XC131: the latest issue of Cross Country magazine

The latest issue of Cross Country magazine ‘XC131: the mountain issue’ has just gone to print. As you can guess from the title we’ve focused the Sept/Oct 2010 issue of Cross Country magazine on mountain flying.

Accompanying XC131 is a FREE A2 colour poster that explains how valley winds work.

FREE poster with XC131 on how valley winds work

The 84-page glossy colour extravaganza kicks off with a six-page gallery dedicated to mountain flying, with contributions from the legendary lenses of Maupoint, Scheel and Busslinger.

With your appetite thoroughly wetted towards adventures in the big stuff, flick onwards to ‘Mountain Flying’, the first main feature of the issue. Cross Country’s outgoing editor Bob Drury gathers some of the best names in the sport to create an eight-page focus on how to fly the mountains. With special attention given to understanding those mysterious beasts the valley winds, it’s a must-read for anyone serious about flying in mountainous terrain.

Staying on topic, ex-paragliding world champion Bruce Goldsmith looks at some of the techniques he’s used over the years to bring him his world title and three British Championships, when he explains how to race in the mountains.

XC Files, Cross Country magazine’s tuitional section, looks at the effect of a wind gradient, the performance gains of pod harnesses, and long-time hang gliding weather expert Denis Pagen challenges our resident meteo columnist Honza Rejmanek on his explanation of dust devils last issue.

As well as a look at the safety of 2 mm sidewires on their wings, hang glider pilots also get a closer look at the goings on in the European championships, then get closer still with the new European champion Gerolf Heinrichs.

If thrills are your thing then be prepared to be overdosed when you read the firsthand account of Cross Country magazine’s resident acro columnist Pal Takats’ experiences of learning to Infinite Tumble a tandem with Gabor Kezi. The bit where the glider explodes and they plummet into freefall will make you shiver; the onboard images of it happening are amazing!

And there’s more…

Find out what the test team thought when they took the Ozone Delta and ITV Awak Tandem for a spin. Read about the 312 km flight and the PG pre-worlds in Spain’s Piedrahita, the latest from the PWC, the El Yelmo festival, iPhone apps for flying and the sad discovery of Russian Alexey Ashurov, the pilot who disappeared in Bir, India last Autumn.

XC131 is available in paper or digital format as part of a yearly subscription or as an individual issue.

Click here to buy it.

Sponsored by Gradient, the XC Africa Open paragliding competition will take place at De Aar, South Africa, from 27 November to 4 December 2010.

The XC Africa Open is an open-distance tow competition. Numbers are restricted to 50 pilots, of which twelve will be kept open for visiting pilots until 20 November. There are an additional 10 wildcard places available.

Part of the R1,000 (around 100 €) entry fee includes a winch release, T-shirt and local map, and some money will also go to help support a local raptor conservation project.

A wireless internet connection will be available to upload tracklogs.

Sponsors: Gradient, XContest, FlyDeAar, Potties B&B and Vodacom.

www.flydeaar.co.za

Image from the Jura Open 2009. Photo Claudia Ammann

The Jura Open and Jura Light Open hang gliding competitions take place in the Biel region of Switzerland from 20 – 24 May 2010.

The Jura Open encompasses the Swiss Class 1 and Class 5 Championships, whereas the Light Open is open to all pilots and glider types including Skyfloaters, and is intended to encourage less experienced competitors (no sports license required). Shorter tasks will be set for the Light Open, for which there are only 30 places.

You can enter using the online form on the Swiss Hang gliding & Paragliding Association (SHPA) website, the closing date being 1 April 2010.

www.juraopen.ch

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Cross Country magazine has been at the forefront of writing about, photographing and reporting on hang gliding and paragliding around the world for more than 20 years. We love flying as much as you do.

Doing it doesn’t come cheaply – writers, photographers and film makers have to make a living like everyone – and we try to pay them the market rate for their work.

That means we can’t release all the content from the magazine onto the web – the free content model simply wouldn’t work for us, and there would be no more XCmag.

But while we do, where appropriate, retain copyright of everything that we publish, we do however release some articles online, and have a 10 year archive of material on adventure flying, comp reports, glider reviews and more on our site.

We’re more than happy for pilots, schools and organisations to use this content online too – it’s what we’re here for after all – but please do it fairly and don’t rip it off and claim it as your own. A mention of Cross Country magazine and a link, either to the site or the original article is all we ask.

Please don’t reproduce anything from the website in print without asking first: email Bob Drury at editor@xcmag.com. We’re more than happy to help out schools, clubs and pilots – we just like you to get in touch first.

Thanks very much

Blue Skies!

Bob Drury
Editor

• Got news? Send it to us at news@xcmag.com. Fair use applies to this article: if you reproduce it online, please credit correctly and link to www.xcmag.com or the original article. No reproduction in print. Copyright remains with Cross Country magazine. Thanks!

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