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'Hard
Work' in Gourdon
The good weather conditions during the first 2 weeks of February
were specially celebrated by many of the men who make the gliders
we fly, who participated in a “Manufacturers contest”
in the south of France. As usual, there was a fierce competition
among their products, only this time the pilots were also the
creators... Airwave’s designer Bruce Goldsmith used some
of his local advantage to beat everybody (including the protos)
in one of the tasks with his new Sport 2 (DHV 1-2), although
to be fair we have to say that he was not the only “local”
pilot there. After 2 valid tasks the winner of the contest was
Eric Bordon with an Airwave Magic FR, followed by Bruce and
the Sport 2 (who won in the DHV 1-2/2 class), and 3rd was David
Dagault with the Ozone Mantra proto. Airwave won in Factory
Teams, followed by Ozone (2nd) and Firebird (3rd).
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Manufacturers
launching from Gourdon. Making gliders is a hard task, isn't
it?
Photo
© Bruce Goldsmith
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| New
Flycastelluccio website
The Italian manufacturer of paramotors Flycastelluccio has introduced
its new website, packed with information about their products
and some useful pages for PPG pilots. The site is available in
4 languages now, Italian, English, Spanish and French, as the
idea is to communicate with the highest possible number of pilots.
Visit
them at www.flycastelluccio.it |
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| Airwave
in Spanish
Slowly, the Factories are seeing the benefits of putting their
information in different languages (the cost of a translation
is usually lower than the benefit of selling only one glider!)
to reach a higher number of pilots -and potential clients. Ozone's
is the most accessible site, available in 6 languages (including
Japanese), while Pro-Design, Swing, Aerodyne and now Airwave have
included Spanish in their sites languages. Maybe our sport is
growing in Spain and Latin America?
Airwave not only included Spanish in their website. They also
have a new person in the staff to take care of the latinamerican
market personally, considering the particular needs of dealers
and pilots in this region. This way, the factory expects to get
closer to their Spanish-spoken customers.
Visit
Airwave in: www.airwave-gliders.com |
Posted:
February 20th, 2004
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Starting
the year in Stubai |
The
Renegades impressed with their new tricks
The
winners of the KO contest: Oliver Rössel, Michael Müller
and Alex Hofer
The
open air meeting point for manufacturers and pilots, in January!
Mike
Kung, always a special guest of the Stubai Cup
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The recent Stubai Cup in Austria gathered most of the paragliding
manufacturers in a weekend in which the snow and the cold were
present, but did not prevent the flights of dozens of pilots,
or the acrobatic exhibitions that took shouts and screams from
the public. In addition to the ever-impressive jumps from an helicopter
of Mike Kung and some amazing exhibitions of the teams of different
brands (Wings of Change put 40 paragliders in the air at the same
time), the ones who really managed to surprise the public were
the ‘Renegades Acro Team’ who not
only clipped three paragliders together in-flight, but also managed
to make one of them fly upside down! You can download a video
of the show in the DHV website (German):
www.dhv.de/typo/Show.1302.0.html
As
for the news, the new generation of category DHV 1-2 gliders had
a prominent place in the sky (and stands) of Stubai. The DHV has
new requirements to certify the beginner-intermediate gliders,
which force the manufacturers to dampen their dynamic behaviour
in order to adapt to the less expert pilotage of new and intermediate
pilots, maintaining a high passive security. It seems that this
challenge for manufacturers and designers is being solved successfully,
as nearly all the factories had a new model to show.
But
the highest expectation was to see those not yet certified or
finished, like the new Zoom from Gin that would enter in DHV 2,
or the Tequila from Skywalk, a “free-rider” model
that benefits from the jet-flaps technology to reach a low minimum
speed and greater stability (projected DHV 1-2). Other models
that will be on sale soon are the Mojo, a replacement for the
Atom 2 in DHV 1 from Ozone, and their projected perfo glider Proton
GTX (DHV 2-3); the BiBeta 3 tandem from Advance in two sizes;
the Makalu 2 from UP (DHV 1-2); the Mistral 3 from Swing (DHV
1-2) and their competition machine Stratus 5; the Bi-Golden from
Gradient, a tandem glider based on the DHV 1-2 Golden; or the
Nova Syntax, among others. Details soon in New
Paragliders...
