Cross Country November 2022

Martin Gostner was reminiscing about learning to fly the flats ahead of a competition. “I remember we were all learning, working out how we should fly dust devils!” A pilot for 25 years he co-founded AirDesign a decade ago. We were sharing a coffee on his stand at the Coupe Icare and looking through the new edition of Dennis Pagen’s classic book, Understanding the Sky. “It was such important information,” he remembers. Martin’s memory made me go back to that section again – and so you’ll find an edited version of that classic dust devil lesson on page 42. The Coupe Icare was full of such moments this year. From listening to a pilot fresh from full-stalling his Zeno 2 over the lake, to talking to father and daughter paramotor champions, to…

Till Gottbrath has worked in the adventure travel world as an editor, writer, photographer and publicist for more than 30 years. A veteran of numerous adventure races and “various marathons” he has visited more than 100 countries, many with his wing. His latest trip was to Iran, p48 Liz Dengler didn’t mean to write such a long article on the benefits of all-women chat groups in paragliding, but once she started she found there was a lot to say. A geologist turned paraglider pilot and writer she is editor of USHPA’s Pilot magazine in the USA. See p90 ‘LEARN TO LOWER YOUR CENTRE OF GRAVITY. IF IT’S STRONG, LOWER YOUR HIPS CLOSER TO THE GROUND’Théo de Blic, p38 Antoine Girard is well known as a former Red Bull X-Alps pilot and an adventure…

Martin Gostner was reminiscing about learning to fly the flats ahead of a competition. “I remember we were all learning, working out how we should fly dust devils!” A pilot for 25 years he co-founded AirDesign a decade ago. We were sharing a coffee on his stand at the Coupe Icare and looking through the new edition of Dennis Pagen’s classic book, Understanding the Sky. “It was such important information,” he remembers. Martin’s memory made me go back to that section again – and so you’ll find an edited version of that classic dust devil lesson on page 42. The Coupe Icare was full of such moments this year. From listening to a pilot fresh from full-stalling his Zeno 2 over the lake, to talking to father and daughter paramotor…

Till Gottbrath has worked in the adventure travel world as an editor, writer, photographer and publicist for more than 30 years. A veteran of numerous adventure races and “various marathons” he has visited more than 100 countries, many with his wing. His latest trip was to Iran, p48 Liz Dengler didn’t mean to write such a long article on the benefits of all-women chat groups in paragliding, but once she started she found there was a lot to say. A geologist turned paraglider pilot and writer she is editor of USHPA’s Pilot magazine in the USA. See p90 ‘LEARN TO LOWER YOUR CENTRE OF GRAVITY. IF IT’S STRONG, LOWER YOUR HIPS CLOSER TO THE GROUND’Théo de Blic, p38 Antoine Girard is well known as a former Red Bull X-Alps pilot and an adventure…

Serial Class Austria’s Alois Resinger won the Serial class, which includes 22,587 pilots and wings up to and including EN D, with six big triangles (239km to 289.99km) flown from the Alpine meccas of Defereggen and Antholz. Wing: Ozone Zeno 2 (EN D). Total points: 2,530 Sport and Standard Italy’s Manuele Dondi topped both Sport (up to EN C, 20,365 pilots) and Standard (up to EN B, 15,352 pilots) class with triangles (219km-263km) from the Italian and Slovenian Alps. Wing: Advance Iota DLS (EN B). Points: 2,174 Women Germany’s Brigitte Kurbel flew six triangles (167km to 245km) from Speikboden and Antholz to win the Women’s category (1,764 pilots). Wing: Ozone Zeno 2. Total points: 1,863 Tandem It was straight downwind for Raul Evaristo who won the tandem category (1,161 pilots). He flew flights of 185km to 244km…

“It’s done!” wrote Timo Leonetti on his social media, “I am the winner of the World XContest 2022! With the biggest score ever achieved in this competition.” Timo, who is only 19, logged a total of 64 flights and 330 hours during the XContest 2022 season, which lasts from 1 October to 31 September each year. His average flight was 164km and his average duration was just over five hours. Average speed was 31.75km/h. Timo’s season started strong with “the most beautiful flight of my life” – a 535km Brazilian dream XC on 4 October 2021. He was towing from Assu in the northeast and went on to log another six 400km+ flights over the next three weeks. A trip to South Africa followed where he flew a few “amazing wild lines” of…