INTERNATIONAL PARAMOTORING, PARATRIKE AND MOTORISED HANG GLIDING MAGAZINE

+ MALI, SECRETS OF PARAgLIdER CLOTh, RUNNINg-IN YOUR MOTOR, FLY gAMES BRAZIL, PLANET PPg FLY-IN, SAFLY TRACKER ANd ALL ThE PPg NEWS FROM AROUNd ThE WORLd

FEBRUARY - MARCH 2012EDITION 29

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ABOvE THE GRAND CANYON + PARAMOTORING IN POkHARA CONTACT! FlYING wITH wHAlEs + REvIEwED: MAC PARA CHRONOs

Innovation through adventurewww.parajet.comAvailable from £2,399 ($4,395)

Justin Brim enjoying hisParajet Volution Customfitted with a Moster engineand Helix propeller

54 REVIEWSSascha Burkhardt reviews the Mac Para Chronos, Marcus King takes a look at the SaFly Tracker, plus a new tandem spreader set gets the onceover by Edward Lichtner

48 THE TOOLBOXApco’s Anatoly Cohn unravels the mysteries of paraglider cloth plus Dean Eldridge on what to do when you get a new motor

44 THE LAST TELLEMFranck Simonnet flies the Bandiagara Escarpment in the heart of Dogon country, Mali

38 CLOSE ENCOUNTERJeff Hamann spends a spectacular weekend in Baja California flying with grey whales

32 THE EYE OF THE BUDDHAMarcus King heads to Nepal for some lakeside flying in the shadow of giants

26 BORN IN THE USA‘Just the Grand Canyon and Me.’ Glenn Tupper goes big

CONTENTS - ISSUE 29

CONTENTS EDiTiON 29 | PARAMOTOR MAGAZiNE 3

Editor & Designer: Marcus KingAssistant Editor: Ed EwingSub and Online Editor: Charlie KingUSA Correspondent: Jeff GoinRegular Contributors: Dean Eldridge, Edward Lichtner & Tracey TarrAdvertising: Verity SowdenSubscriptions and Shop: Celine RodriguezAccounts: Verity Sowden & Carol Harrison

SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.XCSHOp.COM/SUBSParamotor magazine is available exclusively by subscription. Guarantee your copy by subscribing UK, USA and Europe: £34.95/US$53.95/€41.95 Rest of World: £36.95/US$56.95/€44.45Issue-by-issue and iPad subscriptions also available

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CONTRIBUTINGSend your articles and photos to editor@paramotormag.com and your news to news@paramotormag.com.

CONTACTING USParamotor MagazineXC Media5 St Georges Place, BrightonEast Sussex, BN1 4GAUnited KingdomTel: +44 (0) 1273 256 090Fax: +44 (0) 1273 784 976

Paramotor Magazine (USPS No: 024-657) is published six times a year by XCMedia distributed in the USA by DSW, 75 Aberdeen Road, Emigsville PA17318-0437. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville PA. POSTMASTER:send address changes to Paramotor Magazine c/o PO Box 437, EmigsvillePA. Global copyright laws apply. The opinions in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Paramotor Magazine

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FEATURES06 GALLERY: MANOEUVRES

COVERAbove the clouds and Lake Annecy. Photo: ITV

ABOVE Flying above one of England's famous white horses. Photo: Paramania

UNIT CONVERSIONSParamotor Magazine uses international standard measurement units, but recognises that other systems are in use around the world. So here’s a quick conversion table to other commonly used measurement systems.1 km - 0.625 miles 0°C - 32°F1 m - 3.28 feet 20°C - 68°F1 kg - 2.2 pounds 40°C - 104°F1 ltr - 0.264 gallons

REGULARS 04 EDITORIAL 12 IGNITION: Global News – Brazil, Australia, crocodiles 20 NEW pRODUCTS 24 READERS' GALLERY 58 MINI REVIEWS 60 XCSHOp 62 LOGBOOK: Tracey Tarr

EDITORIAL

As I sit here writing this the world outside is shrouded in white and everything has taken on a Narnia-esque look. It seems hard to

believe that only a few weeks ago, days ago even, we were enjoying unusually warm weather for winter and even those of us who aren’t fond of the cold were out enjoying some winter flying. For us in the Paramotor Magazine office it meant we enjoyed some airtime in the first few days of 2012. With stable but sunny conditions there was no need for a super early start, and smooth conditions enabled us to fly around well into the day.

It’s great how getting out there and doing it gets you motivated. That afternoon back in the office we were all excitedly looking at the event calendar, busily planning and plotting how many events we could manage to fit in this year. By the time you read this, the first major event of the year will have taken place in southern Spain. Las Candelas is the traditional opener for the European scene, combining all the latest gear, flying amongst superb scenery and the unforgettable experience of the night of bonfires in the village.

Happening at the same time Stateside are the back-to-back events of the Arizona Flying Circus and Salton Sea fly-in. These will no doubt have meant a huge gathering of like-minded pilots sharing flying experiences and talking long into the night about the latest developments in our sport, and who can lay claim to being the best paramotor pilot in the world.

To help them sort out this thorny subject 2012 looks like it could be the year of the pylon race. The Fly Games team ran a successful event in Brazil in the autumn, and they will be holding the first European event in the Fly Games series as part of Las Candelas festival. Pylon racing will also be a feature of Florida’s Beach Blast in the States. Organiser John Black told us there has been a lot of interest in pylon racing, with pilots from America and Europe all vying to take part. The Paramotor Magazine team will be on hand to report on this, a first for the USA. The team at Parabatix are also working hard at finalising some upcoming events. They say they will have some announcements soon, so it looks like it will be a busy year for aficionados of this style of competition.

