USHGA Paragliding Vol12/Iss1 January 2001 by US Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association

744 70 90977

PARAGLIDING• JANUARY2001

AIR MAIL

DIXON'S NOTES

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

INCIDENT REPORTS

CAL:ENDAR OF EVENTS

How To AVOID CLOUD SUCK 'bj, Steve Roti, illu.sJ;:nation-s ~y Tex J!or.re:st

Cl1ASSIFIED ADVERTISING

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

UPDATE

,:A Ff.ANG GLIDER PrL@:r.L~s PAAAGEIL>ING article an4ph'ot<tJ by Jivet-ar;tf, Cunion

CO VER: Sunburst Launch in a Firebird Ignition. Photo by WiLL Gadd. See Will's article on page 32.

JANUARY

2001

THERMALS -- PART II: TRRRMALS AND Crouns

Gil Dodgen, Managing Editor/Editor-in-Chief Steve Roti, Contributing Editors Dave Pounds, Art Director Will Gadd, Dennis Pagen Staff Writers

Office Staff Jeff Elgart, Advertising, jjelgart@ushga.org Joanne Peterson, Member Services, rjpeterson@ushga.org Sandra Hewitt, Member Services, slhewitt@ushga.org Natalie Hinsley, Member Services, njhinsley@ushga.org

USHCA

and Executive Committee: David Glover, President, david@davidglover.com Mark Ferguson, Vice President, mark@balfvarios.com Russ Locke, Secretary,russ/ocke@juno.com Bill Bolosky, Treasurer, bolosky@microsoft.com REGION 1: Bolosky, Steve Roti. REGION 2: Jamie Shelden, Ray Leonard, Scott Gasparian. REGION 3: Ken Baier, John Greynald, Gregg Lawless. REGION 4: Mark Ferguson, Jim Zeiset. REGION 5: Frank Gillette. REGION 6: Jeff Sinason. REGION 7: Bill Bryden. REGION 8: Doug Sharpe. REGION 9: Randy Leggett, Geoff Mumford. REGION 1 O: David Glover, Matt Taber. REGION 11: Kent Robinson. REGION 12: Paul Voight. DIRECTORS AT LARGE: Ed Pitman, Paul Rikert, Dan Johnson, Jan Johnson, Dennis Pagen. HONORARY DIRECTORS: G.W. Meadows, Bob Hannah, Randy Adams, John Harris, Steve Kroop, Larry Sanderson (SSA), Chris DuPaul, Gene Matthews, Lars Linde, Ken Brown, Rob Kells, Michael Robertson, Liz Sharp, Russ Locke. EX-OFFICIO DIRECTORS: Art Greenfield (NAA).

CHRIS SANTACROCE'S SUPER FLY CHECKLISTS Dear Editor, I'd like to submit the following safety checklists that I use for your readers.

PARAGLIDING magazine is published for paragliding sport enthusiasts to create further interest in the sport, and to provide an educational forum to advance paragliding methods and safety. Contributions are welcome. Anyone is invited to contribute articles, photos and illustrations concerning paragliding activities. If the material is to be returned, a stamped, self-addressed return envelope must be enclosed. Notification must be made of submission to other paragliding publications. PARAGLIDING magazine reserves the right to edit contributions where necessary. The Association and publication do not assume responsibility for the material or opinions of contributors. PARAGLIDING editorial offices: 31441 Santa Margarita Pkwy., Suite A-256, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92 688, phone (949) 8887363, fax (949) 888-7464, e-rnail: GilDodgen@aol.corn.

No line-overs Quick links tight Lines straight No sticks No tangles

Final Preflight 1)

Chris Santacroce

Helmet on and buckled Reserve pin checked Three harness buckles locked 4) Hooked in straight 5) Carabiners locked 6) Speed system connected 7) Speed bar clear and accessible 8) Radio on and checked 9) Vario on, altitude set 10) Conditions check 11) Flight plan check 12) Launch technique chosen 13) Glider free of sticks and tangles 14) Brake lines free and clear 15) Traffic check 16) Conditions check 2) 3)

EQUIPMENT

Primary 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

Glider Biners Harness Helmet Hook knife Speed system links

Secondary The United States Hang Gliding Association Inc. is an air sports organization affiliated with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) which is the official representative of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), of the world governing body for sport aviation. The NAA, which represents the U.S. at FAI meetings, has delegated to the USHGA supervision of FAl-related paragliding aclivities such as record attempts and competition sanctions.

2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)

Flight suit Boots Gloves Radio Treekit Vario Wind meter

IN FLIGHT

Posture

Cross-Country GPS (full battery) Camera Film Map Water Food 7) Phone, #'s 8) Radio Freq's 9) Money 10) "Glider Pilot, Need Ride To Car" sign 1)

2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

1) 2) 3)

4) 5)

Eyes on horizon Legs relaxed, crossed at ankles Lean back, weight supported by shoulder straps Elbows in Hands off risers

Flight Plan 1)

2) 3) 4)

Landing zone in sight Terrain clearance awareness Landing zone conditions check Traffic check

Landing The USHGA is a member-controlled sport organization dedicated to the exploration and promotion of all facets of unpowered ultralight flight, and to the education, training and safety of its membership. Membership is open to anyone interested in this realm of flight. Dues for full membership are $59.00 per year (of which $15 goes to the publication of Paragliding), ($70 non-U.S.); subscription rates only are $35.00 ($46 non-U.S.). Changes of address should be sent six weeks in advance, including name, USHGA number, previous and new address, and a mailing label from a recent issue.

PREFLIGHT

Pilot 1)

2) 3) 4) 5)

Helmet on and buckled Flight suit Gloves Boots tied Radio harness on

Harness

PARAGLIDING (ISSN 1089-1846) is published monthly by the United States Hang Gliding Association, Inc., 219 W. Colorado Ave., Suite 104, Colorado Springs, CO 80903 (719) 632-8300. FAX (719) 632-6417. PERIODICAL POSTAGE is paid at Colorado Springs, CO and at additional mailing offices.

1) 2) 3) 4)

POSTMASTER: SEND CHANGE OF ADDRESS TO: PARAGLIDING, P.O. BOX 1330, Colorado Springs, CO

Canopy

80901-1330.

JANUARY

2001

VOLUME

12,

Reserve pin checked Backpack stowed Adjusted Three buckles locked

No tears

ISSUE

1) 2) 3) 4)

Wind direction Fly directly over LZ if possible Visual survey of LZ obstacles Visualize entire approach, including flare timing 5) Decide on approach technique (aircrafr or S-turn) 6) Wind check 7) Execute approach 8) Turn long final 9) Legs down, ready to run 10) Hands up 11) Eyes on horizon 12) Execute flare 13) Keep running 14) Disable glider 15) Unhook

PARAGLIDING

/f you have extra energy

or an idea to help the Association please let me know. Thank you for your membership in the USHGA." •

Beginning The New Millennium by USHGA President David Glover

he real beginning of the new millennium. I wish I had something memorable to say, something that would stand the test of time and be read by pilots 100 years from now and hold them in awe. But I just have a few simple thoughts. The year 2000 had the fewest pilot fatalities since we started keeping records in the mid- l 970's. Here are some thoughts: • • •

Preflight your glider well. Fly a glider below your skill level. Fly in conditions below your skill level. • Sign up for automatic renewal at www.ushga.org. • Talk a friend into trying flying.

JANUARY

2001

Imagine what the sport could be in 10 or 25 years.

I got a message from Frank Colver, USHGA#7: "I was glad to see the list of members with numbers below 1,000 in the November issue of Hang Gliding. Unfortunately, I renewed too late to make that list. "I had strayed from the flock for the last year or two but now, after attending the vintage hang glider meet at Dockweiler Beach in California (vintage pilots also) in September, I decided to get off my butt (pun intended) and rejoin USHGA. At the meet I flew my Eipper Flexi Floater for the first time in 19 years and had a ball. I also rediscovered why we developed better gliders! 'Tm now happily back in the fold." Frank Colver, USHGA #72 In addition, Dudley Mead (USHGA #467) should have been included in the list ofUSHGA members with numbers below 1,000. He is a life member and has been a continuous member since joining. A correction to make: The poster in the movie The Watcher, mentioned in a previous magazine, is from a photo that was a group effort. John Heiney mounted Tom Sanders' (of Aerial Focus) camera on a glider that Moyes supplied to Gerry Charlebois. G.W. Meadows towed behind Gerry flying an Air Borne Edge trike. If you have extra energy or an idea to help the Association please let me know. Thank you for your membership in the USHGA. David Glover may be contacted at: (706) 657-8485, david@davidglover.com. •

Calendar of events items WILL NOT be listed if only tentative. Please include exact information (event, date, contact name and phone number). Items should be received no later than six weeks prior to the event. We request two months lead time for regional and national meets.

allow magnificent flying from morning until dusk. Fly X-C or locally; the best mid-winter flying anywhere. Hospitable city, pleasant entertainment and dining are abundant. Transportation to launch and retrieval available. Lodging and two meals per day provided. $1,200 for any 12 days. Contact: Adventure Sports, (775) 883-7070, www.pyramid.net/advspts.

and active pilot training. Great for eve1y pilot who wants to improve their academic and practical skills. As with other Airplay educational programs you can expect a thoroughly developed teaching syllabus that won't leave you disappointed. Be sure to inquire immediately to reserve your class space. Contact: dixon@paraglide.com, (520) 526-4579, P.O. Box 2626, Flagstaff, AZ 86003-2626.

FEB. 9-11, 2001: USHGA Board ofDirectors meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana. Contact: (719) 632-8300.

MARCH 31-APRIL 1: Paragliding tandem clinic in Hood River, Oregon. Contact: Steve Rori, sroti@qwest.net, (503) 284-0998, or Rick Higgins, rsunsporrs@aol.com, 541-38721 12 for details.

CLINICS/MEETINGS/TOURS THROUGH APRIL: Airplay "beginner class" openings srartingJanua1y 6 in Flagstaff, Arizona and weekly through April. Classes are available daily, but we do restrict class sizes. Be sure to book early. Contact: dixon@paraglide.com, (520) 526-4579. FEB. 1-28, 2001: Brazil Paragliding Tour 2001. Warm X-C flying in the middle of winter! Experienced U.S. instructors guide you to one of the premier flying sites in Brazil. Governador Valadares, north of Rio, is a popular site for world-class competitions. Mild thermal conditions, light winds and gentle terrain

Q The best hang gliding video series m the world!

FEB. 23, MARCH 26: Airp/,ay 'S/eill Excellence Clinics" for Novice, Intermediate and Advanced pilots. These four-day clinics begin Februa1y 23 and March 26. Skill Excellence Clinics include SIV Lake Maneuvers at Lake Havasu, Arizona. Perfect in-flight active piloting from boat-towed launches to over 2,500 feet AGL Guidance on B-line stalls, spirals, wingovers, and asymmetric fold recovery. These clinics will also focus on thorough weather analysis, reserve use, ground handling

APRIL 14-15: Paragliding safety clinic in Hood River, Oregon. Contact: Rick Higgins, rsunsports@aol.com, (541) 387-2112 for details. APRIL 28-29: Thermal/cross-country clinic in Hood River, Oregon. Contact: Rick Higgins, rsunsports@aol.com, (541) 387-2112 for details.

