USHGA Paragliding Vol6/Iss3 May/June 1995

Vol. 6 #3

l June 1995

~

East Coast Distributor P.O . BOX 451 GLEN COVE, NEW YORK l 1 542 I

Phone: 516 I Fax: 516 I

USA

676-7599

676 - 0106

THE

fflll'QUALIN

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Phone:208/726-1100 Fax: 208 / 726-1149

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E OF CONTENTS

FEATURES:

Vol. 6 #3

May I June '95 10.

Glider Reviews

by Bob Schick

A 5 Flight Designs

12.

Super Clinic '95

by Jim Rice

an overview

16.

Cloudbase of a Cu Nim

by Mike Harris

A pilot's report from the Super Clinic

23.

Go The Xtra Mile

by Alex Louw

251.87 K in South Africa.

Cover photo by Mike Eberle Pilot Simon Nighy, 1994 11 th ranked pilot in the World Championships, also a New Zealand guide pilot.

Flying off Treble Cone, Wanaka, New Zealand.

24.

Advanced Canopy Control Training

by Jocky Sanderson

A report of correct input for flying.

28.

Instruction without the Training Hill

by Fletcher Anderson

Teaching Tandem Published Six Times Per Year Publisher - Fred Stockwell Art Director - Fred Stockwell Editor - Claudia Stockwell Editorial Assistance - Shari Asplund

32.

Active Flying

by Dennis Trott

part 3 in a series

35.

Stereo gram

by Bill Dowell

Overseas Correspondents Philippe Renaudin - France/US Vincene & Willi Muller - Canada Jose Hayler- Great Britain/ PWCA James Brown - Japan

Departments:

U.S. Correspondents Jan Ala - Ken Baier - Alan Chuculate Mike Eberle - Bob Schick

Paragliding Magazine 8901 Rogue River Hwy. Grants Pass, OR 97527

Phone 503 5821467 FAX 503 582 3522 Subscription Rate for tbe USA: $26.00 Canada and Mexico: $32.00 Europe and So. America: $40.00 overseas destinations: $44.00 (postage included)

5.

1995 Calendar

6.

Flight Lines

18.

N ew s & Noteworthy

36.

USHGA N ew s

38.

USH GA Ratings

46.

51.

Paragliding Sch ools Safety Info.

52.

Classified Ads

Vol. 6 #3

NEXT DEADLINE: June 19th for Vol. 6 #4

agazine s pu ished for members of the paragliding community as well as other interested parties. It is the official pu tcation for the n (USHGA) news for paragliding. Contributions are welcome however, Paragliding Magazine reserves the right to edit any contributions. Further, the t to edit any advertising which may be deemed objectionable or damaging to publication by the staff of the association. The magazine and the ~ ~nsibilityior the contents of any published articles, advertising or for the opinions of its contributors.

N ed to contribute articles, photos and illustrations concerning paragliding activities. II the material is to be returned a stamped self addressed retum ff you wish us to keep the material on file please send duplicates. Notification must be made of submission to other paragliding publications. Absolutely no tos or other published materials of the magazine may be reproduced in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher.

1993 PARAGLIDING PUBLICATIONS INC. All rights reserved. ·

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 3

The Mirage is Available in 4 Sizes and Colors.

Mirage 27 with Blue/Magenta Shown Above .

Mirage 23 Blue/Aqua

Mirage 25 Blue/Violet

Mirage 30 Blue/Yellow

,JJ1Uffl~ 3 - 11 Summer Lake JFly-in, Lakeview Oregon. Entry Fee $5 .00 that's all! with all the money going to the Parks Dept. This is one of the best sites in the west.

Possibly the site of the '96 or '97 Nationals. Camping at Lakeview or Summer Lake. Call 415/ 868-1330

9 - 11 Southwmd Soaring Clinic Call BOB Schick 80ln83-8188

19 - 25 22nd Annual Telluride Airmens Rendezvous Paraglider pilot's come join us for Colorado's oldest foot launched flying festival. Class I+ lO hrs. minimum for am flying. Class l +25 hrs. min. and sponsor for pm flying.Class II +40 hrs min.and sponsor for for midday. Foreign pilots must have equivalent ratings, all pilots must be USHGA . Festival features World Aerobatic HG Championships. Entry fee $95.

Call Scott for info. 303/728-4098

23 - 25 Southwmd Thermal and

AILES DE K '95 TRIPS Alpine Marine Flying Adventures

National Championships &Fly-in Chelan- Washington. Competition Practice days are June 29 and 30. Contact Paragliding Promotions Inc. 206/628-6937

1 - 4 Southwmd Soaring Clinic, For more info call BOB Schick 801/783-8188

20 - 24 Midnight Sun Fly-in The Arctic Airwalkers are hosting this fly-in at two excellent sites near Anchorage, Hatcher's Pass and Alyeska Ski Resort. Contact Bruce or Tammi for information and registration materials, 907/563-Il-<LY

21 - 24 Southwmd Thermal and

XfC Clinic Call BOB Schick 801/783-8188

A1IJ<G1U~T ~ 5-6-7 1995 Canadian NationarParagliding Championships. Contact Randy Parkin

XfC Clinic Call BOB Schick 80 l/783-8188

403/ 256-3039 or Willi Muller 403/ 932-6760.

24 - 25 23rd Annual Cochrane Meet, Cochrane, Alberta, Canada. For hang glider

11- 13 Southwmd Soaring Clinic

and paraglider pilots. Contact Vincene Muller at 403/ 932-6760 for more information.

The European Alps Switzerland I France July - August '95 call Christian Mullack at 206-432-8900

