The British Hang Gliding Nationals and the associated open competition will be run immediately after the Pre-Europeans (19-25 July) in Ager, Spain. Information can be found on www.rogallo.co.uk

The FAI World Air Games, the biggest air sports event in the world, is about to open in Turin, on 6 June. For a week until 14 June the exciting and often adrenaline-filled world of air sports will be showcased. The ten sports represented are aerobatics, aeromodelling, ballooning, experimental aircraft, gliding, hang gliding, helicopter flying, [...]

Lloyd Pennicuick is raffling his 2007 Red Bull X-Alps wing, in a draw that takes place on Saturday afternoon (6 June), so if you haven’t yet bought tickets, you still have a few days left to do so! Tickets cost 20 Ausralian dollars each, and all funds raised will help Lloyd with the expenses associated [...]

The Italian Hang Gliding Championships and Open runs from August 17 – 23 at Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Registration and further information at http://italianidelta.emiliainvolo.it

From 21 – 29 November, Ceara in Brazil will once again be hosting the XCeara, famed for twelve years’ excellent cross country flying and record-breaking achievements. Over its 12 year history, not a single day has been lost to unsuitable weather. Places are limited to just 50 pilots, so get in touch soon if you [...]

Described by the organisers as “the biggest free flying rally ever held in the world”, the Sosertao is a “cultural and sports project” that will feature free flying pilots from all over the world, aiming to cross the entire 1080 km of the Brazilian northeast, the Sertao, from East to West, and to break speed [...]

Simon Ford reports on the first round of the British Paragliding Cup, which took place at St Mary’s Loch from 9 – 12 May. Saturday we were subjected to wind and rain of the best Scottish tradition so local guru Dave Thomson gave a talk about flying in the Borders. In the evening we were [...]

The Susanville Air Fair takes place at Susanville Municipal Airport, California, USA, on 15 August. Organisers invite you to “Fly your plane, drive your car, or ride your horse into the friendliest little airport in the west!” There will be a pancake breakfast, and air and classic car show featuring P51 Mustangs, Ford Mustangs, Thorp [...]

The Red Bull X-Alps forum is now online for your thoughts, comments, predictions and messages of support for the athletes. There are both English and German language threads to choose from and everyone is welcome to post their opinions. Check it out under the Interactive section on www.redbullxalps.com

The first round of the British Paragliding Cup took place in the Scottish Borders from 9 – 12 May. Wind and rain meant that only one task, a 45 km run from Broughton Heights to Hawick, was possible. Martin Sandwith was the first BPCup pilot in, ahead of Andy Plimmer and Tim Bridle, with Chris [...]

An error was made in the description of the UP Ascent 2 in our news piece back in April. In the piece, we described the glider as using UP’s Shark Fin technology, as the original Ascent did, but this is not the case. We apologise to UP for the error, and to readers who have [...]

You can now download the new Digifly 63.6 firmware for all the Leonardo and Cartesio family instruments from their website, www.digifly.com, and the new VLTools Configurator software. This application allows you to set up and configure your vario from your PC.  You can also totally modify its sound profile, e.g. making it smoother as the [...]

The Downteam Challenge is a category 2 acro comp, which takes place in Ã…re, Sweden, from 6-9 August 2009.It comprises the Open Nordic Championships (open to all acro pilots), the Swedish Championships (open to swedish acro pilots) and the Norwegian cup (all acro pilots). The water touch competition is also open to all pilots. www.downteam.com/challenge2009 [...]

In the absence of the popular Ozone Chabre Open this year, the organisers have launched the Ozone Chabre XC Challenge, an online contest running from 1 April – 12 September 2009.  To take part, fly from Laragne, Aspres or Sederon before 12 September, upload your flights to the website: www.xcontest.org/laragne/ and you could win a [...]

The 10th International Air Festival of El Yelmo takes place from 2 – 5 July 2009 in Cortijos Nuevos, Jaen – Andalusia, Spain. The event will include the 2nd Freestyle Paramotor Open, 10th Air Films Festival, photo contest, acrobatic displays with Mathieu Rouanet & Ramon Morillas (PPG), SAT team, Acrotwinz, etc; 2nd Para-Mountain Race, demonstrations [...]

The Time has come again for all Paragliding Pilots who want to fly FAR!! The World record site – Fly De Aar is hosting an open cross country competition again! 14 – 21st November 2009 Registration now open at: www.flydeaar.co.za

When the rain starts to fall in the next Red Bull X-Alps, one man will be smiling. Bob Drury meets the Romanian endurance fiend Toma Coconea

ITV, in association with Frigorifix, have created a video demonstrating their speed wings (the Awak 16, and Pil-Pits 16, 13 and 11) on a coastal site in a range of wind speeds, up to 70 km/h. So now you can get visually acquainted with the wings from the comfort of your computer chair! Cick here [...]

The Czech Open 2009 was held in Levico Terme, Italy, from 10 – 16 May. Four valid tasks, ranging from 58.5 to 71.8 km, saw Czech Tomas Brauner (Advance) take the top spot, followed by Primos Suza (SL, Mac Para) and Karel Vrbensky (CZ, Mac Para) in third. Petra Slivova (CZ, Mac Para) was top [...]