Inspired by the Red Bull X-Alps but tailored to a larger number of paraglider pilots, Crossfly’s aim was for pilots to fly the French Alps from the southern Vercors to Mt Blanc, in five days.

Tolmin hosted the Slovenian Open Championship from 16 – 22 August. After four valid tasks ranging between 70 and 114 km distance, Primoz Gricar (SL, Aeros Combat L13) won ahead of Thomas Weissenberger (AT, Moyes Litespeed RS) and Gerd Doenhuber (DE, Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5). The second Slovenian was Peter Kejzar and third Franc Peternel, [...]

The Russian championship ran from 3 to 16 August in Middle Akhtuba (near Volgograd). 32 pilots flew six tasks, with Dmitry Russov (Ukraine) finishing first, Vladimir Leuskov (Moscow) second and Maxim Sadovnikov third. Natalia Petrova was first female. www.deltaplanerizm.ru/news/147

Following on from the success of the 2009 Annecy Expo, the 2010 event is already being brought together. With the support of the French free flight federation (FFVL) and local businesses, it will take place over the May bank holiday weekend at Doussard, Annecy (30 April – 2 May 2010). The big sports hall will [...]

The 2010 pre worlds in Montecucco, Italy, will be from 26 July to 7 August. This is the forerunner to the 2011 World Championships. More details will follow in due course. www.cucco2011.org www.parks.it/parco.monte.cucco/Eindex.html

Last year’s popular hang gliding competition, the Santa Cruz flats race, Arizona, USA,  has changed dates to benefit from lingering monsoonal moisture that will hopefully bring cumulus this year.  The dates are 20-26 September with a practice day on 19th. Competitors will be staying at the Francisco Grande Hotel and interested pilots are asked to [...]

Toby Colombé of Passion Paragliding set a new out and return tandem world record with a 168 km flight from Sorica in Slovenia into the Julian Alps

Parapentitis.com are running a new national competition in Oaxaca, southern Mexico from 13 – 16 November 2009. Pilots should pre-register online. info@parapentitis.com

White Air 09 is a huge sports and music festival which will be taking place in the seaside venue of Brighton, England, from 18 – 20 September. Visit their website and look at the enormous list of just about every outdoor / extreme sport you’ve ever heard of (and almost as many that you probably [...]

The dates for the next Bogong Cup are 16 – 23 January 2010, with registration, downloads and a practise day on 15th. As times are hard at the moment, it will be a no-frills event with a reduced entry fee over last year’s, but there will still be prize money of at least $1,200. To [...]

Woody Valley are very proud that Alessandro Ploner won the title of world hang gliding champion flying their Tenax3 harness. The Tenax3 has a completely new look to the Tenxax2, more adjustable, has better shoulder support and foot protection and wider pockets that are accessible from the inside. The front zip is sewed directly onto [...]

At the end of July, California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to save an additional $656 million from his budget to help the state’s cash crisis. $14 million of the savings will come from the closure of up to 100 of California’s 279 state parks, which could affect hang gliding and paragliding sites in the area. [...]

Flymaster will be launching its new Flymaster B1-NAV at the Coupe Icare festival, St Hilaire in September. The B1-NAV is a vario/GPS that was developed under the mantra ‘Navigation made Simple’. It features some of the tricks of its bigger brother F1 Nav+ and it’s as easy to use as the highly successful Flymaster B1. [...]

After two years development and test time Icaro proudly present the long awaited competition wing, the GTO Race. The company describe it as “A true high-performance competition wing with a sophisticated construction away from the mainstream gliders on the market”. They say its gliding and thermalling performance are unsurpassed, and handling is easy, direct and [...]

As a response to the success of the new competition prototypes, Mac Para would like to offer a  2010 Upgrade to owners of Magus 6s. The upgrade is a new riser system, which improves the glide at 50km/h and stability at max. speed. The new brake line geometry improves climb performance and handling in weak [...]

Mac Para’s performance intermediate glider the Eden 4 is now certified LTF 1-2 / EN-B in sizes S and XXL, completing the range which caters for all-up weights from 62 to 145 kg. www.macpara.com Got news? Send it to Cross Country magazine at news@xcmag.com Subscribe to the world’s favourite hang gliding and paragliding magazine Home

The Blue 2 is Team 5′s tandem wing.  Using a zipper to close the three middle chambers adjusts the size by around 4 m2, making it a very versatile tandem. Team 5 say the wing displays the typical Team 5 agility and handling and great launch and landing characteristics, very important in a tandem wing. [...]

Team 5 describe their Orange ST as the lightest steerable reserve system on the market. At only 2.2 kg it can bring loads of up to 130 kg safely back down to Earth with a max sink rate of 4.2 m/s (for loads over 110 kg), and 3m/s for less than 90 kg. www.team5.at

A new French brand of paragliders was created in January 2009 by ex-Airwave co-designer and test pilot, Pierre-Yves Alloix (R&D), and Mathieu Chabot (marketing), also from Airwave. They have two gliders certified and in production: the S’Cool is a low-level EN B glider, certified in S,M and L sizes and the S’Mile tandem is also [...]

Mac Para’s new performance glider, the Envy 2, is certified LTF 2 / EN C in sizes M and L. Made for cross country oriented pilots looking for relaxed flying and for pilots progressing from Intermediate gliders, it is a high performance, cross country glider with very high levels of safety and stability, even at [...]