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Last updated: July 28th, 2003

Kaspar Henny won the first prize, 5000 euros:
Only 3 pilots completed the X-Alps

It was certainly the toughest paragliding competition we have ever seen. For 13 days, the 17 competitors from 8 countries gave the most of their skills (both flying their gliders and hiking) to cover the 772 km from Dachstein, in Germany, to Monaco.

On Saturday 26th at 12:15 pm, the leader during the entire race Kaspar Henny (CH) was the first to land on the finish line, becoming the winner of the X-Alps. The second place had been intensely fought by Stefan Bocks (GER), Urs Loetscher (CH) and David Dagault (FR), but the French pilot’s experience in the area helped him to fly more kms than the rest, in extremely hard conditions that made him land quite violently and break his tracking device. As a result, the X-Alps lost notice of him for some time until he was almost reaching Monaco. He landed only 5:30 hours later than Kaspar (at 17:40), totally exhausted but happy. A few hours later, at 21:00, Stefan Bocks landed at the beach in Monaco. “Boxi” also had an amazing flight day, covering the remaining 85 kilometres to Monaco with speeds up to 60 km/h.

48 hours after the arrival of the winner Kaspar Henny (Monday, 12:15 pm) the paragliding event was officially over. The weather conditions on the last days did not allowed the other athletes to fly long distances, so the fight for the 4th place and the rest was left to their hiking skills. Thomas Friedrich (GER) was faster than his competitors and succeeded to conquer the 4th place, while Urs Loetscher (CH) was the 5th, Uros Rozic (SLO) was 6th, and Will Gadd (USA) was 7th. All teams will meet at the awarding ceremony on Monaco beach tonight.

The 'tough' guys:

	Kaspar Henny (Gradient AVAX RSE ultraligth) led the X-Alps from the very beginning, with a first flight of more than 100 km that gave him about 30 km of advantage over the second pilot. Within some days, he made this distance grow even more, sometimes being 90 km ahead of the rest.
	David Dagault (Ozone, Proto GTX) started on the 16th place on the first day of competition. He had to give it all to recover from such a low position, but with only a couple of good flying days he made it to the leading group. Once in the Swiss Alps he showed that his knowledge of the area and his flying skills were very relevant in this race: he quickly was after the second position, and on the final day he overtook Stephan Bocks by flying aggressively and walking as fast as he could. He succeeded on the second place.
	Stephan Bocks (Mac Para Intox) saw Dav Dag fly over his head 2 days before reaching Monaco, after a good flying day. On the last days they had been fighting for the 2nd position, but finally it was Dav the lucky one, maybe with some home-advantage. Boxi was happy to finish 3rd all the same. Arriving in Monaco he lost coverage of his positioning device and thanks to the shouts and waves of the cameramen and people at the beach he could land on the right spot.
	Thomas Friedrich (Mac Para Intox) suffered an accident on the 6th day of competition: landing on strong wind conditions, his glider collapsed and he crashed the ground after some metres fall. At first, it was uncertain if he could continue the race, as he had pain on his compressed torso. But after a one-day rest he decided to continue. He needed help to put the glider bag on his shoulders and he was on the 9th position, but he still walked as fast as he could and flew some good distances when the weather was good. When the race ended he was about 90 km from Monaco, on the 4th place.

Kaspar over Monaco!


Congratulations Kaspar!	Well done, David!

Posted: July 4th, 2003

Pedro Bernardo builds new launches for the Spanish Championship:

It is not the name of a nice guy, but of the village in the Sierra of Gredos where the most important Spanish event of paragliding will be held this year, on the opposite side of Piedrahita (distant 70 km), in the province of Avila.

The Hall of Pedro Bernardo is determined to offer the best to all the pilots who have not yet chose this site as their favorite for free flight, by widening the official launch area (W) and converting it in a smooth pendant, big enough for dozens of gliders preparing and taking off at the same time.

They also built 2 new launches facing East and South, so there are now more possibilities to fly in different conditions of wind, and follow the beautiful mountains of Gredos up to Avila or further... The Spanish Championship will be held from the 2nd to the 9th of August, and if you are interested in coming here to fly with the best Spanish pilots, you can ask us for more details: info@ojovolador.com

Posted: July 4th, 2003

FOOT-LAUNCHED JET AIRCRAFT

It is still a prototype but it flies!: The first foot-launched jet aircraft, JetBug. The creators of the Doodle Bug, a powered harness for hanglider, took a Bug2 and modified it for a first flight powered by a 95-pound thrust gas turbine engine.

The engine has a fuel efficiency of around 1litre/min, allowing for a short 10-minute flight. According to the developers of the JetBug, the idea had been in the offing for over 3 years, “but after taking delivery of the engine just three weeks previously, the Bug2 was ready for first Ben Ashman, and then Stewart Bond to fly. Both pilots agreed that the jet provided slightly more thrust than a standard Radne-equipped Bug, although noise output was significantly worse!”. The aircraft was equipped with in-built electric start and computer-controlled engine management system to simplify the operation of the aircraft. The prototype will have to undergo further studies and adjustments to become a serious alternative in the world of microlight aircrafts.

A video of the test flight is available for download (1.6Meg) in quicktime format, here.

More info: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/flylight/doodlebug/mainframe_db.htm

Posted: July 4th, 2003

A witness of the incident, Bruce Busby, made some interesting comments about it: “In the mid-air the second pilot reported being unable to find his reserve handle and therefore was unable to deploy. WHAT??? Couldn't find his chute??? WHAT??? Know where your handle is with you eyes closed! Reach for it at least once in each flight, look at it before launching and while flying. He may well owe his life to the deployment of Jackie’s chute. Had he not been tangled in her lines, he might have been very seriously hurt. Good throw Jackie! That chute came straight out! I hope we all learn something from this. I hope the pilots contribute to this discussion so we can learn even more about what they experienced. Best of luck to all pilots, fly safe and have fun. As one of my fellow Hang Gliding competitors said last week, Launching is optional, Landing is Mandatory”.