August 2023

International Free Flying Magazine

Start a
New Era
HIGH-B PARAGLIDER
 Reliable Paragliding Equipment
advance.swiss

EFFICIENT PERFORMANCE FROM 3.75 KG*

The IOTA DLS is a high performance XC specialist. With the lightweight
High-B glider you can enjoy maximum flight comfort over long distances.
Manufactured with our DURABLE LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURE technology,
it offers you both robustness and durability at the usual high level. DLS
Test it now at your ADVANCE dealer! Scan QR code for
more info about
*Size 21 with optional light risers DLS Technology

Photo: Adi Geisegger

PERFECT HIKE&FLY SET

Hike&Cruise (from 2.37 kg - 19, 22, 25 m²)

Techno 2023 (from 1.95 kg - S, M, L, XL)
DuraLight 2023 (from 0.45 kg - litres: 65, 75, 85)

www.dudek.eu
 fPAUSE GAME
Simon Oberrauner takes a moment

AUGUST 2023
at the Tre Cime during the X-Alps
Photo: Adi Geisegger

CONTENTS
dFLIGHT MODE
Flying Angel, Corsica
Photo: Jacques Paul-Stefani

20 62
On Launch With... Beautiful Baja
“I feel incredibly lucky to have reached such a state From grey whales to mobula rays Baja’s marine life
of freedom in my life.” Meet Manon Depremorel is famous worldwide. Joe Orsi went looking

28 76
Pro Tips Sky Exos 2
“Easy – focus on your thermalling.” We asked This three-line EN-C has been updated and given
some top pilots for advice on how to get better a lightweight makeover, says Marcus King

40 80
The Perfect Race UP Summit X
Chrigel did it again. Bastienne Wentzel was there X marks the spot? Erwin Voogt finds this
to greet him and others when they hit the mat redesigned 2.5 line high-B offers a relaxing ride

52 90
Vive la France My Flying Life
France swept the board at the Paragliding Worlds “I really want paragliding to keep its soul.” US
– we talk to the winners and find out how pilot Cedar Wright on what matters most

LAUNCH – Editorial 8 – Contributors 10 – Opening Shot 12 – IN THE CORE – This Month 16 – News 18 – In the Cockpit 22 – PPG Slalom 24 – FLYING IQ – Pro Tips 28
– Weather 32 – Satellite Eye 34 – Paramotoring 36 – Destination 38 – KITLIST – New Products 74-75 – REVIEWS – 76-89

7
BLAZING A TRAIL
cFIRST OFF
Pál Takáts was first to launch at the
Red Bull X-Alps start on the
Hahnenkamm, Austria
Photo: Marcus King
8
T
he X-Alps was gone, vanished from
Kitzbühel after a week of build-up and
finally a genuinely amazing start in the
centre of this beautiful Austrian ski town. My
colleague Marcus and I had hiked-and-flown the
Hahnenkamm, played retrieve driver for Gavin
McClurg, and talked to dozens of pilots and their
supporters. The energy from the new teams was
infectious and swept away any reserves in its path.
Now the village was quiet as we walked through
its streets to find a beer. At the bar I saw a man
wearing an X-Alps cap nursing a drink in a copper
cup, watching race launches on his phone. Was he
involved in the race, I asked?
Not really, but... he said. He was the head of
the local paragliding club in Kitzbühel, and he’d
been around all weekend, helping out here and
there. Over the next hour Didi Koidl shared
some of his stories from his three decades flying
in Kitzbühel.
Usually there were only 30 pilots at the weekend,
although 300 had launched this Sunday, he said.
The busiest weekend ever, I asked? Maybe not.
Some 25 years ago he’d been involved in helping
film the Red Bull Speed Run. About 50,000
spectators had watched the world’s best hang
glider pilots race down the Hahnenkamm, the
mountain the X-Alps pilots had raced up.
Pilots had to literally fly through gates on the
mountain, super low and fast, like flying a giant
slalom course. A certain Ulrich Grill, now organiser
of the Red Bull X-Alps, was in charge of filming for
TV. “It’s extremely hard to describe what went on
in Kitzbühel,” wrote hang gliding world champion
Manfred Ruhmer after winning it. “But it was just
amazing!” (Read that here: bit.ly/redbullspeedrun)
It was a reminder I guess that no matter our
achievements as a sport and as pilots, we do it
because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Many
others have come before us, and carved a path.
This issue is full of interviews with some of our
champions this season – they are the giants of our
time, and we salute them.
Enjoy the magazine!
Ed Ewing, editor
 The Gracchio Mk2 is our B class wing.
Our range covers weight range from 50 to 120kg,
split in 7 sizes ( 19-21-22-23-24-25-27), it features:
- Legendary pitch stability by LittleCloud - Light by essence
- Unbeatable handling and fun - Great performance
- Design and tested to fulfil - Fair price
our very exigent safety standards

Glider: Harness:
Gracchio Mk2-21 Grasshopper Mk2-S

More info on:

www littlecloud.fr
 LAUNCH
CONTRIBUTORS
In the core since 1988

Joe Orsi has been flying paramotors for three
years. He lives in his van and travels while working
remotely part time and licensing aerial photos and
videos to support his flying. You can follow his
adventures on YouTube or Instagram @SkyPacking.
His Baja article is amazing – see p62
Bastienne Wentzel and Erwin Voogt talked their
way into prime position at the finish of the X-Alps
in Zell am See in June – onboard the boat next to
the raft the pilots were landing on. They were there
to see Chrigel and all 23 pilots arrive – Bastienne’s
interviews with the race leaders are on p42
Editor: Ed Ewing
Associate editor, designer: Marcus King
News editor: Charlie King
Regular writers: Ben Abruzzo, Théo de Blic,
Bene Bös, Rich Dolan, Bruce Goldsmith, Jeff
Goin, Gavin McClurg, Honza Rejmanek, Matt
Warren, Bastienne Wentzel, Allen Weynberg
Advertising: Verity Sowden-Green
Subscriptions: Georgeana Scobie
Publisher: Hugh Miller
Cross Country International Ltd
Tollgate, Beddingham, Lewes
BN8 6JZ, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1273 256 090

Editorial: editor@xcmag.com
News: news@xcmag.com
Advertising: advertising@xcmag.com
Customer Service: office@xcmag.com

CONTRIBUTORS
Cross Country relies on pilot contributions from
around the world. We’d love to see your story ideas
and photography. See xcmag.com/contribute.

SUPPORTING US
Rich Dolan is an adventure-focused paramotor Adi Geisegger is a pro photographer who ran Cross Country is a reader-supported international
and paraglider pilot whose passion has taken him and flew with the X-Alps pilots this year, including publication and is available through subscription
around the world. A progressing acro pilot, he also completing the Tre Cime via ferrata six times. “I only or flying shops. We publish 10 issues a year, in
helps teach XC and SIV courses. A trained engineer can now be a mountain guide here!” he only half print and digital. Thanks for helping us make this
we’ve signed him up to write regularly on powered joked. His finished work graces the cover as well as happen. Visit xcmag.com for details.
paragliding – see p36. Welcome Rich! elsewhere in the magazine – p42
STAY IN TOUCH
On Review More than 11,000 pilots get our weekly newsletter.
Sign up at xcmag.com/newsletters-signup or join
us and 115,000 others on social media @xcmag
‘I WEIGH
55KG It stays solid
AND WITH
7KG OF even on full bar – THE LAW
Cross Country (ISSN No: 03.1080, USPS No: 024-612) is
EQUIPMENT
IT MEANT
as well as published 10 times a year by Cross Country International and
distributed in the USA by by SPP, 17B S Middlesex Ave, Monroe
NJ 08831. Periodicals postage paid at New Brunswick, NJ.

I HAD TO remaining well POSTMASTER: send address changes to Cross Country, 17B S
Middlesex Ave, Monroe NJ 08831. Global copyright laws apply.
The opinions in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions
CARRY
ABOUT pitch-controlled of Cross Country.

PRINT AND PAPER

15KG OF Cross Country is printed on paper sourced from sustainable forests
managed to strict environmental, social and economic standards
BALLAST’ (ISO14001). We use ISO compliant vegetable-based soya inks
which are better for the environment and make the paper easier to
Eli Egger, p50 recycle. Printed by www.cambrian-printers.co.uk.
Sky Exos 2, p76

10
 Photos: JP Stefani, Niko Assael

'URS\RXUFRPLFVDQGJRő\LQJ

www.ad-gliders.com
12
In the mix at the Alpencup 2023 in
Engelberg, Switzerland in June. Stephan
Morgenthaler won overall, Nanda
Walliser won the women’s class
Photo: Andy Busslinger

13
MATRIX
EN/LTF A
Your wingman for every adventure!

Embark on an unforgettable
adventure with the brand-new
Matrix from Triple Seven! This
state-of-the-art wing is the
epitome of safety and convenience,
perfect for anyone from students to
experienced travelling pilots.

Whether you’re a student pilot, a

weekend adventurer, or a seasoned
traveller, the Matrix has everything
you need to make your journey
unforgettable. Experience the best
of both worlds with the Matrix’s
expertly crafted combination of
lighter design and unbeatable
sturdiness. Effortlessly handle your
wing with ease, from the moment
you start your takeoff to your
gentle landing, all while enjoying
the peace of mind.

Equipped with advanced winglets,

the Matrix delivers stability and
control when needed while allowing
you to experience tighter thermal
cores over your home mountains.
Let the Matrix be your guide,
helping you navigate the skies with
ease and confidence.

EXTENDED WEIGHT RANGE

By obtaining certification for

extended weight ranges, the Matrix
allows you to customize its flight
characteristics to meet your needs
while complying with certified
wing standards. Flying within this
range will make the wing more
dynamic and may present a greater
challenge in staying airborne under
weak conditions. Nonetheless,
within the extended weight range,
you will have a swifter wing and
lighter load during your hike-and-
fly expeditions.

www.777gliders.com | info@777gliders.com | #TripleSevenGliders

 d420KM, P18

IN THE CORE
Niesen saw more than X-Alps
action – it was the launchpad
to some big XC flights in June
Photo: Sebastian Marko

People, news and insight from around the free-flying world

ON THE SCENE ON LAUNCH WITH IN THE COCKPIT SLALOM WORLDS

Midsummer brought a The Flying Frenchy who The brain behind Skysight Skimming low and banking
host of incredible long- balances free flight with gives us a look at what’s on up hard – the PPG Slalom
distance flights circus skills his flightdeck Worlds in Bornos
p16 p20 p22 p24

15
 IN THE CORE
WHAT’S ON
The Zillertal Battle
The Zillertal Battle is a chance to “beat the
legends” in Austria. Billed as “the most important
B-class competition in the German-speaking
area” pilots can only fly EN-B gliders. There
is a €1,000 first prize up for grabs and the
competition attracts some big names.
29-30 July, bit.ly/zillertal-battle
Disentis Open 2023
One of the most popular XC competitions in
the Swiss calendar in one of the most beautiful
regions of Switzerland. Non-Swiss pilots are
welcome – they even get a discount.
7-12 August, disentis-open.com
Paragliding Grand Prix
The third and final competition of the new Nova
Paragliding Grand Prix is in Krushevo, North
Macedonia. The competition is aimed at pilots
competing on sports-class gliders, including the
new breed of two-line EN-C wings.
3-8 August, paraglidinggp.org
PWC France
The World Cup family comes home – almost
literally – to Targasonne in the French Pyrenees.
The site is a mere glide away from Font Romeu, the
sports school that so many of the top French pilots
have been through. Expect the flying to be fast!
26 August to 2 September, pwca.org
16
CHASING PERFECT
MIDSUMMER DAYS
A
rne Kristian Boiesen flew what he
called a “once in a lifetime” flight in
Norway on 10 June. Starting from
Hvittingfoss, a low hill in the south of the
country, he flew north for 9h30 for a total
distance of 359.97km. He beat the former
Norwegian record by 90km. “Fantastic
evening conditions made it possible to fly
high and direct above the Dovre/Rondane
mountain plateau in the evening,” he wrote.
The sun never sets this far north in
midsummer and he was in the air until
9pm. “The last valley at the end of the flight
gave me the opportunity to ridge soar the
south west sides that faced the wind and the
evening sun,” he said. “Huge thanks to Frode
Halse who drove from Vågåmo and was at
the landing just before I touched down!”
The next day, a little further south, the
hunt for the first Polish 400km came to a
d300K DAY
Arne Kristian Boiesen in
flight and on the ground
on his big day.
close when Mateusz Siatka (Ozone Zeno 2)
set a new Polish paragliding record with a
405km flatland flight from east to west in the
north of the country. In the air for 8h43 his
average speed was a nippy 46.9km/h.
In the US Sebastian Benz was also
chasing long distance in Texas and managed
a 317km flight on 16 June. On a tow safari
with, among others, fellow big game hunters
Timo Leonetti and Rafael Saladini the crew
were scouting world record lines.
Back in the Alps, Switzerland’s Paul
Neuenschwander (Ozone Zeno 2) topped
the day table with a 342km flat triangle on 17
June. Launching from Niesen in Switzerland
he flew to Mont Blanc before coming back
and extending further east. He was in the air
for 11h28.
xcontest.org
 HANG GLIDING
WORLDS 2023
The FAI Hang Gliding World
Championships comes back to Krushevo,
North Macedonia in August. To make it
more efficient, three competitions will be
held in parallel: Class 1 Worlds; Class 1
Women’s Worlds; and the Class 5 Worlds
(rigid) will be held alongside each other.
The Class 1 pilots and Class 5 pilots fly
separate tasks although usually from the
same site. There are a confirmed 25 pilots
in the Class 5 category, with a maximum of
105 pilots (including seven women at the
time of writing) allowed in Class 1. Current
Class 1 world champion Alex Ploner,
pictured, will be defending his title.
civlcomps.org

LUCKY LUKE’S
ACRO WIN
Luke de Weert from the Netherlands won
the second stop of the Acro World Tour in
Allevard, France in June. It was the second
over the ground competition in the newly
The
Thehighest
highestexpression
expressionofofcomfort
comfortand
andlightness.
lightness.
re-formatted acro competition series. The
The
The
Gto
Gto
light
light
2 is
2 the
is the
best
best
you
you
can
can
find
find
forfor
Hike
Hike
and
andFlyFly
andand
Cross
Cross
Country.
Country.
win came down to the wire – Egor Adjustable
AdjustableABS,
ABS,thethe
detachable
detachablewindshield,
windshield, more
moreresistant
resistantelastic
elastic
materials
materials
and
and
the
the
possibility
possibility
toto
choose
choosebetween
between thethe
foam
foamprotection
protection and
and
thethe
inflatable
inflatable
Posokhin was leading until Luke’s “very protection.
protection.

clean” last run. It was Luke’s first Acro

World Tour win. There are two AWT
competitions in August: Acromax in Italy
(10-15, the Italian Acro Championships will
run at the same time) and the Sonchaux
Acroshow in Switzerland (18-20).
acroworldtour.com
Photo: @chimp_production

301 KM EN-B
TRIANGLE
Toni Brügger flew a 301km flat triangle on
17 June – on his EN-B glider. Showing, once
again, you don’t need to be on a high-end
glider to fly far he flew his Nova Mentor 7
Light for 11 hours from his home site in
Kandersteg in Switzerland to Chamonix/
Mont Blanc and back. Although no official
records are kept for different classes of wing,
the flight is understood to be the biggest flat
triangle ever flown on a B glider. It is only
the second ever EN-B 300km triangle in
Rucksack 40-55-70
This rucksack is designed for maximum compactness without
history – Berni Pessl flew the first back in losing precious room or comfort. It is available in 3 sizes: 40, 55
and 70.
2014. Photo: Paul Neuenschwander This new rucksack concept allows a broad volume adjustment.
xcontest.org
Made in Europe

@woodyvalleyofficial

@woodyvalleyofficial

@woodyvalley_official
 IN THE CORE

WHAT’S ON

Gin Wide Open 2023

The Gin Wide Open is back for its ninth edition.
Aimed at pilots new to competition and looking
to learn in a fun and friendly environment it has
a great reputation. This year it’s in Krushevo,
North Macedonia.
29 July to 5 August, flywideopen.com

HG UK
The British Hang Gliding Championships and
Open are in Ager, Spain this year. This is the
main hang gliding competition in the British
calendar and welcomes international pilots.
27 Aug to 3 Sep, airtribune.com

PPG USA
Hop from one fly-in to the next in the USA
cfDOWNWIND
in August. The seventh annual Moonshiners
Beni Kälin during his 11 hour flight. Right, Google
PPG Fly-In runs 1-6 August in Mountain City, Earth tracks of his entire flight and the end part,
Tennessee. The inaugural Aurora PPG Fly-In is landing in the Stubai Valley
in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, from 11-13 August. Photo: Bernhard Kälin / XContest
usppa.org/events,aurorappg.org

BENI’S 420 KM
ALPINE ADVENTURE

H&F Switzerland
Since being formally adopted as a discipline by
the SHV the Swiss hike-and-fly scene has been
organised under an umbrella website offering
info on all the Swiss H&F events. There are three
in August: the Fly-Swiss Alps, Hike&Fly SM
(“Challenging but doable”) and Trail Fly 2023
(use the cable car or “challenge yourself in the
Pro category”).
hike-n-fly.ch
S
aturday 17 June really was a special
day in Switzerland. As well as
the flights described on p16/17
Bernhard Kälin flew an eye-watering
straight-line 420km. What’s more, he did
it on his new two-line EN-C, an Ozone
Photon, proving the performance of this
class of glider.
Beni launched from Niesen, which for
Red Bull X-Alps watchers was a turnpoint
in this year’s race and is the home site of
Chrigel Maurer, and flew west for about
60km before turning at Villeneuve and
coming back. He then headed east, crossing
the rest of Switzerland and into Austria,
where he landed in the Stubai Valley, just
south of Innsbruck.
Posting after his flight Beni said: “My goal
was to fly 300km again. I was planning to do
a zig-zag, but once I was close to Lucerne it
looked like a lot of cirrus in the west.”
Checking the live weather data on his flight
instrument he could see, “The east looked
much better plus I had a little tailwind.”
He added: “It all worked well. Sometimes
I was a little slow finding lift and I think I
didn’t fly the best line often.” After 250km
he hit poor air, “windy and totally broken
thermals” which he said was “mentally
demotivating after such a fast first 250km.”

