The first event of the PWC ended with 3 valid tasks:
Windy days in Ibaraki! 

Only 3 tasks were flown at the first event of the PWC 2003, held in Ibaraki, Japan. Scotty Marion (USA), winner of the PWC 2002, won the event -with Americo Sousa (POR) in 2nd place and René Hauser (CH) in 3rd. Female Champion 2002, Petra Krausova (CZ) was the best woman and ended 15th overall, while Elisabeth Rauchenberger (CH) and Caroline Brille (F) took 2nd and 3rd place.

During the week, the weather was not as good as expected, and strong winds made it impossible to fly on some days. The first day of competition started with a speed run to goal, that 104 pilots reached! The race was very fast, favoured by some big convergences that allowed the pilots to use only the best lifts. Scotty Marion won the task, followed by Helmut Eichholtzer (A) and Alex Hofer (CH).

After one windy day, the second task was performed on Wednesday 26th: a 50 km race to goal with turnpoints in the north, then in the south, then in the north again, with a goal to the east, near the town-hall of Ibaraki. Just after the first turnpoint some pilots find a magic thermal bringing them to 2300 m! While some others are struggling not to land, they run from the second thermal to the third. The fist in goal is Simon Morgenthaler (CH) after 1h and 28min, followed by Martin Orlik (CZ) and Martin Bacsak (A).

The rest of the week is a waste for PG, but on Sunday the sun is back, and an 84.9km task with 3 turnpoints is set. 85 pilots make it to goal; first among all is Americo Sousa (POR), followed by Oliver Rössel (D) and Achim Joos (D). Petra Krausova (CZ) is the first woman, followed by Elisabeth Rauchenberger (CH) and Caroline Brille (F).

As for the flying machines, the best were Boomerangs III (Gin), Targas (UP) and a few Magus (Mac Para). Also, one Keara (Apco, DHV 2!) got the 21st place overall, in the hands of Stein-Tore Erdal (N).

The PWC will continue with the event in Crans Montana, Switzerland, from April 13th to 19th. More info: www.pwca.org

Edited: April 7th, 2003

Scotty Marion is leading the PWC ranking, followed by Helmut Eichholzer (A), Alex Hofer (CH) and Americo Sousa (POR).

Next July 14th is the expected date to start one of the most interesting and demanding challenges for paragliding competition pilots, who are true sportsmen! The X-Alps is a 3-weeks paragliding-hiking race in which the competitors will cross the Alps from Dachstein, Germany, all the way to Monaco, by the Mediterranean cost, about 800 km away. The pilots will go from east to west/southwest and thus, against the predominant winds for long distances. Furthermore, they will have to survive in the mountains by their own means, sleeping in open air, and will not be allowed to use any transport vehicle other than their gliders and their feet. Each pilot will define his route according to his own judgement and with only 2 turning points along the way, Verbier and Mont Gras. The race will finish 21 days after the start, winning the pilot/s who reach the goal or are closer to it by the final day, the prize being 5000 euros for the first pilot/s. The rest of the prize money (a total of 3500 €) will be given to the other competitors according to their final score at the end of the race.

An impressive coverage system will ensure that anybody can follow the competitors positions in all moments through the website www.redbullxalps.com. To achieve this, the organisers will provide each pilot with a GTS device (the "EAST"), which allows online GPS tracking via SMS. This info will not only allow the Red Bull team to verify each pilot's route, but also to locate them for live interviews every 48 hours.

Only 15 of the best pilots of the world will be granted a place in the X-Alps race, and only if they qualify for the conditions required by the organizers. One of the ideologist of this competition is the well-known extreme multi-sportsman, Hannes Arch, chief of the Red Bull Acro Team and director of many film productions about free-flight. "What makes this event so extreme is that the individual race stages don't end in the evening; there's no camp where the athletes can kick back at the end of the day. The pilots will spend the nights on the mountain so they can fly off first thing the next morning. The paragliding world has never seen an event like this!", says Arch.

The registration closes on March 31st. and some of the world's best paragliders have already confirmed their participation, including Will Gadd (USA), Walter Holzmüller (AUT), Rob Whittall (UK) and Kaspar Henny (CH). The list of participants will be announced by mid April in the event website.

The challenge of Red Bull X-Alps is to cross the Alps as fast as possible by flying with a paraglider or by foot. 21 days is the limit and 5000 euros, the prize.

This is the EAST -Equipment for Airborne Storage + Transmission- a lightweight device with GPS, Logger and a GSM function, which allows online GPS tracking via SMS. The 12-Channel GPS-Receiver supplies the device with position, time and status information (like altitude of every athlete). With this information EAST automatically generates a SMS in a 2-minute interval. A webserver receives this SMS and converts the track information into a script for the website. A real-time update of every athletes position is therefore guaranteed. (Taken from X-Alps website).

