.” As we tension a cam VG system, this decrease in “aerodynamic anhedral” is evidently exactly what is needed to offset the rolling-in tendency that would otherwise be created by the increase in the glider’s “effective span” plus the slight decrease in sweep. This is a happy ac-cident of glider design and evolution. As we tension a pulley VG system, it is less obvious how the “aerodynamic anhedral” is changing—we are adding “airframe anhedral” at the same time as we are removing billow and washout, so the “aerodynamic anhedral” may only be de-creasing slightly, or may even be increas-ing. The practical outcome is the same in either case: If a given glider fitted with a cam VG system shows little change in roll trim as we tension the VG, we can be sure that the same glider fitted with a pulley VG system will need progressively less low-siding or more high-siding as we tension the VG, at any given airspeed and bank angle.

The relationship between sail billow and “aerodynamic anhedral” is difficult to convey without some photos and diagrams—for a bit more, visit www.aeroexperiments.org/billownotes.html.

Sincerely, Steve Seibel, #69919

AIRMAIL

http://flymorningside.com


ASSOCIATION

Parapilots who’ve been to the Rat Race need no introduction to USHPA’s newest staff member—

Julie Spiegler has been a vital part of the famous Rat Race support team for several years, and last year, on a new Delta 2 and relatively new to competition, she blew us all away by winning the women’s division in the Sprint race, and coming in 9th (out of 88) overall!

I asked Julie what enticed her to move from recreational pilot into

“serious” competition. “Well, I’m not sure I’d call myself a ‘serious’ competi-tor —’serious’ is not very often used to describe me in just about any context,” she replied, and went on to explain.

“What happened was, after 20 years of free flying with my primary goal being to secure the LZ, I decided to try going cross country, and I loved it. Really, it’s that I was finally ready to do it. And competitions are a great way to have all the logistics taken care of, with expert pilots picking routes that are both challenging and doable, other pilots in the air to help find the thermals, and (at least for some competitions) routes that have potential LZs available along the way. I think the thing I’m ‘serious’ about with respect to competitions is going to as many as I can, to have that support structure to improve my cross-country flying. That said, I can’t deny that doing well gives me a thrill. I LOVE that happy waypoint noise on my flight com-puter, and the happy goal noise is even better!”

“After 20 years of flying,” she said—

that means she’s been paragliding since the bad old days, in the early ‘90s!

It was her boyfriend (now her husband) Gever’s interest in learning to hang glide that first drew them into free flight. “I thought it sounded fun,” Julie recalls, “but I was a little nervous about flying face-forward, since I’ve had multiple jaw surgeries and didn’t want to mess things up further. (But I wonder how many hang glider pilots

have actually landed on their faces…) Plus I’m a weakling and was worried about the weight of the gear.” But when, in 1990, a hang gliding co-worker of Gever’s told him about a new thing he’d just seen: paragliding—Gever jumped right in. He did his ground school that same night, took his first lesson that weekend, and bought his gear the following weekend. Julie approached flying a bit more conservatively, taking a couple of months to complete her train-ing with Curtis Woodman, one of the first paragliding instructors in the US who didn’t start out hang gliding.

“It’s been amazing to be involved in a sport that continues to evolve so notably—year after year, for decades,” Julie muses. “Our harnesses started as modified climbing harnesses with no back protection whatsoever, then became huge and heavy and bulky, then lightweight airbags, and now fancy new foams—continually better AND safer. The wing I learned on (a Firebird Twist) was a DHV-2 and I had to carry 25 pounds of ballast for my first mountain flight in case there were any thermals.”

Julie vividly recalls her first high flight: “We were launching off Mt. Burney, which is a field of giant lava boulders. It took me 12 tries—it’s on video!—because I kept slipping off the rocks and wasn’t strong enough to stand back up on my own with the 25

Julie spieglerUsHPA's Program Manager

LEfT In 1990, this was one of Julie’s first soaring flights, at The Stables in San Francisco flying her Firebird Twist and Yates harness (wearing a bicycle helmet) | photo by Gever Tully.


pounds of diving weights. I was always able to keep the wing flying despite falling (that due to learning at the coast and having hours of kiting practice) and my instructor was determined to get me into the air. So he and Jim Yates ran along either side of me, and when I inevitably stumbled they hoisted me

back on my feet so I could keep moving and eventually fly away. It was a beauti-ful, boaty flight—possibly the first time I ever relaxed in the air, since I had so much altitude. I loved being up there!”

Clearly that love of “being up there” hasn’t diminished, and Julie plans this summer to spend as much time in the

air as possible, going to many of the Northern California XC League week-ends, plus the Rat Race in Oregon and the PG nationals in Chelan. “It’s going to be a challenge,” she admits, “but I want to hear that happy goal noise for these races as well.”

Indeed, that sounds like a lot of vacation time for a new employee, but Julie (unlike the rest of the office staff) will be working remotely, usually from her home in Northern California. “I have a fancy phone that rings here at my house at the same time as in the office in Colorado Springs!” she mar-vels, but a motel room or a Starbucks while at a comp will be a perfectly adequate workspace. And being a remote employee is not a new concept

LEfT TOP Taking a lunch break with her officemate, Sadie, out in the front yard. RIGHT Preparing to forward launch from Roquebrune/Monaco in 1999 during her honeymoon-paragliding trip, Julie was flying an original Swing Arcus. Photos by Gever Tully.

http://www.lazerlink/~pagenbks

for Julie. “I was employed for a year and a half with a company based in New York, and I was the only one not in the office, so the idea of working remotely for USHPA was actually more the ‘status quo’ for me.” And USHPA has been implementing some changes that make working outside the office a more feasible option. “All of the USHPA systems are being moved to web/cloud-based versions, which has benefits for everyone using them along with making it much easier to work from any-where,” Julie explains. “And everyone in Colorado Springs has been making me feel very included, and supported with appropriate systems and technology.”

So, what exactly is our new Program Manager going to be doing for us? “There are several areas where USHPA would like to provide additional benefits for members, including via the website and mobile apps,” Julie points out. “I’ll be researching, collecting user feedback, and defining the experience we want to create with these programs.

Then I’ll be developing content and working with subject-matter experts and programmers to put it all together. So my days will be a bit of a mixture, but that’s what I like about this type of work: I get to talk to all of our differ-ent constituents (members, directors, instructors, students, non-members), I

get to work with designers and develop-ers, and I get to exercise my skills in in-formation architecture, user experience design, instructional design, project management, testing, and creating great products. And,” she adds, “since it’s a small staff I’ll be doing other things as well, basically helping out wherever


needed, including rollout of projects and programs already in process.”

Given the breadth and depth of USHPA’s expectations for our program manager, what kind of a professional background made Julie the right “fit” for the position?

In her most recent position (with the New York-based company) she managed everything related to one of their major clients, the California Community Colleges, under a contract to provide all 112 colleges with online, interactive suicide prevention training for faculty, staff, and students. Julie points out the similarities between her former position and her new one with USHPA: In both cases she’s the only one in the office working remotely, and her job description includes a variety of different things, ranging from contract review to end-user support, from creat-ing marketing materials to testing new training modules.

Her previous employment was a contract position; aware of the job security of contractors, she’d been

keeping an eye out for “the next thing.” She’s worked in the software industry most of her career, and while she finds the work interesting and challenging, “I just sort of stumbled into it,” she says.

“I’d been thinking about what really is my passion—and that’s paragliding. So the idea of having my ‘day job’ be about free flight and improving the experience of all pilots in the US was almost too good to be true! Given the goals of creating useful, amazing tools for pilots—particularly instructors and students—and my background in software product development (in-cluding web apps and online training), combined with my experience as a paragliding instructor, it was a pretty clear match.”

While Julie identifies the main passion in her life as paragliding, her list of “things I love to do” is long and varied. “Our current dog, Sadie, is very enthusiastic and loves everything (play-ing, learning, rambling, dogs, people, critters…), so she is always trying to get something going,” Julie says. She also plays volleyball and takes Sabar dance classes when she can. (Sabar is a type of drum and style of dance from Senegal, West Africa. There is an annual Sabar dance-and-drum camp near the Dunlap flying site in California, so, if you’re flying between launch and Sontag in July and you hear the sounds

of Africa below, Julie might be down there at dance camp by the lake.)

“Recently I decided to make short films about women who fly, which has become a series called We Are Pilots,” Julie continues. “The videos are all on the web at we-are-pilots.com. So far it’s been focused on paraglider pilots, since that’s who I’ve encountered most often since I started the project, but I plan to continue to collect interviews and stories and make more films for the series.” Her latest video, We Are Pilots.Two, about women cross-country para-glider pilots, was awarded first place in the paragliding division at the 2013 NorCal Free Flight Film Festival.

The other main passion in Julie’s life, of course, is her husband, Gever, the guy responsible for getting her into paragliding all those years ago. And, apparently, Gever is also indirectly responsible for getting her into this new USHPA position. Julie explains:

“Gever’s main passion right now is inno-vation in education. After working with kids at Tinkering School, a sleepover summer camp he started several years back, and getting some recognition for his approach through the TED conference, Gever decided to start a K-12 school in San Francisco. It’s called Brightworks, and he was recently recognized for his work as an Allen Distinguished Educator. I’m really

LEfT TOP Julie with her husband, Gever, at Brightworks: the K-12 school he created in San Francisco. RIGHT Julie is geared up and ready to fly from Inspiration Point at the US Open Distance Nationals in September 2013 – waiting, waiting, waiting for the weather to clear, with her custom color Ozone Delta 2, Supair Skypper pod, and fancy helmet .


proud of what he’s accomplishing, and seeing him follow his passion in educa-tion inspired me to follow my passion in paragliding.” Now that Brightworks is in its third year, the demands on Gever’s time are lessening and he and Julie are able to spend more time in the air together.

I asked Julie if, now that she’s an “insider” at USHPA, her impressions of what the association does for its members have changed. “I think my biggest ‘surprise’ was the initiatives that are already under development in the office (like the new membership cards and online 30-day memberships) and the expansive goals that Martin has for new programs to support all members. Like most members,” she admits, “I had pretty low expectations from our national organization, but from the first time I talked to USHPA’s execu-tive director Martin I was excited about

what’s happening behind the scenes and on the horizon.”

As for her role in bringing these initiatives to fruition, she says, “I want to be sure that what we create for members is useful, usable, and desir-able. That means we need to know what members want, what they need, what they like. My first day on the job I cre-ated my first survey to gather feedback from members—the more information that people are willing to share, the stronger our programs will be. So if you receive a request to fill out a survey, or test something new, let us know what you think. Please take a few minutes to help us make the best possible tools and programs for you. As a member myself, I’m highly motivated to make sure we deliver!”

So there you have it: Julie Spiegler, USHPA Program Manager. If you have not yet met her in person, you may have

the opportunity to do so soon. “I’m looking forward to getting to more free-flight events (meetings, fly-ins, comps, etc.) and talking to more hang glider pilots and speed flyers. I have never flown in a hang glider, although I’ve always wanted to take a tandem flight.” Tandem hang pilots, take that as a very thinly veiled hint! Hopefully she’ll find it easier to get some hang time, now that her official capacity offers strong incentive to visit hang gliding events and sites.

As for me, I’m looking forward to hanging out with Julie again this year at the Rat Race, where, she says, “I haven’t yet decided if I’ll defend my title in the Sprint or push myself to fly further by entering the Race.” Either way, she has no doubt that it’ll be fun and, like most of us at this time of year, she can’t wait for the flying season to get fully underway.

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http://northwing.com


It was May 2011 and I thought the day looked promising for a late afternoon glass-off. The

weather forecast indicated a dry, mildly unstable airmass with strong southwesterly flow from the surface, all the way up past 18,000’. Wind speeds between 10,000’ and 18,000’ were predicated to be up over 30mph,

but tapering off to the low 20s as the day progressed. This was the perfect setup for an evening glass-off at our local site, Villa Grove. Both weather models that I used at that time, the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) and the North American Model (NAM), which normally verified fairly well for southern Colorado, were in agree-

ment, and the larger synoptic scale meteorological data showed the same.

After Mike Chevalier, Greig Ballantine, and I waited on launch for a while, the strong, gusty wind slowly began to ramp down, just as the models had forecast. I launched into smooth lift and climbed out above the peaks of the Sangre De Cristos. However,

by RICH JESUROGA




conditions unexpectedly began to build strongly again, with the wind speed increasing and the air becoming mod-erately turbulent. Both Mike and Greig decided not to launch.

After an hour of getting worked over and experiencing a couple of brutal wire-slappers, I’d had enough and headed for the Villa Grove airport, typically a nice place to land when the air aloft is rough. But the early evening air, normally quite smooth, gave me a thorough thrashing on my way out to the airport. I was happy to have a good landing and be on the ground safely. But I was perplexed by what I had missed in my meteorological assess-ment of the day. To understand what may have happened, a general explana-tion of numerical weather prediction follows.

NUMERICAL WEATHER PREDICTIONMuch like how a model airplane ap-pears (and may fly) like a real full-scale aircraft, a weather model simulates the behavior of the atmosphere surround-ing our planet. If we provide a model with accurate information about the current state of the atmosphere using numerous weather observations, it then uses mathematical equations (based on fluid dynamics, physics and other laws of nature) to calculate the future state of the atmosphere. Meteorologists and computer scientists develop the pieces of a weather model. Super computers assemble the pieces together, ingest a vast amount of atmospheric observa-tion data needed to run the model, and produce the final weather-model output. Typical data sources for today’s models include radar data, satellite data, surface observations, balloon soundings, vertical wind profil-ers, Aircraft Communications and

Reporting System (ACARS) wind and temperature observations, fixed and floating buoy data, to name just some meteorological inputs. Many models combine vegetation parameters with radar data to calculate soil moisture, and use cloud physics to make estima-tions of precipitation and solar gain. Terrain data is vitally important to weather models, particularly high-reso-lution models running with domains in mountainous areas. No doubt, weather models produce much more informa-tion about the state of the atmosphere than just temperature, moisture, pres-sure, and wind direction/speed.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research and operation

centers run various large-scale models that cover the planet, and regional area models that cover specific sec-tions of the US. Larger global scale models run four times a day over a large domain (the entire globe) and produce forecasts out to 14 days, giving long-range forecasters a glance at what may transpire a week or more away. Regional models run more fre-quently and cover a smaller domain size (such as the western US) and produce hourly forecasts out to 18 hours, thus producing more detailed weather information. Therein lies one important reason we have various weather models. We know that while taking a high-resolution photograph with a good quality camera, zooming in on an object can provide impec-cable image detail. Likewise, when we zoom out, we get less detail, but a much broader view of the object. The same is true in the output of weather models.