A 1U<G1IJ~iTu 4-111995 1st Annual Toaring Clinic in Hawaii For HG and PG pilots of all levels. Tasks are; launches of Mauna Kea 13,796' and ridge soaring the Kahala Hamakua Coasts Camping is available at $10. a day. Contact Achim Hagemann Phone I Fax 805 962-8999

~~~fil~

23-0CTl

Owens Valley at its best' Thermal & XC Clinic, offered by Kari Castle.

Open to Strong (skills) Class I and Class II pilots. for more information, Call or fax 619/ 872-2087

25 - 27 Southwmd Thermal and XJC Clinic Call BOB Schick 801/783-8188

PWCA Meet Dates Zillertal, Austria JUNE 4 - 10 Pre PWC Granada, Spain June 7 - 10 Piedrahita, Spain JULY 15 - 21 Gstaad, Switzerland AUGUST 14 - 20 St. Andre, France SEPTEMBER 4 - 10 Pre PWC Linzhou,China Sept. 14-20

The following is a paid advertisement.

Facts about AT Sports (Airtek Paragliding Inc.) The facts are; 1) Airtek has never claimed any association with any distributor in the US nor do we intend to in the future.

2) Airtek has only begun producing paragliders in San Diego since January 1995. All paragliders sold by Airtek during 1993-'94 (with the exception of the Shadow) were produced by the factory PARACOND, in South Korea.

These gliders were all tested by ACPUL using the following information: Manufacturer - Paracond Name of Model - French word for "Devil" - Changed to IMAGE French word for "Rhythm" - Changed to Mirage (Airtek changed the names to English names more suitable for the American Marketplace).

3) "Experimental Aircraft" fall into a specific category designed by the FAA. Paragliders fall into the FAA category of "Ultralight Vehicles" and are subject to FAA Regulations part 103. These regulations define an Ultralight Vehicle including the following: Sub part A - General, 103.1 Applicability; A. is used or intended to be used for manned operation in the air by a single occupant; B. is used or intended to be used for recreation or sport purposes only; C. does not have any U.S. or foreign airworthiness certificate,

Marcus Salvemini Owner of Airtek Paragliding Inc.

4) There are no federal or state laws requiring any form of airworthiness certificates or standards on paragliders (see 3 above).

Therefore, you cannot incur any liability by teaching with and or selling a paraglider that does not meet a nonexisting "standard".

5) There is no legal basis for NOT selling Airtek Paragliders.

6) No known incidents have occmTed with the AT paragliders (Image or Mirage) that could possibly put the safety of the glider or the integrity of the ACPUL tests in question.

Finally, AT Sports now manufactures the Mirage in San Diego and because of it's popularity as a safe, intermediate sport/recreation glider, we will continue to produce it for several years to come.

Starla and I would like to thank all our dealers and customers who have worked with us in the past, and we hope to continue supporting you in the future.

To secure the future of paragliding, we are committed to growing with our sport safely.

Yours sincerely, Marcus Salvemini Airtek paragliding Inc.

PARAGLIDING, THE MAGAZINE• PAGE 5

Re: Competition Comments Dear Paragliding Magazine, I would like to respond to the letter by Tim Hall in the Competition Comments category. As a competition pilot myself, I am pleased to read that more pilots are interested in competing. The more pilots we have competing, the better it is for all of us.

Tim addressed 2 main concerns: fairness and safety in competition. These are very valid concerns. There are some additional points that I would like to address that Tim may not be aware of.

First the topic of fairness. The concern is the availability of glider models to all competitors ("prototype" and "experimental" gliders have a very limited availability). The proposed solution is to require certified gliders. This however is not a fair solution. The cost for manufacturers to certify paragliders is high. If a manufacturer cannot offset this in sales, they do not certify the glider (due to a sales volume too small to justify the cost of certification). Requiring certified gliders in USHGA sanctioned meets would discriminate against pilots that are too heavy or too light to fit in the common glider size weight range.

As an example, I fly a Nova Sphinx 131. This glider is available to the flying public as a competition class glider. I flew this glider in the 1994 US Nationals. However, since it is not certified by DHV, AFNOR, ACPULS, or SHY, I would not be allowed to fly it in the 1995 US Nationals, if certified gliders were to be required. The largest certified Sphinx is the 128. Its maximum certified flying weight is 264 pounds. I fly at 270 pounds minimum (this does not include any ballast). This would prevent me from competing in my own US Nationals (and I am not the only one affected).

Limiting competition to certified gliders would not be fair.

··v··". .

'

A fair proposal would be to require gliders that are readily available to the flying public. This would allow any competition pilot of any weight or size to compete in his/her own US Nationals. It would also eliminate the unfair advantage of "prototype" and "experimental" gliders. Any competitor could purchase and fly any glider model that any other competitors were flying.

Next is safety. What is safe? Our feet on the ground!

Anytime we leave the safety of the ground, we take an inherent risk. Can this risk be minimized? How much risk should we be allowed to take? Is it adequate to require that all gliders be certified? Should we draw the line at "standard" class (read DHV I) gliders? Or should we draw the line at "performance" or even "competition" certified gliders? Where do we draw THE LINE? And, just because a glider has not been certified is it any less "safe" than a "certified" glider? Maybe the line could be drawn at gliders that are "readily available to the flying public" that have passed testing done by the manufacturers. These could be larger, smaller, or in-between sized gliders of models that have been certified (ie, Sphinx 131 and Sphinx 128).

We already have too few paraglider competitions. Let's not degrade the validity of those few meets by eliminating pilots through unintentional discrimination. Let's give everyone a fair chance to compete, to learn, and to have our best flights. Competition is a great forum to learn, have your best flights, build friendships, and promote the sport. Let's encourage more pilots to participate in competition. Let's promote rules that will encourage more people to host competitions, not avoid them.

Sincerely, Mark Ferguson, Class III/ 1994 US Nationals Vice-Champion/ President, Ball Variometers.

Boulder, CO

<CRI

.

'

Paragliding Magazine is the official publication for the United States Hang Gliding Association paragliding news, and covers what's new and who's who. We publish the magazine six times per year.

We also have back issues available for purchase. The cost of back issues is; $5.00 @ U.S.-$8.00 Overseas or you can get Vol. 1 #1 - Vol. 4 #6 (15 copies) $45.00, (includes postage in the U.S.) while they last.

The cost for a private subscription is as follows: (all overseas subscriptions are Airmail) United States $26.00 ...... Canada & Mexico $32.00. . . . . . Europe and So. America $40.00 . . . . . . Otber Overseas destinations $44.00 Enclosed is my check ----

or money order ----

in U.S. Funds, (payable to Paragliding Magazine)

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PAGE 6 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

To; Paragliding l\{agazine 8901 Rogue River Hwy. Grants Pass, OR 97527 Ph. 503 5821467

Dear Editor, Over the past three years, all US National Paragliding Championships and Southern California Paragliding XC Competitions (Elsinore meets) have been run using the Paragliding World Cup Rulebook. As organizers of the 1995 U. S. Paragliding Nationals, we have set a precedence by adopting the use of the USHGA Competition Rulebook. We chose the USHGA Rulebook to support USHGA's long term plan to fully integrate paragliding into programs that are already established and proven with hang gliding. With the adoption of the USHGA rules comes the difficult task of implementing them in the Paragliding Nationals. New rules for this year include the use of an approved USHGA meet steward, a new scoring system, and the use of "certified" gliders. While the integration of the first two rules will be relatively simple, the third rule has caused some rumblings in the paragliding community. The problem is the USHGA rules don't clearly define the meaning of "certified" and US paragliding pilots are assuming that it refers to AFNOR or DHV certification. If interpretation of "certification" is intended to be AFNOR or DHV certified then across the board enforcement is not feasible and creates arbitrary discrimination.

Presenting The

According to the 1995 USHGA competition rulebook (chapter l, sect. 1.3, EXCEPTIONS), exceptions to the rules are not allowed when the rules are definite and feasible. If compliance is not feasible, the Meet Organizer, the Meet Director or at his discretion, another official(s) appointed by him shall make the necessary exceptions and shall also inform the competitors by issuing or posting a dated, written addendum to the written rules After reviewing the 1995 USHGA Competition Rulebook and considering input from new and experienced U. S. competition pilots and U.S. distributors of paragliding equipment, we are making the following written addendum to the rules as authorized by the 1995 USHGA Rulebook. ·'All gliders as flown in the US Paragliding Nationals must be tested by the manufacturer and commercially available from the manufacturer to advanced rated pilots." This will eliminate giving an unfair advantage to a pilot who is sponsored by the factory and has access to prototype gliders which are not available to the other competition pilots. Prototype gliders will not be allowed in the U.S. National or Sport Classes, but can compete in the US Open. Our decision was based on the following criteria.

One, the certified glider rule was enacted back in the 70' s to prevent people from flying home built hang gliders in competitions, due to the large number of accidents that occurred. So basically the intent of the rule doesn't apply to the situation today. Also, our definition of a manufacturer is a business entity that has produced and commercially sold at least 50 wings and that they provide wings that would reasonably meet the needs of USHGA class I and class II pilots. This would eliminate any home built prototype wings.

Two, if the spirit of the rule is to be applied, then it discriminates against pilots who are over 200 pounds. It costs a manufacturer $5,000 to independently certify each size of glider, and when three new gliders are released in four or five sizes, the costs are very high. Since manufacturers exist under tight profit margins it may not be cost effective to certify the large sized wing of which only a few will be sold. This doesn't mean the wings haven't been thoroughly tested by the manufacturer though. An example of whom this would affect in this year's Nationals is the Ferguson brothers, Mark and Paul. Since Nova didn't certify a Sphinx for their size with DHV or AFNOR then if DHV or AFNOR certification was required the Ferguson brothers would not be able to compete in the US Nationals. We believe this is not the intent of the rules.

This paragliding certification process greatly contrasts to the certification of hang gliders, which is completed in the U.S. at a much lower cost by submitting a video of the advanced maneuvers. No independent testing is done by a certifying body. Also, hang gliders have a larger weight range so manufacturers can justify the expense to certify the couple of wings which will cover the whole weight range the pilots require.

Three, there are many factors that could cause a wing to be out of DHV or

~;..,;.;.;cc!\ performance

._........--!\ safety

easy ~!\fun ..........,.;;..;;=:!\ advantage ..........,.;;..;;=:!\

Argentina - Tel: 01-794-5151 Australia - Tel: 02-365-6194 Austria - Tel: 07-584-2712 Belgium - Tel: 071-84-36-50 Brazil - Tel: 021-264-1990 Burundi - Tel: 22-75-91 Canada - Tel: 403-932-6760 Chile - Tel: 022-46-67-41 Colombia Tel: 01-288-8788 Cyprus - Tel: 05-325-743 Denmark - Tel: 074-822-436 Ecuador - Tel· 02-4 73-039 Finland - Tel: 031-943-952 France - Tel: 01-34-67-66-67 Greece - Tel: 01-202-4684 Holland - Tel. O1 0-467-3951 Hong-Kong - Tel: 901-860-670 India - Tel. 011-686-8614 Indonesia - Tel: 021-780-4766

Israel - Tel: 972-9-334322 Italy - Tel: 0437-479-040 Japan - Tel· 047-425-4612 Mexico - Tel: 05-558-3355 New Zealand - Tel: 09-298-0683 Norway - Tel· 05-651-7749 Peru - Tel: 014-452-130 Portugal - Tel: 01 .. 483-4722 Reunion Island - Tel: 42-16-33 Slovenia - Tel: 061-127-4476 South Africa - Tel: 011-402-121 O Spain - Tel: 085-357-696 Sweden -Tel: 0515-711-121 Switzerland - Tel· 01-946-2444 Turkey - Tel: 0252-616-6801 U. K. - Tel 0759-304-404 U.S. A. - Tel: 818-367-7210 Venezuela - Tel· 02-242-5152 Zimbabwe - Tel: 0026-34-726-759

setting future standards ~

viation ~JJilj

Mail: P.O.B 2124, Halon, 58121, Israel Tel. Int: 972(0)-9-334322, Fax. Int: 972(0)-9-619051

- - - - - ------· AFNOR certification, including some changes which are impossible to detect. Examples of these factors include using the wrong harness with the wing, breaking a line and tying it off, using trim tabs, using a different set of lines, or modifying a previously certified wing to fly more efficiently.

All these factors have been commonly accepted practices in previous competitions. Even flying a new wing for a short amount of time can cause the wing to be out of certification due to line shrinkage and stretching.

Four, to demonstrate that a wing is still AFNOR or DHV certified, the pilots would need all the necessary measuring equipment required by their manufacturer to prove that the lines and the wing meet specifications. Also the Meet Director must have the necessary technical knowledge and information from each of the large number of manufacturers worldwide to verify the certification. For instance, Flight Design stretches their lines first, then measures the length of each line under a certain weight load. After each line is

measured under this method, the percentage change in length between each row of lines (A's to B's, B's to C's etc.) is compared to a specific chart for that type of wing. Only then can the verification of certification be made. This process can take at least a couple of hours per wing and each manufacturer has their own separate measuring techniques. If only the top 20 finishing pilots were required to verify certification, this would require an incomprehensible amount of extra time, money, and preparation, and could delay the competition results and awards ceremony This is something the pilots and the organizers shouldn't be expected to deal with.

Five, no manufacturer will release a wing that they haven't thoroughly tested and whose safety characteristics aren't satisfactory. They would be shooting themselves in the foot if they did. By requiring that the wing be tested by the manufacturer and that it be commercially available to advanced rated pilots will make them accountable for their product. The

mo•jo (mo'jo) n.

a magica[ se[ection of f[ight gear from 'Tetas,

risky business environment of the paragliding industry will keep the manufacturers honest because negative publicity could do irreparable harm to their business.

If "fairness" is the main issue, that a pilot shouldn't have an "unfair" advantage due to superior equipment, then our rule will eliminate the main obstacle: the use of prototype wings. The other factors (trim tabs, skinny lines, special harness, etc. ) are a matter of personal preference and their effectiveness is minimal and is shadowed by the skill of the pilot. The only way an AFNOR or DHV certified wing could make a contest "fair" is if we all competed on exactly the same wing with the same equipment. In reality, this is unrealistic. It only promotes economic and political self interest, which should be minimized to promote the spirit of competition.

We feel that our definition of a "cettified" wing will help promote 1995 U.S. National the Competition in a positive and "fair" manner and we hope to see many pilots, both new and experienced, competing in Chelan in

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1995.

Bill Gordon and Joe Gluzinski, Co-Organizers, 1995 US National Paragliding Championships, Chelan, Washington P.S. We have just received confirmation that Robby Whittal, Hans Bollinger, and Stefan Stiegler, the '91, '93, and'95 World Paragling Champions, will be attending.

Instructors Newsletter Greetings Instructors, This letter is in regards to a communication gap that can be filled by an instructors newsletter.

Many instructors have been in the hang gliding and paragliding business for quite some time. There is a commitment we are responsible to deliver to our students.

Instructors are not solely in this business for themselves. We must be student-oriented in our practice and become outcome-oriented in our teaching methodology.

The evolution of paragliding is growing quickly. Instructors must

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HOURS: MON-THURS Noon to 5PM Central Standard Time.

be at th e cuttin g edge of th ese chan ges. The knowledge we gain from these changes must be conve ye d to o ur s tud e nt s. Be tt e r equipment, improved techniqu e, and prog ress ar e esse ntial to growth and safe ty of o ur sport.

The di sse min a ti o n of from instructor to instructor is vital to enhance our role as educators.

Instructors have needs apa11 from the general pilot community. As edu ca tors we nee d to speak th e same language so we minimi ze any confusion of what we deli ver.

We can achieve this by a quarterl y o r bim o nthl y news le tt e r th a t a ddresses probl e m s , te a chin g techniqu es , new pro du c ts a nd bu s iness iss ue s. It s hould be a forum th a t w ill ex press yo u r needs, philosoph y and know ledge. and can be shared throughom the instructor community.

We need continuity. Our students need to h av e c onfi de n ce a nd res pec t to ward instruc to rs as a who le. Sharin g in fo rmati on and kno w le dge in a ll as p ects of paraglidin g, from s it e access to techniqu e , is our best me an s to achi eve thi s .

Parag lidin g Magazine and I wo uld like your comments and suggesti ons on thi s futur e publi cati on . Pa rag lidin g Magazine has volunteered to publish all letters and articles relevant to this topic in a new secti on dedi cated to this forum . It will be called th e "In structors Notebook Pages," and will be published on an ongoing basis until such a time that the newsletter becomes a reality. All in structors are in vited and e ncourage d to parti c ip ate . W e look forward to your response.

An y corres p ond e nce ca n be addressed to: Greg Kelley PO Box 45 11 Vail, CO 81658-4 154.

REGION 5 IS BACK!! !

Dear Fell ow pilots,

states of Region 5 and dis tribute them equi tabl y amo ng neighborin g regio n s. No rth a nd So ut h Dakota became part of Reg ion 7, w hil e Wyo mi ng . Mo nta na. a nd Id aho became part of Region l .

Although the Directors of Reg ion 1, Gene Matthews and George and CJ Sturtevant , have done a fine job representing us, it was felt that beca u se th ey we re so fa r away (W ashi ngton state) they co ul dn ' t reall y relate to the particul ar conce rn s of th e m o u ntain s ta tes .

Th erefo re, a concerted lob byin g effort was put forth by concerned and defi ni tely non-apathetic pilots at the March 1994 USHGA BOD meeting in support of reinstatin g Reg io n 5. B ow ing to th e ove rw he lm ing s u pport. th e BOD decided to reinstate Region 5 with a sli g ht modi fica ti on. Effec ti ve January I , 1996. Reg ion 5 will be reinstated cons isting of Wyoming, Mont a na, and Ida ho. Nort h and South Dako ta will remain part of Region 7 since there are apparently less than 10 pil ots in those two states together.

Wh at thi s means is th at the 254 ha ng a nd p arag li d in g pi lots in W yo min g . M ontana , an d Ida ho will once agai n have a voice and a vo te fo r the ir pa rti c ul ar fl yin g needs. wants, and conce rn s. Thi s is our chance to get involved and sh ow th e USHGA BOD that we are not apathetic. Thi s also means th a t we will need to e lec t a Regional Director to represen t us at the semi-ann ual USHGA BOD mee tin gs and take care of other important tasks concerning ratings and safety issues. There will be a call for Regional Director nomi nati ons over the summer, with the elec ti on taki ng place in th e Fa ll .

Watch fo r more inform atio n and ba ll ots to be pub li sh ed in Paragli din g, Magazin e and Hang Glidin g Magaz ine. Here is o ur chance to get involved with our national organization. to make our vo ices hea rd , an d to d ispe l o ur apath etic reputati on. Your vo ice ca n m ake a di fference and yo ur vote wi ll count.

Let' s hear from all 254 of you 1

If you are a hang or paragliding

pilot in Wyo min g , M o nt ana. or Idaho, th is anno unce me nt co ncerns you!! It was a sad day when, at the March 1993 USHGA BOD meetin g. du e to a ll ege d apath y among the pilots of Region 5, it wa s dec id e d to rea ll oc at e the

Since rely.

T racie Fifer.

Reg io n 5 Class TI Instructor