18
However, things got better once he’d crossed
the Rhine Valley. “It was still windy with
some broken thermals, but nice ones every
now and then took me to cloudbase. Base got
higher and higher the further east I flew.”
The last part of his flight took him
“Straight through the mountains, over the
glaciers”. The “worst case scenario” was
he would have to land “in the middle of
nowhere” he said. And besides, “the idea of
sleeping at home was long gone, so I just
kept going as long as possible.”
By the time he reached the Stubai
Valley, the home of the annual Stubai Cup
paragliding festival, the sun was very low and
the lift had died. He went for a long glide
north to a landing just before Innsbruck
airspace.
Of his stellar performance, he noted
afterwards: “There are lots better pilots than
me in the Alps. For sure they can fly 500km
in the Alps I think!”
Beni was in the air for 11h19. His total
route distance for the flight was 420.35km,
or 347km free distance because of the out-
and-return section at the start of the flight.
Max altitude was 3,768m, with max climbs
of 4.9m/s.
On Google Maps the distance from his
furthest west point near Villeneuve to his
furthest east near Innsbruck is 508km by
road and would take 5h30 driving.

xcontest.org
 IN THE CORE

cLIFE IN THE AIR

Manon Depremorel
photographed in the
south of France
Photo: Marcus King

20
ON LAUNCH WITH
MANON DEPREMOREL
My name is Manon, I’m a nurse,
paragliding instructor and tandem pilot.
I’m 40, and for the last 20 years I’ve been
travelling around France and the world,
following my flying and travel dreams.
Most of my travels have been with my
paraglider on my back. I love this – you
meet people in a different way, making
connections with those who share the same
passion, across borders.
When I was 19 I met two paragliding
instructors, Christophe Pichet and Mathieu
Rouanet, at the Faculty of Sports Sciences
in Bordeaux. They were running beginner
courses for students, so I seized the
opportunity. To this day I am grateful for
everything they taught me.
I have done many other sports including
climbing, wakeboarding, snowboarding
and kitesurfing, but I am dedicated to
paragliding, and it’s distance flying that
drives me most at the moment. I flew my
first 200km flight last year in France.
I knew I wanted to be a paragliding
instructor, to share this passion. As a woman
who’s driven by cross-country flying, I wanted
to run cross-country training courses for
women. This led to the birth of XX-Fly.
The idea was to guide a small number of
women pilots across the Alpine chain, with all
of us flying together. It was a personal project,
primarily to help women work on the mental
aspect of cross-country flying; to help them
get over the feeling that they are not going to
be as good, to realise that by working on their
self-confidence, they can fly further and feel
safe doing so.
Through flying I have met many other
people who share my passion for the
mountains, for flying, for adrenaline sports
and the buzz of the third dimension! In 2016
the Flying Frenchies invited me to join them.
They are a crazy bunch of French pilots
whose specialism is combining extreme
mountain sports with circus arts.
I started out flying tandem for them, as a
platform to drop them from to Base jump or
D-bag with speed wings. It was brilliant, but
quite soon I wanted to do the same, to jump
with them.
I started with skydiving, jumping from
planes first, and then from paragliders.
That led on to Base-jumping from bridges
and cliffs, and finally to the mythical Millau
viaduct, my holy grail for many years. All of
this was possible thanks to my mentors in the
Flying Frenchies, people whose extraordinary
brains and creativity have always amazed me:
Julien Millot, Anicet Leone, Étienne Cordeau
and of course Tancrède Melet, whose soul will
always be gliding over us all.
There is nothing quite like the surge of
adrenaline you get from doing these jumps,
and it is hard to put into words. The rush you
get when your feet leave the ground, your brain
lets go, and the laws of weightlessness are all
that is left. It is irresistible, there is no possible
reason for doing it except for the feelings and
the emotions you get from this very unnatural
act of throwing yourself into the void. We live
right in the moment, every second... The new, ultra-light
reversible harness
People often say that when we Base jump
we are playing with the limits of death. I
prefer to think we play with the limits of life,
extending the space allocated to us by the
laws of physics and enjoying every corner of
these limits.
I find the same sensations, the feeling of
freedom in space, with paragliding. It is
something I cherish and have always loved, and
I have gradually integrated it completely into
my life. I feel incredibly lucky to have reached
such a state of freedom in my life as an earth-
bound being; the ability to fly and to move in
3D space, where I am free to go where I want,
according to what the wind gods offer me.
I have been part of the BGD family since
2019. The opportunity came to me through
my association with the Flying Frenchies,
and now I represent the brand all over the
world where I am constantly wandering!
icaro-paragliders.com
 IN THE CORE GLIDE
IN THE COCKPIT
MATTHEW SCUTTER
The software engineer behind SkySight reveals how the other half fly
T
he instruments I use the most are
the ASI for airspeed management
and vario to seek out lift. You can
see the ASI top left, and the variometer
top right, with the screen for my LX9000
below – that’s my main flight and navigation
computer. Then there’s the engine controller
below – I have a tiny electric engine on the
nose for self-launching or self-retrieving.
The control stick is the grey handle on the
right. Of course, normally the stick is in the
middle, but positioned to the side allows
for an even narrower, more aerodynamic
cockpit.
With my LX9000 flight computer, I usually
have height AGL, final glide calculations (and
at what speed/MacCready that final glide is),
current glide angle and glide angle required,
distance to turnpoint, radio frequencies of
22
nearby airports, nearby landing options, and a
good map of terrain. A deviation indicator tells
me if the turnpoint is left or right of my track.
For thermalling, I have my LX set to
automatically zoom in so the circles fill
the screen, and then I have the snail trail
coloured according to how strong the lift was.
From this I slowly move my circles to enclose
the previous places the lift was strongest.
My LX9000 also integrates data from
Skysight. You can see how the wave lines on
the screen map to the wave bars outside. It’s
particularly helpful in blue wave conditions,
which previously were just not workable. I
also use the convergence charts heavily on
competition tasks. The real-time satellite
and radar imagery lets me know what’s
happening ahead and behind me as to
whether I can get home later. Flying in Africa
Photos: Matthew Scutter
we’ve often had huge storms form that could
have caused dangerous out-landings had we
not seen them on the satellite picture and
taken action earlier.
Flarm is essential in gliding. That’s the small
antenna on the top of the panel – it’s important
for flying in gaggles with other gliders, because
we can’t see all around us like you can in a
paraglider. It’s also very important for flying
along cloud streets, because gliders can be
coming in the opposite direction with a closing
speed in excess of 440km/h!
I use MacCready pretty heavily. I set the
MacCready to the climb strength I expect
to achieve and then it tells me what cruise
speed to fly. For the end of the race you need
to plan the final glide – you need to make
sure your last climb is a strong climb, because
the stronger the climb the more altitude you
can afford to take, and the higher you are
the faster you can cruise home. It’s the most
important climb of the day.

The yaw-string on the outside of the cockpit

tells me if I’m lined up nicely into the airflow
or not. Sailplanes are very sensitive to yaw - if
you’re flying slightly sideways the fuselage is
dragging through the air which is really
inefficient. It’s one of the reasons long tail
fairings are effective with paragliding
harnesses. We can correct any misalignment
with a smidge of rudder.

Matthew Scutter
finished 3rd in the 2021
World Gliding
Championships (15m)
and is the software
engineer for SkySight

WATCH MORE
Matthew Scutter’s masterclass in
predicting soaring conditions
bit.ly/scuttermasterclass

MAXIMUM
PERFORMANCE
WITH MAXIMUM COMFORT
 IN THE CORE
FRANCE WINS SLALOM WORLDS
cCLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT
World Champion Alex Mateos
Photo: Alex Mateos
The preparation zone
Nico Aubert, who came fifth
France tops the team podium
Carving round one of the pylons
Photos: Jose Raul Abad Reina
24
T
he fifth FAI Paramotor Slalom
World Championships was held
over the lake at Bornos, southern
Spain in the first week of June. Unfortunately,
bad weather disrupted the competition and
meant only five tasks could be flown.
Ten pilots competed in the Trikes category,
and 27 in the Footlaunch. Reigning world
champion Alex Mateos won all five tasks
in the footlaunch category and successfully
defended his title. Behind him were two
pilots from Qatar. Eissa Al Hajjaji and Naif Al
Baloshi took home silver and gold.
Hasan Al Kebabi, also from Qatar, won gold
in the Trikes category, with Boris Tyseabaert
(FR) and Ibrahim Hussain in second and
third. In the teams competition, it was gold,
silver, bronze for France, Qatar and Czech
Republic.
Qatar has been a rising force in paramotor
competition for a while – they won team
gold in the last PPG Slalom World
Championships, held in Czech Republic. The
sport has been adopted by the army in Qatar
and there is a Qatar Army paramotor team
and training programme.
 $1250$/
&5266&$123<
BACK IN THE DAY
25 YEARS AGO
XC58 (August 1998): Alfredo Milano had ground crew, “local

is now
been in Quixadá, a then little-known hang guide, food, water,
gliding site in the northeast of Brazil, and beer etc.”
was keen to introduce it to the paragliding Launching at
world. Some 3,000km from his home in São 11.30am in a
Paulo he had headed there in November 35-55km/h wind he
1996 on a 10-day trip. “One day I had 10m/s found 10m/s
lift followed by -8m/s sink, a full frontal climbs off launch. Three flights followed over
collapse and seven twists before dropping the week: 90km, 137km and 165km on the
500m in a spiral dive!” he reported. Very last day – the new Brazilian PG record. “This
high, he regained control and flew on. The place is excellent for flying but is really only
next year he was back, with Chico Santos, a for experienced pilots,” he concluded.

10 YEARS AGO
On 2 March 2013, Matt Stanford became the then it was
first pilot to cross New Zealand’s 30km Cook touch-and-go with
Strait by paraglider. He found a helicopter low clouds
pilot who would allow him to D-bag off the threatening to put
skid of his craft for the attempt. “A small paid to it. Suddenly
cravat on opening soon came out and a small the clouds cleared;
deflation as I went through the rotor wash a frantic phone call
were the only dramas in an otherwise was made and the attempt was on. Everything
successful jump”, Matt wrote of the test jump went perfectly. The helicopter buzzed around
they performed in preparation. Several weeks him so that Air Traffic Control knew where he
went by before the right weather window was, he had a good glide and landed right in
finally came for the real attempt, and even front of the waiting TV cameras.

-867%(77(5
• Steerable on demand - without
risk of downplane
• Low sink rate, even in the stall
directly after opening
• Waterproof lightweight fabric
made in Germany
• Ultralight (TC100 from 1,140 g)
• New, improved container
• Extremely fast opening

FLASHBACK
Tiki Mashy gave a “lively account” of setting two women’s hang gliding world records in XC58. Flying ZZZƓQVWHUZDOGHUFKDUO\GH
from Hobbs, New Mexico in June 1998 she set declared distance to goal (305km) and straight distance
Action video
More info

(352km). A lifetime pilot and instructor, she is now on USHPA’s Board of Directors.
FLYING IQ
dPRO TIPS
“Focus on thermalling,” says the new
Paragliding World Champion, p28
Photo: Marcus King

Helping you fly better with expert advice and know-how

WEATHER SATELLITE EYE VACATION TIME DESTINATION

Is it getting hot in here? El Niño is back – plus Rich Dolan explains how When it rains, it blooms.
And does that mean a other eye-catching events to pack your paramotor kit Jaff Hamann checks out
wetter or drier climate? from above like a pro the USA’s superblooms
p32 p34 p36 p38

27
 FLYING IQ

PRO TIPS: HOW TO GET GOOD

We asked some top pilots what advice they’d give pilots just starting out on their XC journey

cTOP OF THEIR GAME
Pilots during the X-Alps in June
Photo: Adi Geisegger
W
e were lucky enough to spend
time at the FAI Paragliding
World Championships and
the Red Bull X-Alps. Along the way we met
some of the world’s best pilots, their teams,
families, supporters and also fans.
The amazing thing about our sports are
that they remain entirely accessible. There
are no VIP lanes or green rooms to blag your
way into – if you want to talk to the new
Paragliding World Champion, well that’s
Maxime sitting over there sorting his wing
out. And yes, he has to carry his own bag to
the goal bus too, just like everyone else.
We took the opportunity to ask for their
advice for pilots new to the cross country
game. What would they say to pilots who
are learning to fly, who have 50 to 100 hours
logged? Here’s what they said.
Maxime Pinot
FAI Paragliding World
Champion
Easy. The most
important thing
is to learn how to
thermal properly. I
remember when I was 16
and training in paragliding we
did thermalling, thermalling, thermalling.
We had a drill. We would go to cloudbase,
leave the thermal, go down, thermal up
again, and we did that literally thousands of
times. And we did that before flying cross
country. New students were not allowed to
go cross country – they were only working
on thermalling. Because it’s really what gets
you in shape in the air and allows you to
always use the smallest lift and make it back

28

to cloudbase. I think it is the most important
thing to keep in mind. I see a lot of people
talking about speed bar and other kinds of
complicated stuff, but thermalling is really
the most important skill you can learn.
Chrigel Maurer
Red Bull X-Alps Champion
This is an important
question. I think
learning to fly at first
is very easy. It’s easy
to make your first
flight and have your
first experience. It’s a bit
like driving a car – you go to a school, get
a licence and then you are allowed to fly by
yourself. But a car you can stop at any time,
in flying you can’t.
To be comfortable in the air takes a lot
of hours. You need to make those hours
in a good way, soaring, thermalling,
groundhandling, doing safety training. In this
way you can improve your feeling and your cWORLD CLASS
reactions, which will help when you are in a Ridge-running at the FAI Paragliding World
Championships in France in May
stressful situation. Photo: Marcus King
I was lucky, because when I was young I
spent a lot of hours on the ground and, when
I got my licence, in the air. And this gave me
many, many options. But not everybody is
lucky enough to be able to spend lots of time
in the air – and then it’s a good time to think
about your goals.
Because comparing yourself against
others, especially with social media, can
be dangerous. Because you compare with
the best, and you want to be like them, but
you can’t spend the time to improve. So, it’s
important to keep your goals in line with the
time you can commit to flying.
Tommy Friedrich
Skywalk team pilot
and X-Alps pilot
Take it easy and don’t
overdo it. Always
be safe. What I have
learned over the last
few years in flying, and
especially when you are with
friends, is to watch out when things are
getting too much fun, because that is when
you are not focused. And the moments when
you are not focused are potentially the most
dangerous. So keep in mind that it is great to
have fun, but take care of playing around too
much, because in my experience that is when
it starts getting dangerous.
29
 FLYING IQ
cFIND THE JOY
“Learn to find the joy in taking off,” says Seb Ospina.
Launching from the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel at the
start of the X-Alps
Photo: Adi Geisegger
fTHE WAY AHEAD
“Keep your goals in line with the time you can commit
to flying,” says Chrigel Maurer
Photo: Adi Geisgger
30
Nicola Donini
Acro champion and
X-Alps pilot
I think at the beginning
you don’t have to make
big steps, because
although you can make
big steps and you feel
like you are improving faster,
it increases the chance of injuring yourself.
So take your time, follow more experienced
pilots, and ask them how to improve step
by step, slowly. And never underestimate
the power of the internet – if you watch us
doing crazy stuff in the X-Alps or elsewhere,
then you don’t have to follow that. We are
not heroes doing this, but we are all skilled
pilots.
When I was learning I was actually very
reserved. I never wanted to make big steps
or go over my limit. I was lucky I started very
young, and when you are young your progress
is faster, but I was always safe. I remember once
I was making very small wingovers and I was
scared that my father [former European and
World Champion Luca Donini] had seen me,
and would be annoyed, but actually he then
told me about wingovers and how I could do
them a bit more. Take your time.
Gavin
McClurg
Cloudbase Mayhem
The best thing to
remember for early
pilots, especially when
 recreational pilots launched and it was The
Gong Show. You don’t get to become a non
Gong Show pilot without hundreds of hours.
Eli Egger
X-Alps pilot and instructor
A good start is to fly a lot.
You have to go out of
your comfort zone to
learn, but not too much.
It doesn’t help to go
up on the mountain in a
50km/h wind, it will just scare
you. Take one step at a time. Talk to others a
lot, there is always something you can learn.
Go flying with pilots that are slightly better
than you because they will pull you. Don’t overdo
it and stay on the safe side. The main quality is
to be able to walk down if the conditions are
not good for you. That will be your
strongest point.
Seb Ospina
British team pilot and
XC guide
I believe two things
don’t get mentioned
they watch something like the X-Alps, is that
you’re talking about almost a different sport.
You’re flying a paraglider, yes, but these
people have flown thousands and thousands
of hours. I also have thousands of hours, and
I’ve done the X-Alps four times, but I still
think of myself almost as a beginner. I don’t
like to define where we are in terms of hours,
because the experience differs depending on
where you are and how you’re flying.
So the best way to progress is to remember
there are no shortcuts, and you can’t become
a 10-year pilot without flying for 10 years,
you just can’t do it. So take your time. You’re
a long time hurt, so take your time.
What they do at this level, the X-Alps,
well you saw it at the Prologue. They arrived
and took off and it was perfect, and then the
enough. One piece of advice that has
always helped me at various stages of
my flying career is to find joy in taking
off and landing. I think for many pilots,
especially XC pilots, the take-off and
landing seem to be the most stressful
moments of their day. I believe if more
pilots found joy, found a way to have
fun taking off and landing and doing it
repeatedly, not always aiming for those
long flights, but to find joy in the little
things, then that will help them become a
better pilot overall, and a bit safer.
Secondly, if we want to progress I believe
we also need to be somehow willing to make
a fool of ourselves every now and then.
For instance, maybe you see many pilots
that live in an Alpine area and they want
to always do a front launch because that
is all they know what to do, even in strong
wind conditions. It can get to a point where
they are afraid of looking foolish in trying a
reverse launch.
I applaud the people who are willing to try
and who are willing to look foolish in front of
others, because those are the ones who I think
end up being good.
31
 FLYING IQ
C
alifornia has received abundant
rainfall and 250% of normal snow
in the Sierra Nevada mountains this
winter. In the Alps it has been a weirdly wet
and humid spring.
Is it really getting wetter, or does it just
seem like it? If you live in California or
the Alps you might be tempted to believe
that it is getting wetter based on the
amounts of precipitation this winter and
spring. However, it is important to step
back, examine long-term trends, and look
towards the future to see where there is
climate model consensus and where there is
disagreement.
First it is worthwhile to take a moment to
review how temperature and humidity are
related and what this means for flying.
32
WEATHER
HONZA REJMANEK
IS IT GETTING
WETTER? WELL
THAT DEPENDS…
Rain, rain…
In this discussion water vapour refers
to water in the gas phase. It is clear and
transparent just like the air. With our eyes we
cannot see water vapour before it begins to
condense into liquid water onto microscopic
particles, or aerosols, that are suspended in
the air.
This only occurs when we reach dew
point temperature. If a cloud is allowed to
grow then, through the process of collision
and coalescence, the tiny water droplets
begin to grow into raindrops. The raindrops
will begin to fall as soon as their fall rate
overcomes the ascent rate of the cloud.
Widespread stratus or even thick fog can
result in a light but persistent drizzle while a
tall thunderstorm that has very strong ascent
cMOISTURE CONTENT
Summer Barham dodging the
clouds at the SRS Montclar
Photo: Marcus King
rates can grow large raindrops and result in
intense precipitation.
Temperature and
humidity
Globally averaged, precipitation over land
has been increasing at a rate of 1mm per
year over the past 100 years. This is to be
expected as the average temperature has
risen and continues to rise.
The maximum amount of water vapour in
a parcel of air before it begins to condense is
dependent on temperature. An increase of
1ºC leads to an approximately 7% increase
in the maximum amount of water vapour
that an air parcel can contain. This increase
behaves much like compound interest on an
investment. It is not linear, it is exponential!

