Stuart Holmes climbed and flew his speed flying paraglider from Ama Dablam – a 6,812 m jewel in the Himalayan crown. Ed Ewing spoke to him at his home in England about the flight.

Cross Country magazine is off to Lausanne to attend CIVL’s annual meeting, where they will be discussing the future of paraglider design, safety and other subjects of interest to all pilots. If you want to ask CIVL a question, post it below and we’ll do our best to get it to the right person

The governing body of competition paragliding, the Commission Internationale de Vol Libre, otherwise known as CIVL, meets next week to discuss, among other things, whether or not to allow carbon technology in paragliders in competition.

The debate has been a rough one so far. After winning the Paragliding World Cup Superfinal in September 2009 with its BBHPP, Ozone revealed their winning paraglider uses flexible carbon rods chordwise across the glider. The result is a wing that glides better than anything else.

The Paraglider Manufacturers Association (PMA), which represents 28 manufacturers (lots but not all of the industry), cried foul, and argued that the carbon rods meant the BBHPP was not a paraglider as we know it, but a different type of glider altogether. (more…)

Michel Rudolf carried his lightweight paraglider up 8,000 m giant Manaslu and flew off the mountain. He talks to Ed Ewing…

Paragliding photographer Felix Wölk leaves the chilled-out lakeside retreat of Pokhara behind and gets too high, too fast in the big mountains of Nepal

Tumbled mid flight, Adam Parer found himself separated from his glider and in free fall cocooned in his hang gliding harness…

Paragliding filmmaker Alun Hughes tells Ed Ewing what it’s like to fly tandem with John Silvester in the Karakoram

Bob Drury meets Gábor Kézi and Pál Takáts to talk about life, acro and their new film Adrenaline and Turbulence
If you haven’t come across the names Gábor Kézi (27) and Pál Takáts (23) then you clearly haven’t been reading the acro news of this magazine or any other. From humble beginnings the duo have gone [...]

Read Part 1 here>>
Camila Antonorsi flew 120 km to set a new Venezuelan women’s distance record
I’m 28 and have been flying since I was 17
I’ve been competing internationally for the last two years at competitions like La Monarca 2008 where I was second woman, the pre-Worlds in Mexico (fourth) and World Cup in Brazil this [...]

Records tumble with promise of big days ahead
The upcoming season in Venezuela looks set to be a good one following the discovery of a new, record-beating site in the east of the country. Flying at the tail end of last season and just days before the onset of the rainy season, Micky Von Wachter and [...]

A series of choice cuts from Burkhard Martens’ new technique book on everything you need to know about cross country flying
WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT THE WEATHER FROM OBSERVING THE WIND?
As a supplement to personal weather forecasting, the winds can give important hints as well.
• In the Alps, low clouds coming from the south and [...]