... automatic vario changeoYer "This new function makes the tactic offlight much easier. Without this essemiai information I would have sped through many good thermals! Nothing is more frustrating than missing a thennal during a critical valley crossing! It's hard 10 believe the instruments indication at times, bu tit's belier than chancing it to feeling alone. Who really knows the polar of their glider by heart!? No - in the sky it's better to fly than calculate, so l'!l leave that job to my COMPETITION!" AV - BASIS - SP The best - just got better! +· speed-indication for gliders and poragliders Standard features ore : + Memory for 5 fligbts + absolute ond reference altitude + adjustable sink audio

+ 200 hours on battery + ASI acoustics + digital overage vorio + 4 different clomps available

AV CLASSIC/COMPETITION New features from July '94 0 dote O peak lilt + 25 flight memory and direct printout now on the AV-CLASSIC for : 0 peak altitude O flight duration + oulomolic changeover between nel-vorio + mox . sink rote available in Memory (during sink) ond overage vorio (during lilt). + nominal speed indication (speed to fly vorio) + flight stop-wotrh + printout of oil instrument settings This user friendly instrument , easily prints out directly on EPSON/IBM or KP-printers vio serial or po roll el ports .

The CLASSIC/COMPETITION supports the pilot with the maximum flight information available today!

~BRAUNIGER

PARAGLIDER REVIEWS * * PARAGLI DER REVIEWS** P Hi ho neighbor, it' s me again . Time once again to delve into the wonderful world of Wing Reviews . In this installment, I will be giving you my "for what it's worth " opinion of the A-5 , manufactured by Flight Design.

The A-5 is an entry level wing that is also intended to serve the needs of the intermediate level pilot in his/her quest for air time, on their way to experience and high performance needs.

Review of the Flight Design A 5

by Bob Schick

Ground Handling- Launching- Landing The A-5 is definitely an all-around step up from previous models.

In no wind, it pops up - no worries, clean and easy even if you are

lazy and don' t spread it out good. Messing around on the ground is fun. With the Split A configuration , inputs get quick response out of the root or tip of the wing. High wind is no problem. Landing is a breeze. It may take you a while Lo get used to the Split A, but I am sure you' ll like it. You can eek out the glide all the way to frnal and stop on a dime.

Roll- Pitch - Glide All of these characteristics have been improved with different line cascading than the A4. The roll rate is quicker and more definite.

Brake pressure is not an issue at all. The pitch stability is solid, even hands off. Glide performance has also been improved from the A4.

Sink and Speed Sink rate is my pet peeve. I prefer a good sink rate over most other characteristics, and the A-5 has it. For an intermediate level wing, you won ' t be disappointed. Speed range, along with a good sink rate, is a double bonus. Good job, Flight Design. You can use this wing for XC flights and not compromise stability.

Wangs and Thangs As most of you have figured out by now, I love to get radical in the air. While I didn ' t do any death spirals, I did just about everything else. Oops, maybe I shouldn ' t say this, people might think I'm nuts (oh sure). The A-5 recovered nicely in pilot and thermal induced coUapses. Frontals, asymmetrical, A/B line staUs, and yes, the big daddy, full stall! Wow! I guess the certification test pilots do know their stuff. Anyway, I'm sure you will feel secure in turbulence. If not all of the above. Disclaimer: Kids don ' t try this at home. I am a professional, ya right!

My 2¢ Worth

A-5, photo courtesy of North American Paragliding Mike Eberle has been extremely patient in waiting for me Lo put pen to paper on this wing. Mike has supplied loads of information on line/ wing design and other materials to enable self education.

PAGE 10 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

~GLIDER REVIEWS * * I'm sure he will supply the same stuff to you , so ask for it! Call your Flight Design rep. and arrange a test flight or 10. I am sure you' 11 like what yo u fl y. Thanks Mike.

So long for now and don 't forget, Fly it before you buy it !

Technical Information: (Manufacturer supplied) A-5

22

26

30

Area:

22 sqm

26 sqm

30 sqm

Span:

10,60 m

11 ,52 m

12,37 m

Cells:

27/54

27/54

27/54

Aspect Ratio:

5,1

5,1

5,1

Take off wt:

65-85 kg

81-105 kg

96- 125 kg

Vmax:

47 km/h

47 km/h

47 km/h

Min. Sink:

1,1 mis

1,1 mis

1,1 mis

Best LID:

7,8

7,8

7,8

Certification:

standard

standard

standard

North American Paragliding specializes in importing and distributing these professional paragliding products.

• Flight Design Paragliders • Brauniger Flight Instruments • UYEX Safety Helmets • Meindl Flight Boots To further enhance your paragliding experience, we offer: • Year-round instruction for pilots of all levels.

• Full service repair loft.

• Retail storefront with classroom facilities.

• An array of Worldwide Adventure Tours!

"I think I forgot to zip up the glider bags before we left!!" submitted by Trent Miller

For additional information, or the name of your nearest dealer, please contact:

North American Paragliding I I I East Fourth Street • Post Office Box 4 Ellensburg, WA 98926 USA Ph: 509 925 5565 Fax: 509 962 4827 Toll free order line: I 800 727 2354 Dedicated to the safety and growth of Paragliding.

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 11

T

A Trip to the clinic.

byJimRice

My eyes flipped open at 1:59 AM. [ had been waiting impatiently for the Super Clinic in Mt. Shasta , near Redding, California, since I signed up three months earlier, now it was finally time to go. The plan was to leave Lake Tahoe at 2:30 in the morning to make it in time to tly all day Saturday, the opening day of Super Clinic '95 . We did just that in spite of a blizzard that forced our crammed Subaru into four wheel drive until the snow turned to rain.

Discouraged, but unwilling to let a Jillie thing like weather ruin our plans, we pressed on, even if it meant sacrificing the last fresh powder of the year. Then we got a sign . The eastern sky turned beautiful , the sun came up, the rain quit, and a huge hawk soared above us. I woke up long enough to babble something to my partners, John and Laurie, about what a good omen a hawk is.

Ten miles from the N.E.E.D. camp, where the clinic was being held, it started to rain again. The N.E.E.D. camp is an environmental science camp for kids to learn basic ecology . The clinic has this cool summer camp feel to it. We slept on bunk beds and ate in a mess hall. I kept expecting a big dance where I would get my first kiss but it didn't happen. Anyway, we an-ived Saturday morning to find about 200 pilots standing around in tligbt boots and suits all intently concentrating on the rain. Ed Pitman was the organizer of this mammoth paragliding venture and had taken care of every possible detail. .. except the weather. We felt betrayed and angry, ftrst we blamed God, then we found out that the weather had been like this consistently for the last four months, and we blamed ourselves for being gullible enough to go to Mt. Shasta in April.

Fearing an angry mob riot, Ed, who was looking more bummed than anyone, got John Yates to throw a couple of reserves.

After lunch the rain suddenly quit and ten seconds later the vans and cars were loaded full . Most of us went to a launch called Southfork. The wind and weather in the L.Z. looked great but when we got to launch all we could do was drool over the perfectly manicured gravel that spits you out two thousand feet over a beautiful lake until you land just on the other side. Unfortunately, it was blowing about 35 MPH so instead of flying we sat on launch and had an informative Q and A session about thermaling with Kari Castle and Mike Haley. The only people who got off the first day of the clinic were the beginners at ONO, the local training hill, but the weather maps looked promising for the next three days.

The clinic is broken down every morning into small groups that are led by some of our best instructors. Each group concentrates on specific aspects of our sport. Everything from indoor lectures on reserve deployment and packing to towing, to para motors, to mountaineering with your wing, is covered. Sunday morning I was assigned to go thermaling with world record holder Kari Castle from the Owen s Valley. Our group piled into Gene Wood ' s van and drove two hours to a site called Yellow Butte.

Gene is a knowledgeable local who graciously gave up his Sunday to drive so we could fly. He must have made twenty trips up and PAGE 12 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

Lori Van Meter launching at Ono Liz Hern in background

down the rutted out road taking pilots to launch. not to mention the Jong drive to and from camp, and he didn ' t even bring his wing.

This sort of local hospitality was the norm; NCFLPA (Northern California foot launched pilots association) members were so good to the traveling pilots it was almost scary . They lent everything from their time to their vehicles to their equipment; without them the clinic wouldn' t have been possible and nowhere near as much fun. The long drive was a great opportunity for a bunch of strangers to get to know each other, especially since the van had no seats.

pulling big ears the whole time. That was when the safety guides on launch shut Yellow Butte down. John kept a cool head and eventually got down with nothing worse than a frazzled look on his face.

Then the whole brigade split for the training hill named ONO, properly pronounced "OH NO!"

We were met by a clan about the same size as ours already on launch, then we partied. ONO is an instructor' s dream.

Green grass slopes down 500 feet at an angle slightly steeper than a beginning gliders sink rate. a dirt road runs up the side, there was There were a few other groups that decided to go to just enough wind to reverse and get a bump off the ridge but still Yellow Butte that Sunday so together we probably had sixty pilots smooch sailing for the first flier. I'm pretty sure everyone in the Super Clinic was at on launch. The wind pattern for the next ONO. Either they were Kari Castle gave our thermal clinic a great demonstration. three days was set. It aiming for the spot: or First she climbed about 2000' over launch, started out as sled just hanging out with rides in the morning, the pilots from everythen she sank to about 200' above the ground, where in the sunshine. which felt great to all then went back up just as high as the first time.

Radios played; jokes the pilots who were were cracked; a steady worried that the parade of gliders went down and a steady parade of locally owned weather might ' ve kept them from flying ac all. Midday the wind pickups brought us back up. This was truly one of the best vibes picked up a bit and small thermals started popping. Greg Smith was I've ever experienced. the first pilot to stay up and soar, then everyone was getting to soar a little. Then Kari Castle, who had been patiently waiting for the perfect moment, gave our thermal clinic a great demonstration.

I awoke Monday morning with Penguin wildly babbling First she climbed about 2000 ' over launch, then she sank to about something about perfect weather for a glass off and my sleep walking the night before. I was still asleep so it was a little confusing, 200' above the ground, then went back up just as high as the first but I guess I had gotten up and got into his bed when he went out to time. She must have repeated that process four or five times . A bit later the wind got even stronger and thermals really started to heat the bathroom. Penguin is a fifty-five year old paragliding, snow boarding, computer hacking, fire chief. I asked him about his nick up. John Vanmeter was the last to launch before we called it quits . name and he said, "I dream about the same things penguins do.'· He went up just as high as Kari did, the only difference was he was

303/278-9566

Cn '95 S IP e O

@

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Il 1IJl J1 ~ ontinued ...

"What' s that ?" I asked. ·'Flying!""

Penguin and I had the same clinic that day. It was thermaling again, except today it was bei_ng led by Steve Bickford and we went to a new sight called Herd Peak. Herd was about three thousand feel from the ground unless you hiked to the upper launch. then you got about another grand. It' s an amazing place to fly. You launch on the side of the mountain , then hook around and suddenly you ' re ridge soaring a 2500 foot cliff. the type of thing Wile E. Coyote would fall off.

There are pinnacles, caves and canyons. and you can lly over it all.

On my first night . I played it safe to get the place wired, and promptly sunk like everyone else who flew in the morning. We drove back up for a second go at it a_nd found the wind and thermals were starting to cycle up the hill pretty good. All the heavies couldn't resist the conditions and had to put helping out on launch aside. They blasted off and proceeded to show everyone else how it' s done. Kari Castle once again lead the pack with Greg Smith and a tandem co-pilot not far behind. He llew way beller maneuvers with a more flawless landing than most people can ever do alone. About ten of us decided to hike the grueling. trail-less mile to the second launch. Seven got off, then it got too strong for the rest of us who had never flown the place before. We decided to

luckily it wasn' t attempted. l couldn ' t help but notice that the sewing machines all had names like. White Boy and Mad Max. The next morning I was scarfing a magnificent breakfast of pancakes with strawberries. eggs and bacon (the cooking staff takes good care of you). when I caught word that the legendary Hat Creek Rim was the place to be. I went and looked at what clinic I had and was glad to find I was scheduled for Kari Castle's fun competition , at the rim. When you get to the place you see why paraglider pilots flock there. It' s a beautiful, slightly horseshoed ridge with a landing that is partially wet marsh but mostly green grass. The marsh turned out to be a blessing in disguise. possibly saving one back.

The only time we saw Mercy Air, the medical helicopter service the clinic kept on call for the event, was when one of the Boston boys came spinning in real hard and piled into the swamp.

As hard as he hit everyone figured he broke his back, but the next day he was walking and smiling . Everyone was impressed by the smooth and speedy rescue. I felt safer flying at this clinic than 1 feel at my home sites. How could you not with the superb rescue service, about twenty in tructors. and 200 wind dummies?

Hat Creek Rim put on the best show as far as the places that I flew. Once again we saw 2000 fool sledders in the morning; then the wind almost totally dropped, not puffing over five for more than an hour. But then all of a sudden ... it happened. Mike Haley was a leader of the multitude up to cloud base, but what was really spectacular was hi s landing. Pulling the only top landing of the day, coming through popping thermals first in a B-line then big ears, missing a tree lop by about half an inch, then setting down smooth and collected in an area about the size of your average VW bug . The thermals and wind were really starting to build.

One local had a heart slopping co!Japse real low. barely pulling it out. and things still seemed to be getting gnarlier. Greg and Kari decided Lo shut down launch and wait for things to mellow. That was a great decision but it didn ' t do much to help the hundred or so pilots in the air..

Stress was quickly mounting. There were big ears and B-line stalls, suddenly seemed everyone who was so desperate to get up now felt the same about getting down. This was probably due as much to airborne pilots listening to distressed ground radios warning of blowing over the back and collapses in the L.Z. as it was the changing weather. That was when the accident that involved the helicopter occurred.

Mike Haley giving a demonstration to a group at Ono.

kick back and watch the show in hopes of a mellower evening.

Sure enough. at about six it glassed. The sun was getting low directly in front of us. the clouds were huge billowing cummies. the wind quieted and wam1 air was wafting up in our faces. The remaining hikers launched one at a time off into the sunset, making as many passes as we cou ld on the cliff then straightening out and heading down the 4000 foot slide. It was so smooth I let go of the brakes. laid forward in my harness. and flapped a few times, just because I've always wondered what that would feel like.

That night John and Karen Yates threw a bash at the Pro Design shop in Redding. They pitched a free keg. all kinds of food. hung up demo harnesses, and played tunes. The wildest things got were when a couple of dog fights broke out in the closely hung harnesses. People were wondering if the shop was big enough to fly one of the paramotors that were sitting around but

PAGE 14 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

By now the sweat level on launch was boiling: nobody had any idea how bad of shape the pilot was in or how rowdy the air was getting for the remaining pilots still up. Once the helicopter was on the way there was only one pilot still up. A beautiful , radio-less. young local pilot named Tracy. No reserve, and no idea that 200 people thought she was about to plummet. She was having such a great flight she couldn't understand why everyone landed, she thought they all sank. Still feeling safe and confident she decided to keep flying . One time she came into semi-earshot and the instructors started yelling and waving to get down . All that happened was we could her her laughing at the top of her lungs and she happily waved back. As the people on launch and those on landing slewed and stressed, Tracy came circl ing in for a picture perfect landing. Had she been can-ying a radio she may have become gripped by the same panic as everyone else, but by relying only on her skills and local knowledge, she had what she said was one of her best flights. Maybe the porous old Stellar she was nying was the best tool for the job in those high winds.

----:-:-------

-------- - - - ----

--. -- - '

'

The A~ Of 'flying .

.

'

Size Pilot Wei~htO!,.s.)

Cells , ', Span(m)

9.25'

- 'A.R.

3.'J

\M in. Sink('tn/.s) Min./ Ma x.' Spe~d(k~/h}

20-41

'

'

'

.1.3

:.

9.95 3 .8 1.3 '20-41'

of

If you're looking for a 'state the art entry le\l'el gli~er, th1< new PICCO is the perfect choice. On the groun0 or in th'e air its sup~_r handlin?:J_ and stable flight charac~eristifs will put you o~. t9p of the pack. (

'

-

C

(

'

MYTHOS

' Size Pilot Weight(lbs.)

Cells Span(m)

:

A.Rt.

Min \ ~:;;nk(mf.s) ' Min.I Max. 5peed(km/h3 ..

23 100-145 36 11.1 4.75 1.15 22-45

26 130-185 39 11.7 4.75 1.15 , 22-45.

29 175~230 39 12.3 4.75 1.15 22 -45.

'

' \.

The MYTHOS is Swing's newest i~termediate design.· The MYTH OS has nearly the performance of the best comp~tition ~lid~rs, bu't with more forgiving [light characteristiM.

''~~~~~~~--,~~~~~~__;.~__;.~~---~~~~~~~~~~--~'r""~~~~--:-~~--,~~--.-~~~-:-. -'

The Double Sail System (D~S)

'

of the Minoa guarantees the smoothest top wing ~urface.' thos reducing drag and '' ~ . ' Size increasing lift.

Pi~ot.Weight(lbs~) ' Cells Spai:i(m) A.R. Min . Sink(m/s) Min.I Max. Speed(km/h)

,.

5

oo w.'

J.05 25-53

25- 3

45x2 13 5.2 1.05 25-53

Th~ MINOA.has ~urckly become recQgn ize throughout Eui::ope,and the United States a~:a well ma nered, top of the line, 'hl@h performarrce glider t,hat, ha mat)y uni6\.ue features, inc!tJding·the ~peoial 'LDSS" cone ruction vyh.ich defines the airfbil of the wing to enhan6e performance.

All WillsWing/Swing gliders inclu'd~: ' ' Glider inspection, line check, and'TES1 FllGH-r prior'tQ shipmen from the faotory, · • ' , ~ealer test flight prior o delivery to you. , lnsper;t.i'Qns atitl repairs turn~d around i 48 hours oi: lees.

1 ' , ' Split A risers that-allow you to ao -Big Ear5 uickly and reliably.

Comprehensh1e Owners Man¥1, parts ·t, sticker and hat .

Delb!xe Bac~ pa~~. tie ,strap. an internal stuff bag.

Bl~e:idge Ave. • Speed stirrµp, 0 range • C 1·.c .

For informat· . a i,ornia • 92665 ion or a test fl' ' :h. 714 998-6359 F ight.. con!act. Your lo , ax 714 998 _ al dealer.

0647

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As the helicopter left, the mood was a little somber to say the least. Some people went to a close meadow to kite, some people had enough and went back to camp, but some of us, the die hards, hung out on launch. We were still hoping for that mystical glass off we had heard so many stories about. A group of about eight of us spent the next three hours hanging out in the afternoon sunshine and getting to know each other. Tracy came back up with an ear to ear grin and we all had good laugh about bow scared we were and how happy she was.

We had a feeling that it was going to mellow and get good, judging by the previous two days - and then it did. Pine, a South African pilot who flies for AirTek, got tired of sitting around and got into his harness . He was saying something about the sky being filled with gliders if everyone wasn ' t spooked from earlier. Then just like someone flipped a switch, the stiff wind magically turned into a light breeze. I got 1500 feet over launch without so much as a bump or a jiggle. Pretty soon everybody kiting saw the gliders and drove like maniacs to get up the hill. Once again it was a thermal free -for-all until it cooled down and everyone sunk through the fat air down to the ground. The next and last mad dash of the day was for a pizza parlor in the tiny town of Bernie.