WEATHER MODEL RESOLUTIONWeather models are generated on horizontally and vertically spaced grids (see Figures 1 and 2). By dividing the atmosphere into cells, a series of computations are performed for each cell, both horizontally and vertically for every time-step forward in the model forecast. The higher the resolution of the grid, the more computations take place, which means more computing power is needed. Therefore, as NOAA runs lower-resolution global models along with high-resolution smaller domain models, their respective run times may be staggered to take full advantage of their super computing platforms. Increasing the resolution of the horizontal and vertical grid spacing is critically important in capturing smaller-scale weather events.

CATCHING A FISH IN A FISHNETImagine that weather events large and small propagating across a given area is like large and small fish swimming through a stream. You can catch a big fish with a large wide-open net, but the smaller fish are going to swim through the grid. But if you have a high-resolu-tion grid, you’ll catch the smaller fish as they enter the net. For us, it really is the smaller-scale weather events such as thunderstorms, virga showers, and gust fronts that can severely affect our flying activities. Thus, given the rela-LEfT The author landing at Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Figure 1. The horizontal and vertical weather-model grids covering the earth. Illustration courtesy of Wikipedia


tively smaller time and space scales of our flying endeavors, using the highest resolution model data available makes sense.

The accuracy of weather forecast models has improved significantly over the years. When I started my career at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) years ago, we struggled mightily to improve tempera-ture and precipitation forecasts. Today temperature forecasts are quite ac-curate, and our ability to forecast wind and precipitation events is vastly better than even just 10 years ago. This is in large part to due to advances in super computing, better physics packages and a plethora of advanced meteorological data. Still, there are many challenges in getting an accurate forecast.

Forecast model errors can occur for a variety reasons. Data-sparse areas, particularly over the oceans or large uninhabited areas, such as in the west-ern US, mean the atmosphere in those areas is largely unobserved. Automated quality-control systems sometimes fail to remove faulty or miscalibrated me-teorological sensor data that are then assimilated into the model data-ingest system. Once an error is introduced, it can be magnified through the model run forecasts. Complex terrain, such as rugged mountainous areas, provides another challenge, particularly in the intermountain West where the steep terrain and lack of observations impede the ability to get accurate mesoscale weather forecasts. These are just a few of the many ways errors can occur in numerical weather prediction.

COMMON WEATHER MODELSThere are literally dozens of weather models developed by meteorological development organizations around the world. Additionally, private industry has taken weather forecast model development further, providing very high-resolution solutions for their customers. Many free-flight pilots have been exposed to the Global Forecast System (GFS), the North American Mesoscale Model (NAM), and the Rapid Refresh (RAP, formerly the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC)).

The GFS is actually derived from a coupling of four separate models: an atmospheric model, a sea-ice model, a land–soil model, and an ocean model. All are needed to predict the weather across the globe over an extended forecast period. The horizontal grid spacing of the GFS is 28km for the first seven days of the forecast; the grid resolution is reduced to 70km for forecasts beyond seven days. I use the GFS if I’m planning a flying trip, and I start looking at the mid-tropospheric 700-mb and 500-mb forecast fields when I’m less than a week away from leaving.

The NAM is a higher-resolution model that runs four times a day and generates forecasts out to 84 hours. The NAM covers the contiguous US at a 12km horizontal grid space resolu-tion. However, the NAM also runs smaller domains over sections of the US at resolutions higher than 12km. These fixed “windows” are nested within the larger NAM grid cover-ing the US, as shown in Figure 3. The launch at Villa Grove is at 9700’ above mean sea level, which is near 700mb. Thus, I start looking at the NAM 700-mb to 500-mb forecast fields at about 48 hours out.

The RAP model replaced the operational RUC in the spring of 2012. However, some websites still

say “RUC” on their model labels. The RAP model is run every hour, assimi-lating the most recent data available and producing hourly forecasts out to 18 hours. The horizontal grid space resolution covering the contiguous US is 13km. Like the NAM, the RAP model also runs nested grids over smaller domains at 3km horizontal resolution. In addition, the RAP model is distinct from the other two above in that it also has a very high vertical grid-space resolution. This is due to the fact that RAP ingests a very large amount of winds-aloft data, which is particularly valuable to the aviation industry. I use the RAP hourly model output beginning on the morning I’m going to fly.

Be advised that many weather- related websites that provide GFS, NAM and RAP model output degrade the high-resolution data to de-clutter their web display. Thus, even though you may be looking at the RAP model, you may not be viewing the full resolu-tion of the model output. When asked if it is worth paying a private vendor for specific weather information, I often answer YES, but the answer is depen-dent on where you live and the type of flying you do.

Vendors of weather information that specifically cater to the free-flight community remove the complexities of high-resolution weather-model data

Figure 3. Nested grids over the US. Illustration courtesy of UCAR COMET.

Figure 2. The horizontal and vertical model grids coveringthe eastern half of the US. Illustration courtesy of Penn State University.


and tailor it specifically for hang glider and paraglider pilots. Often these companies run their own explicitly configured weather models over limited domains to provide more precise soar-ing forecasts than what may otherwise be available. The NAM and the RAP model output may verify fairly well in some areas of the US, but not so well in others. This is where the emphasis of a private-sector meteorologist can tweak the model output and/or remove a source of error in the data, based upon his or her knowledge, and can be of great value to pilots.

Going back and trying to under-stand what I may have missed in my meteorological assessment

from that flight in May 2011, I find that it’s possible a very small-scale jet max slipped through the grid-ded model data that I was viewing at that time. The lack of surface- and upper-air observations in western Colorado and eastern Utah would help explain this. The day after that event, I spoke with Rusty Whitley (Gunnison Gliders) who told me that it was gusting to over 50mph late in the afternoon at his house located 52 miles west of where I was flying. It’s also possible that observational data that may have picked up this high velocity wind was flagged as bad and discarded from the model run. Or perhaps computational errors in the model itself failed to reveal the event.

This example emphasizes how important it is for us to understand that weather-model output should be used as guidance, be corroborated with other sources of weather information, and used with an understanding of its limitations.

You may send your weather questions to the author at [email protected].

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Bingen (pronounced bin-jin) is a paragliding launch just above the windsurfing mecca of Hood

River, Oregon. Typically we fly our paragliders when the river is too flat to interest the windsurfers. But often the wind on the river is stronger than at launch—a valley flow on a huge scale. This helps to explain why you can have light winds on launch and a very pleasant 2- or 3-hour flight while

the kiteboarders are jumping waves below. On such a day if the wind fails to back off as forecast, you can look elsewhere for landing zones, or head for the riverside and expect to be landing backwards. If you ever find yourself in the situation where you expect to be landing with little or no forward penetration, here are some suggestions.

1. Forget the conventional approach

pattern. Any pattern that includes an upwind leg is not going to work! At this site, it will mean a splashdown in the Columbia River. More than one person has come up short on final here and gone into the river. Fortunately, none have drowned, yet.

2. Pick a landing area far downwind of your approach, without upwind obstructions or thermal sources if pos-sible, and one that is as long as possible

by MIKE STEED

High-Wind Landings


in the direction of the wind. You want to aim for the upwind half of the land-ing area, with plenty of margin to drift downwind if necessary.

3. Lose any unnecessary altitude far upwind of your intended landing area. It will be easy to go downwind at the last moment, but don’t expect to push upwind.

4. Do S-turns almost all the way to the ground. This allows you to keep an eye on your intended landing spot. And just like a conventional approach, you can make glide-slope adjustments by doing bigger or smaller turns. The only difference is that the glide slope runs downwind rather than upwind.

5. Expect to encounter turbulence near the ground. Get off the speedbar

if you can. Be alert, but light on the brakes.

6. As you land, kill the wing so you won’t get dragged. Different techniques work for different wings; the object is to get the wing down in a small heap that won’t re-inflate.

On this day about a dozen people landed in high wind without incident. Pilots chose to land

in various open spaces within the industrial park. I chose the official LZ beside the river, a narrow strip of lawn that is too near the trees along the shoreline, but gets cool, stable air off the river and has no thermal sources upwind. I was fortunate to land in a bit of a lull with no speed-bar. Others went all the way to the ground on speedbar. ABOVE Kelly Kellar testing the air on launch |

photo by Peter Reagan.

http://www.littlecloudusa.com


Everything is relative.

As an intermediate pilot, I’ve flown a variety of sites in a variety of conditions. But until

one Saturday, I had never left a flying site on a cross-country trek. At my home base of Pine Mountain on the high desert of Central Oregon, “high” used to mean 7000’, while “far” meant pushing out from the ridge lift before heading back to the familiarity of the hillside.

On Saturday, all of that changed. Armed with my brand-new Niviuk Hook 2 (my first new wing ever!), I had come down to Lakeview, Oregon, to attend the Umpteenth Annual Festival of Free Flight. This was my second trip to the festival, which features several sites with XC potential. I hooked up with my friend and mentor, Steve Roti, and, with my wife Nancy driving retrieve (what a sweetheart!), we headed across the state line to California and Sugar Hill. Along the way, Steve tu-tored me on topics relevant to the flight, such as what altitude would be required to cross the valley north of Sugar Hill

(10,000’) and where to arrive on the opposing slope to continue (hopefully) on back toward Lakeview.

The forecast was for light winds out of the south and temperatures in the 90s, with a good lapse rate. It was look-ing very promising. When we arrived at the 7200-foot launch, the winds were indeed light, and the cycles were punchy and not much stronger. Wind direction was variable, at times shifting from SW to NW. The paraglider pilots who launched early sank out, so we waited—Steve much more patiently than I. We finally lined up to launch between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m., after having seen a couple of pilots start to climb in the emerging thermal releases.

Steve launched first and headed for a gravel pit on the face of the spine off to the right, where thermal development appeared to be occurring. I launched a few minutes behind him into a cross-ing wind from the right (north), hitting sink and mild turbulence on my way to what I hoped would be better pickings. At the pit, Steve was starting to climb in something, but all I found were small pockets of lift, nothing organized

or strong enough to get me back up. I figured that this was about right, with the more experienced pilot being able to exploit what was offered, while I was destined to languish below.

When I spotted another paraglider pilot out toward the bailout LZ turning and going up, I followed him out and kept scratching with only minimal suc-cess. Oh, sure, there were moments of hopefulness, but each idea of being able to go back up was quickly snuffed out. I made my way toward the LZ, knowing there were power lines to cross in order to make it to the designated field, and I wanted to arrive high enough to scope out the current wind direction. From launch, we had seen pilots approach from both the south and north at dif-ferent times.

Setting up over the power lines, I estimated my altitude to be about 300 feet AGL (LZ is at 4820’) and thought I was doomed to sink out for a short and disappointing flight. It was then that I started getting tugged by some smaller thermic activity, which must have been triggered moments prior, given the low altitude. But it was

by JEffREY GRAY

Wing Go High, Wing Go Far


enough to get back up in some better-formed lift, as the smaller thermal bubbles seemed to coalesce while rising. Still, I figured I was just extending my sledder and thought to make the best of it. I kept turning and turning, staying in the available lift the best I could.

And it just wouldn’t stop. I climbed out to launch level, still circling and ascending. I looked for my wife and our truck on launch, but she had already started down the hill when we went out of sight behind the spine. Steve got on the radio to encourage me: “Jeff, you’re doing it!” I didn’t reply, hesitant to release my control in the turns to push my talk button. Steve radioed again to ask my altitude just as I passed 10,000’, and this time I responded. He encouraged me to top it out and head north across the valley. I could not have agreed more. I could possibly have stayed in the lift a while longer, though it seemed to be weakening.

At just under 11,000’, I pointed my wing toward the target ridge and went on glide. This was a new experi-ence, and I welcomed the opportunity to relax and enjoy the flight instead of working so danged hard to stay in the air.

Unsure of the best way to maximize my distance, I began to experiment: going on bar, going to best glide, going to trim. In each phase, I checked my descent rate, but could not be sure whether my flight strategy was re-sponsible for minimizing descent or whether I was seeing the effects of shifting air patterns. There was enough buoyancy in the air over the first half of the valley crossing to keep me above the 9000-foot level. A few fairly violent cycles came through, tossing me briefly, and this was enough to discourage me from using bar much. One particularly unruly piece of turbulence brought a brief frontal collapse, but the wing

popped out almost immediately. The areas of actual ascent were small, and I figured they were not worth pursuing.

I completed the valley crossing with plenty of altitude to spare and began searching for another ride up. At 6700’ I got one more decent thermal, taking me back up to just over 9000’, but the lift became weak and hard to stay in. I continued north, hoping to find more flight-sustaining lift. Part of me thought about flying toward the peaks, but I remembered that the best lift at Sugar was out front, with very little drift due to the light winds. I elected to stay on the edge of the hills, where they met the flats, trying to split the difference.

As I lost altitude, I ventured over the flat in one last, desperate attempt to find a trigger point in a plowed field or some such thing. It was not to be. I actually had a number of landing op-tions, but not necessarily the expertise to know which one to choose. I figured an open field with no power lines situ-ated close to the highway could be good criteria for making the decision, along with avoiding anything that was green (as in crops). I made my choice, set up, and brought her down.

