FEBRUARY - MARCH 2012
EDITION 29
£6.50/€6.95/$8.95
INTERNATIONAL PARAMOTORING, PARATRIKE AND MOTORISED HANG GLIDING MAGAZINE
Above the Grand Canyon + Paramotoring in Pokhara Contact! Flying with Whales + Reviewed: Mac Para Chronos
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MALI, SECRETS OF Paraglider Cloth, RUNNING-IN YOUR MOTOR, FLY GAMES BRAZIL, PLANET PPG FLY-IN, SAFLY TRACKER AND ALL THE PPG NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Justin Brim enjoying his Parajet Volution Custom fitted with a Moster engine and Helix propeller
Available from ÂŁ2,399 ($4,395)
Innovation through adventure www.parajet.com
CONTENTS - ISSUE 29
FEATURES Editor & Designer: Marcus King Assistant Editor: Ed Ewing Sub and Online Editor: Charlie King USA Correspondent: Jeff Goin Regular Contributors: Dean Eldridge, Edward Lichtner & Tracey Tarr Advertising: Verity Sowden Subscriptions and Shop: Celine Rodriguez Accounts: Verity Sowden & Carol Harrison
06 GALLERY: Manoeuvres
26 BORN IN THE USA ‘Just the Grand Canyon and Me.’ Glenn Tupper goes big
32 THE EYE OF THE BUDDHA
Subscribe at www.xcshop.com/subs
Marcus King heads to Nepal for some lakeside flying in the shadow of giants
Paramotor magazine is available exclusively by subscription. Guarantee your copy by subscribing UK, USA and Europe: £34.95/US$53.95/€41.95 Rest of World: £36.95/US$56.95/€44.45 Issue-by-issue and iPad subscriptions also available
38 CLOSE ENCOUNTER Jeff Hamann spends a spectacular weekend in Baja California flying with grey whales
ADVERTISING Contact Verity Sowden at advertising@paramotormag.com
44 THE LAST TELLEM Franck Simonnet flies the Bandiagara Escarpment in the heart of Dogon country, Mali
CONTRIBUTING Send your articles and photos to editor@paramotormag.com and your news to news@paramotormag.com.
48 THE TOOLBOX Apco’s Anatoly Cohn unravels the mysteries of paraglider cloth plus Dean Eldridge on what to do when you get a new motor
CONTACTING US Paramotor Magazine XC Media 5 St Georges Place, Brighton East Sussex, BN1 4GA United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 1273 256 090 Fax: +44 (0) 1273 784 976 Paramotor Magazine (USPS No: 024-657) is published six times a year by XCMedia distributed in the USA by DSW, 75 Aberdeen Road, Emigsville PA 17318-0437. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville PA. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Paramotor Magazine c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville PA. Global copyright laws apply. The opinions in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Paramotor Magazine
WWW.PARAMOTORMAG.COM COVER Above the clouds and Lake Annecy. Photo: ITV ABOVE Flying above one of England's famous white horses. Photo: Paramania
54 REVIEWS Sascha Burkhardt reviews the Mac Para Chronos, Marcus King takes a look at the SaFly Tracker, plus a new tandem spreader set gets the onceover by Edward Lichtner
REGULARS
04 12 20 24 58 60 62
EDITORIAL IGNITION: Global News – Brazil, Australia, crocodiles NEW PRODUCTS READERS' GALLERY MINI REVIEWS XCSHOP LOGBOOK: Tracey Tarr
Unit Conversions
Paramotor Magazine uses international standard measurement units, but recognises that other systems are in use around the world. So here’s a quick conversion table to other commonly used measurement systems. 1 km - 0.625 miles 0°C - 32°F 1 m - 3.28 feet 20°C - 68°F 1 kg - 2.2 pounds 40°C - 104°F 1 ltr - 0.264 gallons
CONTENTS
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EDITORIAL
Paramotor Mag's editor loving it above Gréolières, France. Photo: Anthony Green
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s I sit here writing this the world outside is shrouded in white and everything has taken on a Narnia-esque look. It seems hard to believe that only a few weeks ago, days ago even, we were enjoying unusually warm weather for winter and even those of us who aren’t fond of the cold were out enjoying some winter flying. For us in the Paramotor Magazine office it meant we enjoyed some airtime in the first few days of 2012. With stable but sunny conditions there was no need for a super early start, and smooth conditions enabled us to fly around well into the day. It’s great how getting out there and doing it gets you motivated. That afternoon back in the office we were all excitedly looking at the event calendar, busily planning and plotting how many events we could manage to fit in this year. By the time you read this, the first major event of the year will have taken place in southern Spain. Las Candelas is the traditional opener for the European scene, combining all the latest gear, flying amongst superb scenery and the unforgettable experience of the night of bonfires in the village. Happening at the same time Stateside are the back-to-back events of the Arizona Flying Circus and Salton Sea fly-in. These will no doubt have meant a huge gathering of like-minded pilots sharing flying experiences and talking long into the night about the latest developments in our sport, and who can lay claim to being the best paramotor pilot in the world.
