Cross Country April 2022

Paragliding technology just took another step up with the introduction of the sport’s first two-line EN-C wing, the Volt 4. AirDesign’s Stephan Stiegler tells us later in the issue: “If I didn’t tell you that you were flying a two-liner, you probably wouldn’t notice. It is very easy to fly.” It’s a significant moment in glider design, and with several two-line EN-Cs expected from other manufacturers it looks like we can expect a lot of activity in the EN-C class soon. Meanwhile, in Colombia in February, Honorin Hamard showed up to the British Winter Open with a box-fresh Ozone Zeno 2 and almost broke the paragliding internet as Zeno fans lusted after the new glider and argued over the new colour scheme. (For the record, I liked it!) Add into the mix…

Steve Ham is well known as an illustrator throughout the free-flight world. A hang glider pilot turned paraglider pilot, he has lived and worked as a guide in Piedrahita, Spain for 20 years. A recent poster commission saw him researching the history of free flight in Brazil – p28 Rob Davis started paragliding in 1992 and has been learning ever since. “Fascinating, like sailing with an extra dimension.” A former GP his favourite site is the one he can walk to from home – “Leckhampton, England is an excellent springboard for XC flying.” He writes about XC analysis on p36 Bastienne Wentzel is the author of Paragliding: The Beginner’s Guide and a science writer. From the Netherlands, and keen to improve her acro skills she jumped at the chance to go on…

Paragliding technology just took another step up with the introduction of the sport’s first two-line EN-C wing, the Volt 4. AirDesign’s Stephan Stiegler tells us later in the issue: “If I didn’t tell you that you were flying a two-liner, you probably wouldn’t notice. It is very easy to fly.” It’s a significant moment in glider design, and with several two-line EN-Cs expected from other manufacturers it looks like we can expect a lot of activity in the EN-C class soon. Meanwhile, in Colombia in February, Honorin Hamard showed up to the British Winter Open with a box-fresh Ozone Zeno 2 and almost broke the paragliding internet as Zeno fans lusted after the new glider and argued over the new colour scheme. (For the record, I liked it!) Add into…

Steve Ham is well known as an illustrator throughout the free-flight world. A hang glider pilot turned paraglider pilot, he has lived and worked as a guide in Piedrahita, Spain for 20 years. A recent poster commission saw him researching the history of free flight in Brazil – p28 Rob Davis started paragliding in 1992 and has been learning ever since. “Fascinating, like sailing with an extra dimension.” A former GP his favourite site is the one he can walk to from home – “Leckhampton, England is an excellent springboard for XC flying.” He writes about XC analysis on p36 Bastienne Wentzel is the author of Paragliding: The Beginner’s Guide and a science writer. From the Netherlands, and keen to improve her acro skills she jumped at the chance to go on a…

Do you fly competitions? Then you need to claim and update your competition ID at CIVL’s new event and competition website, civlcomps.org. In planning for several years and launched in beta at the end of last year, civlcomps.orgis designed to be the new one-stop shop for the entire CIVL competition system ecosystem for both competition organisers and competition pilots. It caters for all disciplines – hang gliding (Class 1, 2, 5 and Sport) and paragliding (XC, accuracy, acro) – and, much like AirTribune.com, can be used as an event management tool for individual competitions at all levels. The international pilot ranking system has also been migrated across from the old World Pilot Ranking page (civlrankings.fai.org, soon to be closed) to the new page at civlcomps.org. CIVL want pilots to go and claim…

There were 193 Category 2 competitions in 2021, with a total of 62 safety incidents reported across them all, according to data collected by CIVL last year. Of those 62 incidents, 29 had no injury to the pilot (10 HG / 19 PG). Of the rest, 23 incidents suffered minor injuries like bruises and ‘small fractures’ (12 HG / 12 PG); nine incidents had serious injuries (1 HG / 9 PG); and there was one fatality (PG). There were 10 mid-air collisions (5 HG / 5 PG). Eighteen pilots deployed their reserves (all PG). Of the 32 injuries, 13 required hospital treatment, and five underwent serious operations. All of the injured pilots recovered. According to the report, which was authored by Mitch Shipley and Elena Filonova and presented at the CIVL annual meeting…