It turns out that the air was a lot hotter on the ground than it was up high (go figure). I balled up my wing and carried it over to the corner of the lot, then quickly got out of my flight suit. I had to carefully place my gear over the surrounding barbed-wire fence (dreading the potential puncture wound on my wing or me), but made it over unscathed. I no sooner had carried my gear onto the adjacent property’s grassy area, when Nancy, Steve and another pilot, Tyler, pulled up to meet me. It turned out that the adjoining property was the Wild Plum (or Plum Wild, I don’t recall) Winery, so my choice of landing options was looking better and better. We all headed into the winery for a celebratory tasting of plum wine, plum gin and to take advan-

tage of the cool insides. The owner was friendly and welcoming and seemed perfectly happy to have me use his lawn to fold up my wing.

Later, Steve and I calculated the distance from launch to landing at just over 12 miles (20 km), less than a mile shy of making this my first interstate flight. Now, I realize this is small potatoes compared to what a lot of pilots are doing and have done. In fact, I just saw a report of a 140-km flight from Whaleback over the weekend and heard tell some Australians took off from Pine Mt., and one didn’t come down for 185 km. Amazing stuff, makes a guy feel humbled.

But everything is relative. And I cannot wait to get back in the air again; next time, I want to go higher and far-ther. And now I believe I can.

Jeffrey Gray is a member of the Desert Air Riders in Bend, Oregon

LEfT The Sugar Hill launch. Lake County’s Umpteenth Annual Festival of Free Flight

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OPPOSITE Because the larger and more forgiving wings lift sooner, they can be an excellent and challenging

platform to build your long-stride skills, as Dave Gibson does here. ABOVE Launching at over 9000’ MSL, the

author is taking very long and aggressive strides to ensure he has more than ample airspeed.

BY r ya n v oig h t

HG401

Making Stridesadvanced techniques & Concepts

As babies, we learn to crawl, then walk, then run. It’s fair to say that by whatever age we begin learning to hang glide, we pretty well have it down. And that,

in a nutshell, is the problem. Running with a hang glider isn’t quite the same as just running.

Let’s take a look at how it differs, the reasons why, and what to do about it. First, there’s the fact that we’re balanc-ing this thing on our shoulders. Unless it’s windy, we start every launch supporting the weight of the glider. This raises our center of mass much higher than we’re accustomed to. That’s a fancy way of saying “we don’t balance right.” Most instructors teach around this by teaching the walk-jog-run launch, which works quite well. It works so well, in fact, that few take the time to explain WHY we do it. With

our center of mass much higher, starting to run as we have our whole lives, we tend to accelerate out from underneath the glider above us, rather than get everything moving as a single unit. Since we are in contact with the control frame, speeding out in front of the glider raises the nose and the angle of attack. Spacing the acceleration over a few steps helps keep everything moving at the same pace. Some instructors also teach that the first step should be a “falling-forward” one. This works to achieve the same result, because moving our shoulders-and-glider forward, before we move our feet, keeps everything balanced and moving as a single unit.

There is a lot of content to cover as a beginning hang glider pilot, and getting into the mechanics of why we


walk-jog-run isn’t a good use of time, so I’m not faulting instructors. Yet as advanced pilots, we rarely give it a second thought. It has become a habit stored in our muscle memory. For the most part, that’s a good thing, but there are certain situations where having a deeper understanding of why we walk-jog-run can be helpful. One that has come up locally is launching from a short ramp. Pilots are eager to “get up to speed” in a low number of steps, and we see an increased risk of popping the nose. If we understand that we need to get the glider and our upper body—our center of mass while supporting the wing—moving forward before our legs and feet, it is much easier to maintain the proper angle of attack. By gaining a deeper understanding of WHY we walk-jog-run, we can find new ways to accomplish the same goal in fewer steps.

Another thing that is different about running with a hang glider, as compared to the way we’ve run all our lives, is the lifting force as we increase our speed. Except for towing, we launch running downhill. And if you’ve ever run down a hill in your life, you’ve learned that there’s a limit to how fast you can run. If the hill was long or steep enough, you might have even “over-speeded” yourself and tumbled over. This knowledge is embedded deep in our subconscious, and it shows itself when we try to launch a hang glider! We think we know exactly how fast we can run, and our brains create a strong aversion to going any faster. On beginner wings, and/or with a nice headwind, this is plenty fast and not an issue.

But again, as we advance as pilots, specific situations can arise. Launching a high-performance wing, flying with a higher wing loading, launching at high altitude, or launch-ing in no wind or even a slight tailwind (not condoning that behavior!) are all examples where we probably must run faster than our bodies would normally be capable of.

Luckily, we’ve got this giant wing helping us out. As we accelerate, we create more airspeed and, therefore, more lift. If our angle of attack is set correctly, that lift should be pulling up and forwards, helping us to continue accelerating. As we are reaching our body’s physical limit of running any faster, we should have sufficient airspeed that the wing is lifting pretty well, if not most of our weight.

At this point, we must do something different from the way we have run all of our lives. In regular life, we equate steps to speed, and the faster we want to run, the faster we move our feet, like the Flintstones in their car. But at this point in a launch, with the wing lifting and helping support us, we need to take fewer steps. And no, that is not a typo. Fewer steps to go faster, I say! The principal difference being that these steps need to be very BIG. In fact, let’s not call them steps; let’s call them STRIDES. And the secret to getting sufficient airspeed in these challenging situations is LONG STRIDES. In between each stride, we are putting our full weight into the glider, which increases wing loading and causes the glider to fly faster. Assuming we are not yet up to an airspeed where we can just fly away, the glider turns altitude into airspeed and “settles” a little, which just so hap-


pens to set us up perfectly for our next long stride! Essentially, what we are doing is supporting some of our

weight in between strategically loading the glider to keep it accelerating, increasing airspeed, and increasing lift until we fly away. It’s important to note that this only works if we are loading the glider through the harness; holding on or pulling down on the downtubes will not work well. Instead, use a loose grip to feel the pitch, and pull in as needed to keep your legs within reach of the ground, so you can continue your long strides until you have “extra” airspeed for safety and security.

Every pilot has his or her own touch or “style” as to how they perform the same tasks, like launching. But in look-ing at these images of various pilots who have learned and trained in different areas, we see a lot of similarities. All of the pilots are taking exceptionally long strides—with the stride starting with their foot well ahead of their body—and continuing the stride until their foot is well behind them. We can see that they all have a fairly aggressive forward lean as they accelerate down the hill, but they appear to bend at the waist in order to get their foot ahead of their hips at the

start of each stride. In fact, it looks like a movement similar to pushing a skateboard or scooter along, just using alternate legs instead of the same leg repeatedly.

I will say again that these are advanced concepts that are not necessary for newer pilots who are flying in more forgiv-ing equipment and conditions. The need for strong launches is universal, but this deeper understanding and more precise execution is, in general, related to situations that only more advanced pilots should accept. Understanding these con-cepts, and practicing their application, is something advanced pilots should do in a safe and controlled situation, BEFORE getting on a high-performance glider, before flying at high wing loading or high altitudes, and before combining the above with no-wind launch conditions. In fact, a great way to practice this is running across a flat field while hooked in to your wing. As with anything, practice is the secret to perfect-ing execution.

Fly safe and stride on!

OPPOSITE Small or light-weight pilots often get lifted quickly and lose contact with the ground. Here we

see Desiree Voight doing an excellent job of controlling her pitch in order to keep her feet within reach

of the ground as she strides off launch in Chelan, WA. ABOVE TOP Mitch McAleer taking long strides

launching from Utah’s “Inspo” on a hot summer day. BOTTOM Shadd Heaston shows us that practicing

strong launches, for example when you have a solid headwind, keeps the skill sharp for when you need it.


How toget the Shot!

B Y re beC C a b re de hof t & C a de Pa l m e r


So you finally purchased your shiny new GoPro Hero14+squared. Maybe you even took it out of the box and figured out how to turn it on. Now what? We hope to answer that question by

covering the best ways to improve your GoPro paragliding photography and videography, using a variety of mounts.

But first, a word of caution: Many of these mount-ing options can interfere with your ability to fly safely. If you’re not yet dialed in on your flying, you shouldn’t carry a camera. Besides being a potential snag hazard, a camera can be incredibly distracting. Remember that your first priority must always be safety, not getting the shot. We’ll note each mount’s particular risk factors.

Now, on to the fun stuff: The first step is understanding a GoPro’s strong suits and

weak points. Because of its fisheye lens, the GoPro is the ulti-mate close-up camera. It takes amazing photos and videos of you and your friends getting rad. What a GoPro doesn’t do well is capture detail in the distance. Take the time to read the instruction manual and play around with your camera on the ground before taking it up in the air. Once you are familiar with the buttons and different modes, you will start getting better results with less frustration in the air. The time-lapse and video modes will be the most useful for flying.

If you have a smart phone, we highly recommend down-loading the GoPro App and using it to control your camera via a user-friendly interface. It not only allows you to preview what your GoPro is seeing, it also provides instant grati-fication by allowing you to immediately view what you’ve photographed, delete fluff, and upload pictures to Facebook so your friends can see how awesome you are. You can use it as a remote as well, but using the WiFi feature will drain your camera’s battery faster than without it.

helmetThe most common method of mounting your GoPro is on your head. Throw a sticky mount on your helmet, hit the button before you launch, and go! Obvious, right? The camera is seeing what you are seeing, and what you are seeing is amazing! Unfortunately, unless you are wingwalking on your buddy’s glider, coring a thermal on your XC partner’s wingtip, or proximity speed-flying, the resulting footage might disappoint.

Although this is the most straightforward way to mount

your camera, it may not convey what you were seeing in the air. The one time that the helmet cam is king is when you’re flying in proximity to other pilots or terrain features.

It’s best to learn your GoPro’s settings well enough to be able to turn the camera on and off and to start and stop recording blindly, so you can capture short snippets of great footage rather than filming the whole flight.

Risk factoRs: Placing a camera near your lines is a great way to get your head stuck. Also, be aware that the camera adds noticeable extra weight to your helmet.

get the Shot!

LEfT Tandem XShot, Dominical, Costa Rica. ABOVE Knee Mount, Loop. Jackson Hole, Wyoming.


foot/Shin/KneeThis is a great option, but only if you like looking back at all the ridiculous faces you make while flying. It is super useful for acro training—being able to watch your hands and the glider’s response is the best way to figure out how to improve your tricks. These mounts also work great for video. You can get some super-cool photos with the time-lapse mode (especially at .5 seconds), but you’ll have to sift through a lot of frames to find the winning shot.

In our experience, photos turn out best when taken from the foot mount. Having the camera on your shoe gives it enough distance away from you to be able to capture your body as well as the glider and some good background in the

shot. However, placing the camera on your foot means you’ll have to hold your leg steady to get great video. Either your knee or shin provides a more solid base.

Placing the mount on your shin allows more of the glider to appear in the frame, but sometimes your knee will obscure the view of your face, depending on how you hold your leg during flight. Using a few GoPro extenders to achieve some distance from your leg helps. Experiment with tipping the camera backwards and, on your computer after your flight, compare the results with various angles to find what works best.

Risk factoRs: The chance of snagging the camera increas-es significantly the farther it moves away from your knee.

ABOVE Shin Mount, Wingover. Jackson Hole, Wyoming | photo by Cade. OPPOSITE Tandem XShot, Lake

Atitlan, Guatemala | photo by Cade.


XShotThe camera pole is the most versatile way to get self-portraits while flying tandem or solo. XShot recently released a Pro model with a GoPro mount built-in. Throw a solid bungee leash and carabiner on it, and it’s ready to hang from your harness. It allows the viewer to experience what it’s like to be with you in the air. You will be able to view your entire body, harness and the background in one shot. Capture another glider flying close in the background and up the interest factor by a thousand.

Taking shots from many different angles keep the photos interesting: front, side, over your shoulder, straight above, up and to one side between the lines, and down by your feet (with the glider in the shot). Differences in the light, the background, and you/your passenger will make some of these angles work better on some flights than others.

If you’re using the XShot for tandem, give your passen-

ger information about what you’re doing and where to look before shooting. It’s advisable to practice one-handed flying, so you can maintain control over the glider while using one hand for filming. XShots are great for photos in time-lapse mode (we generally use the 2-second setting) and scenic video. If your passenger is up for it, hand over the camera pole and let him or her do the filming while you do aerobat-ics.

Risk factoRs: Make sure to securely leash your setup to your harness. Also beware of lines/risers/reserve handle snagging, especially on launch. Sew a little loop of webbing to the side of your harness, opposite your reserve handle, for easy access to the camera pole in flight.

Wing mountOne of the more interesting angles is obtained by attach-ing the camera to your glider. These photos turn out best


when you’re flying close to the ground and/or other gliders or dramatic features, such as coastline, castles, cities, rugged mountains, etc. You can mount the camera right in the middle of the glider, or offset it towards either wingtip. You’ll need a remote, or a phone with the GoPro app, unless you want to start the camera on launch and film or photograph the entire flight.

Risk factoRs: Beware of the significant snag hazard when wing-mounting your camera. The best way to get a camera stuck in your lines is to stick it up in your lines.

The possibilities are endless; there are many other mount-ing options to get unique angles with your flying footage. You can jerry-rig many of these setups at home, using GoPro mounts, some raw materials, and some ingenuity, but the easiest way is to follow the pros. Two US companies are producing great products that are perfect for paragliding

photography:Xshots are available at XShot.comKnee/shin mounts, foot mounts, magnetic wing

mounts, and follow cams are available from Blake Pelton at Speckedout.com. The website also has great video tutorials on how to get the best use out of their products.

a final woRd to the wise: One fantastic photo will always be better than 10. Choose the best one before you post and the impact will be greater. The same principle ap-plies to video. Spend time editing your video, cutting it down to short dynamic clips, and the interest factor will be much greater than many minutes of uncut footage.

Now, get out there and share all that radness of flying with the world!

ABOVE Helmet Mount, Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland | photo by Becca. OPPOSITE Knee Mount, Tumble.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming | photo by Cade.