//IP£'0$t 'P;ir~" WEATHER TO FLY, CB300 STARTING PARAGLIDING. CB100A

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ADVE'l,!!f!L-:Paul Hamilton 6553 Stone Valley Drive Reno. NV 89523 USA paul@adventurep.com

Cheek out the weather info at www.weathertofl-y.com Visitsite our web

WWW.• adv --t ..... urep.com

tlfiLL filRSPEED INDICfiTOR/WIND METER HAND-HELD WIND METER Monitor changing wind conditions. Responsive to slightest variation in wind velocity.

AIRSPEED INDICATOR use with optional PATENTED paraglider mounting bracket. Maximize your performance and skill.

RUGGED & ACCURATE: Molded of super tough LEXPN ® resin. stainless steel rod. Cal/brat/on traceable to National Institute of standards and Technology.

Specfy: ~ Oi:nphor tq krrl/h Airspeed lndlcat .50 Poro llder Brocket .50 Hall Brothers, P.O. Box 1010-P, Morgan, UT 84050, USA Mastercard/VISA/C.O.D. Phone (80 I) 829-3232 Fax (80 I) 829-6349. hallbros@earthlink.ne!

PARAGLIDING

DIXON UPDATE

irplay is being featured in the December/January issue of Smithsonian Air and Space magazine. We have heard that the story has 10 photos and is very positive about paragliding. If you're interested in the complete set of "Dixon's Notes" that were published in Paragliding magazine last year, look for them on the www.paraglide.com "article" section. These articles cover many important basics that are important to new pilots and serve as good reminders to experienced pilots.

CHANGES NEEDED FOR P-2 REQUIREMENTS?

o instructors and other members: You are standing on launch at your local flying site. It's the end of the day with strong marginal conditions, but within your skill level. A pilot you have never seen before tentatively asks your opinion about the conditions. With the strong winds and small LZ, you ask him if he is comfortable doing big ears or spirals upwind of the landing zone to increase his sink rate and glide slope. "Why isn't his speed bar hooked up?" you ask. He tells you, "I just got my P-2 at Acme School of Paragliding and we never did any 360's. I think I know what big ears are. We talked about them, although I never did them. And, can you show me how to hook up and use my speed bar?" An improbable situation? Unfortunately, it's not. It happens. There are some schools teaching the minimum requirements necessary to obtain a P-2. The graduated students are then turned loose to learn on their own, at unfamiliar sites, how much they don't know. A P-2 is supposed to signify that a pilot is capable of flying safely at most flying sites in the U.S., making those crucial fly/don't-fly decisions. Current P-2 standards do not require a pilot to demonstrate 360° turns, familiarity with their speed system, ability to respond to tip folds, or increasing their sink rate, commonly with big ears. Do you feel pilots should be competent in these skills at the P-2 level? At the fall USHGA Board meeting, in the safety and training committee, members felt that there is a skill void that should be closed. Do you feel that waiting until an intermediate-level P-3 for basic skills validation is late in the game? We are asking for JANUARY

2001

member comments and ideas on necessary changes to the current rating requirements . During the spring Board meeting, Feb. 9-11, those proposed changes will be voted on and implemented. Please address your comments to director Scott Casparian at Gaspo@igi.org or to the USHGA office. For additional information visit http://www.igi.org/ushga.

- submitted by Bob Hannah and Scott Casparian

SEATTLE A.ERO-BATTLE VIDEO I ] pie announces the release of SA2K, the Gideo of the Seattle Aero-Battle 2000 event which took place over Lake Sammamish in Seattle, Washington. (See the article in this issue. - Ed.) The Seattle Aero-Battle is the only paragliding aerobatics competition in North America. See the U.S. debut of the SAT maneuver as international pilots compete for $5,500 in prize money. SA2K is priced at $20 and is available now. Contact: Epic, http://f1y.to/team.epic. An mpeg preview can be viewed at http://www. epicsessions.com/paraglide/seattle.htm.

A.PCO MILLENNIUM PRIZE

he Apco Millennium Tombola Prize Draw took place on September 28 in the presence of Mr. Rainer Lodes of Fly & Glide magazine and a certified CPA to oversee the proceedings, as well as a large crowd of factory workers on the Apco premises. The Tombola was held to celebrate the new Millennium and 2,000 tickets were issued for the first 2,000 purchases of Apco gliders. The first prize was $20,000. The event was very successful and Mr. Lodes personally drew the first prize which went to Mr. Rafaelle Langome of Italy (an Apco Allegra pilot), to the loud applause of

the Apco crowd. There were three second prizes of full reimbursement of the price of a glider. These prizes went to the following Apco pilots: Mauro S. Laraia, Brazil; Johan van Rooyen, South Africa; Patrick Mourier, Israel. There were a number of third prizes (a harness with an Apco inflatable airbag and emergency parachute) which went to: Roy Manchester, UK; Terry Young, USA; Diego Alberto Aguirre Moreira, Bolivia; Roland Thurel, France; Capt. Bharat I. Singh, India; C.E. Basson, South Africa; Jean Rousser, France; Per Erik Nilsson, Sweden; Brian E. Laramee, USA; K.G. White, UK. In addition, 100 small prizes were drawn. Over rhe weekend of November 11-12, during the annual San Marco Fly-In at Mc. Dolada, Anatoly Cohn of Apco had rhe great pleasure of personally handing over the $20,000 check ro Mr. Langome, making him a very happy man . On a personal note, Mr. Langome arrived ar the evenr by helicopter since his village had been devastated and was isolated as a result of the terrible floods and mud slides which hit Italy recently. The prize arrived at a good time, and will hopefully help ro resrore his normal life and home.

section of rhe Weather to Fly video, printable log book sheers, and a curorial on how ro fill our and use the log book. The review rakes the pilot through a "Sources oflnformation" section which provides many options for finding sound weather information, including specific Internet sites, che basic barometer, 1-800-wxbrief, rhe weaci radio station, the weather channel and m The "Overall Wind" section covers the macro-weather picture including fronts, lows/highs, pressure systems and the jet stream. In the "Stabiliry" section the instr tion becomes more derailed, since stabilit one of the most important factors in dete mining whether to fly. The "Clouds" sect covers cumuli, multi-layered skies and virga/rain clouds. The final "Terrain" section discusses sea breezes, flatlands, trigger points, surface materials, mountain /valley systems and high mountains . The log book "Sources Preparation" section has entries for fronrs, pressure systems, ISO-bars and jet scream. The CD ROM is che same price as the video, $39.95. There is an inrroducrory special for pilots who have already purchased the video, with proof of purchase, for $29.95 . Both the video and CD-ROM can be purchased as a package for $69.95. This offer is valid unril April 1, 2001. A new, full-color, six-page catalog is also available for free which has a new seccion on rhe "Weather to Fly" collection of rools for pilots. All the new videos and CD-ROMS are included in an easy-ro-read and organized format. Conract: Adventure Productions, (775) 747-01 75, www.adventurep.com.

NEW FROM CRITTER MOUNTAIN WEAR NEW FROM ADVENTURE PRODUCTIONS

his log book and interactive CD-ROM are the latest tools ro help pilots forecast, judge and documem their decisions as ro "whether ro fly" and subsequent flights. From Paul Hamilron and Adventure Productions, they are based on the successful and popular Weather To Fly™, Basic Concepts for Flight with Dixon White, the instructional video on meteorology for all rypes of sport aviation. The CD-ROM includes a review of each

he Billyclava and Fly Trap are new for 2000, and the Expedition Suit is a best seller during those cold winrer months when you still want to gee some a1rnme . The Billyclava is a stretch y, lighcweighr, polyester fleece top with a windblocker fleece borrom. You can wear it under a helmet for flying, skiing or climbing. You can wear ir as a neck warmer and it comes in cwo

sizes, medium and large, and in assorted colors for $20. The Fly Trap is a big 59"-diameter, beefy, 840 denier crusher ripstop botrom with self1sioning drawcord. The Expedition Suit is made of comfortable micro-fleece and offers complete to-ankle coverage, n izing bulk and 1t. It can be worn 111 insulating layer mder a shell system. upper body and ~s are designed ro provide unrestricted mobiliry and extra room for layering. Critter Mounrain Wear's new duffel bag/backpacks are now available. They are a huge 16" x 16" x 35" (8,960 cu. in.) and are big enough to either use as a pack by itself or as a backpack cover. It is made with eighrounce spectra material rhac is less expensive, lighter and more puncture resistant rhan ballistics cloth. Feamres include padded back, stowaway shoulder scraps, handles on four sides and compression scraps. There is also a removable padded bonom piece chat provides extra protection and support. The Dire Bag and Sky Trek paragliding backpacks from Criner are now available in five different sizes of suspension, small through double extra large. The backpacks fie pilots ranging from 5'6" and 90 lbs . to 6'5 " and 350 lbs. Shoulder scrap, hip belr and torso sizes can be combined ro ensure optimum sizing. Since the torso-ro-hip belt measuremenr is critical in backpack sizing, rhe packs bring a new degree of comfort to hiking with a glider. By building each backpack on a custom basis, rhe "one size fies rnosr" problem is eliminated. Conracc: Critter Mountain Wear, 86 Jacquelyn Lane, P.O . Box 975, Crested Butte, CO 81224, 1-800-686-9327, fax (978) 389-5900, . . www.cnrrermounramwear.com.

