NZHGPA Airborn #193

Issue 193; February, March, April 2015

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING

NZ Paragliding Cross Country Records

Soaring the Great Australian Bight XC Adventures in the Himalayas 7.50 Including GST

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9 771170 992006

Canungra Hang Gliding XC Clinic

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any pilots visit flying sites outside their own region. To ensure that you don’t jeopardise arrangements between land owners and local flyers you must ALWAYS CHECK WITH LOCAL PILOTS BEFORE FLYING. That way you won’t upset land owners or pilots, you will be shown all the best sites and will be welcome back. We don’t publish site names and

locations because flying sites have been lost by careless visiting flyers. To assist travelling pilots, people wishing to learn to fly or to contact hang gliding and paragliding clubs, here is a list of people who can help you.

Those on the list or wishing to be listed, should contact their Club Secretaries who should keep Airborn and the NZHGPA website updated of changes of contact details.

MANAWATU H.G.P.C. C/- Andrew Brownlie 11 Hollows Crescent Takaro Palmerston North 4412 Email: rosscoe@inspire.net.nz Pres, Airsp: Ricky Winduss (Wanganui)..............

06 345 7659, or 027 447 4117 Sec/Treas, HGSO: Ross Gray......021 126 0892 PGSO: Andrew Brownlie ...........027 444 8911

AUCKLAND H.G.P.C. PO Box 90 154 Auckland Email: grahamsurrey@gmail.com www.cloudbase.org.nz Pres: Graham Surrey .................021 0262 5023 Sec: Alex Daley............................021 121 0795 Treas, Airsp: Leslie Graham............09 579 6485 HGSO: Michell Jagersma...............06 622 3210 PGSO: Reuben Muir.......................09 446 0020 Cameron Kennedy..........................09 813 3610 Eva Walton-Keim............................09 446 0051 Tony Cowley ..................................09 426 1264 Website; Wayne Rohrs...................09 630 2939 Active Sky HG, Sebastian Katz....021 170 3646 Skywings Paragliding ....................09 570 5757 Aqua Air Adventure Hang Gliding.027 288 0193 Wings & Waves Paragliding ...........09 446 0020

BAY OF PLENTY H.G.P.C. C/-Dominique Le Sellin 41, Ririnui Place, Maungatapu Tauranga 3112 Email: frogiwi@xtra.co.nz www.facebook.com/BOPHangGlidingParagliding Pres: Dave Washer.07 544 2951/ 0275 992 934 Sec: Dominique Le Sellin.07 544 2951 / 021 617 111 PGSO: Wayne Roberts.07 574 4223 / 021 668 852 HGSO: James Low.......................021 102 5004 Airsp: Rhys Akers.........................021 177 7563 Sites: Dave Shaw...........................07 575 9560 Levitate Paragliding........................07 542 0098 Mount Paragliding..07 574 4223, 027 643 6529

WAIKATO H.G.P.C. Inc. C/- Ewen Tonar 23A Brookview Court Hamilton Email: etonar@infogen.net.nz Pres, Airsp: Neil Howe....................07 304 9631 Sec/Treas: Ewen Tonar...................07 855 3969 HGSO: Paul Brydon.......................07 825 9161 PGSO: Bruce Vickerman ...............07 868 4991 HAWKES BAY H.G.P.C. Inc. C/- Rebecca Rae 30 Kaweka Place Havelock North 4130 Email: hbhgpc@gmail.com www.soarhawkesbay.co.nz Pres, Airsp: Euan Talbot ..............022 048 7673 Sec/Treas: Rebecca Rae................021 605 204 PGSO: Sam Elkink........................027 474 7221 HGSO: Ross MacKay...................027 285 4195

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MARLBOROUGH H.G.P.C. C/- Julie Bousquet 122 Wellington Street, Picton.

Email: j_bousquet@yahoo.com Pres, Airsp: Vern Sanders...............03 570 5322 Sec: Julie Bousquet.....................027 340 0718 Treas: Derek Wong Nam.................03 577 8857 HGSO: John Urlich: .......................03 577 8886 PGSO: Russell Read....................027 448 0888

KEY Pres; .............................................. President Sec; ............................ Secretary/Treasurer

PGSO; ............. Paragliding Safety Officer

HGSO; .......... Hang Gliding Safety Officer

CFI;........................... Chief Flying Instructor Airsp;.................................Airspace Officer

CANTERBURY H.G.P.C. Inc. C/- Jennifer Corbett 17 Admirals Way, New Brighton Christchurch 8061 www.chgpc.org.nz Email: jenster66@hotmail.com Pres: Danial Campbell....................03 980 6335 Sec/Treas; Jennifer Corbett............03 382 4404 PGSO; Robert Kennedy.................03 329 3339 HGSO; Eddie Pearson..................021 280 0599 Sites PG; Patrick McGregor...........03 328 8333 Sites HG; Derek McKee...............021 251 2300 Airsp; Peter Taylor..........................03 338 6287 Website; Stephen O’Shaughnessy.03 326 7373 Samuel Bartholomew.....................021 819 755 Canty HG School; Bill Degen.......021 247 2676 Nimbus Paragliding......................027 432 4874 ParaPro.........................................0800 548 323 AORANGI H.G.C. C/- Tom Knewstubb PO Box 5976 Dunedin Pres, Airsp; Kevin McManus........021 134 0463 Sec/HGSO; Tom Knewstubb (wk) 027 289 6103 PGSO: Lisa Bradley......................021 156 3256 SOUTHERN H.G.P.C. C/- Ian Clark, 16 Lake Ave, Frankton, Queenstown 9300 Email: info@southernclub.co.nz www.southernclub.co.nz Pres, Airsp: Ian Hornby..............021 0238 8894 Sec: Jim Rooney....................... 020 4010 1926 PGSO: Blake Round.....................027 367 7679 HGSO: Ian Clark.............................03 442 3992 PG Sites; Mark Dewsbery............022 601 5576 Treasurer: Ian Hornby ................021 0238 8894 Airsp: Mark Hardman.....................021 809 275 Coronet Weather Station................03 442 9974 Coronet Peak Tandem PG & HG..0800 467 325 Elevation Paragliding....................0800 359 444 Extreme Air............................ 0800 PARAGLIDE Flight Park......................................03 442 1586 Infinity Paragliding School..........021 0228 2939 Lucky Montanas PG (Wanaka).......03 443 1680 Paraventures.............................0800 FLYSOLO Skytrek Hang Gliding & Paragliding.0800 759 873

Photo; Bill Degen

TARANAKI FREE FLYERS C/- Dennis Green 38 Kaitake Rd RD4 New Plymouth Pres/Sec/HGSO, Airsp; Dennis Green .......................................................06 752 7618 John H. Morgan..............................06 759 4262

WELLINGTON H.G.P.C. PO Box 9824 Marion Square Wellington 6141 www.whgpc.homestead.com Email: firth@xtra.co.nz Pres: Kris Ericksen.......................021 116 4558 Sec: Grant Firth............................. 021 422 698 PGSO: Chris Connolly..................022 676 5599 HGSO: Grant Tatham...................027 636 3491 Airsp: Ian Miller ............................022 176 8205 Newsletter Editor: Kris Ericksen.....04 938 6539 Oceania Paragliding School.........022 676 5599

TASMAN H.G.P.C. C/- Olly Barrett 1/160 Collingwood Street Nelson 7010 Email: thgpgclub@gmail.com Pres; Peter Allison .........................03 546 5242 Sec; Olly Barrett ..........................027 382 8648 Treas; Brian Erasmus .....................03 545 1003 PGSO;Greg Benjamin.....................03 545 1543 HGSO; Mark Patton.......................03 548 7944 Site Owners; Tim Percival .............03 548 7397 Site Maintenance; Frog Twissell ....03 538 0339 Airsp; Ian Woods..........................027 245 1851 Nelson Paragliding.........................03 544 1182 Adventure Paragliding....................021 762 769 Hang Gliding NZ.............................03 540 2183 Tasman Sky Adventures...............027 229 9693

View of Lake Aviemore and Mt Cook from 9500ft near Mary Range

NORTHLAND H.G.P.C. C/- Guntram Gross 1 Brook Road Whangarei Email: skywalk@igrin.co.nz Pres, Airsp; Shane Gross...............09 436 0268 Sec/Treas; Guntram Gross.............09 436 0268 PGSO; Wolfgang Harder................09 403 7594 HGSO; Stephen Chambers............09 430 3689 Herman Ahrens...............................09 432 9333

ISSN 1170-9928

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MAGAZINE OF THE NEW ZEALAND HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING ASSN. INC. Published every three months for hang gliding and paragliding enthusiasts in New Zealand and abroad ● Subscription is by membership of NZHGPA (a legal requirement for all hang glider and paraglider pilots in NZ) ● For non

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N.Z.H.G.P.A. INC., 23 Covent Drive, Stoke, Nelson 7011, New Zealand www.nzhgpa.org.nz PRESIDENT

Evan Lamberton, 35A Manly Esplanade, Browns Bay, North Shore City 0630, 09 478 0063, 021 407833, gsifly@gmail.com VICE PRESIDENT

Derek Divers, 106 Lachlan Avenue, RD2, Wanaka 9382, 03 443 7190, 027 493 1112, d.divers@xtra.co.nz ADMINISTRATION/LICENSING

Nicky Hamill, 23 Covent Drive, Stoke, Nelson 7011, 03 547 4845, admin@nzhgpa.org.nz HANG GLIDING OPERATIONS MANAGER

Glenn Meadows, 8 Brook Tce, Nelson. 03 548 9151, 027 275 1022, gmeadows@clear.net.nz HANG GLIDING TRAINING MANAGER

Ross Gray, 7 Nathan Place, Palmerston North 4412. 06 357 8996, 021 126 0892, rosscoe@inspire.net.nz PARAGLIDING OPERATIONS MANAGER

Grant Middendorf, 30 Charles Court, RD2, Wanaka 9382, 03 443 5090, 027 491 3786, middy25@xtra.co.nz PARAGLIDING TRAINING MANAGER

Alan Swann, Rapid 115, Arthurs Point Road, Queenstown 9371. 021 0228 2939. info@infinityparagliding.co.nz AIRSPACE OFFICER

Nick Taber, 27 Strathaven Place, Dodson Valley, Atawhai, Nelson 7010. 03 545 0766, 021 420 742, nicktaber@hotmail.com CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISOR

Paul Brydon, 1431 Main Te Pahu Rd, RD5, Hamilton. 07 825 9161, 021 253 5264, paulbrydon@gmail.com DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE CONVENOR

Dean Straker, 35 Seymour Avenue, The Brook, Nelson 7010, 03 545 7511, 021 545 7511, dean@verticallimits.co.nz INTERNAL AUDITOR

Kris Ericksen, 11 Koromiko Road, Aro Valley, Wellington 6012, 04 938 6539, 021 116 4558, skf@paradise.net.nz NZHGPA BOOKSHOP

Ewen Tonar, 23A Brookview Court, Hamilton. 07 855 3969, 021 041 1418, etonar@infogen.net.nz HANG GLIDING COMPETITION COMMITTEE

Mark Alton, 09 480 8871, 022 195 5746, markalton@yahoo.com Dennis Green, 38 Kaitake Road, RD 4, New Plymouth 4374, 06 752 7618, 021 430 436, dennis-green@clear.net.nz Max Gebhardt, 03 312 7899, 022 159 6101, aerosm@gmail.com PARAGLIDING COMPETITION COMMITTEE

A paragliding competition committee will be elected shortly after this magazine goes to press. Please contact them via this email address: nzhgpapcc@googlegroups.com

IN THIS ISSUE...

NZ Paragliding Records Broken.................................................4 Himalayan Paragliding Adventures ............................................6 Endless Soaring; the Australian Bight......................................10 Canungra Cross Country Clinic................................................14 360 Degree Turns and Spirals...................................................20 Open Your Mind..........................................................................21 Safety Checks and Executive Notices......................................23 Events and Records ..................................................................24 Cross Country Champs Scoreboards.................................26, 28 Classified Advertisements.........................................................30 FRONT COVER: Aurelia Hallé enjoying her Tala wing. Photo; Aurelia Hallé

NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE: 1 APRIL 2015 A

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Breaking the NZ XC Record B ryan Moore and Peter Groves, both flying the NOVA Mentor 3 light, had a big day out on Sunday the 7th of December.

They flew from Treble Cone in Wanaka, along the Southern Alps to Mt Cook Village.

Pete clocked up 143.6 km and Bryan 152.1 km, both longer than the current NZ paragliding open distance record. Distances may seem rather short compared to the long one-ways in Brazil or Australia or the triangles in the Alps but considering the conditions in New Zealand, Bryan and Pete have every reason to be proud of their flights.

The previous NZ distance record on a paraglider was 142.1 km, flown by Grant Middendorf in 2005 on a competition wing, the Gin Boomerang 4. So a new distance record has been a long time coming, and it is pretty sweet to see it done on EN-B class wings. The current NZ Hang Gliding XC distance record was set in 2013 at 177.7km by John Smith.

Bryan and Pete’s route was quite deep in the mountains, and if you look at their tracks closely you will see that they faced some potentially long walk outs at various points

Right; View back down Dingle Burn to Lake Hawea

along the way. They both do a lot of hike & fly trips so that probably wasn’t a concern for them, but many pilots would have found it intimidating! One of Pete’s photos was taken as they approached Aoraki Mt. Cook (New Zealand’s highest peak at 3,754m). It gives some idea of the terrain they were flying through. A very spectacular place to fly.

It was a day that originally was forecast to be windy, strong SW potentially easing in the afternoon.

It backed off nicely, with a great looking sky, so they grabbed the opportunity and went for it. It was a late start, meaning they didn’t land until after 7 pm, but they did manage to fly together for most of the way.

Bryan and Pete agree the Nova Mentor 3 light is a great machine for the NZ alpine conditions.