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HardcoreANTI-pHO TO S & wOR D S BY n iC K g reeC e


The tires chirp as the rented BMW power-slides around sharp corners on the road that leads to St. Hilaire. My car is fast, my glider is rocking, and the weather is all-time. I chuckle and thank my

lucky stars. The mission to the Alps is progressing nicely: I’m set to complete three classic routes and experience the “Burning Man” of free flight—Coupe Icare. Sixt car rental in Nice made an egregious mistake and provided a major upgrade which will carry me 1300 miles, garner two size-able speeding tickets in France and Italy, and cause mis-chievous laughter 23 times as I slide the clutch out and the

car into a lower gear than the manufacturer recommends and feel the backend break loose around turns. St Andre, St Hilaire, Chamonix, and the Dolomites in a week. I only have a day in each place, which proves to be perfect. When the drive from Nice begins it feels like being released from school for summer recess—everything is possible.

This style of trip is part of a bigger movement. We often hear stories of hardcore athletes undergoing extreme condi-tions in order to reach the nirvana of flying and adventure that mere mortals can only contemplate in awe. Exploits during which questionable food is consumed, long walks are endured, and a lasting illness persists due to unsanitary travel conditions. These adventurers are deeply respected and often are rewarded with flying considered possible for only a select few.

But there is another way to get the best flying of your life. Yes, you heard correctly. While going to Pakistan and gnawing on a stewed goat leg to get great flying is one option, I postulate that rallying through the Alps in a German automobile for a week while ticking off Classic Routes, flying some of the most interesting mountains in the world and staying in the relative lap of luxury is an equal alternative. This is Anti-hardcore. You will love it.

September 16I head to the Ozone headquarters to meet the team and write an article several years ago. With borrowed wing in hand, I join the Ozone team to watch them test gliders. Now, I thought my job made me pretty tough, what with all the cal-luses on my hands from typing and editing free-flight lore, but paragliding test pilots take the cake. I witnessed an [easy] day, as they put the up-and-coming EN B glider through its paces. But testing high-end comp wings would make me take up smoking unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes to calm the nerves.

September 17I drive north, up one of the most glorious roads in Europe, from Gréolieres to St Andre. As European supercars rally past me with ease, I smile, knowing the weather is looking good all week and the infamous Dormillouse run awaits. When I did my first European competition at St Andre many years ago, I’d heard of the fabled 60-mile out-and-return, down the Dormillouse to St Jean Montclair and back. The turn-around point is a giant French castle that sits proudly above the town. Thousands of feet of vertical rock run north to south and lend a feel of true mountain isolation, or “deep-ness” in the parlance of XC fanatics.

When I arrive at launch, the day seems average. After

HardcoreABOVE Lucas Bernadin flying on the back side of the Agui du Midi, Chamonix, France.


tuning out the nay-saying pilots who laughed at the idea of running the route, I take off into a gentle cycle and climb out over the fabled start place. It is a good day, but one where a certain modicum of respect has to be exercised to succeed in flying cross-country. In other words, one could do wrong, so climbs need to be maximized and glide lines focused on.

Flying north down the main ridge from launch until the end of the ridge marked by aerials where one must climb patiently in order to take the next glide, which starts the route. One route leads into the wind and the relative safety of large valley landings, while the other leads downwind to a massive peak at the head of a narrow valley. If there were wind, it would be dicey to head to the latter line. I decide that a potential long walk is worth the risk and head toward the deep Dormillouse line.

Questioning the wisdom of my judgment, I head off alone toward a peak I could have sworn someone called “Trauma.” Really? That [cannot] be right. The entire time I’m on glide I struggle with the name (which turns out to be a mispronunciation of the French). I am wary as I slide in deep onto a large pumping rock face that pings me up

well above the peak in just a few minutes. Once on this escarpment, I delightedly surf some of the biggest and wildest faces I have ever encountered.

At some point on the way out, an Ozone R10 catches up to me, and I am privileged to fly with my newly found friend for the rest of the flight. It is incredible to be in a place that seems so remote, yet have an unknown pilot pull up and share the sky. We fly low along the ridge, scaring a wild herd of mountain goats enjoying the remaining autumn. Rarely turning in a circle, we touch the 30-mile mark in good time and turn back toward St Andre to head deeper on the return leg.

Cheval Blanc rises majestically into view on the return and kicks off a climb that positions us to go east into bigger mountains, where roads are as scarce as in the Rockies. One of the thrills of flying the Alps is diving over cols into the next valley to see if you can make it out—like trying to figure out how to make your track log look like Chrigel Mauerer’s from the Red Bull X-Alps.

We make it up on the last pitch and glide into goal. My new friend speaks no English and I, no French. So I buy him a beer, we exchange awkward smiles, share a few

ABOVE The Dolomites.. OPPOSITE The first glide back from launch from Col Rodella, Italy.


photos, and go our separate ways. It was a glorious day that I celebrate with pizza and a beer and prepare to leave for Coupe Icare the next day. The Dormillouse deserves its place as one of the top 20 Classic Routes in the world.

September 18I arrive at Coupe Icare around midday and sign in for my press credentials, so I can take photos on the ramp where the costumed pilots assemble. As I look out the window of the press center, I see I am at the French Burning Man that includes every manner of human-powered flight imaginable. This event that turns 40 this year is a veritable wonderland for free-flight fans: costumes (many of which took years to create), bands, beer, food, music, movies, Yves Rossy aka Jet Man, hang gliding, paragliding, paramotoring around pylons, aerobatic exhibitions, and the best costume fly-in one can imagine. This place is cool! I wander around all day, catch a few inspiring movies at night and meet up with old friends over drinks, before heading for the car to sleep. Exhausted and jet lagged, I don't awaken, even as rain and thunder rip through the night.

Even though Coupe Icare is the most amazing flying festival in the world, I have routes to fly, so I head towards Chamonix, after checking off another cherished experience.

September 19I roll down the hill toward the St Hilaire landing zone, where tens of thousands of people are watching and cheering for pilots who land near a giant bull's-eye.

But Chamonix beckons, and in a few hours I arrive in the narrow valley over which Mt Blanc, the largest massif in Europe, towers. My first stop is always Café Elevation, near the old train station. As I settle in with a hot, foaming latte, I watch athlete after athlete walk by, decked to the nines in the most current outdoor technical gear, obvi-ously headed to some form of radical adventure. This is the mecca for outdoor sports, and the townspeople, who mostly speak with an English accent, know it.

I meet up with a French team pilot and local resident, Lucas Bernadin. We head up the Aiguille du Midi with ropes and crampons to walk down the arête in order to launch the south side of the Midi top-station, on a rare day when a pilot can ridge soar the massive rocks that lead down into the Valle Blanche. Lucas ties me to him and leads down the steep jagged ridge, which in the winter is rigged with cables for safety. The walking seems easy; however, the day before, a friend of Lucas’s had a misstep and slid off the ridge, down into a crevasse. He was airlifted out and hospitalized for a few weeks. That is Chamonix for you, a place where the walk to launch can be more danger-ous as the flight itself.


We arrive at launch unscathed, whereupon Lucas orders me to wait on launch while he scrambles in the ice to re-trieve his friend’s gear. As I chat with a few locals and pre-pare my gear, a giant glacier pulls out beneath us, searching for the valley below. When Lucas returns, we launch into perfect wind and spend the next half-hour soaring on the south side of the massif, feeling connected to the moun-tains like never before. Flying past climbers on seemingly unapproachable pinnacles, I round the corner into the Chamonix Valley and fly over to the Brevent. Climbing there, we see the valley from a different vantage point, in-cluding the grandeur of the Midi and Mt Blanc, in front of us. A tour of the valley becomes the tour de jour, as we fly over peaks that will lead us to Plan Joux. Climb after climb, I marvel at my arena for the day—one of the most beautiful mountain valleys in the world. We take a lovely tour while heading toward Aravis and Plan Joux, with a return back to Chamonix in mind. Crossing the valley toward the west, we start back on the other side of the valley, completing the circuit and returning to the car parked at the main school landing zone in downtown Chamonix, near the uniquely

shaped Guide’s School multi-story building. Lucas and I celebrated our journey with style, as do

most after days spent purposefully in the mountains with great friends. The next morning, I begin the day with a proper haze earned from a night spent with the owls.

September 21Upon leaving Chamonix, I drive through the Mt Blanc tunnel and on to Canazei, Italy, to fly in a place I have marveled at in magazines from the beginning of my flying days: the Dolomites. The next mountains await and I proceed on the longest leg of the drive thus far, stopping more than a half-dozen times for the best gas station cappuccinos in the world.

I arrive in time to witness the landings of the evening glass-off pilots, who have been blissfully floating around the smooth skies. Kelly Farina is there, guiding a group, and I get information regarding launch times and cable car rides for the next day. After finding a delightful hotel in Canazai, I settle into an evening of reading a brilliant novel by Colum McCann, [Let the Great World Spin]. I’m relaxed, awaiting the next day and hoping beyond all

LEfT Landing in Italy. ABOVE Nick Greece and Kelley Farina enjoying a pre-launch meal.


hopes that I will be able to complete the classic 60-mile triangle which circumnavigates the Marmolada and Ortler, as well as countless other magnificent rocky spires and precipices. I fall asleep with McCann’s words in mind: “The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough,” and I feel as if I understand. I’ve hit the tipping point in my trip—the time when the logistics and baggage from my normal life have been abandoned, and I am fully present, devouring my sur-roundings, reaping the treasures of travel, and preparing for a flight I have dreamed of for 10 years. I have arrived.

September 22I wake up to a fine-looking day and slowly make my way to breakfast, relish a cappuccino and croissant, and rush to the tram. Pilots surround me as I load up to start the journey to Col Rodella. It will be at least an hour until the thermals start pumping, so I take advantage of the dining option on the hill, ordering a delicious Bolognese dish. I make it a policy to eat before every flight, and this experience is top-notch—the best pre-flight meal I have had to date.

At launch I watch as eager pilots already in the air start to climb above the horizon. It is turning on, and my Cheshire cat smile is visible through my visor. Several areas within a two-mile radius are full of prepared wings, with pilots streaming off the hillside.

I lay my wing out quickly and get in the air. Climbing up with a few others, I set off toward a massive face behind launch for my first proper climb in the Dolomites. It is amazing; and pilots are climbing [everywhere]. I fly with a few for a glide or two and leave for another line. There are great pilots marking thermals along the entire mountain range, so it is choose-your-own-adventure, with 200 other pilots doing the same. I’m turning circles in a giant colorful

fishbowl in the sky, with stunning rocky peaks below form-ing an aquarium terrain. It’s a granddaddy circuit, culmi-nating in soaring up thousands of feet of vertical rock, the face of the Marmolada. The air is smooth and having my wingtip positioned ten feet from the largest rock wall I have ever flown—or seen!—for several minutes as I climb, turning only once or twice, is a moment stolen forever.

I fold up after landing in a field full of sheep and smil-ing pilots. I celebrate on my own, as no one else seems to speak English, then pack up and head to my car to start the drive back to Nice. Travelling alone is amazing, but in this moment I am aware it is twice as fine to be able to revel in shared moments with your flying partners.

With my gear in the car, I start the final rally back to where it all started just one week earlier. Driving fast, I shave an hour or more off of the time, and swing by the Ozone shop to drop the borrowed M4 off. I spend the eve-ning recounting my trip with Russ Ogden, and his amazing family, where we consume entirely too much rum—which makes each flight at least 20 miles longer.

As I sit back in my seat for the flight across the Atlantic I can’t help but note how massive, extreme, and gnarly the terrain I flew was—yet, so civilized when I returned to the ground. I must admit that this type of flying adventure is well suited to my needs. While I truly respect the adven-turers out there who thirst to suffer for their just deserts (and from time to time I do partake in this style), I am obligated to point out that one can also head to many a location to fly terrain that will never, ever, leave your mind wondering if you got enough. Anti-hardcore needs your help whether it’s a sledder in the evening sun at your hill, or a trip through the Alps. Join the movement this year. You will not regret it!

ABOVE The rented BMW all ready to roll. OPPOSITE Gliding back to St. Andre on the infamous Dormillouse route.


VALLe DeL CAUCA, CoLoMbIA

The Cauca Valley region in Colombia, South America, has been the subject of several articles in Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine during the past couple of years. A notable event—Hombres

Pájaro Colombia—celebrated its fifth edition there this year and was special for several reasons, among them being the official opening of a new hang gliding competition flying site near the town of Trujillo.

In December 1984, local hang glider pilots Mike Glennon

and Luis Alhach, AKA “Yogui,” from Cali, a major city two hours south of Roldanillo, drove up north to the Cauca Valley looking for a flying site, where they stumbled upon the ridges around Roldanillo. They gave what they thought would be a good site a try, and they loved it. This site became a common weekend launch that proved to be so good that in August 1985 the first Colombian Hang Gliding National Championship was held in the area. Forty-seven pilots from the three major cities of Cali, Medellin and Bogota participat-ed. Mike was away in Brazil that summer, so Yogui, who did not have any other strong rivals, became the first Colombian


champion. Ever since, all of our nationals have been held in this region; happy and harsh times have passed, different launch sites have been discovered, great flights have been made, fantastic moments have been shared. However, what’s most important is that we are still flying there and the locale is getting even better.

In the past, only one hang gliding competition a year was held in Colombia: the nationals. However, those of us who have flown internationally know how important it is to participate in as many events as possible, so we decided to work toward increasing our opportunities at home. Since

2009, we have been able to host more than one hang gliding competition a year; we even hosted the Guatemalan nationals that year. After six years, we have an active current competi-tion calendar for the Cauca Valley region: Hombres Pájaro Colombia, one week in January; First Chambonato, three days in March; Copa Iyomá, four or five days in June; and Colombian hang gliding nationals, one week in August, as well as a couple more Chambonatos. All are FAI sanctioned.

Back in the 1990s, our open nationals were comprised of about 90 pilots, including 10 to 12 foreign pilots, mainly from Mexico, Venezuela, and, once, Ken Brown from USA, who won that year. This was followed by a period when the flying population decreased drastically, including a couple of years when we held NO national championship. However, during the last few years, we have been working hard to keep the competition scene alive and growing in order to enroll as many pilots as possible, while providing interesting and enjoy-able comps. Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2014 was great proof of this!

