Posts Tagged ‘News’

Swiss paragliding acro champion Yves Berlowitz and his Lucky Clowns acro partner Remo Niederer set a new world record for 121 synchro infinite tumbles on 11 September 2010.

The pair D-bagged from a helicopter at 2,700 m (9,000 ft) above Linthebene, Switzerland.

www.luckyclowns.ch

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Independence’s Garuda, an EN B free-flight wing, is now certified for paramotor use up to 140 kg (M size) or 160 kg (L size).

The company say the wing’s excellent launch characteristics and flight behavior, with its direct handling and high speed range, make it an ideal paramotor wing.

They have created a special combination riser with two hangpoints to enable either free flight or paramotor use. Trimmers on the rear riser speed the wing up for powered flight, and also allow torque compensation.

If you have a Garuda and would like to order the paramotor risers, please contact an Independence dealer.

www.independence-world.com

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Britain’s Kirsty Cameron has won the first female-only paragliding open that was held in Ager in the Spanish Pyrenees, both open and serial classes, winning herself a new Sup’Air harness and Flymaster B1 nav GPS-vario.

Spanish pilots, Esther Garaizar and Beatriz Garcia, were second and third respectively, both also on serial class gliders. Britain’s Ruth Churchill-Dower topped the sports class category,

The competition finished on Friday 27 August, having had four tasks which ranged from 38 to 100 km, wind unfortunately depriving pilots of the last potential task day on the Friday.

The field of pilots was not huge,only 36 pilots being on the final results table, but judging by the blogs and Facebook comments, a good time was had by all, and those who attended seem to be looking forward to attending the next event (it seems there will be one) and pilots who missed out this time promising to swell numbers next time.

www.womenspgopen.org

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The second competition of the 2010 Paragliding World Cup tour finished today in Japan, with only two tasks flown. France’s Lucas Bernardin (Ozone) was the first-placed Open pilot, and Tomomi Masuko (JP, flying Gin) top female.

France was also the first-placed nation, despite several of the country’s top pilots, such as Luc Armant and Charles Cazaux, competing in the Europeans instead which are still going on in Abtenau, Austria at the moment (25 May – 5 June). Japan and Korea were 2nd and 3rd nations.

The two tasks of 64 and 49 km were held yesterday and today (28 and 29 May), following an early start this morning for everyone to move to Mount Fuji.

Philippe Broers has documented the event on video in his unique way. One of his videos is above, and others can be seen on his Vimeo channel (videos 74 to 83) or on the PWC website.

A reminder of the 2010 PWC Tour dates:

PARAGLIDING WORLD CUP (AMERICA)

03-10 April – Pocos de Caldas / Brazil – Brazilian World Cup
17-24 July – Chelan / USA – American World Cup

PARAGLIDING WORLD CUP (ASIA)

22-29 May – Happo-Mt Fuji / Japan – Japanese World cup
02-09 June – Linzhou / China – Chinese World Cup

PARAGLIDING WORLD CUP (EUROPE)

19-26 June – Drama / Greece – Greek World Cup
03-10 July – San potito / Italy – Italian World Cup
07-14 August – Serra da Estrela / Portugal – Portuguese World Cup

SUPERFINAL :

21 Sept-2 Oct – Denizli / Turkey

www.paraglidingworldcup.org

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The trailer for the new 3D animated movie, ‘Rio’, has just been released. It features the blue macaw Blu’s first attempt at flight, mixing it with hang gliders swooping round the Christ statue and causing mayhem on the packed beach at Rio de Janeiro. As would be expected from 20th Century Fox, the team that created Ice Age and Robots, the film looks set to be fast, fun and pacy – shame we will all have to wait until April 2011 for its release.

The European Paragliding Championships kicks off today, 25 May 2010. The two-week competition takes place in Abtenau, Austria, and will be the first major competition to feature ‘real-time’ live tracking.

Speaking to Cross Country magazine in issue 129 organiser Stefan Brandlehener revealed the local club had spent €12,000 on tracking devices – the Meitrack GT60 – that work on the mobile phone network.

The result is minute-by-minute tracking of all 145 pilots as they fight for dominance of the Austrian skies.

In tests over the weekend and on Monday during a 41 km test task the system worked flawlessly, with organisers and spectators able to see where and when pilots had landed. A reserve throw and descent also perfectly illustrated the safety aspect of the tracking – Spanish pilot Larry Pino’s location was spotted as soon as he had landed. He was fine.

The safety aspect of live tracking is the main reason CIVL, the body responsible for paragliding and hang gliding competition, gave it the go-ahead. Concerns over ground-to-air ‘guiding’ or possible advantages gained by the tracking system were outweighed by the considerable safety advantage of knowing where all pilots are all the time.

Two years ago a pilot went missing at a Paragliding World Cup leg in Spain but the alert was not raised for 24 hours. Confusion over the traditional ‘sign-in’ process meant organisers thought the pilot had already checked back in. That and other similar incidents have kept the issue of tracking systems at the top of the agenda for competition organisers. But technological shortcomings and expense have so far stood in the way of developing a ‘perfect’ system.

Organisers of the Europeans in Abtenau however hope to show the way to a new breed of competitions broadcast online. Stefan expects Vario / GPS manufacturers to one day soon incorporate the technology into flying instruments, and for scoring in the future also to be done in real time.

Meanwhile, all hopes are on the weather getting better. After a good practice day yesterday the first task was cancelled today. The Women’s Hang Gliding World Championships, also held in the Alps, finished at the weekend after two weeks of terrible weather and no flying. Organisers were forced to brush the launches clear of unseasonal deep snow in an attempt to get the pilots in the air, but to no avail.

Full live tracking of the Europeans is available on Google Earth through the European Paragliding Championships 2010 website.

Visit
European Paragliding Championships 2010

Pilot list

Europeans 2010 YouTube channel

Read Cross Country issue 129 online or on your iPad

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