“It’s an easy, comfortable wing to launch, fly and land in even the most demanding mountain environments“, says Bryan, a veteran XC pilot with previous experience on a wide variety of hot wings. “It has proven its ability and performance to fly far – in NZ and around the world. The fact that it’s so small to pack and light to carry is a real bonus for hiking up, and (hopefully only occasionally) walking out from the wilderness.”

Find out more about NOVA at www.NOVA-wings.com. The

Continuing along the Neumann range

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tracklogs of the flights can be seen on the NZ XC competition on Leonardo and XContest. www. paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/ league/NZ/season2014/brand:all, cat:1,class:all,xctype:all,club:0.9.

Bryan’s flight; w w w. p a r a g l i d i n g f o r u m . c o m / leonardo/flight/1073569 Peter’s flight; w w w. p a r a g l i d i n g f o r u m . c o m / leonardo/flight/1073435

Above; Peter Groves, Bryan Moore Below right; Bryan’s flight in white and Angus’s in pink/purple. They finished nearby but the tracks are only close on the Barrier Range

Photo archive Groves/Moore

Big Tuesday I t was my day off from doing tandems. I was not thinking of flying, but more about all the odd jobs I had to do that had been long waiting for me.

My cousin Louis turns up at my house wanting to borrow my Spot satellite tracker. I eye him with suspicion. So it’s on for XC is it?

My mind wanders to the brand new Aspen5 Gradient had given me 2 months before which I am embarrassed to still not have flown...

Game on!

I had prepared most of my gear several weeks before but just needed to get clothing, food and my camelbak sorted. Driving to the bottom of Coronet Peak I was checking out the cumulus that was popping over the summit. Wow, and I was going to do odd jobs! This is looking like a great day for my first flight on my wing.

Going up in the tandem van, the pilots are saying gliders have been climbing above launch already. I look around and see one of our tandem pilots Andres, hiding in the back of the van. It is also his day off and he is a good xc pilot. A cunning plan is forming... I had no idea how much of a marathon this day would become.

We get in the air and get a climb out front. I have been flying Gradient gliders for many years now and the

Just over 2 weeks later Angus Tapper sets a new NZ paragliding cross country record

Angus Half way to Wanaka, approaching Knuckle Peak on a previous flight Aspen5 felt comfortable straight away. I lead out along the back ridge to Brow Peak and get a climb to about 6000 feet before going on glide to Mount Soho. Andres gets a little low on the transition to Soho but pops an absolute beauty in a spot I have never seen that done before and then glides over to Soho 50m above me. Cheeky bugger.

It is good to feel that old feeling of another pilot pushing you a little and also grateful to be sharing this experience with someone. XC can be such a solitary and sometimes lonely experience.

We climb above the summit of Soho and head off to Knuckle Peak.

Cloud base is around 8000 feet, so things are going well. Andres gets out his GoPro camera pole and starts taking pics. I yell out that you normally get a good spanking over Knuckle Peak on climb.

He says “What?” Wow, that Ozone Enzo sure is wobbly. No more pics...

We pretty much cloud hop between ridge height and base before gliding out over Lake Wanaka and gliding towards Albert Town. We have a pretty good look at Albert Town from closer than we would like and I get a weak climb. Andres starts working the lift below me.

I decide to push on over the Hawea flats tracking a line along a small terrace that has worked for me before. Getting very low, I snatch a bubble. It gets me a short climb and enough to get me further along the terrace. The terrace is not working as well as I had hoped. I have lost sight of Andres and assume he has landed.

A tractor is cutting grass just to the east of the terrace. Last chance. I glide over the field. I can smell the grass! Beep beep beep. Shit that is a sweet sound. I get a weak climb and get up enough to then glide towards Hawea flat. Bingo! The climb is good and drifting north.

Grandview and the mountain range with nice juicy thermals is one glide away. It doesn’t disappoint.

I work the top of the range heading

up Lake Hawea towards the Dingle Burn. Dingle Peak has a big fat cumulus above it and is the start of a cloud street. I get on to this and go about getting some km behind me. I work my way through to the Ahuriri Valley, then fly over the Barrier Range. In front is blue.

I decide to go on what feels like a final glide down the Maitland and reckon I have enough height to get to the base of the Neumann Range.

There is a grassy slope that faces the head of Lake Ohau. I have a nice valley wind pushing me along and I hope to ridge soar it. There is that sweet sound on the vario again :-).

I start with figure of eights soaring the slope and then start circling slowly to base. Relief at still flying

and maybe, just maybe still enough left in the day to get to Mount Cook.

I glide across the Dobson Valley and arrive on the Ben Ohau Range with reasonable height. I work the evening thermals to eventually get above the range with enough height to cross over to the Tasman Valley and go on final glide.

As I get into the valley wind the glide ratio goes to 20:1. Smooth air and a very nice view coming into land beside the Alpine club building just before Mount Cook Village. Happy, tired and badly needing a piss!

Straight line distance is 170.4km, after 8 hours in the saddle.

Many thanks to my family for all the support and of course Gradient who sponsor me.

Last glide to Cook from the ben Ohau Range

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Himalayan Flying - A P

R

eading Tom Collet’s article in Airborn reminded me I had promised Bill an article about our trip flying in the Indian Himalaya, so I finally sat down at the computer and here it is.

We were based in Bir, a town in the foothills of the Himalaya, 12 hours by bus north of Delhi. The place is a mecca for easy XC flights - there is approx 100km of south facing mountain range, with smooth, easy to find thermals often marked by huge Himalayan vultures. On a hang glider, Tom had a few problems with the small landing options, but for paragliders, there are almost always spots in the rice paddies to squeeze into, and willing locals ready to pack your wing and charge you for a ride home in their friend’s car. We spent 5 weeks in the area, so I’ll try to keep this short by focussing on 3 memorable adventures from the trip.

Group vol biv: 2 November: We ended up doing a few vol biv trips from Bir, landing up high, camping and flying again the next day. One journey was especially fun because it involved seven of us cruising along the ranges to land next to a 15th century temple beside a lake, perched on a mountain top.

Kat, Craig Miller, Toby Briggs & I had been looking for a trip that would be achievable by us all, as this trip to Bir was still quite early in Craig’s XC career, and still have potential for some bigger mountain flying. While discussing Parasha Lake and temple as a destination, John Sylvester and Eddie Colfax decided to join us with

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Greg, their Sky Safaris client. We all headed off from Bir east along the range, top landing briefly after 13km at the 360 launch for a tea break and to watch the French acro pilots.

Continuing towards Mandi, things got pretty scratchy at the 28km mark.

We ended up lobbing over the back quite low and working tiny bubbles on the ridge leading back to the lake, our destination, eventually climbing back to 2600m.

We lost Craig just before the lake when he dropped into the valley wind and narrowly missed garrotting himself on an unseen clothes line in the middle of his landing paddock.

Fortunately the line being so low to the ground, only pride was bruised, and he managed to find a taxi to bring him up to the temple to join us.

With cloudbase only just above ridge height, we just managed to sneak around the last peak to land by the temple, nestled in a hollow on the ridgecrest at 2600m.

Like all good Indian temples, Parasha has numerous tea houses where we whiled away the afternoon drinking tea and arguing about whether the island in the lake was really floating (as per the legend).

The camping experience turned into a hotel experience for a few extra rupees as there was a government guest house at the lake. John &

Looking into the upper Ravi Valley from 5700m. I landed at the foot of the moraine and camped half way up on the range on the right

Parasha Lake from the air. Complete with floating island and temple Eddy, Greg, John, Toby, Kat & local at Parasha chai shop

aragliding Perspective

By Bryan Moore Eddy’s room came complete with a “smoking and drinking room” so much smoking and drinking was undertaken that night.

Conditions the next day were much stronger as we were now deeper into the mountains. A different route back to Bir was planned via the back range – big faces, strong thermals and plenty of excitement (a bit much excitement for Craig, as the launch was a committing one over the Kullu valley with no landing options in sight, so after watching everyone else launch, he took the safer taxi option back to Bir).

Halfway back and the higher peaks began to overdevelop, so we bailed out to the front range at 360 and cruised home to Bir after 48km of exhilarating surfing along remote mountain ranges. A personal best for Craig, Kat’s first flight along the back ranges, and a new destination for me, so the trip delivered on all counts. Sky Safaris are now offering the Parasha Lake trip as a vol biv option for their more adventurous clients.

Dharamsala Rescue 30 October: Myself and a few other pilots were on our way back from a 129km out and return past Dharamsala, a classic Bir route. I spotted a tiny red dot out of the corner of my eye. A Dutch pilot had slammed into a granite wall high on the front of the Dhaladaur Range.

Getting closer the red dot grew into a wing draped on the wall with the pilot hanging upside down in his harness. We are talking REALLY BIG cliffs here. He was hanging at 3600m in the middle of a huge face. Two pilots slope landed a few km away but couldn’t get near the pilot without technical climbing equipment.

Below; Dhaludhar Range returning from Dharamshala.

Wil crashed on the wall at upper left. At left is John and Rahaul looking after Wil waiting for cloud to clear so the chopper could get in

Several phone calls whilst flying to Kat who was in the landing field at Bir meant the SAR folk got notification of the accident fairly quickly but the helicopter that was in town for the Pre PWC was already being dispatched to look for a Russian guy that had crashed over the back on the last day of a 10 day vol biv flight from Leh to Bir, so wasn’t immediately available. There are no helicopters in the area normally, so we just had to wait. Contrary to how that sounds, conditions are actually fairly benign, but people still seem to make mistakes.

The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute boys managed to get a team to the col below the crash site late in the evening but were also stopped by the steep terrain. It looked like Wil (though we didn’t actually know his name at this stage) was going to spend a cold night on the mountain.

A storm swept through that night – heavy rain, with 10cm of new snow at Wil’s location. In the morning back at Bir we scraped together a bunch of ropes and climbing hardware borrowed from all over the place. 3 of us (John Sylvester, Rahul (Himalayan Mtn Institute) & myself) headed out in the chopper late morning.

Sadly the helicopter was a bit gutless at that altitude and we ended up getting ferried one at a time to a shelf 200m below the crash site and having to jump off the skid while hovering next to the wall at 3400m. Six pitches of steep belayed scrambling with a few trickier sections got us to the crash site where we debated who got the shit job of seeing how smashed up he was. Much to our surprise he

Flying with Himalayan Griffon Vulture

Kat & Toby at the “Golf Course”. A friendly top landing site close to Bir was still alive! This was in spite of hanging upside down suspended by lines wrapped around his ankle and no protection from the overnight snowstorm.

With a probable fractured pelvis, broken leg and possible internal injuries we did our best to lower him gently the couple of pitches to the nearest spot we thought we could winch him off from. These Dutch guys are tough bastards - he barely made a squeak as we banged, dragged, dropped and bumped him down the face. And then the cloud came in – bugger! An hour before sunset there was a weather clearance and the welcome sound of the chopper returning.

The machine didn’t have a winch so Glenn (a visiting PG pilot acting as volunteer helicopter crewman) bodged a 20m long-line strop out of a climbing rope with a bag of sand on the end to stabilise it and John was hoovered off for a scenic

flight around the valley before being dropped off and then unloading Wil on the next trip.

Rahul & I got the job of stripping the hardware off the hill and abseiling back to our drop-off ledge, where the chopper whisked us back to civilisation just on dusk. Here’s a link to Glenn’s side of the story - he is a professional helicopter rescue crewman back in the UK: www. helioperations.co.uk/pdf/131212Glenn-Holmes.pdf One aside from this, was that we didn’t know who he was until we actually got to him on the mountain side. Although he was well prepared in his own gear and even had his insurance number on a bracelet on his wrist, he didn’t have anyone back in Bir on duty to notify the SAR team if he was missing. It would have made the bureaucracy side of things much easier if the SAR team had had a name and nationality to beat the bureaucrats over the head with.

Bir launch

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Crossing into the Ravi Glacier. Getting high Launching at Hobbiton. Typical “front range” flying terrain

Solo Boonies Adventure (with bears and big mountains): 26 October: Craig, Kat and I had relocated to the Manali area for a week while the PWC circus took over Bir. Manali is to the north east of Bir, located in a deep valley surrounded

by peaks up to 6000m. Unfortunately it is prone to inversions in the lower valley and you need to be able to land in some pretty tight spots between the apple orchards and power lines.

Apple trees are not as friendly as rice paddies.

Kat at Downtown Bir café where pilots meet in morning for Chai before heading up the hill

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On this day, we all taxied up to the Mahdi launch on the Rohtang Pass (just under 4000m, on the ManaliLeh Highway). I had no planned route, but was carrying full bivvy gear for up to 3 days just in case.

After a scratchy start, the climbs got stronger and cloud base rose to over 5000m. I’d headed off to explore the Solang Valley, a no exit valley under the north face of Hanuman Tibba (5700m). A gap appeared in the cloud and the temptation to sneak over a pass into the headwaters of the Ravi was too great. Popping over the pass, I realised I was in serious country – there was 5km of glacier before the first possible landing, then 20km to the first village and a further 15km to the nearest roadend.

Being completely screwed anyway, unable to go back over the pass, I headed further up the glacier, hoping to get over the 6200m Mukkhar Beh and into the Keylong valley. A violent climb took me to 5700m and views of glaciated peaks stretching in all directions. Thinking I’d got

away with it, I relaxed a bit and was immediately flushed to the ground at the tongue of the glacier. I sat on the ground dumbfounded at how quickly I could go from cloudbase with the world at my fingertips, to landing in the middle of a gravel wasteland. Right – time to sort your life out boyo. There’s a decent bivvy rock across the valley. Shoes off and cross the ice crusted stream where it exits the glacier.

What’s that moving beside the bivvy rock? Oh shit! A big brown momma bear and little baby bear.

Desperately trying to remember all the stories I’d heard about the do’s and don’ts of bear encounters, I did the most prudent thing I could think of and high-tailed it up a rocky peak behind the bivvy (high tailing is not very quick at 4200m). Problem was, I needed to be on the other side of the valley to launch on a sunny face the next day, and the wind had picked up making it too dangerous to fly. Death by turbulence seemed less gruesome than death by bear, although as the glider collapsed its way through the rotor I had some second thoughts.

