This year’s Brazilian championship took place in Sierra da Moeda, Belo Horizonte, from 23 - 30 August. Following six good tasks, Sol Tracer pilots Frank Brown and Kamira Pereira were crowned male and female Brazilian champions, for the 8th and 4th times respectively.
www.abvl.com.br
www.fmvl.com.br
Results:
www.skydriver.com.br/Geralopen.pdf
The 2008 XC-Open World series finished with the end of the Brazilian round in Andradas on 25 September. This completed the set of three rounds (with Manilla, Australia in February and Piedrahita, Spain in September). The top 8 scores were counted (of 16 tasks flown) and the winners were as follows:
Open Class - Hans Bausenwein - DE (Gin Boomerang 5)
Women - Joanna Di Grigoli - VE (Gradient Avax XC 2)
Serial Class - Edinson Alvarez - CO (Niviuk Peak)
Sport Class - Mark Graham - GB (Axis Vega 2)
Fun Class - Danilo Ribeiro Mexicano - BR (Ozone Rush 2)
Dates to put in your diary for 2009’s event are: manilla, Australia, 14 - 21 February and Piedrahita, Spian, 30 August - 6 September.
Thomas latzel’s new film, “Reise zum Horizont”, “Journey to the Horizon”, premiers in Munich’s Arri cinema on 25 October.
The film tells the tale of world class pilot, Ewa Wisnierska’s relationship and journey with 69 year old Dorte Black, whom she helps to realise her lifelong dream of flying. It has been described as a deeply honest, human and personal film, and has been entered in the Swabian film festival.
You can watch the trailer now at www.reisezumhorizont.de
Ewa Wisnierska and Dorte Black
XC reader, Antoine, has installed a webcam on the roof of his house in Talloires. It looks up at Planfait and les Dents, and also across to Montmin, creating a panoramic view of the whole of the main flying area. The website is updated every half hour between 8am and 5pm.
www.florimontane.fr/planfait.htm
www.florimontane.fr/fr/latest/webcam.html
Want stress-free, in-flight radio communication, in a solid, simple to use system? The XConnect puts effortless radio comms at your fingertips.
The two-part ‘Press-To-Talk’ system integrates with both open and closed face helmets. A tough button, with an audible click, attaches to your finger by a 3.5 mm rubber coated wire that feeds down your sleeve. The wires are pre-coiled to absorb the unwanted yanks and pulls that so often break these systems. The headset detaches from the main wiring system so you don’t have to remove the wires and radio when you just want to take your helmet off.
After ten years of guiding Bob Drury rates the XConnect as, “the strongest and easiest to use system I’ve ever had.â€
The XConnect retails at £54.95 €69.95 $99.95 and is available now from www.xcshop.com
Advance importer and team pilot, Jinoh Kim, has won the Korean PG XC league aboard an Omego proto.
Jinoh finished nearly 500 points ahead of the second pilot at the end of 11 successful tasks. Top placed female pilot, and 26th overall, was Junghun Park, flying an Omega 7. Advance would like to congratulate both pilots and to wish them all the best for the 2009 world championship in Mexico in January.
Niviuk are very pleased with the fantastic results that their pilots have had around the world, and would like to congratulate them all and wish them all the best for next year. Results include:
Marco Littame, Italian champion (Icepeak proto) and Mauro Maggiolo, 3rd (Icepeak XP)
Urban Valic, Slovenian champion (Icepeak 3 proto)
Romain Flammier, 2nd French youth championships
Urban Valic, Simon Issenhuth, Jean marc Caron 1st, 2nd and 3rd French Open St Andre.
Simon Issenhuth, French champion 2008, the youngest ever!
Jon Chambers (UK) 1st place in the Serial Class at the British Open, St Andre, France (Peak)
Joel Debons (CH) 5th place at the Swiss championships (Icepeak Proto)
The route for the 2009 X-Alps race has been announced. Organiser Hannes Arch says it is the most technically challenging route yet.
For the first time, instead of beginning at 2653 m, athletes will begin in the beautiful setting of Mozart’s hometown, Salzburg at only 424 m. The race will start with the ascent to the Gaisberg (1265 m) from where competitors will hopefully get to continue the course beneath their wings. They will then have to round turnpoints in Germany (Watzmann), Austria (Grossglockner), Italy (Marmolada), Switzerland (Matterhorn), France (Mt Blanc) and Monaco’s Mt Gros, before hopefully gliding onto the beach at Monaco, 818 km in a straight line from the start.
Only 5 of the 30 athletes enjoyed the moment of landing on the Cote d’Azur in 2007’s event …
There have been record numbers of applicants for the 2009 event, and organisers are still hard at work selecting the successful participants. The list will be posted on www.redbullxalps.com very soon.
FlySpain will be travelling south from thir usual Andalucian base and running a trip to Morocco from 7 - 17 January 2009 to fly the low Atlas mountains near Marrakech and a combo of coastal and inland sites around Agadir. Numbers are limited to 8, and the trip costs £680 including accommodation, transport and coaching.
They have also found a new Travel Insurance provider offering sensible deals of £23 per week. See their website for details.
For the second year running Dean Stratton is the US paragliding champion, having flown his UP Edge to victory in Owen’s Valley in September.
Josh Cohn (UP Edge) and Pete Schaefer (Nivium Peak) finished second and third in a very closely fought race with only 6 points between first and third placed pilots. Meredyth Malocsay (Axis Venus II) was first female.
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