Therefore, a 10°C increase in temperature
results in close to a 100% increase in
the maximum amount of water vapour
that a parcel of air can contain before
condensation occurs.
Another way of thinking about this is
that increasing the temperature by just 10°C
doubles the maximum amount of water
vapour that the air can contain. Taking this
reasoning further, we can imagine taking air
that is saturated, at dew point, and heating
it by 10°C without adding additional water
vapour. After this heating of 10°C the air will
be at 50% relative humidity. A heating by 20°C
would leave the air at 25% relative humidity.
For pilots the significance is that lower
relative humidities lead to higher cloud
bases. Plotted over a 24-hour cycle we
see how relative humidity decreases with
increasing temperature throughout the day
and vice versa. This assumes there is little
change in the absolute humidity, the actual
amount of water vapour, in that air mass. In
these cases we see cloudbase rise throughout
the day as it gets warmer.
Some flying sites, such as Bir in India,
often experience a lowering cloudbase in the
afternoon despite increased heating. This
is the case of a more humid air mass being
drawn in. That air mass contains more water
vapour. It had higher absolute humidity thus
higher dew point temperature so thermals
do not have to reach as high before cloud
forms. A similar phenomenon happens in
the southern part of the Alps as more humid
air gets drawn in from the Mediterranean.
Saturation
When water vapour begins to condense on
tiny aerosols and cloud or fog starts to form,
we know the parcel has reached saturation.
Another way of describing this is to say
that dew-point temperature and ambient
temperature are now the same.
Saturation can be reached by one of two
ways. The most common is to drop the
temperature until you reach dew-point
temperature. This would be the case where a
rising thermal cools as it rises and expands.
Once the rising thermal has cooled to its
dew-point temperature we are at cloudbase.
The other way to reach dew point is to
keep evaporating more water into the air
until the air contains more water vapour
than is possible for the given temperature.
An example is when cool air that is close to
saturation moves over a river or lake. The
additional boost of water vapour can lead to
condensation in the air just above the water
surface, often seen on calm mornings in fall
and winter.
Global consensus
Water vapour is the fuel that drives our
weather. In a warming climate air will,
on average, contain more water vapour.
Averaged globally, it will continue to rain
dWETTER OR DRIER
The areas with dots show where 90% of the different climate models agree on what future precipitation changes
will look like over 100 years. Some areas are significantly drier, others much wetter
Meteorologist Honza Rejmanek has been a
paraglider pilot since 1993. He has competed in five
Red Bull X-Alps, and came third in 2009. He lives in
California.
more. However, the greatest increase is
projected to manifest itself as intense rather
than widespread precipitation.
The increased warming will also dry out
soils faster and snow levels will be higher,
making less water available for irrigation in
many regions. Drier soils and less irrigated
land in certain regions leads to more
intense heating and less evaporation. For
us this means stronger thermals and higher
cloudbase. It is getting more common to get
cloudbase at or above Mt Blanc, 4,807m.
Though there is consensus that the average
global temperature will continue to rise,
there is still much disagreement amongst
climate models as to which regions will
become wetter or dryer. Both California and
the Alps are regions where there is still much
climate model discrepancy in future
precipitation trends. On the other hand,
Spain and Southern Chile fall into regions
where 90% of climate models indicate
decreased precipitation.
33
 FLYING IQ
SATELLITE EYE
Looking down on our ever-changing Earth

cSHASTA LAKE
Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir, filled to
nearly 100% capacity in May 2023, reaching levels not
seen for four years. Heavy rain and meltwater from an
above-average mountain snowpack caused the rise. In
the image, some parts of the lake surface appear lighter
due to an optical phenomenon known as sunglint.

fCAPE COD
Cape Cod peninsula extends about 100km from the
mainland of southern Massachusetts where it serves as
a natural land barrier between Cape Cod Bay and the
Atlantic Ocean. The peninsula’s distinct hook shape
started forming 10,000 years ago by glacial erosion and
movement of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Subsequent
natural processes, such as severe storms, waves, wind,
and sea level rise have contributed to the shape. The
sand dunes visible in this image started forming after
glacial retreat, when sediment left by the glaciers was
redeposited by coastal ocean currents.

34
 live your

Adventure

THE SIR EDMUND

cEL NIÑO
After three consecutive years of La Niña, 2023 has seen
the return of El Niño – a natural climate phenomenon
characterised by the presence of warmer than normal
sea surface temperatures (and higher sea levels) in the
central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño is
associated with the weakening of easterly trade winds
and the movement of warm water from the western
Pacific toward the western coast of the Americas.
The phenomenon can have widespread effects, often
bringing cooler, wetter conditions to the US Southwest
and drought to countries in the western Pacific, such as
Indonesia and Australia.
SHARK IS SKYMAN‘S
MOST POWERFUL
SINGLE SKIN
dPHYTOPLANKTON hybrid single skin with 20% double surface
As spring turned to summer, phytoplankton came to
life in the shallow waters of the North Sea. Sunlight and
warm ocean temperatures in June 2023 enabled the
microscopic plant-like organisms to rapidly multiply and
form a dazzling turquoise display visible to satellites.
Phytoplankton are to the ocean what plants are to
land: primary producers, an essential food source for
other life, and the main carbon recycler for the marine
environment.
All photos: Nasa

SIR EDMUND SHARK

most powerful single skin for
Hike & Fly
thermalling
short cross-country flights

www.skyman.aero

cfHAVE MOTOR, WILL TRAVEL
Rich Dolan and Johnson Qu in front of the Great
Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.
And right, a well packed motor
Photo: Matias Nombarasco /
Navid Saleki, FlyProducts
36
PARAMOTORING
RICH DOLAN
TOP TIPS FOR
MOTOR TRAVEL
D
ecember 2021. I’ve managed to
escape the UK winter, it’s my first
time in the searing temperatures of
Egypt and I’m about to fly in close proximity
to the Great Pyramids of Giza. Not long after
that and I’m 10,000ft up in crisp cool air,
making my way towards the snow-capped
spine of Italy, the Apennines. Another month
later and I’m flying along rivers above the
medieval sites of Dordogne, France.
As paramotor pilots we have unique
opportunities to see things from a different
perspective, one that is unattainable for the
standard tourist. Although these views are
available to all pilots, travelling with your
paramotor is an option many don’t consider
because of its perceived difficulty. You may
not be alone in thinking the largest hurdle is
commercial airlines.
Commercial airlines
I have successfully transported a paramotor
from the UK to Australia, France, Italy,
Spain, Kuwait, Egypt and managed to make it
into Turkey before customs got involved. The
key with travelling by commercial airline is
to check the company you’re going to travel
with: chances are there will be no restriction
on engines but you’ll sure find restrictions
on fuel.
Fuel is the biggest challenge we face and
if there is the slightest whiff of two-stroke
then it’s a no go. Don’t start fretting just yet,
there are steps we can take to prevent that
problem, you just need to take the time.
Taking the time
There’s actually not a lot of work involved,
you just need to vent the components. This
is the critical step in transporting our kit and
requires the most attention. To completely
remove the smell of fuel we can do the
following:
1. Remove fuel from tank
2. Run engine until fuel is drained (if using
a float carb then drain the carb and
continue)
3. Remove fuel lines
4. Remove fuel filter from tank (take a new
one if it’s been a while since replacement)
5. Remove fuel tank and wash
6. Remove spark plug (disaster can occur if
the spark gap is changed, take a spare and
store safely)
7. Remove carburettor or lock open the
throttle
8. Remove coolant/gearbox oil (if applicable)
9. Leave to vent outside or in a large area for
one or two days
 Rich Dolan is an engineer by training and flies para-
motors and paragliders. His biggest paramotoring
adventure so far has been flying 5,000km across
Australia. Find him at instagram.com/rich_dolan_

When I say wash the fuel tank, I mean
with soapy water. It doesn’t get rid of the
smell completely, but it does add that nice
fragrance and distracts from the fuel. It is,
however, incredibly important to flush the
tank with fresh fuel on the other side, at least
twice. Soap is detrimental to engine life and
must be removed completely to avoid any
potential issues.
If you can’t remove the carburettor or
don’t feel confident doing so, lock open the
throttle with the throttle strap or cable tie.
Fuel is highly volatile and because of that it
evaporates quickly; note this does mean that
you shouldn’t leave it to vent in a small area!
Remember that whatever tools you use to
take your motor apart will be required on the
other side for re-assembly. Using fancy tools
to save some time may hinder you when
you forget to take the 10mm spanner! I save
myself time in the long run and only use the
tools I’m going to be taking.
Whatever method you use to transport
your motor, you’ll need to consider the
packing.
requirements but you’ll likely have to pad
it out with bubble wrap and cardboard
for added security, everyone knows how
carefully baggage handlers can treat your
goods…
Consider customs
One last tip is to ensure you have the right to
take your equipment into the country. As I
found out in Turkey, some countries require
import documentation as proof you won’t try
and sell it while there. If they bring you up on
this and you have no paperwork, you will be
required to pay import tax or pay to leave the
kit in storage. The way around this is to have
a Carnet, an import document that proves
you’ll be leaving with the kit. This process
does cost but should remove any issues
getting into a country with your motor. The
best thing to do is get in touch with a local
pilot for information.
There’s no guarantee!
Unfortunately there are few guarantees
in life and successfully transporting your
paramotor isn’t one of them. I haven’t been
prevented from getting on a plane with my
motor yet, though it has happened to people
I know.
So why do I still carry on despite the
potential hassle? Venturing to new and
wondrous sites feeds my soul and adventurous
spirit, I get to see landscapes that I could
otherwise only dream of and meet new people
along the way. I strongly believe paramotor
travel is one of the best ways to see the world
and would deeply encourage you to take the
small risk yourself.

Packing it up
Protecting the paramotor is the obvious
goal here, but making sure no undesirable
smells reach the inspector’s nose is also
key. To double down on that you can use
fragranced dryer sheets to plug all of the
holes of the engine: spark plug hole, air
inlet and exhaust outlet. Tape over the fuel
cap vent (if applicable to your fuel cap) and
for any gearboxes tape over the pressure
release to make sure no oil residue escapes.
Wrap the fuel tank in plastic bags and use
a sealed bag/cling film to contain the fuel
lines.
Whatever case you use needs to provide
good protection and be within the limits
of luggage allowance. Many manufactures
now offer a travel bag that suits airline

37
 FLYING IQ

DESTINATION:
SUPER
BLOOM
E
very few years the rains and
temperatures create conditions just
right for a wildflower explosion
in Southern California – and 2023 was a
superbloom year. Flower fields in the Carrizo
Plain National Monument were so big they
were visible from space. There is no agreed-
upon definition of a superbloom, but I was
told I would know one if I saw one.
Thirty-one atmospheric rivers dumped
record amounts of rain across California
this past winter. Flooding was a problem up
north, but Southern California was largely
spared major damage. The rains led to
great wildflower blooms that started in the
Mohave desert in March and then moved
to the high desert near Lancaster and the
central valley around Bakersfield in April.
Some blooms only last a week or two.
Flying over the purple sand verbena in
Borrego Springs was my first success and it
encouraged me to make the longer drives
to the north. California Poppies bloomed
in Elsinore and Palmdale. Fiddleheads and
California goldfields painted the Carrizo
Plain shades of orange and yellow. Phacelia
fields looked like water near Grapevine.
The winter and early spring weather in
SoCal is often windy and I had to pick my
days carefully. My best trip allowed for
four great flights over three days between
Palmdale and Atascadero, our trip hitting the
peak bloom on a rare flyable day!
Drivers from Los Angeles flocked to see
the flowers in Palmdale on narrow trails from
crowded parking lots. City officials were
forced to close roads. The freedom we
enjoyed from the air was amazing by
comparison. I am not sure the stars will ever
align as well for me to experience a California
superbloom again, but I am one grateful pilot
to have experienced it in 2023.

Words and photo: Jeff Hamann

38
39
 THE

PERFECT RACE
Chrigel Maurer did it again. In a near perfect edition
of the Red Bull X-Alps he won for a record eighth
time, completing the 1,223km race around the Alps in
an incredible 6 days 6 hours and 1 minute. Bastienne
Wentzel was in Zell am See to see him and the rest of the
pilots arrive. Main photo: Adi Geisegger