Safely back on the other side of the river I headed as high as possible up the mountain to a rock shelter used by goat herders in the summer.

Several hours spent walling myself in made me feel a bit safer. Sadly, the next day was unflyable, and I spent the day tramping down valley to the village of Bara Banghal. The villagers were incredibly hospitable and had a good laugh at my bear story. Stupid westerner – you need dogs and a gun. Where are you going? No – it is not possible to fly from here – very dangerous. I’d learnt not to argue with hill villagers, so I lied the next day and said I was only going for a walk up the hill behind the village before walking down valley to the road end.

Thermalling up and away was the nicest feeling, as Bara Banghal receded to a speck far below me.

15km XC through the Ravi gorge and I was back into terrain I knew.

If I could just get enough height to cross the Jalsu Pass I’d be within

Bryan’s bivvy tent on the Jalsu Pass

glide of Big Face and then an easy XC back to Bir along the front range.

Instead it was another drilling onto the back of the Dhaludhar Range and a crossing of the Jalsu on foot.

On the south (Bir) side of the pass that same afternoon, a high speed rig and launch let me escape minutes before the cloud closed in. I spent the next hour and a half on speed bar trying to outrun a cumulonimbus developing overhead. As I crossed over Bir the first raindrops started to fall. Kat and Craig were still in Manali, another 50km over the mountains from Bir, and it did look sunny in that direction, so I kept on speeding ahead of the cloud past Bir. Half way to Manali the day ran out and I top landed at 3300m on a grassy col with good options for relaunching the next day.

29 Oct (day 4): A slow start, hiking up a nearby peak to get warm, dreaming of hot food and thermal baths at Manali. The day was a cracker, with abundant climbs to 5000m+ but I was tired, cold and hungry. One final top landing on a peak overlooking Manali to call Kat and thaw out my hands, then an easy glide to the Vashisht hot pools – priceless!

In summary, Bir is a superb place for all levels of pilot. Anyone with a PG2 will find they can thermal comfortably for as long as they want. The thermals have all read the

Terrain over the back of Bir. Getting snowy as winter approaches thermal text book and are located exactly where they should be. For advanced pilots, you only have to head north “over the back” two thermals and you are into mountains over 5000m. Weather and conditions are consistently good – in 5 weeks I clocked up over 90 hours airtime.

Tips for a successful & safe trip Carry a SPOT personal locator beacon / tracking device – set this up appropriately (make sure your next of kin and any ‘HELP’ recipients have a list of contact details for SAR personnel in India (see below) plus any other info that may help with a rescue if you activate the beacon.

Make contact with useful people in Bir that can help in the event of an emergency (people will be more likely to go out of their way to help someone they know).

We stayed at the Colonels Resort for a number of reasons, in spite of it being at the pricier end of the market (and pricey is still quite reasonable in India): The food is brilliant and the rooms are clean, comfy and have hot water.

Himalayan Ski Safaris are based at The Colonels – they also have heaps of well placed connections and they have untold helpful knowledge about the area if you bribe them with enough Kingfisher Red. The Colonel (JP) has army contacts and can arrange all sorts of things we couldn’t achieve by ourselves (transport, medical help, assistance if you land in an army base…).

Buy a local Indian SIM card. Being able to communicate with taxis and rescue services is invaluable.

Don’t go over the back unless you have the skills and equipment.

Useful numbers / links The Colonels Resort (JP): www.colonelsresort.com/ +91 98055 34220 Atul (Bir SAR coordinator): +91 8988 120888 Himalayan Sky Safaris (John Sylvester / Eddie Colfax / Antoine Laurent)

Bara Banghal Bivouac site at Hobbiton. Used by Himalayan Sky Safaris on their vol biv tours

www.himalayanskysafaris.com/

Bryan taking off at Bir

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The Wazza Report...

Warren & Clare Simonsen travelling around Australia following the never ending thermal

The Great Australian Bight W

e had been following the coast around Australia with car and tent, and recently left the nice beaches of Esperance to cross the southern region towards New South Wales.

As the terrain became more dry & desolate we crossed the border into South Australia at ‘Border village’ which marked the beginning of the Nullarbor desert and a ’must do’ for flying the ‘Great Australian Bight’.

Everything got typically expensive as you got further away from civilization and the next fuel station for anything,

including drinking water was about 180km away.

The Bight Cliffs was still another 26km away and we camped among the low coastal bush at Wilson Bluff close to the beach and explored the area for safe takeoffs until the wind was in our favour. The terrain was remote and no one can be seen

On the Nullarbor road living anywhere. The highway just disappeared into a mirage. A white sandy beach with sand dunes turning into a barren rugged ridge went eastwards as far as you could see.

The views had a scenic splendour between flat desert tussock and blue ocean sea.

The Wilson Bluff area had easy places to launch from and was a

good intro before flying the big cliffs.

It was so nice to fly somewhere really different, very remote, with a touch of excitement. Your perception of the whole area changed as soon as you got above the ground, as the real splendour of the Nullarbor was definitely for those who could see it above the ground.

The first 10km of ridges was fun to

Wilsons Bluff WC rigged & ready

10 A i r b o r n

Main Photo; Warren soaring The Bight

fly on, the next 16km with wind off to one side made following the set back sand patches more challenging as it became more headwind, but still relatively friendly as far as having a retrievable option on foot for a bombout etc. All tracks required a serious 4WD if you did not want to walk back up. Most of the cliffs averaged 220 feet high above the sea and bit of a walk for a swim at the beach. The side wind limited exploring the whole coast so I returned and top landed beside camp.

We waited for a number of days for the coastal winds to straighten up again while we explored up & down the Bight coastline. Much of the cliff edges drop off sharply, with many recent slips breaking off into the sea including some of the dirt road tracks that followed the cliff edge. It was often difficult to see the bottom of the cliffs due to the unstable ground falling away or the fear of standing on an undercut edge.

The cliffs are easy to fly, but this may not be for the faint hearted, for fear of drowning. Many pilots had flown the Bight along the Nullarbor, and some have been lucky to survive crash landing below the cliffs, when the wind suddenly dropped off. In all cases any rescue would be very difficult. With no bottom access, there were just too many problems if you got your feet wet and the locals say any rescue team would take many hours to arrive, then probably a plane to find anything below.

Eventually one morning the conditions looked good and we got ready for flying, hopped in the car and turned the key. If there was a Coyote cartoon tune sound which symbolized the dropping of your jaw when only a starter clunk sound was made, this was it!! In an automatic car, and 8km of walking to get help for a jumpstart, this was not a good start for the day, and missing the best conditions for flying. A numerous repertoire of colourful words describing the condition of the car battery was made between my grinding teeth. (Admittedly we

Above; Following the Bight Below; Start of the Big Cliffs

Wilsons Bluff Fern & sand

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11

did watch a long movie powered by our one and only car battery in the middle of nowhere.)

I left Clare at the bush camp to fend off the snakes and spiders, and walked back to the border village to get help. 2.5 hours later after finding no one suitable to help, the border camp manager charged me $50 bucks for a jump start… (much more grinding of the teeth). After 4 hours total, the car was running at last, and we decided to have a look at the launch area, despite missing the prime time for a long flight.

When the warm coastal smooth air blew into my face, I decided to rig anyway for a scenic flight to blow away the days problems.

The wind was off to the south east again which made soaring into a side wind very slow but the days hassles was easing off nicely with smooth soaring air and blue skies over a colourful sea.

After having a good fly around taking photos, I followed the ridge for about 10km until it curved inwards lowering me to 15 meters above uneven ridges and more side wind.

I could have turned around and top landed for a nice picnic back at camp, but figuring my luck of the day had already started with a crap start, I pushed on to whatever I could get out of it.

After another 10km and improved lift I got tempted to fly on. I could see the bluff where the real big cliffs began 6km away. The new views and anticipation of what was coming was exhilarating.

Wow! What came next looked like a cliff belonging to a lost world as it stood up high out of the ocean. A very solid line between land and sea with a very sharp drop off. The big cliffs started from a prominent ridge sticking out to sea which I glided over, then… ‘Wahoo’! powerful lift to over 800 feet. This made it so much safer and even more spectacular views, of… well… even more desert.

Yep it was a whole lot more of nothing going far into the distance, but seeing the scale of remoteness over land and water all at once to this degree, could only be appreciated by flying above it.

Knowing there was just only pounding water and rocks below, I resisted wandering off too far from the primary lower ridge until, I realised, “Hey!... I’ve still got over a 100km of top landing anywhere I wanted.” The sudden change in higher views was quite exhilarating, and was fun to pull on real speed whenever I wanted, for a blast along the ridge.

Despite being a late start of the day, the lure to soar effortless lift into

12 A i r b o r n

Above; Tourist LookOut undercut

Above: Clare near the Edge Below; Land & Camp

seemingly infinity was just too much.

I radioed Clare below describing the magnificent views of the seaward cliffs followed by… “I’m off!”

Clare’s radio reply paused for a moment… ”I only have enough fuel for a one way trip… to the next station”. But that was enough for me… besides, we had the tent in the car.

The sealed highway now was about a kilometre away from the Bight and I could see Clare following on the road, I’m a very lucky man.

After soaring two hours in one direction, you became very selfaware of how remote the Nullarbor is.

Even with clear air visibility I couldn’t see the end, and couldn’t even see where I came from.

Like a loan surfer I curved out over the sea a little to get a better look at the cliffs and caves to take a few snapshots. Definitely ‘zero’ bottom landing options for the whole flight, but with the unobstructed height I now had, this concern quickly disappeared. My only companion was a sea eagle cruising by. Big white solid undercarriage and stretched out wings picking the best part of the lift without a flicker of its wing.

The main highway remained parallel and some lone vehicles started to make camp between the cliffs and highway. I could see Clare following on the road, then my radio died from earlier excited chatter, the wind also had dropped off some, lowering me by 200ft. I took a keen note of what my bail out height would be in case the wind suddenly dropped off, as some pilots had been caught out by this in the past.

Clare was making sure she didn’t lose sight of me as the sun started to set early into some cloud on the horizon.

After hours of ridge soaring 130km in one direction, I decided to top land as the sun & clouds turned flame red on the horizon. I picked a spot to roost for the night beside a dirt access road, about 1km downwind and made an easy landing with little turbulence.

Clare was watching me from the highway and she pulled up moments later, Wow… What a day!…

As I pulled out battens, Clare was rigging the tent as it got darker.

This was an awesome day and sleeping where I landed meant we could relax early, ready for the next days adventure. An out & return would be easy on another flight, but we had already spent 6 months following the coastline and this flight certainly ticked one off the bucket list.

Next day, we followed the coast towards Adelaide.

Above; TakeOff is far away to the west

Above; Getting Low Below; Camp on the morning after the flight

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13

Do You Want To Fly Cross-Country?

F

lying hang gliders is still the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. It’s also challenging, frustrating and sometimes disappointing, but on the right day it’s amazing! I have to pinch myself after I land, “Was that really me up there? Did I actually land without dropping the nose, skinning my knees and breaking an upright?

Call me Captain Kirk!”

Photos by; Thea O’Connor Mike Zupanc Lisa Bradley Lizzy Nevins Andrew Sinclair Words by Kenneth Mitchell at the

Canungra XC Clinic 2014 Above; Beechmont launch

I’ve spent most of my 100-hour hang gliding career scribing circles around Coronet Peak in New Zealand. It’s safe, the mountain views are outstanding and there’s a custom built Flight Park complete with cafe to land in. Yet, I dream of ‘going somewhere’ and a few summers ago I did: I flew to Wanaka, but do you think I can do it again?

There are only four or five days over summer good enough to fly crosscountry from Coronet Peak. I told you this sport can be challenging and frustrating!

Now, is there a place with consistent XC potential and maybe a few local pilots willing to share their skills and knowledge? There is. I went there in October, along with about seven other NZ pilots: It was the inaugural

Below; Kenneth Mitchell ready to take off at Mt Tamborine on Day 3 Day 2 XC Clinic task briefing with Jonny Durand & Lisa Bradley XC Clinic Canungra Day 2

14 A i r b o r n

free Canungra XC Clinic, followed by the regular Canungra Classic HG competition.

Canungra is a classic small town one hour’s drive from Brisbane where you can buy the original milkshake in a stainless steel container instead of those horrible disposable things. And it gets hot there; 40ºC. The place is surrounded by attractive lifestyle properties and seems to be just the spot for Sunday drivers and the Harley boys taking their motorbikes for a spin. Plus, it’s good for hang gliding. Really good!

Conditions are often flyable six days out of seven and tasks of 50 to 100km seem to be every day occurrences. The top pilots have done 400km plus from here. Despite this, the sport of hang gliding worldwide is in decline and Australia is no exception. It seems part of the problem is a culture that focuses on performance and rankings at the expense of encouraging beginner and intermediate pilots coming up through the ranks. (Listen up NZ!) The Canungra Hang Gliding Club decided to do something about it.

The three-day clinic preceding the comp was a brilliant idea. No doubt it will be even bigger and better next year. My favourite take-away skill was to work as a team – spread out

Right; Aerial view of Beechmont ridge Below; Derek McKee launching Below right; Mark Patton keen to fly

continues page 18

Left; Andrew Sinclair has a Wedgetail eagle encounter Right; Kenneth flying a Malibu

Lisa launches from Mt Tamborine Right; Neville Marinko

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15

SKYFLOATERS

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Canungra XC Clinic 2014

from page 15...

Comp Day 4 at Beechmont Mt Tamborine rigging area during the XC Course

and look for lift like a squadron instead of flying solo, then fly to where other gliders are circling.

Then followed eight days of comp flying. I had never used a flight computer before, let alone flown a comp, so I had a few things to learn.

The daily format of the flying was a weather briefing and choice of launch site. Then we all scrambled up to launch and rigged our gliders.

Sixty gliders at launch was quite a sight! Before the launch window opened, we were given a task and off we went. Those of us who launched early had to wait for over an hour in the air before the task even started!

