The third and final leg of the British paragliding championships was held at St Jean de Montclar, France, from 16 – 22 August. In a week of fantastic flying conditions, five multi-turnpoint tasks ranging in distance from 41.2 to 77.5 km, were flown. Frenchmen took the top four spots in the Open, with Luc Armant [...]

American paraglider pilot, skydiver and hang gliding instructor, David Llewellyn, has developed a passion for Latin America, having lived in Mexico for a number of years and being currently based in Ecuador. He is now ready to pursue his dream journey through the Americas, from Toronto in Canada to Punto Arena in Chile, sampling the [...]

Apco’s Libra has now been certified EN C in L size (along with the S and M that have already passed). An XS is now also available, certification pending. www.apcoaviation.com

A change in the law in France means that non-French paragliding and hang gliding instructors with students in France must now register and apply for an annually renewable licence.

Ozone’s designer Dav Dagault has flown a record breaking 333 km on 20 August 2009 across the French Alps.

The Forbes Flatlands HG Championships is on again next January (Forbes Airport, NSW, Australia), and the organisers say it will be bigger and better than ever. 10 days of competition flying, $10,000 worth of cash and prizes. 2 January 2010 will be practise day, and the event will then run from 3- 12 January 2010. [...]

Ager in Spain hosted two hang gliding competitions back-to-back in July. First off, the pre-Europeans ran from 11 – 18 July. This FAI Cat 2 event for flexwings (class 1) was the ‘trial run’ for the 2010 Europeans. Six out of a possible eight tasks were run, and Spain’s Blay Olmos jnr (Moyes Litespeed S) [...]

Following on from last year’s successful event, the Lookout Mountain Flight Park in Tennessee, USA are again hosting a womens hang gliding festival, which will be from 24 – 27 September 2009. Organisers say “September is a beautiful time to fly. We generally have a mixture of light wind conditions and soaring conditions making this [...]

Ozone designer David Dagault made the most of the curent awesome French cross country conditions, when he took off from Col de Bleine in the French Maritime Alps yesterday (20 August) for a superb flight over the Alps landing just beyond Sion in Switzerland, 333 km away. If the distance is confirmed, it beats Franck [...]

On 19 August 2009, eleven French pilots, including the first woman and first tandem, top-landed Europe’s highest mountain, le Mont Blanc.

Bulgarian Orlin Dimov won the Sopot XC Open in his home country, ahead of Poles Adam Grzech and Kacper Kowalski.

Bruno Croué  from France has flown 245 km on an Axis Mercury from Peña Negra to Soria, Spain, breaking the site record that he set a year ago. The flight lasted 7 hours 45 minutes and his maximum ground speed was 91 km /hr. This is Bruno’s third 200 + km flight, and Bruno intends [...]

German company Free*Spee have created a speed bar that uses a clamp, enabling it to be easily adjusted in flight with one hand. It sits tidily below the harness, out of the way for take off, and then when you need it you just push on it and it slides easily out. Length adjustment is [...]

Entries for the Gradient XC Africa paragliding competition, to be held ffrom 14 – 19 November 2009, are flooding in and there are only 26 places left. The emphasis in this CAT2 cross country paragliding competition is definitely distance flying. During last years event, 19 pilots flew their personal best and a new SA Ladies [...]

Niki Yotov of Sky Nomad in Sopot Bulgaria, the local organiser for the 2009 XC-Open World Series in Sopot Bulgaria, 8- 15 August, is making a special offer for the entry fee for pilots from Bulgaria or those who have flown in the Sky Nomad Open competition before. For qualifying pilots, the normal entry fee [...]

The legendary skywalk Night Fever took place for the fourth year in a row on 13 June in Austria’s Bregenzerwald. The super-simple and spectator-friendly competition format just requires that all pilots must be in the air at the pre-determined time (5pm in this case), and the last pilot to land is the winner. Spectators could [...]

Apco have launched the Mayday 18 SLT and 20 SLT (superlight), which are based on Apco’s very popular Mayday 18 and 20, but with weight and volume drastically reduced thanks to the use of the latest lightweight hi-tech components and materials. Apco’s range of super-lightweight reserves now covers weights of up to 130 kg. Apco [...]