X-Pyr, a southern version of the X-Alps
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Starting today: The route of the hike and fly X-Pyr follows the Pyrenes from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and will be a lot harder than in 2016!
Paragliding World Cup in Gemona, Italy
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The actual event of the Paragliding World Cup takes place in Gemona, Italy from the 24th -30th of June.
Gemona is widely recognised as a world class paragliding competition venue, having hosted numerous events. It offers both mountainous alpine flying and flatland racing.
For a preview of some of the stunning scenery tune in to the trailer on World Cup TV: https://vimeo.com/169765726
This World Cup is going to be a real battle between the giants of the XC world, Honorin Hamard and Lex Robé have both won XContest twice. Also competing are the 4 new Out and Return World record holders: Dušan Orož, Jost Napret, Bojan Gabrsek and Promoz Susa. They are used to flying very fast to cover the incredible distances required to claim World records these days.
Battling for podium places we’ll also see many of the stars of the paragliding racing circuit. Virtually all the podium winners from the European competitions so far this year are competing!
The pilot quality in this competition is going to be one of the highest we have ever seen with 19 pilots ranked AA. 3 Super Final winners will also be competing, twice winner Aaron Durogati, Stefan Wyss and Charles Cazaux, putting a total of 16 World Cup winners in the air at the Start line.
Equally impressive is the ladies line up: Super Final winners: Seiko Fukuoka Naville and Keiko Hiraki. XContest winners: Joanna Di Grigoli, Kari Ellis and Silvia Buzzi Ferraris. And in the top 5 Overall in the recent PrePWC in the Pyrenees, Méryl Delferriere and Constance Mettetal.
Keep up with all the action on the PWCA App where, in addition to the live Commentary, tracking and scores, you can now see photos of the pilots, the % of leadout points for each pilot and their glide ratio to goal.
App iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/pwca-live/id1298026851?mt=8
App Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pwca.liveapp
See also our last article about the Apps
Apco NRG XC 2
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17.5 m²! That’s all I was allowed to try of this little slalom racing machine. Slalom? And that’s not all it’s good for! The letters ‘XC’ figure in its full name, and we’re going to see why...
Skytrex 3.0 FANET/FLARM
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For several months Skytraxx has integrated, as an option, a FANET receiver/transmitter in their instruments. Our review: a Skytraxx 3.0 equipped with a FANET/FLARM antenna to enable it to communicate with other FANET instruments and with stations on the ground, as well as aircraft equipped with FLARM. The first trials show that the ‘collaborative flying’ function is very effective.
First impressions Niviuk Artik 5
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The Artik 5 is now available. Philippe Lami has flown it a few times and gives us his first impressions…
Instruments & Collaborative Intelligence
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To fly a paraglider safely, you don’t need to have an instrument. This is rare in the world of aviation! Nonetheless, modern varios are becoming more and more efficient in helping us to increase distances and the time we spend in the air. In this issue, amongst other things, we’ll take a close look at some instrument innovations…
quick test of the artik 5
news supair eona 2
independence pioneer 3
skyman rock 2
news highadventure beamer 3 reserve
news paratroc compress bag
news vario ungravity
news dolomiti superfly 2018
news neo container lite
news advance: daypack 3
news krushevo ozone open 2018
airtour 2018 competition or adventure?
news exomo
antartica seven virgin summits
flying with and without collaborative hitech instruments
collaborative flying: flarm&fanet
xc-tracer
gpsbip and captive sensors
vario screens: readability
segment screens flymaster vario ls mipfly
mipfly
news ascent h2
icarus x and icarus trophy
syride sys'evolution
test smartphone outdoor action-x3
caterpillar smartphone
traps in the water
test apco nrg xc II
portrait marie mateos
And of course you can also read it on one of our exclusive applications: Free Aero Magazine
Swing Arcus RS & RS Lite
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Our test pilot Philippe Lami has flown the Swing Paragliders Arcus RS over several months, in both the classic and the lightweight version. He has also used it in school.
The German manufacturer Swing now equips its whole range with their inhouse #RAST technology, developed by their R&D team, led by Michael Nesler. It first appeared at the Coupe Icare in 2016 on the school wing, the Mito.
One effect of the RAST: we noticed, during the course of multiple test flights, that the wing never overflew! In fact, the scoop was done in 2 steps, without any heaviness.
The Arcus RS / RS Lite was also really calm in deliberately induced collapses! In fact, only the front part of the leading edge crumpled. The rear part remained inflated and prevented the collapse from biting deeply into the chord. Less depth equals less rotation, indeed none.
Read the whole review here.
Paramotoring: Flight of the Swans
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Sacha Dench has been awarded the Britannia Trophy for Flight of the Swans.
She flew thousands of kilometres by paramotor to help birds. Read again the interesting account of her adventure, published in Free Aero Magazine 8_2016.
Sharing with Children
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Sharing your passion with children: obviously it is ideal to fly with them on a tandem adapted to their weight. But with a passenger weighing 20-30 kg, you can easily find yourself too low in the weight range, which is often a minimum of 130 kg. Flying at the bottom end of the weight range has some disadvantages.
Another topic in this article: special spreaders and harnesses for lightweight passengers.
Radical Sharing
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The Swiss pilot Ueli Kestenholz, regularly shares his ground shaving runs with passengers. With each passenger, he does a succession of ‘runs’ before progressively moving to more radical manoeuvres.