The time in Canungra featured much more than just flying. It was very pleasant camping in the local camping ground with shady trees, a stream boundary and a short walk into town.

There were two organised BBQs and a ‘Red Faces’ evening where each group had to perform a skit.

The Kiwis got second place doing a HG rendition of ‘My boomerang won’t came back’! We gave the prize money of $250 to the kind soul who lent us a 4WD. Was it worth it? For the same cost of flying a C172 for 10 hours I got a return flight to Brisbane, a rental car, accommodation, glider hire and 10 hours plus of flying. We flew every day and it was inspiring to experience hang gliding on such a scale.

In Canungra there are lots of good pilots flying high performance hang gliders in consistently good conditions. Up to 10 of those pilots were in their 50s and 60s, flying high performance gliders well. The local club has sufficient member funds to acquire land for launches and bomb-outs.

Davo, the comp organiser did an amazing job offering lots of prize money, a brand new Malibu with the support of Moyes Gliders and $4000 worth of Flytec varios courtesy of Flytec and Godfrey from Manilla Paragliding.

Beyond Canungra there are lots of other competitions to attend in Oz, where conditions are arguably much more HG friendly than NZ, but the Canungra XC Clinic offers an excellent organised opportunity.

This is a missing link in the NZ flying scene – if you look at the cross-

Below; John Smith launches

18 A i r b o r n

Jonny Senior on launch, Comp day 4

Above; Aerial View west from Mt Tamborine

Above; Comp Day 4, instruments set...

Above; Day 3, Ready and waiting on Mt Tamborine Below; Andrew Sinclair Sets up

Below; AI Fukutomi is good to go

Above; Flight downloads; Andrew Blair, Derek and Andrew country results, it’s always the same 10 or 15 pilots on the scoreboard.

There are likely over 100 HG pilots in NZ who just might want to fly further... To these I say: Go to the Canungra XC Clinic in 2015. I’ll see you there!

A special thanks to Lisa Bradley, CFI from Canungra Sky Sports, whose positivity and enthusiasm went a long way to helping the Kiwi boys get organised on the way over.

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PARAGLIDERS:

360 Degree Turns And Nose-Down Spiral Dives SAFETY NOTICE By Angus Pinkerton - Chairman of the BHPA Flying & Safety Committee.

Reprinted with permission and thanks to Skywings for the graphics

F

ollowing some recently reported incidents prompting further investigation, it has become apparent that it is possible for pilots to unintentionally enter a nose-down spiral dive from a sustained 360 degree turn – and that recovery from this spiral can be difficult.

These characteristics tend to be worse on the ‘safer’ low aspect ratio EN A, B, LTF (DHV) 1 and 1/2 wings.

Once in a nose-down spiral dive extremely high rates of descent – 14 to 27 m/s (approximately 30 to 60 mph straight down) may be reached, along with forces of 3g to 4g and airspeeds of up to 100km/h. Clearly any pilot inadvertently entering a nose-down spiral will find all of the above extremely disorientating.

Whereas in most situations a low aspect ratio wing (EN A, B, LTF (DHV) 1, 1/2) will ‘self-recover’ if the pilot lets up on the controls, this is not the case in a nosedown spiral. Reaching and activating an Emergency Parachute may also be difficult whilst subject to high ‘g’ forces.

360 turn/Spiral dive mechanism: If a 360 degree turn is continued for a revolution or two, without the airspeed and bank angle being controlled, then the pilot will tend to swing out. The situation can then accelerate rapidly. The effective pilot weight increases as centrifugal force increases, which increases the wing loading, which increases the airspeed, which increases the centrifugal force etc..

And as the pilot swings out, the pitch/ roll/yaw axis of the paraglider tilts, with the result that the yaw resulting from holding on inside brake now brings the nose further down, whilst the secondary effect (roll) keeps the glider rotating on A 360 turn allowed to develop into a nose the downward vertical corkscrew path. down spiral Instructors and Coaches should brief students and pilots in their care on the dangers should be practised one at a time, then two at a outlined above – especially if teaching 360’s, time, and so on. thermalling and ways of losing height before Normal angle of bank for 360 turns. commencing a landing circuit. Students and pilots Pilots should avoid tight, high speed 360’s. 30 should be briefed when 360ing that 30 degrees degrees of bank angle is more than enough for of bank angle is more than sufficient. The correct normal flight manoeuvres, including thermalling. technique for normal 360ing is to establish the The correct technique for a 360 turn is to establish turn using inside brake and weight-shift and the turn using inside brake and weight-shift and then, keeping these constant, to control the turn then, keeping these constant, to control the turn with outside brake so that a steady bank angle, with the outside brake so that a steady bank angle, airspeed and rate of turn is maintained. Initial 360s airspeed and rate of turn is maintained. Particularly

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Recommended angle of bank when you are learning 360s, whilst maintaining a good lookout, be aware of the horizon in the background and keep your inner wingtip at least 20 degrees above it (20 degrees is the width of two fists held at arms stretch) – the straight ahead view should be similar to that shown in the illustration.

Use the controls as necessary to maintain a steady bank angle and airspeed. Your first 360s should be carried out one at a time, before linking them two at a time, and so on.

Nose-down spiral dives are a potentially dangerous manoeuvre and should be treated with a great deal of respect. They are however a valid emergency rapid descent technique for those who are in current practice with their use – but recovery should always be completed at least 300m (1000ft) above ground level. Pilots should seek skilled instruction before attempting this manoeuvre, on a course conducted in accordance with the BHPA SIV Course Information Sheet.

Emergency Actions: Getting out of a nosedown spiral dive The key first step is to slow the glider by applying both brakes. Considerable force may be required on the controls to do this – the brake pressure required may be two, three or four times normal.

As the glider slows the nose will come up. Then it is important to keep the glider turning: completing another, wider, circle in the initial direction (by raising the outside brake) is a good way of dissipating the energy.

Avoid exiting immediately to straight flight as you will have considerable airspeed and energy, and this will result in a surging climb followed by a dive which must be ‘damped’ out to prevent a possible collapse.

Open Your Mind

By Bruce Goldsmith

As I approached launch in the car the clouds increased, the sky became dark and 100% cloud cover spread a vast shadow on the ground.

It was cold, very cold and deep snow lay under foot on the walk up to take-off. There was light wind with sometimes wind blowing over the back. Basically conditions looked crap. Little chance of anything but a sled ride to the bottom. Not only would that sled ride most likely offer no great pleasure, but then I would have all the hassle of getting the car again.

The other pilots on launch did not bother. What’s the point? It’s cold and a waste of time.

However I have a different attitude inside me; If it’s flyable then fly. You never know what to expect and sometimes you are surprised. If you don’t take off you can be sure what will happen. Once you launch you can never be 100% sure what can happen. I launched in the light front wind and the vario made that dreadful deep drone as I sled rided down in the dark and overcast sky.

Zero chance of thermals.

I took a deviation to the right where the wind was a bit better orientated to the ridge, and I felt a few beeps.

A surprise thermal, and as I turned into it, the lift got more solid and in just 10 turns I was up at the dark menacing cloudbase and the clouds were sucking. So from dead air to lift all about. I headed forward and

Coronet Peak summit flight found the front edge of the cloud and carried on climbing up the side towards the sunshine.

I was transported into a kind of fairytale scenery with snow below, holes of blue sky and the sun playing games on the white and grey clouds all about me.

It was like being in heaven, and it felt all the more special because it was just a complete surprise.

Nobody had expected this, and I was reaping the rewards of taking the chance and flying.

If you think you know it all, you are closing your mind to the unknown.

This I have seen time and time again.

This is what I dislike about the kind of task setting that now goes on in competitions.

The tasks are always easily achievable and within the control of the organization. No task is set that is impossible nowadays. Every task has to be achieved though known routes and using standard

techniques. Part of this philosophy comes from the drive for ever increasing safety and the other from the problem of liability of competition organizers. There are reasons behind this trend in competition, but to keep an open mind in your own flying is a key philosophy that is part of the true beauty of free flying, both hang gliders and paragliders.

One cold and windy day on Weather Fell in northern England the British Hang Gliding League set a clearly impossible XC task.

Cloud base was 100m above the top of the hill and the wind strong.

It was clearly impossible to go XC, but easy to ridge soar just above the ridge gale dangling. This was hang gliding but the same would have been true had it been a paragliding competition as well. After the whole day of flying nobody had been higher than 100m above take-off. During the day it had been allowed to top land, take a rest and a sandwich and

Bruce para-trekking in Iceland

Photo; Tyr Goldsmith

Photo; Infinity Paragliding, Alan Swann

take off again. However after 18:00h was the time of the last launch, and task rules specified the last landing was dusk at 21:00h.

Everyone who still had some hope left went ahead and launched at 18:00h. We all hung there in the wind just below cloud base as the evening came. Just before 19:00h the wind dropped a little and a little slot appeared in the cloud cover just in front of the ridge. Some pilots started to play with the hole in the cloud and gentle lift started to give pilots a smooth ride up and though the cloud cover. More and more pilots started to explore and soon the whole field was climbing in weak wave lift and lenticulars started to form above the low cloud cover.

We climbed to 5000ft and started to jump from wave cloud to wave bar downwind and the wave slots started to open up more as well.

Smooth lift was everywhere and as the sun sunk, the only thing limited the distance we could fly was the amount of daylight left.

Many pilots made the 50km downwind to goal and many got disqualified as well for not landing before sundown. Some landed late into the night!

This remains as one of the most incredible flights of my life. But always the most incredible flights are when you achieve something that you thought was just impossible. If this had been a competition in 2013, nobody would even have opening up their gliders. I think this is very sad.

If you think you know everything or don’t even try, then these most amazing things will never happen.

Open your mind to the impossible, and you might just be pleasantly surprised.

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Learn to Fly

N Z H G P A BOOKROOM

Hang gliding, paragliding schools and instructors that you can contact for qualified flight instruction in New Zealand Skywalk Guntram Gross, Herman Ahrens Phone: 09 436 0268 or 09 432 9333, 021 072 0357 Email: skywalk@igrin.co.nz

AUCKLAND HANG GLIDING Aqua Air Adventure Paddy Monro Phone: 09 528 7594, 027 288 0193 Email: aquaair@ihug.co.nz Web: www.gethigh.co.nz PARAGLIDING SkyWings Paragliding Alan Hills Phone: 09 570 5757, 027 498 2345 Email: alan@skywings.co.nz Web: www.skywings.co.nz Wings & Waves Paragliding and Kitesurfing Reuben Muir and Eva Keim Phone: 09 446 0020, 027 472 7013 Email: info@wingsandwaves.co.nz Web: www.wingsandwaves.co.nz WAIKATO PARAGLIDING Wings & Waves Paragliding and Kitesurfing Reuben Muir and Eva Keim Phone: 09 446 0020, 027 472 7013 Email: info@wingsandwaves.co.nz Web: www.wingsandwaves.co.nz OMAHU, THAMES/PAEROA PARAGLIDING Bruce Vickerman Phone: 07 862 4919, 027 498 9941 Email: bruce.v@clear.net.nz HAWKES BAY PARAGLIDING Airplay Paragliding School Barry Sayer, Phone: 027 451 2886 Email: barry@airplay.co.nz Web: www.airplay.co.nz BAY OF PLENTY PARAGLIDING Levitate Paragliding Ltd Shane and Summer Tims Phone: 07 542 0098, 027 649 2222 Email: levitateparagliding@hotmail.com Web: www.levitate.co.nz Kiwi-Air Mike & Aniko Phone: 07 929 5807, 021 104 6208 Web: http://kiwi-air.co.nz Mount Paragliding Wayne Roberts Phone: 07 574 4223, 027 643 6529 Email: thermalmonkee@hotmail.com MANAWATU HANG GLIDING SkyVenture (Manawatu HG & PG Inc. Club School) CFI: Ross Gray Phone: 06 357 8996, 021 126 0892 Email: rosscoe@e3.net.nz WELLINGTON/WAIRARAPA HANG GLIDING Wellington Hang Gliding & PG Club Grant Tatham Phone: 06 379 7322, 027 636 3491 Email: tathams@xtra.co.nz Oceania Paragliding School Chris Connolly, Phone: 022 676 5599 Email; school@oceaniaparagliding.co.nz Web; oceaniaparagliding.co.nz

22 A i r b o r n

PARAGLIDING Adventure Paragliding & Kiteboarding Kevin Rooke, Phone: 03 540 2183, 021 762 769 Email: info@skyout.co.nz Web: www.skyout.co.nz

THE ART OF PARAGLIDING

by Dennis Pagen. Instruction manual for beginner to intermediates. Large format 374 pages $80 HANG GLIDING TRAINING MANUAL by Dennis Pagen.

Ultimate guide to Beginner to Advanced hang gliding flying skills $80 PERFORMANCE FLYING by Dennis Pagen. Hang gliding for intermediate to advanced flying skills, includes competition, cross country, towing $80 UNDERSTANDING THE SKY by Dennis Pagen. Sport aviation weather and micrometeorology for hang glider, paraglider and microlight pilots. $60 PARAGLIDING, BEGINNER TO CROSS COUNTRY by Sollom Cook. From basic techniques to competition flying $60 A PILOTS TRAINING MANUAL (PG) Includes zone free, 80 minute DVD with 9 chapters including; forward inflation, reverse inflation, manoeuvres, soaring, flying thermals to landing methods.

Only $65!