40
41
 cEIGHTH WIN
Chrigel Maurer on the raft in Zell am See
after winning in six days and six hours
Photo: Erwin Voogt
eeTHEY’RE OFF
In the heart of the action at the start of
this year’s Red Bull X-Alps. For the first
time it started in Kitzbühel and pilots
had to hike 900m up the Hahnenkamm
before launching. They were met with
perfect conditions
Photo: Adi Geisegger
42
Chrigel, congratulations on your eighth win.
Before the race you said you didn’t “quite have the
feeling” this year. What did you mean?
Before the race many things are unclear. It’s always
the same. The last experience is so far away, this
feeling of insecurity starts and I have to get into
the next adventure to become comfortable and
to focus. Then when it feels good you can start
pushing.
You felt nervous, even after so many times?
Yes. I know it from different sports and situations,
I think it’s normal. I’m always nervous before
a lecture when 1,000 people are waiting, for
example. I think it’s a good thing for flying because
flying is generally quite dangerous. To have full
focus is really a safety point. Sometimes I fly an
easy wing and I feel comfortable and I can text and
do other things. And then I get a collapse because
I was not focused. Over the last days I flew 55
hours. It was intense but if you stay focused you
can manage well.
Before the start all the talk was about your team
change. One more time please: what happened?
The team has to work together. I don’t want to be
the boss and tell them what to do. I thought I had
a good team and everything was on the way, but
then we competed in the Fly Chablais Challenge.
It was a good race, we won, but at the same
time we saw that the team was not really happy.
Thomas has a lot of experience but he doesn’t
like electronics. Linda was new but with a lot of
electronics experience. We thought it would be a
good mix, but it didn’t work. So I asked them what
to do. They said we are able to do it but I said no,
you are not having fun. That’s why I was looking
for a new team.
It was quite difficult to find people with
flexibility and time and motivation [at short
notice]. I was really lucky to find them, and finally
we met for the first time on Saturday in Kitzbühel,
the day before the race. But these guys are already
in competitions, they know how it works. So it
was really freestyle but they were the right people.
They mixed tasks, they were always talking
together, they had a good time. With this spirit it
worked really well.
From a spectator’s point of view this year’s race
looked even more emotional than other editions.
Every edition is different, but there was a turnpoint
at my home in Frutigen and I really wanted to be
there. And with the new team, for sure there was
a lot of uncertainty. After a few days it started
working well. We started to make jokes, it was like
we became more free. It was a relief. With Sebastian
I flew into Switzerland at 6am. We had really
intense moments and we shared this together. And
finally this gives more emotions for sure.
Did you expect to arrive in Frutigen first?
You can expect something but it is really hard to
make it come true. The others were also pushing.
Especially when I was low in Thusis at the
beginning of day three. I saw the others pass me
by. The disadvantage I got was huge and I thought
my race could be over. Then in the afternoon I was
able to push and they had some rain and lee and
difficulties with the wind. And I could watch the
pilots in front – if they make a mistake it’s easier
to find a good way. So I was overtaking one after
the other until I was with the lead group in Fiesch,
getting back the good feeling. It’s why I pulled
the night pass, to be in Frutigen first. This was
certainly a highlight of the race, but it’s also a lot
of luck.
What are your other highlights?
The flights in the morning from Klosterpass with
Sebastian and from Lötschenpass to Frutigen with
Lars were highlights for sure. But also to sleep at
Tre Cime and do the via ferrata and fly down to
Sexten was really nice.
Another highlight was the Veltlin valley. We
pushed more than 2,000m up with Sebastian and
Lisa and others. And then the whole valley was in
shade and we thought, “Mmm, what to do?” But
sometimes things work out. The sun came out only
on the mountain where we were. After a while I
took off and immediately I got a 3m/s climb and
everything was good. So that is really a magic
moment. The others overtook me the evening
before but I was able to catch up.
Your style is normally to fly out front. This edition
it was different.
If I’m in front I can take my own decisions and be
free. In the past I was mostly very good or better
than the others but now the others are also very
good. Now you can see that if they are working
well they can be faster than me. So it’s not easy to dMOUNTAIN MAN
stay in front. Chrigel was greeted by his mother at the
Frutigen turnpoint – he lives nearby. And
in front of the photogenic Tre Cime di
What was your magic move this year?
Lavaredo in Italy – arriving at first light
There was not really a magic move. The night put him in the perfect position to hike-
pass I took brought me a small advantage but it and-fly for the rest of the day and reach
didn’t work on another day because of the wrong goal that afternoon
Photos: Adi Geisegger
43
 cHOME CROWD
Chrigel launching from Niesen, his home
site, during the race
Photo: Adi Geisegger
fACTION
The race start in the centre of Kitzbühel
Race reporter Tarquin Cooper getting
the shot
Every thermal brings more dramatic
scenery
Photos: Marcus King / Adi Geisegger
44
line and I was not flying really efficiently. I had an
advantage in the evening but the next day they
overtook me so it was also not that magic. Then
finally in the Dolomites I pushed against the wind.
During the day I was more efficient so I could stay,
slowly slowly, in front but that was because of the
difficult flying conditions. It’s my strength. Maybe
therefore I got some advantage. But I was really
lucky then to stay at the Tre Cime to be able to
make the via ferrata in the morning and then the
best timing I could have came true.
What do you mean when you say you are more
efficient?
It’s really interesting this year, the climbing was
really bad on my side. Maxime Pinot and Pál Takáts
for example climbed much better when it was weak
when it was time to find good cores. Also Patrick
von Känel and Aaron Durogati they fly way better.
My efficiency is to push, especially when it is strong
and it is clear where to go, I can push and find the
good lines. Pushing is flying at speed against the
wind and still keeping the glider open.
Does that mean you take more risks doing that?
No. It’s just like a car driver in Formula 1. They
can go faster in a turn without slipping. It’s not
more risk, it’s a better feeling for how fast you
can go in which part without collapses. I don’t
know why I don’t climb well, it’s still one of my
weaknesses.
Is that new?
No, not really. I don’t know why but with a
hike-and-fly glider I don’t climb well but with
a competition glider I climb well. The opposite
is pushing. I can push with this glider well. It’s
my strength. Normally, when it’s not windy then
pushing is not needed. But as soon as it’s really
windy and you have to push then it makes a
difference. That’s my strength. It’s funny.
That made you finish 12 hours earlier than the rest.
I think the advantage in the wind gave me 30km
and the good position gave me another 80km
because I could be at the right time in the right
place for the via ferrata.
You were really happy to arrive on the float, even
though it was your eighth win.
It’s always nice to end a project this way. Actually
this time, I get older, I have a new team and for
sure I want to win again. But on the other side I
thought maybe seven times is enough.
And it’s normal that maybe Maxime will win,
because he is stronger on the ground and he
became World Champion the week before so
he is really strong in the air. But in the end I felt
that he also needs a bit of luck and he also has
six, seven days of pushing. During the race I saw
he is not as super-strong as on paper, and I felt I
could stay in front as well. For several days it was
so close, and then I got a small advantage and I
could bring the advantage to the goal. It made me
very happy.
On the last day I climbed with Sebastian and
the photographer to the main ridge. I was stuck in
snow and shade and north wind and we hiked up
for 1,500m. Then we reached the top and I saw the
clouds in the last valley and the wind was not too
strong. I was really really happy because at that
moment I realised I could win.
At the final turnpoint Schmittenhöhe the rest of the
team was waiting and some friends from home. I
really was happy in this moment. Flying down to the
raft is not difficult anymore. I just enjoy it and being
on the raft is also a kind of ... it’s already over.
Will you compete in the next edition again?
Well it’s another two years again. I have to stay
healthy. I have to find the motivation somehow. I
really enjoy this style of hike-and-fly. But on the
other side, two days after arriving here, I say this
was an edition that can’t be bettered. The 2021
edition was also good and the 2013 edition to
Monaco was also really good. But I always thought,
in the best case it can be better. But this time, it
was the best of the best, it can’t be better.
On the other hand, to have an experience like
this it’s such an honour. Because we were in places,
flying, sleeping, you don’t go there in any other
way. You can’t experience this in any other way. We
had the possibility to do this and it’s unbelievable.
It’s so nice for the team. I came here after seven
days without any problem, just tiredness. Why
stop? There is no reason to stop.
MEET THE MAKER:
VALERY CHAPUIS
FROM ADVANCE
Valéry, what can you tell us about
the glider Chrigel flew?
The new glider is the Omega ULS,
certified in March. We developed
it together with our eight X-Alps
pilots. We think it’s important the
pilots feel comfortable to perform
well and that is the feedback we got
from the pilots.
What’s the difference between
the Omega ULS and the OXA4?
The Omega ULS is about 250g
lighter and even more compact
to pack. We improved the internal
structure and used optimised nitinol
wires for this. It has higher top speed
and better glide. And we have
placed great emphasis on the fact
that the Omega ULS must be easier
and smoother to handle. The aspect
ratio is a little bit smaller. There is
also one size more for the serial
glider, so the ULS is available in sizes
21, 22, 23 and 24. The gliders that
our athletes used at the X-Alps are
identical to the serial gliders in terms
of construction and trim but used
lighter materials – Dominico instead
of Porcher – at the cost of some
longevity. Plus an ultra-light riser
with more difficult handling is fitted.
What about the harness?
The harnesses are based on the
Weightless that we brought out
last year, but it weighs only 990g
instead of 2kg. The fabric is
thinner, there are no buckles and
it has Koroyd protection. Also,
the reserve is lighter. They are all
certified. The harnesses are made
especially for the X-Alps pilots.
This harness is not on the market.
All the work we do for the X-Alps
influences our other gliders. We
have the new BiBeta 7 tandem
coming in October, a new ultralight
mid-B between Epsilon and Iota for
the new year, and a new Sigma 12 is
on the horizon.
45
Damien Damien, congratulations! Your finish was pretty
special...
was in the air. I landed at 8:57 pm. It made the
difference for the podium.

Lacaze, Yeah, it wasn’t the finish I dreamed of. I had no

6d 18h
Damien finished second –
beating Maxime Pinot by
hiking down from the final
turnpoint and swimming to
the raft at first light. During
the race he flew the longest
single flight in X-Alps
history – 266.57km
cDAMIEN’S RACE
Damien flying his Ozone Zeolite XD and
tailor-made harness
Photo: Adi Geisegger
With Pál Takáts and Patrick von Känel
after the via ferrata; and swimming out to
the raft before 6am
Photos: Adi Geisegger / Christian Lorenz
choice if I wanted to be sure to finish before Maxime.
I could wait on take-off until 6am when we were
allowed to fly, but I knew Maxime would arrive
before six (and he did) and not wait for me. At 3am
the wind was really strong and from the wrong side
and I thought if it was the same at 6am we would not
be able to take off. Maxime would be faster walking
down, so I didn’t want to take the risk.
How was your last day?
I flew about 100km in three flights, even with the
north wind. And I walked a lot. At the end of the
day I managed to catch one thermal more and
I ran fast to reach the last pass on the border to
be able to glide before the deadline at 9pm. I was
sure it was not possible because it was 7km and
900m altitude in one hour. I was exhausted, but
my supporter pushed me hard and at 8:48 pm I
You set the record of the longest flight in X-Alps
history. How was that?
Until Dufourspitze I had beautiful conditions with
high cloudbase at 3,700m and good thermals.
After Domodossola we got strong north wind.
The rest of the flight was very turbulent and
difficult. I followed Maxime and Chrigel and in
the end I could soar a north ridge on the border
between Switzerland and Italy. Chrigel missed it, I
don’t know why.
After that I could soar all the north faces in
Sondrio valley with Maxime and we landed almost
together. I took off maybe 20km before him so my
flight was longer. It was a very good day.
What were your worst moments?
The day before the last when we shared some
thermals with Chrigel. He is stronger than me in

46
the strong wind so he managed to get away and I
got stuck in the valley.
When I released the bar I went backwards.
I tried for an hour and a half and landed in the
valley. I was afraid, exhausted and not clear in my
mind. I was only trying to stay alive and I worried
about the landing, but in the end that was fine.
In hindsight it was possible to escape. My friend
Luc Armant was advising me in the air how to
escape but I didn’t really read the text.

How did you prepare for the race? Were you

training to win?
I’m not a professional pilot. I’m an electrical
engineer for EDF. And I have a family and two
young daughters, so it is hard to find time to
train. So for me the goal was not the podium,
I just wanted to finish and have a good time.
But paragliding has a high level of randomness.
It’s not luck but opportunities. You just have to
catch it.

47
 Congratulations! How do you feel about the race? flight. Also in this flight I took a dream line near
Maxime I’m really happy that I’m on the podium. I the Matterhorn and the Dufourspitze.

Pinot, know now after years of paragliding that always

6d 18h
Maxime finished third, just
two weeks after winning
the Paragliding World
Championships. He has
previously finished second
(2019) and fourth (2021) in
the X-Alps
cfMAXIME’S RACE
Towards the end, near Tre Cime di
Lavaredo in Italy
Photo: Adi Geisegger
On launch, in the air and on the road
Photos: Adi Geisegger / Marcus King
achieving the podium is difficult, because there are
so many factors. It is a very good result.
What stands out about this year’s race for you?
Tough is the word. We could fly a lot but we
also had very rough conditions, especially at the
end with the north föhn. We had really stressful
moments in the air and sometimes I felt fear. That
much fear, especially in one flight, it was for sure
too much. I landed because I reached my limit. I
was flying backwards at second bar. Maybe it was
still reasonable for Chrigel but for me it was not.
And I can accept this now.
What was your best moment?
The long flight to Sondrio of almost 260km. When
I landed we were super happy with all the team.
Damien started before me so had an even bigger
Did you do anything different in your preparation
this year?
To be ready for both meant flying a lot. The Worlds
pushes you to take some decisions in a really short
amount of time. It’s very good preparation for the
X-Alps as it’s the same game. As for the mental
preparation, I still have negative emotions. The idea
now is to accept how I feel and still go forward. I think
before I have been tied into these negative emotions. I
was happy with the way this worked in this race.
What’s the difference between the World
Championships and the X-Alps?
The Worlds is a lot about tactics in the group and
how you manage to stay in control. In the X-Alps
it’s a mix. There is more group flying now because
the level is increasing. The distance between the
first turnpoints was about 70km. You can manage

48
it like a task. But at some point the group splits
and then you need to take your own decisions. It’s
two sides of paragliding and I really like them both.
Racing with 120 people is really exciting. And the
X-Alps for seven days, it’s a different level.

Is risk management in XC competitions different?

I think the only big risk in XC comps is collisions. I
never had trouble with this because I have a way of
thermalling that is quite different. I don’t like to be in
the centre of the gaggle, I go around and I always find
a way to be a bit higher. In competition we don’t fly in
the kind of conditions we see in the X-Alps, the task
would be cancelled, we wouldn’t even take off.

What’s next?
I need a few weeks without flying. It was nearly
100 hours of flying in two and a half weeks. Two
days ago I said I will never do this race again. It’s
too crazy. But I know I will miss it if I don’t go. At
the moment I don’t really know.

49
Eli Egger, Congratulations Eli! Can you describe your race?
Crazy! The race was so much, ups and downs,
10d 5h cheering and failing. I need a few weeks to process
Eli finished 21st and is the all this. I think it was all smiles on camera because
first woman to have made we had so much fun with the team. But sometimes
goal in the Red Bull X-Alps I cried in the air because I was so scared.
For those who don’t know you yet, can you
introduce yourself?
I’m from Dachstein, Austria. I’m 28 years old
and started paragliding at 14 at the Flugschule
Aufwind. I’m the partial owner and paragliding
instructor there now. I just finished my Master’s
in geodesy (measuring and mapping the Earth)
before I was selected for the X-Alps.
How did you prepare for the race?
dGOAL
I didn’t have a lot of experience in hike-and-fly
Eli Egger and her team on the raft at the
finish in Zell am See before I applied, but I knew Ferdi Vogel (the
Photo: Erwin Voogt race director) and he knew that I’m good at XC
competitions. I walk a lot with my dog Kappa on
fON TRACK
the flats but I was a bit worried how hiking in
Eli in the air and on the via ferrata in Italy
Photos: Marcus King / the mountains would go. In the end, I was most
Lukas Pilz / Red Bull Content Pool worried about the ballast I have to carry.
Tell us about your gear and the ballast?
I fly the Ozone Zeolite with a weight range from
65-85kg. It’s best to fly it at around 75kg, otherwise
it flies like a balloon. I weigh 55kg and with 7kg
equipment it means I have to carry about 15kg of
ballast. I had a 7kg weight vest and a Woody Valley
waterbag that I can clip in near the karabiners so
it sits on my lap. It means I have to take different
decisions. It’s harder to launch and land and my
supporters need to carry the ballast to take-off.
That means we have to find good take-offs close
to a road. I can’t top-land and carry my gear 200m
higher. And finally, it made me worry more about
launching and landing. This gives additional risks
and slowed me down.
What was the best moment?
Arriving at the goal of course, with so many
people there. My goal was always to reach Mont
Blanc and now I’m here! But also at Sondrio, we
slept next to a tennis place with shower after a
cool flight and we had so much fun, joking all the
time and playing card games until after midnight.
Having fun with the team is so important.
And the worst moment?
Overall I was lucky that I was behind after my
stupid mistake in the beginning. I left the gaggle,
while I know the gaggle is always right. I was
fighting to not be eliminated and that was mentally
stressful. But later, staying a bit behind meant that
I didn’t get the crazy weather that the others got in
the front. There were leesides and strong wind, but
usually a tailwind so that was ok.

What’s your take on the special attention for

female athletes?
At the moment I don’t think there are enough
women competing for a female ranking to make
sense. I see more girls in the flying school but
when kids are involved they stop. But it’s also a
society issue: girls are said to be crazy when they
fly, boys are cool.
I think that girls that keep flying have a strong
personality and are not influenced by this. Klaudia
Bulgakow said a great thing: “Girls don’t fly worse
but different.” Girls are aware of many things, boys
are more focused. On days where you need this
women do best, on a day where pushing is needed
men do best.

51
 VIVE LA
FRANCE
France swept the board at the FAI Paragliding World Championships in May, and
Maxime Pinot took home the coveted world championship title and gold medal. Two
weeks later he made the podium in the Red Bull X-Alps for the second time.
Ed Ewing talks to Le Petit Prince of the Alpine skies
W
hen Maxime Pinot finished fourth
in the Red Bull X-Alps in 2021 he
felt it was “an enormous sporting
disappointment”. Later, writing about the race in
a French-language sports zine, Club/Sandwich,
he said when he reached the finish in Zell am
See he could hardly speak. “I have a lump in my
throat. I am disappointed. I feel the same on the
arrival raft.”
It was only afterwards, talking to fellow X-Alps
pilots Chrigel Maurer, Simon Oberrauner and
Thomas Theurillat that they, “succeeded in making
me understand that, in spite of the enormous
sporting disappointment, success can be found
in this extraordinary adventure that pushes you
beyond your limits.”
The lowest point of Maxime’s paragliding career
had come only two days before, when he and the
other chasing pilots watched Chrigel Maurer push
ahead to build a 200km lead while they were stuck
in a hot and inverted valley unable to climb out.
The whole day had been like a waking nightmare
for Maxime, so that night he used his night pass
and hiked alone through the dark. “In the heart of
the night, only the slow recounting of a podcast
about the confrontation of the French and British
naval forces in the Bay of Aboukir at the twilight
of the 18th century manages to trick my body
and mind into thinking they are fine,” he wrote.
Not his favourite tracks, not repetitive beats, not
motivational messages, but 18th-century French
naval history.
52
Learning to fly
Born in 1991 in the Franche-Comté region of
France, on the border with Switzerland, Maxime was
introduced to paragliding aged nine by his father who
took him for a tandem. “It was love at first sight,” says
Maxime. He started flying solo when he was 12 and
from there he progressed quickly into the French
Juniors – Pôle Espoirs – system, which actively trains
teenage paraglider pilots.
“We are lucky that the French Federation likes
to push competitions. There is a structure where
you can do both your studies and sport.” Aged
16 he went to Font-Romeu, the specialist sports
school in the French Pyrenees where paragliding is
literally part of the curriculum.
“It’s quite unique,” he explains. “We did our
studies and then on Wednesday, Saturday and
Sunday we flew all day long, if it was flyable. There
are some really good trainers there, and I think we
owe them the results we have now.”
Those results include France sweeping the board
at the recent FAI Paragliding World Championships
in France. Held in May in Chamoux-sur-Gelon in
the northern French Alps Maxime won overall gold,
his teammate Méryl Delferrière won the women’s
gold, and Team France won gold in the nations
competition. Five out of the six individual medal
winners were French.
To take the win Maxime had to go head-to-head
with another teammate, Honorin Hamard. It was
no secret that Honorin wanted to “do the double”
and win the Worlds for a second time – he won
53
 cRACING AT THE WORLDS
In the thick of a gaggle at the FAI
Paragliding World Championships in
Chamoux-sur-Gelon. Maxime’s preferred
spot is to be at the top leading edge of
the gaggle, not bunched in the middle
Photo: Nico Assael
eeFUTURE FACING
Maxime Pinot in Zell am See, Austria on
the morning of Sunday 18 June, just after
completing his third X-Alps
Photo: Erwin Voogt
54
in Roldanillo, Colombia, in 2015 – and he was on
a roll after winning the Paragliding World Cup
Super Final in Valle de Bravo, Mexico in December
last year. However, Honorin’s dream was not to
come true, and instead Maxime finished the nine-
task competition a clear 60 points ahead. That’s
not a huge lead, but it’s also not the razor-thin
margin regularly seen in competitions today.
Winning against Honorin, helping Team France
win gold on home turf, collecting all the medals,
was, he says, “kind of crazy.” But it was the kind of
crazy that has planning and discipline and many
years of hard work behind it.
The Super Final
After finishing at Font-Romeu in the Pyrenees
Maxime went to university where he studied
modern literature for “four or five years …
basically everything after the 17th century.” At the
same time he became a paragliding instructor, and
continued flying competitions. He earned his place
in Pôle France, the top 30 pilots in the country,
and in 2014 won the Paragliding World Cup
Super Final in Denizli, Turkey – the youngest ever
winner at the time.
“That was a bit unexpected for me,” he says
looking back. Just 22 he had a good competition,
but just before it he’d flown in the European
Paragliding Championships in Kopaonik, Serbia
where he finished “about 100th” (it was exactly
100th). He adds, “Sometimes my progression
is like … well, I have had big highlights and
sometimes really difficult moments, but I think
you learn a lot from the difficult moments.”
Winning the Super Final proved to be a
crossroads for Maxime. Having directed everything

