It was the best flying summer the Alps have known. Record-breaking conditions, cloud bases for the first time rising above 5000m, enabling top landings on Mt Blanc. But conditions got stronger, more hectic than we’ve known before. This year, more people got hurt and killed than before. Is this the trend to come? Former hang glider pilot and University of Cape Town meteorologist Dr Bruce Hewitson tells Jaco Wolmarans to buckle up. It’s going to get worse

Life would be great if free flying involved simply hopping from one thermic core to the next. However, it doesN’t and even on a booming day, there’s always some grovelling to be done between cores. Staff writer Bob Drury takes us through what to do when you’re caught crosswind between thermals.

The spiral dive is one of the most effective rapid descent manoeuvres in emergencies. But they can also kill. Bruce Goldsmith takes a look at what’s going wrong

Cross country flight and competitive flight – two different ways of flying? In his continuing series, hang gliding guru Christian Ciech takes a look at the strategies involved in breaking records

Situated in the mid-Atlantic, even further north than Scotland, Iceland may not seem like the ideal place to fly but where there are people and hills, you always find pilots. Bruce Goldsmith spends a day with the Reykjavik flying club

Ace Hang Gliding photographer Felix Wolk shows us how to rig a camera for that most classic of hang gliding perspectives, the wing mounted shot.

The Paragliding World Cup 2003 By Xavier Murrillo.

If you are at least 1.95 metres tall and your first name started with the letter ‘A’, then you had a chance this year to compete for the title of World Cup champion. If you are called Zoro or Zigur and are 1.55 metres short, then forget it!

World hang Gliding rally Competition

Rally Mundial de Vol Livre – Ceará, Brazil
September 3 – 7, 2003

‘Pulsar’ is the name given to any cluster of small, energetic stars that rotate fast and emit energy. Translated into paraglider design, this could be well be the recipe for a pocket rocket. Jaco Wolmarans checks out Windtech’s new DHV 1-2 Serak replacement to see if the name fits