NZ HANG GLIDING TRAINING HANDBOOK Essential Beginner/ Novice instruction information for NZ hang gliding students learning to fly. $15 NZHGPA HANG GLIDING TOW MANUAL All aspects of towing with clear photographs and step by step instruction $15 NZHGPA AEROTOW MANUAL In depth detail of aerotow procedure as authorised by MAANZ and NZHGPA $15 NZHGPA PARAGLIDING TOW MANUAL This manual outlines requirements and procedures for towing $15

Nelson Paragliding Stew and Zanna Karstens Phone: 03 544 1182, 027 446 3930 Email: paragliding@xtra.co.nz Web: www.nelsonparagliding.co.nz MARLBOROUGH PARAGLIDING High Adventure New Zealand Russell Read, Phone: 027 448 0888 Email: russread@ihug.co.nz CHRISTCHURCH HANG GLIDING Canterbury Hang Gliding School Bill Degen Phone: 03 326 6411, 021 247 2676 Email: aero@xtra.co.nz Web: www.hgpg.co.nz

PARAGLIDING ParaPro (Paragliding & Powered Paragliding) Dave Dennis Phone: 03 328 8255, 0508 548 323 Email: info@parapro.co.nz Web: www.parapro.co.nz WANAKA PARAGLIDING Lucky Montana’s Flying Circus Advanced over water manoeuvres (SIV) instruction Rob Darby Phone: 03 443 1680, 027 220 1185 Email: lucky_montana@hotmail.com QUEENSTOWN PARAGLIDING Elevation Paragliding School Shai Lanuel Phone: 0800 359 444, 027 224 2121 Email: elevationpg@xtra.co.nz Web: www.elevation.co.nz Infinity Paragliding School Alan Swann & Blake Round Phone: 021 0228 2939 or 027 367 7679 Email: info@infinityparagliding.co.nz Web: www.infinityparagliding.co.nz Neverland Paragliding Dominic Eller, Phone: 021 314 730 Email: neverlandpg@hotmail.com Paraventures Paragliding School Mark Hardman Phone: 0800 FLYSOLO (0800 359 765), 021 809 275 Email: info@paraventures.co.nz Extreme Air Tandem Hang Gliding & Paragliding Lisa Bradley Phone: 021 156 3256 Email: lisa@extremeair.co.nz Web: www.extremeair.co.nz Queenstown Paragliding School Lisa Bradley Phone: 021 156 3256 Email: info@extremeair.co.nz Web: www.extremeair.co.nz Queenstown Hang Gliding School Lisa Bradley Phone: 021 156 3256 Email: info@extremeair.co.nz Web: www.extremeair.co.nz DUNEDIN PARAGLIDING Dunedin Paragliding & Hang Gliding School Lisa Bradley Phone: 021 156 3256 Email: lisa@extremeair.co.nz Web: www.extremeair.co.nz

NZHGPA LOGBOOK With rating record $15

NZHGPA MOVIE LIBRARY FLYING OVER EVEREST, DVD, Angelo D’Arrigo and the story of his flight over Mt Everest.

PLAY GRAVITY, DVD, Extreme paragliding, snowboarding, BASE jumping, freeriding and speedflying in the most awesome settings.

EAST WIND, DVD, German pilots fly hybrid recliner bike/ paramotors 1632 kms across eastern Europe; Hanover to the Black Sea. DYNAMIC DECISIONS, DVD, Shows how different DHV paragliders react when flying the most dangerous manoeuvres.

THE RACE, DVD, A race between climber and pilot in the Italian Dolomites. Winner of 4 world film contests.

Paragliding Learn to Fly, DVD Tutorial for PG Performance Flying, DVD by Jocky Sanderson Never Ending Thermal Pura Vida Flying Security in Flight & The Speed to Fly Birdmen of Kilimanjaro The Red Bull X Alps Managing Risk in Aviation CAA Red Bull X-Alps 2005 Check the NZHGPA web site for the latest special offers In order to cover the high cost of importing HG and PG DVDs, cost of hire and postage is $10 for 10 day loans Postage and GST is included in price.

Please send your order with payment to;

BOOKROOM

Photos: Neil Brown, Ross Gray

NELSON/TASMAN HANG GLIDING Hang Gliding NZ Ltd Kevin Rooke, Phone: 03 540 2183, 0800 212 359, 021 762 769 Email: rooke@slingshot.co.nz Web: www.hanggliding.co.nz Nelson Hang Gliding Adventures Glenn Meadows Phone: 03 548 9151, 027 275 1022 Email: gmeadows@clear.net.nz Web: www.flynelson.co.nz

Tasman Sky Adventures Trevor Leighton, Phone: 027 229 9693 Email: info@skyadventures.co.nz Web: www.skyadventures.co.nz

NZHGPA

NORTHLAND HANG GLIDING

Ewen Tonar 23A Brookview Court Chartwell Hamilton Phone 07 855 3969 etonar@infogen.net.nz

Safety Checks Paraglider Harness Parachute Container Defect - Sup Air and Niviuk Harness

During routine WOF inspection and pre-flight checks on two harnesses the bungee reserve pin retainers in a harnesses have failed. Both had sewn in bungy cords for securing the reserve pocket.

The bungy has been stitched through.

This has likely caused the bungee to fail in two ways.

1: the needle may have cut bungy strands during stitching.

2: During normal use the thread continues to cut the bungy strands. Inadequate stitching or other means to hold the bungy cord intact during normal use.

Stitching through bungy is not best practice for this kind of application. A knot secured in the bungy is a preferable method, The knot maybe backed up with a non metallic washer also.

Sewn in bungy increases the risk of an accidental reserve deployment due to the difficulty of checking the failure point during normal pre flight checks. The wear may only be identified during a thorough inspection.

number of rigging & derigging cycles and on the pilot’s individual style of rigging/derigging.

Aeros insists on immediate replacement of the original bottom rear wire on Discus gliders with the Litestream A-frame (mostly Discus C model) and on Combat gliders with the Litestream A-frame by the modified bottom rear wire.

We will not charge for the replacement wire for hang gliders less than 2 years old as of August 5, 2014 (the customer will only have to pay for the delivery). For older gliders the modified rear bottom wire will be supplied at a special discounted price.

Please, contact your Aeros dealer about the wire replacement. For the list of the gliders falling within the scope of the Safety Directive 017, go to www.aeros.com.ua/doc/ SD_017_GliderList.xls

Skywalk Masala 2 Paraglider all sizes;

Skywalk Masala 2 XXS DHV GS-01-2054-13, Skywalk Masala 2 XS DHV GS-01-2053-13, Skywalk Masala 2 S DHV GS-01-2052-13, Skywalk Masala 2 M DHV GS-01-2051-13.

In reverse handling a Skywalk Masala 2, rear strap (C/D-riser) tore the stitching from the B-riser completely. The pilot had a failed take-off, but was unhurt. The investigation of Skywalk and DHV was the torn stitching had insufficient strength when loaded outside the usual direction.

Charly V-Line with Expert Rescue Container

V-line of Charly of rescue light container Expert (see illustration).

Potentially affected are V-Lines that have been purchased with the rescue reserve light container Charly Expert.

Reason; It was found that the strength of the webbing used in the V-line supplied with the container Charly Expert light container differs from the tested sample.

Urgency: Top priority Action: All owners of affected “Expert” light container are asked to send the lightweight container including the V-line for inspection and repair to the manufacturer. The inspection must be done BEFORE further use.

The airworthiness is invalid until inspection

by Charly Produkte has been carried out The inspection and replacement of the V-line is free of charge.

02/12/2014 Finsterwalder GmbH - Charly Products On Osteroesch 3 D-87637 Seeg Tel. : +49 (0) 8364/1286 info@charly-produkte.de www.charly-produkte.de

Updated OPM

It is recommended that all pilots take particular notice of the method their reserve pocket is secured. Any sewn in bungy cord should be thoroughly inspected and if there is any concern regarding the integrity of the bungy contact the equipment supplier for repair or replacement of the parts.

- Grant Middendorf, NZHGPA PG Ops Mgr Reminder: Safety Directive 017, first published on August 5, 2014.

Rear wires, especially Aeros Combat and Discus hang gliders with Litestream control frame

Make sure that your glider is safe to fly!

There was a second case of bottom rear wire failure on a Discus hang glider falling within the scope of Aeros Safety Directive 017 (www.aeros.com.ua/news. php?lang=english&id90).

Luckily, this was also discovered on the ground. The first case, as noted in the Safety Directive 017, was on a 7-year old glider and the second case involved a 4-year old glider.

Actually, the wire condition does not depend on the glider’s age or airtime. It depends on the

The manufacturer Skywalk has issued a safety notice immediately in consultation with the DHV. All Skywalk Masala 2 must be checked by the manufacturer and may not be flown until then.

01/09/2015 - Karl Slezak, DHV Unit Safety and Technology

Aeronautical Charts Visual Navigation Charts (VNCs) can be purchased from Aeronautical Information Management (a division of Airways NZ) on 0800 500 045, or their web site, www.aipshop. co.nz. VNCs come in two scales 1:250,000 and 1:500,000, and cost $16.35 for a pair of charts printed on a double-sided sheet. The coverage of the 1:250,000 charts makes them handy for planning cross-country flights.

An updated version of the NZHGPA Organisation and Procedures manual (OPM) has been approved by the exec and CAA and is now online. www.nzhgpa.org.nz/members/ opmforms This version has new section numbering, improved navigation tools and a number of changes to the content. There is a full list of the amendments at the front of section 1. For solo pilots there are no significant changes that will affect your day to day flying.

Instructors and tandem pilots should review the amendment list and relevant sections of the OPM to familiarise yourself with any changes that might affect your operations.

The OPM is now in one single pdf file to enable the use of indexing and key word searches.

OPM Forms are separate downloads for ease of use and updating. As always the latest version published online is the only approved version. If you have a saved or printed copy of the OPM please update to this version (1.2 dated Oct 2014).

- Evan Lamberton, CEO/President NZHGPA

Getting the Right Airspace Maps I inquired with CAA why some information seemed to be missing off the aeronautical 1:500,000 VNC charts. Of particular interest was General Aviation Areas.

The response was that not all information below 9500ft on the 1:500,000 maps is published and indeed when one looks at a 1:500,000 chart there is a note/clause; “For complete aeronautical information refer to 1:250,000.”

Therefore if you are thinking of buying a VNC chart for your area I highly recommend you buy the 1:250,000.

The charts are prefixed with the Letter C and number relating to a location so for example the GAA at Moirs Hill (G152) can be found on Map C3 Auckland 1:250,000, but will not appear on the B map 1:500,000.

Maps can be purchased directly on line at the AIP Shop at a cost of $16.35 each, go to; http://secureorders.airways.co.nz/aimsite/ aip_shop/shop_vnc_250.asp - Nick Taber, NZHGPA Airspace Officer

NZHGPA Discretionary Fund At the 2013 AGM the NZHGPA decided to set aside an amount of money to fund projects that will “Help to develop, protect and promote the sport of hang gliding and/or paragliding.” Bids will be called for annually for projects that will achieve this aim.

The Discretionary Fund Committee would particularly like to receive bids from clubs that are aimed at attracting and retaining new pilots into our sports.

It is anticipated that the next round of bids will be called for a couple of months prior to the next NZHGPA AGM. However, if you are thinking of putting in a bid please feel free to contact the committee at any time to discuss your proposal.

Details can be found on the Association’s web site under NZHGPA Notices.

For more information please contact: Mark Alton markalton@yahoo.com 022 195 57 46 Derek Divers d.divers@xtra.co.nz 027 493 11 12 Kris Ericksen skf@paradise.net.nz 021 11 16 45 58

Site Notices Kaimais Site Update The Kaimais is now officially open for flying WITH CONDITIONS. The farm manager does not want anyone landing in paddocks with stock.

This will mainly affect paraglider pilots who like to land by the gate. The paddock next to the gate is regularly used as a holding paddock for stock. There may be no stock in the paddock when you arrive at the site, but there could be by the time you want to land. There are 2 official LZs for the Kaimais and these should now be used by default.

Pat’s Paddock & the Hang Glider LZ out by the intersection of Barton Road & Old Te Aroha Road, (there are several paddocks in

a row here that can be used) If pilots are not familiar with the location of these official LZs, they need to be briefed at site by one of the key holders before flying.

This means a bit more forward thinking for PG pilots so they have enough height to reach one of the designated LZs. We do not want pilots landing short, in paddocks other than the designated LZs. To date we have not re-instated the weather station as it has a faulty sensor. A replacement has been ordered and with luck it will be here soon.

- Rick Hawkeswood, Kaimias Site Monitor.

021 682-766

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EVENTS 2015 Red Bull X-Alps features NZ’s Nick Neymens

St Arnaud Paragliding League and XC Camp 2015 (Incorporating a Tasman Regional Competition)

© Felix Woelk / Red Bull Content Pool

T

he men and women who will take on the Red Bull X-Alps, the world’s toughest adventure race, have been revealed and it’s quite a field of athletes and adventurers.

After a demanding selection process, athletes from 18 countries have been hand-picked to take on the famous race across the Alps, in which competitors must cover approximately 1,000km of straight-line distance either by foot or paraglider over wild and mountainous terrain.

NZ is represented by Nick Neymens, current holder of the NZ paragliding FAI triangle record of 134kms. At the X-Alps he’ll be assisted by NZ pilot Louis Tapper.

Nick enjoyed the X-Berg and X-Pyr contests and taking his new Ozone LM5 through its paces including vol biv in NZ, South Africa, Corsica, Georgia, the Pyrenees and the Alps. He’s taken the year off work to fly so should be well trained.

For the first time since 2005, two female athletes will be at the start line, Dawn Westrum, a former US soldier and adventure racer and Yvonne Dathe, a four-time German long-distance paragliding champion. Says Dawn: “I want to prove that women Nick Neynens can be competitive on a race of this length. Paragliding and long distance trekking are two sports where men and women can compete almost equally and I believe that women can have as good or better endurance than men over long distances.”

To be selected, athletes must have undertaken numerous adventures and have a proven paragliding track record to take on the demands of the race. Says Race Director Christoph Weber: “The criteria for selection is very simple: you have to be a brilliant all-round mountain athlete with an incredible level of fitness and skill, and a sixth sense for reading the weather, the terrain and the competition. It’s not just about being a great paraglider, but you do need to be an outstanding and safe pilot!”

He adds: “It was very hard selecting the athletes. Normally we only choose two to three athletes from any country but this would have excluded many promising candidates who show a lot of potential. For this reason we have four athletes each from France, Germany and Austria. I’m also excited that we have two women taking part. They are both very talented and promise to make the race even more gripping. 2015 will be a fantastic showdown of talent.”