into XC competition he had believed that winning
would deliver “some form of bliss”. Instead, he had a
week of bliss before suddenly being confronted with
the “what now?” question. Reflecting, he realised he
“wanted to try something else”.
That something else was hike-and-fly adventure
racing. Attracted by the combination of endurance
and flying he started on the long road of endurance
training, “pushed” and four years later came
second in the X-Pyr, the race across the Pyrenees,
finishing 11 hours behind Chrigel Maurer.
The next year, 2019, he was accepted into
the Red Bull X-Alps, where he finished second,
again behind Chrigel. In 2021 he was fourth, and
this year he was third. In all three races he has
consistently put Chrigel under pressure and is in
fact one of the few pilots who eight-time winner
Chrigel thinks could actually beat him.
Two years ago Maxime turned properly cWORLDS 2023
A lone pilot at Montlambert. The Worlds
professional, and is now supported by Neo
this year took place in a region with
and Salomon. Both companies are based near access to several sites – which take-off
Annecy where he lives. It means he has been was used each day came down to the
able to focus solely on his sport – no teaching or best conditions
tandem flying – and as a result now flies “300- Former World Champion Russell Ogden
400 hours a year”. and Seb Ospina from Team GB discuss a
task. The UK came second
The head game Violeta Jimenez (USA) takes off
Turning professional has also allowed him to
work on the mental preparation side of the sport, Photos: Marcus King
something which “has helped me to get to another
level for sure”. Learning to manage his emotions
and his mental ups and downs in both classic XC
competition and adventure racing has been key.
“Mental training really depends on the person,
there is no recipe,” he explains. “For me, I need to
talk. I’m not someone who was really comfortable
with my feelings. But I now know sometimes
I have strong feelings and I need to talk just to
evacuate the wrong feeling, to get more objective
again. And that was a big work.”
He adds, “I have done some auto-hypnosis,
but basically I need to talk to accept the feelings.
Sometimes in competition you go through all
the feelings, and you have to understand how to
manage this, and that’s the biggest point.”
55
56
He has also trained in visualisation. “The more you
train visualisation, it becomes kind of automatic.
You are able to switch. You just need to make
the effort at first and learn with people who are
professional. But as I said, some people need
mental training, some don’t. So, it’s really personal
for me.”
What sort of frame of mind was he in when he
decided to compete in the Worlds and the X-Alps
in the same month? He laughs. “Yeah, it was a very
difficult decision! But in the end I thought, if I
don’t go to the World Championships then for sure
I will miss it. So, the best thing was to do both. I
knew I would sacrifice maybe a little part of the
last preparation for the X-Alps, but in the end we
flew nine tasks, so we had plenty of hours flying
with the world’s best. It’s very good training.”
The danger was of course, “If you finish at the
bottom of the ranking at the end of the Worlds, it’s
more difficult to arrive at the X-Alps with a good
mindset. So it was a risk, but in the end it paid off.”
Team France
Decisions like that are not made alone in the
French team. France’s team coach Julien Garcia
operates the team professionally, helping develop
team strategy and bringing objective thinking to
each pilot. “It’s a little like cycling,” Maxime says.
“At the beginning of the competition we don’t
say, ‘OK, you have to do this or that,’ but as it
progresses we can see that some pilots are quite
far from their goal. So this is where we ask them to
help the team before themselves.”
This year at the Worlds Baptiste Lambert
slipped down the rankings, “So Julien gave him
other tasks, like helping Constance [Mettetal] or
Méryl, or putting him in front so we could see
what was going on. I think that is quite a unique
strategy, for sure.”
However, strategy doesn’t win medals, pilots do.
And while winning overall and team gold was a
“big, big goal” winning gold, silver and bronze “was
kind of crazy.” He explains, “I think it’s the result
of all the work and the strategy, but also at some
point it’s also down to individual decision-making.
Because you know, during task eight we nearly lost
everything.”
In paragliding competition pilots must race
for time points until what is called the end-of-
speed section, usually about 1km from the final
goal line. They must then reach goal to score
maximum points. The end-of-speed section was
introduced as a safety measure to stop pilots
racing on full bar low into goal, which has its
MAXIME’S GEAR
The total weight of Maxime’s
rucksack in the Red Bull X-Alps was
about 7kg, including glider, harness,
reserve, helmet and instruments. In
the World Championships, it was
a massive 45kg – because of the
heavier equipment and the ballast
he flies with.
“In the X-Alps, I flew my new
Neo and an Ozone Zeolite XD. I’m
really happy with the comfort of the
harness, and Ozone did a great job
with the glider. One of its strong
points is that even though it’s a
small size it performs really well.
“In the World Championships I
flew a medium size Ozone Enzo
3 and Ozone Submarine. I weigh
66kg and need to fly the wing at
110kg, so I fly with a lot of ballast. In
cross-country competitions my bag
is 45kg. Honorin is 8-9kg heavier
than me, but still he carries a lot of
ballast.”
57

eePREVIOUS PAGES
Maxime launching at the Worlds
Nanda Walliser, third in the women’s
competition
Meet director Jacques Fournier
Pierre Rémy, third overall
The view from the goal line on Task 8,
when Maxime and Honorin dropped
out of sight behind the trees and had to
work their way back up to make goal and
secure a win for France
Photos: Marcus King
dALL SMILES
Honorin Hamard and Maxime; Seb
Ospina, who finished 5th; Constance
Mettetal and Méryl Delferrière; The right
type of cloud flying
All photos: Marcus King
58
potential dangers. What it means in high-level
competition though is that the leading pilots
will race to the end-of-speed section low (saving
time from not climbing) – and then need another
climb to make it over the goal line. In task eight
of this year’s world championships this tactic
caught out lots of pilots and they bombed
between the end-of-speed section and the goal
line. Maxime and Honorin were together and
almost blew it by not making goal.
“Basically Honorin wanted to try to take the
win,” says Maxime. The pair had been battling
it out for pole position over 10 days and
although Maxime was in the lead there was still
a chance Honorin could beat Maxime. “So we
attacked on the final glide. We knew it would
be super hard because we had left the last
mountain quite low, but when we arrived at the
end-of-speed section we needed something like
17 or 18 glide to goal.”
As pilots behind them lawn-darted into the
ground, Maxime and Honorin hung on. “We found
something drifting, just a little bubble, just the two
of us. It was kind of a miracle.”
At that point, did he want Honorin to lose it and
land or stay up and help them both fly together?
“You don’t have much time for strategic thinking
in these moments. I also knew that if I landed I
would lose the individual title because Honorin
had a better discard than me. So at that moment,
I was just focusing on just drifting in this effing
bubble!”
There is a skill to dealing with those moments
of highest tension, he says. “I think if you can stay
focused, that is key. Because there are plenty of
ideas coming into your head in these moments,
and I think the big strength of Honorin over the
years has been his focus. The ability to think, ‘I
will not land and I will drift until goal.’ Focus is
the key.”
In the end both pilots reached goal. “So we
saved the nation’s ranking, but it was really close.
Sometimes you can’t control everything with
strategy. When you are in the moment, you have to
take the right decision for sure.”
Taking those decisions, and being able to live
with the outcomes, good or bad, is becoming
easier for Maxime now. “I feel now I have less
pressure and it’s more relaxed,” he says. “And I
think when you are more relaxed, you can be
more focused. And then you can make better
decisions. We are a sport where decision-making
is everything – and you need to take the right
decision at the right time.”
MERYL DELFERRIERE:
WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPION
Flying tandem with her parents since she was
child Méryl Delferrière is another graduate of
the Centre of Excellence for Free Flight in Font
Romeu. Having started her solo training aged 12
she did her first flights in Vallouise in the Ecrins
before joining Font Romeu aged 16. There, she
has said, “I was able to learn a lot and perfect my
technique.”
After leaving Font Romeu, everything
“accelerated” for Méryl, and she competed in her
first Paragliding World Cup aged 18. At 21 she
won the women’s class at the World Cup Super
Final and also became women’s world champion
after winning the women’s competition at the FAI
Paragliding World Championships in Argentina.
She has been a member of the French national
team ever since and lives in Annecy, in the heart of
France’s free-flight scene. “My whole life is linked
to flying and I love it!” In 2022 she placed second
overall at the World Cup in Colombia.
At this year’s Paragliding World Championships
she was the favourite to win from the start,
although a strong showing from Galen Kirkpatrick
(USA) at the start and a wobble from Méryl saw
that immediately thrown into doubt. Galen won
the first task, and Méryl was fifth, landing short at
58km on the 83km task. She came back strongly
to finish second and third on tasks two and three, cWOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPION
before being first woman over the next four tasks. Méryl Delferrière celebrates her win in
the goal field in France
On the infamous task 8, she finished seventh Photo: Marcus King
after not making goal after crossing the end of
speed section. Far in the lead in the women she
finished fourth in the ninth and last task, which
did not affect her overall ranking.
She finished 131 points clear of her French
teammate Constance Mettetal. A Niviuk team
pilot (she flew an Icepeak X-One paired with
an Ozone Submarine in the Worlds) her win
put Niviuk on the podium too, the only other
manufacturer that made it in a clean sweep by
Ozone.
Afterwards Méryl said: “The competition was
fun, I loved the place. I was very happy to be in
the French Alps. It wasn’t easy, but I’m very happy
with the overall result.”
Of flying with her team and making it to the
podium, she said: “We worked together and helped
each other. For example, Baptiste screwed up his
own personal result, so he helped the team.
“And on the last task Max, Honorin and Luc
and Baptiste helped Pierre, Constance and me
for the team. I’m very happy for the French team
and all the French, because, how do you say? They
rocked it!”
59
JULIEN GARCIA:
FRENCH TEAM LEADER

cTEAM STRATEGY
“Tactics, communication and goals – but
the main objective was to fly as a team,”
says Team France leader Julien Garcia
Photo: Marcus King
Julien Garcia, 40, is the team leader behind the
French paragliding team. A former instructor
for nine years at Font Romeu, France’s dedicated
sports school in the French Pyrenees, he now
works for France’s Ministry of Sports as the FFVL’s
National Technical Director.
Managing the French Team is “just the tip of
the iceberg” for what he does day to day, which
also includes overseeing France’s five-tier sporting
development programme. That includes, from the
top down: the national team; Pôle France, which
is made up of France’s top 30 pilots; Pôle Espoirs,
which is the national junior programme; and the
regional programme. That structure, which actively
looks for, encourages and trains young and new
competition pilots, combined with government
financial support, is a big part of the reason why
France is so dominant in paragliding competition.
“We have been doing it like this for 20 years,” Julien
says, “and now it is really starting to show.”
“Relief ” was his overwhelming emotion when
the final results came in. “I mean I was happy, but
I was mainly relieved.” The pressure was on for
Julien and the team. The last Worlds in Argentina
was a disaster for the team – they came 10th in
the nations competition after suffering a hotly
disputed penalty for airspace and cloud flying.
This year nothing was left to chance: “We fitted
each pilot with a tiny spy cam that can record for
eight hours and has a time stamp. If there were any
protests, we would be able to look at the video.”
Did that work? He shrugs, “Yes, there were no
official protests. But once or twice someone said,
‘Hey, I thought they were in cloud,’ and I said ‘I’ll
send you the video’ and that was that.”
Competing at home was no help, either. “People
think there is a home advantage but there isn’t.
There is added pressure, pilots also know the place,
know the air, which doesn’t help in international
competition flying.” Instead, Julien went out of his
way to create an environment and feeling of the
team being “away” on tour, and not, as it was for
several of them, flying in their own backyards.
It is that team building that is most
important, he says. “Yes you need tactics, radio
communication and goals, but the main objective
was to fly as a team. I looked around and I didn’t
see teams, I saw individual pilots. A World
Championship is not the World Cup.” He picks out
the UK, which won team silver, as the only other
nation that had a strong team structure.
Flying as a team means making team decisions
for individual pilots. Sometimes it means
an individual pilot, if not in line for a medal,

60
sacrificing their own ranking to help another pilot There is no doubt being a team leader is cON THE PODIUM
Team France celebrate with champagne
make the podium.” It’s partly why former world stressful, not least because of the politics that
in the goal field after the final task.
champion Pierre Rémy was on the team, to provide goes along with large FAI Category 1 And picking up the gold at the medals
a solid core and allow the two attackers – Maxime competitions. In the future he’d prefer to see ceremony
and Honorin – to push. “We are lucky with that I fewer nations – a maximum of 30 – with more
Photos: Marcus King / Gervasoni /
think, all the guys are happy to fly for the team.” guaranteed spots for the top 100 pilots in the Hugot / FAI
That is not to say that the individual pilots are WPRS (world pilot ranking system). But that’s
not allowed to go for gold – that’s absolutely why all for another day. “The final evening we spent
they are there. But it’s one of the hardest parts of his with the team, the party, the celebrations, this
job – balancing the team goals with the individual was all fun, this made me happy.” Relief at a
ambitions and personal flying styles. Honorin, for good job well done.
example, will always lead out, always go low, always
get up from nothing. Maxime will “surf the gaggle”
at the top and front and is “very dangerous” from FAI PARAGLIDING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2023
that position. Méryl’s key strength is her tactical
decision-making: “She never gets it wrong.” OVERALL
It is knowing the strengths and weaknesses 1. Maxime Pinot (FR) Ozone Enzo 3 6,115
of the individuals that builds, over time, into 2. Honorin Hamard (FR) Ozone Enzo 3 6,055
managing a winning team. 3. Pierre Rémy (FR) Niviuk Icepeak X-One 6,002
However, not all the best plans do work out. Task
8 in the Worlds was critical, and left him feeling WOMEN
numb as he watched Maxime and Honorin push 1. Méryl Delferrière (FR) Niviuk Icepeak X-One 5,718
for the goal line low. They needed a final climb to 2. Constance Mettetal (FR) Niviuk Icepeak X-One 5,587
make it to goal, and from his position in the goal 3. Nanda Walliser (CH) Ozone Enzo 3 5,500
field they dropped out of sight below the tree line.
If they bombed, France’s dreams of a team gold NATIONS
would evaporate. “You can not talk on the radio 1. France 16,100
because they need to focus, live tracking had stopped 2. UK 15,517
working, I could not see them. When they appeared 3. North Macedonia 14,879
over the trees and I could see they would make it in,
well I just felt drained, empty inside.” It was a fairytale Full results: civlcomps.org/event/pgworlds-2023
ending to what could easily have been a nightmare.