Posted:
February 11th, 2004 |
| Pre-PWC
in Dominican Rep: Flying the Caribbean |
2 training days and 5 valid tasks in a week, with an average
of 51 km long tasks, satisfied both organizers and pilots in
the first Pre-PWC held in the Caribbean country. 57 pilots from
15 different nations participated in the competition, whose
main goal was to promote free-flying in Dominican Republic,
and show the beauties of the area. The cold weather in the Northern
hemisphere was an added incentive for many high level pilots
to attend this international paragliding event. Swiss pilot
Andreas Birenstihl (Advance Omega 6 Proto) won the competition,
followed by Jorge David Cifuentes (Colombia / Gin Boomerang
III) and Michael Witschi (Switzerland / Advance Omega 6 Proto).
In women, Karen Hermann (Germany / UP Trango) was able to defeat
World Champion Petra Krausova (Czech Rep./ MacPara Magus) who
took the 2nd place, and 3rd was Elisabeth Rauchenberger (Switzerland
/ Gin Boomerang III).
For the event organizer and one of the main promoters of free
flying in the country, Julian Molina, the event fulfilled the
expectations that both visiting pilots and locals had. “The
good energy from the pilots created an atmosphere of remarkable
fellowship among them and with the Organization, making for
an additional success in the human and cultural aspects of the
event. More than 80 people of more than 20 nationalities mixed
and shared a very intense week, topped by the warm welcome from
the people of the Caribbean. Finally, although we could only
fly in 2 of the more than 15 Dominican flying sites, I believe
that the main objective of the Organization, which was to place
Dominican Republic in the sight of the international flight
community, was also fulfilled. And we hope that this event is
an incentive to know this wonderful free flight destination”
said Julian.
Full results and info in www.paragliding.com.do
Posted:
February 11th, 2004
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Pictures ©
Caribbeanfreeflying.com
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Bruce
Goldsmith's
Black-Skins |
After breaking
25 cameras by flying paragliders with a camera slung around
his neck, the paragliders’ designer Bruce Goldsmith (Airwave)
has designed a new shock absorbing camera bag. The bag is designed
to fit like a glove on the digital Nikon Coolpix 5700. You keep
the camera in the bag when taking pictures, protecting the camera
even whilst it is being used. The bag is made from Neoprene,
which acts in a similar way to an airbag by absorbing shock
through the tiny air bubbles trapped in the material. In Bruce's
experience a black skin can make a camera survive twice as long
in adverse conditions. Currently Bruce is working on a black-skin
for a Canon EOS 300D.
The
price is 25 euros
including postage and packing Worldwide.
Info
/orders: www.black-skins.com
or write to bruceg@wanadoo.fr
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Posted:
Jan. 27th, 2004 |
A pre-flight checklist is a must for pilots of all sorts of
aircrafts, but in paragliding it’s not yet a common practise.
Many accidents could be avoided by doing it rigorously before
each flight, and the team at Skywalk hope they can contribute
to a safer practise of paragliding with the idea. The risers
were developed in cooperation with experienced flight instructors.
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Risers
with pre-flight checklist
Together with the innovative “jet-flaps” system
introduced in the new beginner’s glider from the German
company Skywalk, the Mescal, a feature that will distinguish
it from other gliders (at the moment, at least) is a pre-flight
checklist attached to one of the A risers, for the pilot’s
security.
The riser shows on 5 clear symbols the most important checkpoints
that the pilot should do before take off, in order to avoid
accidents due –for example- to undone legstraps. The
5 hints are:
Display 1: checkpoint pilot (harness, carabines,
helmet)
Display 2: checkpoint line (all lines free,
steering lines free, riser not distorted)
Display 3: checkpoint canopy (leading edge
open, pilot centred to the canopy)
Display 4: checkpoint wind (strength and
direction okay)
Display 5: checkpoint airspace (no other
pilots are obstructed)
Info: www.skywalk.info
Posted:
Jan. 25th, 2004
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Check
out our previous Flying World archive #7
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