The talented lineup includes legends from the race’s history, athletes like the Romanian Toma Coconea, who has taken part in every Red Bull X-Alps and of course the three-time winner Christian Maurer (SUI) who has dominated the race to date.

With 19 new athletes taking part, there is no shortage of candidates. Could it be the American Gavin McClurg? He currently holds the North American foot launch record (387km), which is all the more impressive for taking place across the remote mountains of north-west America. Or could it be a young challenger like 22-year-old Frenchman Nelson de Freyman, who despite his youth, has already clocked up an impressive number of adventure flights and is a national youth champion? Then there are previous competitors like Paul Guschlbauer (AUT), 3rd in 2011 but a disappointing 9th in 2013. He is hungry for a podium. For Tom de Dorlodot (BEL) ambitions are more modest. Just making it to the start line will be an achievement for the Belgian earlier this year he suffered a serious paragliding accident.

The epic duel between the Frenchmen Clement Latour and Antoine Girard, which saw the pair arrive within an hour of each other after battling for nine days in 2013, also promises to make a return. Both men are in, along with two other Frenchmen, Gaspard Petiot and de Freyman.

Full route details will be announced in the spring. Until then, let the training begin!

The 2015 lineup is listed below.

1. Paul Guschlbauer (AUT1) 2. Gerald Gold (AUT2) 18. Aaron Durogati (ITA) 3. Stephan Gruber (AUT3) 19. Chi-Kyong Ha (KOR) 4. Pascal Purin (AUT4) 20. Ferdinand van Schelven (NED) 5. Thomas de Dorlodot (BEL) 21. Nick Neynens (NZL) 6. Alex Villa (COL) 22. Pawel Faron (POL) 7. Stanislav Mayer (CZE) 23. Toma Coconea (ROU) 8. Ivan Colas (ESP) 24. Stephan Kruger (RSA) 9. Clement Latour (FRA1) 25. Christian Maurer (SUI1) 10. Antoine Girard (FRA2) 26. Samuel Vurpillot (SUI2) 11. Nelson de Freyman (FRA3) 27. Michael Witschi (SUI3) 12. Gaspard Petiot (FRA4) 28. Erik Rehnfeldt (SWE) 13. Steve Nash (GBR) 29. Honza Rejmanek (USA1) 14. Michael Gebert (GER1) 30. Gavin McClurg (USA2) 15. Yvonne Dathe (GER2) 31. Dawn Westrum (USA3) 16. Sebastian Huber (GER3) 32. Dave Turner (USA4) 17. Manuel Nuebel (GER4) 33. Peter von Bergen (SU14) For further updates and stories, check out the Red Bull X-Alps on www.facebook.com/ redbullxalps and www.twitter.com/redbullxalps

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XC Camp Dates: February 26 – March 3, 2015 (Thurs-Tues).

Fly XC and see how far you can get. There should be opportunities for comp pilots to over-fly goal on the comp days.

Regional Comp. Dates: Feb 27 – Mar 1, 2015 (Fri-Sun) or Feb 28 – Mar 2, 2015 (Sat-Mon). Precisely which 3 days will be advised during the week before on the forum of the NZHGPA website.

Contact: Tim Percival percival@actrix.co.nz 03 548 7397 or 022 646 3864 Competition Task Format: Standard competition tasks.

First Briefing: To be advised on the forum of the NZHGPA website.

Sites: Inwoods, Mt Murchison, Blowhard, Mt Robert (walking access, depending on attendees), others to be advised.

Cost: $5 suggested donation per day, maximum $15.

Required for Safety: PG2 + 20 hours, reserve, back protection, GPS, UHF Radio, maps.

Transport Notes: Mt. Murchison requires 4WD vehicles so if you have one, it would be good to bring it. Vehicles used on forestry access roads must be equipped with fire extinguishers (be sure to contact Tim beforehand if you’re

in need of one for your vehicle).

Additional Information St. Arnaud is an excellent place for a long weekend with a variety of accommodation available including good tenting in the DoC campground, backpackers, and cheap holiday baches for easy rental if you are a little organised. It has a shop and an all important bar. I am hiring a bach to serve as a base, which will be able to accommodate several other comp attendees at an economical rate.

The sites we will be using are high sites (up to 1450m ASL), so they make for some very scenic and exhilarating flying around the St. Arnaud area, which is the northern-most end of the Southern Alps (the site records for Inwoods Lookout, Mt Murchison and Mt Robert are 116km, 95km and 82km respectively).

Come along just for the XC Camp if you’d prefer to just fly XC without a set task and designated flying time.

Please contact me for further information on accommodation etc. if you are thinking of coming; Tim Percival 47A Brook Street, Nelson Phone 03 548 7397 or 022 646 3864 percival@actrix.co.nz

New Zealand Paragliding National Records Updated by the administrator of the NZ PG flights database, Tim Percival. Last updated 5 January 2015.

New Zealand Flights Category kms Pilot Date Open Distance 170.4 Angus Tapper 23/12/2014 FAI Out-and-Back 110.3 Grant Middendorf 23/12/2014 FAI Triangle 134.1 Nick Neynens 16/12/2014 Declared Goal 71.8 R.Reid, R.Muir et al. 31/01/2014 Female 73.6 Antje Daehler 31/01/2014 Tandem 77.4 Stew Karstens 02/11/2006

Site Region Coronet Peak Otago Treble Cone Otago Roys Peak Otago Mt Murchison Nelson Mt Murchison Nelson Blowhard Marlborough

Previous National Records Category kms Pilot Open Distance 152.1 Bryan Moore FAI Out-and-Back 102.7 Nick Neynens FAI Triangle 96.2 Grant Middendorf Declared Goal 57.0 Angus Tapper Female 69.4 Harmony Gaw Tandem 48.7 Hugo Brighouse

Date 07/12/2014 16/12/2014 18/11/2013 14/01/2001 14/11/2005 09/01/2006

Site Treble Cone Roys Peak Treble Cone Long Gully Waiorau Treble Cone

Region Otago Otago Otago Otago Otago Otago

Date 31/05/2014 19/04/2012 27/03/2013 10/07/2014 05/03/2002 31/01/2002

Site Chelan Bir Manilla Chelan Manilla Manilla

Country USA India Australia USA Australia Australia

Overseas Flights by NZers Category kms Pilot Open Distance 290.0 Matt Senior FAI Out-and-Back 126.9 Matt Senior FAI Triangle 104.1 Evan Lamberton Declared Goal 201.0 Matt Senior Female 146.0 Britta Steude Tandem 136.0 Carl Rust

Omarama HG Classic Cross Country Camp Saturday 31 January to Sunday 8 February 2015

O

n as always during the week of Waitangi Day. It includes two weekends plus Waitangi Day so there’s 5 days flying even if you have to go to work.

At this time of year at Omarama gives the most flying days, the least turbulent and blown out winds and the most XC opportunities. Fly the whole week, just the weekends or just fly the best days. You can choose which days to fly and just your best 3 flights are counted. The Wanaka Nationals overlap on the first day so you might even get a head start on the competition pilots.

An 11,500ft day over the Mackenzie Photo: Bill Degen It can be hot, maybe windy and maybe rough (thermals up to 3000 fpm+) but the competition format will be stress free. Flying will be spectacular, expect to get 9000ft plus and 20 to 100km depending on your skill and luck. You’ll probably beat your Personal Best; height, distance etc, and move up the XC Champs table.

The road up Magic Mountain is less stress for drivers at present but still limited to 4WDs with low ratio or hill descent ability.

To help maintain it we’ll ask everyone for a small donation.

THE MISSION; fly open distance, in any direction from the Omarama area. Enter any number of flights. Take any days off if you like, only your best 3 flights get scored. Flights are to be lodged each evening on the score sheet at the Omarama Hotel, at the cottage next door or at camp.

RULES: Get high, fly far and have fun (no national points, no pressure, no tactics, no whining, just cross country flying). No entry fee (though we appreciate a donation to keep the road driveable).

REQUIRED; Advanced rating with mountain/XC skills. Pilots with lower skill ratings may fly only under supervision and if conditions are suitable. Printed site briefings are available.

This is mountain high desert country so essential equipment is; a 2.5m rope for securing gliders during dust devils, radio, cellphone, maps, GPS, water, survival gear (can be over 30°C daytime with frosts at night), basebar wheels, spare uprights, glider fully checked and a repacked chute. A Satellite messenger is recommended for pickups as cell reception varies. An Emergency Locator Transmitter may be useful too. Note that airband radio (118.6 MHz) is mandatory for flying North of Ohau.

Bring a fearless but careful driver, a spade for clearing rocks & gravel off the road, If you don’t feel like driving up hills, bring your aerotow or car tow setup as well.

All types of accommodation are available; from free camping, cabins to luxury hotel.

Contact Bill Degen aero@xtra.co.nz or for further information, site briefing, maps etc; www.hgpg.co.nz

Hang Gliding Events 2014-15 Hawkes Bay Comp: November 8, 9 Reserve dates Nov 15, 16 Contact: Grant: tathams@xtra.co.nz Auckland League; 14/15 Feb 2015, Reserve dates; 21/22 Feb, 28 Feb 1 March, 7/8 March Contact: Mark markalton@yahoo.com Kaimai Comp: 29 & 30 November 2014. Reserve date 6 & 7 December.

Contact: geoff@trades-academy.co.nz Havelock Fly-In December 6 - 13 Contact: Shane McKay combatnelson@yahoo.co.nz Sterling Big Sky; XC in Omarama, over New Years. Contact; Max: areosm@gmail.com HG Nationals Wanaka: 24 Jan – 1 Feb 2015 1 Feb being a reserve date. Contacts; Mark: markalton@yahoo.com Grant: tathams@xtra.co.nz Max: areosm@gmail.com

Dalby Big Air Hang Gliding Aerotow Meet 12th – 18th April, 2015 (Practice Day 11th April, 2015) The Dalby Big Air is a friendly competition with a view to introducing as many hang glider pilots as possible to the excellent year round flying conditions the area offers.

Dalby is situated on the Darling Downs, 2.5 hours drive from Brisbane, Australia. It is the central hub of a vast cotton and sorghum growing district which provides ideal soaring conditions with an excellent road network that facilitates easy pick ups.

Competition headquarters is at the Dalby Aerodrome, where the Dalby Hang Gliding Club has a secure hanger as its home base.

Entry Fee is $475 which includes the famous Dalby Big Air T-Shirt, Hat, Presentation Dinner at the Hanger and all aerotow fees for competition days, including practice day.

More info and registration at http://dalbybigair.com

New Zealand Paragliding Open Saturday January 31st to Saturday. February 7th 2015 FAI/CIVL Category 2 - Competition Paragliding Open - Wanaka Comp Organiser - Derek Divers d.divers@xtra.co.nz Registration, welcome BBQ and mandatory briefing on the evening of Friday, January 30th - time and place to be advised.

Full details at; www.pgopen.co.nz

Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition 21st and 22nd February 2015 At sites around Auckland or as far a field as Kaimais or Paeroas, conditions depending.

FAI Cat-2 comp (I hope).

All qualified NZHGPA member pilots welcome!

Includes lemon juggling and chicken husbandry lessons

Flying Europe Some time ago the European Hang and Paragliding Gliding Union [EHPU] began an initiative to publicise local flying rules for member countries, These are rules that are not enshrined in the ICAO Rules of the Air, an example being the UK one requiring ridge soaring pilots to overtake other pilots on the side nearest the hill. There is some - but not universal commonality in these local rules among European countries.

If you are planning to fly there, go to www.ehpu.org and click on the flags of the countries you intend to visit. The information may take a bit of finding but for most countries it is there. Information for pilots visiting the UK can be found through the above route or at www.bhpa.co.uk/ pdf/info_for_visiting_pilots.pdf - from BHPA Skywings

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January 1st to December 31st

T

he 2014 Hang Gliding XC Champs finished with North islanders dominating the top placings and Geoff Christophers slipping into top place by a small margin. Geoff is the 2014 NZ Cross Country Hang Gliding Champion.

All Geoffs big flights were from the Kaimais and he also took the longest flight award for 2014 with 118km from the Kaimais to up the Coromandel. His was the furtherest of 8 over 100km flights from the Kaimais. Grant Tatham logged a 106km flight from the Paeroas around Taupo past Tongariro.

These 1014 results are provisional as there just might still be a December flight that is elegible before the 30 day deadline as we go to press.

The 2015 XC Champs has started well with some good flights already and the South Island appears to be getting its mojo back. By the time this magazine is out I’m sure we’ll have plenty of good XC flights from both the North and South.

The way to get those cross country flights is to keep trying so you are flying fit when that good day comes up. Then you need to be flying at the right place when conditions turn on. Often it’s the ordinary looking days that unexpectedly turn out the best, and it’s those who are out flying on the day that get to take advantage of it.

There’s always time to improve your cross country skills and while doing that you could get that big flight that will top your personal best distance. You’ll be surprised at how well you can do if you are out flying on a day that turns it on.

ONLINE RESULTS Latest results are posted as they come in at www.hgpg.co.nz and at www.nzhgpa.org.nz/ competitions/hg-competitions/hang-gliding-crosscountry-championships (but check the date).

Online scoring? Not yet, but if you have 3D GPS you can enter any of the online contests as well. If you do this, just let me know, email me a link to your online entry and that’s all we need to enter your flight.

TO ENTER...

It’s free and simple; fly anywhere in NZ before midnight on 31st December, email or post in your flight details (and tracklog if you have one) before 30 days has passed and you’re entered. Enter as many flights as you like. Your shorter flights are automatically replaced by your longer ones. Only your longest four flights are scored.

For each flight entry, please supply; • Your name, email address and contact phone number.

• Flight date, take-off/release place, landing place, and exact flight distance in kilometres and 10ths.

• Start and landing witness/s name & contact details.

