Marcelo Ferro flew his hang glider 352.9 km on November 25

Hang gliding dominated XCeara 2009, Brazil’s big-distance paragliding and hang gliding competition, which ended on 29 November after a week of flying.

Strong winds hindered paraglider pilots, but Brazil’s hang glider pilots took advantage of the conditions to fly big distance from Quixada in Brazil’s north east.

Marcelo Ferro flew the furthest, hitting 352.9 km on 25 November. An east wind helped him hit a top speed of 121 km/h with 5 m/s climbs, as he covered the distance in a little under seven hours. It was his second 300+ km flight of the week – he had flown 333 km two days previously.

Two days later, on 27 November, Rodrigo Gerundo Cavalcante dos Santos and Erick Vils both flew past the 340 km mark to hit 344 km and 342.65 km respectively.

Erick, who had also flown 330 km earlier in the week, reported 60 km/h winds and 7 m/s thermals with similar sink. He hit a top speed of 139 km/h and covered the distance in less than six hours.

Rodrigo took things a little easier, taking six hours 18 minutes to cover his 344 km, with a top speed of 107 km/h. Both pilots took off at 11 am and flew at heights up to 2,800 m.

Earlier in November Brazil’s Kamira Pereira set a new women’s world paragliding record of 324.5 km launching from Quixada.

See the track logs:

Marcelo

Rodrigo

Erik

Anita Bjornsdottir and Aslaug Einarsdottir

Female Icelandic paraglider pilots, Anita Bjornsdottir and Aslaug Einarsdottir, are about to embark upon a two-year paragliding adventure with an added twist: to raise global awareness of issues such as women’s rights and gender equality, and to learn about the lives of women in different cultures. “We intend to approach this matter in a positive way, as well as taking certain risks ourselves to make our dreams come true”, says Anita.

Anita learned to fly in June 2007 and now has 100 hours airtime, but Aslaug has only three, having learned this summer. “That is why we are starting our project in Nepal in December”, Anita explains, “to gain more experience in stable air and friendly surroundings, before taking on the rest of the world”.

The YouTube clip above shows their planned journey and timescales, and the pair plan to begin just before Christmas, having given away or sold all of their posessions.

The project is in collaboration with UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) in Iceland. The women, both qualified graphic designers, plan to use their skills to m aintain a website for all to present their own definitions of freedom; to give women the opportunity to communicate to the world through words, photographs, videos and drawings, their views on freedom, ideas and dreams, which will then be presented as an exhibition.

Check out their website or facebook page for more information.

www.theflyingeffect.wordpress.com

U-Turn Bodyguard II XL now certified for tandem use

U-Turn have now had their XL Bodyguard II paraglider certified LTF 1 / EN A for solo and tandem use.

Representing, says U-Turn, the ultimate combination of safety and fun, the Bodyguard II incorporates U-Turns’s AFS (Active Flying System), which automatically flies actively for you, to a point. Developed alongside experienced flying instructors it was one of their innovations designed to create the safest glider possible for students to learn on. Despite this, U-Turn say, designer Ernst Strobl has managed to improve the performance and agility of the wing as well.

Thanks to the use of innovative, lighter-weight Porcher cloth on both upper and lower surfaces, the 34.2 m2 canopy only weighs 6 kg. The XL is certified for take-off weights from 120 to 150 kg, and is available in four color combinations.

www.u-turn.de

The Paraglider Manufacturers’ Association will be holding an International Paragliding Experts Symposium (i-PES) in Hausruck Wald, Austria from 11 to 14 November 2010.

Aimed at continuing the education of paragliding professionals from all over the world (developers, flying schools, dealers, importers and all other experts in our sport) it will take the form of 30 different lectures by experts in all sectors of paragliding (in English). The seminars will be complemented with a trade show with exhibitions from manufacturers and suppliers across the sport (the exhibition will be closed while the seminars are underway). The final day, Sunday 14th, doors will be open to members of the public.

The venue, the Robinson Club Ampflwang, offers 3 lecture halls accommodating up to 800 people, as well as 2,500 m2 exhibition space and accommodation for 500 people, with further accomodation options locally.

Ozone's BBHPP, PWC winner and inspiration for the R10. Photo: G Sabbioni

The Ozone test and design team will be releasing a new Open Class wing for competition well in advance of the start of the 2010 PWC Tour.

Ozone say that current testing has proven that this new wing is more accessible (easier to fly) than the R09 with performance matching the level of the BBHPP.

The new wing will be available in time for pilots to train with before the start of the 2010 PWC competition season. However, Ozone’s intention is to not release the wing too early since they want to keep the R10 ’out of sight’ for now. The performance has continued to improve significantly over the past 2 months, and we are still improving the design to ensure that the R10 will be the best choice for competitors in 2010.

The R10 will be available to all experienced competition pilots. Ozone say they cannot declare the exact price at the moment as they have never put a wing like this into production before. If you are interested please contact your local Ozone distributor directly. Certain pilots may be eligible for a special pricing structure based on the CIVL World Ranking. Ozone Distributors will have this pricing schedule when the glider is released.

Ozone will release more information as soon as possible, however for now this is all they can say: Stay tuned, and rest assured that it will be worth the wait. Upon the release of this new glider, interested pilots may contact their country’s distributors directly for the ‘Distributor Direct’ pricing information.

www.flyozone.com

We have a new phone number at the Cross Country Office:

As of now, we can be contacted on +44 (0)1273 256090

Sky Country MyStiC2

Sky Country’s high performance paraglider, the MyStiC2, surprised the Ukranian company when the size 26 achieved EN C certification – described by the company as “a new milestone in the high performance class”, they had expected it to achieve EN D. Sky Country say the MyStiC2 has “radical performance, excellent turning capability and good passive safety with such amazing high speed stability that it allows for aggressive use of the speed bar even in rough turbulence”. They say it is “an ideal choice for the ambitious XC or competition flyer”.

www.sky-country.com

Sky Country test pilot, Nicolay Solomko, wins Ukranian championship aboard the Evolution 09

Ukranian paraglider manufacturer Sky Country are celebrating a very successful year in paragliding competitions in 2009 with their wing, the Evolution 09, which they say has “again proven its winning potential”.

The Evolution achieved first places at the Russian, Ukraininan and Moldovian national championships; and first places at the Ukrainian, Kurai, Karpat, Donbass and Koktebel cups. In fact, Sky Country say, “there are very few Russian/CIS competitions which were not won by Sky Country pilots!”

The company’s test pilot, Nicolay Solomko, is now Ukranian Champion 2009, having flown a blinder on the Evolution 09 in the pre-PWC and Ukranian Open 2009 in Macedonia, whilst Vitaly Shabanov won the Russian Championship, also on an Evolution 09.

www.sky-country.com

We’ve slashed the price of the digital version of Cross Country magazine down to from £29.95 to £19.99! And we’re offering the current issue for only 99p!

Back issues from XC99 in March 2005 are also available for only £3.50 so now you can get you hands on our archived information at the click of a button.