That was the last flying I got at this year's clinic. The next morning was drizzly and for the time in my life I was dog tired from paragliding. I casually bad another great mael then went to towing

ground school. I realized how lucky I was that I had never tied a long piece of rope behind my friend's jet ski. I got some phone numbers, a couple of addresses and shook a bunch of hands. The clinic would roar on for another week with flyable weather every day except for one, but I had to get back to daily grind of Lake Tahoe.

All I can say about the Super Clinic in Mt. Shasta is, go there. The camaraderie of pilots from everywhere getting to fly together and getting to know each other in such a magnjficent place is awesome. Pilots came from up and down the East Coast and up and down the West Coast, Brazil, France, England, and Canada. There was everyone from seventy-five-year old men to a thirteen-year-old girl in the air. Sometimes it feels like there's no one around that understands how you feel about the crazy sport we share, but this was different. At the Super Clinic nobody could understand what could keep someone from paragliding!

On behalf of everyone that attended, many thanks to Ed Pitman, all the N.C.F.L.P.A. volunteers, the kitchen crew, and every other person that helped out to make the thing happen, all for a measly $65 .00 a day. Also, I'd like to say thanks to my new friend Juan for telling me to write an article for the magazine.

About the author: A Class one paraglider pilot and an avid snowboarder, ninteen- yearold Jim Rice makes himself at home in Lake Tahoe at Sierra Nevada College. He' s working for a degree in journalism.

ofa

C u N I• ID

Above me a thousand feet or more is hanging a large black bottomed cloud, "what the heck am I doing up here!"

Cloud suck? It must be! I reached up to grab my "B's" at their quick links and pulled down, they would not budge!

Photo of Hat Creek Rim Launch site , taken by the author just before descending.

PAGE 16• PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

.I

stood at the edge of Hat Creek ridge, below me 3000 ft away was the landing zone. It didn't look much larger than a postage stamp from this altitude. The cold winds coming from the North sent chills through my body. Huge dark clouds lurked ominously above me. A few hawks were circling out front to the left, giving no clue to the event that would soon unveil itself. Clear blue sky between the clouds and earth gave no warning.

My crumpled wing laying at my feet rustled slightly. The wind was 11 to 15 mph coming up the 40° launch. An orange streamer stuck almost straight out from the branch that held it, waving at me and calling me to fly. With assistance from my fellow pilots to lay out the wing on launch, I am ready. A crossed arm reverse inflation proved to be easy, my large yellow glider now overhead. It is hard to make forward progress, so I lean through my harness, tight to the carabiners already lifting at my waist. I dig in and push myself forward towards the ridge. I feel the sky calling to me to leave the bounds of earth.

Easing off the brakes, I begin to make headway. A few feet more and I am lifted away from terra firma. Penetration is easier now as I glide away from the cliff that once held me safely. I turn hard to the left to stay close to the ridge and maintain the lift that I feel . The lift is strong and steady along the ridge and before I can reach the end I am already a few hundred feet above launch.

Turning 180° to return, my speed is lessened but the lift is still there. My vario beeps steadily as I approach Hat Creek launch, now 500 ft. below me. The view of 30 other pilots getting ready to launch is spectacular.

I pass over to the right side of the bowl where my vario begins to sound out faster. Looking down at the instrument strapped to my leg, I read 800 ft. up! The best lift I have had since arriving at the Super Clinic. Slowly turning 360' s to the left as I come around, the sounds that are coming out of my vario are getting louder and at a higher pitch, almost a single tone. My rate of climb is now 1100 fpm. The core! It must be. I pull out of the turn to look for the core I think must be in front of me, within 5 seconds I am going up at - I don't know what rate? The vario is screaming louder than I have ever heard it scream before. My lines are tight enough to play a tune.

Above me a thousand feet or more is hanging a large black bottomed cloud. Although other pilots are in the air, I feel alone, so far up and away from the others. A glance at my wing is not comfortable at this rate of climb so I turn my eyes to the horizon. I grab my camera to snap a couple of pictures for my friends at home. Much colder now, my gloves are not much warmth against the wind. I noticed that the cloud base at the horizon is becoming very flat. Another glance upward and I ask myself, "what the heck am I doing up here!"

I must be three to five hundred feet from the large black bottomed cloud. Cloud suck? It must be! Having never experienced it, but some how I knew. I began questioning my own sanity for wanting to be there. My vario now showing 8360' ms!, 3900 ft above launch and over 7000 ft. from the LZ, which could hardly be discerned from this altitude. Worried that I would soon be in this ominous cloud lurking too near for comfort. I decided that this is high enough for today.

I reached up high up to my outside split "A lines" to pull big ears and lose altitude, whoosh in they came and the vario on my knee was still beeping. It shows lift at 600 fpm, I'm still going up!

Soon I will be in the cloud if I don't do something fast! With panic in my mind and steady hands (if that's possible), I released the big ears. I'm thinking of a Horseshoe collapse. Would it be enough?

There's not much time now. "B's "that's it! I've practiced this maneuver, but never have had to use it - until now.

!

The clouds are just a few hundred feet away and scaring the hell out of me. I reached up to grab my "B's" at their quick links and pulled down, they would not budge! The wing was so tight that the riser would not give way. I reached up again and stuck my thumbs through the quick links, wrapped my fingers over my thumbs. I lifted my own weight off the harness to get the wing to collapse into the taco shape and I began to fall.

Afraid to look up at my disfigured wing to see what's happening I watch the horizon instead. Checking the vario, I am now losing about 900 fpm. I hold on for what seems like forever before letting go to find myself at least at a comfortable level. My new altitude is 6560 ms!., I lost 1800 ft! I rest there, my vario still beeping in 400 fpm lift. I begin to fly away from the cloud that wanted my soul. I retry "big ears" and this time it causes me to stop gaining altitude. Using weight shift for turns I head towards theLZ. My landing was soft and close to the spot I was trying to hit. I was happy to be on the ground, safe in the comfort of mother earth. Did I panic? Was this an over reaction? I don't know, but I thank my instructor, who painstakingly forced me to perform all those maneuvers that seemed so easy when the winds were calm and the ominous black clouds were tucked away. Now after it all, l' d really like to go back and do it all over again.

Mike Harris is a 46-year-old, Class II pilot. He is married with 4 children and 3 grandchildren. His home site is Marshall in So. California. Mike is a member of the Crestline Soaring Society and has been flying for 1 year and 8 months and flies an Edel Stardust. ~ ¥

Location: Dignes Les Bains (Southern France). Wifl include: Equipment if needed - Transport to all sites - Instructions under the supervision of bilingual certified french paragliding instructors - Bed & Breakfast. We have been doing it long enough to let you know that it is a bundle of great fun! No experience necessary and you will learn from your level on. Most of Europe is on vacation at this time of the year and you will meet pilots from many different countries and make friends. The food and the ambiance are great!

GMI Corp.

P.O. Box 451 / Glen Cove, New York 11542- USA

Ph: 516 / 676-7599

I

Fax: 516 I 676-0106

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 17

Speed over a triangular course of 50 km: 15.80 km/h Course/site: Piedrahita (Spain) 20/07/1994, Judy LEDEN (UK) Aircraft: Rainbow 26

N 1757 Sub-class 0-3 ( Paragliders) Category: Feminine Straight dist. to declared goal: 100.7 km Course/site: Piedrahita (Spain) 18/07/1994, Sarah FENWICK (UK) Aircraft: Nova Sphinx 125 N 1758 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: Feminine Dist. over a triangular course: 50.3 km Course/site: Piedrahita (Spain) 20/07/1994, Sarah FENWICK (UK) Aircraft: Nova Sphinx 125 N 1759 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: Feminine Distance over a triangular course: 50.3 km Course/site: Piedrahita (Spain) 20/07/1994, Judy LEDEN (UK) Aircraft: Edel Rainbow 26 N 1765 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: Feminine

N 1810 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: Multiplace Straight distance: 120.0 km Course/site: Fiesch (Switzerland) 03/08/1994, Roland WURGLER (Switzerland), Susanne Gysi WURGLER Aircraft: UP Pick-Up N 1815 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: Multiplace Out-and-return distance: 73.5 km Course/site: Fiesch (Switzerland) 05/08/1994 Roland WURGLER (Switzerland) Susanne Gysi WURGLER Aircraft: UP Pick-Up N 2083 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: General Speed over a triangular course of 50 km: 15.80 km/h Course/site Piedrahita (Spain) 20/07/1994 Judy LEDEN (UK) Aircraft: Edel Rainbow 26

DenniJ Trott;,t:J Alpine ParagltJing Centre.

Cbamonix., France.

N 1594 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: General Dist. over a triangular course: 120.1 km Course/site: Sallanches (France) 16/06/1994, Pierre BOUILLOUX (France) Aircraft: UP Kendo"C" N 1676 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category General Dist. over a triangular course: 153.5 km Course/site: Chamonix (France) 30/06/1994, Pierre BOUILLOUX (France) Aircraft: UP Kendo"C" N 1677 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: General Dist. over a triangular course: 153.5 km Course/site: Chamonix (France) 30/06/1994, Vincent SPRUNGLl (France) Aircraft: UP Kenda N 1808 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: General Speed over a triangular course of 25 km: 17.33 km/h Course/site Mt. Seven, Golden, BC (Canada) 28/07/1994, Eric ODDY (Canada) Aircraft: Apco Supra 25

"NEW" from East Coast Video 1

Chamonix; Europe's top paragliding resort Stunning views around Mont Blanc Great Cross Country potential Many local sites, year round flying Courses on Alpine technique Very Comfortable accommodation Easy access from Geneva Airport Test Center for Airwave paragliding products Call, Fax or write to 'Chalet Touze' Place de la Marie, Les Houches, 74310. France Tel/Fax (011 33) 50 54 59 63 or call GMI Paragliding in New York (516} 676-7599 fax (516} 676-0106 PAGE 18 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

Hang Gliding & Paragliding at Point of the Mountain, Utah Fly with the locals, also 3-D animations.

Length 52 minutes, cost $29.00 + $3.00 S&H Send Check or M.O. to; Wayne Bergman 80 E. Lincoln; Muskegon Heights,: ~I 49444

Ph. 616 739-5363

N 2328 Sub-class 0-3 (Paragliders) Category: Multiplace Straight dist. to a declared goal: 142.3 km Course/site Caba Paquica (Chile) 27/12/1994, Bernhard SCHILLING (Switzerland), Franz SCHILTER Aircraft: Advance Bi

General Competition Procedure GPS is now allowed for all FAI competitions.

Paul Mollinsons' ranking system for hang gliding and paragliding competitions to be adopted to replace PIRS.

Awards Summary of the results of the CIVL meeting March 30 - April 2, 1995

The Pepe Lopez medal was awarded to Toni Bender.

Elections World Air Games 1997 Turkey and South Africa were bidding to hold the World Air Games in 1997. South Africa withdrew its bid, so Turkey was accepted as the WAG host. Turkey also proposed to hold the World Championships for hang gliding and paragliding within the WAG, but this proposal was not accepted by the CIVL delegates.

World Championships 1997 Forbes, Australia will be hosting the Hang Gliding World Championships in January, 1998 The Women's Hang Gliding Championships will be held in Hungary.

Delegates voted in Castejon de Sos, Spain for the Paragliding Worlds with an overwhelming majority (21, against 5 for Switzerland and 1 for Turkey (as part of the WAG).

World Hang Gliding Championships 1995 After much debate and 3 votes, it was decided that the number of pilots per team for the Worlds in Ager should be increased to seven.

As a majority vote was not achieved (6 for and 6 against), the proposal for guest pilots to be admitted was not accepted.

European Paragliding Championships 1996, Norway Entry fee has been reduced from 4000 Krone to 3500 after pressure from CIVL delegates.

Women's Championships The Women's Europeans in Norway for 1995 has been canceled due to lack of subscription by participants.

It was decided by a majority vole that paragliding should not hold a separate women's world championships.

World Hang Gliding Series.

The setting up of a World Hang Gliding Series was approved by a large majority. A budget was approved for the CIVL Subcommittee established to run the Sedes.

The following posts were reelected: President : Per Christian Daehlin Vice Pres.: Paul Thomas Vice Pres.: Dennis Pagen Vice Pres.: Paul Mallinson Secretary: Noel Whittall Treasurer: Jim Bowyer

7050 MSL 13,200MSL 4 hrs 20 min.

Green Mtn. Boulder Pierce, Colorado

Launch Alt. Max alt.: Duration: Turnpoint: Landing:

Launching in a SE wind with the forecast calling for strong SW (over the back), four pilots managed to fly the twenty mile crosscountry to Boulder. At that point, Bibler caught a thermal that took him to 13,200, higher than the others, and into the prevailing westerlies. Turning NE he flew across the flatlands, staying between 7000 and 9000 MSL, except for one thermal just east of Longmont whicb went to 12,000'.

Approaching Greely, Bibler was forced to change direction, heading NW for another 15 miles until finally stopped by cumulus over development to the north, just 10 miles short of the Wyoming border.

PWCA Competitions Due to the CIVL Plenary decision in March to allow pilots to fly with GPS in FAI competitions, GPS will also be allowed in PWCA events.

Al,;;.,,~·

CAHVINO

US Paragliding Nationals I Open 1995 Chelan, WA There will be seven recognized classes in this year Nationals. They are, briefly, as follows: US National Paragliding Champion - Open to all US citizens and resident aliens.

US Women's Nat'I Champion - to the top female US citizen or resident alien.

US Paragliding Open - Open to everyone who enters the competition, both US and Foreign.

US Paragliding Women's Open - top pilot in this class.

Sport Class - this is new and will include all recreational pilots on non competition wings. Medals to the top five. Also recognition to the top woman in this class.

North American Championships - The US Nat'ls and the Canadian Nat'ls will combine the results following the Canadian Nat'ls Aug. 7 to award the top ranked pilot in North America.

New Colorado record 71 mile dogleg flown from Lookout Mtn. in Colorado.

April 8, 1995 Date: Lookout Mtn. 11 :00 am Launch: Pilot: Todd Bibler Edel Energy XL Glider:

A

FUTURE

THROUGH

THE

AIR

Airwave announces the arrival of this years new paragliders. The Samba certified ACPUL standard and the Duel for tandem. Contact your Airwave dealer for more info and see new products next issue.

New company launches vast array of aviation information on the World Wide Web. Aero.com, a new internet aviation information service based in San Jose, CA, announced in April that it is now on line on the World Wide Web. This service allows aviation enthusiasts access to a vast array of facts, publications, products and graphics and provides a single resource for every topic related to aeronautics.

All Internet users can navigate through Aero.corn's web pages at no charge and obtain contact names and addresses, phone and fax numbers; however registered Aero.com users can access detailed listing information and shop for aviation publications and software. One feature unique to Aero.com is on-line shopping for over 500 publications and software titles.

The new service is based on the fastest growing application on tbe Internet, the World Wide Web. Aero.com was founded in August 1994, to link the entire world via computer to a variety of data about every aspect of aviation.

Internet address; http://www.aero.com

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 19

A new paragliding school has opened for business on the big island of Hawaii. The school is led by Achim Hagemann, who also runs a school in Santa Barbara, California.

The big island of Hawaii offers unique flying opportunities, but only for advanced pilots or intermediate pilots with guidance. Mauna Kea, Hawaii's biggest volcano, has launch sites at 13,796'. It is the biggest mountain in the world measured from sea bottom to the top.

There are several magnificent coastal flying sites north of Hilo and near South Point, but be aware, the trade winds are strong, the windshear is terrible and you might have to do some hiking. The school offers certified instruction and rides to the top of Mauna Kea, guidance, camping and lodging. Mainland and foreign pilots are welcome. For more info. contact Paraglide Hawaii General delivery; Mountain View, HI 96771

USHGA The United States Hang Gliding Association has a new mailing address, effective now it is; USHGA PO Box 1330 Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1330

:i::i··1iwfng.N1ls

Safety Notice.

News Release

Tow Launch Systems of San Antonio, Texas, announces an option to include an automatic line leveling mechanism for their standard tow system. So far 5 out of 6 tow systems delivered this year have included this option. The latest system was delivered to a pilot in Tullamarine, Australia.

So far TLS has delivered 55 tow systems over the past 7 years with approximately 15 systems dedicated to launching paragliders. For more info.

TLS (Chris Gagliano) may be contacted at 210/ 824-1803.

FLIGHT DESIGN

Flight Design requests that all pilots using the HOT reserve container inactivate, by removing or placing Lape over, the small strip of velcro between the two grommets on the outer lid of the container. This velcro is approximately 2X4 cm and was used primarily for packing assistance. This velcro is not necessary for proper reserve use and/or deployment but, depending on the direction of pull, has been shown to possibly increase the pressure needed for the opening pull.

In the interest of pilot safety, Flight Design requests your assistance in this matter, even though this pressure increase may be slight. Please contact North American Paragliding Inc. if you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter. Thank you.

IThe Great.e$t'Aiii11Ui,t Aero Sports Federation of China, announces the first ever motorized paraglider race through the heartland of the Dragon. From Hong Kong to Beijing 1,243 km total distance. This grueling 20 day tour is a supreme test of your physical ability and technical skill. The race will be broken into 12 sections. Flying times for each section will be taken separately. Final rankings will be based on the sum of the individual section times. Cash prizes will go to the top six finisher's, 1st prize is $5000. U.S. Entry fee is $3000. U.S. per pilot and includes all transport in China and food and lodging. Pre registration is required.

Starting August 17 closing ceremony, Sept 9th.

For more info. Tel: 86 10 702 7894 fax 86 10 702 52 89 in Beijing.

NOTICE In the last issue, under Paragliding Schools, the phone # listed for Skytimes Paragliding was incorrect. The correct # is, 415/ 868-1330. If you tried to call please try again. Thank you.

' 0

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manual, full of advice.

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PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 21

motors and apparel. Glider demos fo r Edel. Pro D es ig n, UP . lTV , F irc bird , A irwave. W ill s Win g and others are ava ilabl e dail y by appointment.

Incorporating three diffe re nt fl yin g/trainin g destination s; Big Sur & San Diego, Califo rnia, and La Salina, Baja, Mex ico, the Gressitts will offer tours and instructi on to suit eve ry pil ots interests. Leesa will open the "Flying Mermaid Cafe", May l 0th at To rrey Pines Air Park to indul ge pil ots, loca ls a nd to uri s ts a li ke fo r breakfa st a nd lun ch da il y. Fo r in fo rmati o n regarding Torrey Pines Air Park call ; l 800WAY 2 FLY.

22nd coupe icare Film FestivalEquipment Expo.

2nd Hand Market.

Mascarade Fly-In St. Hilaire France, 14-17 Sept.

Tel: 33 76 08 33 99 Fax:33 76 97 20 56

It 's time LO update the list of paraglidin g clubs.