• For Remote Start and/or Remote Finish flights you must supply the tracklog file from a GPS that can be read by GPSDump, such as an IGC file.

A GPS instrument has many advantages for XC flying, but for pilots who don’t have GPS, you can still enter the NZ HG XC Champs without one, you’ll just need to give take-off and landing witnesses.

GPSDump works on Windows or Mac and reads GPS tracklogs from just about any instrument, then

26 A i r b o r n

2014 Cross-Country Championships Provisional final results

1

Name Geoff Christophers

Flight 1 Flight 2 Flight 3 Flight 4 Total kms 118.3 111.8 78.5 71.8 380.4

2 Les Graham 109.4 107.3 81.4 80.9

378.9

3 Rick Hawkeswood 110.9 109.9 72.6 65.8

359.2

4 Neil Howe 116.1 114.6 72.3 53.5

356.4

5

Grant Tatham

106.5

66.7

62.3

31.1

266.6

6

Sebastian Katz

108.3

71.7

44.0

12.7

236.8

7 Bill Degen 59.3 55.0 41.7 41.4 197.4 8 Mark Nichols ** 68.3 21.8 16.0 12.8 118.9 9 John Burton 45.6 37.1 22.7 13.6 118.9 10 Bill Fisher 81.4 28.9 110.2 Sponsors 11 Steve Bankier 18.6 18.4 9.9 46.9 12

Max Gebhardt

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING SUPPLIES

44.0

44.0

13 Eddie Pearson 14.0 10.5 10.0 9.0 43.5 14 Rod Stuart 18.4 16.2 34.6 15

Gary Turner

23.4

23.4

16

Reece Fisher

15.0 ** Class 2 (rigid wing), * Skyfloater

15.0

2015 Cross-Country Championships Table so far...

1

Name Bill Degen

Flight 1 102.2

Flight 2 Flight 3 Flight 4 69.9

2

Geoff Christophers

108.7

Total kms 172.1 108.7

3 Mark Nichols ** 48.3 31.6 79.9 4

Neil Howe

54.8

54.8

5

Rick Hawkeswood

51.2 ** Class 2 (rigid wing), * Skyfloater

51.2

works out the best start and finish points for you.

You can even export it for viewing in Google Earth.

You can download GPSDump for free at; www.gethome.no/stein.sorensen RULES You must be a paid up NZHGPA member during all flights or you do not score. Entries must be postmarked or emailed within 30 days of the flight or do not score. This helps ensure accuracy, prevents pilots holding back flights until the end, and we all want to know how everyone’s doing.

Please DON’T phone, txt, or tell me in the pub, all entries must be in writing (email preferred) with all flight details (and GPS tracklog if using remote launch and/or landings) or do not score. Don’t assume that because someone else was there or you were in a competition that your flight has been entered. It is each pilots’ responsibility to declare and enter full details of their own flight entries.

Measure your flights in kilometres and 10ths of km, straight line from take-off to landing. You may enter optimised flight distances with a Remote Start and/or Remote Finish, provided you send in a valid, GPS track log to prove it. Out and return, triangle or multiple distances are not eligible at this stage.

Aerotow launched flights are permitted, but your release altitude must be less than 5% of the flight distance (current FAI ruling) or does not score. Tow release position (not take-off) verification should be witnessed by the tug pilot, or confirmed with known landmark photo or GPS tracklog.

Please Note: If you don’t follow these rules and provide all relevant flight details, (including valid tracklog for remote start or finish flights) you DO NOT SCORE.

GLIDER CLASSES Same as FAI rules. Flex wings including kingpostless gliders are Class 1. Rigid wings such as the Atos are Class 5 and Swifts are Class 2 or Class 5 without the pilot fairing.

There’s a special prize for pilots flying skyfloater gliders such as such as the Fun, Falcon, Malibu etc.

30% double surface training gliders such as Buzz, Gyro, Mars, Target, Ventura, Malibu etc can be flown in this class too. As long as it has exposed crossbars.

Don’t forget to point it out on your entry if you have an exposed crossbar glider or rigid wing. You can enter in as many classes as you like. Skyfloater flights can be entered in a separate class and/or included in your Class 1 score, whichever you prefer.

SCORING The pilot with the best total of four flights is the NZ Hang Gliding Cross Country Champion for that year. He or she gets first choice of prizes followed by pilots with second and third best totals. The pilot with the longest single flight gets fourth choice, then prizes go from fourth best total onwards.

Flights for the current years XC Champs must be flown before 31st December and entered within 30 days. This ends the contest at a good part of the season while it’s still hot for flying. Flights from January onwards will be entered in the XC Champs for the new year.

SEND YOUR ENTRY TO; aero@xtra.co.nz (Please write “XC Entry” in the header and please keep your entry separate from other emails) or post entries to; NZ Hang Gliding XC Champs, Bill Degen, 99A Panorama Road, Christchurch 8081

RVICE in NZ

with the

P SE nd BACKU a S E IC R P T BES www.willswing.com

NZ DEALER: Bill Degen, phone 021 247-2676, a.h. 03 326-6411, email aero@xtra.co.nz

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April 1st - March 31st. Sponsored by Wings & Waves

2014 - 2015 Season Update The NZ PG XC Championships standings so far at 12/1/2015 as shown on Leonardo website.

The competition runs from 1st April to 31st March the following calendar year. Entries are unverified at this stage. Top flights only are displayed.

Latest and full results on the Leonardo website; www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/world/season2014/brand:a ll,cat:1,class:all,xctype:all,club:0.9&comp=

PARAGLIDING CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP RULES

E

28 A i r b o r n

and GPS verification is unavailable it may still be submitted to the XC Champs but it will not be awarded “record” status.

6.3.3 Flights scoring under 50 points.

Flights under 50 points may submit a 2D tracklog.

6.4 Scoring Unless determined otherwise by the XC Comp organiser the scoring shall be as defined in the rules of the nominated website.

6.5 Challenging a flight.

Any flight may be challenged by the XC champs organiser or by any pilot competing in the XC champs.

If a flight is challenged, initially the XC champs organiser or a PCC appointed scrutineer shall obtain and scrutinise the flight documentation.

If the challenging pilot or the challenged pilot is not satisfied with this outcome, a jury will be appointed by the PCC. The jury’s decision will be final.

6.5.4 Validation of Flight The flight is valid providing that: • The flight was flown in New Zealand, • At least 2/3 of the distance was flown inland (thermal flying rather than coastal soaring), • The pilot has at least PG2 rating or foreign equivalent, • The flight complies with NZ Civil Aviation Authority regulations for paraglider flight.

• The appropriate level of evidence is provide to the XC champs organiser (see 6.3) • The flight has not been challenged under 6.5 By entering a flight into the Cross Country Championships, the pilot confirms that these conditions have been met.

Foreign pilots may enter the competition providing that they have taken out temporary NZHGPA membership.

Note that the title of NZ XC Champion will go to the best-placed NZ resident pilot.

6.6 Cross Country Records New Zealand XC records may be claimed by submitting the 3D GPS track log or IGC file to the XC competition organiser.

These files will be examined and scored separately from the annual online XC competition.

6.6.1 Categories XC records will be kept in 6 categories; 1. Open Distance (OD): Straight line distance from start point to finish point.

2. Out and Back (OB): Straight line distance from start point to any turn point, then back to the start point..

3. FAI Triangle (TR): A triangle defined by 3 turn points. One turn point will be the start/finish point.

The smallest side of the triangle shall not be less than 28% of the total distance.

4. Declared Goal: Open distance from start point to a goal declared in writing to a witness before launch.

5. Female: Open distance flown by a female pilot 6. Tandem: Open distance flown on a certified tandem glider with a passenger.

6.6.2 Site Records Separate records for each recognised inland site may be claimed in each of the above categories.

Pilot Bryan Moore Nick Neynens Grant Middendorf Pete Groves Mr Yaker Stew Karstens Rory Devine Glen Stevens Nick Taber Mark Hardman Angus Tapper Derek Divers Martin Kraemer Jeff Ripley Luke Goleman Rodger Kerr Peter Taylor Kat West Evan Lamberton Tim Brown Wayne Rohrs Gareth Gore Bruce Vickerman Roy Tingay Simon Corbett Aaron Ford Jean Brossard Keith Clapson Don Smith Ian Douglass Melanie Heather Eva Keim Tim Heather Graham Surrey Steve O’Shaughnessy Ian Wood Dylan Vickerman Laurence Robinson Andrew Cavaney Joel Hanlon Sandy Yong Michal Karnik Matt Stanford Tony Cowley Anand Srinivasan Rick Hawkeswood Rhys Akers Paul McGinley Matt Harrison Nick Stead Mick Kennish Peter Jones Mike Ferguson Stephen Gullick Shaun Gilbert Joel Zwartz Elisabeth Tobler Frog Twissell Josh Benjamin Greg Benjamin Jen Corbett Cliff Swailes Lloyd Greenfield Andrew Edgar Alexey Kryssov Helen Jeffery Robert Billings Mark Curtis Steven Christophers Fred Timmermans Scott Arrell Mike Lowe Cam Kennedy Darren Craig Joe Ward Johnny Hopper Josh Lotz Steve Mills George Stead Stefan Sebregts

Total points 753.93 627.41 602.99 557.58 488.95 433.52 351.74 348.56 316.82 312.32 269.57 251.27 239.33 237.9 212.1 182.76 179.56 173.11 170.75 159.16 154.54 154.43 153.64 138.17 138.15 134.33 132.74 130 129.25 123.23 120.41 119.27 108.58 106.84 92.5 90.74 89.32 88.25 84.43 81.16 78.01 77.02 71.84 68.12 67.68 64.91 64.84 63.11 62.18 59.03 58.9 57.7 55.18 53.76 53 50.4 50.1 48.53 43.25 42.51 39.12 36.2 34.09 30.12 29.42 25.52 24.55 22.94 21.53 20.95 20.28 17.5 15.68 14.28 13.46 12.76 12.2 7.37 2.87 2.62

flight 1 254.24 268.86 253.3 238.8 204.84 170.93 155.97 213.46 145.37 147.8 269.57 98.51 84.57 103.36 89.06 76.07 88.55 64.88 79.15 80.35 65.36 65.49 84.41 53.13 68.44 83.7 86.57 70.3 74.91 52.95 47.74 85.25 47.17 40.48 42.64 46.36 63.3 88.25 40.88 36.09 43.42 77.02 52.69 37.21 47.5 32.6 53.93 26.64 62.18 59.03 24.22 28.69 21.83 22.14 53 50.4 50.1 48.53 43.25 21.73 16.1 36.2 34.09 10.79 15.31 25.52 24.55 12.7 21.53 12.05 14.45 17.5 15.68 14.28 13.46 5.22 12.2 5.87 2.87 2.62

flight 2 251.04 182.66 249.04 172.5 194.66 145.56 109.35 76.05 93.08 82.4 - 82.08 80.71 79.19 88.6 64.1 51.06 57.78 60.08 78.81 52.98 45.24 34.64 43.9 35.39 26.89 46.17 42.94 28.2 48.53 36.64 21.86 36.16 36.29 32.44 25.61 26.02 - 25.25 34.13 24.77 - 19.14 16.14 20.18 32.31 10.92 19.43 - - 17.56 15.45 16.71 17.69 - - - - - 11.63 14.25 - - 9.71 14.12 - - 8.19 - 4.66 5.83 - - - - 5.08 - 1.49 - -

flight 3 248.65 175.89 100.65 146.28 89.45 117.03 86.41 59.05 78.38 82.13 70.69 74.06 55.35 34.44 42.59 39.95 50.46 31.52 36.2 43.7 34.59 41.14 34.31 23.75 16.76 26.14 21.75 36.03 12.16 25.25 30.07 17.42 18.76 18.31 10.94 9.81 14.76 17.04 17.12 13.56 16.64 13.93 9.14 8.78 9.62 2.05 4.24 2.46 -

Photo: Ross Gray

ach flying year a National paragliding cross country championship may be run.

An organiser of this championship (XC Champs organiser) may be appointed by the PCC in April of each year. This appointment shall automatically continue in the following years, until he/she is notified otherwise by the PCC, or he/she informs the PCC of their intention to stand down.

If no XC Champs organiser is appointed the competition shall be administered by a member of the PCC. The flying year shall run from 1st April to 31st March the following calendar year.

6.1 Cross Country Championship Format A pilot’s Cross Country Championship score shall be the total of the score from their three highest scoring flights in one flying year.

Flights shall be scored in one of the following categories with points allocated as defined on the xc competition web site at; www. paraglidingforum.com/leonardo 1. Free Flight. (Distance x 1.5) 2. Free triangle. (Distance x 1.75 3. FAI Triangle. (Distance x 2.0) 6.1.1 XC Rover An XC Rover table may be part of the XC Championships at the discretion of the XC Comp organiser..

Flights for the XC Rover table must originate from sites more than 50km apart. Only one flight is scored per site to count towards a pilot’s total score.

A pilot’s XC Rover score shall be the total of up to 5 flights in one flying year.

A pilot must have a minimum of 3 XC Rover flights before scoring on this table.

6.1.2 Sub Classes At the discretion of the XC Champs organiser, sub classes may be collated and shown as part of the XC Championships. These may include; Open, Male, Female, Tandem Class, North Island, South Island, Rookie.

6.3 Flight Submission and Minimum Documentation Flight submissions are to be uploaded to the XC website (www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo) within 30 days of the flight, except that all March flights must be submitted by April 5.

Refer to the website for details. The competition website will be notified at the start of each competition season.

6.3.1 Basic Details for All Flights.

All submissions are to include; • The name of the pilot, • Flight date, • Take off site, • GPS track log.

To submit a GPS tracklog, the pilot shall upload a suitable format file to the nominated website.

6.3.2 Flights scoring 50 points and over, or flights claiming a “Record”.

All flights scoring 50 points and over, and those claiming a “Record”, shall be verified with a 3D GPS track-log. i.e. includes height data in the log.

Refer to Section 2.6 for GPS track log validation criteria.