Edited: March 29th 2003

Experienced PG pilots will show if they can easily transition their XC skills to class 5 gliders, and become bi-lingual with little effort or fuss .
Edited: March 29th 2003

Free Flight 2003 Awards

No big surprises were to be seen at the last Free Flight fair (March 22-23), in Garmisch (Germany). All the big names of the air sports were there to show their latest models -most of them already seen at the Bregenzerwald Cup in January. Nevertheless, the nice spring weather made it for a nice event, where the pilots could fly, watch the ever-impressive Acro exhibitions performed by Mike Kung and the Renegades, see some of the films related to free flight in competition, and "window shop" at the stands.

The Best Film award was for "Indian Style", directed by Bearnie Bechter, in which scary scenes of Indian fellows flying old tandem gliders, wearing no helmets, mix with the joy reflected in the pilots faces, all surrounded by beautiful landscapes.

"Riding the Wind", a film by Alex Kaiser and Hans Bausenwein, won the Prize of the Jury. Nice footage of paragliding games over sand dunes at the beach, taking great advantage of the laminar winds and the pilots skills (Mike Kung among them).

The film "Exit" by Alex Kaiser was awarded Best Camera work, and "Ratgeber Flugsport" by Hartmut Heinrichs won the prize for Best First Work. Finally, the award for the Most Original Idea went to "Starten, Steuern, Beten" by Peter Obermaier, and "The Bright Side of Flight" by Markus Semmelmann and the Aerobatic club Landebier. There are some clips of the films as free downloads in the DHV website (News section, in German).

This year, the Free Flight also awarded the best websites related to our sports. In the Professional category the winner was the virtual home of Nova Paragliders, www.nova-wings.com designed by Martin Kaufman; followed by www.advance-paragliders.com of Advance gliders (2nd) and www.independence-world.com of Independence Gliders. A special prize was also given to Mike Kung's website, www.madmikekueng.com, by Frank Arendt, for Best Promotion Site.

As for the news, an interesting one is the new instrument released by the Swiss company Aircotec: the XC Trainer, a lightweight device that includes GPS, variometer, barogram and many useful functions for the cross-country pilots, and it is still easy to use (they say). See details below.

The TOP Navigator was the first instrument to incorporate variometer and GPS functions in one device, offering the free-flight pilot new and interesting information to improve his navigation and optimise thermal flying. The XC Trainer seems like a natural evolution from it: reduced weight, simple to use, good satellite coverage, new functions…

It was officially introduced to the flying community in the recent "Free Flight" fair in Garmisch (Germany), as "the New Generation" for the Swiss factory Aircotec. It is not a replacement for the Top Navigator, still one of the favorite instruments for competition pilots, but it opens new possibilities to XC pilots who feel the need for more information. The XC Trainer has altimeter, data logger and a 16 channel GPS, so it can tell your position in 2D and 3D, and it also offers thermal visualisation, wind direction and wind speed, temperature gradient (a thermal warning!), average climb-rate, speed/course and a flight area visualisation where you will see all your thermals. It also register automatically (via GPS) the take-off altitude, and other useful functions thought for the free-flight pilot. And it is said to be very easy to use for all pilots.

We want to try it too!!

Easy handling and top technology are the best virtues of the new XC Trainer

+ info: Aircotec Switzerland / Aircotec USA

Edited: March 29th, 2003

Technical Specifications

• Variometer: +/-25 m/s optical and acustical
• Altimeter: -500 to 6500m a.s.l. (automatic take off altidue with GPS)
• Barometer
• 16 channel parallel GPS: 2D/3D Position, altitude, speed, course, etc.
• Speed over ground: 0 to 255 km/h
• Real clock: UTC-time and flight time
• Flight data memory for 18 hours: 1 sec. interval: Latitude, Longitude, altitude, GPS altitude, temperature, speed, course, mark
• Working time with GPS: 15 hours
• Measurments: height 137mm, widtht 66mm, thickness 28mm
• Weight: 300 grs. with battery
• Firmware Version V1.01:
• Permanent informations: Speed over ground and course, circling ratio indicator left/right, Wind speed and direction, Speed distribution courve with head and tailwind indicators, altitude and variometer, Gliding figure over ground, Distance to a selected position mark, time/flying time
• Additional informations: track indicator and bearing to sel. pos. mark graphic, climb value distribution with wind shift compensation, variable scale factors, temp display: barogram during the last 10 flight min. +/- 600 m 30 sec climb rate averaging, thermo gram (temp) +/- 600m temperature
• Geographical coordinates Up to 9 pos. marks, takeoff, landing field (sorted by distance), distance and bearing, selected position mark appears in the map and centring displays with dist. and bearing information.