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EDITORIAL
To help them sort out this thorny subject 2012 looks like it could be the year of the pylon race. The Fly Games team ran a successful event in Brazil in the autumn, and they will be holding the first European event in the Fly Games series as part of Las Candelas festival. Pylon racing will also be a feature of Florida’s Beach Blast in the States. Organiser John Black told us there has been a lot of interest in pylon racing, with pilots from America and Europe all vying to take part. The Paramotor Magazine team will be on hand to report on this, a first for the USA. The team at Parabatix are also working hard at finalising some upcoming events. They say they will have some announcements soon, so it looks like it will be a busy year for aficionados of this style of competition. Don’t worry, the traditional competition format has not been completely abandoned. After problems with bids to host it in recent years, this year will once again see nations battling it out in the blue ribbon event of the World Championships. The event in Spain is being held at a very impressive looking facility that will test the navigation and economy skills of the world’s best pilots, as well as their ground skimming. And while the various pylon races have resulted in pilots flying ever-smaller wings, it will be interesting to see what kit the pilots bring to this event. With all the talk of the year ahead there is one event that draws many pilots from all around the paramotoring world, and that is the Mondial
Paramoteur in Basse Ham. This mega fly-in takes place every two years and is probably the largest gathering of paramotor pilots anywhere in the world. With most manufacturers attending and plenty of flying to be had it’s a must-go-to event. It’s been circled in red on our wall calendar since it was announced: after all, where else can you fly through four countries in one flight? Hopefully we’ll see you there. Wherever your paramotoring takes you this year, fly far and fly safe. Marcus King Editor
POWERFUL LIGHTWEIGHT 4-STROKE Have you tried one yet?
Bailey Aviation Bellevue Farm • Old North Road • Bassingbourn • Royston • Herts • SG8 5JR • England Tel: +44 (0) 1763 246660 • Fax: +44 (0) 1763 242777 • Web: www.baileyaviation.com • Email: sales@baileyaviation.com PARAMOTOR & ENGINE DESIGN, MANUFACTURE & ACCESSORIES
MANOUEVRES 6
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GALLERY
WING
OVER
The wingover is one of the only acro manoeuvres that you can fly ‘a little bit’. You can’t SAT a little bit, or Infinite Tumble a little bit. But you can wingover a little bit. Even as a beginner, making small pendulum movements is easy, and helps you discover how to combine pitch, roll and yaw – as Tom de Dorlodot explained in PM21 (October 2010). Here, Mathieu Rouanet flies a wingover with smoke – you can clearly follow all the phases of the manoeuvre. And you can see one of the most important elements of a good wingover: see how Mathieu always looks in the direction of where he’s going, and where he wants to go. Photos: Sascha Burkhardt / Montage: Véronique Burkhardt
GALLERY
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GALLERY
The Power Loop is a manoeuvre that tries to be the opposite of the Infinite Tumble: a backwards loop via the pitch axis – and not to the front as in the Infinite Tumble. It needs a lot of energy before the loop, and is much more difficult to swing around the canopy this way. Mathieu Rouanet shows how he nearly manages to execute a perfect Power Loop. Our advice? Don’t try this at home.
PHOTO 1 With an asymmetric 360 (the track of which is at the top of the picture), Mathieu has built up a lot of energy. With no brakes he flies almost vertically towards the ground. PHOTO 2 Get ready to transfer all that energy into climb…
Photos: Sascha Burkhardt
PHOTO 3 …Mathieu applies both brakes almost symmetrically to climb up.
POWER LOOP
PHOTO 4 Mathieu swings nearly straight above his canopy. The yaw is about 45 degrees. A fully symmetric loop would be very dangerous: without enough energy the pilot could fall into the wing.
GALLERY
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PHOTO 5, 6, 7 Facing the ground again Mathieu builds energy for the next loop. PHOTOS 8, 9, 10 But this time, because of a lack of energy, it's much less 'straight' on the pitch axis – but still very impressive!
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GALLERY
Dealers list in our web page:
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Up there it was all mine – the Grand Canyon and Me
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USA
Born in the USA Glenn Tupper flies the Grand Canyon on the road trip of his life
USA
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The World Peace Pagoda above Pokhara, Nepal. All photos: Marcus King
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NEPAL
Marcus King heads to Nepal for some big mountain scenery, adventurous flying and laidback lakeside living
NEPAL
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Close Encounter Jeff Hamann heads to Baja California to photograph the grey whales of Magdalena Bay
T
Baja California is home to a migrating population of 15,000 grey whales. They use the lagoons as a nursery for their young. Casey Cadwell flies in for a closer look. All photos: Jeff Hamann
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he migration route of the grey whale is one of nature’s marine miracles. The longest known migration of any mammal, these leviathans make an annual 15,000km journey from the warm waters of Mexico’s Pacific coast, to summer feeding grounds in the northern Arctic and back again. The journey starts in spring as the whales gather to calve in the calm lagoons of Baja California. Whale watching visitors can be rewarded with spectacular close encounters of mother and calf as they rest in the shallow, near-shore lagoons of Mexico before starting their journey north. Most will whale watch from a boat. We wanted to do it from the air. After a tumultuous day of travel Casey Cadwell and I were relieved to arrive in Loreto, Baja California on a warm March afternoon. Due to missing aeroplane pilots and close connections it was a miracle we had even made it. Unfortunately, our good fortune ended there. We learned that our luggage was lost, our driver was awol and our paramotors, shipped four days earlier, were still in Tijuana, hundreds of kilometres north. Our last minute plans for a quick weekend trip to fly with California’s grey whales were not looking very promising.
WHALES
WHALES
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MALI
The Last Tellem Photographer Franck Simonnet heads to Mali to photograph Dogon country from the air
MALI
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