Archive Flying World: Paragliding News - November 2006 / TheFlyingEye

Sponsored Ad:

Bräuniger and Flytec merge

After a long collaboration of the two leading companies in the development of flight instruments, Peter Braeuniger and Rolf Willershausen of Brauniger GmbH decided to merge with the Swiss manufacturer Flytec AG. The two companies will now join their efforts for development and manufacturing of specialized instruments for sport flight, which they expect will translate in even higher quality. Also, they believe that the move will benefit the final customers. The new managing director is Flytec's boss Alois Sigrist. Sales and repair service of Brauniger varios will stay at home in Weilheim , Germany . Peter Braeuniger and Rolf Willershausen will continue in the company as consultants. +Info: www.brauniger.com y www.flytec.ch

Posted: November 15th, 2006

OZONE CARIBBEAN XC CHALLENGE 2007 - IN NEW SITE

Julian Molina, the organizer of the Caribbean XC Challenge in Dominican Republic, has announced that this year the comp will be held in a better location: Casabito, in the middle of the country, instead of Vallejuelo (the site of 2006). The dates are February 4th to 9th, 2007. The advantages are quite a few, starting from a takeoff located only 25 minutes away from the comp’s headquarters (+5 minutes walk) and accessible by normal vehicles -no 4-wheel drive required- which means comfortable rides in big buses and safe retrieves along a major highway that runs parallel to the mountain range. This site is also greener and more humid, with lighter flying conditions - but still great for XC.
The competition will be based in Bonao, a mid-sized city located in a beautiful valley in the center of the Dominican Republic, with Cordillera Central to the west. The city is over 70 km inland and is about an hour NW of Santo Domingo, the capital city. The area is right upwind from the Cordillera Central, with mountains over 2800 m high.
As you probably know, the Caribbean XC Challenge is a free flight competition with a focus on fun and education, and there will be XC tuition and briefings by UK’s instructor Jocky Sanderson, together with the Ozone Team. Pilots are encouraged to choose their take off moment and route according to their skills and conditions in a stress-free environment, and it’s all about enjoying the flying! Plus, there are many prizes for all participants including a brand new Ozone glider.
We’ve heard only positive comments about the 1st edition and sincerely regret that we couldn’t attend back then; but that won’t happen again! We have accepted Julian’s invitation for the 2nd XC Challenge and we already booked our tickets to Dominican Republic! We’re sure it’s going to be a great fun week in a fantastic place. Registration is open for pilots at the event’s website – start planning your trip, and see you in the Caribbean!!

+Info: http://2007.caribbeanxc.com/

Posted: November 8th, 2006

Red Bull X-Alps: Back in 2007

The 3rd edition of the world’s toughest paragliding race, the X-Alps, is ready to launch again in 2007, this time from the world heritage site of Hallstatt in Austria on July 23rd.
30 athletes from around the world will be prompted to race “day and night across the Alps, tracked by the most advanced media technology around to deliver thrilling stories over three weeks to an audience of millions“, according to the organizers.
In 2007, the Red Bull X-Alps is announced to be even “harsher and more exciting than before“, and with a new start place and route. From Hallstatt, the participants will hike up the Dachstein, cross the glacier by foot and launch their paragliders from a windswept, icy cornice perched perilously over thousands of feet of vertical wall, the Dachstein south face. From this first take-off spot the athletes’ long and cumbersome journey continues, leading them across the most beautiful peaks of the Alps including the turning points of Dachstein (Austria), Marmolada (Italy), Eiger (Switzerland), Mont Blanc (France) and Mont Gros (France) – until they finally reach their goal in Monaco.
All athletes truly willing and able to compete in “the toughest adventure race of their life” are invited to register on the event’s website. Those who pass the selection process will have to attend a test camp in June to verify their endurance, paragliding and orientation skills so that the Red Bull X-Alps committee can get an overall impression of their body and mind. The athlete selection process for the final round should be finished by the end of January 07.

+Info & registration: www.redbullxalps.com

Photo © ulrichgrill.com/Red Bull Photofiles

Posted: November 8th, 2006

Paramania - Trimmer Upgrade

+Info: www.flyparamania.com

Posted: November 8th, 2006

Following the success of Paramania’s dedicated PPG glider Revolution, for intermediate pilots, the company has added a new risers upgrade to their available Wingtip Steering kit (for maneuvering on fast trim): The Slow / Fast Reflex indicator. This feature is now fitted as standard to all Paramania’s latest wings and is also available as a free upgrade from dealers worldwide (serial number required).
The new upgrade consists of a label indicating the different trim positions along the whole travel of the trimmer range from slow to fast. Stitched indicators and illustrations along the trimmer label allow the pilot to easily understand which configuration the wing is flying in, making it clear to adjust the trimmers for different flying modes.
This new mod also ensures that the cam buckle stays in place and does not slip, according to the Paramania team.