T he list we have is over one year old. We ask c lub Pres id e nt s . Sec re tari es o r News le tt e r Edi tors, to please help us by sendin g us yo ur curre nt c lub details. The in fo rmati on th at we need is; Name address and local of the club.

All Officers names and phone numbers.

A ny names a nd numbers of des ignated club Meeting day , tim e and place.

S ites the club oversees.

Leesa & Scott Gressitt of Skydance Paraglidin g are pl eased to announce their recent acquisition of the concession at Torrey Pines Glider Port.

Re named "Torrey Pines Air Park". the new operation will offer an ex panded range of services, including a full sail loft and repair fac ili ty, a new schooling program includin g winch to win g, paramotorin g and beg inn e r th ro ugh advanced mountain in struction . We also offer a full se rvi ce a d venture tr a ve l pro g ram for paragliding and hang gliding pilots.

Th e reta il s tore no w includes a ll th e bra nd name fli ght instruments, gliders, accesso ri es.

An y regul ated sites/rules.

Pro Design ann ounces the release of their new ce rtifi ed w in g "The Co mp a ni o n" . Ta nd e m Class AFNOR/ SHY this glider is 41 .Sm for a load up to 200 kg. more in fo nex t time under New Products.

The current World Champi on Stefa n Stieg ler bas won the first World Cup of the season. fl yin g th e ne w HIGH fr o m P ro Des ig n . Th e World Cup event took place in Feltre, Italy. lt looks like this mi ght be Stefa n' s season!

The fini shin g to uc hes a re be in g put on th e

PARAGLIDING A Pilot's Training Manual

:--:,

•

pt>-tl1'G;,~~~~0 nuo1

Af'ilol'i

~~ \

l

~ : : : : ~ .%~

2000 Copies Sold \ Revised 4th Edition 140 Pages 62 Illustrations Skills, Aerodynamics, Weather, Equipment, and More

.

Available from paragliding schools , dealers, or direct from

Wills Wing 500 Blueridge Ave. Orange CA. 92665 Include $2.00 for postage and handling Calif.Residents add 7.75 % sales tax PAGE 22 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

Attention Clubs

contac t persons.

Torrey Pines Update

$19.95

High for its release to other Competiti on Pil ots.

Look fo r it in Che lan 1!

Number of current club members.

News letter - yes or no.

Dues ($ amount).

W e w ill p ut toge th er a c urre nt lis tin g of a ll N o rth A m e ri can P a rag lidin g C lub s th a t res pond. and the list will be publi shed in an L1pcoming iss ue or two! So don' t be left out.

Se nd yo ur cl ub s d e tai ls to C la udi a c / o Parag liding Magazine; 8901 Rog ue River H wy; G rants Pass , OR 97527. Thanks.

60 THE XTRA' MILE •I 1

by Alex Louw

t 6 pm on 18, December 1994 I arrived at my declared goal of 251.87 km with more than 3000m of height in hand. All that had to do be done for a new world record (except formal certification!) was to gently float around until the recovery crew could catch up to witness the landing.

A I

f my oxygen-depleted n.early frozen brain had been. cap.able of thought, it may have recogmzed the trony of the s1tuat1on .

It was my third season since I had teamed up with Andrew Smith and Apco Aviation and the search for records. Now, as the declared goal record came in striking distance. so the open record of 283.87 km was slipping away . Slovenian Domen Siana was reporting his progress as he used the last lift of the dying day. His final transmission before he faded away suggested that he would equal the world record.

Alex Louw and Andrew Smith before launch to world record.

Photo courtesy of Apco.

Unlike previous seasons when I had flown full-time. this time I had a commitment to support foreign pilots on behalf of our newly formed company - Fly Africa. My colleagues and I made an arrangement whereby we would each fly every third day and work the other two. The motivational effect of sitting on the ground or driving recovery whilst your friends sky out is enormous. To top it all. Andrew had come down to Kuruman for a quick weekend with the new Apco Xtra and managed more than 100 km on both of the preceding days - while I was grounded by my other commitments.

from below on their drive back to Johannesburg and their office jobs. We chatted on the radio and they filled me with encouragement. At that stage I was quite high and more than a little hypoxic. After we parted ways, their moral suppo11 was really missed as I sank out badly and had to scratch along in light lift with no radio contact. The possibility of a record drifts away and I could only see a long disappointing walk to the nearest road.

So when it was my turn to fly on 18. December. I was really fired up. But, the forecast was bad and there was little wind . We declared out and return flights in anticipation of a light day and settled down to winch our Slovenian visitors. Tony was first up and climbed quite high before heading off to the southeast.

Domen and Marko Novak were next. also getting up quickly and following our usual route. Frantically I made a new declaration. selecting a preset goal past Boshoff.

The day was blue but the thermals were fine and the drift excellent. Flying fast I caught up to Andrew. also a late starter on the other Xtra. For awhile we shared the air. but at 60 km. I raced ahead to join Marko in a good thermal while the sink ate my f1iend. After 3 hours in the air. Marko and I crossed the 130 km mark and had climbed back up to 4500 mas!. having twice saved ourselves from below 100 or 200 metres.

Four days before, Marko had put up a new declared goal record of 220 km but this time the sink got him at 160 km. leaving only Domen and I in the air. For a while my friends tracked my route

Don't let anyone tell you that luck doesn't count in XC flying.

When it was most needed, I saw our favorite sign - a small plume of dust running across the field in front of the . Heading straight for the center of the developing dust devil, it crossed my mind to thank the factory for a glider which could be hurled around the sky without deflating. The core was strong but small and I rode it to the top - a climb of 2500 m .

From there it was late afternoon buoyancy and never getting lower than 2000 m above ground, with a ground speed of 50-60 kph.

Flight Time Date Glider Barograph Harnes

Declared Goal 2S1.8 6 hou rs 4 minutes 18 December 1994 Apco Xtra 30 Flytec 3030 pro Top Secu ra

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 23

t

Advanced Canopy Control Training Reprinted from Skywings ( SIV) March issue 1995

by J ocky Sanderson

During 1994, British pilot Jacky Sanderson and his team ran 11 weeks of courses with a total of 146 pilots, 33 days of SIV ('Situation In Vol')(newly coined in the US as A.C.C.T.Advanced Canopy Control Training) and 4,475 km of crosscountry flying. He noted a definite development in pilots' abilities and attitudes towards the pros and cons of paragliding, but the experience also made him realize that certain things need to be said to all paraglider pilots.

Pilot input; The pilots actions after a problem has begun to develop are of paramount importance and may make the difference between a recoverable situation and a reserve deployment. These are some of the common problems:

Over correcting; This is a problem which often occurs due to the pilot flying a higher performance wing than he or she is used to. The better the glider the more finesse is required in its handling. Pilots are often lulled into a false sense of security with modem high performance wings because they' re so placid in normal flight However when something goes wrong it happens fast and pilots must be capable of applying the right amount of brake at the right time. Feeling the glider is important. It is better to fly an intermediate glider at 100% than a performance one at 60%.

Easing up on the controls; If the glider is ever behind you as it drops into a stall or during a spin, you must hold the controls until it surges forward. At this point dampen the dive and only ease up on the controls when the glider is at the furthest point in front of you. This will enable you to swing gently under the wing and get back to normal flight as soon as possible without it diving too violently. Only dampen the surge when the glider dives and not before, otherwise it may stall. If ever you ease up on the controls too quickly when the glider is behind you it will dive violently forward and you may end up in the wing or caught in the risers. The faster the dive, the more control you need to apply to slow the glider down and prevent it from tucking.

it suddenly dives, then dampen it just as quickly. The more experienced the pilot, the less tucks he or she will get because they are able to stop it before anything happens.

Giving priority to the problem; I once watched as a pilot spun past me and hit the ground, purely because he was concentrating on pumping out an asymmetric tuck caused by a spin and not paying attention to the (more serious) spin itself.

Course-then-correction! (steer then c1ear) If it's spinning or in a tight 360 then pull out of that and get a safe course, then correct any tucks you've got left. Hitting the ground in a spin causes more injury than if you landed with a tuck. Alternatively if you have a tuck whilst being tightly banked in a thermal, don't panic but straighten up and pump out the deflation, otherwise you'll fly out of the lift and often into worse air. Keep in your 360, apply a little more brake on the opposite side, and stay in the thermal. The tuck will probably recover in its own time. If not then it's no problem as you're going up and it's unlikely you'll hit anything. If it stays in, then you can sort it out at the top of the thermal

Weight shift; You can fly quite safely with only half a wing providing you weight shift and apply the correct amount of control on the opposite side. If you're quick, weight-shifting away from a tuck gives smoother control and gives you more thinking time. The best way of entering thermals is to weight-shift, as it's more efficient and gives the pilot more feedback.

Cravattes;

Recognizing stalls and spins;

An increasing problem with the more modern elliptical wings.

The problem occurs when the glider dives forward and sideslips, i.e,. when damping a dive the pilot applies more control on one side and the glider twists, or when the pilot asymmetrically releases the controls from a stall. The tip is then pushed sideways into the center of the wing between the A and B lines and gets caught as the glider flies forward. Worse than a small tuck, this then acts as an air-brake/scoop and the glider accelerates into a tight 360 to the side of the cravatte. The first action is to immediately apply opposite control before it goes into a spiral.

One of the important things you learn about these maneuvers is how to recognize the point at which your glider will stall, spin or dive. If something feels odd, then quickly let up on the controls before the glider lurches into a more serious problem. Or if

Once you've got a safe course (not necessarily straight), pull big ears and pump it out again. If this doesn't work then pull down on the tip lines until it moves, then release them. The cravatte should slowly come out. If not, slow the glider to the point of

PAGE 24 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

stall and, as it starts to fly backwards, slowly ease up on the controls and regain normal flight. The rearward movement is usually enough to push the tip forward, thus releasing the cravatte.

Remember, if the cravatte is small enough to allow you to do these maneuvers without starting a cascade* of more serious problems, then it's OK to limp down and land safely with it s_till in should you be close to the ground. If you entered a stall dunng these maneuvers it was because you were either overreacting or had a big cravatte. If this is the case, a stall is the best maneuver to do to recover from the cravatte. Hold both controls down fully, enter the stall and ease up on the controls when the glider pitches in front of you rather than behind. A glider can enter a spiral so fast that the pilot must use both hands on the opposite control to pull it out. This usually ends up with the glider quickly dropping back into a stall. At this point make sure both controls are down fully so you enter and exit the stall symmetrically. Done properly, a stall is the best way to recover from more serious situations like cravattes and spins.

L_ _ _ ~

Twisting in the harness; This is usually caused by the chest strap being too tight: during certain asymmetric recoveries or dives the pilot becomes twisted. If you feel yourself starting to twist, hold onto the back risers . This slows the glider a little and also stops you twisting. If you have become twisted, don't panic.

Let the glider dive and recover, then kick out the twist. The harness plays an important role in the stability of a glider. If a harness has low hang-points or a loose chest strap, the pilot will have a higher sensitivity to the glider but stability will be greatly reduced.

Reserve deployments; When it's all gone to worms, a reserve deployment may be required. Lessons can be drawn from the following deployment incidents:

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PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 25

• Three accidental reserve deployments due to pilots catching the handles of side-mounted reserves during SIV maneuvers. It is sensible to have an accessible handle, but care must be taken that reserve handles cannot be fouled by either pilot or equipment and cause unwanted openings.

• Four reserve deployments due to having experienced either a cravatte or a cascade of incidents - or being too low to make it to the beach!

• Five intentional deployments. Pilots were generally pleasantly surprised by the ease and speed of the reserves' opening time, but stopping the oscillation and the reserve's size was definitely a problem for some.

• One failed intentional deployment. This was due to the pilot spreading the split-pin too far, making it impossible for the reserve to be deployed by exerting normal human strength.

• In a couple of incidents pilots were hesitant to actually pull their reserve even when instructed. One pilot even had the reserve out and handle in his hands but would not release it.

Fortunately he did, just in time for it to open before he touched the water It should go without saying that speed is of utmost importance once you have decided to go for your reserve.

There was one steerable reserve deployment. However, by the time the pilot freed himself from the lines and glider and managed to grab his steering toggles, he'd landed. No doubt with more height he'd have been able to use this facility and go cross-country on his new wing, but I wouldn't like to bet on it.

These chutes aren't that steerable, but they're better than nothing.

ning violently with a twisted harness and a cravatte, it's a different story. He or she is waiting to hear the correct advice at exactly the right time.

In SIV the information given is crucial and situations can change in seconds. So the instructor must be able to recognize what's going to happen seconds before it does so that the pilot has time to receive the information and carry it out. Your eyes are seeing one thing, your brain another and you are saying something completely different.

Although your mind wants to give up teaching and go home, you must sound calm and instruct the person above you. They are desperate to hear you but won't always listen, and they want to go home too! If they ever get it wrong, it's nearly always because of you.

I'm not trying to create a closed shop - far from it. What I'm saying is: lead from the front, get a lot of quality experience in SIV yourself and only teach what you know and can predict.

Don't learn the hard way with other people's lives. If you have any questions, please contact me, I'd be happy to help. I've been flying for seven years and competing, teaching SIV and testing for the last five. I have over 2,000 hours airtime, flying many different gliders in various weather conditions and countries, and I'm still learning ...

* Cascade. Used in testing circles to denote an ongoing sequence of linked events, usually generated by incorrect pilot input at the wrong time (out of phase) but sometimes due to inherent design faults. That's why we test them!

Reserve technique; Once you have thrown the reserve behind you in a long swing-ing movement, wait for it to deploy. As you feel it pull you back and your glider dive forward, grab the A-risers, tuck the glider, and try to grab it as it goes past. Stopping the two wings reacting against each other and oscillating is the next most important thing. The swinging movement of the pilot under two wings that are vying with each other causes the most injury; the pilot hits the ground hard at such an angle that a PLF is almost redundant.

Nevertheless, always adopt the position on landing.

Making progress; As new paraglider designs are introduced, pilots must be prepared to adapt their flying techniques to suit them to maximize both safety and performance. Care must be taken in choosing a glider: get what feels right. When you've bought your glider, stop looking over your shoulder at other, possibly better, ones and get stuck in to flying and enjoying yours. The only way to achieve this is to fly as much as possible, challenging yourself every time, setting mini tasks and just messing around with your glider - ground handling and slope landing, etc. The more you fly the more you learn. Attending courses helps you to understand things you feel or have seen, as well as improving your technique, decision making and confidence. As does talking and flying with more experienced pilots.

A word of warning!

A word of caution to instructors hoping to teach SIV. As with flying, only experience gives you the much needed knowledge you require to teach such an advanced and potentially dangerous subject. It's easy to give theoretical advice to pilots when you're both on the ground, but when the pilot is 4,000 ft up and spinPAGE 26 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

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Here are two techniques to help master stereograms.

First start in a bright evenly lit selling, hold the picture level with your eyes at about bent arms length .

1. Hold ing the pictu re in fron t of you but below eye level, blankly stare at an object 1-5 yards beyond the picture. While maintai ning this foca l point slowly raise the picture into your li ne of sight while still blankly starin g past it.

2. Alternately try holding the picture flat against your face . Stare blankly into the distance then slowly move the picture out from you r face while not changing your foca l point.

With both of these techniques your eyes shoul d graduall y focus on the hidden stereogram image. Relax and take your time. Good Luck.

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PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 27

TAN writte Fletche photo Die Aspe

Instruction without f the 2,000 paragliding pilots in America today, it is safe to say that 99% of us learned to fly the same way. We went to a very small hill where someone demonstrated flight, explained how it was done, and eventually guided us through our own first tentative hops at elevations close enough to the ground to leave us nervous, elated, but perhaps not actually te1Tified. From there we progressed to higher and higher launches until the moment came when we could be trusted to launch ourselves from the very top of a high mountain peak.

0

I was privileged to teach part of this summer at two of the best training hills in the eastern part of the country: Cobble Hill in Burlington, Vermont, and Morningside Flight Park in Claremont, New Hampshire. We used this method with great success without even the need for radios, often running down the grassy slopes below our students and talking them through landings by voice alone. They progressed steadily and confidently until they were ready for their own first mountain flights , and as instructors we felt comfortable about their progress. No criticism here-it certainly works, but it isn ' t the only way.

I was expecting to move back into a program of this sort when I returned home to the Aspen Paragliding School, but was dismayed to find the training hill temporarily closed while construction was taking place ... and surprised to find that even with no training hill it was business as usual. In fact, if anything, the quality of student' s flying has actually improved!

PAGE 28 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

Why? or how?

The simple answer is tandem flight instruction. With normal group training hill lessons temporarily on hold, the school had completely switched over to one-on-one private tandem instruction. Students' very first solo flights were from a 2,700 foot vertical mountain launch and those first solo flights were almost invariably accomplished better and with more confidence than had previously been the case with students graduating from the training hill!

