Christian Ciech is interviewed in the landing field after winning Task 3

Sunday saw a big task set at the Hang Gliding world Championships: 166 km through the big mountains north of Laragne, France. Cloudbase was low though, so pilots were squeezing through a ‘letterbox’ between cloudbase and mountain plateau of some 200m.

Switzerland’s Christian Voiblet, who came second for the day, described it as a “great task … safe flying, strong – just how we like it.”

Christian was beaten by a single point by Italy’s Christian Ciech who raced around the course in just under 3hrs 10 minutes.

Manfred Ruhmer (AUT) came in fourth, and has slipped to second place overall behind Ciech.

It wasn’t all good for everyone though: Team USA saw Zac Majors come in third, but Jeff O’Brien, Task 1 winner, was penalised for flying through airspace. He scored zero for the day after his tracklog showed him thermalling up in a parachute dropzone, instead of landing as rules dictate.

His appeal will be heard today, Monday 29 June. He has cited rain, a parachute plane and strong lift as reasons why he flew on – to get out of the area as quickly as he could.

In total 44 pilots made goal. With a good weather forecast for the rest of the week the Worlds is shaping up not be the Austrian walkover that many thought it would be.

Follow the action online at www.chabre2009.blogspot.com. Results at www.chabre2009.com

FlyAdventure and Fly Ecuador schools are organising the seventh edition of Acrolatino, billed as “The ultimate paragliding acro meeting in South America, uniting pilots from all over the world”.

It will be held at the famous Yahuarcocha Lake, Ibarra, Ecuador, from 26 – 29 November 2009. SIV and acro courses will also be run by the two schools, both before and after the event, giving pilots the opportunity to test and develop their own abilities.

www.acrolatino.com

Aircotec are now supplying a budget version of their popular XC Trainer: The XC Trainer Easy features a 20 chanel GPS, high sensitivity vario, speed sensor, 18 hours’ flight storage capacity, user friendly software and large buttons and display, in a 150 g durable and resistant case. Its lithium ion battery lasts for 40 hours. If you find you need a more technical model, for instance to fly competition tasks with, it can be upgraded to the XC-TrainerOLC, XC-TrainerDual or XC-Trainer3DG versions.

www.aircotec.com

Fly De Aar lodge will be hosting the XC Africa from 14 – 21 November 2009, at De Aar, South Africa.
see www.flydeaar.co.za for more info

The 2009 West Coast Paragliding Championships took place at Woodrat, Oregon from 31 May – 5 June. There were only four tasks, due to bad weather.  Matt “Farmer” Beechinor and Josh Cohn took 1st and 2nd place on their Niviuk Icepeak 3’s, with matt Dadam (Gin Boomerang 6) in third. Peter Warren won the Serial class on his Airwave Mustang 5, and Melanie Pfister the women’s category on a UP trango 3.

results http://flyxc.org/2009WCPC.htm

Round 1 of the US Paragliding Nationals took place in Dunlap, California, from 27 April to 2 May. Great weather allowed five tasks of 45 to 80 km length, involving a combination of mountain and flatland flying.  Brad Gunnuscio (Niviuk) came first, followed by Eric Reed and Rob Sporrer, all on Niviuk Icepeak 3s. John Van Duzer won the serial class on a UP Trango 3, and top female was Meredyth Malocsay (Axis Veus II).

Results at www.usparaglidingnats.com

Round 2 will be held in Utah from 16 – 22 August.

Gradient BiGolden2 tandem paraglider

Gradient have developed a special tool for ambitious XC tandem pilots and record-seekers: the BiGoldenXC. The sporty brother of the new BiGolden2, the wing differs slightly from the serial Tandem. A slightly bigger span of the profile improves performance, speed and sinkrate. The drag is reduced by the use of special competition tandem lines, and glide ratio in high speed gliding could be improved by using a competition trimmer system. The wings is slightly smaller than the BiGolden2 42. Gradient cite the BiGoldenXC’s strengths as an even more agile handling and a sport class-like effectiveness  in thermals.

www.gradient.cx

The first Festival of Spain dedicated to paragliding and flying, the International Air Festival of El Yelmo (FIA), will open its doors on July 2 to 5 to hundreds of pilots from all over the country and abroad, to celebrate its tenth anniversary with a program packed with activities and shows – all free for visitors.

The 10th edition of El Yelmo Festival, held in the village of Cortijos Nuevos, Jaen (Andalusia), will feature the annual Air Film Festival –one of the few contests for productions related to aerial activities in the world– with more than 25 films from 12 countries. The Festival was born in 1999 as Air Film Festival and although it now covers a wider scope of activities, the films are still the heart of El Yelmo and make it a great place to learn about ground-breaking aerial feats, epic trips on the lightest aircrafts or flying adventures in the most remote corners of the world.

The coordinator of El Yelmo Festival, Esperanza Chinchilla, remembers that the organization of the event intends to support the small film industry and filmmakers dedicated to flying, “and at the same time promote the sport of paragliding”.

Visitors to El Yelmo will find plenty to see and do, from acrobatic displays by paragliders with the SAT Team, the Acro Twins or the JustAcro team, or paramotors with world champs Ramon Morillas and Mathieu Rouanet; to the 2nd Para-mountain race for the most ‘athletic’ pilots, or virtual flight demonstrations. At the vendors fair the pilots will find many of the paragliding and paramotor products available in the market, but also a day-cinema where the films in competition will be screened for those who cannot watch them by night under the stars. As usual, there will be concerts and parties every night and, hopefully, the smooth evening soaring conditions for paragliding until dusk.

Paramotor pilots are welcome at El Yelmo too. There is a paramotor field from where guided raids will start in the morning to fly over the picturesque scenery of the nearby Natural Park. A Freestyle Paramotor exhibition will see some of the best pilots in the world dragging their feet at high speeds and playing with their wings near the ground.

The 10th Air Festival of El Yelmo starts on Thursday 2 of July at 19:00 hours and ends on Sunday 5 at 2 pm. Registration is free for pilots and companions, but a valid pilot license and insurance is required to fly during the event.

www.fiaelyelmo.com

FreestyleAir, the Swiss Acrobatic Paragliding Championships, is to be held at Lake Lucerne, Beckenried, Switzerland, from 28 – 30 August 2009. New judging criteria will make for interesting watching, and the sloping festival grounds and lake promenade, and the Klewenalp mountain launch, will offer spectators the best possible view. Musical entertainment will be in the form of a live acrojam session and local restaurateurs will be on hand to offer refreshments in the festival grounds and on the Klewenalp, where there will be a party on the Saturday evening.

www.acro-zone.com

With only three weeks to go until the race start date, two of this year’s Red Bull X-Alps competitors, Thomas de Dorlodot (BE) and Ramon Morillas (ES) have been on a training mission in the Alps. As well as some cardio and stamina training, they been reccying the route – by paramotor, flying the length of it and surveying the turnpoints from above.

You can read about this and Thomas’ other exploits on his blog, http://thomasdedorlodot.blogspot.com/