Risers for Pro-Design gliders ACCURA MOTOR & THESIS MOTOR

Pro-Design have released special Paramotor risers for their paragliders THESIS MOTOR (DHV1/ entry level) and ACCURA MOTOR (DHV1-2/ intermediate). The risers are equipped with a regular speed-system, two hangpoints for use with paramotor or for free-flight, and trim taps. When the trimmers are closed, A-, B-, C- and D- risers have the same lengths as standard on the risers for models THESIS and ACCURA. When trimmers are open, the D- risers are 5cm longer and the C- risers are 2,5cm longer than A- and B- risers. With open trimmers the canopy comes overhead much easier and faster on flat take off terrain, say at Pro-Design. In the air, a faster trim speed can be achieved and asymmetrically opened trimmers can compensate the torque of the engine. The speed-systems have same speed ranges.

+Info: www.pro-design.at

Posted: November 08th, 2006

Beyond 300 in tandem paraglider

Andre Fleury and Claudia Ribeiro teamed again for the record-hunting expedition “XC Nordeste” in Patu, Brazil, and set two new world records for a tandem paraglider (Sol Tracer Zircus) on October 26th: declared distance to goal, 305 km; and free distance, 313,84 km. The couple smashed their own previous records set during the same expedition in 2003 and still valid: 274,6 and 299,7 km (the story of that record in our READ section).
Andre is also holder of the declared distance to goal record obtained last year in a Sol Dynamic ARF2: 353.4 km.
This is the story of the flight beyond the 300km-line on a day that didn’t seem to be “the” day, by Andre Fleury.

+Info: xcnordeste.com.br

See the track here!

Posted: October 30th, 2006

"After the first flight, we made some adjustments in the equipment and left for the second test. The day started covered by clouds seeming that it would not give a good flight, but we decided to make one little flight anyway to test the adjustments done. As always in any flight in Patu, we completed the protocols: we declared a goal in Independência/CE, cleaned tracklogs from the GPS and took the barograph, because you never know what could happen. We took off at 8:00 and after one and a half hour of soaring, when we were about to give up, conditions began to improve and we decided to try to go XC. The thermals were broke and very turbulent. Ceceu had managed to leave before us and hooked in better conditions taking some distance from us. Rafael also started ahead and after some thermals we met him at Umarizal. We caught a very violent dust devil and almost ended up on the ground; it was difficult to keep our "big Tracer" open, but it went up all the same. It’s amazing how a high performance paraglider with such high span responds to the brake inputs to reopen without any problem. At this moment we also felt the difficulties to turn tight in a thermal with a huge and high aspect ratio glider. We also observed that we still need to improve some details in the equipment.We continued together for two thermals when Rafael took a crazy decision and ended landed. We were then alone and discouraged, but we continued flying following the conventional route behind Ceceu, who was about 30 km ahead. As always after crossing the mountain range of Iracema we “crawled" until Solonopolis. In this area the thermals are very irregular due to the excess of humidity produced by the Castanhão dam that, although it’s been drier this year, continues influencing the local micro-climate. We call Dio on the radio to know his position, as we were already tired and thinking of landing because it was late and we thought that it was no worth getting so tired if tomorrow could be a better day to try the record. But since Dio was still very far and the thermals had improved we continued the flight.Base, that was low until then, went up to 2.000m over take off. Through the radio we could hear that Ceceu was still flying ahead and we followed his route. Before arriving at the mountain range of Pedra Branca, the sky turned blue and the wind changed to our face making the flight still more difficult. We decide to push up to the city of Pedra Branca and land there, since it would be really difficult to reach our declared goal under those conditions, feeling the fatigue and the distance we still had in front. We were practically touching the ground when we hook in a smoke column and surprisingly a big cloud started to form above our heads completely changing the destiny of the day. We reached the base where a cloud street led directly to the goal. At this moment we heard on the radio that Ceceu had landed in that blue-hole cycle with 260 km.Before reaching the base of what would be our last thermal, Dio informed us that the coordinate declared in the form was not the same that we had in the GPS. Total desperation, we had to place the new numbers in the GPS during the final glide to goal. Detail: The new FAI rules state that the radius is now 400m around the declared coordinate. Then we received the good news by radio that we had beaten the free distance record, which was ours with 299,7km. Now, we only had to fly to the turnpoint. We did it, we zeroed the coordinate above the city of Independência/CE with 305km. We continued in the final glide until landing, after 314km. The final result of a flight that we expected to be only a test: Two world records beaten... It couldn’t be better...!!