61
From grey whales to mobula rays, the
marine life of the Baja Peninsula is famous
worldwide. Joe Orsi and Rob Condella
went looking. By Joe Orsi

62
63

cCLOCKWISE FROM MAIN
Baja California is a mix of desert, rugged
mountains and amazing coastline. At its
narrowest it is only 40km across
Landing out on Isla Megdalena next to a
whale skull
Rob kiting next to our vans in Bahia De
Los Angeles
eeDOLPHIN FEVER
Rob Condella makes a pass over a pod of
hunting dolphins
Photos: Joe Orsi
64
I
n January 2023 I began what turned out
to be a long road trip down Mexico’s Baja
peninsula. I was joined by my friend Rob
Condella, who shares a lot in common with me:
he flies paramotors and takes aerial photos, lives
in a self-converted van, is in his early 30s, and
is unemployed enough to go on an adventure
without an end date.
I had already made the 1,000-mile journey from
the US border to the southern-most portion of
the Baja Peninsula twice but had never done so
with another pilot, and therefore, was never able
to prioritise flying. Together, our shared interest
in flying and, equally importantly, creating content
meant that we were completely free to follow the
wind in pursuit of the best flying and photography
and stay as long as we needed once we found
something interesting.
Rob originally planned to stay in Mexico for
two to three months. He ended up staying for
nearly five. The road trip from the US border to
the population centres of La Paz and Los Cabos in
the south, which usually takes one to two weeks,
took us more than two months as we thoroughly
explored many areas that few people experience.
We spent the remaining time in the south, flying
every inch of coastline south of La Paz and
photographing the region’s abundant marine life,
which is the focus of this article.
Rob and I flew almost every day and had both
logged more than 120 hours of flying this year
by the time Rob left. We knew that keeping our
Moster 185s running would be an issue and
brought with us a significant inventory of spare
parts. By June, almost all our major parts had been
used and we were running low on oil. I flew an
Ozone Roadster 3, which was the perfect mix of
durability, efficiency, speed, and lift needed to take
off in a large variety of LZ’s, fly for multiple hours,
and gain altitude quickly.
The trip had many highlights, but the marine
life stands out. Flying without radios, Rob and I
settled into a well-tuned cadence, with Rob flying
low over the marine life to capture wingcam/
chase-cam pictures and to serve as a model for
my photos, taken with a 70-300mm lens from a
much higher altitude. We would time our loops
so that his faster glider would overlap with
my slower orbit over the subject. It was very
important that I be positioned well, as I would
often only have mere seconds with Rob and the
subject in frame.
The best conditions for photography were low
or no wind days with lots of sun, as the sunlight
allowed me to use a high shutter speed, which was
needed to isolate motor vibrations and capture
the quick motion of Rob’s glider passing over the
marine life.
It’s important to note that low flying over any
body of water poses serious risks, especially far
offshore in remote locations. While a certain
level of risk had to be accepted, we took steps
to mitigate worst-case scenarios. I fly with
redundant flotation mounted above my head
and a hook knife mounted to my harness.
After I launch, I usually unbuckle my waist and
chest straps if I’m planning to venture offshore
(I’ve found that the waist strap in particular
is very challenging to unbuckle quickly). I
carry emergency supplies beneath my harness,
including a flare gun, dive sausage, and Garmin
inReach GPS beacon in a waterproof case. In
addition, good judgement is key. Each situation
requires an assessment of the unique risk factors
and the rewards that will be gained by accepting
those risks. For example, a humpback whale in
low visibility far offshore is probably not worth
risking a low flight, as I have already experienced
low flights over many humpbacks in safer, more
photogenic conditions.
Buzzing marine life with a loud paramotor may
seem like it would have a large negative impact.
However, in our experience, the paramotor is
demonstrably less impactful than more generally
accepted methods of observing marine mammals
(boating, diving, and drones). The vast majority
of the noise our motors create is deflected off
the ocean’s surface and can barely be heard
underwater, which I can personally confirm
after being buzzed by Rob while snorkelling. A
boat motor in the water is obviously many times
louder than a paramotor in the air. Further,
our passes are quick, and what little noise we
produce underwater only lasts for seconds as we
pass directly over an animal, whereas all other
methods involve lingering alongside the marine
life for long periods of time. Finally, we are never
in the water with the animals, are almost never
visible to them, and pose no physical risk (eg prop
strikes). It was frequently the case that we would
spend 20+ minutes taking passes over a whale
without it seeming to notice our presence at all,
and then a boat would arrive and the whales would dHUMPBACK WHALES
immediately dive to evade it. Flying low over a family of humpback
In this article, I will summarise our experience whales. Humpbacks were far more
challenging to photograph well than
photographing grey whales, humpback whales,
grey whales, because they cruise far
mobula rays, whale sharks, dolphins, and offshore and only surface briefly
(normal) sharks. Photo: Joe Orsi
65
 Baja’s skeleton coast:
grey whale season
Every winter, thousands of grey whales head to
the lagunas of Baja California Sur to mate and rear
their young. This is one of Baja’s greatest tourist
attractions, and attracts visitors from around the
world. In addition to searching for grey whales,
Rob and I visited these lagunas to explore the vast,
remote islands that protect them from the harsh
conditions of the Pacific Ocean.
These mostly uninhabited, sandy islands are
some of Baja’s biggest. We would typically launch
from the mainland and safely cross to the islands
at a sufficiently high altitude to glide to land in the
event of an engine-out. The interior of the islands
consists of mangroves and massive dune fields
that end abruptly at the Pacific coast. The patterns
in the dunes form a geological windsock, clearly
indicating the prevailing direction of the Pacific’s
trade winds. The Pacific-facing coast is wild and
untouched. Endless, sprawling beaches with no
human footprints stretch into the horizon, only
disrupted by the occasional shipwreck, which
every island seemed to have a few of.
Long before we saw any grey whales, we knew
we were in the right place by the sheer number of
whale vertebrae, ribs, and skulls strewn across the

66
beach. Landing out here felt like discovering the
Galapagos for the first time. Save the shipwrecks,
there were few signs of humans. Even the wildlife
behaved differently, with coyotes showing no fear
and walking within feet of us.
I saw my first grey whale on one of these
flights, surfacing to breathe far off on the horizon.
Heading in its direction I quickly began to see grey
whales everywhere. At one point, I counted more
than 40 grey whales in one view. In the days that
followed, it became normal for us to see hundreds
of grey whales on every flight.
Grey whales have two endearing traits as
subjects for paramotor photography: first, they
frequently hang out far closer to the beach than
any other species of whale, making it much safer to
perform low passes over them. Second, they rarely
dive, making them easy to find and photograph.
Our best photographs were of mothers and
calves, which would cruise close to the beach
and allow us to take many passes in relative
safety and get our timing right. Farther offshore,
from a higher altitude, I witnessed groups of
eight or more adult males battling each other
for a chance to mate with a single female in
huge balls of motion, exhibiting sex organs that
were longer than I am tall. It’s hard to imagine a
worse place for an engine out than on a low pass eGREY WHALE FAMILY
A group of grey whales consisting of a
over one of these orgies. mother, a calf, and an orphaned grey
whale mother. Female grey whales that
Our most dangerous lose their calf will commonly join another
temptation: Humpbacks mother and calf group
Compared to grey whales, humpbacks are bigger, Above the Vicmar wreck in Ensenada
more beautiful, and far more challenging to
photograph. It’s easy to find humpbacks in Baja Baja California has 2,230km of surf-
fringed coastline
but they are usually cruising far offshore and only
surface for brief intervals before disappearing Photos: Joe Orsi
beneath the surface for minutes at a time.
Most of my encounters with humpbacks prior cCLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT
A wingcam photo of surfacing
to this trip had been miles offshore from a very
humpback whales
high altitude. The temptation to come down and Photo: Rob Condella
get a better look is high, but the risk is equally
high too: going down in the wild Pacific, too far A 300mm photo of a group of mating
from the coast to swim back, would be a very grey whales
Photo: Joe Orsi
bad situation.
Like grey whales, mothers and calves are your Flying over the reefs of Cabo Pulmo
best bet, with male bachelors moving quickly as Photo: Joe Orsi
they efficiently traverse the Pacific Ocean and
spending as little time at the surface as possible.
Humpback calves are more playful and frequently
spend lots of time practising breaches at the
surface, with the mother remaining a few feet
below to keep watch. This makes them easy to
find and better to photograph. However, mother
67
 cMOBULA RAYS
A low flight through an erupting mobula
ray fever
fCLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
Friend Lucas Niehues flying low over a
whale shark
Phosphoresence under a starry sky
A close-up of mobula rays in good
visibility
Exploring a shipwreck in Guerrero
Negro
Rob (right) and I after one of our first
flights south of the border
Photos: Joe Orsi
68
and calf humpbacks are still usually found miles
offshore, making low flights risky.
On the East Cape at the southern tip of the
Peninsula, Rob and I got very lucky and found the
most beautiful whale I’ve ever seen babysitting
her playful calf in swimming-pool visibility within
500m of the beach. She had a black body and long
white fins that stood out vibrantly against the dark
blue ocean. Completely unfazed by the paramotor,
the calf put on a show for Rob and I for more than
15 minutes. On one pass, Rob possibly became the
first pilot in history to fly through the spout of a
surfacing humpback whale.
The good type of fever:
Mobula rays
Almost as famous as the grey whales is Baja’s
mobula ray season. Beginning in April, mobula
rays (a type of manta ray) flock to the Sea of
Cortez’s warm waters and form giant groups,
hundreds or even thousands strong, called “fevers”.
The males then perform belly flops and backflips
en mass, presumably to impress females. On some
mornings, I was awoken by what I assumed was
rain but was actually hundreds of mobula rays
belly flopping directly offshore from the beach
where we camped.
Flying into a fever is one of those experiences
where I really couldn’t believe my eyes. Gliding
through the fever a few feet above the waves,
mobulas leap from the ocean in every direction
and flap their “wings” beside you as you spend a
few moments in the air together, which feels more
like a cartoon about the ocean than reality.
After successfully photographing many fevers of
mobulas in windy conditions, we began searching
for big fevers in good visibility. This proved more
challenging, as the mobulas seem to be attracted
to waves and are less active on calm days when the
visibility is good. The few times we were successful
were magical: hundreds of mobula rays displayed in
perfect detail just below the surface, with the group’s
shadow visible on the ocean floor a few feet below.
The most cooperative
model: Whale sharks
Whale sharks were surprisingly the very easiest
creature to find and photograph. Whale sharks are
the least intelligent animal on earth per pound of
body weight (body of a whale, mind of a fish) and
make no attempts to hide or divert course from
boats, divers, or aircraft. Rather, they move along
slowly at the surface in good visibility, blissfully
indifferent to the presence of humans.
Flying into a known whale shark area during
whale shark season, we typically found the
sharks within five minutes of taking off, took as
many passes as was needed to get the shot, and
69
70
eventually left with the whale shark still at the
surface in perfect view. While we could and did
continue along the coast to find many more whale
sharks, this wasn’t necessary, as they mostly looked
identical and we had already had as much time
as we could want with the first whale shark. This
made the flights a bit anticlimactic, but the photos
turned out great.
Our biggest fans: Dolphins
Dolphins were among our most common
encounters, but the large variety of behaviour
they exhibit kept them interesting and produced
some of our best images. Dolphins were the
only marine life that appeared to be actively
interested in our presence and on several
occasions seemed to be swimming with us for
entertainment.
My favourite behaviour was when they
were hunting. Moving almost as quickly as my
glider, the megapods would surface to breathe
simultaneously in one huge splash. Rather than
taking repeated passes over them, which was how
we viewed all other marine life, we could fly with
these dolphins, performing small wingovers to
match their forward progress and observing their
streamlined bodies at full power. This scenario
was rare but is among the coolest things I’ve done
in a paramotor.
THE BAJA PENINSULA
The peninsula of Baja California is about 1,220 km
long and from 40-240km wide. It extends from the
US/Mexico border in the north to Cabo San Lucas
in the south and has 2,230km of coastline, shared
between the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Sea
of Cortez on the east. Almost 40% of Baja California
Sur, the southern part of the peninsula, is protected,
with national parks and biosphere reserves – it is so
rich in marine life that it has earned the nickname “the
world’s aquarium”. For independent pilots it should be
considered an adventure destination – you should be
autonomous and happy making your own decisions.
For beginners, Live to Fly PPG teaches at various
locations in Baja, see facebook.com/livetoflyppg.
Map © Mapbox, © OpenStreetMap
Sharks ePLAY TIME
A 360 cam photo of dolphins swimming
Baja has plenty of sharks but most are found far ‘with’ Rob
enough offshore that we never saw them on our Photo: Robert Condella
flights. It was only in the protected waters of Cabo
cSHARK POOL
Pulmo that we found significant numbers of sharks
A large school of sharks in Cabo
swimming over the area’s shallow reefs. Compared Pulmo, on the southern tip of the
to the drowning risk of a water landing, the sharks peninsula
themselves are probably a minor risk factor, but Photo: Joe Orsi
the psychological impact of seeing so many sharks
made me take my pre-flights more seriously.
71
$Q]HLJHB[FPDJBWHOB9HUVR56BY
0RQWDJ-XQL

The world´s leading

rescue systems

Quick facts about the NG series: Max load Surface NG NG light

(kg) (m²) weight (kg) weight (kg)
• Available in 3 sizes, in both the NG and the NG Light version. Certified
NG 100 Series 100 25 1.45  1.18 
according to EN12491
• New, innovative X-Flare concept for high efficiency NG 120 Seriea 120 29 1.6 1.3 
• Excellent sink rates, each just over 5 m/s, equivalent to a jump from a NG 140 Seriea 140 33  1.85  1.49 
height of about 1.3 m
• Very reliable opening and extremely good pendulum stability
• Intelligent, lightweight construction for fast openings, even at low
speeds
• Use of high-quality lightweight materials Nearly flat top surface,
thanks to the innovative
X-Flare concept.
Low canopy X-flares for homogeneous
height for fast load distribution across the
opening large projected surface area

Precisely
defined air
outlets for
pendulum
stability
KITLIST
All the latest reviews, gear and technology for free flying
dSKY EXOS 2
Lightweight three-line EN-C, p76
Photo: Charlie King

NEW GEAR SUMMIT X OUDIE N FANET+ XC TRACER MAXX II

Updates and new releases UP’s new 2.5-line EN-B Do you know your Flarm It’s small, light, intuitive
from manufacturers has been slimmed down from your Fanet? The and works well – what’s not
around the world and smoothed out new Oudie will help to like?
p74 p80 p84 p86

73
 KITLIST
IN
BRIEF
AeroXC v7.0
The team behind AeroXC, the weather app
“for experienced pilots”, say v7.0 uses artificial
intelligence, and is “much improved”. It has
extended forecasting models, new flight
atmospheric maps and an interactive manual.
aeroxc.com
Airfer line support
Designed for trike pilots to keep their
paraglider’s lines out of the way of the prop.
Airfer’s new line support is made from solid but
flexible plastic, and can be easily fastened to the
cage hoop with cable ties, tape or screws.
airfer.com
XCTrack 0.9.9.1
The latest version of XCTrack, as used in the
AIR3, now has thermal maps. It uses the KK7
database to show the probability of finding a
thermal at a given location. It can be filtered by
time of day and time of the year.
xctrack.org
74
BLUEBIP
Stodeus have just released the BlueBip. It is
similar to an UltraBip, with the addition of
Bluetooth connectivity so it can be used
with a flight app on your phone; it does not
have GPS or voice assistant like the BipBip
Pro V2. Stodeus say the BlueBip has the
same sensors as the UltraBip so it has the
same instant vario and configurability. It
can be set up using their Confugarotor web
app and Vario Tone Editor, and the
firmware is updatable. The solar panel will
power the instrument for 100 hours’ flight
time, and the USB-C socket can be used
for headphones.
stodeus.com
OZONE OZO 2
The Ozo 2 is an ultralight reversible
harness with an integrated 30l trail-
running inspired rucksack. EVA foam
padding in the harness legs ensure it is
comfortable for longer hike-and-fly
descents or soaring, and it comes in
three sizes with adjustable shoulder
straps. It weighs 540g - 560g across the
sizes, including the lightweight speedbar
that comes with it, excluding karabiners.
The bag has wide and breathable shoulder
straps with drinks flask containers on each
side, multiple pockets and an external
helmet stowage system. It fits all sizes of
XXLite and Ultralite. flyozone.com
VESUV 2
UP’s pilot gloves have had an update. The
Vesuv 2 now has longer cuffs for better
draught exclusion, and lanyards have been
added so you can take your gloves off
mid-flight without fear of dropping
them. They are made from a
tough but soft water-repellant
goatskin and stretchy,
wind- and waterproof fabric,
and insulated against the
cold. The fingertips are
touchscreen compatible and the
palms have rubber non-slip dots.
Available in five sizes, S (7) - XL (11).
up-paragliders.com
 ALPINE SUPERLIGHT
FOR YOUR SAFE
MOMENTS OF HAPPINESS

PHI SCALA 2 LIGHT

Phi’s Red Bull X-Alps 2023 wing is certified EN-C in the first sizes.
There will be five in total: 18, 19, 20, 21 and 23 (projected areas).
The original Scala was EN D, so this suggests an increase in passive
safety. 78 cells and a flat aspect ratio of 6.77 are the same as the
original Scala X-Alps, but it has a new aerofoil, sail tensioning and
line set-up among other changes, and Phi say it outperforms the
original in every way: it is cleaner, faster and more form-stable.
Made from double-coated Porcher Skytex 27 and Dokdo D10, it
weighs 3.3kg - 3.85kg and is available in white or orange.
phi-air.com

LTF/EN A LTF/EN B HIKE&FLY TAKEOFF WEIGHT

SOL CYCLUS 2
The Cyclus 2 is Sol’s “light and compact” EN-B, a “second wing” that
is ideal for pilots who hike-and-fly. It is based on the Atmus 3 but it DESIGNED FOR RADICAL ADVENTURES
weighs over a kilogram less at 3.7kg to 5.1kg across the sizes. Sol say SIZE 20: 2,4 KG
it has easy launch characteristics and good stability, speed and glide.
It is made from silicon-coated WTX 29 PU fabric, with a mixture of
sheathed and unsheathed lines connected by softlinks to 15mm
risers. Six sizes go from XXS (20.4m2 for 55-70kg all up) to XL
(29.8m2 for 105-125kg all up). Sizes S to XL are certified EN B, the
two smallest sizes are load-tested only.
solparagliders.com.br