Don’t worry, the traditional competition format has not been completely abandoned. After problems with bids to host it in recent years, this year will once again see nations battling it out in the blue ribbon event of the World Championships. The event in Spain is being held at a very impressive looking facility that will test the navigation and economy skills of the world’s best pilots, as well as their ground skimming. And while the various pylon races have resulted in pilots flying ever-smaller wings, it will be interesting to see what kit the pilots bring to this event.

With all the talk of the year ahead there is one event that draws many pilots from all around the paramotoring world, and that is the Mondial

Paramoteur in Basse Ham. This mega fly-in takes place every two years and is probably the largest gathering of paramotor pilots anywhere in the world. With most manufacturers attending and plenty of flying to be had it’s a must-go-to event. It’s been circled in red on our wall calendar since it was announced: after all, where else can you fly through four countries in one flight? Hopefully we’ll see you there.

Wherever your paramotoring takes you this year, fly far and fly safe.

Marcus KingEditor

4 PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE | EDITION 29 EDITORIAL

Paramotor Mag's editor loving it above Gréolières, France. Photo: Anthony Green

Bailey AviationBellevue Farm • Old North Road • Bassingbourn • Royston • Herts • SG8 5JR • England

Tel: +44 (0) 1763 246660 • Fax: +44 (0) 1763 242777 • Web: www.baileyaviation.com • Email: sales@baileyaviation.comPARAMOTOR & ENGINE DESIGN, MANUFACTURE & ACCESSORIES

POWERFULLIGHTWEIGHT4-STROKE

Have you tried one yet?

MANOUEVRESPARAMOTOR MAGAZINE | EdITION 296 GALLERY

GALLERY EdITION 29 | PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE 7

The wingover is one of the only acro manoeuvres that you can fly ‘a little bit’. You can’t SAT a little bit, or Infinite Tumble a little bit. But you can wingover a little bit. Even as a beginner, making small pendulum movements is easy, and helps you discover how to combine pitch, roll and yaw – as Tom de Dorlodot explained in PM21 (October 2010).Here, Mathieu Rouanet flies a wingover with smoke – you can clearly follow all the phases of the manoeuvre. And you can see one of the most important elements of a good wingover: see how Mathieu always looks in the direction of where he’s going, and where he wants to go.Photos: Sascha Burkhardt / Montage: Véronique Burkhardt

WING

OVER

PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE | EdITION 298 GALLERY

GALLERY EdITION 29 | PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE 9

PHOTO 1With an asymmetric 360 (the track of which

is at the top of the picture), Mathieu has built up a lot of energy. With no brakes he flies

almost vertically towards the ground.

PHOTO 2Get ready to transfer all that energy into

climb…

PHOTO 3…Mathieu applies both brakes almost

symmetrically to climb up.

PHOTO 4Mathieu swings nearly straight above his

canopy. The yaw is about 45 degrees. A fully symmetric loop would be very dangerous: without enough energy the pilot could fall

into the wing. POWER LOOP

The Power Loop is a manoeuvre that tries to be the opposite of the Infinite Tumble: a backwards loop via the pitch axis – and not to the front as in the Infinite Tumble. It needs a lot of energy before the loop, and is much more difficult to swing around the canopy this way. Mathieu Rouanet shows how he nearly manages to execute a perfect Power Loop. Our advice? Don’t try this at home.

Photos: Sascha Burkhardt

PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE | EdITION 2910 GALLERY

PHOTO 5, 6, 7Facing the ground again Mathieu builds energy for the next loop.

PHOTOS 8, 9, 10But this time, because of a lack of energy, it's much less 'straight' on the pitch axis – but still very impressive!

Dealers list in our web page:

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6 TIMES WORLD CHAMPION2 TIMES EUROPEAN CHAMPION 43 TIMES NATIONAL CHAMPION

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PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE | EdITION 2926 USA

Up there it was all mine – the Grand Canyon and Me

USA EdITION 29 | PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE 27

Born in the USAGlenn Tupper flies the Grand Canyon on the road trip of his life

PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE | EdITION 2932 NEPAL

The World Peace Pagoda above Pokhara, Nepal. All photos: Marcus King

NEPAL EdITION 29 | PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE 33

Marcus King heads to Nepal for some big mountain scenery, adventurous flying and laidback lakeside living

Baja California is home to a migrating population of 15,000 grey whales. They use the lagoons as a nursery for their young. Casey Cadwell flies in for a closer look. All photos: Jeff Hamann

T he migration route of the grey whale is one of nature’s marine miracles. The longest known migration of any mammal, these leviathans make

an annual 15,000km journey from the warm waters of Mexico’s Pacific coast, to summer feeding grounds in the northern Arctic and back again.

The journey starts in spring as the whales gather to calve in the calm lagoons of Baja California. Whale watching visitors can be rewarded with spectacular close encounters of mother and calf as they rest in the shallow, near-shore lagoons of Mexico before starting their journey north. Most will whale watch from a boat. We wanted to do it from the air.

After a tumultuous day of travel Casey Cadwell and I were relieved to arrive in Loreto, Baja California on a warm March afternoon. Due to missing aeroplane pilots and close connections it was a miracle we had even made it. Unfortunately, our good fortune ended there. We learned that our luggage was lost, our driver was awol and our paramotors, shipped four days earlier, were still in Tijuana, hundreds of kilometres north. Our last minute plans for a quick weekend trip to fly with California’s grey whales were not looking very promising.

PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE | EDITION 2938 WHALES

Jeff Hamann heads to Baja California to photograph the grey whales of Magdalena Bay

Close Encounter

WHALES EDITION 29 | PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE 39

PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE | EdITION 2944 MALI

MALI EdITION 29 | PARAMOTOR MAGAZINE 45

The Last TellemPhotographer Franck Simonnet heads to Mali to photograph Dogon country from the air