PARAGLIDING

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•

Marty Devietti, USHGA Instructor of the Year by Dixon White nstructors, clubs, news groups, publications, training materials, and safer equipment have helped reduce the number of serious accidents in the past few years. There have only been two fatalities in the past two years. It's important that recreational pilots support the USHGA, their local clubs, and instructors. Without an organized determination to help the sport progress, we may slip back to the days when many more accidents were occurring, and thus the potential loss of sites. Education is the absolute cornerstone of our success as individuals and as a group. Being supportive of your local instructor is crucial to local growth and site preservation. Give your local instructor loads of emotional and financial support. Tenured and experienced instructors are important, as they make excellent observations and have loads of experience to draw from, so let's keep them teaching. Although you may be an advanced pilot and feel that the local instructor isn't important to you, be aware that he or she does play an important role in developing the next generation of competent pilots, which can have a direct effect on site preservation. And, that local instructor just might make an observation worthy of your attention someday. Take the time to send letters of support to your local instructor, help them feel great about their efforts and help them grow with constructive criticism. One wonderful instructor, Marty Devietti, received incredible letters of support last year, and he is our latest USHGA Instructor of the Year. Frank Gillette, our most venerable member of the USHGA, was the Regional Director who backed rhe nomi-

Marty Devietti on a 100-mile flight in Brazil in November 1999.

nation of Marty De Vietti as the Year 2000 Instructor of the Year. They spent a couple of weeks together last year and were impressed with each other. Frank's 30 years as a general aviation private pilot, a Master-rated hang glider pilot, Advanced paraglider pilot, and ICP Administrator have brought him in contact with many teachers in aviation. Frank is a great teacher himself, and draws from his experiences as not only a teacher of aviation, but as a ski instructor. It has to be very thrilling for Marty to receive this nomination from Frank - a true honor. However, Frank's nomination was only one of many dozens, as Marty has received huge stacks of letters as a testimonial to his brilliance as a teacher. Marty received letters from folks completely unfamiliar with aviation and

from students who were jet fighter pilots. Marty has that very special gift of putting words to the indescribable, serving up the "touch" of how something feels, of keeping the wonder of it all within grasp - not too bluntly familiar, yet not too esoteric. We foot-launch flight instructors are honored by the opportunity to share this sport, this leading edge of human potential. Marty knows, feels and believes this to his core; he's in awe of this privilege to teach paragliding. He has shared the feeling many times that he can imagine no higher calling. He has commented often that the kind letters he's received have given him tremendous energy to give his best to the next student. Marty conveys conviction and Continued on page 18.

PARAGLIDING

111111

Thermally Conditions Risks by Peter Reagan um mer is over for those of us north of the tropic of cancer, but many mostly delightful memories remain. On the darker side, here is a group of inflight accidents under thermally conditions, each of which illustrate some of the less obvious aspects of our safety envelope. NOON, SUMMER, DESERT SITE The launch is on a ridge above a northwest-facing bowl enclosed on its east side by a rather sharp spur. The wind was crossing a bit from the north-northwest, and thus probably spilling over the spur along the ridge east of launch. Several pilots were in the air, finding effective ridge lifr in front of launch and several hundred feet above the spur, good thermal activity in which ro climb out. A relatively inexperienced pilot launched a DHV 1-2 glider and flew toward the northeast along the ridge, crossing the spur at only about 75 feet AGL. Almost immediately he found turbulence, and turned left back to the west. After the turn, the glider suffered a very large right asymmetric deflation. The almost immediate reinflation was followed by a larger asymmetric to the left and rapid rotation roughly 180 degrees and a surge into the hillside. Evacuation by helicopter was complicated by the afternoon thermally conditions. The pilot suffered a compound fracture to the right leg, pelvic and vertebral fractures and internal injuries requiring multiple surgeries. Experienced pilots on the scene felt that this pilot was flying too low into an area where one would expect turbulence,

JANUARY

2001

both from air spilling over the spur ridge and from thermals released by the sharp peak at the lower end of the spur. This accident is reminiscent of the Eric Lowhar fatality reported earlier this year. It seemed preventable if the pilot had chosen to gain more altitude before proceeding into this turbulent area. Reporters suggested that the pilot had made a similar error the day before and had a near miss. Unfortunately, he seemed unreceptive to constructive comment at the time, and after the accident there was a certain amount of disapproval expressed toward the victim. But this pilot did not want to get hurt, and in his own mind was not being reckless. He was flying a stable wing toward a group of soaring pilots, expecting to get up too. I believe inexperienced pilots are quite likely to have this type of accident. I can recall a day quite a few years ago when I was flying in a very similar situation with a more experienced pilot. Twice during the same flight I crossed into an obvious rotor area and had terrifying asymmetric collapses close to the hill. I learned slowly, but happened to be luckier. Zones that seem clearly risky to veterans will not be obvious to pilots who have not yet learned the subtleties of air motion and felt for themselves the peculiarly malignant violence of mechanical turbulence. Some pilots will have enough intuitive grasp of this, and many others will be lucky enough to gain enough experience before they break something. l suggest that this genre of accident will only be prevented if experienced pilots pass on their wisdom at the scene to more naive potential victims. If you are intermediate or less in experience, you are extremely vulnerable to this danger. You will not avoid trouble unless you ask other pilots on-site for help in identifying dangerous areas. It is also a good idea to be open to constructive comments after a near miss. continues ...

•

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SUMMER AFTERNOON, DESERT SITE A very experienced pilot launched a DHV 2 wing off a low-angle, southwest-facing slope into active thermal conditions. A hang pilot had just launched and flown straight out into the house thermal and was getting established in the core. The victim launched and turned gently left in a trace of lift so as not to crowd the pilot. He commented: "I was maybe 75 feet up. About then my day deteriorated. The wing went whack and limp, and I glanced up to see about a 75% left asymmetric collapse, with the tiny remaining right wingtip diving down and to the left. I weight-shifted to the right, pulled right brake to keep from turning into the ravine, and looked down for my righthanded reserve handle and started to reach for it. I checked the ground, and found it to be only 50 feet down and coming up fast." His collision with the third planet caused an open fracture of both bones in his right leg and three stable vertebral injuries. The hang pilot radioed his concern but the victim said he was "fine," and with some help from the only remaining companion he was able to crawl back to his truck. Incidentally, the pilot in the air circled to a site altitude record followed by 30 miles of crosscountry. Funny how different this accident looks since the pilot is more experienced. This is a subtle event. In a later communication to me the pilot described flying out fairly slowly and drifting left, then turning left as he gained a little altitude. Then he probably encountered the strong thermal that the hang pilot was in, entering its rapidly spinning lower portion. Under these circumstances it is not certain that the accident could have been prevented, but two actions may have decreased the danger. He could have flown straight out until he had a bit more altitude, perhaps waiting to give the hang pilot a little time to climb out, and he also could have used less brake until he was higher. A long, shallow launch slope is JANUARY

2001

inherently more dangerous under thermally conditions than a steeper one that allows a pilot to get higher sooner. Finally, given the performance of current new wings, a person could tweak the envelope a bit more safely with a DHV 1 or 1-2 glider. SUMMER, WESTERN MOUNTAIN SITE, EARLY AFTERNOON, STRONG THERMALS Two pilots were flying along a steep, wooded ridge next to each other, scratching upward in intermittent lift. The inner pilot was a very advanced instructor. He felt crowded by the outer pilot. He experienced thermal turbulence and tried to get out of the situation by making a very tight turn away from the ridge in what had momentarily felt like lift. His inside wing collapsed and he was hurled into a tree, experiencing minor injuries but significant glider damage. Expert pilots need space too. It is difficult to predict what will happen in active air, and being caught between a ridge and another pilot is a lot like flying in a narrow canyon. None of us like to do that. The outer pilot was trying to follow the master's example. This a surprisingly common scenario and we all need to appreciate the forbearance of our mentors. Thermally conditions are unpredictable. They are exciting because they can result in the best altitude gains and cross-country potential, but since they are turbulent it is important to leave more space for everything and everyone. In this case, the concept of "margin" is literal. It's seductive to follow expert pilots closely into lifting areas, but always be sure that your ground clearance and distance from other aircraft is safe. Flying outside another pilot next to a steep slope decreases his options if he, or you for that matter, encounter turbulence. It's been an interesting year. We have had improved accident reporting. The year was relatively safe with only one fatality. Keep up the good work, and keep filling us in when you discover a new risk situation. Thanks. •

•

How to Avoid ( !

by Steve Roti, illustration by Tex F'orrest

You're circling in a thermal thousands offeet under a cumulus cloud. Initially the lift is weak, but as you get higher the lift gradually starts to get better. Then, all of a sudden, the lift gets too good and the cloud starts to look mighty close. What's going on?

his situation is generally referred to as "cloud suck." Different pilots have different definitions of what the term means, but for the purpose of this article let's use Dennis Pagen's description from his excellent book Understanding The Sky: "Close to thermal clouds the lift can get suddenly stronger in a phenomenon known appropriately as cloud suck. Many a thermaling pilot have found themselves fighting to stay out of the clouds. Cloud suck seems to occur most commonly in lowpressure weather and especially in humid conditions." Why should you care about cloud suck? Two reasons: legality and safety. The legal issues are fairly straightforward: When we fly in Class E and G airspace under 10,000' MSL (which is where most of us fly most of the time) Federal Aviation Regulation 103 requires us to stay 500' below clouds. The only exception to chis

is Class G airspace 1,200' or less above the surface where the requirement is simply to stay clear of clouds. Cloud suck can easily pull a paraglider upwards at 1,000 fpm, so if we are flying 500' below cloudbase, when we encounter cloud suck we may have 30 seconds or less to avoid whiting out. The safety issues are more complex. Much depends on where you are relative to the terrain and to other pilots. I'll illustrate some of the safety issues with four anecdotes from flights I had during 2000.

ANECDOTE l: WOO DRAT MOUNTAIN, SOUTHERN OREGON, 5/28/2000 During the Starthist!e Meet, conditions were looking good for cross-country so I followed three other pilots heading south toward Ashland. Launch is 3,800' MSL and cloudbase was around 7,000' MSL, with 3/8 cumulus cover. After the second valley crossing I arrived at the next hill just at ridge level PARAGLIDING

JANUARY

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underneath a medium-sized cloud. It took 10 minutes to find a usable thermal and start climbing toward the cloud, and by that time the other pilots were a mile ahead. The climb was slow until about 700' below cloudbase when it started accelerating rapidly. I glanced up at the cloud and saw that it was bigger than I had estimated from 3,000' below. Perhaps it had grown while I was climbing and watching the other pilots ahead of me. I pointed the glider toward the nearest patch of blue sky (opposite the direction of my intended cross-country route) and stepped on the speed bar. I flew out from under the edge of the cloud with 100' -200' of clearance and skirted around the side to get back on course. From the side I could see the vertical development that wasn't obvious from below. The lesson here: Keep an eye on the size of the cloud you're climbing toward, and if you can't see vertical development from below you can get a rough idea by watching other clouds in the vicinity.

ANECDOTE 2: GRAND BORNAND, FRENCH ALPS, 8/8/2000 The second day of a week of superb paragliding weather in the Chamonix area. The 6,000' MSL launch was crowded when I arrived in the late morning and there was a cloud forming l ,000' directly overhead. The sky had only 1/8 cumulus cover and the clouds were not showing significant vertical development. Some of the local pilots were launching and thermaling straight up into the cloud. I went up to cloudbase, back down to launch level, and was on my way back up to cloudbase again when I decided that I didn't want to deal with the possibility of getting sucked into the cloud in close proximity to other gliders, so I left the thermal and set off toward another peak. This illustrates what I consider one of the riskiest aspects of cloud

suck. If you get sucked in along with other pilots you won't be able to see them and there's a very real risk of a mid-air collision in the cloud. (Not to mention the possibility of IFR-powered traffic in cloud. Remember that they're the ones who have a legal right to be in there.)