From 0 to 6102m in Paramotor: New record by Ramon Morillas

To climb from sea level to more than 6,000 meters is the new feat done by the present Spanish PPG champion and world record-man on Friday October 6th. Ramon took off from the beach in Motril (Andalusia, Spain) and flew his glider Advance Omega 7 (DHV2-3) with a paramotor PAP Ros 100 (100cc) towards the mountains of Sierra Nevada. After four hours of flight and having reached 5,000 meters of altitude, the lift caused by the wind on the highest peaks of the massive helped him climb to 6,102 meters: a new world record for the owner of the present record of height in paramotor (5414m achieved in Tenerife in 2005). Ramon did not use oxygen; he used a newest model of wing with a glide rate of 10:1; flew over all the +3000 of the mountain range in a flight that lasted 6 hours, and with conditions that he describe as "a bit rough, but thanks to that I could make it!". Still with his fingers “frozen”, Ramon tells us more about this flight to the highest clouds of the sky.

"The hardest moments of the flight were when I crossed from the Alpujarra towards the peak of “El Caballo” (‘the horse’), as the north wind was blowing from the mountain (+35 km/hr). It took me a lot of work to reach the front side of the Veleta peak, with a ground speed of between 5 and 10 km/h.
Finally, after almost 4 hours flying I could start to soar the dynamic lift of the area called "Corral del Veleta". In this zone I was able to climb up to more than 4.500m, and then I headed a bit to the north to the leeside of the last three-thousand of Sierra Nevada, the Jerez Peak. There I tried to locate some wave lift and, although slowly, I started to climb at a very constant rate (0,5 m/seg).
The most difficult part in this type of flight is to find the lift and not to lose it. I was able to reach 5.000m and soon, I was at 5,500 m. Several times I lost the wave and every time it was more difficult to find it again. With tail wind I had a ground speed of 95 km/hr!
At that altitude, the cold is piercing and the lack of oxygen worsens your abilities. The last time that I was able to gain height the GPS marked a maximum of 6,102 meters, but I could see on the barograph that I was still 80m short of the 6,000 mark. I don’t know if I lost the lift or if it just disappeared, but I had spent more than one hour over 5.500m, of which more than 45 minutes I had been over 6 thousands meters!
Of course, it was a while since I had lost the feel in my hands and feet. At that moment, I decided that I had to go down, and I had the best sensation of all the flight: just a little bit above me that I could almost touch them, were the Cirrus. Those clouds, of which we have so much spoken, studied and observed, were now so close to me and my glider! Very impressive…
I landed after more than 6 hours flying, in front of my house in El Purche".The max. altitude measured by Ramon’s GPS (MLR) is 6,102 m, but the barograph Braünniger IQ Competition logged 5.917m, because it works with the atmospheric pressure. It will be to the FAI to decide what is acceptable for the record. If they certify the altitude of 6102m, Ramon will also have a new world record of speed to climb to 6.000m.

Congratulations!
.

+Info: Papteam.com & FAI

Posted: October 17th, 2006

EQUIPMENT: Paramotor: PAP 1400 with ROS 100 engine (the same used for the distance record of 951km) with the only modification of extra tanks. Paraglider: ADVANCE OMEGA 7 size 26, serial.

Internet overtakes newspapers as 1st source of information

Info-evolution :

Good news for the digital media, like Ojovolador.com:

The time European consumers spend online has, for the first time, overtaken the hours they devote to newspapers and magazines, a study revealed.
Print consumption has remained static at three hours a week in the past two years, while time spent online has doubled from two to four hours.

The Jupiter Research survey of more than 5,000 people in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain shows that Europeans’ use of the internet is still behind the rates seen in the US. A similar study by Jupiter of US habits found that Americans now spend 14 hours a week online –as much time as they spend watching television– and just three hours reading print.

“The fact that internet consumption has passed print consumption is an important landmark for the establishment of the internet in Europe,” said Mark Mulligan, research director at Jupiter. “This shift in the balance of power will increasingly shape content distribution strategies, advertising spend allocation and communication strategies.”

The rapid spread of fast broadband internet connections in Europe is likely to accelerate the trend towards digital information in a near future. The average time spent online by broadband customers in Europe was seven hours a week, compared with two hours for those with dial-up connections.