Several factors make this valley special for our sport: It is flyable all year round, with the best months being January, February, July, August and September; thermals average between 600-800ft/min; there are usually no strong winds or turbulence; there are huge LZs with two major roads on each side of the valley, plus many service roads in between and lots of friendly people where pilots land. Pilots should

LEfT Group picture at launch on the last day.

Photo by Cristian Cardona.

BY C l a U di a m e J i a


also be aware that the days are shorter and cloudbase is not as high here (between 3° and 4° north of the Equator) as in other flying zones, and that they need to have good takeoff and landing techniques for the low-wind conditions, which contribute to the valley’s being an excellent and friendly place to learn and improve skills while having a good time.

There are many flyable sites and comps being held during the northern summer, one of the main strengths of this

region, and January and February are awesome months to fly the valley. If you are thinking about escaping the winter and indulging in a flying vacation, make sure you consider Colombia!

Hombres Pájaro (which means Birdmen) Colombian edition dates back to 2010. Mike Glennon, creator of this competition, explains: “The idea of Hombres Pájaro was born after I competed in the Hombres Pájaro that Raul Guerra or-ganized in Ecuador. I thought it would be interesting to carry on with the idea and attract international pilots to Roldanillo so they could get to know the area. Every time I took part in international competitions, I would talk a lot about Colombia and Rolda[nillo] and felt it was my duty to create a competi-tion to which I could invite them all. It seemed to me that the month of January (when we had no hang gliding competi-tions), was better than August (traditionally the Nationals month), and I also thought that since it was winter in the USA and Europe, it would have better possibilities of attract-ing the international pilots.”

So Mike made it happen, and his competition was a suc-cess from the start! We all loved the idea of having another full week of XC racing in the middle of one of the best two flying seasons. Since then, we have been getting more pilots involved and more foreigners interested, and, from what I have been able to gather in the last couple of months, there will be even more international pilots next year!

This year’s event was not only bigger and better but also


special. Several different factors contributed to this: The opportunity of opening a new launch site: Trujillo.

Before this new site, back in 2009, the hang gliding com-munity started using a new takeoff that is popular now, just above the town of Roldanillo, called “La Tulia.” This site is attractive because it allows you to launch until mid-afternoon, unlike the sites we used where the tailwind usually kicks in, at the latest, around noon. However, the wind is light, there is only one ramp, making it difficult to swiftly launch a large field of pilots, the rigging area is somewhat small for gliders and, sometimes, the last bit of the road becomes 4x4 only.

For this edition, everything seemed to point to a substan-tial number of participants; therefore, in order to provide an appropriate site, Mike arranged for the development of the new launch site, “Trujillo,” just in time for the competition. I took four XC flights from there before the start, and it proved to be the right place for what Mike had in mind.

He told us that for many years when he had flown over this “other” ridge, he noticed some fine fields that looked ap-propriate for a takeoff and had good thermal activity in the area. He had wondered whether it would be possible to get access to it for use as a launch site, but never really looked into

the matter until last December, when it was pretty clear that the Tulia takeoff would be too small for the upcoming com-petition. Coincidentally, another hang glider pilot happened to be good friends with the mayor and some other members of the administration in Trujillo, the town where the launch is located. They were able to locate the spot on the first try, and were excited to discover that it looked even more promis-ing from the ground.

Permission was obtained to build the ramps, tidy the setup area and use the location during the hang gliding competition period. Mike also came up with the great idea of decorat-ing it with banners, flags and extra windsocks, making it look fantastic, very professional. The icing on the cake was the outdoor restaurant set up especially for the comp, where one could purchase drinks, snacks, or even a full typical Colombian breakfast, topped off by an amazing view over the valley. (We also noticed things that needed improvement, but all in all, this site, with its flat rigging area and two ramps, worked just fine.)

Another BIG surprise for this comp was the support of sponsors. Towards the end of 2013, Mike was able to pull off what seemed to be an impossible stunt: offering juicy prize

OPPOSITE TOP Local “matador” Daniel Vélez, second place overall. BOTTOM Dustin and Daniel walking to launch

box; launch marshal below. Photos by Cristian Cardon ABOVE Pedro García right after take off | photo by Maria.


money! Thanks to TELESENTINEL, BamaCol, IcolPack & Airnomads, the top three winners of the Open Class received large, fully loaded, cardboard checks at the awards ceremony; this helped attract big shots, whose presence also attracted other pilots. It is exciting to offer our fellow pilots the op-

portunity to share some time with international pilots who inspire us and help improve our skills.

This year a total of 42 pilots from Austria, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Spain, USA and Venezuela joined us; this has been the largest and most international Hombres Pájaro Colombia to date.

It was also the first time the competition created an official blog and organized lots of media coverage. Thanks to the authorities in Trujillo, Natalia Jaramillo, the official press attaché, and Cristian Cardona, the official photogra-pher, we had radio, TV and newspaper coverage. USA pilot Dustin Martin, for example, was interviewed by national radio, resulting in a short video about him being published on the web; the competition also made the first page of El País newspaper, and several articles were published on the web. This was the first time one of our comps had so many spectators; a hang gliding competition was a novelty for the Trujillo area. Takeoff was only about eight miles from town, so locals visited the site, especially during the weekends. Ani, one of the launch marshals, started a tradition of telling the audience about the pilot on launch, and soon the spectators became interested in the individuals as well as the race and began cheering on the competitors, creating an exciting and jovial atmosphere.

Even though the Colombian comps have, from time to time, received some support from local authorities, we had never experienced the attention and encouragement we re-ceived from the authorities in Trujillo, especially, from Mayor José Luís Duque. What a delightful surprise! They helped us at launch, with police and rescue teams, with the setup of the restaurant, with daily presence of their representatives and, with—what really blew our minds—the party they set up for us showcasing typical food of Colombia, including beautiful platters of fresh tropical fruit, drinks and music. When the task was cancelled on Wednesday, everyone drove down to the town’s square where the party took place. We danced, and ate and even took part in slack lining (Dustin had brought his kit along) and bike riding, using bicycles from locals (if you have the chance, ask Zac Majors about it). The mayor spent most of the afternoon with us that day; it was also a great experience for the locals who watched in awe at the “friendly invasion.” Many people, especially the kids, still ask, “When will the ‘gringos’ come back?”

The establishment of the Trujillo takeoff marks a “before and after”: Now it definitely will be possible for this region of Colombia to become a top winter destination. The locale has

ABOVE TOP Zac Majors riding a local’s bike around the main square. BOTTOM Dustin Martin slacklining at

Trujillo’s main square. OPPOSITE Packing up at goal after Task 5. Photos by Cristian Cardona.


what it takes, at better prices, with a rich and picturesque folk-lore, to offer pilots a place to enjoy a vacation, flee the winter and/or take part in a high-level competition that will also give decent points towards the WPRS. And, who knows, maybe Mike will be able to continue to award cash prizes!

During this week, we had the opportunity to celebrate life in a unique way: It was our chance to say “good-bye” to a dear friend and say “hello” to a newborn baby girl.

From the beginning of Mike’s organizing task for the 2014 edition, he wanted it to honor the memory of Luis Rizo by creating the space where, together, we could remember and celebrate Luis’s life in the best possible way: through hang gliding. Mike stated, “This year’s Hombres Pájaro had special significance for me, as I decided to dedicate it to my dear friend/brother Luis Rizo, Colombian pilot who learned to fly hang gliders in this area as a young teenager and then moved to France, where he became an internationally recog-nized competition pilot. Luis passed away last year due to an accident while flying a tandem glider on tow, near Paris. We had the honor of the company of his mother Doris the last two days of the comp, which gave special meaning to our event.”

Mike knew it would be a special Hombres Pájaro, but I am sure he could not have imagined just how special it would be: Before the first task early Sunday morning, following a hunch, he drove back to Cali, arriving there just before his daughter Allison was born on Monday, January 20th! He called before the pilot briefing, so among the “official notices” that morning was the meet director’s announcement of Allison’s birth, after which everyone heartily cheered at this moment of collective happiness for our friend! Mike was able to drive back for the last two tasks and closing ceremony, where he was one of the two chefs at the barbecue.

The weather this year was not the classic summer drought that provides seven-out-of-seven competition days, but it still allowed four scored tasks, a cancelled task during which most pilots went for a short flight; one cancelled day that ended up in a party, and another cancelled day (the last one) that gave rise to a special, spontaneous and moving ceremony on launch. All tasks were races with a single start gate, usually set between 11:30 and noon. This has been the MO for the last couple of editions, and it seems to work well, especially in this region where the short days begin early.

There were 33 pilots in the Open Class. Their tasks were between 54.9 and 70.6 miles, with an average of 62.9 miles; out of those in goal, the shortest racing time was 02:09:06 and the longest was 03:06:18. Their basic GAP parameters were: nominal distance 31.1 miles; nominal time 2 hours and nominal goal 20%. Other parameters included a Jump-the-gun Factor of one point per every second a pilot went early and a maximum of five minutes and a 5:1 glide bonus for stopped tasks. Three tasks scored 1000 points, which meant the tasks were set accordingly, the pilots flew well, and the winner flew fantastically. To get the 1000 points on a task worth that much, a pilot must get the highest of all avail-able points and bonuses; on other days, like on Task 4, one can still win, but won’t necessarily get the individual highest points.

Daniel, Pedro, Rudy and Zac were among the top five every day; Dustin came in 4th during three tasks, but did not do too well on Task 4, so even though Wolfi was not as consistent, his placing 2nd on Task 4 made him end up one spot in front of Dustin. He drove with me to goal that day,

and I was impressed by how well he dealt with his mistakes. I am sure his positive attitude allowed him to fly quite well again the last day.

The Sport Class was composed of nine pilots, with five Colombians and four Venezuelans; it was great to see Venezuelans and Mexicans come back after so many years. Their shortest task was 23.6 miles and the longest, 32.9 miles. On Task 1, only three pilots flew above the minimum dis-tance (3.1 miles, equivalent to five km) and no one made it to goal; on Task 4, nobody made it in either, and only two pilots scored min. distance. The rest were between 2.5 and 5.6 miles short. The Sport Class pilots had the same start gate as the Open Class, but flew separate tasks that were partially simi-lar. The Sport Class nominal time was 1.5 hours, nominal distance was 15.5 miles and the altitude ratio set for stopped tasks was 2:1; the rest was the same.

Colombia assigns great importance to this Class and attempts to have an active group competing. As a matter of fact, Colombia has been dominating the WPRS lists for a while now and is currently taking the first top four spots.

ABOVE The new Trujillo launch for hang gliding competitions photo by Cristian Cardona. OPPOSITE TOP

Wolfi coming in to land | photo by Natalia Jaramillo. BOTTOM Rizo winning the French Nationals in 2011 |

photo by Raymond Caux.

Moreover, it has been the top ranked nation since February 2012. In addition, this Hombres Pájaro is, by far (twice or thrice as much) the comp that has awarded the most WPRS until now (91.5). Surprisingly, those leading the WPRS, José Alfredo and Juan Camilo-Marín Giraldo, who also got the top two places in Hombres Pájaro 2014 (only reversed), are brothers. They are young local pilots who grew up near Roldanillo (La Seca), watching hang gliders and paragliders fly above their heads until they finally got the chance to learn the sport. They are doing very well!

This was an exceptional gathering, which also happened to be a hang glid-ing competition. It was difficult for me not to participate, since this was the first time I attended a comp in the Cauca Valley without flying in it; however, looking back, I can say the “sacrifice” of working in it was well worth it. There were many winners in this comp: not just those in the top spots, but also all of us who were there to share, learn and discover; those who had the chance of having a “top pilot” check their gliders and help them with some useful tips; those who had personal bests; the spec-tators who visited and went home with smiles on their faces; the township of Trujillo that, with their support, opened a window for their people, giving them something to be happy and proud of; those who were fighting internal battles and realized we must be strong and keep going; those who have decided to be hang glider pilots and stick to the sport and enjoy this “bubble” in which we live; and those in the hang gliding commu-nity in general, because with this new takeoff, the opportunity of bigger and better comps is now a possibility!

It’s worth noting that the comp was also a big win for Wills Wing, since the top three winners were flying T2Cs, and


Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2014 – Top 5 Sport ClassRank Name Nationality Glider Sponsor Comp Pts WPRS Pts

1st Juan Camilo Marín Colombia Moyes Xtralite 137 De Occidente 2908 91.5

2nd José Alfredo Marín Colombia Icaro Laminar 12 De Occidente 2496 73.9

3rd Camilo Betancur Colombia WW U2 160 2184 58.0

4th Salvador Bongiorno Venezuela WW U2 145 2109 43.9

5th Óscar Gómez Colombia WW U2 160 1847 31.6

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2014 – Top 10 Open Class Rank Name Nationality Glider Sponsor Comp Pts WPRS Pts

1st Pedro L. García M. Spain WW T2C 144 3914 54.4

2nd Daniel Vélez Colombia WW T2C 144 LatidoRojo 3750 50.0

3rd Zac Majors USA WW T2C 144 WW/Flytec 3739 47.7

4th Rudy Gotes Mexico Moyes RX 3.5 vuelolibre.mx 3329 45.4

5th Wolfi Siess Austria WW T2C 154 WW/Glorify 2952 43.1

6th Dustin Martin USA WW T2C 144 WW/Flytec/Blueye 2717 40.9

7th Gabriel Lagos Mexico WW T2C 144 2288 38.8

8th Gustavo Jiménez Colombia WW T2 144 Colamp 2235 36.6

9th Carlo Olarte Venezuela WW T2C 144 2175 34.5

10th Jorge García Colombia WW T2C 144 Colamp 2157 32.5


Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2014 – Top 5 Sport ClassRank Name Nationality Glider Sponsor Comp Pts WPRS Pts

1st Juan Camilo Marín Colombia Moyes Xtralite 137 De Occidente 2908 91.5

2nd José Alfredo Marín Colombia Icaro Laminar 12 De Occidente 2496 73.9

3rd Camilo Betancur Colombia WW U2 160 2184 58.0

4th Salvador Bongiorno Venezuela WW U2 145 2109 43.9

5th Óscar Gómez Colombia WW U2 160 1847 31.6

there were a total of eight T2Cs and one T2 in the top 10 spots!

