Now that the local political situation has much improved and Babadag is back to its former glory as an internationally renowned flyers’ paradise, the organisers are pround to announce the dates of the 9th Oludeniz International air Games. These will be held from October 15th - 19th 2008.

For more information, visit www.babadag.com or www.oludeniz4u.com

Already no strangers to Cross Country readers, Scott Mason and Kevin, the Egyptian vulture he trained, have had a busy season at the Maya Devi bird refuge on the banks of lake Pokhara, Nepal. For those of you hungry for a parahawking update, Gin gliders bring you an exclusive interview with Kevin, interpreted by Jerome Maupoint. To read the interview go to www.gingliders.com/team/under-the-wings-of-kevin.php

To view more of Jerome’s beautiful photographs, www.parahawking.com

The All-Africa Open that took place in Porterville, South Africa, from December 16th to 22nd 2007 has been documented on video, and is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFmfSDRk6mY.
160 km from Cape Town and close to Langebaan Coastal Wind/Kitesurfing
paradise, Porterville has been described as one of the most reliable sites for cross country paragliding.

For the results of the Open and more information on flying in the area, see www.porterville.co.za

Hello! I’m completely addicted to XC flying. I’m going to write this blog as an occasional diary, writing about the highs and lows of the UK season as it progresses. I won’t be posting that often as, well, we don’t get that many good days here in the south of England but when we do, well, they’re often the most mind-blowing days of my life. Here goes my first post…

Today was the first day. From Devils Dyke, I could see right across the plains of Sussex to the defined brown ridge of the north downs. The light was a stronger light, and over the patchwork of farmland and villages, the shadows of cumulus chased each other east. A flock of seagulls burst into the sky, wheeling and cawing their way in the weak spring thermal, a mess of white over the dark shadow till they broke the skyline and disappeared, soaked into sky.

It was windy, and off the hill, but today was definitely the first spring day of promise. Looking at the seagulls working hard over the trigger, my mind started visualising the whole threee-dimensional magic of the way air moves on an unstable day. I’ve been flying since I was 15 and I guess this way of thinking is hard-wired now, I can’t help it.

A car crunched over gravel, and I remembered the countless other times I’ve sat in my car waiting for the wind to drop, refusing to leave the promise of thermals and cross-country. This early in the season is a magical time. Everyone’s waking up to it again. Back in February 1995, Innes Powell thermalled out of the Isle of Wight and flew five miles across the Solent to the mainland! Someone usually punches out a 150+ km flight sometime in March. Anyday now, it’s going to be on…

In line with the market appetite for lightweight equipment, APCO now announce two new additions to their emergency parachute range - the Mayday 16 Light (LT) and Mayday 16 Superlight (SLT). Weighing in at 1490g and 1220g respectively, both have been load-tested to 100kg making the SLT the lightest reserve parachute on the market rated to this loading. (more…)

Dag Sundman of Sweden was placed first in the overall rankings of the Ozone Caribbean Challenge aboard his Advance Omega 7.

On the first day of competition Dag flew his Omega 7 from Casabito to Santiago, setting a new site record, and establishing a lead that remained unchallenged.

58 pilots from 13 countries took part in the event, held from February 18th to 23rd 2008 in the Dominican Republic.

Congratulations to all pilots !

For details of the record-breaking flight and all results, see www.caribbeanxc.com

An event for both hang glider and paraglider pilots, the annual Montegrappa Trophy will again be running over the Easter weekend, March 20 - 24, in the Bassano area of Northern Italy. It is a popular, well organised event and is seen by many as the start of the competition season. It is a FAI Category 2 event as well as being an Italian Open National Championships. Entries can be made online at http://www.vololiberomontegrappa.it/ (more…)

The Airwave HIMALAYA was specially designed for use in professional mountain expeditions. They believe it to be the first ‘normal’ sized glider (over 20sq m) with a weight of under 2kg including the risers. (more…)

Airwave are sponsoring the Airwave Club Challenge in the UK for 2008.

This is a friendly club level competition which takes place as a series of weekend events throughout the year. Orginally known as the Airwave Challenge in the 1990’s, Airwave has again put its money where its mouth is and is sponsoring this friendly event. (more…)

Airwave are pleased to announce that their new intermediate, the Sport 4, has been certified to the new European Standard EN 926 as well as to the German LTZ class 1-2 in all sizes (S/M/L/XL).

Airwave say ‘The SPORT 4 uses  new technology fed down from our World Champion winning competition wings; we have managed to create  an intermediate glider with siginficantely higher performance.  Improved pitch and roll stability make this  extra performance easy to use – it literally floats to the top of the stack with minimal inputs and glides away from the pack’.

http://www.airwave-gliders.com/en/paragliders/sport4/index.html