*Full article at the digital edition of Financial Times

Posted: October 16th, 2006

Events to escape from the cold . . . . . . .Posted: October 12th, 2006
2nd Challenge of La Palma Now more prizes! The special XC contest that gave away amazing prize money in 2005 will be back in December for a new edition with 24,000 euros in prizes. During a year, pilots who accept the Challenge must fly the best distances they can in the warm Canary island of La Palma (Spain) in order to classify for the Final phase, in which set tasks will decide the winner. New in this 2nd Challenge are the prizes to pilots with DHV 1/1-2 and 2 gliders, ranging from 1000 to 100 euros for the first six overall. There are 8000 euros for the overall winner and prize money for the first 6 places and for the longest flights in each class. La Palma is a great destination for beach, sun, and relax – just bring your glider and accept the Challenge!	READ our article of the 1st Challenge here. +Details soon in Desafioisladelapalma.com
Spanish Open Tenerife, December 6-10: The last valid event for the Spanish paragliding League will take place in Taucho, on the south of the Canary island of Tenerife. Warm temperatures, sun and thermal flying are the main reasons why you’d like to go there in December for an Open comp in a laid back environment. +Info soon in www.ligacanariaparapente.com
Ozone Caribbean XC Challenge: In February 4-10 / 2007, everybody’s invited to fly cross country in the Caribbean, specifically over the beautiful Dominican Republic. This “stress-free” competition organized by the Ozone team and the experienced local pilot Julian Molina, will have again an instructional part for pilots who want to hone their XC skills and learn from experts. Jocky Sanderson will be the meet director and will also be in charge of the instruction. Objectives: to learn, to have fun and to enjoy the Caribbean! +Info: http://2007.CaribbeanXC.com

Articles – Reading material for cold days Posted: September 12th, 2006
In the last weeks we have published some interesting articles to keep you entertained with flying stuff on non-flyable days. They are all listed and accesible from our Read section, Read!
From the Europeans to the Worlds The Designers' views The Paragliding Europeans 2006 served as testing field for amazing prototypes that the designers are working on, some of which will lead to new developments of even faster machines for the next Worlds (Manilla 2007). We interviewed seven of the most influent designers about their ideas and work, and although they are not keen to reveal their secrets we did learn a few things from them. READ our special article with interviews to the creators of some of the top-performing gliders of the moment, here!
Interviews: Petra Krausova and Luca Donini, Euro-champs 2006! The 2006 European Paragliding Champions have a few things in common, like World gold medals and repeated participations in their national teams. Right after the Europeans in Morzine the champions told us a few things about flying, competition and life. Read the interviews here!
9th FAI European Paragliding Championship Twelve days of competition, 5 valid tasks and incredible speeds were seen at the PG Europeans held in Morzine-Avoriaz and Les Gets (France) in July 2006. Our Flying-Eye was there to see all the details of the competition and tell them to you as fast as possible in our special web page Ojovolador.com/press. To complete that exhaustive news coverage, we offer you this article about the Eurpean Championship, with even more details and a couple of short interviews. READ our article here!
FAI European Paramotor Championship, Chozas - Leon Ten tasks were flown in this continental comp held in Spain in August, giving the gold medal in foot-launched paramotor to current world champion Mathieu Rouanet (FR, Ozone Viper – Pap Ros) and in trikes to Frantisek Salava (CZ). During the event, five new world records were set: Distance with limited fuel (1,5kg) in foot-launched paramotor (PF1) by Dave Hairs (UK) with 110km, and in solo trike (PL1) by Frantisek Salava (CZ) 42 km; speed over Japanese slalom in PF1 by Ramon Morillas (57,81 seconds), in PL1 by Frantisek Salava (61,97 secs.) and in PL2 by Paco Diaz and Sonia Martin (SP, 87 secs.) It was a good championship dimmed by the tragic death of the Spanish pilot Carlos Cotoruelo after the last tasks. Details, results, reflections and a short interview to Mathieu Rouanet in our article, READ!