When I asked Mike Glennon for a final comment, he added: “Although each Hombres Pájaro has been a special event in my mind, this one was extra special, given the number of interna-tional pilots who attended. And the caliber of some of these hotshots, like Pedro from Spain, Zac and Dustin from the USA, Wolfi from Austria, Rudy from Mexico, Raul from Ecuador and, of course, our local hotshot, Daniel Vélez, is extraordinary. My special thanks to Ani for her help during the event and, of course, to Claudia La Nubecita (the little cloud) for being the best comp director/scorer anyone could ask for.”

Everyone who attended made this Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2014 a better event and, for this reason, we would like to thank all those who were there, hoping to see them again soon. And we want to invite those who could not make it this year to join us some-time in the near future!

Video about Dustin in “El País Digital”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ChwCRxyF0

Santiago Corral’s (MEX) video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQd8yfD91zw

Cristian Cardona’s albums (official comp photographer): https://www.flickr.com/photos/cristianfotografias/

Blog Daniel Vélez (Spanish): http://[email protected]

Ani Velásquez’s Albums: https://plus.google.com/photos/110495549415376761144/albums/5973362611380318305

LEfT Top 3 open-class pilots at prize-giving ceremony | photo by Cristian Cardona.

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Deceptively Simple by BRUCE GOLDSMITH

Wingover


I was shocked to hear recently of the death of one of my para-gliding friends from practicing

wingovers. The pilot had been flying for some years. The problem is that when learning wingovers it is easy to get into a situation that requires more skill to get out of than to get into. Let’s look closer at why this is so.

WHAT MAKES WINGOVERS RISKY?A badly coordinated wingover leads almost automatically to a large cravat that can be hard to get out even on a low EN-rated glider. It’s a question of the experience trap: You have the confidence to start to do wingovers but not the skill to do the SIV maneuver required to recover from a cravat. The result is you have the confidence and skill to get yourself into the tricky position but not the skill to get out.

Wingovers are essentially simple because they are just a series of linked turns, left and right.

You start with gentle wingov-ers, slowly increasing the height of the oscillations. The critical part of wingovers is to get the correct wing movement at the peak of each turn. You need to coordinate it correctly so that the wing turns smoothly at the peak of the climb and turns smoothly to set off on its downward path while maintaining good tension in the lines at all times and avoiding any col-

lapses. The most common error is to

have the wing still climbing up and pointing upwards when the pilot has started descending. This results in a collapse, and if the wingover is already high the collapsed part of the wing easily gets caught in the lines and stuck there, leading to autoro-tation with potentially disastrous results.

THE KEY: YAW CONTROLThe secret to the perfect wingover is to be able to manage correctly the move-ment of the glider in all three axes: pitch, roll and yaw. Unlike a glider (sailplane), a paraglider has no controls to directly control yaw, yet the correct control of yaw is the key to the perfect wingover. On a paraglider, yaw can only be indirectly controlled through the brakes.

The sweep and arc on a paraglider make the glider naturally point in the direction it is flying. Normally yaw is simply not an issue on a paraglider because of this natural tendency for the wing to always point the way it is going. However, in a wingover this does not happen naturally and the pilot needs to manage yaw himself. This can be the first time a pilot has come up against this issue, and is what makes wingovers an important lesson in learning to properly control your paraglider.

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THE PERFECT WINGOVERStart with a smooth brake applica-tion on the right, applying the brake on, then off, within about three sec-onds. Notice that at the start of the brake input the glider will rock back slightly and then, as you release the brake, the glider will surge forwards slightly. You then need to use this slight forward surge to start a swing-ing movement with the pilot as the weight of the pendulum. The next brake application, on the other side, will increase the pendulum motion if the timing is correct. Getting this part of the coordination of a wing-over correct is not so difficult, and it is easy to think at this stage that you have it cracked.

However, correct control of yaw is the magic ingredient that makes a wingover well coordinated. Because not only does a glider pitch when you apply the brake but it also yaws.

The amount of yaw depends on how fast and deep you pull the brake. Get this wrong and the glider will be facing up when the pilot starts to de-scend from the peak of the wingover, resulting in what I describe as a kind of scissor effect, and it is this that causes the collapse than can result in a cravat.

The amount, amplitude and speed of brake application will be different for each glider. It depends mainly on the pilot’s weight, the line length and the glider’s aspect ratio as well the aerodynamic characteristics such as profile and wing curve. You need to get the feeling for your particular wing to be able to correctly perform wingovers.

THE OUTSIDE BRAKEIf you don’t get the timing exactly correct on a wingover it is always possible to use outside brake as well

Getting this part of the

coordination of a wingover correct is not so difficult,

and it is easy to think at this stage

that you have it cracked.


as inside brake to keep the wing pres-surized and to stop the lines going slack. This little trick enables you to recover from a bad wingover and keep the rhythm going.

The energy of a wingover can build up very fast resulting in the pilot very quickly doing wingers over 90 degrees even if he only intended to do small ones. So don’t build up the amplitude too fast, but concentrate instead on getting the perfect coordination of each turn. Only when the turns are all perfect should you allow yourself to go up to 90 degrees or beyond. Of course, don’t practice wingovers of high amplitude unless you are over water.

SUPINE HARNESSESFlying wingovers with a supine har-ness is much more difficult than with a seated harness.

This is because the pilot/harness

can also yaw independently from the glider, and so the pilot not only needs to manage the yaw of the wing but also the yaw of the harness. Make sure you practice wingovers in a seated harness first and only go onto a supine harness when you have fully mastered wingovers seated.

BEST OVER THE WATERWingovers are perfect to practice on an SIV course, with all the safety precautions in place so that you can master this essential skill in relative safety. Doing a few wingovers after the radical maneuvers on each flight before landing is a good idea, but make sure you have sufficient height and are still over the water to make sure you don’t get caught in the skill trap when you are too low to recover from that nasty cravat.

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HANG GLIDING PARAGLIDINGRTG RGN NAME STATE RATING OFFICIALRTG RGN NAME STATE RATING OFFICIAL RTG RGN NAME STATE RATING OFFICIAL

H-1 1 Mark Andrews OR Eric SmithH-1 1 Adam Stokes OR James TibbsH-1 2 Gene Tsai CA Eric HinrichsH-1 2 Bryan Pelham CA Eric HinrichsH-1 2 Ryan Au CA Barry LevineH-1 2 Jeff Rodrigues CA Harold JohnsonH-1 2 Saeid Shekarchi CA David YountH-1 2 Victor Hethcock CA George HamiltonH-1 3 Seyed Alireza Amidi Namin CA Rob MckenzieH-1 4 Kye Kunz UT Kevin KoonceH-1 7 James Mcwalter MN Christopher (kit) MartinH-1 10 Cory Richardson TN Julie JulianH-1 10 Ross Sherwood GA Julie JulianH-2 1 Paige Ollikainen WA Larry JorgensenH-2 1 Mark Andrews OR Eric SmithH-2 2 Greg Laabs CA Harold JohnsonH-2 2 Lucy James CA Barry LevineH-2 2 Ian Jones CA Barry LevineH-2 2 Ryan Au CA Barry LevineH-2 2 Jeff Rodrigues CA Harold JohnsonH-2 2 Victor Hethcock CA George HamiltonH-2 7 James Mcwalter MN Christopher (kit) MartinH-2 10 Cory Richardson TN Julie Julian

H-2 10 Ross Sherwood GA Julie JulianH-3 2 Lucien Niccore CA George HamiltonH-3 2 Jeff Rodrigues CA Harold JohnsonH-3 3 Mario Miralles CA Joe GrebloH-3 7 Joe Bedinghaus IN Christian ThorensonH-3 9 Eric Surber VA Steve WendtH-3 9 Steven Martin OH John AldenH-4 1 Garrett Speeter AK Jon ThompsonH-4 2 Christopher Carrillo CA Eric HinrichsH-4 3 Adam Fischbach CA John HeineyH-4 4 Burcham Hale AZ Mark KnightH-4 4 Matt Luce CO Mark Windsheimer

P-2 3 William Hofmann HI David (dexter) BinderP-2 3 Mark Cope, Jr CA Christopher GranthamP-2 3 Chris Kirchner CA Gabriel JebbP-2 3 Sophie Busch CA Doug GotthardP-2 4 Travis Texer CO Jonathan JefferiesP-2 4 Graham Vickowski AZ Jerome DaoustP-2 5 Mark Barber Dion VukP-2 5 Ronan Conboy Dion VukP-2 5 Kevin Giesbrecht Dion VukP-2 5 Andre Daigneault Dion VukP-2 6 Mak Kam Wai Yuen Wai KitP-2 6 Chan Yuk Fai Yuen Wai KitP-2 6 Tang Chi Shing Yuen Wai KitP-2 6 Kwan Chi Ming Yuen Wai KitP-2 6 Sae-lao Decha Yuen Wai KitP-2 6 Julio Aguilar Calvo Nick CraneP-2 6 Yusmar Yahaya Peter HumesP-2 6 Robert Kuhn David HanningP-2 9 Alexander Fishgait VA Peter HumesP-2 9 William Schmitz PA Nik PetersonP-2 10 Sean Culpepper GA Hynek CibulaP-2 10 Oreta Taylor GA Hynek CibulaP-2 10 Alexa Caskey GA David (dexter) BinderP-2 10 Kelvin Matthews SC Hynek CibulaP-3 1 John Michael Fife OR Steve RotiP-3 1 Zachary Carbo WA Mike SteenP-3 1 Joshua Murray OR Steve RotiP-3 2 Reto Schaerli CA Jason ShapiroP-3 2 Gilian Fernandez CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-3 3 Chris Hoyte HI Bob Hammond JrP-3 3 David Pearson CA Jerome DaoustP-3 4 George Hewitt CO Chris SantacroceP-3 4 Charles Glantz NM T Lee KortschP-3 4 Gary Vaillancourt CO Jerome DaoustP-3 5 Don Lange MT Enleau O ConnorP-3 5 Kendall Morgan ID Charles (chuck) SmithP-3 6 Julio Aguilar Calvo Nick CraneP-3 6 Yusmar Yahaya Peter HumesP-3 9 Alexander Fishgait VA Peter HumesP-3 9 William Schmitz PA Nik PetersonP-3 12 Jerry Volfson NY Philippe RenaudinP-4 1 Kirk Bridgers OR Kevin LeeP-4 1 Matt Becker WA John KraskeP-4 2 Norman (scott) Macleod CA Rob SporrerP-4 4 Norbert Kornyei UT Andy MacraeP-4 4 Zack Smith CO Royal (craig) OwensP-4 6 Julio Aguilar Calvo Nick CraneP-4 10 Christopher Antoskow GA Andy MacraeP-5 3 Seyed Alireza Amidi Namin CA Alan Crouse

RATINGS issued in feBruarY

P-1 1 Marcus Wisdorf AK Jerome DaoustP-1 1 Josh Norris OR Maren LudwigP-1 1 Christopher Palm AK Rob SporrerP-1 1 Gabriel Rule WA Justin BoerP-1 1 Nicholas Dynes AK Justin BoerP-1 1 David Cunningham WA William BrownP-1 2 Charles Beaudoin CA Jeremy BishopP-1 2 Sean Gallagher CA Wallace Anderson

P-1 2 Amaury Heresztyn CA Wallace AndersonP-1 2 Gilian Fernandez CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-1 2 Stuart Vowles CA David (dexter) BinderP-1 2 John Macsween NV Fred MorrisP-1 3 Brent Geren CA William Purden JrP-1 3 Ginger Partyka CA Gabriel JebbP-1 3 Joby Ogwyn CA Kevin HintzeP-1 3 William Hofmann HI David (dexter) BinderP-1 3 Mark Cope, Jr CA Christopher GranthamP-1 3 Chris Kirchner CA Gabriel JebbP-1 3 Sophie Busch CA Doug GotthardP-1 3 Edison Luong CA Gabriel JebbP-1 4 Travis Texer CO Jonathan JefferiesP-1 4 Graham Vickowski AZ Jerome DaoustP-1 5 Mark Barber Dion VukP-1 5 Ronan Conboy Dion VukP-1 5 Kevin Giesbrecht Dion VukP-1 5 Andre Daigneault Dion VukP-1 6 Mak Kam Wai Yuen Wai KitP-1 6 Chan Yuk Fai Yuen Wai KitP-1 6 Tang Chi Shing Yuen Wai KitP-1 6 Kwan Chi Ming Yuen Wai KitP-1 6 Sae-lao Decha Yuen Wai KitP-1 6 Julio Aguilar Calvo Nick CraneP-1 6 Yusmar Yahaya Peter HumesP-1 6 Robert Kuhn David HanningP-1 9 Alexander Fishgait VA Peter HumesP-1 9 William Schmitz PA Nik PetersonP-1 10 Sean Culpepper GA Hynek CibulaP-1 10 Oreta Taylor GA Hynek CibulaP-1 10 Kelvin Matthews SC Hynek CibulaP-2 1 Marcus Wisdorf AK Jerome DaoustP-2 1 Christopher Palm AK Rob SporrerP-2 2 Charles Beaudoin CA Jeremy BishopP-2 2 Jack Menzel CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-2 2 Emily Moxley CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-2 2 Gilian Fernandez CA Jeffrey GreenbaumP-2 2 Stuart Vowles CA David (dexter) BinderP-2 3 Duane Hall CA Justin BoerP-2 3 William Hardesty CA Jerome DaoustP-2 3 Joby Ogwyn CA Kevin Hintze


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CALENDAR, CLINIC & TOUR LISTINGS can be submitted online at http://www.ush-pa.aero/email _ events.asp. A minimum 3-MONTh LEAD TIME is required on all submissions and tentative events will not be published. For more details on submis-sions, as well as complete information on the events listed, see our Calendar of Events at www.ushpa.aero

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING RATES - The rate for classified advertising is $10.00 for 25 words and $1.00 per word after 25. MINIMUM AD CHARGE $10.00. AD DEADLINES: All ad copy, instructions, changes, additions & cancellations must be re-ceived in writing 2 months preceding the cover date, i.e. September 15th is the deadline for the November issue. ALL CLASSIFIEDS ARE pRE-pAID. If paying by check, please include the fol-lowing with your payment: name, address, phone, category, how many months you want the ad to run and the classified ad. Please make checks payable to USHPA, P.O. Box 1330, Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1330. If paying with credit card, you may email the previous information and classified to [email protected]. For security rea-sons, please call your Visa/MC or Amex info to the office. No refunds will be given on ads can-celled that are scheduled to run multiple months. (719) 632-8300. Fax (719) 632-6417

hANG GLIDING ADVISORY: Used hang glid-ers should always be disassembled before flying for the first time and inspected carefully for fa-tigued, bent or dented downtubes, ruined bush-ings, bent bolts (especially the heart bolt), re-used Nyloc nuts, loose thimbles, frayed or rusted cables, tangs with non-circular holes, and on flex wings, sails badly torn or torn loose from their an-chor points front and back on the keel and lead-ing edges.

pARAGLIDING ADVISORY: Used paragliders should always be thoroughly inspected before fly-ing for the first time. Annual inspections on para-gliders should include sailcloth strength tests. Simply performing a porosity check isn’t suffi-cient. Some gliders pass porosity yet have very weak sailcloth.