Here is how it works: Aspen' s tandem instruction program is based around a six-day lesson package. The first day begins at 7: 00 am with a drive up the mountain for an introductory tandem mountain flight with the instructor who will do the bulk of the teaching with that student. Subsequent flights have the student taking the controls for an ever increasing portion of the flight including the approach, flare and landing. Midday is devoted to intensive classroom instruction, covering aerodynamics, meteorology and micro-meteorology, equipment, safety, site protocol, and so forth. Following each session of classroom work, students move on to a nearby grassy park to work on ground handling skills and launch techniques. The importance of ground handling cannot be overstated. If the training hill is not in use, we require students to put in several extra hours of this sort of practice. There can be daily sessions lasting as long as a

EM by Anderson by Jackson - Paragliding

•

the training h 1 I I couple of hours each throughout the entire first week of instruction even after students are making repeated successful solo flights . Both the skills and the confidence developed in ground handling are key elements in making safe, confident, successful flights.

As tandem flying progresses, increasing use is made of the radio. Even though there is an instructor right there on the tandem glider with the student, the instructions for pattern, approach, flare, and landing come over the radio from an instructor on the ground in the landing zone. This is to accustom the student to solo flights under identical radio guidance.

The student' s first solo flight comes when the instructors collectively decide he or she is ready, typically on the third or fourth day. By now the student has made a minimum of five tandem flights from that very launch and has flown final approach and landing into that very LZ at least four times under radio guidance from an instructor who will be there for the solo flight. After hours of ground handling, the actual launch is, if anything, often easier than the training for it was ... and it should be: unlike the flat field used for ground handling, launch has an optimum gentle slope so the glider comes up easier, is easier to keep centered overhead, and the running is easier as well. But perhaps most importantly , the site is a familiar one.

Students graduating from the training hill universally report that the first moments of their first high mountain flights seemed a little blurred. Everything was so overwhelmingly different, starting with their first view of nothing but air between their shoes and the ground thousands of feet below.

Eventually their thoughts would become more focused and hopefully the novelty but not the delight of the sensation would come under control so they could begin flying. With the tandem students on their first solo, the sensations are only subtly different. The first moments of overwhelming confusion have already gone by during the tandem flights. The performance of the glider, the movement of the air, the uniquely different perspective of the earth all have at least a degree of familiarity. With that familiarity comes some of the confidence necessary to be aware of what is going on and fly the glider. The delight is still there, but the learning process has been jump started. It is not at all unusual for tandem taught students to be circling in thermals above launch on their second or third solo flights. They have, after all, already been exposed to thermal flying under tandem instruction.

From this point on, there is no longer a difference in teaching methods. Classroom work continues, along with on the hill site and weather evaluation. Over a period of time, students are gradually weaned of their dependence on the radio as

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 29

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they learn their required tasks . The one important remaining difference is that by the time they qualify for a Class I license, tandem instructed students have far more hours of flight e xperience than their training hill tau ght brethren. In addition to their tandem flights , aJl 25 of their logged solo flights will have been from high launch sites which resulted in relatively longer flying time through less consistent air conditions. Because they ca nn ot rack up large numbers of flights on the same day , the process of getting th e cla ss I licen se is a longer one, but from a safety standpoint, that is hardly a drawback.

Are there drawbacks to instruction without a training hill?

Certainly there are. It is not the fast track to a Class I license - it will take longer to accumulate the minimum total number of flights required for a license, even though it may take less time to acquire the necessary skiJls. It is expen sive both for the student and the instructor. Even thou gh private tandem instruction costs the student more than group training hill instruction , it is harder for a school to run a financiaJly viable tandem instruction program. For most of the instruction process the instructo r to student ratio is one-to-one .

During peak sea so n, Aspen Paragliding uses five tandem instructors to teach the number of students that two could handle on the training hill. In addition to a regular glider and school gliders for all the students , each instructor needs a tandem glider by far the mo st ex pensiv e sort of paraglider made - plus an oversized tandem reserve and an extra harness.

Conservatively speaking , call it an additional $4,500 worth of equipment per instructor. Depending on what he charges, the instructor will probably have to make over 200 commercial flights just to cover his investment in extra equipment before he starts paying for more mundane things like groceries .

Al so tandem instructors have to be significantly more qualified : after the standard three stages of pilot licensing come two stages of instructor certification followed by three stages of tandem certification before you are allowed to fly students. Each of these stages translates into a clinic,

and each clinic means several days , quite a few dollars, and more often than not, a trip across the country, There are more hoops to jump through to get a tandem rating than in all the rest of paragliding combined (in fact, you do have to jump through all the other hoops before they let you start jumping through the tandem hoops).

But this is as it should bewhen you fly a tandem glider , you assume a very serious responsibility for someone else 's well being. The glider itself is extremely large , which can make it more than just a little difficult to ground h andle and gives it a big advantage should it choose to drag you around- a process made even more difficult by the fact that the pilot is firmly attached to another person who may have never flown before. In the air, the tandem paraglider is a truck, in some ways superior to a solo glider, but in other ways far less capable. The heavily loaded glider is going to come in very hard and fast for a landing, particularly at our 8,000 plus MSL landing zones. I suppose it would be appropriate to raise the question of liability, but in fact the overwhelming first priorities are safety and competence. You are indeed liable, and you are not exactly insurable, but if that' s your biggest WOffY then perhaps you are no where near as safe as you ought to be.

I don ' t mean to imply at all that anyone believes the training hill has become obsolete. Different people learn best in different ways. While tandem instruction without the training hill has worked better for many students here than training hill without tandem too, the combination of both offers the most potential of all. As I write this, the training hill has reopened and we are busily teaching a new group of students there . Yet I doubt seriously that there will be very much more instruction at this school which does not make some us e of tandem flying . Rec ently , for exampl e, I ha ve been flying accomplished licensed solo pilots tandem in order to introduce them to the peculiarities of more advanced sites and thermal flying . Traditionally, tandem flying has been used primarily as a way to give people rides . Increasingly, it is a superior tool for instructing and adds a considerable element of safety. And, why deny it? Tandem flying is the most fun I have ever had in the air!

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PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 31

ACTIVE FLYING.

by Dennis Trott

In the third part of this series on Alpine Flying we take a look at what is required to keep our paraglider flying in rough conditions; it's called Active Flying.

The soft wings we fly will be pulled around by the thermic air, sometimes making our life quite uncomfortable. If we fly around the sky in rough air without reacting to almost every beck and call, then we can expect to have more than our share of closures.

During any flight a glider requires good airspeed to maintain stability and efficient turns. As we know, nearly all certified gliders are designed to fly safely and efficiently at speeds somewhere between minimum sink and maximum speed (hands off and no speed bar).

It's important that we maintain good airspeed at all times and flying with a small degree of

brake allows you to receive the maximum amount of feedback from the wing. Many progressing pilots fall into the trap of thinking that plenty of brake pressure will mean a stable glider and it does, to a point, although flying a paraglider with large amounts of brake applied will obviously make it slow and it will take longer to recover from any unstable actions. the wing is flying too slowly (near stall point), then any turns we make may be inefficient and the risk of side closures and asymmetric stalls at the edge of turbulent and swirling thermals is high. An asymmetric stall is where one side of the wing ceases to fly, which is the result of applying too much brake to one side of a slow flying canopy. If held, this type of stall could quickly tum into a spin. (But as shown in the photo it is also possible to fly straight with only half of your wing, using correct control input.)

If

Also, if we fly around the sky at maximum speed pulling high bank turns in the same rough air, then large closures can be expected when entering or exiting turbulent thermals.

Active flying is all a matter of getting on with it and experimenting. All designs of glider are different and no two gliders will fly the same with regard to the necessary amounts of braking needed to keep them stable.

Each and every model of glider will perform differently, and it is not possible to apply the technique from one glider to another and expect exactly the same reactions. So many students ask the big questions. How much brake do I need? Are hands positioned at shoulder height correct or should they be higher or lower? There is no hard and fast rule, you have to fly by feel and that alone.

There are no secrets. If a glider pitches forward then slow it down by applying a little brake.

When you feel it respond, then ease the brakes back to your normal flying position. If it drops behind you, then let it accelerate forward and if it yaws left or right, then apply the appropriate brake to stabilize it. The objective is to keep it over your head with the minimum of input!

First and foremost is to maintain your directional control, especially if you are in congested airspace or close to a hill or mountain face. You must remember that any soft wing will take time to react to your input and overbraking at this point will only complicate the process, sending you swinging around the sky perhaps adding to the instability.

Only apply a little brake to begin with; you will soon discover just how much is required to dampen out the surges which, of course, will vary depending on the conditions at the time.

** HAVE YOUR AIRTEK DEALER SEND YOUR HARNESS OR RESERVE TO OUR FACTORY FOR ADAPTION AND INSTALLATION.

PAGE 34 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

Large surges (pitch or yaw) may require an excessive amount of brake to control them.

However, don't over do it. Any more than two seconds worth may put you into a spin or stall, especially if the glider was already flying at low speed.

Remember these movements should always be smooth and deliberate. Large movements may only be needed for just a moment, as soon as the glider reacts return your hands smoothly back to your normal flying position. In thermal flight the sky is full of lifting and sinking air and the gusts and lulls we feel we need to treat as friends. At times they may be bumpy and rough but for whatever reason they are there and they prolong our flight. The ever changing sky will tease us constantly and continuous adjustment will be required to maintain maximum efficiency and long flights. Flying in an active manner will add to your enjoyment and your canopy control, perhaps preventing the majority of wing collapses.

11

FLY/NG THE POINT" byBIIIDoWellOH11

This is a stereogram of paragliders and hang gliders flying over the Point of the.Mm. :Uiu; For those of you that are "perceptionally challenged", there is a picture of the image with helpfu11imts on cpg Z'/.

A Guide to the Sky

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 35

Uuu~it®cdl Sit©lit®~ H©1uug G~~cdl~uug /~~~uu" P.0 • Box 1330,

C o I o I' a d o S p I' I n g s , C o I o r a d o 8 0 9 0 1 • 1 3 3 0

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S CORNER I wanted to get some important information to you in this issue. So rather than develop an article I elected to use an announcement format to bring you up to speed on some new developments. I did want to mention that I spent three days Phil Bachman at Sun 'N Fun and was very much impressed by the effort put forth by the local USHGA members. They did an excellent, crowd pleasing job of demonstrating hang gliding and paragliding each day. I enjoyed helping out as part of the ground crew. (I was responsible for "catching" the launch dolly on the aerotows ! !) I took a bunch of pictures and Barbara Flynn sent me some as well.

We will do a picture story on USHGA at Sun 'N Fun in the next issue.

Special thanks goes out to the volunteers who supported Sun'N Fun this year: Barbara and Steve Flynn (organizers of the effort), Ken Brown, Greg McNamee, Dave Broyles, GW Meadows, Rodney Bender, Jim Vandergriff, John Johnson, Ron Rarick, Deb Beach, Curt Morehouse, Bruce and Nancy Smith and Dorothy and Tom Ramseur. Special recognition to Bruce Hawk who transported, set up and tore down our tent ( a BIG job) and Dixon Wikner who spent a full week of his vacation to man the USHGA booth full time for the entire Sun 'N Fun!

(719) 632-8300

cations, apparel, videos, decals and other merchandise items, the office has installed a new 1-800 number. This number is to be used exclusively for renewals and merchandise orders. It is a dedicated number which means that we cannot transfer your call for other discussion topics. It also means that this number is not on the office roll over telephone system. If the line is in use you will get a busy signal and have to call back. Hopefully you wilLnot find this to be a problem since it is a free call for you. For your credit card renewals and all of your merchandise orders call:

1 ..soo ..616-6888 USHGA Has A New Address Due to the large volume of mail received on a dally basis and the fact that our current post office box is in a post office located over five miles from the office, we have a ne"1 P.O. box.

The new address is located in the main Colorado Springs post office which is only four blocks from USHGA's of fie~. As we do our normal reprints of forms, letterhead, etc. we are changing. to the new address. We will maintain both P.O. boxes for a year and then have anything still corning to the old a9dress. forw!;l!qed. We are doing this to prevent the loss of the typical two to /three delivery days by having your mail forwarded from the old to the new address. The new address is;

United States Hang Gliding Association, Inc. P.O. Box 1330 Colorado Springs, CO 80901.133'0

USHGA Membership Renewals Wm Require A Signed Release, Waiver And Assumption Of Risk Agreement USHGA is implementing a long-term process of upgrading its administrative operating processes as a result of an operations audit and suggestions from our legal counsel. The steps we are initiating are designed solely to help improve USHGA's business procedures as well as to help safeguard your association and assure its continued well being. We are already requiring members to sign the USHGA Release, Waiver And Assumption of Risk Agreement in connection with the issuance of all new USHGA Flight Proficiency ratings. Effective September 1, 1995, all membership renewals must be accompanied by a signed USHGA Release, Waiver And Assumption of Risk Agreement in order to be processed. We will be including the USHGA Release, Waiver And Assumption of Risk Agreement with your normal renewal notices. Agreed, this is another ingress by bureaucratic paperwork. However, this is possibly the single most important procedural change in USHGA' s history in terms of forward planning for the future health of the association.

The office staff will work to make this as painless as possible for you.

New T,JII Free Number for Membership Renewals & Merchandise Orders In order to make it easier for members to place credit card orders only for USHGA membership renewals and orders for publi-

PAGE 36 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

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PAYMENT must be with your order. FOREIGN orders must be in US FUNDS drawn on a US BANK! SHIPPING (US) CHARGE MY VISA or MASTERCARD SUBTOTAL $_ _ __ .01 - 9.99 ADD $3.50 10. - 19.99 ADD $4.00 Acct# Colorado residents add 3% tax $_ _ __ 20. - 34.99 ADD $5.00 35. - 49.99 ADD $6.00 expires Shipping (see chart) $_ _ __ 50.+ ....... ADD $7.50* Canada & Mex. add $1.50 extra• signature TOT AL $ _ _ __ lnt'I air add $15 extra* *May vary due to weight & destination.

Send to:

Street Address (~possible)_~-~-----~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-~~~~

United States Hang Gliding Assn., PO Box 1330, Colorado Springs CO 80901-1330 1-800-616-6888 fax (719) 632-6417

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PARAGLIDING RATINGS RECEIVED IN MARCH (Name: City, State; Instructor/school)

CLASS I Region 1 DUNHAM, TOM: Lolo, MT; P. Swanson/Sports Exchange ELLIS, DANIEL: Lander, WY; K. Hudonjorgensen/Soaring Center GREEN, KEVIN: Redmond, WA; B. Mickel/Alpine Descents GREEN, MICHAEL: Bellevue, WA; B. Mickel/Alpine Descents HOWELL, DONALD: Anchorage, AK; S. Gressitt/Skydance PG LOGAN, JOSEPH: Seattle, WA; T. Zakotnik/Above & Beyond MENTON, HOLLEE: Teton Village, WY; F. Weber/Ascension Adventure THOMAS, BRUCE, Fairbanks, AK; T. Zakotnik/Above & Beyond THORNE, JAN: Silverton, ID; T. Zakotnik/Above & Beyond THORNE, RICHARD: Silverton, ID; T. Zakotnik/Above & Beyond Region 2 CHORNEY, DAVID: N Las Vegas, NV; C. Mendes/Compact Wings COGGAN, JAMES: Tiburon, CA; A. Whitehill/Chandelle of SF HUF, RONY: Minden, NV; R. Leonard/Adventure Sports JOLICOEUR, JUNE: Tahoe City, CA; H. Murphy/Surf The Sky OTIS, KELLY: Fremont, CA; T. Switzer/Skytimes SILL, MATHEW: Berkeley, CA; A. Ben-David SONNBERGER, KARL: Mi-Wuk Village, CA; R. Ost WATERMAN, SCOTT: Fairfax, CA; R. Ost Region 3 CORNHILL, ALEX: San Diego, CA; M. Karren/Torrey Pines GUNALL, DA VE: Ventura, CA; R. Liggett/Topa Topa HANZ, KEITH: Temecula, CA; M. Haley/Airtek MEADER, MARK: San Diego, CA; M. Haley/Airtek MORRIS, STEVE: Ventura, CA; R. Liggett/Topa Topa STEELE, GREGORY: Santa Barbara, CA; K. DeRussy/HG Emporium Region4 B~OWN, KYLE: Farmington, UT; R.Schick/Soutb Wings CARLSON, GREGG: Durango, CO; C. Mendes/Compact wings CLARK, STEVEN: Layton, UT; T. Zakotnik/Above & Beyond FORD, DOUG: Denver, CO; D. Whaley/Alpine World Adventures O'LEARY, MIKE: New Castle, CO; S. Amy/Pro Flyght Hawaii PETERS, CHRIS: Aruora, CO; B. Laurence/Flyaway PG WEBSTER, THOMAS: Draper, UT; D. Sharp/The Soaring Center WYPP, JOHN: Mesa, AZ; D. White/Thermax PG Region 7 DOETKOTTE, THOMAS: Middleton, WI; D. White/Thermax PG MUCCINO, DAVE: Chelsae, MI; T. Zakotnik/Above & Beyond Region 8 MILLER, ALISON: Boston, MA; K. Hudonjorgensen/Two-Can Fly MILLER, IAN: Boston, MA; K. Hudonjorgensen/Two-Can Fly THOMAS, STEVE: Essex Jct, VT; R. Sharp/Fight Gravity VOLPE, GREG: Bridgeport, CT; L. Linde/Mountain Wings

Colorado

S p r I n g s .,

CLASS II Region 1 HILL, BRAD: Vancouver, WA; J. Gluzinski/Air America LEE, KEVIN: Wolf Creek, OR; E. Hern/Skyn 4 Hi Region2 BIERNACKI, KEVIN: Las Vegas, NV; R. Leonard/Adventu.re Sports EDWARDS, SHELLEY: Redding, CA; E. Hern/Skyn 4 Hi HUF, RONY: Minden, NV; R. Leonard/Adventure Sports OSBORN, BOB: Los Osos, CA; H. Murphy SILVA, LAWRENCE: San Jose, CA; A. Whitehill/Chandelle SF WONG, KINSLEY: San Luis Obispo, CA; H. Murphy/Surf The Sky YOUNG, STEVE: Belmont, CA; A. Whitehill/Chandelle SF Region3 BELTER, STEVE: Ridgecrest, CA; R. McKenzie/High Adventure FREDERICK, TIM: Huntington Beach, CA; R. McKenzie/High Adventure HARRIS, MIKE: Cathedral City, CA; R. McKenzie/High Adventure LUNDQUIST, PAUL: Goleta, CA; K. DeRussy/HG PG Emporium Region 4 ALEXANDER, TOM: Aspen, CO; J. Stenstadvold/ Aspen PG GLAD, BRUCE: Albuquerque, NM; K. Mayforth/Paradox LEONARD, FRED: Tijeras, NM; J. Brown/Lucky Crater PG School WRIGHT, CHRIS: Salt Lake City, UT; C. Santacroce Region 10 THOMPSON, TOM: Westfield, NC; D. Williams Region 12 BOLEY, TOBIAS: Stonybrook, NY; P, Renaudin/GMI PG