Paragliding World Cup in Slovenia – Live report

+Info: www.pwca.org

*REPORT in French: www.parapente.ffvl.fr/node/315

*A video of the competition will be soon available on www.touslesdirects.com

Posted: September 12th, 2006

The last World Cup event took place in Kobarid, in the country of the Valic brothers: Slovenia! 4 tasks were validated. Chrigel Maurer was the winner and is the leader of the PWC, with Tomas Brauner 2nd and Greg Blondeau 3rd overall. Charles Cazaux reports:
Amazing ridge and fast flying were the main idea of this competition. Now we know why Urban and Aljaz Valic are so fast!! Kobarid is really close from the Italy-Slovenia border, and 9 hours driving from Grenoble!
Day 1 – 3/09/2006 – 52km race to goal. [Task winner: Rudy Untermoser (Austria). 1st Team: Mac Para]. Due to the weather forecast, the organization set a really fast task for the beginning of the competition: 30km straight line, close to the ridge between take off and the 2 first turnpoint. On the second part of the task, the small bridge of Volarje was quite far in the middle of the valley. Two options and 2 groups of pilots appeared. One option was better and the top pilots of this group decided to take the risk of going low in the valley wind for the final glide: they won with an average speed above 40 km/h! Only 2 pilot missed goal today: More than 120 pilots in goal!!! Rudy Untermoser was the fastest.
Task 2 – 05/09/2006. A 105 km race to goal! [Task winner: Kaoru OGISAWA (Japan–GIN Factory Team). 1st Team: Aerotact Racing Team]. An incredible 105 km from Kobarid take-off, then on to the big mountain close to Kobala take-off (Tolmin), a difficult turnpoint in Bovec, back to Kobarid, and landing after a long glide to the goal. 6 pilots were already leading the task with a fast flying style: Aljaz and Urban Valic, Christian Maurer... A second group was working hard to catch them: Charles Cazaux, Max Jeanpierre and Stéphane Drouin (French team) were not too far but didn’t take the best option in Bovec... They landed under a pass and Kaoru Ogisawa (J) passed over them winning the task: only 9 pilots in goal! Not so easy a day!
Task 3 – 6/09/2006. 70 km race to goal. [Task winner: Christian MAURER (CH–Team ADVANCE). 1st Team: GIN Factory Team]. Christian Maurer made a good start in the competition and decided to fly more aggressively to be sure to win the comp. Flying with Urban Valic in front, they made only a few turns on this task but Urban went too fast and landed... Denis Cortella took the second place of the task. Task setting proposed us less straight flying close from the cliff today...Good choice!
Task 4 – 07/09/2006. A 72 km race to goal. [Task winner: Stefan WYSS (CH–Team SPAELTI). 1st Team: Mac Para]. Turnpoint competition today with 7 turnpoints + take-off and landing place! A 72 km racing task in which the top pilots attack in front again with an incredible high speed flying! Not easy to follow them near the ridge. Swiss pilot Stefan Wyss took the first place today!

Overall PWC Kobarid:
1st Christian MAURER (CH) – Advance Proto
2nd Denis CORTELLA (F) – GIN Gliders Boomerang 4
3rd Thomas BRAUNER (CZ) – Mac Para Magus
Winner woman: Renata Kuhnova (CZ) Sky Paragliders Eris 2
Winner team: 1st Mac Para
Winner nation: 1st France

Live report by
Charles Cazaux
After his 13th place in Slovenia, he’s now 9th in the overall world cup ranking before the last event which will take place in Reunion Island (4-11 November).

+News in our previous Archive (Sept 2006): 4785m World Record of Gain of Height; Risk of Parachutal stall in wet gliders; PWC Fiesch; Leon, ready for the PPG Europeans; Paramania new website; Camping Ager; CEN Standard, CORNIZZOLO CUP 2006; Charles Cazaux beats 2 speed records; World records in Slovenia. Click here to go.

ARCHIVED NEWS UP TO: November 15th, 2006

+News in our previous Archive (September 2006): 4785m World Record of Gain of Height; Risk of Parachutal stall in wet gliders; PWC Fiesch; Leon, ready for the PPG Europeans; Paramania new website; Camping Ager; CEN Standard, CORNIZZOLO CUP 2006; Charles Cazaux beats 2 speed records; World records in Slovenia. Click here to go

.
*See an index of all the published news in this (and other) section(s), and links to our Archive pages in READ!

If you want to reproduce any information or images from this website, you must ask us at: info@ojovolador.com first. Thank you!
© Ojo Volador 2002-2005.
All rights reserved. Please respect the rights over intellectual property of this website

Ojovolador.com
email: info@ojovolador.com
Tel.: +34 920378503
Lanzahita (Avila) - SPAIN

All the information and images published in this website are property of Ojovolador.com unless stated otherwise.
Reproduction of any part of these contents (info, graphics & pictures) by other website or media is strictly forbidden,
unless specially authorized by Ojovolador.com.
If you want to share this information, please pass the Web address (URL) of this page.
© OjoVolador 2002 – 2007
Please respect the rights over intellectual property of this Web site.