ANECDOTE 3: PLAINEJOUX, FRENCH ALPS, 8/12/00 The sixth day of good flying weather, and we're just outside the Chamonix valley launching at 4,600' MSL and planning on flying into the valley to the Grand Montet. Cloudbase is over 11,000' MSL and the sky has 4/8 cumulus cover. Thermal climbs are good, mostly 500-800 fpm, and when I get to 10,000' I start on my way toward Chamonix. Half way there it's necessary to fly over a big ridge that forms the mouth of the valley. The problem is that a large, oblong cloud has set up over the ridge, and when I attempt to fly underneath it my vario instantly pegs. I turn around and head back a mile or so to watch the cloud and plot my strategy. There's a solid line of blue sky next to the cloud, so 20 minutes later I return to the edge of the cloud, climb up to 10,500' and then fly into the blue line and parallel to the cloud until I get to the far end (at least a mile). But the story doesn't end there, because by the time I get to the Grand Montet the sky is 6/8 covered with cumulus and some of the clouds are starting to look tall. After a few minutes of enjoying the view at the Grand Montet I head toward the Chamonix LZ, noticing on the way that it's awfully buoyant over the valley. Fearing that overdevelopment is on the way, I pull ears to lose altitude faster as I fly down-valley. Sure enough, a little while after I land the cloud near the mouth of the valley, the one that tried to suck me up earlier, OD's and drops rain. Another lesson: A cloud big and strong enough to suck up a paraglider has the PARAGLIDING

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"I found the performance and flying enj oyment of Swing's new ARCUS beyond my expectations. Swing's ARCUS has raised the bar w ith this newly released entry level g lider All the speed. performance and looks of a performance glider, in a DHV 1 paragllder Any student choosing this gilder will likely wear It out, rather than sell It off for greater performance as they progress down the line. Advanced p ilots w ill rediscover the sheer fun of safe flying without feeling overly restricted. My DHV 2-3 Is going to have to share air time with the ARCUS as I ended up buying one for myself." Rob von Zabern Paraghd ing Magazine July 99

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potential to overdevelop, so keep an eye on it even after you've escaped its clutches.

ANECDOTE 4: PINE MOUNTAIN, CENTRAL OREGON, 9/3/2000 I wasn't there for this one, but a friend of mine got sucked up into a cloud while flying crosscountry during the Pine Mountain fly-in. (For details see the incident reports column in the November 2000 issue of Paragliding magazine.) Briefly, he got sucked into what he thought was just the corner of a cloud at 9,000' MSL, and 15 minutes later found himself at 15,000' despite using big ears and speed bar to try to escape. Eventually he switched to a B-line stall and was able to drop out the bottom of the cloud and land safely. According to the pilot here are the mistakes he made: 1) not dressing warmly enough; 2) not having warmer

gloves; 3) not respecting clouds that are overdeveloping; 4) should have done a B-line stall much sooner; and 5) should have recognized being cold, hypothermic, and hypoxic and landed sooner. This brings us to the heart of the topic - how to avoid cloud suck. In general I prefer to prevent white-outs from happening rather than being forced to react with an emergency descent maneuver after entering the white room, so I'll approach it from the perspective of things you can do to stay in the blue.

Prevention #I: Check the forecast and get an idea of how likely it might be for cloud suck to occur. If the air mass is unstable or the forecast mentions the possibility of overdevelopment and thunderstorms, be warned.

Prevention #2: Keep an eye on the clouds before you launch and while you're flying. Watch out for clouds with dark, flat bottoms or significant vertical development (particularly ones that are taller than they are wide). If a cloud looks big enough to have the potential to suck me up, I do my thermal climbs near the edge of the cloud rather than under the center. That way I can fly into blue sky whenever I want.

Prevention #3: If I find myself climbing under the center of a cloud I'll leave the thermal early rather than taking it all the way up to cloudbase. It's hard to know exactly how far I am below base, but if I'm under a small- to medium-sized cloud I try to leave at least 500' below base, and under a bigger cloud I try to leave at least 1000' below base and fly toward the edge of the cloud. I try to do this before the vario pegs rather than after. I also try to fly toward the nearest edge or the largest blue hole, unless the nearest edge is directly upwind and the

Continued ftom page 10.

We foot-launch flight instructors are honored by the opportunity to share this sport... Marty knows feels and believes this to his core; he's in awe of this privilege to teach paragliding.'' 11

authority as an accomplished soaring pilot himself. He has flown over 100 miles X-C in a paraglider, a feat not accomplished by many pilots. Marty routinely out-flies many topnotch pilots. He flies the highest, farthest and longest, with a passion that is obvious, yet he'll always claim that he was simply lucky a truly humble man. Marty's passion for teaching equals his passion for flight. When he isn't teaching he is typically discussing how he's doing as a teacher. You can tell a great deal about someone by noting where they are focused, and Marty is very focused on continually improving his school's ability to teach more effectively. He believes in the syllabus but is determined to improve it. People come to the sport of paragliding with what seems like a simple goal of achieving flight. Marty knows the reality of what it takes to engineer the environment for that student to make this happen. His skill as a teacher surrounds a person without ego. He is truly giving. He can be confident in his guidance without being threatening. In this fash-

ion he motivates students to be attentive, respectful, inspired and confident. He gives students a sense of comfort in their learning that is awe-inspiring and educational for other teachers. He achieves all of this one-on-one success while keeping an eye on the rest of the students and ever-demanding Mother Nature. Marty's background includes a degree in Aviation Technology and he's an instrument-rated private pilot. Marty is a nine-year paraglider pilot, and an eightyear, full-time instructor. As a kid, Marty was obsessed with radio-controlled

planes and still breaks out his RC flyingwing when conditions are too strong to fly paragliders. Everything in Marty's life has directed him toward aviation, and it shows in his depth of understanding. Paragliding instruction is, in itself, the reward - the student who beams with the thrill of having taken hold of a concept, a skill, a goal. Those of us teachers who have been lucky enough to work with Marty beam with the thrill of having learned so much from our lessons with him - a life-changing brotherhood that has helped us grow and be better teachers. There is no doubt in the minds of those of us who know Marty that he truly deserves the Year 2000 Instructor of the Year award. Who will be our Year 2001 Instructor of the Year? It must be an individual whose personal habits and care for others are beyond reproach and worthy of emulation, an individual who is dedicated to the long-term growth of paragliding. Take the time to send letters to your favorite instructor and your USHGA Regional Director. It's good for the soul of our sport: the instructors! •

PARAGLIDING

winds aloft are strong, in which case I might choose to fly crosswind toward one of the sides.

which can be held all the way to the ground in a pinch, B-line stalls should be released with enough altitude to deal with any problems that may occur (parachutage, asymmetric recovery, spin). (Note: Some pilots prefer a spiral dive to a B-line stall, and other pilots have suggested the use of a full stall as a last resort to escape from cloud suck.)

_,~=~--

Prevention #4: As long as the lift under the cloud isn't excessively turbulent, I use speed bar to help me get out from under the cloud faster. This is the one time when we can be happy that our gliders don't have a flat polar curve. On most gliders the sink rate increases dramatically toward the upper end of the speed bar range, so in addition to going forward faster you're also going down quite a bit faster. Prevention #5: If speed bar isn't enough, big ears are my next choice to increase descent rate. I usually disengage the speed bar, pull down the big ears, and then, if necessary, step on the speed bar again. I've never had any problem with frontal tucks while using big ears and speed bar, perhaps because big ears increases the angle of attack and speed bar decreases it, effectively canceling each other out. Prevention #6: If big ears plus speed bar isn't doing the job, my last resort is a B-line stall. I've only needed to do this once in over 1,600 flights. I don't consider a B-line stall to be something that should be clone frequently because it does stall the glider and recovery from a stall can be unpredictable. Pilots have been injured and even killed releasing B-line stalls close to the ground when the recovery went bad, so unlike big ears,

FINAL THOUGHTS Prevention works best for me. If I can anticipate cloud suck I prefer to fly out from under the cloud sooner rather than be forced to do maneuvers later to escape. One 360° turn can make the difference between an easy escape and a close call or a white-out. Be wary of any sudden increases in climb rate while thermaling under a cumulus cloud, particularly as you get closer to cloudbase, and leave the thermal before the vario pegs rather than after. Keep in mind that pilots who habitually try to get all the way up to cloudbase are more likely to get sucked into a cloud than pilots who follow the FAR 103 limitations and strive to stay 500' below clouclbase, so in this case there's demonstrable safety in staying legal. This article is drawn from my experience with cloud suck, and I'm sure other experienced pilots will have different ideas and suggestions for how to avoid it. If you'd like to read more about cloud suck, see Dennis Pagen's book Performance Flying. Although the book was originally written for hang glider pilots, most of it applies to paraglider pilots as well. •

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Why?

The part of me that thrives on that fast pulse and rush of adrenaline won. When, through the thunder in my head, I heard my harness-mate tell me to run forward, I didn't hesitate. Then I was flying, and it was as if everything I'd done up to that point was justified. This, I decided, is what life is about. Moreover, I was in one of the most famous places to fly in Japan, doing the sport that became my passion within five seconds. Japan has always been a passion of mine. Everything about the country and culture interests me. In addition, I've always been the sort to try adrenaline sports; my portfolio of scars comes from falling from rock faces to crashing on scary single track. So, when my Japanese wife's father suggested I try paragliding with him (he's been flying for several years), I couldn't refuse. It was more than a desire to "get in good" with the in-laws. He wouldn't have asked me if he thought that was the reason I'd accept. I said yes for two reasons: the thrill of it all, and a strong desire to see the type of Japanese, typically group oriented, who flock to such an individualeffort sport as paragliding.

AOGAKI: SKY TOWN Temples and shrines in little pockets in the forest line the descent into Aogaki, Japan. Every so often there is a sign beckoning you to camp or stop to buy the local mountain vegetables or eat a homemade dinner. In one such hole in the forest there's a Davy-Crockett-esque log cabin, straight out of my native Tennessee with bright, golden yellow logs and a chimney pushing out sweet-smelling smoke. It's a coffee shop, the fulfillment of a retired businessman's dream: to flee the city, order a log cabin from Washington State and serve coffee to a foreigner in the middle of an old-growth forest. There's even an old car parked out back. I didn't look to see if it was on blocks. Past the coffee shop (who goes to a coffee shop in the middle of the mountains?) the road gradually widens out into a valley filled with rice paddies and small fields of vegetables, each with at least one person bent at a 90° angle. This is Aogaki. At first Aogaki looks like a thousand other Japanese hamlets. A small central area with traditional shops sits quietly forgotten a couple of blocks off the main highway. At times it's hard to tell if the

town is spreading into the rice fields or the other way around. There is one Pachinko parlor and a few gas stands with bowing attendants waiting for their chance to jump out and halt traffic to get you to buy their gas. Everything about Aogaki is typical of rural Japan. Except the sky. On any given sunny day there will be brightly colored objects flying through the air. Aogaki is known as "Sky Town," the home of west Japan's sky-sports community.

