XCmag.com stories of the year
The top 10 most popular stories from XCmag.com during 2010
The Cross Country Travel Guide – 23 of the world's best paragliding and hang gliding destinations
The articles in XCmag.com and Cross Country magazine don’t really overlap all that much – the magazine features much more indepth articles and features, and much more photography. But we do post important news items as well as product news and comp results online.
Using Google Analytics we can tell easily who’s looking at what and when. The top 10 is based on that, although we’ve taken out the ‘What’s in the magazine’ articles, which get a lot of hits, as well as the home page and other main pages. Did you see them all over the year, or what have you missed?
1 Paragliding tragedies in Spain
Tragically by far the most visited news story on our website this year. The sad, sad news of the death of Spanish acro pilot Alejandro Rodriguez Fernandez, who died after an accident at his home site in southern Spain on 28 March. The little brother of Raul and Felix, his death shocked the paragliding world.
2 Cross Country Travel Guide
Given away free to magazine subscribers at the start of the year as an information-packed A5 magazine, the first Cross Country International Travel Guide covered 23 of the best sites in the world. Released as a free download in the middle of the year it’s still being downloaded several hundred times a month.
3 XC360: Film Competition
Voting was fast and furious in our first short film competition, which we ran through our Facebook page. In 2010 the first prize was a Sup’Air harness. In 2011 expect it to be bigger and even better – with the winning film shown on the big screen at a yet-to-be-announced international film festival
4 DHV Cocoon Safety Advice
Germany’s free flight association issued a safety notice about cocoon harnesses, which we carried in full on the site. Pilots have been forgetting to close their leg straps before closing the harness. If you haven’t read it, read it now.
5 LK8000 Soaring Computer
A short news piece about the release of version 1.20 for the LK8000 caught the interest of many.
6 Under threat
Standardised rules of the air threatened the freedom of the skies in Europe.
7 Missing in Pokhara
Another sad story. German acro pilot Christoph Andreas Sattler, 26, drowned in Phewa Tal in Pokhara, Nepal, after a stunt went tragically wrong.
8 Serial Class debate
The Paraglider Manufacturers’ Association backed Serial Class in FAI Cat 1 competitions. A big turnaround from previous positions.
9 The new Sigma 8
Advance announced their new intermediate paraglider, the Sigma 8, would be available in early 2011.
10 Thermal Better
A Cross Country classic from the magazine archive: How to find the core of a thermal and fly better, by Mr Bob Drury.
The stats also reveal that over 30,000 pilots visit XCmag.com each month.
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Tags: Hang Gliding
January 2nd, 2011 at 8:32 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Sanders, Cross Country Mag and The Flying Effect. The Flying Effect said: Non-flyable today? Get cosy with your laptop and a cup of hot chocolate and catch up on XC-mag's 2010 stories. http://fb.me/ztHC460T [...]