CLASS III Region 1 GILLETTE, FRANK: Delco, ID; D. Bridges/Sun Valley PG McMILLIN, DANA: Cashmere, WA; C. Mulack/Chelan PG Region 2 GROSSMAN, DANA: S. Lake Tahoe, CA; R. Leonard/Adventure Sports Region 3 AXEN, MARK: Bishop, CA; R. Leonard/Adventure Sports NELSON, TIM: Torrence, CA; R. McKenzie/High Adventure QUINTANA, MARIA: Santa Barbara, CA; M. Bell/Torrey Pines TRUAX, TOM: Carpinteria, CA; R. Liggett/Topa Topa Region 4 FARRELL, JEFFREY: Sandy, UT; S. Amy ZAKOTNIK, TERRY: Draper, UT; M. deJong/Mescalito Regfon 1 FIFER, BILL: Traverse City, MI; D. Whaley ST.ONGE, PAUL: Grosse PTE WDS, MI; C. Mulack/Chehm PG

Region9 MIDDLETON, JOHN: Arlington, VA; M. Fink/Silver Wings Inc

Region 9 EMM, JOE: Ocean City, MD; F. Anderson/Aspen PG

Region 10 THOMAS, BEN: Winston Salem, NC; D. Williams

Region 11 STANFORD NANCY JO: Austin, TX; C. Stockwell OSOWSKI, MARIE: Austin, TX; C. Stockwell

Region 12 HEPPERLE, RICHARD: North Bergen, NJ; L. Linde/Mountain Wings

PAGE 38 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

Colora

Region 12 EISENHUT, CHRISTIAN: White Plains, NY; P. Voight/Fly High HG

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FOREIGN RA TINGS Class I DODDRELL, JOHN: Lilliput, Poole, UK; M. Haley/Air Tek Class ll MIESCH, OLIVER: Marignier, France; M. dcJong/Mescalito MILLET, PHILIPPE: Duingt Savoie, France; M. dcJong/Mescalito

TANDEM ONE RATINGS LARS LINDE PAUL ST.ONGE

7 1 9 }

Region 6 KUGLER, MIKE: McCook, NB; K. Baier/Airjunkics Region 7 LESNOW, NORM: Hazel Park, MI; D. White/Dixon's Thermax PG Region 12 BOGYOS, FRANK: Califon, NJ; K. Baier/Airjunkies RITCHIE, ALISTAIR: Bayonne, NJ; P. Renaudin/GMI PG

CLASS II

CHRISTOPHER BLACHLY MARK HECKLER

CHRISTOPHER BLACHLY MARK HECKLER NATE SCALES

FAX

Region4 LENINO, DAN: Aspen, CO; J. Stenstadvold/Aspen PG RAWERS, SCOTT: Aspen, CO; F. Anderson/Aspen PG RUPKALVIS, MICHAEL: Telluride, CO; R. Mckenzie/High Adventure YOCOM, JAMES: Littleton, CO; W. Laurence/Fly Away

TANDEM TWO RATINGS

TANDEM INSTRUCTOR

632-6417

Region 1 BERGSTEDT, BRYAN: Bellvue, WA; C. Mulack/Chelan PG OLSON, KRISTOFOR: Issaquah, WA; M. Chirico OLSON, ROY: Issaquah, WA; M. Chirico Region3 ALLEN, RONDA: Oceanside, CA; S. Gressitt/Skydance PG MEYER, CHRISTOPH: San Diego, CA; J. Greenbaum/Airtime SF SHOOK, BRIAN: Ventura, CA; R. Liggett/Topa Topa

CLASS III PARAGLIDING RATINGS RECEIVED IN APRIL LILIENTHAL AWARD I BRONZE THOMAS DOETKOTTE PETER IAQUINTA SAFE PILOT AWARD/ SILVER DAYID BROYLES (Name: City, State; Instructor/School)

Region 1 JOHNSON, FRANK SCOTT: Asotin, WA; R. Leonard/Adv.Sports Reglon2 McCLEMENT, TIM: Mtn View, CA; J. Greenbaum/Airtime SF Region4 BARTON, ANTHONY: Sierra Vista, AZ; R. Leonard/Adv.Sports KLOEPPER, PETER: Boulder, CO; G. Banks/Parasoft Region 12 RENAUDIN, PHILIPPE: Glen Cove, NY; G. Smith

CLASS I Region 1 DONOHUE, TOM: Seattle, WA; M. Eberle/North America PG GAULT, LAWREN CE: Puyallup, WA; M. Chirico/Do Chirico PG HIGGINS, RICK: Hood River, OR; L. Pindar/Over The Hill McGONIGLE, DEE: Spokane, WA; C. Mulack/Chelan PG MULACK, ANDREA: Maple Valley, WA; C. Mulack/Chelan PG NORTON, LAWRENCE: Gig Harbor, WA; D. McMillin/Parapente STOUT, KEVIN: Seattle, WA; D. McMillin/Parapcnte Region 2 LEKUMBERRY, J.B.: Gardenvlle, NV; R. Leonard/Adventure Sports Region 3 BEESE, GARY: Nuevo, CA; J. Gluzinski/Air America EISELE, PETER: Ventura, CA; R. Liggett/Topa Topa HAIGHT, WAYNE: Honolulu, HI; J. Marytn/Wings over America RASMUSSEN, EVAN: Solana Beach, CA; J. Ryan/HOC

FOREIGN RATINGS Class I HILL, STEPHEN: Gr Canyon, Br West Indies; D. White/Dixon's Thermax SHAMSHUDIN, SHAHENAZ: London, England; D. White/Dixon's Thermax

TANDEM INSTRUCTOR YVES BAJULAZ BILL LAWREN CE ANDREW WHITEHILL

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 39

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Alas, yet another board meeting has come and gone while you, the member, wonders "What have they done to me now?"

Read on and you will discover the heartbreaks and triumphs of your organization's representatives ...

AT THE LAST BOD The Spring '95 meeting was held in scenic Colorado Springs, Colorado. Aside from being surrounded by the majestic beauty of the Rocky Mountains, this meeting was particularly favorable in that Colorado Springs is the home of USHGA headquarters. This allowed much greater participation from the office staff as well as the opportunity for all the attending directors to visit headquarters and get a taste of exactly how the office operates.

The weekend's festivities began with the traditional Thursday night ice-breaker. The event was held at McAllister's, which is a local pub, and officially co-hosted by the Rocky Mountain Hang Gliding Association and the Pike's Peak Hang Gliding Club. The evening's entertainment was provided by a local County/Rock band - Thunder Mountain. While you probably haven't heard of Thunder Mountain yet, I'm sure tliat many of you are familiar with their drummer - our very own insurance guru, Dean Leyerle.

Later in the evening, Region 6 Director, Ron Kenney. was even coerced into playing bass for a few songs. Overall, I think everyone had a good time and the party was a roaring success.

Friday morning's General Session was preceded by a 7:00 a.m. meeting of the committee chairs in which new President Bill Bryden addressed (among other things) the inconsistencies of committee representation, committee voting rights, and the need for more Director action between board meetings. General Session saw the Executive Director's Report, Hang Gliding Editor's Report and Paragliding The Magazine Editor's Report before adjourning for committee meetings.

Saturday and Sunday's General Session meetings were filled with committee reports, The highlights of each follow: AWARDS - Discussion centered around the increasing the quality of the awards processes. The office was directed to issue press releases on award recipients to appropriate media. Jan Johnson volunteered to contact clubs and newsletter editors on this issue.

SITE MANAGEMENT. The desirability of a National Site Guide was discussed. The complications involved in such a guide seem to outweigh the benefits. General Session gave the office an action item to investigate the feasibility of acquiring and providing local site guides to the membership.

The discussion then switched to site conflict resolution. The committee established a chain-of-command beginning at the Examiner level and progressing through the Executive Committee.

INSURANCE - After some discussion of landowner lawyer fees in a liability defense situation. It was suggested that USHGA recommend that chapters modify their waivers to include a statement to the effect of "I will not sue landowners, and if I do I will pay their legal fees". Discussion then ensued over the membership renewal waiver. You will be seeing a magazine article on the waiver sometime this summer.

SAFETY & TRAINING - In an effort to condense this twelve page committee report, I will only touch on the items which directly affect the membership.

The Part 104 (rating system) was modified. Please contact USHGA headquarters for a copy of the complete list of changes.

PAGE 40 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

Colorado

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Quite a bit of time was spent discussing ac.cident reporting (or lack thereof) and confidentiality. The problem seems to be that many accidents (up to 80%) are not reported to the USHGA because pilots fear retribution if they do report. Luen Miller was directed to write an article for the magazines which will address these issues.

The second major issue was that of an agency separate from USHGA being set up to certify instructors and tandem pilots. The majority of the committee felt that our current instructor certific.ation process needs overhauling. The Executive Director was assigned to begin the process of establishing such an organization.

The final major issue to be debated was a 5-der rating system for paragliding. The committee agreed, " ... as a matter of principal to bring the hang gliding and paragliding systems into a parallel structure with respect to the administration and a broad definition of skill levels." After debate ranging from the need for a 5-tler system to equality between HG & PG airtime to the effectiveness of the hang gliding 5-tier system. the committee agreed to submit the 5-tier proposal to the BOD for acceptance at the Fall '95 BOD meeting in Orlando, Florida. If the proposal is accepted, it will be implemented January 1, 1996. In the meantime, if you would like a copy of the proposed changes, please contact USHGA headquarters. Please note that this issue will affect hang glider pilots as well as paraglider pilots. If you would like your opinion heard on this subject, either contact your.Regional Director or contact USHGA headquarters in writing.

PUBLICATIONS - The bulk of the discussion centered around the Aloft magazine proposal and the current Paragiding The Magazine contract.

Conversation included the quality of both PG magazines, contractor-owned vs US HG A-owned PG magazine, and the surveying of USHGA members for their opinions. The final decision was made to extend the current contract with Paragliding The Magazine until 02/28/96. In the meantime, a subcommittee will review any and all proposals for a PG magazine and make a recommendation at the Fall-'95 BOD meeting, ELECTIONS & ALLOCATIONS - The entire discussiQn revolved around where the director slot for Region 5 would come from. After much debate over whether to take the slot from Region 3 or Region 12, the decision was made to take the slot from Region 12. It should be noted that in General Session, a letter from Paul Voight (the affected director from Region 12) was read in favor of the decision.

MEMBERSHIP & DEVELOPMENT · Youth programs were discussed.

Jeff Hunt and Phil Bachman were directed to develop a simulator ride program to spark youth interest. Phil Bachman will also investigate the possibility of a non-pilot affiliate membership category as well as· potential USHGA involvement with the Internet. The PG National Fly-In was approved for July 1-7 1995 in Chelan, Washington while the HG National Fly-In was approved for July 1-7. 1995 at Lookout Mountain Flight Park in Georgia.

FINANCE - A slight increase was made to the Legal/Accounting budget as well as the Editor's Commission. Financial support was also approved for · the PG National Fly-In, NATIONAL COORDINATING· It was clarified that national lobbying efforts are to become a permanent part of the Executive Director's job duties.

A great deal of discussion ensued over proposed increases in Military Operating Areas (MOAs) and Military Training Routes (MTRs) and USHGA involvement in and stance on this issue. A magazine article should appear shortly on this issue, A summarization of the last ARAC committee meeting showed that the recommendation to the FAA is to leave Part 103 unchanged.

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FAX

TANDEM - Tandem Administrator recertification procedures were discussed. The current Tandem Administrator list was then reviewed and edited. GW Meadows presented some changes to the HG tandem program which will be reviewed further and resubmitted at the next BOD meeting for approval. The final item for discussion was tandem aerobatic flight and USHGA's stance on such activities. Matt-Taber was assigned to develop a recommendation on such after contacting the aerobatic association.

current 1995 PG pilot ranking are available from USHGA headquarters.

Some discussion on the Meet Steward position resulted in the decision to waive the Meet Steward requirement as long as the competition is not allowed to accumulate WTSS points and all the competitors are adequately aware of such. Five new Meet Stewards were also appointed.

Subcommittees were created to investigate the creation of a USHGA meet support kit and 1996 Continental Championships.

TOWING - GW Meadows presented the modifications made to his Platform Tow Launch Standard Guidelines. A subcommittee was appointed to devise a written exam patterned after GW' s guidelines. A discussion ensued over the safety factor involved in using some aerotow releases in truck towing. An article should appear in the magazine on this issue. Malcolm Jones was appointed as an Aerotowing Supervisor.

Upon conclusion of the committee reports, the board embarked upon New Business items. The fust item was a membership list/label policy proposed by the Executive Director. This new policy basically allows access to USHGA member names/addresses only upon the signing of a legal document which states the nature of the request and limits the use of the furnished information.

There was discussion over the information provided in the USHGA pages of Paragliding-The Magazine (i.e. where it comes from and who has final approval over it). The Executive Director was assigned to discuss the issue with the editor of Paragliding The Magazine.

In order to better facilitate the operations of future BOD meetings. it was decided to hold every spring BOD meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

WORLDWIDE COMPETITION - The Aerobatic Association presented a formal proposal to affiliate with USHGA. The committee agreed to the "sharing of information regarding areas of mutual interest and acknowledgement of the unique areas of expertise of each organization."

The 1994 PG Nationals were discussed at length. After great debate during General Session as well as committee, it was decided that the Meet Director had not adequately informed competitors that an extra rain day was added to the end of the meet. The meet will be rescored without the last round.

The 1995 paragliding ranking was also a topic of much debate in both General Session and committee. It was decided to exempt the 1993 Southern California League Meet from the scoring process. Copies of the

This concludes the latest USHGA Board of Directors' meeting.

As always? you are all cordially invited to the next BOD meeting, which is to be held October 27-29, 1995 in Orlando. Florida. If you have any specific questions about the meeting that were not addressed in this article, please contact us at USHGA headquarters and we will be happy to assist you.

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1996 USHGA Regional Director Nominations Solicited USHGA is issuing its 20th annual call for nominations to the national Board of Directors. Eleven positions are open for election in October, 1995 for a two-year term beginning January, 1996.

USHGA members seeking a position on the ballot should send to headquarters for receipt no later than August 20, 1995 the following information: name and USHGA number, photo and resume (one page containing the candidate's hang gliding activities and viewpoints, written consent to be nominated and that they will serve if elected). Candidates must be nominated by at least three USHGA members residing in the candidate's region.

Nominations are needed in the following regions. The current Directors are listed and their terms expire December 31, 1995.

Ballots will be distributed with the October issue of Hang Gliding magazine. USHGA needs the very best volunteers to help guide the safe development and growth of the sport. Forward candidate material for receipt no later than August 20 to: USHGA, P.O. Box 1330 Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1330.

NOTE THAT EFFECTIVE 1/1/96 REGION 5 WILL BE REINSTATED TO INCLUDE IDAHO, MONTANA AND WYOMING.

Reg.#

CURRENT DIRECTOR STATES WITHIN REGION

1 2

George Sturtevant Paul Gazis Russ Locke Joe Greblo Gregg Lawless Jim Zeiset OPEN Ron Kenney Pete Lehmann Matt Taber Jeff Hunt

3 4

5 6 9 10 11

Alaska, Oregon, Washington Northern California, Nevada Southern California, Hawaii Arizona, Colorado, El Paso, New Mexico, Utah Idaho, Montana, Wyoming Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska Wash, D.C., Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, W. Virginia Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, N. & S. Carolina, Tennessee, Virgin Islands Texas, Louisiana

The following form is for your convenience.

REGIONAL DIRECTOR ELECTION, NOMINATION FORM I hereby nominate _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

as a candidate for Regional Director for Region#

. I understand that his/her name will be placed on the

Official Ballot for the 1996 Regional Director Election, if three nominations are received by August 20, 1995.

I have notified the above person and he/ she has accepted the nomination.

NAME_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _USHGA #_ _ _ _ _ _ _REGION#_ __

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ALASKA (907) 563- 4359 Alpine Descents Inc. Enjoy flying spectacular terrain in Washington state with USHGA certified instructors. Small groups only, with emphasis on remote alpine tours and Tandem instruction . Perfect for hikers a nd climbers . We feature Edel Paragliders and accessories .

1700 Anacortes Ave. NE; Renton, WA 98059

Washington 206 228-3488 Ken Baler's

AIR JUNKIES * Professional Instruction from beginner through Instructor. * Great year-round flying, over 12 sites Including the Baja. * Flight test the equipment that's right for you . * Call for the latest schedule of events.

SCHOOLS

Dixon's Thermax Paragliding

,.

Year round flying at the easiest site to learn. Drive-up wide open launches and Lz·s at 1200' volcanic craters. 10+ mile flights. 1 hr. from the Grand Canyon.

Cheap lodging. Dealer for almost everything, specializing in Edel. 2 day classes from $160.

Class Ul instructor w/ tandem and motorized backpacks.

1500 E. Cedar #10; Flagstaff, AZ 86004

ARIZONA

(602) 526-4579

THE SOARING CENTER is one of the nations few complete soaring schools.

We offer: > Year-round lessons, and tandems for hang gliding and paragliding > Demos & glider rentals > Professional site guides for 2,000' - 5,000' mtn. launch sites. > Free camping at the worlds most consistent soaring si te, Point of the Mountain , soarable 300 days a year. > Products from AT SPORTS EDEL, FLIGHT DESIGNS, and NOVA.

12665 So. Minuteman Dr. #1 Dra per, UT 84020

UTAH (801) 576-6460 fax 6482

Fly Away Paragliding Can you remember what you did last weekend? What about the weekend before that? Paragliding is an unforgettable experience. We offer introductory, certification, and advanced instruction , plus a full line of equipment featuring Pro Design gliders and Ball Variometers.

Come to the Rocky Mountains and Fly Away!

253 Rodney Aven~, ; Errllitils, CA 92024

3 0 590 Hwy 72 Gol d en, C O 80403

So. California (619)753-2664

Colorado (303 ) 642-0849

Skytimes Paragliding US H GA certified lessons . Tandem instruction. Guided mtn. trips including thermal and x-country train ing.

Radio comm unication between stu d e nt a nd in structor. e m ail Thom Switzer at Switzer@hooked. net Dealer for Pro Design.

Po Box 687 Bolinas, CA 94924

s. F. Bay Area (415) 868-1330

Paraglide Washington!

Individuali~ed instruction is the key to turning out pilots in command.

We specialize in tandem instruction , from first flig hts to advanced signoff. Only minutes from Seattle.

The most complete a ssortment of gliders and equipment in the Northwest.

Dealer for Edel , Flight Design , ITV , Pro Design an d o th ers.

Access ories for every need.

We also include motor paragliding sales and i n stru c tio n.

Washington (206) 328-1104 PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 47

PARAGLIDING

PARAFLY PARAGLIDING

ROCKY MOUNTAIN PARAGLIDING Fly the "Canadian Rockies". Heli , hike or drive up to incredible mountain sites of over 3000' vertical. We offer 1 day or full certification courses . You can obtain your Canadi a n, U.S.H .G .A . or New Zealand ratings. tandem instruction is also available. Local or International tours and advanced maneuvers courses are scheduled throughout the year. Dealer for Edel and Advance.

Glen Derouin Box 2662 Canmore Alberta , Can ad a TO L OM 0

Canada (403) 678-4973

The only year round full service USHGA certified paragliding school in the northeast, with training facilities at Cobble Hill in Milton VT and/or Cape Cod. Rick Sharp Certified Instructor.

Dealers for Apco, Edel, Flight Design, Fun 2 Fly, Pro Design, UP, Wills Wing, Brauniger and others.

38 Converse Ct., Burlington, VT 05401

VERMONT (CAPE COD, MA) 1800-PARAFLY

SUN VALLEY PARAGLIDING

___..,,...-""'===

&.

SCHOOLS

COMPACT WINGS

The most experienced and comprehensive flight school. We specialize in tandem instruction. Our certified instructors and USHGA 5UI\J VALLEY appointed towing administrators PARA6LIOIN6 will ensure you receive the finest training available. The local topography is the perfect location for our XC and mt/thermal seminars. Visit our shop at the base of Bald Mtn . where our full line of flight equipment and knowledgeable staff will satisfy all of your paragliding needs . PO Box 5715 301 Bell Dr.,

Located @ the famous Soboba site , which combined with other local mtn . sites & great weather, offers more in altitude gains and hours than anywhere in the USA. Year-round tandem and solo thermal instruction (our specialty) . 5 day course , $395 , 8 days $595. Class Ill tandem Instructor Cary Mendes has 5,000 hours flying experience. Less than 2 hrs. from LA & San Diego.

Ketchum,ID.83340

1271 Avd. Floribunda, San Jacinto, CA 92583

fax:208 726-1149

IDAHO (208) 726-3332

So. California (909) 654-8559

FLYING SO. CALIFORNIA?

Learn to fly.

Sleep for cheap at the beach, Mission Beach.