If in doubt, many hang gliding and paraglid-ing businesses will be happy to give an objec-tive opinion on the condition of equipment you bring them to inspect. BUYERS ShOULD SE-LECT EQUIpMENT ThAT IS AppROpRIATE FOR ThEIR SKILL LEVEL OR RATING. NEW pILOTS ShOULD SEEK pROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION FROM A UShpA CERTIFIED INSTRUCTOR.

JUlY 8-20 > FAI European HG Championship - Class 1. Spain will host once again the European Hang Gliding Championship for 2014. The champi-onship will be held at Arangoiti - Sierra de Leire in the city of Lumbier at 40km from Pamplona.July 8th: Opening Ceremony. July 8th: Practice - Free Flying. July 9th: Practice - Task. July 10th - 19th: Competi-tion Flying Days. July 20th: Closing & Awards. More Info: http://www.arangoiti2014.com

JUlY 10-13 > Enjoy field, Chebanse, IL. Corn Alps XC. First non-sanctioned PG towing comp in the Mid-west. More info coming soon: Jaro Krupa, 708-935-0177 [email protected], or www.chi-cagoparagliding.com.

JUlY 27 - aUGUst 2 > Boone, NC. Tater Hill Open. Cross-country race for paragliders and hang gliders with concentration on new XC pilots. We will utilize a unique scoring system so everyone has a chance to win. Kari Castle will be back this year to give clinics. Registration opens May 1st. $200 entry fee includes rides up the hill, retrieve on competition days, and awards party on Saturday night. We will be giving away lots of prizes and money for top-placing pilots. More info: www.flytaterhill.com or call Bubba Goodman at 828-773-9433.

sePteMBeR 28 - octoBeR 4 > Dunlap, TN. The original Tennessee Tree Toppers’ Team Chal-lenge brand of fun cross-country hang gliding camp! Bring your A, B, or C-game self and team up with other pilots in a low-key safety and learning-centric competition. Cross-country aces (A-pilots) team up with B-pilots (H-3+ with some XC experience) and C-pilots (H-3 pilots new to XC) and fly cooperatively to complete A, B, and C level XC tasks with a unique scoring system that’s heavily weighted to reward safe B & C-pilot XC miles and A-pilot assists. Daily semi-nars on all aspects of hang gliding led by some of the very best XC pilots around. This benefit alone is worth a million and can help you become a better pi-lot! Launch off the world famous Tennessee Tree Top-pers’ Radial Ramp and soar the beautiful Sequatchie Valley. http://www.tennesseetreetoppers.org/

MaRch - octoBeR > United States informal race-to-goal events at sites across Northern Cali-fornia. Aims are to get pilots to fly farther than they would on their own. More information: Jugdeep Ag-garwal, 831-566-8652 [email protected], or www.santacruzparagliding.com.

fLY-INS

JUne 13-15 > Eagle Rock, Virginia. Skywack-ers Eagle Rock Fly-in www.skywackers.org Come join the Skywackers (SW Virginia Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association) in Eagle Rock, VA, nestled between the Blue Ridge Mountains, the James Riv-er and the tracks of the Norfolk Southern Railroad. The mountain has SE and NW facing launches with-in walking distance of each other. A well maintained road to the launches can be driven with a 4WD vehi-cle. Free camping is available in LZ fields at the base of the mountain. A convenience store and gas station can be seen from the launch. We look forward to fly-ing with you in June. More information will be avail-able on the website: www.skywackers.org.

CALENDARSANCTIONED COMPETITION

JUne 1-7 > Highland Aerosports, Ridgely, MD. East Coast Hang Gliding Championship. Open fields as far as you can see; free camping; competitive sport class; and a great social atmosphere. More informa-tion: Adam Elchin 410-634-2700 [email protected], or www.aerosports.net.

JUne 22-28 > Woodrat Mtn, Ruch, OR. 2014 Rat Race/Sprint Paragliding Competition. Twelfth Annual Rat Race/Sprint Paragliding Competition. June 22 - 28th, 2014. Practice Day June 21st. Two parties, dai-ly lunches, retrieve and mentoring provided. Join the experience, travel southern Oregon, bring your fam-ily and see why the Rat Race is more than the largest paragliding festival in the USA. Go here and see what southern Oregon has to offer: http://southernoregon.org. Registration opens Feb 15, 2014 - $450.00 until 4/15/2014. Sign up at MPHSports.com. More Infor-mation: Mike and Gail Haley 1-541-702-2111, [email protected], or www.mphsports.com.

JUlY 5-12 > Chelan Butte, Chelan, WA. Chel-an Flats Nationals. 2014 US Paragliding Nationals, Race-to-goal, Chelan, WA More information: Kim-berly Phinney, 707-508-5431, [email protected], or whiteowlpg.com.

aUGUst 3-9 > Big Spring, TX. Big Spring Nation-als. Strongest, smoothest, most consistent condi-tions of any US competition. Air-conditioned pilot lounge, hangar, paved runways, ice cream, water, all facilities. More information: Belinda Boulter and Da-vis Straub, 1-863-206-7707, [email protected], or http://ozreport.com/2014BigSpring.

sePteMBeR 14-20 > Francisco Grande Golf Re-sort, Casa Grande, AZ. Santa Cruz Flats. More Infor-mation: Jamie Shelden [email protected], or santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com.

NON-SANCTIONED COMPETITION

JUne 29 - JUlY 4 > Chelan, WA. 2014 Chelan Cross-country Classic. Come enjoy the thermals and compete in the 33rd annual Chelan Cross-coun-try Classic. Rules allow pilots to select their own tasks (triangles, out-and-return, straight out). Points awarded by miles flown and mileage multiplier. Many classes for each wing type and glider performance level. A perfect chance for hangs and paras to comin-gle on the ground and share thermals in the air. Friday night, 4th of July BBQ and awards. Bring the whole family to this eastern Washington vacation mecca. More info: and online preregistration ($90 until June 6) at www.cloudbase.org.

HOW TO USE

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6030

JUlY 4-6 > The Ellenville Fun Meet is BACK! This is a fun and friendly team event open to H-2 and above pilots. Scoring is based on flight duration, bomb drop, and spot landing. In the case of unfly-able weather other fun “tasks” will be called. There is a party and TEAM SONG event Saturday night. See website for details and up-to-date information! Check out: www.SNYHGPA.org/fun-meet

JUlY 3-7 > Anchorage, AK. Arctic Air Walkers Fly-in www.arcticairwalkers.com TIME TO CROSS ALAS-KA OFF YOUR BUCKET LIST! USHPA’s 2013 Chapter of the Year, the ARCTIC AIR WALKERS, is hosting a fly-in in the land of the midnight sun. Cost is just $40, which includes an awesome AAW club T-shirt, BBQ with beverages, contest entries, prizes and swag. Three possible flying sites include Alyeska ski resort, Eagle River and Hatcher Pass, all with easy access and located within 20-80 miles of Anchorage. All sites provide spectacular Alaskan views from the air and ground. Contests will include a costumed flight, rubber ducky drop, farthest traveler and more. Oth-er activities available include fishing, hiking, rafting, shopping, wildlife cruises, kayaking and much more. More information, and to register, go to www.artic-airwalkers.com.

7/13 - 7/20: King Mountain Glider Park Safari Free annual Idaho event just east of Sun Valley. Para-gliders, Hang Gliders,Sailplanes, and Self Launch-ing Sailplanes are all welcome. Awesome glass off and cloud bases at 18,000'. Fly to Montana or Yel-lowstone. Wave Window. Campfire, Potlucks, Star Gazing, Hiking, Mountain Biking and Fishing. Free camping at the famous Glider Park. Big Air and Big Country! Lions, tigers, and bears? Oh my! Spot Loca-tor with tracking function or equivalent required. See the pictures from prior Safaris in our gallery. For film clip about the event search YouTube King Mountain 2011 Safari. Contact John Kangas at (208)407-7174 or j _ [email protected] More Info: http://www.kingmountaingliderpark.com

JUlY 23-25 > Richfield, UT, Pioneer Days Fly-in. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Fly-in from Cove Mountain, Monroe Peak, and Mt. Edna in central Utah. Combining the hometown celebration of Mon-roe Pioneer Days, and world-class flying from Utah’s highest peaks. Parades, fireworks, and entertainment to complement. Ultimate morning sledders, midday thermaling, and evening ridge lift. There is something for everyone at the Pioneer Days Fly-in. More info: Stacy Whitmore, 435-979-0225, www.cuasa.com , or [email protected].

aUGUst 23-30 > Villa Grove, CO. Colorado Fly Week presents: Rocky Mtn Airmans Rendezvous & Mountain Flyer Championships. We're back this year with big air & smooth lift along the Sangre de Cris-to Range. Tiffany's Tavern greets you in the LZ w/re-freshments. Live music, food vendors, stage shows, awards dinner & more. This is the fly party of the sea-son! It'll be great to see old friends & make new. This event caters to accomplished H2 & P2 pilots seek-ing their first mountain experiences. A fundraiser for our launch, consider a donation &/or register early until April 1 for $100 & get the 2012 Fly Week DVD. $140 at the door. For comp info contact Fred Kae-merer, [email protected]. Event info Tiff Smith, [email protected] & www.facebook.com/ColoradoFlyWeek

sePteMBeR 29-4 > Richfield, UT. Red Rocks Fall Fly-in. Fall colors, beautiful mountains and flying ac-tivities for all levels and interests. Thermaling clin-ics, spot-landing contest, ridge-soaring task com-petition, morning sledders, and distance challenges. Low pressure, fun flying activities to give everyone a chance to mingle and enjoy flying from central Utah’s many world-class flying sites, at a most colorful time of year. This is a biwingual event. More info: Stacy Whitmore, 435-979-0225, www.cuasa.com, or [email protected].

CLINICS & TOURS

JUne 5-7 & 8-10 > Northern California Over-the-water Maneuvers Clinics in Northern California with Eagle Paragliding. America’s top all-around acro and former national champion Brad Gunnuscio will be coaching you over the water with our state-of-the-art towing setup. Eagle is known for high quality tours and clinics with lots of staff, and this clinic is no ex-ception. We encourage you to make the time for this important safety training with any qualified SIV in-structor. More information: Rob Sporrer 805-968-0980 [email protected], or www.paragliding.com.

JUne 14-15 > UT. Mountain Flying and learning how to pioneer a new site in Utah with Ken Hudonjor-gensen. Phone: 801-971-3414, e-mail [email protected], or www.twocanfly.com

JUne 21-28 > Ruch, OR. Come train with the best instructors during the 12th annual Rat Race paraglid-ing competition. Kari Castle, Ken Hudonjorgenson, and Kay Tauscher make up the instructor team that will guide you through one of the most comprehen-sive training weeks ever. Train in the morning, and then watch the competition action from the top of Woodrat Mt. Before the competition and after the race competitors are off, you will have virtually the entire mountain to yourselves where you can train and fly at what has been named one of the top 25 best para-gliding sites in the world. Ken, Kari and Kay have an amazing foot-launch history that includes com-petition and record attempts. This combination will be unforgettable. Go to mphsports.com to reserve your spot as attendance will be limited. Sign up to-day. $450. More Information: Mike Haley 503-704-7004 mike _ [email protected], or mphsports.com.