A “record” claim is for either a site record or a national record. If this flight is under 50 points

XC (3 best flights)

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80

NZ National Paragliding Ladder 2014-2015

Paragliding Cross Country Flights; Regional Flight Focus By Tim Percival The Past: The ten longest paragliding open distance flights of the Bay of Plenty region.

Date Site Pilot 30/01/2008 Paeroa Alan Hills 22/02/2010 Paeroa Evan Lamberton 1/02/1998 Paeroa Derek Watts 5/02/2003 Paeroa Russell Read 16/02/2003 Paeroa Russell Read

Dist.(km) 73.2 67.0 55.0 54.0 52.5

Date Site Pilot 14/01/2008 Paeroa Jeff Ripley 24/10/2009 Paeroa Jeff Ripley 30/10/2007 Paeroa Alan Hills 1/12/2005 Paeroa Alan Hills 24/03/2002 Paeroa Grant Middendorf

A

Dist.(km) 52.2 50.1 50.0 49.8 49.5

i r b o r n

29

■ Paid up NZHGPA members may run one advertisement per classification for free in each issue ■ Please send your written advertisement to the editor, quoting your NZHGPA PIN number ■ Commercial operators, dealers, and non-members must enclose payment of $0.50c per word with their advertisement ■ All advertisements are deleted for next issue unless repeat request received ■ Buyers are advised that all used hang gliders and paragliders are required to have a NEW fitness check (WOF) when sold ■ It is dangerous to fly a glider or with equipment that is above your rated ability ■

MOTOR PARAGLIDING PARAMOTORING – Miniplane and PAP motors - contact SkyWings for courses and equipment - www. skywings.co.nz or phone Alan 09 570 5757 HANG GLIDERS MOYES LiteSport 4. Full mylar sail. Topsail; white. Underside; lavender, light green. Current W.O.F. Brand new glider bag & zip, grass green, $170 worth. Spare set of S glass tip wands. $3000.00. Dennis, 021 430 436, 06 752 7618 LITESPEED 4 in great condition. Replacement sail. PX Mylar top surface. Blue and yellow under surface.

Tuned perfectly with nice handling and still very competitive. New side wires. Carbon curved tips. Photos available. make me a realistic offer. Phone Geoff on 027 872 3387 or email for more information – geoff@ tradeupjobs.co.nz FALCON 4 195 brand new, in stock, with 6ft short pack option and deluxe transport pack, black leading edge and trailing edge with mid blue lower front panel, all set to go, call Bill on 021 247 2676, 03 326 6411 or aero@xtra.co.nz SPORT 2, 175, Blue and red lower, near new, just 10 hours, very tidy condition, No prangs, 1 geriatric owner, contact 03 326 6411 or aero@xtra.co.nz for info.

SKYFLOATERS; New & used; Fun, Falcon, fully strip checked, test flown and trimmed, contact 03 326-6411 or aero@xtra.co.nz for info.

MOYES Litespeed RS4, Full carbon, not many of these around. Only 40 hours flown. Excellent condition.

Red, white and blue undersurface, smoke mylar top surface. Phone Guy 021 707 203, ah 03 528 4472 guyharding@xtra.co.nz ATOS VQ for sale. Low hours. Near new. 19:1 glide with 0.65m/s sink rate. Excellent handling. $15,000.

Phone Mark on 021 339 336.

AIRBORNE Climax C2-13, yellow and white. Excellent condition, less than 80 hours. Flys and lands nicely. $1500 ono. Phone Cris on 03 310 3050 or 022 653 3900 flyingfish1@xtra.co.nz C2 Lite 14. Recent work, New wires & strip check (receipts available). Approx 120 hours. $2200 Phone Adrian 027 247 2436 or 03 326 5689 adrian.brown@lincoln.ac.nz AIRBORNE C4 13.5. Excellent condition & very low hours. New side wires & 2 spare DTs. $5500. I am also selling my C2 14. Whichever goes first will mean the other’s not for sale so please bare this in mind.

Call Adrian 027 247 5436 or email adrian.brown@lincoln.ac.nz WILLS Wing U2 160, 2004, 150 hours of great flying. Selling as have upgraded to T2C. Very few hours on coast so it’s in good condition. Phone Mark 022 195 5746 STING2 XC 175, As new under 50 hours and well looked after. Selling on behalf. Suit pilot of experienced Novice or above skills and a hook in weight of 80-135kgs or with a motor harness which it’s perfectly suited for. This glider is the later version with lever-tip battens. It has PX mylar leading edge panels and flouro yellow/dark blue lower. Photos available. Reasonable offers wanted. Full strip check & WoF available.

Contact Bill at aero@xtra.co.nz or 021 247 2676.

DISCUS ‘C’ 13.7 (147.5), very low hours, (3 seasons old?) Excellent condition, ‘C’ model specs include Wills Wing litestream uprights, aerofoil basebar with streamline fittings & slipstream KP. Spare upright.

Recent strip check. Has dacron sail for longer life and better handling. Great combination of performance and handling, read the reviews on the net. $5500 ono. Open to trades. Contact Peter on 027 752 9650 or peterj.deboer@clear.net.nz MOYES Litesport 3.5, Carbon fibre L/E and Xbar. Some minor scrapes on sail leading edges. $6000. Also Xcountry bag for 3.5 glider. $100. Contact Juan 027 243 8174 jgarcia@xtra.co.nz ATOS 146 rigid wing. Top sail; white with blue and white undersurface. Contact 03 545 0630 julie.bryant@ xtra.co.nz ENTERPRISE Wings Foil Combat 152, No Warrant, Last one issued 09/10 season. Fair condition, all the bits there, no structural damage, good for parts/donor. $450 ono Contact Richard Ward 027 441 3037 richierich-richiepoor@hotmail.com ATOS VR 2006 model. Flown lots of 80-100km+ flights. Outstanding sink rate and glide angle. Suit larger pilot. Price $8,000. Contact 03 359 7358, 021 339 336 mark.nichols.home@gmail.com STING 3 154XC based in Queenstown 4 years old. Current WOF. Make an offer. Phone 021 865 248 ELITE 151, Sail a bit scratched on leading edges but Ok, 7075 leading edges, spare upright. Make an offer.

Buck 027 655 1968 jacquipay@slingshot.co.nz WILLS Wing U2 145. 6 years old. Approx. 75 hours. Sail still in good shape and tight. Performs and handles well. Blue and bright yellow undersurface. Custom base bar wheels included. $3200. Phone Les 021 165 3320, 09 579 6485, email: graham-mackie@vodafone.co.nz HANG GLIDER HARNESSES WOODY Valley harness, size 4XL (but not as big as what you think), suit pilots 5’7” to 5’11” tall, near new c/w parachute. Phone 03 577 8886 or email john.urlich@nzdf.mil.nz.

NEAR new stirrup harness, black. Suit a larger pilot. $250 ono. Phone 03 577 8886 or email john.urlich@ nzdf.mil.nz AEROS Race harness, with front mounted reserve parachute. Contact 03 545 0630 julie.bryant@xtra.co.nz MOTOR HANG GLIDING EXPLORER motor harness with carbon fibre folding prop and reserve. Tony 021 265 8224, email tony@ sthlaw.co.nz AIRTIME motor harness, late model, 8 hours airtime, Folding prop, Tiny tac, Tuning lights, 2 owners, contact 03 326-6411 or aero@xtra.co.nz for info.

MOSQUITO NRG motorharness, very tidy with very low airtime, all the usual features plus folding carbon prop, Stainless auto carabiner, parachute if required. Phone 021 247 2676, email aero@xtra.co.nz

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MOSQUITO Motor Harness, approx 50 hours, good condition, earlier top entry pod type, folding carbon prop, also spare prop with crack in one blade. Reluctant sale, located in Kaitaia. May be able to deliver Auckland. $4200 ono. Phone 027 292 3928 trevvvster@gmail.com ACCESSORIES CHARLY and PlusMax helmets, chin guards etc. Also aerofoil basebar handfairings, Drogue chutes, carabiners for HG or PG, Hall wheels and wind meters, contact Bill 021 247 2676, 03 326 6411 a.h, aero@xtra.co.nz HELMETS in stock, PlusMax, No Limit, Insider, range of colours and sizes including metallics and carbon, No Limit with visor option, PlusMax with chinguard option, phone 021 247 2676 email aero@xtra.co.nz INSTRUMENTS DIGIFLY Flytec/Brauniger, Oudie and Aircotec flight instruments, basic varios to full GPS flight computers.

Large range in stock. Phone or txt 021 247 2676, email aero@xtra.co.nz RESERVE PARACHUTES RANGE of Charly reserve parachutes, Front containers, Hook knives, Connectors etc, in stock at HG & PG Supplies, Phone 021 247 2676 or email aero@xtra.co.nz INSTRUCTION NELSON Hang Gliding Adventures HG training course Beginner and Novice rating. Jan, Feb, March. Call Glenn to register interest. 03 548 9151 or 027 275 1022, gmeadows@clear.net.nz HANG Gliding/Skyfloating. Experienced instruction in Christchurch using latest skyfloater hang gliders, Phone Bill 021 247 2676, 03 326 6411 a.h., email aero@xtra.co.nz BUSINESS NELSON Paragliding, established 1993, After 20 years of operation I am looking for a business partner to share in the running of the school and 115 commercial Tandem flights. Nelson Paragliding has excellent equipment and sites where high standards are achieved. Although seasonally busy would suit someone with secondary income. So if you’re a motivated pilot with good people / business skills and like hanging out on hills please enquire as full training will be given. Contact Stew Karstens 03 544 1182 paragliding@xtra.co.nz LOST & FOUND NIVIUK Icepeak 6; green leading edge with Blue and white tips. Has distinctive competition numbers 222 on the lower surface along with ABAC (factory race team name)... this is a top comp wing and very obviously a comp 2 liner wing. Very few people should be flying this wing unless they are very experienced. Stolen in a GIN black with flouro green stripes 90 l bag... Reward for return and notifying police!! My cell 027 667 7123... Many thanks and hopefully I’ll get it back somehow... it wasn’t insured :( - Grey Hamilton HARNESS, helmet & hang gliding gear, taken from Omarama March 2010. Custom High Energy Tracer harness (black with blue stripe), Lara parachute with swivel, Spot Satellite Messenger, Olympus Mju Tough camera, Charly No Limit helmet (metallic dark silver) with visor, radio headset, Silkbody top, softshell jacket and other gear in black backpack. Contact Bill 03 326 6411, 021 247 2676 or email aero@xtra.co.nz.

AIRCOTEC XC-Trainer Easy vario/GPS, S/N 1473. Went missing from the Blenheim area approx two years ago. Phone 03 577 8886 or email john.urlich@nzdf.mil.nz

Keep in touch with the NZ hang gliding and paragliding scene, the latest developments, events, new and used equipment...

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All NZ hang glider and paraglider pilots are required by law to be members, and receive Airborn magazine as part of their membership but non flyers and overseas pilots are welcome to subscribe.

For AIRBORN SUBSCRIPTIONS please contact; NZHGPA Administrator, 23 Covent Drive, Stoke, Nelson 7011, New Zealand

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A4 size issues $4.- each

Feb/Mar/Apr May/Jun/Jul Aug/Sep/Oct Nov/Dec/Jan 2014 issue numbers 189 190 191 192 2013 issue numbers 185 186 187 188 2012 issue numbers - - 183 184 2011 issue numbers 179 180 181 182 2010 issue numbers 175 176 177 178 2009 issue numbers 171 172 173 174

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PARAGLIDERS ADVANCE Paragliders by Infinity Paragliding. Check out the new Advance Iota - high performance EN-B, the Epsilon 7 - mid range ENB and the Lightweight PI mountain glider @ 3.14kg! Also an exceptional range of harnesses - the new Lightness 2 lightweight POD harness, the Axess 3 Air and Progress 2 reversible. Go to www.infinityparagliding.co.nz or www.advance.ch for all the specs or call 021 0228 2939 PRODESIGN Effect 38 DHV-1 wing (min/max. total load 105-130kg) in good condition (with WOF), Gin Genie 3 Harness (near new) with flight deck, Charly Reserve, Charly Insider Helmet (near new), Brauniger Vario 10 series, and Flight suit (L). prefer to sell all together as leaving the sport Suitable for Beginner or School. $1300.00 ono. Enquiries Phone Jason 027 229 5275 or 03 329 2018 NOVA Mentor 4 - just released. 5 glide better than Mentor 3 - best all-round XC wing? See www.nova-wings. com and Alan at SkyWings for ordering - 09 570 5757 - www.skywings.co.nz OZONE Paragliders - fly-ozone.com - exclusively by SkyWings - Awesome new models - Swift 4, Rush 4, Roadster 2, Viper 3 & the amazing Zero miniwing - www.skywings.co.nz - 25 years bringing you the best wings - email alan@skywings.co.nz NOVA Paragliders - nova-wings.com - exclusively by SkyWings - See Nova’s new website and great new models - Mentor 4, Ion 3 low EN B, highest performing school safe wing ever, Triton 2 - highest performing EN C ever and Suzi - current safest wing - www.skywings.co.nz - email alan@skywings.co.nz SPEEDFLYING specialists - and dozens of great XC wings - happy to trade - all kinds of harnesses in stock as well - www.skywings.co.nz or phone Alan 09 570 5757

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INDEPENDENT REVIEW GERMAN THERMIC MAGAZINE JULY 2013 “In Summary: The Delta 2 is a force to be reckoned with! It launches superbly, and turns when you move your finger in the direction you want the wing to go.

This glider is sensationally solid, glides very well, is easy to accelerate,and it delivers pure pleasure and happiness to the pilot.

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Although the Shark Nose profile and dynamic nature might make it look and feel at first glance a bit agressive, in the end this is not true. In any case, anyone who flies regularly will not experience any bad surprises.

Except that the permanent smile induced by the D2 can only be removed by surgery.This is truly a wing designed how wings should be.

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Shark-nosed rods to 80% of chord gives extraordinary stability.

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High wind soarer/ mini wing