Located 300 steps from the sand 'n surf and less than 15 minutes to the closest flying site (Torrey Pines). The San Diego area offers over a dozen flying sites. Get a comfortable bunk for only $13. (taxes incl.) in the heart of what's considered 1HE BEST flying area in the States. Bring your sleeping bag and towel ; some kitchen privliges available. Reservations a MUST! Call or write: Robert & M artha, 4822 Santa M onica A ve. #187 ;

Advertise your school in this space.

Read by hundreds of potential customers each day. Special ad rates to USHGA certified instructors. Call Claudia for more information.

San Di ego, CA. 92107

So California (619) 225-8720

Oregon (503) 582-1467

The U.S. Hang Gliding Assn. has a new PO Box. Our address now Is:

U.S.H.G.A PO Box 1330 Colorado Sprtngs Colorado 80901-1330 Please send future correspondence here.

PAGE 48 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

SJ(y Sp oR1S

"11!11

BARRAC:IIJ DA

The only true sports glider. An elegant wing for the pilot who wants to move up from the intermediate class, without feeling uncomfortable in the rough stuff!

Available in 3 sizes.

MARtlN~ Agile allrounder.

Great take-off and performance combined with the best handling you can get!

Available in 3 sizes.

...GENESIS Sets the new standard in competition.

Radically new profile technology allows a high-aspect wing to be stable and turn beautifully.

At last, a real step forward in high performance paragliding.

DOLPHIN~ The ideal first glider: from training to thermalling in ultimate safety.

Available in 2 sizes.

<illlTURTLE Ergonomically designed, lightweight but comfortable! All the extras are standard.

RS21ll> Keep it simple! In our opinion, the mote complicated a parachute is, the more can go wrong. Fast opening, a low sink-rate and no penduluming have made the RS2 a classic lifesaver.

THE DHV GUTHIEGEL =::has ~en shock-tested, load-tested and All our streamline gliders and acctjssp--f ,;;zJ ~f :l' e~ly flown through 13 manoeuries carry the coveted German Giit\~i i'.;;:,~'vr ~X 2 different pilots, with various siege! mark. As other certification cffiil;h- ~"~lJirr:i,~sses. The most thorough check ges, the DHV maintains its stringent ; &ft:s'afety around - make sure your Ph. 208 726-1100 Fax 208 726-1149 standards. Every DHV certified glider next glider or reserve has it!

Po Box 5715, Ketchum, m 83340

PICCOLO PLUS

-20 flt. memory.

-5 altB. adj. to 25.000ft.

-Variometer to 4,000fpm.

-Programable Bink + lift.

-PG. or HG. mount included.

THE #1 FULL FACE HELMET SOLD WORLDWIDE

-WT. 6.8oz.

The 1st helmet designed specifically tor Hang gliding with all smooth trim to reduce drag and prevent wire snags. Constructed of polyester polymer and reinforced with chop fiber, it 1s lined with high impact foam and brushed polyester fabric for a comfortable fit. Panoramic is strong and lightweight Price at dealer may vary and is subject to change. (Dealer inquiries accepted).

STILL $149 Sugges1ed Retail

-2yr. warranty NAS 8ACKEO.

-SWISS

UTAC FRENCH TESTED AND CERTIFIED! WT. 21 oz. SIZES: S, M, L, XL. IN STOCKI

i,

AIRCOTEC 1

TREKKING is a division of NAS Distributing, Inc.

(303) 278-9566 or fax: (303) 750-3226

Alway:; the be:;t, Alway:; NAS

-·~ 7i ,. MADE - U.S. SERVICED-

$490 Suggested

\

303/278-9566

'c

;~

FAX: 303/750-3226

That extra margin of Safety!

TESTED, DEPLOYED AND PROVEN. !ODO'S USED WORLDWIDE

- ACPUL Certified all sizes.

- Pulled down apex (PDA) - l" Skirt tape.V-Tabs.Seam tape - 20ft. and 22ft. Diameter sizes - 37 and 40 SQ/M sizes - Repacks. inspects, bags avail.

STILL $385 North American Sports Distributing, Inc.

(303) 278-9566 or fax: (303) '/50-3226

Alway:; the be:;t, Alway:; NAS

Under

special,

exclusive

agreement

with

Finsterwalder-

Germany, we proudly introduce the only biner specifically developed for Paragliding that allows for rapid separation of the glider, even while under load.'

'Barely heavier than a traditional carabiner; individually tested to 4,000lh,.; breaking strength 8,000-10,000lbs. Finally back in stock - 0orry for the delay.

$59 ea. suggested retail Tele: 303/278-9566 Fax: 303/750-3226

ost aviation accidents are caused by what is commonly called a 'Snowball Effect'. This is usually a series of little things that go wrong. In theory any of these 'little' problems is easily manageable but the sum total of them, like a snowball rolling downhill, becomes overwhelming and an 'accident' is the net result. As an instructor one of my many responsibilities is to teach my students how to avoid undesirable launch and preflight habits that could lead to unnecessary problems, and therefore help to avoid getting the so-called 'Snowball' rolling. Below I have listed some examples and suggestions to that end that I hope will be beneficial to interested pilots.

LAUNCH: I have seen both experienced and inexperienced pilots let go of the brake toggles very soon after launch and reach down to adjust their harnesses.

Any time you voluntarily release the controls you are no longer a pilot but have become in essence, a passenger in an aircraft that is incapable of directing itself. We saw this practice widely used in Europe. In Annecy one German pilot we saw doing this immediately experienced a full frontal collapse shortly after letting go. He managed to re-grab one brake in a panic and proceeded to over control, at which point his glider went into a negative spin. He then went out of view. Somehow he recovered and managed to fly away from the hill, skimming the treetops. If he had kept a little brake on, the frontal might not have happened. If it had occwTed anyway, he would have been ready to handle it with much less panic and much more authority. Recovery from a frontal is fairly straightforward and need not escalate into an extreme emergency. l give this as an example because it made an indelible impression on me. l think about it every time I see pilots do this. Is it OK to let go of the brakes? or course it is. Just be certain that you are in reasonably smooth air, away from other traffic, and have adequate te1Tain clearance before you relinquish control of your glider to the Wind Gods. Another option is to hold a little brake pressure in the wing by putting both brakes in one hand. You can then use your other hand to help you settle into your harness. Most modern gliders have optimum stability and pressurization with some brake on. You should also examine why your harness is uncomfortable to begin with. Often times just learning how to adjust it properly while hanging in it and marking the 'sweet spot' on the webbing will do wonders for comfort. It may feel a little tight on the ground but in the air it will be just right. Try cinching your leg straps fairly tight before launch. This might get you back in the seat nicely with little effort. Numerous serious accidents occur at, or shortly after, launch by pilots who were distracted right after launch by trying to get into their harness. The launch sequence is where we as pilots should be concentrating on the business at hand of flying the glider, looking for traffic, establishing a good glide, and being ready for any and all events that might occur. Comfortable or not, once committed to flight, prioritize your tasks and FLY THE GLIDER_filRST!

PIN CHECKS: I am rarely aware if paraglider pilots arc doing this because I am usually busy at flying time pre-flighting myself or my students. If you aren't visually inspecting your pins and closing loop before every flight, you should be. Skydivers do this religiously. So should we. An accidental reserve deployment could cause very serious problems. A dangling or open parachute that has not been deliberately deployed is an extreme hazard and has the potential to create an unnecessary emergency unto itself. This situation not only puts the concerned pilot at risk but also endangers other pilots as well in heavy traffic situations. Probably the best time to do your pin check is right before putting the harness on prior to clip in. Anytime you have left it unattended or laying around it should be rechecked. Kids and uninformed adults just seem to be fascinated with those handles! With rear mounts be careful of snags or of leaving it on the ground pack down.

Never sit in your harness on the ground leaning back on your closing flap, loop, and pin.

COTTER PIN BULLETIN: Make sure that your cotter pin is not bent at an angle (see drawing). Cotter pins are fine for closing loops provided that they arc properly maintained.

IMPORT ANT SAFETY NOTE: I have seen some rigs that have aluminum cotter pins. ALUMINUM COTTER PINS ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND SHOULD BE REPLACED WITH A PROPER SIZED MARINE GRADE STAINLESS TYPE IMMEDIATELY. COTfER PIN DO'S & DON'TS

~

bent pin replace immediately

good straight pin

L

imprdperly bent spring could cause hard pull replace immediately

~ goOct spring pin

properly installed

These pins arc weak and easily bent or broken which could cause an accidental opening or a hard or impossible 'pull' when trying to deploy in an emergency. If you need to bend it open to re-tension the spring, take care to bend it evenly as in the drawing. When closed, the flat surfaces should lay perfectly against each other. If you're unsure of doing this yourself, take the rig to your dealer or rigger. This is safety gear on which your life and others could depend. Take the time to do the above. If not for yourself, then for other pilots that you share the air with.

SPEED SYSTEMS: Make sure that your speed system is not crossed through or tangled with your harness or glider in any way. I have seen many rigs that have no provision for attaching the speed bar to the harness. The pilot flies around with a neat little trapeze dangling a couple feet below, enticing a hungry tree top or fence to make a meal of him/her. Be aware also that most stirrups have some sort of metal. Not a good thing to come in contact, or close proximity, with wires unless you are shooting a commercial for JOLT COLA! Although this may sound funny in a cartoonish sort of way, I saw this happen to a French pilot on approach in Chamonix. Fortunately this was a low fence and all he managed to bruise was his ego. Had it been a 50 ft tree or obstacle, the ending would most likely not have been so happy. Have your speed bar tucked neatly away on launch and landing. I know of another pilot who also broke his wrist when he tripped on his speed bar while running out a landing after an unevcntf-ul flight. If you have no provision for this, contact your instructor-dealer or have a rigger do the appropriate mods for you. It should be fairly inexpensive to do this.

They say an "Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". This certainly applies to matters of aviation safety. In my opinion aviation safety is 10% technique and the remaining 90% is an indefinable split between risk management and ego assessment. Sometimes things can go wrong that we can't control. However, a good percentage of the inherent risk factor can be handled with preventing things from going wrong that you can control.

Developing and practicing safe flying habits falls under this category. So docs using and maintaining proper equipment. Remember this: You may not get a second chance to fix your first serious mistake. The purpose of this article is meant to point out just a few things that I have noticed. It is not meant to be all encompassing, or a value judgment of other pilots. If you have thoughts to share, I encourage you to do so with your fellow pilots either in this forum or on the hill. Spring is a great time to exchange those ideas. Have a great and safe flying season out there. See you in the air.

Submitted by Larry E. Pindar, Oregon Class ll Instructor U.S.H.G.A. #56702

PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 51

CLASSIFIED ADS Airwave Voodoo II 26

APCO Paraglide:rs

PARAMOTOR F-2

Excellent condition. High performance, in intermediate glider. naked pilot wt. 120-176 lbs.

Split "A" risers and trim-tab speed system. $1900 OBO 415/756-7560 or 415/389-6754

Spectra 27, hook-in 154-198 lbs. 6 mlhs old. 10 hrs., speed system, yellow and white. $1900. obo Also starlite 26 $1000. obo. Call Jon. 805/566-6204 or jswift@hsc.com

'93 Edel Space 27

Deal for smaller pilot

Exe. condition, very low time, incl. harness, & prop covers, must sell clue to health reasons.

Pircecl to sell at $3600. obo Herb 416/265-0659 Toronto Canada

in great condition, 30 hrs, harness, stuff sack, backpack included. $1800. Stuart Gilderd 310/442-9575

Good 1st canopy, green Edel Apollo 22 w/ harness, wt range 99-143 lbs. Low hrs, well cared for, very good condition $1300. 713/666-4315

Second Chantz

ITV Meteor Gold

Pocket Rocket side mount A.LR. deployment system, never used, $1200. new will take first $600. offer. Stuart Gildred 310/442-9575

Weight range 110-135, low hours, steer seat, must sell $1000. obo 801/745-2365

Paratec P-40 Tandem

EDEL Super Space 27

only 35 hours on this popular 40m2 wing. $1585 cash or trade for ?? 916/581-5494

Split "A's", 20 hrs, still crispy $1700. Ikaros Harness w/ tandem size reserve,Richard 510/689-3716

UP STELLAR 25

Wills Wing 123

Purple - Exe beginner I intermediate wing.

Includes harness & rucksack SACRIFICE $900. Ken 707/647-7263

Firebird Sitting Bun Excellent harness with Firebird reserve, Pristine condition - $600. for both. Corey 303/399-7970 (cnislow@boulder.coloraclo.edu)

PRO DESIGN

Beautiful Jade & silver, wt range 165-210 lbs.

Exe. Thermal wing, great condition, factory inspection. $2800 new Priced to sell $1400 805/ 544-8190

Paramotor Demo Sale Clean SR 210 by La Mouette, easy compact break down, fits in trunk or back pack. electric start is available. $2900. includes harness. Send for video and brochure. 805/544-8190

PARAMOTOR ADV. 210 in new cone!. only 45 minutes in air lime, includes 210 motor, chute, deluxe harness. wt range 170-240 lbs. With electric start WOW! $6995. 310/477-2259

Second Chantz A.I.Ft 450 reserve system for PG. Compressed air rocket, tandem size for slower descent.Make offer. NAS digital altimeter/ analog vario, leg mount strap. $125. 904/767-5768

EDEL Rainbow 26 Exe. Cone!. Race risers. $1500. Airwave Paradise harness P3 harness w/ back buddy exc. $200. Also Excallibur 33 wt 160-200 lbs. trimmers, harness, pack Great shape.$500.

Will accept Visa, MC and Amex Jeff 801/553-9580

I DEALERS & SCHOOLS I School Deal

Challenger 25 Low time, "Yates" inspection April '95 exc. condition, porosity average 370 $1300. Gary 509/884-6389

EDEL Racer 24

EDEL APOLLO 27

High performance canopy. very good condition. rodeo harness included. Need to sell' $850. Jack 510/548-5713 or jgdm@cimsim.berkley.edu

4 ITV Asterops 2-30's 1-27, 1-25. Excellent school or beginner gliders, also work well for paramotors. All are green in great condition.

All w/SupAir harness' very little use, can't beat the price $1450. @ or will negotiate for all.

Call Claudia for details 503 582-1467

Exe. Cond. aprox. 70 hrs. w/APCO harness and new hand deploy spare. $1200.

Kirk 210/536-3501

AT Mirage 25

FLY the All.PS

Great intermediate glider, low hours, $1800.

Steven 619/384-4715

I am an American pilot, living and working in Chamonix for six years. I can show you great flying sites. Stay with other pilots in lhe heart of some of the best alpine sites in Europe. Verbier, Avoraiz, Miussy and Lake Annecy are one hour away. $600. includes 7 nights hotel, breakfast, dinner and transport w/ guide to all sites.

Discounts for instructors with students.

Call Alex Fandel 011 33 50 54 00 72 or fax 011 33 50 54 17 41

APCO Supra 30 28m projected, 40 hours March '94,yellow and white, new lines, trimmers, speed system. $2000 obo Joel 619/221-0910

Pilots crash selling gear Minoa Swing comp. 33, comp lines and risers, med. AT harness, vario, 20gorc reserve, Kenwood radio -seperate or all for $2750.

Bart 619/755-6918

Comet Inferno 23

EDEL Super Space 25 for pilot 70-90 kg. Almost new, 13 hrs, exc pcrf. w/ speed system, w/ never used Edel harness w/ back protection and padded backpack & more. $2475 Motivated seller, Kevin 416/233-5798

Super Space 22 w/ standard soar harness w/ reserve, 25 flights, ACPUL all A's wt. 45-60 kg New $3400. will sell for $2000. 303/972-1190

AT Mirage

low hours, great shape w/ student harness 41600. Also Inferno 25, AT harness, 24 gore reserve, vario $ I 600.

Bart 619/755-6918

low hrs. XL harness w/ back brace, dual bridle and more $1850 Call CB 503/387-3106

Wms Wing 122

Super Space 27

Like new less than 10 hrs. Exe. Cone!. Good Class! glider Must Sell! $2000 307/742-9102

Yellow w/ hero harness 15 hrs on snow CLEAN! $2500. 208/788-6214

APCO Prima 27

CLASSIFIED AD $10. EACH ITEM ADVERTISED

Beginner, less than 3 hrs. w/ Stratus harness, Reflex helmet, all in pristine cond. new unusec1 edel 38 Sccura max reserve $2500 all. Tom 303/249-57 16

PARAGLIDING the MAGAZINE 8901 !Rogue River Hwy.

(PLEASE SEND MONEY WITH AD)

Grants Pass, OR 97527

Paragliding Muiazine makes ,w ivarrunties or representation.\' and assumes no liabilities conc(:rnin;; the validity of any advice, claims, opinions, or recomrnendations e;t.pressed herein. All individuals relying upon the material do so at their own risk. When purchasing a used glider, he advised to carefully chetk it's condition for air ll)orthines.\', If in doubt many paragliding hu.sinesse.\' 11'ill he happy to give an objective opinion about the condition c4 the equipment that is appropriate for the skill level or rating.

Nnv pilots should seek JHC!fessional instruction from a USHGA certified instructor.

PAGE 52 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

SKYWINGS The official monthly magazine of the British HG and PG Association.

For subscription i nformalion phone O11 44 53 36 I 1 23 or write to Skywings I BHPA; The Old Schoolroom, Loughbrough Rel. /Leicester LE45PJ England

Instructor needed Tandem Rated paragliding instructor(s) wanted.

Send resume to John Harris, Kitty Hawk Kites, PO Box 1839, Nags Head, NC 27959

Build/Fly your own Backpack powered unit, for fun I profit. Takes off from level ground unassiated. Safe, simple, inexpensive. Detailed book with sources. Now only $19.95. EASYUP; 1089 Medford Center #244p; Medford, OR 97504

T-SHIRT FOR SALE rr you just can't wait to wear this T, 100% cotton color, (red hair, yellow background) design on white shirt, M-L-XL (tell size).

Send $20. to Ancil Nance 600 SW 10th St. I 530 Portland, OR 97205

ULTRALIGHT AIRCRAFT New publication ULTRA FLIGHT magazine has plenty of information, pictures and stories on this exciting sport. Buy, sell,trade, fixed wing, powered parachutes, hang gliders, rotor craft, balloons, blimps, sailplanes and kit built aircraft.

Sample issue $3.00 Annual subscription $36.

Introductory offer of only $24.

Ultra Flight Magazine; 12545 70th Street North; Largo, FL 34643-3025

DON'T MISS THIS OFFER Graffitty DHV 1-2; Bli3s DHV 2; Aerologic DHV 2-3; Dynamic ACPUL Harness; FGashion sport, Perfect Click, Tigra, w/ kevlar" protector". 'Chutes, helmets, flight suits & more.

Dealers welcome. Ph/fax 718/777-7000

Ikaros Sport Aviation in New York is seeking USHGA Certified paragliding instructors.

Call Steve 718/777--7000

ICARO Sizes: 6-13 (U.S. with 1/2)

Stereo Vario The Best Pilot's fly with 2 varios, so why don't you? Don't miss out when your vario craps out. Ball M30 analog varios w/ audio are an excellent first vario also. Cigarette lighter charger, nicad battery. $100.new V/MC. Todd 303/ 449-7351

Instructor wanted Colorado's #I Hang Gliding School is looking for qualified Paragliding Instructors to join our staff. If interested contact Mark or Bill at Golden Wings, Golden, CO 303/278-7181

Caribbean, Saba/St. Maarten.

Pilots needed for tandem operation. Seasonal June - Dec. and also year round Call Gary Pax 011 59 95 26 437 or write PO Box 552; Philipsburg, St Maarten, NA

North. American Paragliding is upgrading all school wings.

SA VE SA VE SA VE! WW 125 $1598, Flight Design A3 24 #1195. and tons more Sale on porosity checks $15.

Ham Exam for Mac or windows only $34.95.

Lots of T-shirts for the active pilot. Call today 509/925-5565

Fllight Design A4 22 Great wing for l 00-140 lb pilot. Super stable All A's, great performance! $2395 call Kristen 509/925 2190

The "ICARO" is a new boot designed specifically for foot launched aviation. Manufactured and designed in Spain by the a leading climbing boot company BOREAL. The ICARO incorporates the most modern technical elements, including a comfortable high padded ankle with great support and adjustable stiffness by means of removable fiber inserts, security eyelets and shock absorbing heel.

The best news is that the ICARO is priced affordable.

Suggeste

ii

rice:

See your local Paragliding shop to try on a pair!

Distributed by: PRO DESIGN USA Shasta Air Inc. 2608 Hartnell Ave. #6 Redding, CA. 96002 IFAX (916) 222-4640 Toll FREE: 800-YATES-16 '------------------------------------PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE• PAGE 53

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;he cost of the insurance is included in the full membership fees with the member as additional insured. USHGA provides a Combined Single Limit Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability Master Policy in the amount of $1,000, 000 per claim which all recreational flying. US HGA's insurance is valid ONLY whil e flying in the U.S. , U.S. Properti es , Canada, and overseas while on US HGA approved business.

PAGE 54 • PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

P.O. Box 5715 Ketchum , ID 83340 208/726-1100

PRO-DESIC:l\N USA