A PIECE OF FLYING HEAVEN AND HISTORY For paraglider and hang glider pilots this otherwise quiet community is flying heaven. The area was first developed in the early l 980's, and is one of the oldest flying areas in Japan. Pilots from all over the country come to Aogaki to fly in booming thermals and take off on cross-country flights. (Never mind where you land; this is Japan, home to one of the world's most convenient public transportation systems.) Japanese mountains, in general, are great for flying. They aren't lined up in roughly the same direction like most U.S. mountain ranges. They stick out of the broad plains like an afterthought, offering ridges and slopes that always face the sun. Summer or winter, there will always be thermals someplace. One of the great fea-

tures of the Aogaki Valley is its roughly east-west orientation, with openings to the north and south that let in the winds from the Japan Sea and Inland Sea respectively. Flyers get a full day of sunshine and thermals that last all day. Glass-offs are phenomenal and flyers routinely soar past dusk. There is no limit to the flying; 10hour flights are common. For many, though, the attraction of this area is the atmosphere created by a menagerie of men and women who come to forget the pollution and pace of the nearby cities. In Aogaki your rank is determined by your skill as a pilot, not position in society. Gender and age barriers - as well as other rules of the hierarchical Japanese society- don't exist in the sky; a good pilot is simply a good pilot. There are three paragliding/hang gliding schools in the town, and during the peak season there are several hundred students. Intense rivalries exist among the schools. However, all acknowledge the leading school in the Kansai area: Tak's Paragliding School. Tak is something of a legend in the Japanese outdoor sports community. He assisted Yuichiro Miura's epic trip to become the first man to ski from Mt. Everest. Tak was the second. He holds the high-altitude hang gliding record and was PARAGLIDING

ABOVE: Tak's son, Shoichiro, winging it over. RIGHT: The Aogaki valley.

JANUARY

2001

one of che firsc people co drag a hang glider up and fly from Mt. Fuji. He earned his hang gliding wings in che skies above Torrey Pines and ocher areas in rhe Los Angeles area. His son , Shoichiro, is on che Japanese paragliding World Cup ream and is descined co follow his facher as a leader

in paragliding. In recent years , che popularity of hang gliding in Japan has declined in favor of ics younger sibling, paragliding. The primary reason is che equipment. A hang glider requires nor only a good, dry place ro keep ir (there's rruch co che scereorype of small

Japanese homes and apartments), bur you must have a vehicle equipped with a special rack co carry ic. Paragliding gear, on rhe ocher hand, is easier co store, and che convenience of being able ro carry everything wirh you means you can rake public cransporracion or carpool ro and from fly-

PARAGLIDING

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ing sites. Another major difference is education. Hang gliding is a tedious sport and takes up to a year to learn, particularly in Japan where there are few adequate training areas. (I've heard pilots who flew in Southern California talk about the large numbers of Japanese pilots who flocked there to learn hang gliding in the l 970's and l 980's.) A dedicated paragliding student can be flying in just a few months.

MT. IWAYA- THE HEART OF AOGAKI FLYING At the center of the Aogaki flying community is Mt. Iwaya, the largest of the many mountains that form the rim around Aogaki. At 700 meters (2,100 feet) MSL, Iwaya allows takeoffs in any direction, and all takeoffs are groomed or paved. This mountain usually offers the first flights for pilots in the area. (There's no intermediate

hill between the 30-meter bunny hill and Iwaya.) Learning to fly from Tak is an intensive process; he makes certain you have what it takes before giving the goahead to take off, and students are constantly connected by radio. But, despite the height and thermal activity, it is possible to take a sled ride from the takeoff to the LZ. From the main, wide takeoff it is a very gentle glide down a long ridge that leads to the LZ, a small converted rice field. The second takeoff is preferred by intermediate and advance pilots. It is perfectly shielded on three sides by trees and is very nearly a cliff launch. There is a hiking trail just under the takeoff, an excellent spot to watch pilots take to the air. Whether you go to fly, just sitting in at Tak's school is an incredible experience. If the weather craps out, Tak has something to do. Groups break off to go eat, people

sit around drinking beer (if you get too drunk to drive home, Tak will lend you a piece of the floor), and there are a couple of guitars and a drum set for the musically inclined. There are mountain bikes to ride around town, softball gloves and bats, and tennis rackets. Tak forms a community around his students. In the end, it isn't just about the flying. In Aogaki, you forget that there's work waiting on your desk and a world waiting to tear you apart. Your spirit flies in Aogaki, even when you're just doing nothing.

Ifyou are interested in paragliding in Japan you can contact Tak at 011 81 (0) 795-870501 or tak@mxa.nkansai.ne.jp. Tak and several ofhis teachers can understand English, but be prepared to speak Japanese if someone else answers the phone. • PARAGLIDING

by Chris Santacroce

The second annual Seattle Aero-Battle and North American Aerobatics Championships took place after enduring two days of rain. Still competitors made the best of the foul weather by mastering low, on-thewater towing, reminiscent of the early days of hang gliding when more static-line arrangements including water skis were the fashion. The pursuit was an event in itself

inally, the weather broke and one beautiful day of action-packed, overthe-water aerobatics competition took place on October 1, with pilots from Korea, New Zealand, France, Spain, Argentina, Canada and the United States who competed in three aerobatic rounds for $5,500 in prize money. Pilot spectators from throughout the country descended on Lake Sammamish State Park for the show and were rewarded with a festive and lively atmosphere with music, food, drink and the camaraderie that is so characteristic of the free flight community in the Western U.S . Huddled around the Red Bull tent and with Chris Santacroce calling the maneuvers over the loudspeaker, spectators cheered when competitors dove at the water, applauded when they hit the spot and roared when the pilots splashed. Three Ed Pitman hydraulic payoutwinch-equipped speed boats were on hand to take competitors from the beach to 3,000 feet in minutes. Pilots filled the skies like clockwork with four in the air at a time, so much so that the judges had to beg for relief and a slower pace. The first round was a compulsory routine consisting of stalls, spins, asymmetric spirals and loops. The points system was as follows:

MANEUVERS SAT . . . . ... . ... .. . ... . ....... .. . . 25 Loop .. . .. . .. . .. . .... . . .. .. ... . .. 20 Spin 360° . .... . .. . .... . . ... ...... 15 Spin 720° . ... . . .. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 15 Full stall. ... . . ..... . .. . . . . .. . . .. . . 20

JANUARY

2001

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Wingovers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Asymmetric collapse . . .. . .. .. .. . .. .. 10 Full frontal . . . . . . ... .. .. . . .... .... . 5 B-stall .. ... . .. .. ........ . ... ..•. .. 5 B-stall with heading change . ... . .. ... . . 5

PENALTIES Less than 90° off heading exit . ........ -5 More than 90° off heading . . .. .. ... .. -10 maneuvers exit More than 180° off heading exit ... . .. -15 30%-50% deflation ... .. . . . ....... . . -5 Greater than 50% deflation .... . ... .. -10 Iyser twist .. . .. . .. .. . 0 for the maneuver Reserve deployment . . ... . 0 for the round Crash landing . .. .. . . .. .. 0 for the round Judges were Alain Zoller, Ed Pitman and

Mike Haley. Alain Zoller is a DHV/SHV/AFNOR test pilot from Switzerland who organizes the other aerobatics comp that takes place each year, Red Bull Vertigo. Ed Pitman has more than 14 years in the sport, is a veteran Aero-Battle judge, a USHGA Honorary Director and is the mastermind behind the hydraulic payout winch technology. Mike Haley has more than 25 years in foot-launch flight and is an avid P4 tandem instructor from the Portland area. Each judge was uniquely qualified and the judging was first rate. Raul Rodriguez won the first round while Chris Santacroce placed second and Franc.,:ois Bon took third. The next round was a "freestyle" round in which competitors wrote down a list of five maneuvers

BELOW Organizer Marc Chirico ofSeattle Paragliding. RIGHT The Aero-Battle lakeshore.

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tappedlnto.com Team Chirico

and then submitted their routines ro the judges for approval. Points were given for difficulty and creativity. Points were subtracted for exits off heading, deflations and bad landings. Felix Rodriguez won the freestyle round , Raul Rodriguez was second and Pablo Lopez was third. The most remarkable maneuver ro make its debut in North America was the SAT, named after and by the Safety Aero Team comprised of the Rodriguez brothers and their fellow Spanish and South American pilots. The maneuver has also been referred to as the "Vertigo Spiral" and "The Rodriguez." Ir is somewhere between a sp iral and a spin. Ir is said to have been found by accident while practicing spins and spirals. It is a maneuver that is very difficult to describe and very fun to watch. The mane uver and variations on the maneuver were borh high scoring and crowd pleasing at rhe Aero-Barde 2000. Tumbling, a maneuver that defies belief also made its debut at the Aero-Bartle 2000. Combine a loop with a SAT and rhe pilot goes "rumbling" over the glider. Ir becomes hard to tell if the glider is going forward or the pilot backward, and it is breathtaking. Only a few "tumbles" happen before rhe wing runs out of energy and the pilot must bring the rotation to a stop. Stay tuned for a better description of this exciting and pre-

sumably dangerous dynamic. Landing points were among the most interesting. Ten points we re given for both spot landing and for a spiral-type landing. No extra points were given for touching the wing tip on the ground. In other words, there was no point incentive for spiral landings over rhe ground. Ten points were also given for a spiral landing into rhe water. In an effort to encourage crowd-pleasing but safe landings, 15 points were given for a spiral-type landing where the wing tip touched the water and the pilot landed safely on rhe ground. Pilots were thereby encouraged to spiral over the water. The result was that several competitors scored precious extra points while a handful of competitors also landed in the water. As if the aerobatics weren't enough, the water landings brought smiles all rhe way aro und. Pablo Lopez from Argentina wowed many spectators wirh the incredible power and energy of his maneuvers. Flying an extra-small competition glider allowed him to make approaches and wi ng/body drag (on the water) landings that were not believable. The third roun d was called rhe "expression session." Competitors packed all of their best maneuvers into one flight and went from releasing from the towline all the way to the ground/water. Again, Felix was firs t wirh Raul second and Chris Santacroce

SHIIII Pareglldlng

"Down and Back " PaUngl<

third. The Rodriguez brothers, along with Pablo Lopez, wowed the crowd with lowaltitude SAT and tumbling maneuvers that were unlike anything that the Aero-Battle had seen before. Meanwhile, the U.S. contingent, Chris Santacroce and Enleau O 'Connor, capitalized on their smooth stall, spin, loop combinations and were mastering the SAT and asymmetric SAT on the spot, out of necessity, in order to keep up with the SAT Team. In the end, Felix Rodriguez wo n. The victory was a special one for him, as it was also his birthday. Still, the results were bittersweet for the second- through fourthplace competitors because their scores were separated by single points. Anne O 'Connor put on a spectacular show, demonstrating rhar she could do all of the maneuvers and with more fluidity than most of the male competitors. She has truly made her debut as the foremost female aerobatic paraglider pilot in North America and as one of the top three worldwide. Likewise, her husband Enleau has demonstrated that he is among

PARAGLIDING

ABOVE: Pablo Lopez dragging a tip. LEFT Chris and Othar mixing it up in the sky. FAR LEFT Boat-tow launch.