Firebird Trainer

It is not a kite and it is not a paraglider -at least not one designed for flying. The Trainer is a 11-square-metres solution created by Firebird for schools, for non flying days: only to practise ground handling without the risk of being lifted by a strong gust. For the Trainer, they took a low lifting profile and incorporated it into a small version of a paraglider -fully lined with a 4 riser system- "which allows for ground handling safely in high wind conditions", according to Firebird.

More info: www.flyfirebird.com

A new virtual place for one of the best flying sites in the world, Castejon de Sos (Spain):
volarencastejon.com

Castejón de Sos has a new home in Internet. The flight centre "Volar en Castejon", settled for the first time in this area of the Spanish Pyrenees during the past season, have opened their website: www.volarencastejon.com, with complete information about this amazing area for free flying, details of their paragliding courses, and a wide variety of services "to make things easier" both for flyers and non flyers who want to spend their vacations in Castejon de Sos.

This is a good way to know all the possibilities offered by the site, and plan in advance a paragliding / family trip to this region of northern Spain. You will also find enough reasons to convince your companions who don't fly to join you in your "paragliding holidays", as the alternative activities offered in volarencastejon.com include tandem flights, bicycle rental, rafting, kayaks, canyoing, mountain climbing, horseback riding, and other adventure or outdoor sports to enjoy the awesome natural surroundings of the Valley. They can also book accommodation in the area for you (in season) or give you the info, offer transport tickets for rides to the take-off, have XC and mountain guides, organize trips to other flying sites (in case the wind comes from the back…), and have a section with good bargains in flying gear from their shop, located in the main street of the village of Castejon de Sos (Av. El Real 28).

The website volarencastejon.com was created and designed by Ojovolador - Communication & Design, and we are very happy with the fresh and fun style we gave it.

Edited: March 29th 2003 
WINDOW SHOPPING: NEW PRODUCTS

A collection of some new accesories that have called our attention from PG shops around. Not all of them are here and they might be not "the" newest, but we will keep on looking around... :)

New AIRWAVE harness line: Airwave have announced their complete new line of harnesses, all made out of high quality CORDURA and "aircraft Quality parts". Airwave harnesses are equipped with steel carabiners on the mains (instead of aluminum) unless customers specially order them in Aluminum, and they are DHV certified. 6 different models for different requirements: general flight (GT), Acro, Tandem pilot, tandem passenger, kid passenger and a lightweight harness. All models available in 3 color options.

GT: XC and all-round harness. Ergonomically designed with adjustable straps for individual settings; individual leg strap; safety "T" strap; reserve can be mounted left, right or on both sides; 17cm-protection; 5,5 kgs total weight including carabiners; large packing compartment. Sizes S-XL.

GT

ACRO new "vest" for a tighter fit which improves weight-shift sensitivity; low hangpoints; individual leg straps; no cross-bracing; reserve located underneath the seat; reserve handle can be fitted to the left or right side. Sizes S-XL.

Tandem Pilot: ergonomically designed with adjustable straps for individual settings; individual leg strap; extra wide seat board to accommodate the passenger in front and still have free leg movement; back mounted reserve with handle on left or right side; weight shift bracing connected to leg straps.

More info: www.airwave-gliders.com

TANDEM

New UP Harnesses

The new overall designed by Advance is water and windproof; comfortable (according to Advance); suitable for all seasons, and available in 6 sizes, from XS to XXL, in 2 combinations of colors. Details in www.advance.ch and with their dealers.

Fly Extreme is a new brand of paragliding clothing from Argentina that has just started to sell in Europe. Perhaps the most interesting point about the overall is its excellent value for money. The quality is good, the material is waterproof and breathable, and it is warm enough for all seasons. It also has a pocket for the radio with security rings, special straps on the knees to fix your instruments, elastic wristbands, polartech lining on the neck, and even a baklava for the cold days. We have tried it and it is really warm and comfortable, at a convenient price.

Imported by www.madridalcielo.com (Spain).

During the last 5 months we have been editing and sending an informative summary in Spanish of the paragliding + PPG news we receive, to a growing list of subscribers - almost 500 at the moment. We would like to try this in English too, as it is an excellent way to help everybody be up-to-date with the news from our sports and the updates in our website ojovolador.com. Why we want to do this?? Because we believe in communication as the best tool to make our sport grow and be safer, and also because communication is what we have been doing for the past years, and we like it! We do not have commercial purposes, and we are not commercially bounded to any PG brand, although some of them might be our clients in design or communication works. The information you find in our website and in our Newsletter is taken from what we see around, at take-offs, events, shops or flying sites, or received directly from the manufacturers. Finally, we keep all our susbscribers data as confidential information and we do not give it away under any circumstances. We will not send you spams or junk emails, as we do not like to receive that kind of emails ourselves!

To subscribe, fill in the form that will appear when you click here. We will send you the Newsletter within some days (as soon as it is ready).