75
 KITLIST
SKY EXOS 2
This three-line EN-C has been updated and given a lightweight makeover. By Marcus King
cTHREE LINE C
EN-C wings are now firmly divided into two camps:
two-liners, and non-two-liners. The Exos 2 is a classic
three-line design, aimed at sports-class XC pilots. The
lack of long rods makes it easy to pack, while light
materials make it surprisingly lightweight
Photo: Charlie King
76
T
he original Exos was released in
2017, and now six years later Sky
have released the second iteration
of their EN-C sports-class wing.
I did not know the glider was lightweight,
so the first shock came when I picked it up.
At just 3.6kg for the large – which goes up to
105kg all-up – it is a proper lightweight wing
suitable for hike-and-fly adventures as well as
XC. There is also a lack of long plastic rods,
which means it can be packed nice and small.
Design and build
Unrolling the wing its relatively high aspect
ratio of 6.4 is obvious. The leading edge
features 3D shaping both on the top and
bottom surfaces to smooth out this vital
part of the profile, with two seams on the
top and a single extra seam running across
the span on the bottom. Likewise, mini-ribs
on the trailing edge smooth out this part of
the profile.
There is a sharknose style shape on the
inlets and this is supported by two crossed
short plastic wires with some extra bits of
Mylar to help the shaping. The wing has
65 cells which makes for a sporty smooth-
looking sail.
Designer Alexandre Paux said, “Even
though the planform, arc and basic structure
have stayed the same, small changes on
the skin tensions and V-structure tension
as well as small modifications on the top
of the aerofoil allowed us to bring a totally
different glider that is at the same time more
comfortable and performing better.”
Looking at the tech specs the wing has a
low-arc design, ie it is quite flat. Dividing
the projected area by the flat area gives
an arc of 0.88, which is flatter than any of
the EN-C wings we compared with each
other in the aerodynamics article last issue.
With a flat wing you can expect better glide
performance but with less cohesion of the
wing and less agility in turns. Designers
though can compensate for the latter with
how they distribute the lift creation across
the span.
Materials
The new version of the wing makes use of
light materials with Porcher 27 for most
of the panels. The leading edge however
is made from more robust Porcher 32.
Internally 32g Porcher is used. All this has
shaved a little more than half a kilo off the
weight of the wing.
The wing uses a classic three-line design
with four attachment points across the
chord in the centre of the wing with a
bifurcation in the Cs near the wing. All
the lines, a mix of Liros and Cousin, are
unsheathed but are bright orange, making
them relatively easy to see on the ground.
There is, however, no colour-coding to
differentiate the different sets, although it
was easy to sort before launch.
When I asked designer Alexandre why he
had stuck with a classic three-line layout,
1 3
rather than go for 2.5, he said, “At Sky we
seldom just follow fashion or play with the
limits. We don’t use the thinnest lines or try
to save the very last 10m of line length. I try
to find the optimum length of line for safety
and performance.”
The risers use thin webbing and have a
rear-riser control system. Dyneema cord
running through pulleys connects a padded
area on the rears with the Bs, to keep the
profile shape as they are used. The pilot’s
weight is taken on the webbing of the Bs at
trim. There are split-As to help with big-ears.
The brake handles are attached with poppers
and have stiffening at the top so you can use
them like XC handles. All the pulleys are
from Ronstan.
The Exos 2 is available in four sizes
covering weight ranges from 65kg to 120kg
all-up and in four standard colour schemes,
featuring the large Sky S in the centre.
On launch
The glider’s lightweight construction makes
inflating the wing in even the lightest breeze
easy. In stronger winds it can snake around
a bit but any pilot of this level should be
able to control it. Putting pressure on the
As it comes overhead smoothly without
any last-minute acceleration as it. A dab
of brake will stop it overhead and it seems
2 4
MANUFACTURER’S
SPECIFICATIONS
Sky say: “A performance XC glider that perfectly
blends performance, precision fun-handling and
high safety with a reassuring feeling on those long
and demanding flights”
Use: Cross country and vol-biv
Pilot level: Sports class
Sizes: S, M, L, XL
Certified take-off weight (kg): 65-85, 75-95,
85-105, 95-120
Flat area (m2): 20.78, 22.12, 23.38, 24.88
Glider weight (kg): 3.3, 3.45, 3.6, 3.8
Cells: 65
Flat aspect ratio: 6.4
Certification: EN / LTF C
Sky-cz.com
dDETAILS
1. Riser set uses black webbing with coloured highlights
2. Brake handles have a stiffened bar at the top that can
be used like an XC handle
3. C-riser controls use Dyneema cord running through
pulleys to pull down the Bs. Instead of a handle there is
a padded section of webbing
4. Lines are unsheathed and the same colour
5. The leading edge has crossed nylon wires and
features 3D shaping on the top and bottom surfaces,
hence the extra seam just below the cell openings
Photos: Marcus King
5
77
 1 2
cTHERMALLING
1. I found I could map the thermals very easily. That’s
very useful when conditions are lighter or if you are
working broken lift low down. It meant I could quickly
find and make use of the cores
2. The wing is available in four standard colour
schemes, featuring the large Sky S in the centre
Photos: Charlie King
78
quite tolerant of pulling hard without it
falling back too easily.
In the air
Once airborne you notice there is quite a lot
of feel in the brakes. The flat arc seems quite
noticeable to me, giving the impression that
there is quite a bit of lift generation out near
the tips. It means the wing maybe doesn’t feel
quite as cohesive as some high-arc designs
but it gives you a good feel for what the air
is doing.
I found I could map the thermals very
easily with this wing. That’s very useful when
conditions are lighter or if you are working
broken lift low down. It meant I could
quickly find and make use of the cores, and
that can make the difference between getting
up or not when you are looking for a low
save. Some pilots coming from more solid
wings may find it quite talkative but others
will love the information it gives.
A low-arc design can have less agility but I
found the Exos 2 very easy to get turning into
thermals, and once in it had no tendency
to be pushed out or pushed around. I could
place it where I wanted.
On entry to thermals it doesn’t have the
driven feel of some wings but pitch is well
controlled so you will feel comfortable. The
XC handles built into the brake handles and
the short initial travel help give a nice direct
feel to the wing. There is plenty of travel
before you get near the stall point.
I took the wing on a couple of cross-
country flights here in the south of France
and it felt comfortable throughout. It’s not an
exhausting wing to fly, there are no hidden
surprises and you feel you know what the
wing is doing, making it comfortable to work
the terrain when needed.
Performance
The Exos 2 stays solid even on full bar as well
as remaining well pitch-controlled. It can
be easily controlled using your hands in the
padded areas on the rear risers and there is a
reasonable feel through them. I didn’t realise
quite how much I had got used to the direct
feel of the controls of a two-liner but these
 3 4
are still effective, it’s just feedback is a bit
more subtle.
In reality I didn’t actually need to control
the wing that much. Alexandre told me the
original Exos “was quite nervous during
the glide, with wing tips pulling forward
when crossing thermals or turbulences.” It
seems this behaviour has been completely
fixed and the wing doesn’t move around
much on glide.
Using the GPS I found I could get between
13 and 14km/h extra speed on full bar. On
glides I made with other similar three-line
wings I felt it had similar performance, but
unless you are flying wing-tip to wing-tip
with the same wing loading and harness any
definitive comparisons should be avoided.
Big ears are easy to pull using the split As
and once pulled in sit nicely without much
pressure needed. I had to make use of them
combined with full bar to transit under an
area of sucking cloud. I was able to pull big
ears without them flapping aggressively. The
combination of bar and big ears gave a good
sink rate with forward speed. Once released
the big ears generally roll out on their own; cLOW ARC
3. The wing has a low-arc design – it's quite flat. With
of course a pump of the brake pushes them a flat wing you can expect better glide performance but
out quickly. If you prefer spirals it is easy to less cohesion of the wing and less agility in turns
control the wing, and exiting is fuss-free if
you bleed off the energy. 4. The Exos 2 uses a classic three-line design with four
attachment points across the chord in the centre of the
glider, with a bifurcation in the Cs near the wing
The verdict
The Exos 2 is a classic three-line EN-C, Photos: Charlie King
great as an entry into sports-class wings.
It will particularly appeal to those looking
to have a light wing for adventures in the
mountains without compromising much on
performance. It will also appeal to pilots who
like a wing that talks to them: I found the feel
you get great for mapping the lift without it
being overwhelming.
When I asked designer Alexandre Paux
what he was most happy about with the new
wing he said, “that we managed to improve
both the behaviour and the performance Marcus King
without resorting to easy gimmicks like Marcus flew the Exos 2 L (85-105kg) in the
super thin lines.” It’s an honest performing southern French Alps at around 101-102kg,
cross-country wing that has its own unique paired with a Woody Valley GTO Light 2 with
character, try it and you may find you like foam protection.
the style.
79
 KITLIST

80
UP SUMMIT X
Erwin Voogt finds this redesigned high-B offers a relaxing ride
O
n paper UP's new high-B Summit X
is a step down in aspect ratio from its
predecessor and a step forward as a 2.5
line hybrid. But what does that mean in the air?
This spring the weather in the Alps was
far from great. Remarkably, for a two-week
flying holiday in May, we ended up in the
UK in search of the best weather. UP's new
high-end EN-B the Summit X was my wing
this period and the search for flyable weather
took me to four different countries: Italy
(Bassano); Germany (Sauerland); the UK
(England and Wales); and my home country,
The Netherlands.
A more modest wing?
The aspect ratio of the Summit X is at 5.9 less
exotic for an EN-B than the 6.3 aspect ratio
of its predecessor, the Summit XC4. Also the
cell count is lower, now 55 instead of 57. The
wing loading is about the same.
All in all, on paper the new Summit X
doesn't push the limits of the EN-B class
like the XC4 did. Actually, in the smallest
weight range, 65-85kg, the Summit XC4 was
certified as an EN-C instead of EN-B.
1 3
This is confirmed by UP's designer
Frantisek Pavlousek: “The Summit X feels
less aggressive, smoother and calmer,
which in the end contributes to the overall
performance improvement.” And (spoiler
alert) I can confirm this too, the Summit X is
a relaxed EN-B wing to fly.
Design and
construction
The Summit X was designed together
with the EN-C Trango X, says Frantisek.
“Although the design started as an evolution
of the predecessor, at the end there's not
much left of the Summit XC4.” Besides
the lower aspect ratio, the Summit X is a
2.5-liner hybrid. Two lines run from the
C-riser to the centre and the half-span. The
A and B-risers have three main lines each,
going to the centre, half-span and tips. The
tips therefore are two-liners, the centre is a
three-liner, like most 2.5 line hybrids.
Combined with thinner lines, this gives a
reduction of line drag of about 10%, say UP.
Also, the rear-riser control is more efficient,
like with a full two-liner.
2 4
eIN THE AIR
Flying at Rhossili, Wales. The Summit X is a 2-5-line
hybrid. It has been changed significantly from its
predecessor, the Summit XC4 and has less aspect ratio
and a lower cell count
dDETAILS
1. Comfortable brake loops with swivels click to a one-
way magnet. High quality pulleys for the speed system
2. The plastic bar for rear-riser control is comfortable.
The outer A-riser is floating on a thin line with a
maillon.
3. UP stands for Ultralight Products. The Summit X,
although not ultralight, is definitely not a heavyweight
either at 4.3kg
4. The leading edge has a sharknose and rounded cell
openings with cords in the middle to prevent the cells
from ballooning
5. The glider is a 2.5-liner, with two lines at the tips and
three across the rest of the glider
Photos: Erwin and Bastienne Wentzel
5
81
 KITLIST

cPERFECT INTERMEDIATE
On test in Wales and Germany. In the air the Summit X
is a gentle wing. Of course, this is a high-end EN-B that
needs active piloting, but it won't overload the senses
Photos: Bastienne Wentzel / Erwin Voogt
MANUFACTURER’S
SPECIFICATIONS
UP say: "The Summit X feels less aggressive,
smoother and calmer, which contributes to the
overall performance improvement. It is meant to
satisfy the needs and desires of the same group of
pilots as the previous model"
Pilot level: Intermediate
Sizes: S, SM, M, L
Certified take-off weight (kg): 65-85, 75-100,
85-110, 100-125
Flat area (m2): 21.2, 23.1, 25.1, 26.6
Glider weight (kg): 4.2, 4.5, 4.8, 5.1
Cells: 55
Flat aspect ratio: 5.9
Certification: EN / LTF B
up-paragliders.com
With a weight of 4.5kg for my size SM (75-
100kg), the Summit X is quite lightweight,
although lightweight has become the new
normal. The fabric is actually not the lightest,
however. For durability UP chose a mixture
of Porcher Skytex 42 and 38 (g/m2) for the
leading edge. The trailing edge and bottom
surface is Dominico D20 (29 g/m2).
The 55 half-rounded cells have strings in
the cell openings to reduce ballooning. The
wing profile is further improved with flexible
rods in the nose and on the upper surface:
Front Section and Rear Section Support,
FSS and RSS, in UP nomenclature. The flat
surface area is quite low. The average wing
loading of approximately 3.8kg/m2 (flat
surface) is a tad higher than most EN-Bs.
Except for the brake lines, all lines are
unsheathed. They are a mixture of Edelrid
aramid and Liros Dyneema lines. Although
the Summit X is a 2.5 liner hybrid, UP added a
few D-lines near the canopy. Frantisek explains
that these extra attachment points, four per
rib, result in a more precise aerofoil shape and
therefore improve performance and safety.
The 'high performance risers', as UP calls
them, were introduced with the previous
generation UP gliders. The B maillon is
attached to a ball-bearing pulley travelling
on a Dyneema line. When steering the glider
with the C-risers, the B-lines are pulled down
proportionally to prevent aerofoil deformation
with friction reduced to a minimum, explains
Frantisek. That may sound complicated, but in
practice handling the risers is straightforward.
The C-risers have plastic handles for control
when flying on bar. That works great, although
they complicate sorting the risers a little
because the bars tend to weave themselves
through the risers.
Although the UP Summit X is an innovative
2.5-liner hybrid, I found it felt familiar,
uncomplicated and is a good looking wing.
In the air
Without wind, with lots of wind, by foot or
on tow, the UP Summit X launches easily.
The relatively small surface area helps when
launching in demanding conditions. On a
very windy day at Bo Peep (East Sussex, UK)
the Summit X proved itself as a very easy-to-
manage wing for launching, top-landing and
groundhandling in tough conditions.
In the air the Summit X is a gentle wing.
Of course, this is a high-end EN-B that needs
some piloting, but not more than an EN-B
pilot would expect.
In moving air, the tips move with it – there
are only two rows of lines there. But it is and
feels harmless.

82
Flying for a few hours in bumpy spring
thermals is not exhausting. The wing gives
the pilot enough information to find small
lift, without being too talkative. Steering is
direct and precise, but not aggressive. A low
save above the red tiled roofs of Bassano or
thermalling within touching distance from
the treetops in Sauerland, the Summit X is a
confidence-giving buddy.
And almost rare nowadays: big ears pop
out by themselves when releasing the outer
A's. No need for a pump with the brakes. It's
a little detail that can be important when
top-landing. There is a separate A-line for
the big ears, but it is connected to a thin sort
of loop instead of a riser. Pulling big ears is
straightforward, but without gloves is not
very comfortable. Need a quick descent? A
spiral dive with the Summit X does not give
the high G's some other EN-B's expose the
pilot to. All in all, the Summit X is a sporty,
easy to manoeuvre and comfortable wing
that's less close to the border of EN-B than
its predecessor. But what about the...
Performance
On full bar the Summit X is still a solid
wing that can be easily controlled with the
handles on the C-risers. Airspeed is always
difficult to measure, but with an estimated
12km/h speed gain on full bar, it is maybe cCROSS COUNTRY
a few hairs faster than most EN-B's. Flying Early-season flying in Bassano, Italy. We measuered
12km/h extra on bar
tip-to-tip with another modern three-liner Photo: Erwin Voogt
high-end EN-B, however, did not show a
clear difference in glide ratio of the 2.5-liner
Summit X. Not at trim nor full speed. But as
always, take every statement about glide ratio
with a grain of salt.
I would say that the Summit X has the
edge in strong wind conditions. The slightly
higher wing loading makes launching in
those situations relatively easy and in the
air a few kilometers per hour extra ground
speed can make a difference.
The verdict
With the 'X' UP have moved the Summit to
the gentler zone of the high-end EN-B class.
This is a wing that every EN-B pilot can fly
without reservation. It is not pushing the
limits of its class, although pilots who prefer
flying low-end EN-B's may find the Summit
X quite agile. Erwin Voogt
UP designed the Summit X for pilots with Erwin has been flying paragliders since 2008 and
a certain amount of experience in XC flying is a paragliding instructor from the Netherlands.
in various conditions. For these pilots it is a He flew the UP Summit X (SM) this spring in
playful but kind companion for long journeys Italy, Germany, UK and The Netherlands, paired
in the sky. Also, pilots who fly often in strong with the Skywalk Range X-Alps 2 pod harness at
wind conditions should put the UP Summit an all-up weight of about 85kg
X high on their list.
83
 KITLIST
NAVITER OUDIE N FANET+
Added functionality uses Flarm and Fanet to help you see and be seen. By Marcus King
I
cTHE UNIT reviewed the Oudie N in May last year
The only visible difference between this and the Oudie (issue 229) and my colleague Joanna
N is a small bulge on the top left – this houses the
di Grigoli reviewed the Navigator app
aerial for the Fanet+ module
it runs in issue 226. Since then it has been
fSETTINGS a permanent addition to my flight deck for
1. The new Fanet+ page in the settings both XC and competition flying. Earlier
2. The colour screen is easy to read. The large battery this year a parcel turned up with the new
offers 15 hours' battery life Fanet+ version. I’ve since been flying it in
competitions and free-flight.
Fanet+ and Flarm
Opening the box the only visible difference is
AT A GLANCE a small bulge on the top left of the unit – this
Naviter say: “Integrated with Flarm, Fanet+ and houses the aerial for the Fanet+ module. The rest
LTE connectivity, it delivers real-time data and of the unit is identical to the original Oudie N.
seamless SeeYou integration for a fully immersive The easy-to-read screen, the large battery, control
cockpit experience” buttons and GSM module are all the same.
What is it: Vario / GPS / Logger The Fanet+ module installed in the new
Size: 150 x 86 x 24mm units is the one developed by Skytraxx. This
Weight: 430g can transmit Flarm data as well as send and
Battery life: 15+ hours at full brightness receive Fanet data. Flarm is mainly used
Connectivity: USB-C, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G/ by other, faster aircraft such as sailplanes
LTE, Fanet+ for collision avoidance. It sends both your
RRP: €1,190 position and predicted track once a second.
Naviter.com Flarm-receiver equipped aircraft can then
use this information to alert the pilot to any
84
possible collisions. Flarm data can also be
fed into airspace data systems for use by
drones etc to avoid conflict. As paraglider
or paramotor pilots we want to be seen,
but we don’t generally need to receive this
information as our aircraft are moving too
slowly to avoid faster traffic.
What we do want to know is where our
friends are and how they are doing. This is
where the Fanet network comes in. It was
designed specifically for free-flight pilots,
although it has been adopted by others. It sends
data out less frequently but gives information
including location, height and vario. This can
then be displayed on the app’s map.
Fanet also allows sending messages between
users and from ground stations; Burnair
stations for example transmit wind information
over Fanet. It is possible within the spec to send
messages to individual users although we are
yet to see this fully implemented.
In addition, Open Glider Network (OGN)
ground stations can receive Flarm and Fanet
traffic data and, if the user has agreed, send
it to servers on the internet that can be used
for live traffic data.
With the new Oudie N, Naviter have chosen
to integrate all this technology. Direct Fanet+
data can be displayed in the app but also
Flarm data via the OGN if you have a data
connection via the in-built GSM (mobile)
module. What’s more, it is able to operate as
a mobile OGN receiver sending any Fanet
data it received onto the OGN network. This
improves safety for our community as there
is likely to be more coverage in areas we fly
on flying days.
So what about data usage? I asked the
same of Naviter’s Andrej Kolar, he told me:
“This is minimal. It's a few bytes per message.
Tens of thousands can be sent for the price of
1 MB of data transfer.”
In use
As a user this means there is now an extra
Fanet+ menu and the Fanet+ layer in the
map is automatically visible. There are map
layers available for Fanet+, OGN and Flarm
traffic; the latter is for if you have a Flarm
receiver connected.
The Fanet+ menu allows you to change
your Fanet name, displayed on other users’
devices, and choose whether you want your
position relayed to the OGN tracking server.
You can also download and install updates to
the Fanet+ module’s firmware here, as well
as choose to disable Flarm and Fanet+, if
you have multiple Fanet or Flarm-enabled
devices on board.
The page also gives access to a list of
Fanet targets around you so you can change
their nicknames and add them to your
favourites list. The same data is show when
you click on a Fanet entry on the map and
you can choose to ‘Go To’ them. The Fanet
targets are shown with their names, heights
and vario information.
Currently there is no filtering of targets
so you can only show all the Fanet users
around you or none. You can’t, for example,
just choose to show your buddies on the
map. Naviter said though that this is on
their development list.
The app
Talking of development, the Navigator app
at the heart of the Oudie continues to be
improved with regular updates being sent
out. I have been using the Beta channel and
there is a constant stream of updates. Latest
updates to the app have included multiple
screen layouts, so you can switch between
different layouts in flight; an FAI triangle
assistant, showing the sectors on the map
where you can make your turnpoints
to stay within the 28.8% rule; airspace
interrogation by tapping on the map; more
task functionality including saving them
HYBRID LIVE-TRACKING
WITH THE OUDIE N
Currently the only method of live-tracking
available in Navigator is through the Open
Glider Network (OGN). This data can then
be shown on various platforms. If you are using
Livetrack24 though there is a way of sending
your OGN tracks to it.
First off you need to find the OGN code of
your Oudie. This can be found in the About
page in Settings or on the new Fanet+ screen (it
works on the Oudie N with the OGN enabled
and a SIM inserted for data). Once you have
that you can head to Livertrack24.com, log in
and go to edit your account settings. On the left
you will see Spot and OGN: click the link above
to connect to your account. Scroll down to
Flarm/OGN/ICA Tracker and you can enter the
ID code from your Oudie.
Any data sent from your Oudie to the OGN
will be captured by Livetrack and used for your
livetracking, so friends and family can know
where you are. With the Oudie N Fanet+, if you
don’t have a SIM inserted for data connection,
you will still be tracked when you are in range of
an OGN ground station.
Naviter have told us they plan to add live-
tracking via GSM to several services in the
future.