RESULTS Pilot,

Country,

Points

Prize

Glider

Felix Rodriquez

Spain

502.7

$ 1,500

Edel Millennium (proto)

Raul Rodriquez

Spain

478.0

$ 1,250

Edel Millennium (proro)

Place

Pablo Lopez

Argentina

477.7

$ 1,000

Gin Gliders Boomerang (AFNOR Competitio n)

Chris Santacroce

USA

476.0

$750

Ozone Octane (DHV II)

Hernan Pitocco

Brazil

45 7.7

$500

Edel Sector TX (AFNOR Comp)

Fran~ois Bon

France

430

Enleau O 'Connor

USA

Ann O 'Connor(F)

U SA

Rob Darby

New Zealand

Firebird Booster (DHV II)

1O)

Ki Hong

Korea

Edel Response (DHV II-III)

11 )

Rick Wiegelman

C anada

Hurricane (AFNOR Performance)

12)

Coco Clark

France

13)

Bo Criss USA

the narion's besr when ir comes to "over-thewarer" paraglider aerobatics. The $5,500 purse was disrribmed among the rwo female competitors and rhe top rive male comperitors. This annual event rakes place rhrough rhe support of many members of rhe Northwest Paragliding Club and many Team C hirico volunteers in the Searde area. Thanks to each and every person who makes chis unique event a reality for now and for years ro come. If yo u are interested in sponsoring, supporting, volunteering or participating in the Aero-Barrie 2001, please contact Chris Santacroce ar chris@4superfly.

JANUARY

2 0 01

Flying Planet (AFNOR Comp) Firebird Booster (DHV II)

$300

$200

Gin Gliders Bandit (DHV II)

Ozone Proton (DHV II-III) Gin Gliders Bonanza (DHV II-III)

corn. Also, Aero-Barrie T-shirrs and videos are available rhroughour rhe year. Stay runed to www.seardeparagliding. com and hrrp ://fly.to/rearn.epice for more Aero-Barde 2001 derails. The fucure of paragliding cornperirion mighr be "over-rhe-warer" paragliding aerobarics. Even rs are being planned in Somh An1erica, Scandinavia and Turkey and rhere's even ralk of an Aerobarics World Cup. The evem was organized by Searrle Paragliding (Marc and Lan Chirico) and Superfly (Chris Santacroce and Jeff Farrell). Special thanks to the sponsors who make the Aero-Barde a reality. Withour chem

paragliding aerobarics comperirion in the

U.S. would nor exisr. Punch Nerworks lntersrare Barreries (Tom Allen) rappedinro.corn (Dave Klapp) Pro Flygh r Maui, Hawaii (Tom Chesmur) Roornscape (Greg Routh) Epic T's (Duane Ulisnik) Ballard Marker (Sreve Williams) O 'Connors Pro Tow Fire bird Gin Gliders Ozone Pat Engle •

Facing the right way (downhill) you check the wing by applying some brake to hold it stationary above you and inspecting it. You launch by easing off the brakes and ever-so-slowly accelerating forward. In a five-mph wind you take off at a slow walk.

THE SITE

article and photos by Everard Cunion n a previous article I described the weird sensations I experienced as a long-time hang glider pilot taking a ride in a dual paraglider. This one describes my paraglider training from beginner through elementary toward British Club Pilot level which is about equivalent to USHGA P2. On my second day I was thermaling above the top of Kimmeridge, a 300-foot hill about a mile inland on the English coast, and, remembering the "correct attitude" box in the BHPA Club Pilot task sheet, resisting the urge to three-sixty. My progress was unusually rapid, undoubtedly because of my hang gliding experience.

LAUNCH Apart from the obvious visual differences from a hang glider, the first difference to strike me in flying a paraglider is the slowness of launching, particularly in light wind (zero to five mph). With a five-mph wind, barely enough to fill the sail of your hang glider so the battens clonk against the crosstubes, the paraglider wing can be made to fly stationary above your head while you inspect it for correct inflation, foliage tangled in the lines, or other malfunctions before committing to takeoff. I needed several goes at this before my central nervous system accepted that the wing would carry its own weight in the slightest breath of wind without the need for me to hurtle downhill underneath it. I learned to use a reverse launch in stronger winds (above five mph). I found this more difficult than the forward

"Alpine" launch that is more natural for a hang glider pilot. The reverse launch consists of three distinct and entirely different stages. Before a reverse launch you prepare the wing by "building a wall." (You get the leading edge inflated by the wind and it forms a smoothly arced low wall.) Unlike when preparing to launch a hang glider, where brute force can go a long way to make up for lack of technique when balancing it in the wind, when paragliding technique is everything. It is all action at a distance - the distance between you and the wing being the length of the suspension lines. After building a wall, still facing the wing (facing uphill), you bring the wing up with the harness risers crossed in front of you. When it is overhead you turn around and in so doing untwist the risers. It takes practice to sense when it is really overhead, one difficulty being that you cannot see the horizon when looking straight up. The transition between facing backward while looking up at the wing to facing forward (and again looking up at the wing) is at first disorienting. The risers whacked the sides of my helmet when I about-faced. Then, finding the ground in front sloping steeply down instead of up I staggered. Not surprisingly, when I looked up at the wing it was falling sideways. I attempted to correct it by pulling one brake - the correct action but the wrong brake. With practice, however, it became easier. By the end of the second day the risers were not touching my helmet and the wing was no longer falling sideways.

The training area was a gently sloping area forming part of the base of the ridge. Cows occupied one end with a power line and trees beyond. I had categorized it (with my hang glider pilot perspective) as an emergency fly-on-the-wall landing zone. Yet, by the day's end the field had expanded in my mind to a three-dimensional airspace of lift and sink (or rather reduced lift), various landing areas that included the slope, and three levels of takeoff. Particularly with a reverse launch you need to find a takeoff area free of large rocks and rabbit holes. This is no joke. Unlike a hang glider launch, where you go forward with rarely much deviation from your intended run, a paraglider wing can translate sideways, backward, or forward as you bring it overhead. In order to keep yourself underneath it you need to move in directions you aren't looking. If you have not carefully chosen your place you can find yourself with a leg down a hole while being dragged horizontally.

MORE DIFFERENCES Getting ready to fly again after landing is unbelievably quick. You clip the brake handles to the poppers on the risers, gather the lines, "mushroom" the wing, throw it over one shoulder and walk up. When you get to the top (or wherever you are launching from) you lay out the wing, unclip the brake handles, check the lay of the lines, and you are ready to launch! In fact, I found it better to get out of the harness after landing so I could remove my helmet to reduce overheating on the walk up. However, putting on a paraglider harness, unlike a hang glider harness, takes only a few moments. It's a shockingly quick turnaround matched only by hang glider tow-launching. Because the wing is so far above the pilot it can be safely top-landed where a hang glider would be rotored. This "tallness" and your distance from the wing takes some getting used to. At a site appropriately called Folly Hill I made a final approach in the lee of trees, in very

PARAGLIDING

bring a dog with them that runs in front of the student as he launches, hangs onto the hapless pilot's boot as he takes to the air, or bites chunks out of his legs so he spends the rest of the day worrying if he should attend hospital to get inoculated against some dread disease. I was unable to enlighten him.

FLYING AND EQUIPMENT

Flying with Flying Frenzy paragliding school. light wind, expecting to flare just there. I was in the lee of the trees but the wing was not, and I floated along three feet above my chosen spot with excess speed. I steered between a large bramble bush and some more trees before running out of airspeed. Although it was bad judgement (and I lucked out) it was one of those floating sensations straight out of dreamland.

Thermaling paragliders, beginner-compatible paragliders at least, is as physical as hang gliding. The use of brakes to control airspeed and to steer requires little force. However, turns made by application of differential brake (reverse aileron effect) are slow and wide. To turn more rapidly and tightly you need to weight shift. This involves shifting your upper body so your head is no longer between the risers, and, additionally, crossing the outside leg over to get your weight more on one side of the seat. I do not understand how this works but it does seem to. Finally, when I have completed a second top-landing and an asymmetric tuck, and gained my CP rating, I will be looking for my own paragliding gear. In addition to a wing I will need a harness. (The suspension lines and the upper part of the risers are part of the wing, not the harness.) I will also need an emergency parachute. Can you use your existing hang glider emergency parachute? Objections to this include the extra bridle line length

Launching at the Bournemouth flying site. that would unnecessarily delay opening, the need for a hang glider reserve to be larger to carry the extra weight of a hang glider, and the sheer difficulty of swapping the parachute between harnesses. I will let you know how I get on.

Everard Cunion is a long-time British hang glider pilot and contributor to Hang Gliding magazine. - Ed. II

DIFFICULTIES In situations of mental overload, typically when penduluming in pitch, I found I had a nasty habit of doing what I do in a hang glider when approaching a stall pulling in. This is the opposite of what you should do. "Pulling in" applies the brakes which increases the angle of attack. Another problem I encountered was rhat of ill-fitting harnesses, undoubtedly exacerbated by my bad back (crushed vertebra). You cannot concentrate on flying if you are holding on to the risers to stop yourself from tipping backward into an uncomfortable back-support. Changing harnesses is a brief job, however. If your paragliding school is anything like the one I attended (Flying frenzy) they positively encourage you to cry differenr harnesses. Some of my fellow trainee paraglider pilots occasionally asked my opinion on technical matters, particularly regarding the similarities between hang gliding and paragliding. One asked why 50 many

Paragliding at Bell Hill, near Blandford, Dorset in southern England, a good X-Cflying site.

paragliding and hang gliding schools

JANUARY

200 l

THERMALS -

PART II

Thermals and Clouds article and photos by Will Gadd, illustrations by Tex Forrest

This article is part two in a three-part series. Part one covered how thermals form and release from the ground; this article covers the relationship between thermals and clouds. The final article in this series will cover thermal flying techniques. irst, this article fo cuses on dealing with our best visibl e thermal indi cators, clouds. There are dozens of books written on lapse rares, instability and th e like, so the ideas presented here are more field rules fo r flying clouds and using oth er sky-based clues. It is not a m eteorology text, so please forgi ve the gross simplificati ons 1 make. T he basis for understandin g what's going on in the sky comes from watching ir. Reading books (or articl es like this on e!) helps, bur you need to have your own on-board sky- interpretation system ro fl y well. Every good pilot I kn ow has