JUne 28 - JUlY 7 > Austria - XC Peaks of the Alps. High glaciated peaks, deep valleys, big grassy take-offs accessible by a cable car designed by Porsche, thousands of free fliers, and the famous "Pinzgau Walk" - the paragliding highway of the Alps. Did I mentioned schnapps and schinkenspeck, too? With a training ground like that no wonder why Austrians are world top pilots. This is a trip for pilots who want to develop and perfect their XC skills.??? We will be based at a spa hotel in Uttendorf in Pinzgau the hart of the High Austrian Alps with two dozen mountain takeoffs in 2h drive radius and views of snow cov-ered peaks. Experience our first class service and lo-gistics. Guided by Jarek Wieczorek. Nonflying com-panions will be delighted with outdoor opportunities. Contact: [email protected] / (303) 800 6340. More Info: http://www.antofaya.com

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sePteMBeR 29 - octoBeR 4 > Red Rocks Fall Fly-In. Fall colors, beautiful mountains and flying ac-tivities for all levels and interests. Thermaling Clin-ics, spot landing contest, ridge soaring task compe-tition, morning sledders, and distance challenges. Low pressure, fun flying activities to give everyone a chance to mingle and enjoy flying from Central Utah's many world-class flying sites, at a most colorful time of year. This is a biwingal event. Contact Stacy Whit-more at 435-979-0225 or [email protected]. More Info: http://www.cuasa.com

octoBeR 1-5, 10-20, 24-27 > Owens Valley, CA Women With Wings- The Third Annual gathering of women pilots! Geared for P2-P3’s but all are welcome! Owens Valley with Kari. Fly one of the best sites in the US with one of the best pilots in the world. Let Kari’s 33 years of flying and 26 years of living/flying the Owens Valley, be your guide! We work on any-thing that has to do with high altitude mountain fly-ing including launching to record setting XC flights and everything in between. The sky is the limit!!! More information: Kari Castle, 760-920-0748, [email protected], or KARICASTLE.COM.

noVeMBeR 3 - deceMBeR 1 > Iquique, Chile.With the most consistent thermals on earth, we guarantee you will fly everyday! After 16 years of leading trips, wining competitions, and working as a local guide/tandem pilot, Luis Rosenkjer and Todd Weigand of-fer the most professional guiding service available in Iquique. With 20 year of combined guiding experi-ence in Iquique, nobody can lead new pilots to this region with the expertise that these gentlemen pro-vide. Beginner to advanced instruction available with everyone progressing at an extraordinary rate! More XC offered during the last segment. Last year a few clients completed our classic 115 km flight back to the hotel! Join Luis & Todd so you can improve you flying skills, break your personal records, and enjoy the best of Iquique! www.paraglidingtrips.com

noVeMBeR 5-19 > Fly Atacama Desert Paraglid-ing Adventure. We take you to South America to fly over the driest desert in the world - The Atacama. It is our seventh consecutive trip to what many pilots con-sider to be the best place to fly on the planet and more consistent than any other flying location. Iquique, Chile offers pilots of all levels plenty of XC miles and endless thermaling days. Year after year our guests beat their personal distance and air time records. With us you get to fly with Jarek Wieczorek - multi-lingual paragliding guide, XC specialist and site pio-neer with unsuppressed knowledge of the desert. Our topnotch logistics, stunning locations, in-depth lo-cal knowledge, deluxe off-road trucks, and gorgeous beachfront accommodation will make your flying ex-perience in Chile unforgettable. Contact: [email protected] / (303) 800 6340. More Info: http://www.antofaya.com

DON’T MISS OUT.RENEW ONLINE.

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JUlY 5-7 > UT. Instructor Training with Ken Hudon-jorgensen in Utah. Phone: 801-971-3414, e-mail [email protected], or www.twocanfly.com

aUGUst 7-9 & 10-12 > Northern California Over-the-water Maneuvers Clinics in Northern Califor-nia with Eagle Paragliding. America’s top all-around acro and former national champion Brad Gunnuscio will be coaching you over the water with our state-of-the-art towing setup. Eagle is known for high quality tours and clinics with lots of staff, and this clinic is no exception. We encourage you to make the time for this important safety training with any qualified SIV instructor. More information: Rob Sporrer 805-968-0980 [email protected], or www.paragliding.com.

sePteMBeR 5-9 > UT. Cross-country and ther-maling clinic with mentoring. Paragliding intensive with Ken Hudonjorgensen and other mentors. Inspi-ration Point, Jupiter, West Mt. and Monroe, Utah, wherever the weather tells us to go. Phone: 801-971-3414, e-mail [email protected], or www.twocanfly.com

sePteMBeR 18-20 & 21-23 > Northern Cali-fornia Over-the-water Maneuvers Clinics with Ea-gle Paragliding. America’s top all-around acro and former national champion Brad Gunnuscio will be coaching you over the water with our state-of-the-art towing setup. Eagle is known for high quality tours and clinics with lots of staff, and this clinic is no ex-ception. We encourage you to make the time for this important safety training with any qualified SIV in-structor. More information: Rob Sporrer 805-968-0980 [email protected], or www.paragliding.com.

sePteMBeR 20-28 > Owens Valley, CA. Owens Valley Go Big XC Clinic. Geared for Very Strong P3/H3 pilots and above that are ready to fly XC in pretty sweet conditions. Owens Valley with Kari. Fly one of the best sites in the US with one of the best pilots in the world. Let Kari’s 33 years of flying and 26 years of living/flying the Owens Valley, be your guide! We work on anything that has to do with high altitude mountain flying from launching thru record setting XC flights and every-thing in between the sky is the limit!!! More Informa-tion: Kari Castle 760 920 0748 [email protected], or KARICASTLE.COM.

sePteMBeR 27-28 > UT. Mountain Flying and learning how to pioneer a new site. Utah sites with Ken Hudonjorgensen. Phone: 801-971-3414, e-mail [email protected], or www.twocanfly.com

sePteMBeR 27-28 > Dunlap, CA. Dunlap Ther-mal and Cross-country Clinic with Eagle Paragliding. Dunlap offers some great flying in the foothills of the west side of the Sierras. This trip is one of our favorite two-day excursions. Join us for some nice flying with some great people. More information: Rob Sporrer, 805-968-0980, [email protected], or www.para-gliding.com.
















6020

noVeMBeR 8-10 > Santa Barbara, CA. Instructor Certification Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Para-gliding in Santa Barbara, California. This three-day clinic is open to Basic and Advanced Paragliding In-structor candidates, and those needing recertifica-tion. We invite you to apprentice with us anytime to get as much hands-on experience as possible before the clinic. More information: Rob Sporrer, 805-968-0980, [email protected], or www.paragliding.com.

noVeMBeR 11-12 > Santa Barbara, CA. Tan-dem Paragliding Clinic with Rob Sporrer of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, California. We will be doing classroom and practical training at the best year-round training hill in North America. More in-formation: Rob Sporrer, 805-968-0980, [email protected], or www.paragliding.com.

noVeMBeR 12-14 & 17-19 > SIV Clinic. Yelapa, Mexico. SIV/Maneuvers flight camp clinic. Join us for another great learning and fun experience in beauti-ful, tropical Yelapa. Tow up and land on the beach in a warm, friendly location with lots of great places to stay and eat. Brad Gunnuscio, world class XC, acro pilot and Instructor of the Year, will be teaching the courses. As Brad says, "Yelapa is by far the best place to do an SIV clinic...." Contact Brad at [email protected] or (801) 707-0508 and Les in Yelapa at: 011 52 1 322 142 5804. More Info: http://www.paraglideyelapa.com

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

HARNESSES

FLY CENTER OF GRAVITY CG-1000 - The most affordable single line suspension harness available. Individually designed for a precise fit. Fly in comfort. [email protected], 315-256-1522

SCHOOLS & INSTRUCTORS

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

AK pARAMOTOR - Paragliding & Paramotor School. Year-round: USHPA+USPPA certification. Novice, Refresher, Training, Equipment. Frank Sihler 907-841-7468 www.USAparagliding.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.

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

WORLD FAMOUS hISTORIC TORREY PINES GLIDERPORT: Incredible Flying – food – fun. Come enjoy coastal San Diego flying year-round! We offer USHPA-certified instruction for all ratings, as well as tandem, instructor, and SIV clinics and local flat land towing. Call us for details on our domestic and international clinics and tours or join us in our 4x4 12-passenger tour van for 15 other flying sites opportunities in SoCal and Baja California. We have expanded product lines including Ozone, Skywalk, Sup Air, Independence, Woody Valley, Sky, Gradient, Niviuk, Paratech, Plussmax helmets, Crispi boots, Gopro, Flytech, Flymaster and a lot more. Come test our new mini wings from Ozone. We have a huge selection of Demos on site. Our full service shop offers reserve repacks, annual glider inspections, repairs and more. We also carry an extensive new and used inventory of certified gliders and harnesses. Check us out at flytorrey.com, facebook.com/flytpg, [email protected], or call us at (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.

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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.

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

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.

ILLINOIS

TWIN OAKS hANG GLIDING CENTER - Whitewater, WI - Bunny hill, scooter towing and aero towing. Training and Discovery Tandems. Ric - WisconsinHangGliding.com. Paul - ScooterTow.net. Danny - 608-469-5949

IOWA


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].

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.

MINNESOTA


NEW HAMPSHIRE

MORNINGSIDE - A Kitty Hawk Kites flight park. The north east's premier hang gliding and paragliding training center. Teaching since 1974. Hang gliding foot launch and tandem aerowtow training. Paragliding foot launch and tandem training. Powered Paragliding instruction. Dealer for all major manufacturers. Charlestown, NH. Also visit our North Carolina location, Kitty Hawk Kites Flight School. (603) 542-4416, www.flymorningside.com

NEW YORK

AAA MOUNTAIN WINGS INC - New location at 77 Hang Glider Rd in Ellenville next to the LZ. We service all brands featuring AEROS and North Wing. 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.

SUSQUEhANNA FLIGhT pARK Cooperstown New York Serving the North East since 1978. We have the best training hill in New York. Dealers for Wills Wing and others. Trade-ins welcome www.cooperstownhanggliding.com 315-867-8011

NORTH CAROLINA

KITTY hAWK KITES - The largest hang gliding school in the world! Celebrating our 40th year! Teaching since 1974. Learn to hang glide and paraglide on the east coast's largest sand dune. Year round instruction, foot launch and tandem aerotow. Powered Paragliding instruction. Dealer for all major manufacturers. Fly at the beach! Learn to fly where the Wright Brothers flew! Located on the historic Outer Banks, NC. Also visit our New Hampshire location, Morningside Flight Park. (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.

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. 804-241-4324 , www.blueskyhg.com

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INTERNATIONAL

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

CLINICS & TOURS

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: 506-2200-4824, Cell: 506-8950-8676, or Kathy @ 506-8918-0355 www.paraglidecostarica.com

SpRING, SUMMER, FALL - Woodrat Mountain, OR. Hostel / Camping / Rooms below launch. Heated pool, hottub, internet. Shuttle/guide service. [email protected], 541 951-6606 or Facebook-Raven's Landing

PARTS & ACCESSORIES

GUNNISON GLIDERS – X-C, Factory, heavy PVC HG gliderbags $149 Harness packs & zippers. New/used parts, equipment, tubes. 1549 CR 17 Gunnison, CO 81230 970-641-9315

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.

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.

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].

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I’d been in Pokhara for a month when I realized I was totally over it. Not over the dust or tummy troubles

or traffic. Not over the everyday dal bhat or watery Everest Beer or even the chronic power outages.

I was over talking about paragliding.Several weeks had passed since I’d ar-

rived in this paragliding mecca, and I was in a rut: I ate the same meal every night—dal bhat—with the same tablemates—Joe and Abe—and had more or less the same conversation: So-and-so landed out, the air over Torapani was scrappy, and always: Did you hear about the guy who threw his reserve? Our monofocus made sense since flying was how we spent our days, but after a while, the topic started to hit some serious sink. It seemed as if our entire universe that is full of books, movies, fascinating people, and places, had been whittled down to flying, flying, and only flying.

Besides, my flights never produced much of a tale. When anyone asked me about my day, I repeated the same nar-rative: I hiked up, bobbed around for a bit, tried not to collide with anyone in the house thermal, and landed safely. Not exactly a riveting story. So I suppose I felt excluded from my tablemates' in-crowd.

One evening, however, I got my wish: The conversation changed. Current events back in the US re-tacked our conversa-tion, even from 8000 miles away. The topic: gun control. I lunged into this new subject matter.

“Guns are so stupid,” I spouted, pouring dal over my rice and blithely setting off on a knee-jerk monologue about America, fear, our collective mental illness.

“…and who are these crazy people who feel they need a semi-automatic?” I asked.

The table went silent.

“I own a semi-automatic,” said Joe.“So do I,” said Abe, looking me square

in the eye.I silently flipped out. What?! I’d

shared a table with these guys every night for weeks. I knew the play-by-play of their every launch and wing collapse. I knew Joe liked more dal with his dal bhat, Abe liked less. Both took their coffee without cream. But I never took them to be gun-owner types. In fact, right then I realized there was a lot I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything about their politics, or what their lives were like at home in the States.

Back in my liberal, lala-land prancing grounds of Ashland, Oregon, I took it for granted that everyone I ate dinner with more or less shared the same worldview: organic was good, GMOs bad, and weapons of any kind an anathema. It was in this town of Prius-driving liberals that my worldview had incubated. In Ashland, it was perfectly normal to sit around out-side the natural food store and rail over a bag of kale chips that the second amend-ment should be revoked.

A debate ensued. “Why not ban cars then?” said Joe, getting in my face. “They kill people, too”

“Because they have other uses,” I argued. “Their express purpose isn’t to kill!”

“Well, guns have other purposes besides killing,” he said.

“Like what?!” “Like target practice!” he fired back.“Why can’t you just throw carrots

sticks at a target?” I sassed.The conversation was now in rotor,

and the tension at the table grew. Abe crossed his arms in protest, and I realized that these guys sitting across from me at the bamboo table, who had been my friends and flying mates, suddenly seemed Other. If it weren’t for paragliding, I won-

dered if we’d ever even hang out.It wouldn’t be the first—or last—time

my path crossed with people whom I would not have met without a common interest in paragliding. I’ve shared post-flight beers with all types: pot-growers, professors, eye doctors and construction workers; fishermen, beach bums, frat boys, and wine aficionados; Brazilians, Czechs, and Russians; Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus; teenagers, parents, and elders. I was beginning to come to the conclusion that more than any other sport, free-flight brings together the widest array of ages, cultures, and persuasions.

But remarkably, none of those details seem to matter when we fly together. In the sky no one is male or female, hippy or redneck, democratic, republican or flam-ing liberal. Flying is a great equalizer, and that is a beautiful thing.

Back on the ground, the differences are actually good. These new perspectives complicate my worldview in healthy ways, challenge my identity, and hopefully keep me from becoming too fundamentalist about anything. In this way, flying has pushed my boundaries not just physically, but culturally, too, as I contend with the narrow stereotypes and New Age-y as-sumptions that I tote around with me like a rolled-up yoga mat. I don’t always agree with everyone in the flying community, but I hope these encounters will help me grow into a more well-rounded person.

So the next night when I sit my hippy-dippy self down for dal bhat with my beloved gun-nut friends and the conversa-tion defaults back to paragliding, I don’t complain.

Christina Ammon writes from The Crash Pad at Woodrat Mountain in Oregon. Contact her at [email protected]

by CHRISTINA AMMON

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