for use later; and new nav boxes plus lots of

smaller improvements.
All these additions not only come to the new
Oudie N Fanet+ but also the original Oudie
N and those running Navigator on a phone.
With these updates the product has matured
for use in comps and general flying, with strong
integration with the SeeYou desktop tool.

The verdict
So, do you need an Oudie N with Fanet+?
If you already have an Oudie N is it worth
upgrading? Naviter do offer an upgrade path
but it’s not that cheap at around €350.
Many owners will already have bought an
additional unit such as XCTracer to connect
for Flarm / Fanet data: if you have done this
there is no need to upgrade as you already
have all the functionality and you have a
backup logger. If, however, you have yet to
buy an Oudie it is the obvious choice, as you
will get all the functionality that we praised
from the original plus Fanet / Flarm in a
1 2
single sleek unit.

85
 KITLIST

XC TRACER MAXX II
It’s small, light, intuitive and works well – what’s not to like? asks Marcus King

cPAIR IT WITH THE APP
Bluetooth Low Energy connects the XCTracer Maxx II
to your phone app, giving access to flight and Flarm /
Fanet data
XDETAILS
1. USB-C connector for charging and data transfer
2. The optional remote control
3. Maxime Pinot, Chrigel Maurer and Aaron Durogati
all had an XC Tracer Maxx II on their cockpit during the
Prologue at the Red Bull X-Alps
AT A GLANCE
What XC Tracer say: “Whether beginner or pro,
with the XC Tracer Maxx II you fly more intuitively
than ever before.”
What is it: Vario / GPS logger
Size: 92x68x18mm
Weight: 120g
Screen: B&W LCD, 536x336 pixels
Battery life: 70 hours
Connectivity: USB-C and Bluetooth Low Energy
RRP: €699 ($780)
xctracer.com
I
f you followed the Red Bull X-Alps you
will have seen the XC Tracer Maxx II
already. With most of the pilots in the
race using the instrument, or the XC Tracer
Mini V, you can’t fail to have seen it on their
cockpits. I’ve been flying with the original
Maxx for a couple of years and the new
Maxx II for the last few months.
Screen
Physically there is no real difference between
the Maxx II and the original. It uses the same
black case dominated by a black and white
screen. For those not familiar with the original,
the screen has very good definition. The
hardened glass on the front isn’t noticeable and
there are no annoying reflections. It is easy to
read in all light including strong sunshine: I
would say it is much better than e-ink displays
as there is none of the ghosting they suffer
from. For those with older eyes it is very easy to
read on the flight deck.
For me it is the perfect partner to an app
where the important flying data can be
lost and hard to see on a cluttered screen.
With the Maxx II on your flight deck the
important data is easy to see at a glance.
Control
Apart from the screen the only other things
on the device are the single red control button
and a USB-C connection. The button can
be used to navigate the screens, menus and
adjust volume level. You might think this
would be complicated using a single button,
but in fact it is intuitive and you quickly
become adept at cycling through menus or
adjusting the volume with short or long clicks.
All the settings can also be changed by
editing a simple text file held on the unit. XC
Tracer sell a small wireless remote control
that, when attached to your riser, can be
used to easily switch screens. Alternatively,
tapping the riser will do the same. You can
even change settings in the menu using the
remote control while flying.
USB connection
That brings us to the USB connection. This
allows charging; although with a 70-hour

86
battery life you won’t need to charge it often.
One charge lasts for at least a week of XC.
One small but welcome change for the Maxx
II is the addition of a charging indicator: a
small red LED lights under the screen to
show it is charging; it turns green when fully
charged.
When connected to a computer the Maxx
II acts as a hard drive making it easy to
get your tracks, available in IGC and KML
format, off the instrument and to upload
airspace and obstacle data. Using this
method the settings text file is easily edited
and firmware updates are easily added. There
is no Wi-Fi on the device so it can’t update
airspace automatically.
When I asked designer Koni Schafroth
about the possibility of a companion app for
mobiles he had good news: “Soon there will
be an app available that allows you to update
the firmware of Maxx II using your phone.
You can then also upload new airspace to and
download IGC files from the Maxx II. The
same functionality will be added to Maxx
and Mini V.”
The device has Bluetooth Low Energy
(BLE) enabling it to be connected to tablets
or phones running flying apps such as
XCTrack or SeeYou Navigator, passing
through flying data.
Anti-collision
The major update to the specs sees the
addition of Fanet functionality to the device
so now as well as Flarm traffic it can send
and receive Fanet and pass this on to any
connected app. For many users this will make
little difference as the original Maxx could
1 2
see the Flarm output from Fanet equipped
instruments from other manufacturers.
Now however the Maxx II will show up
on Fanet-equipped instruments that don’t
have Flarm reception. It will also be able to
receive data sent by Fanet ground stations
such as the BurnAir network and pass this
data to your flying app.
All nearby Flarm and Fanet devices
show up on the radar screen, but detailed
information is only shown for up to eight
flying buddies you select. The instrument
can keep a list of 50 known buddies
that you can choose from on take-off,
or you can add a new buddy when both
instruments are turned on and can see each
other.
Like the original, the Maxx II records
the last known positions of your buddies,
useful in case of a search. It is also designed
not to turn off automatically: an audio
warning sounds intermittently after you
land, so that it can continue sending Flarm
and Fanet data in case of an accident to
help SAR personnel locate you. Designer
Koni was keen to point out that the Flarm
and Fanet radios are fully certified to be
used around the world and use the correct
frequencies in different locations.
Audio
In use the device isn’t a major change from
the original. It has the same responsive
vario that we have become used to from
XC Tracer. The audio can be fully adjusted
using XC Tracer’s online tool and you will
find example set-ups online. Those who
want to can invest the time to get it just to
their exact taste, but many will find it perfect
straight out of the box.
Competition and tandem pilot Seb
Ospina has been flying with the Maxx II
for six months and said: “The vario sound
settings can take a while to adjust but that’s
pretty much the only faffy thing about the
instrument. So far it is my preferred all-
round instrument.”
The better internals mean that things run
a bit smoother and 5Ghz GPS updates make
for a cleaner update of the thermal screen.
This has also seen improvements in the way
the lift is displayed making it easier to re-find
a thermal, especially useful when there is a
lot of drift. It’s good to see that XC Tracer are
bringing as many of these changes as possible
to the original Maxx.
TEC
Another addition to the latest firmware is the
addition of total energy compensation (TEC).
This is designed to counter the beeping you
get when you come off the bar and convert
speed into height. This can be confusing
when trying to map the thermal in the initial
turns you make. The system automatically
then reverts back to a normal vario response
as you become established in the thermal.
Switching this on was noticeable on the
two-line EN-C I fly, and helped me to
understand where the real lift was that bit
quicker. On a CCC wing I would imagine this
would be even more useful. It’s a subtle thing
but that is what the XC Tracer is all about
– giving you those extra subtle bits of
information that enable you to get the best
out of the lift and your flying.
3
87
 KITLIST

PARAFLY24
GLIDER-
CHECK
KIT
Line checking at home? We try it out

I
f you want to get the best out of your
shiny new two-line paraglider you
definitely need to have it trim-checked
regularly. However, not everyone has easy
access to a check-up workshop, and the ones
that do exist are often busy with long waiting
times.
ParaFly24 have come up with an answer
to checking your wing at home. We tried out
their new line checker and porosity meter.
A Bettsometer, used to measure material
strength, is also available.

Line checker
The line check consists of hardware and an
app for Android. The hardware is delivered
in flatpack form. There are various pieces of
plywood plus a runner and some additional
hardware items and all the screws you need.
You will need to supply a 5kg weight.
Following the instructions I found it all
pretty easy to put together, although a few
extra guide holes would give the full Ikea
experience. Still, within half an hour I had it
built and ready to go.
Also supplied is a Bosch laser measurer
and a 3D-printed line guide. With the app
downloaded and the laser measurer paired
to your phone you can start measuring the
length of your lines.
Put the line in the guide, line up the laser
with the white board and press the button:
the measurement is taken and the system
moves on to the next line automatically.
Working through the wing methodically is
pretty easy, especially once you get the hang
of it.
At first I pressed on the wrong button
a couple of times and had to start again,
but I was able to get the whole wing done
relatively quickly. The biggest issue was
finding a space big enough – wings seem a
lot larger inside!
If you have the correct trim lengths
(usually available on the manufacturer’s

88
website) you can create a csv file to measure
against. The app will then highlight any lines
that are out of trim as you go along. The app
allows you to save your results, which you
can then copy to your computer for analysis
or just to keep so you can compare how the
trim changes over time.
The only real issue I had with the whole
system was the clip to hold the weight wasn’t
up to the job, so I replaced it with a proper
maillon.
Porosity checker
The line checker doesn’t look so different
from those you will find in most workshops,
but the porosity checker is a cheap and
clever alternative to the €1,500 JDC porosity
meter that most professional service and
repair workshops use. What you get for just
€60 is a bottomless plastic bottle, a length of
hose and a clamp with magnetic closure. All
you need to supply is a bucket of water.
The clamp with rubber seals goes on the
material you want to test, and the hose is
attached from its output to the bottle. On the
bottle are three lines. You immerse the bottle
in the water so the water inside the bottle goes
to the top line, then seal the tube on tightly.
To take the measurement you start timing
and lift the bottle so the water outside is level
1 3
2 4
with the bottom line. Then you wait; the
water level will drop, hopefully slowly, until it
gets down to a middle line.
Stop your watch and you have a
measurement of porosity in seconds that can
be compared to the readings from a JDC.
It’s a bit of a faff but I could get repeatable
results. It is, of course, important to take
readings from several places on the wing.
The verdict
I tried both systems on my vol-biv wing,
before passing it to a professional testing
house. I found my results were accurate
when compared to those from the workshop.
I also tested the porosity meter on a
friend’s wing that had been condemned
as near end of life, and again my results
were within a few seconds of those from a
professional workshop.
If you can’t get to a workshop or want to
keep a regular eye on the trim of your wing
these units make that possible. It would
make sense to buy them between a group of
like-minded pilots, or as part of a club.
Of course, if you are selling your wing you
will still have to have it verified by a certified
workshop, but it is useful to have these tools
at home. Hats off to Parafly24 for making
these tools available ready to go.
AT A GLANCE
Line trim checker: €129
Porosity meter: €59.90
www.parafly24.de
eHOW IT WORKS
The risers are attached to pegs and held in place by a
Velcro loop. There is a brake attachment point on top
for checking brake line lengths. The top slides and a
5kg weight is hung from the back to apply the right
amount of tension.
dSTEP BY STEP
1. The line measuring kit as supplied
2. The line measurer after putting it together
3. The supplied Bosch laser measurer and a custom 3D
printed line mount are used to measure the line lengths
4 The data is automatically sent to the app that
highlights any trim differences.
5. A magnetic clamp holds the cloth in place for the
porosity checker
6. The open-bottom bottle is filled with water then, with
the bottom held at a specific line, the time is measured
for the water to drop between two lines.
5
6
89
 FINAL GLIDE
MY FLYING LIFE
CEDAR WRIGHT
The professional climber on what matters most
How did you start flying?
I started eight years ago with Matt Henzi
in Santa Barbara. I remember driving up to
launch for my first mountain flights with a
mix of dread and excitement, but I caught
my first thermal that day, and flew with a
red-tail hawk. That was it, mind exploded.
For me, flying is a fresh way to explore the
world on a really macro scale. It’s quite a
contrast from my 30 years spent exploring
the micro scale in rock climbing.
What keeps you flying?
I love that feeling of nervous uncertainty at
the start of a big flight. I love encountering
the unexpected. I love trying to build
mental models for a chaotic and invisible
90
Cedar Wright, left, with Mitch Riley. Photo: Ben Horton
force! I love the way you have to adapt and
evolve with the changing conditions of
the day. I love optimising and pushing my
psychological and intellectual abilities. I love
how outrageous and otherworldly it feels
to be transported long distances with wind,
string and fabric. And I love that paragliding
has a wonderful community of people that
I love dearly. Here in the USA, it feels like a
golden age for the sport – it’s exciting to be
helping pioneer new sites and new lines over
our massive, wild, austere landscapes.
Who has most influenced you along the way?
Matt Henzi – that guy is part-bird. Nick
Greece, who brought me into the fold to
chase big distance in Utah. Bill Belcourt
and Arash Farhang for XC inspiration and
enthusiasm. Josh Cohn for his dominance
and consistency. Cody Mittanck who put the
fear of God into me and taught me SIV out
of genuine concern for my safety. For other
reasons, Kris Holub, the Boulder bros Jay
and Jared, and Mike Lester – and of course
Reavis Sutphin-Gray and Brad Hauge for
making life a party.
What are some of the special places you’ve
flown?
Valle de Bravo and Roldanillo – my winter
homes away from home. Flying the X-Pyr was
insane. And, of course, the American West is
just so rowdy and adventurous. Exploring new
sites in ‘Nevadistan’ with the crew has been
horrifyingly beautiful. I love my home site
in Boulder for all the weird, hard to predict
and forecast conditions we get. But really my
favourite site is the next one... I love to explore
new ranges and terrain.
Who matters most to you?
My wife Nellie, an accomplished pilot herself,
and my dog Bernie. I’m also so grateful to my
parents Donna and Tyler who allowed me to
take an uncharted path in life.
If you couldn’t fly, what would that mean?
That I’m either dead or paralysed.
Where do you hope flying will take you next?
I’m headed to Karimabad in Pakistan this
July to go fly and climb. I really want to
combine my two loves together in a way that
feels logical and badass.
What do you hope for flying for the future?
I really want to see paragliding keep its soul. I
still love climbing but as it has grown the
sense of community has changed. I love how
small and eclectic the community is in flying,
and I’d hate for it to get too “professional,” or
God forbid... normal.
Cedar Wright lives in Boulder, Colorado – a
vibrant and growing free-flight community
W E SH A R E
TH E P ass io n
OF FLYING
IN A LIGHT WAY

MIDDLE-B HIGHLIGHT
FOR YOUR SAFE
ADVANCEMENT

(LTF/EN B)
SAFETY THAT TAKES YOU FURTHER. With the
LIGHTNING 2 now follows a superlight (XS 3,3kg)
high-performance cross-country wing with the
highest relaxation factor. If you look at its performance
data, you can hardly believe the easy reactions
in extreme flight behavior.

www.u-turn.de
 EVOLUTION NEVER SLEEPS
Appearances can be deceiving. Although the Gingo Airlite 5 is a conventional
airbag harness with a seat plate, it is packed with the knowledge gained from
previous generations. The result is our best ever airbag harness.

The Gingo Airlite 5 is a light yet durable harness with a seat plate. It’s perfect
for beginners and can be used from first steps at the training slope, to hike ‘n
fly and even cross country.

5 Sizes / 2,8 kg (Size M)

www.gingliders.com