F 32

spent literally thousands of hours looking at rhe sky an d trying to fi gure out what's going on up there. I have spent many blown-out days lying on my back watching rhe sky swirl over me, and rhis is some of the most valuable rime I've eve r put into fl ying. Are rhe clouds being blown to bits? Do they remain relati vely constant over set points or fo rm over a set point and rhen drift off downwind, decayi ng as they move? D o they cycle evenly, starting as rhin whispies and then fo rming into ever-mo re solid masses befo re decaying, or do some pop up very quickly and th en disperse slowly? D o they have hard, flat

bon oms or a rounded , mushy appearance? The answers to these questions provide a wealth of knowledge about the thermals char are generating these clouds. Clo uds are infinitely variable, bur I believe they do have panerns char can be learned by watching them . The big concept here is that clouds cycle based o n their anached thermals. As a wa rm air mass rises it eventually reaches an altitude w here its moisture condenses our. This process continues only while the cloud is being fed by a thermal. (Condensation "pumps" basically act the same as therm als, so I'll treat them the

P A R AG LID I N G

same here for simplicity.) At some point the collector or pool of warm air on the ground is exhausted, but the cloud is still being fed by a "bubble" rising above the ground. Eventually, no more rising air feeds the cloud and it starts to decay, and at this point there is no more lift under it. This is why many of the best-looking clouds often provide no lift when you fly under them. While pretty, they are at the end of their useful cycle. As clouds decay they will in fact usually produce sinking air, which is annoying if you've flown to one expecting an elevator ride back to base. What's more useful is to connect with the rising air under clouds that are still forming. So, how do you tell 'em apart? The simplest cloud game is to try to predict whether a cloud is forming or decaying. Before doing this in flight, I like to play the cloud prediction game while mowing the lawn, driving, or looking out the office window. Pick one cloud and make a snap decision: Is it forming or decaying? Then carefully track that particular cloud through the rest of its cycle. If you think it's forming, it will grow in size (either vertically or horizontally or both) while becoming ever-more resistant to light (more suspended water means going from whispies to small "clumps" of moisture to solid white to gray). If it's decaying it will become ever lighter and slowly fragment into smaller pieces. How long does this process take? Two minutes? Ten? Twenty? Or does it just continue to develop into a monster cumulus savage-yourgliderus? I can seldom make good predictions based on just one look at a cloud, but after watching it for a couple of minutes I can usually tell which direction it's heading. I believe that it's absolutely basic to learn the life cycles of clouds if you want to fly X-C. This is the aerial equivalent of knowing how to read. Michael Champlain, one of the better X-C pilots I've met, taught me a good trick to help understand what clouds are doing while you're flying. He recommended taking a series of mental snapshots of the sky as I climbed in a thermal. With every circle I look downwind and take a quick "picture" of what all the clouds in my predicted flight direction look like. A long climb may allow for 30 or more good snapshots, and with minimal practice I have learned to memorize

which clouds are forming and which are decaying based on these snapshots. Over the course of a few climbs my snapshots also give me good clues about how long the clouds are lasting, information that tells me which ones may still be forming after I glide to them. If the cloud cycles are lasting 30 minutes then I can glide for 10 or 15 minutes and still arrive at a growing cloud with plenty of time to catch a ride. Generally, the more distance between clouds the longer they will last (a larger volume of air is feeding into a single cloud), and the higher cloudbase will be. If you go on glide toward a cloud that has been forming for 30 minutes and arrive low, the odds are slim that you will find lift no matter how beautiful the cloud over your ,,i head is. Many pilots make the mistake of climbing to base, then looking around and heading for whatever cloud looks "best," regardless of where it is in its life cycle. If you arrive at a cloud after its useful lift cycle it's worse than gliding into a pure blue hole, since there will be sink under it. In addition, the ground may be shaded, a double hit to your odds of staying in the air. But if you near the top of your climb and see whispies start to pop within gliding distance and head out on glide toward them, then the odds are much better that you will find useful lift. Okay, you're on glide toward a fine, forming cloud, but where will you connect with the lift? Again, observing the cloud cycles will tell you. If the wind is stronger aloft than on the ground, the clouds will be forming at their upwind edges and decaying at their downwind edges. This tells you that the thermal will be sloped at some angle from upwind of the cloud to it. If you have a GPS or learn to read your ground speed even while fairly high, you can figure out how strong the wind gradient is and therefore how much the thermal slopes. As a rule of wing, I visualize thermals in wind gradients of 10 mph or less as sloping at up to 20 degrees,

20 or less mph at 30 degrees, and so on. Also, realize that the gradient will often not be linear; there are many days when you will encounter some sort of strong gradient at a particular altitude. The thermals here will often become disorganized, but if you can fight through this barrier you may continue on to base. Remember this altitude and anticipate doing battle to get through it instead of getting discouraged and heading off. Some of the most frustrating X-C

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days come when the winds are slower aloft than they are on the ground. I have found this situation surprisingly often and could never understand how to find thermals, until I realized that the clouds were forming on their "downwind" edges and dissipating on their upwind edges! The more moisture-laden areas of the cloud will be on their downwind edges. In this situation you will actually connect with the thermal downwind of the cloud. The shape and texture of finished clouds also offer a wealth of information. Clouds that are taller than they are wide generally mean stronger thermals and may lead to overdevelopment later in the day (don't get me started on instability). Puffy, closely spaced clouds that cycle relatively quickly but never attain flat or "hard" bottoms generally don't have very good lift under them, however, the light lift will be easy to find; just fly downwind and you'll probably blunder into something. Because these clouds cycle so rapidly it's almost JANUARY

2001

impossible to time your arrival under one that's developing. However, they often form up in general areas, and these areas will offer better chances of staying in the air. On humid days the sky will be absolutely filled with evenly spaced clouds. Unfortunately, only a few of these clouds will be active while the vast majority are slowly and irritatingly decaying. On dryer days the few clouds that are in the sky will most likely be active, but make sure to get there while they are still in their active cycle. Finally, flat cloudbases indicate well-formed thermals feeding continuously. Rounded, puffy bases usually indicate less well-formed feeder thermals and weaker lift. On days with larger clouds, pay careful attention to what part of the base is highest. The best lift will almost always be feeding to the highest part of the cloud. As you climb to base, keep looking around, you may be able to get higher under a different portion of the cloud than you climbed to it under. This is especially common when flying the border between moist and relatively dry air masses. I have seen clouds that are stepped up to 4,000 feet on the Texas dry line.

In addition to understanding what kinds of clouds to fly under, most people want to know what kind of clouds to avoid. It's often difficult to tell what your particular cloud is doing as you climb because the cloud tends to block your side view of it, however, if you're taking mental snapshots with each circle then you should have a good idea of what's going on with the other clouds. Ir's possible that you are thermaling up under the one giant cu-nimb in the sky, but it's rare. If the sky is starting to overdevelop all around you then it's probably time to get out of the air regardless of what's happening over your head. Even large clouds can cycle regularly. Some days with cumulus clouds up to five or ten miles across are fine to fly on, but as soon as the clouds start growing much higher than they are wide I usually find myself either running for a much better portion of the sky or landing. After I land and my glider is secure I like to really watch what happens to the clouds I was worried about. Did they cycle harmlessly, or are they continuing to blow up? If they did overdevelop, how long did it take from the point I called my flight off to when the first gust front hit the ground? I have occasionally been frustrated that I landed early, but the few times I've pushed and stayed in the air too long were truly terrifying. The more I fly, the more conservative I become. If the clouds in the sky start "spiking" radically, and look like fists on a

day when the forecast is for thunderstorms, land immediately. Observing the sky intensely while flying isn't just about finding the next good climb; it is the basis for safe flying. This leads me to the broader part of this article: In general, clouds form in related patterns. These patterns may be due to any combination of literally thousands of factors (again, it's worth understanding the meteorology - buy the book), but these areas of instability are where you want co be flying to connect with the lift. I've blundered off into large blue areas only to hit the dirt enough to believe chis. It's almost always worth flying the clouds around the edge of a blue hole rather than jamming straight

through it, no matter how much more direct the blue line looks. Sailplane pilots have the luxury of making huge transitions across sky features up to a hundred miles apart, we generally don't. Most pilots dream of getting under cloud streets and flying straight until dark. While chis does happen occasionally, I've found it more useful co treat streets as linked but individual clouds. If the street is set up with flat, hard bottoms and is maintaining good color (dense but not decaying and not overdeveloping as you fly along it), then stuff the bar and fly as fast as your understanding of speed-tofly theory allows. But keep looking ahead and analyzing what is going on; sooner or later the clouds will end, and you need to be paying attention co what's happening in front of you as well as to either side. I've often found it's better to treat large gaps in streets as blue holes and jump sideways to another street if the gap in front of you is wider than the lateral jump by

a significant margin. Many "blue days" actually offer some very good sky-based clues. For starters, even if clouds don't form at the top of thermals, "haze domes" often will. These are areas where the light refracts differently through the air due to more moisture, dust or just a different air mass. I've seen haze domes most frequently when flying relatively stable blue days in Mexico and the desert southwest. Often the haze domes are marked simply by areas of the sky that are less blue. Haze domes are also often the precursors to proper clouds. In the morning you might just get haze domes at an inversion level, but they still mark lift and often are the first areas to pop through an inversion and become clouds. Blue days will often still form dust devils or swirling thermal cores. If you can see hay, fine dust or other debris in the air then that's a sign of a thermal core as well.

FLYING STRATEGIES The classic model of thermal formation suggests one rising cylinder of air feeding one cloud. In reality, I picture the thermals feeding into clouds as trees, with many small thermal "roots" feeding into larger ones until they reach the trunk and lead to the cloud. The higher you are above the ground, the farther apart the "trunks" are and the closer to the clouds you have to fly to truly intercept a large thermal. Anyone who has flown competitions will have seen gliders climbing relatively close together bur in different cores before joining and continuing to base. Gliders that are low can take advantage of the smaller "root thermals," not just the trunks. If you're in the "low" zone, meaning below half way below cloudbase, then you will most likely find relatively small cores. Sailplanes have a relatively hard time taking advantage of these lower-altitude thermals, but we can core up in very small circles, following the individual roots until they expand and join with other thermals. If you're below half the distance between the ground and the cloud then you can pretty much forget about intercepting a large core that connects to the cloud, however, most clouds are fed by multiple smaller cores that join together, so search-

PARAGLIDING

ing over good collectors and triggers upwind of clouds is a good strategy. (Remember to know the day's gradients for which way the thermals will slope. The thermals may be "downwind" of the clouds on days with an inverted gradient.) I usually try to connect the collectors and triggers to the clouds they are feeding. This is also useful for predicting where the cloud is in its life cycle. for example, clouds chat form over mountain ranges are generally flushed downwind. Once they are flushed past their thermal sources there may still be lift under the cloud as the thermal "bubble" continues to feed it, but you need to arrive relatively high to climb in chis bubble no matter how great the cloud looks. The higher che cloudbase, the longer your glide to the next climb will be (unless you have the good luck to be flying under a street of some kind). Reichmann predicts that the distance between clouds is approximately two and a half times their distance above the ground. If the base is 5,000 feet above the ground, then the distance between thermal "trunks" is likely to be 12,500 feet (the distance between the "roots" will likely be somewhat less). Even if your glider only goes at 5: 1 you should have a reasonably good chance of intercepting a thermal before intercepting the ground! Theoretically, it's very rare to glide all the way from base to the ground without hitting lift. In reality, I have done it often, particularly on blue days, but usually in retrospect I went gliding off into a large blue hole or down a sink and should have turned 90 degrees after sinking more than half the distance between base and the ground to find lift. In the flats I think lift generally forms in lines and so does sink. Even on blue days, the next logical place to look for a thermal is above a good collector/trigger downwind of your last climb. In the mountains the thermals and clouds generally form above ranges which may or may not be oriented with your planned flight or wind direction. If you are crossing anything except very narrow mountain valleys on very high-base days, you need to base your decisions less on JANUARY

2001

what the clouds are doing and more on the ground-based tactics covered in the previous article. lf you are crossing small gaps while flying along a range then it's often reasonable to use the clouds to plan your next climb, especially in the American West where base can exceed our FAA-imposed limit of 18,000 feet regularly. Most of our ranges in North America run roughly north-south, while the wind predominantly blows from west to east. One good trick for crossing the valleys between ranges rs to climb to base, then drift over the gap with a cloud. This is slow, but X-C flying is often more about staying in the air than speed. I've used this trick several times at King Mountain and other sites to beat gliders with far better glide ratios. The cloud will eventually start seriously decaying, so it's better to leave it before this point or you will have to deal with sinking air. Don't get too aggravated if you can't get to base. I generally only get there on days with well-organized climbs leading into flat-bottomed, dense clouds. On more humid days with poor lapse rates (oops, slipping into tech talk here), there may be plenty of clouds but no way in hell to get them. Do note how high you got in your climb before it disintegrated, and roughly how far below base you were. If your first climb of the day ended at 6,000 feet and base looked to be at about 8,000, then expect that the top of your next few climbs may be at a similar altitude unless the clouds start looking better or moving higher. Cloudbase usually moves higher throughout the day, and climbs generally improve until late after-

noon. If the clouds go to l 0,000 feet and start looking really solid, then you might expect to climb higher and closer to the clouds. The best way to truly understand the sky is to study it with near religious fervor. Read the books and understand the meteorology of any given day, then correlate what was predicted to what actually happened on your flight. If you can't get into the air due to earthly responsibilities you can still learn a tremendous amount about flying. This will help you immeasurably when it comes time to make decisions while under your glider. My next article will deal with flying your glider in thermals and putting everything in these last two articles together. Happy flights!

Will Gadd lives for X-Cflying. He has held many site, state, national and one world distance record during the last eight years. Ill

Enleau O'Connor and family. PARAGLIDING INTERVIEWS

by Chris Santacroce

Chris: You've only been flying fall time for

three years. It's /::ind ofodd that you are being interviewed for Paragliding magazine isn't it? Enleau: I guess. Maybe it's because I have been flying 300 days per year each year. Also, I have a fair amount of experience because I get to burn up lots of altitude. I'm always out towing with the boat in the summer and the truck in the winter. Mostly, I have been in contact with a lot of people. My wife and I have done the towing for more than 60 maneuvers courses and most of them had at least 10 people. Most of the pilots had never towed before, so we have worked with a lot of people pretty closely. Chris: How did you get started? Enleau: In the early days, 1991 actually, I made some flights at Hat Creek Rim and got scared flying in midday conditions. I got into deep stall and ended up landing on the side of the hill in a small clump of trees. I looked over and saw Ed Pitman landing on the side of the hill just the same. We decided that Hat Creek Rim ought not to be flown midday. Shortly thereafter I tried a friend's newer, high-performance glider. I was going to land and was doing a lame wing-over-type approach. I took a collapse, stalled the flying side and met the ground, straining my

PARAGLIDING

neck. All that was enough to make me put off paragliding for a few years, although I still made a couple of flights a year. I realized that I was one of the better pilots around, but that I didn't know anything. I didn't have any guidance and was sort of turned off.

Super Tow hydraulic pay-out winch. We have done a lot of towing in the last few years. Chris: You have learned to do all ofthe hot, new tricks. Is there anything that you wish someone had told you about the whole pursuit before you started?

Chris: So, what happened? Enleau: I went back to riding motorcycles. I was riding at a pretty high level and found myself taking some big risks. I went down on the street a few times and decided to call it quits. I did a little paragliding and found that the technology was a lot better and people had a better understanding of paraglider dynamics. I felt that I had some people I could learn from. I was inspired. I did some towing, and figured out that I didn't have to worry about soaring and thermaling, and that I could just work on and learn about paraglider maneuvers dynamics. All of a sudden, paragliding was something that I had to do, full time. Chris: Now you are one ofthe top three paraglider aerobatics pilots in the country? How did that happen? Enleau: I met up with you, David Enrod, Felix Rodriguez and Urs Imhoff - some good aerobatics pilots who were willing to share information. I got my wife to video me a lot and bought in on an Ed Pitman's JANUARY

2001

timber. Since I progressed too quickly in the early days and got scared, I now enjoy where I am in the sport without wanting to progress too quickly. I like being a beginner. I am always working on perfecting familiar maneuvers and doing new maneuvers safely, through a thoughtful learning progresSI On.

Enleau: Yes, I wish someone had told me that I didn't have to stay up, you know, soar, in order to have fun. I found out chat it's a lot more fun, for me, to just fly down, land and go hook on the towline, or drive back up to launch and do it again. I guess that it has to do with the fact that I have been lucky enough to have access to lots of good towing equipment. I am able to pursue paragliding the way people pursue skydiving. I go up when I want, come back down and do it again. Chris: What keeps you traveling around, doing the towing for most ofthe "over-thewater" safety training that goes on in the US., coaching maneuvers, andjust doing maneuvers whenever you can? Enleau: I like the learning environment, I like being around people who share their insights and tricks about how paragliders work, and I like teaching people, watching pilots progress to be able to fly their gliders better and better. I like to see people come to be more confident. Plus, it beats cutting

Chris: Which maneuvers are familiar, and what are the new ones? Enleau: Wing-overs, stalls, spins, asymmetric spirals, loops. I am always working on those, but the SAT and all the variations on the SAT are the most interesting for me right now. Chris: What's your overall philosophy or approach to new maneuvers? Enleau: I really believe that a person, above all else, needs to find the proper learning environment. I need to be high above the water, video camera rolling, and flying exactly the right glider and harness. More novice pilots might need to be in a grassy field where they can practice kiting. Intermediate pilots need to be over the water, with good, new equipment, simulator training, good briefings, a rescue boat and radio guidance. Chris: What do you recommend for flying

safely, improving and learning to do tricks? Enleau: Find a pilor ro men ro r yo u, one who mru<.es good decisions. Get in a good environ ment, with guidance. Hire guides, take lessons, travel, and get over the water. Most importan tly, check out yo ur m indset, and make sure yo urs is a good o ne. Flying is a mental exercise. Yo u have to look at situations objectively, exercise good judgment and manage yo ur fears. We see it when we get groups, and those who maintain all those aspects of tl1eir flying do well. T hose who neglect any o ne aspect of their flying come up sho rt. To tell the truth, we must have guidance when it com es to all of the variables involved in flying. We al l need help. Chris: What, specifically, can the average person do to improve and learn to do tricks? Enleau: Well, if yo u are always co ncerned with soaring, thermaling and stayi ng up, yo u won't always do the exercises that help yo u learn the most yo u can abo ut flying yo ur glider. Also, yo u have ro be hypercriti-

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Enleau offering some helpful pointers.

cal of your own decision-making processes, your own behavior, your own glider handling. You have to be doing exercises that keep you focused, that keep you from becoming complacent. It's easier to become complacent when you are endlessly scratching around. You have to go flying when it isn't soarable, knowing that the takeoff, the exercises you do in flight and the landing are all going to be worthwhile in terms of making you a better pilot. Chris: What kind ofexercises can the average pilot do on an average flight when he isn't soaring? Enleau: Practice good posture, weight shift, making smooth arcs and avoiding the unwanted, unnecessary pendulums. People need to make smooth takeoffs on the first inflation, along with smart approaches and good flare timing. Things like boating around and doing big ears don't really teach you much. Chris: What's your ratio offlights over water

versus flights over the ground? Towing versus mountain launch? Soaring versus just burning altitude with maneuvers? Enleau: About 70% over water, 30% over ground; 70% tow launches, 30% mountain launches; 70% burning altitude, 30% attempting to soar. I always burn some altitude doing exercises, even on flights when I am trying to soar at some point. Chris: Been cross-country? Enleau: Once, 30 miles. I just wanted to go out and do some tricks, but I got blown off

while and it does the best loops. I just have an easy time staying smooth when flying it and the maneuvers end up being really smooth. I don't like to do stalls and spins over the ground, but I sometimes do on my Bonanza. My wife has some small gliders - Booster, Bolero, Bandit - and I get to fly those when she lets me. I also like the Edel Sector. I learned to loop on one of those. We saw some gliders suffer structural failure during some over-the-water maneuvers. Now, I don't let anyone whom I like fly old gliders. The new ones are safer and more fun, and if people don't have one, I loan them one of mine. There's rarely a decent excuse for not flying the new technology. course. Chris: What are you looking forward to in Chris: You are pretty adamant about people

needing to fly new gliders, and you have about seven gliders yourself What's up with that? Enleau: It's so cool. Getting to fly different gliders and different sizes teaches me a lot. I know what things are glider specific and which are common to all gliders. By flying so many different gliders I learned to identify the little differences from one to another. Sometimes I fly four different gliders in one day. Every time I try a new one, I think it's my favorite one. I really appreciate glider design, the way that different gliders behave compared to others. I even talk to designers about what I can do to make my gliders handle better. I want a new one right now. Every time I get a new one, I become a better pilot. It keeps things fresh, new, exciting. Little things make big differences, like brake line length, harness adjustment, where you look, how you weight shift, little timing details, the speed at which you pull brake. I would never be in tune with those subtleties unless I had flown so many different gliders. I like my Ozone Proton for the SAT. My Gin Gliders Bandit does it nicely too, but the Boomerang is really dynamic in the SAT. I think that the Ozone Octane is really the best one for the SAT all around. My Firebird Booster is the best for stalling and spinning and is the first glider on which I did the SAT. When I spun the Booster trying to SAT, I knew that it would be okay. I have had a Bonanza for a

the future? Enleau: I look forward to seeing people flying their gliders better. I'd like to help to get more tow rigs out there and more people trained to operate them safely. I'd like to see people getting in a lot of flying during the winter months. I'd like to see people quit worrying about thermaling. I want a new glider. I want to go to Red Bull Vertigo in Switzerland, the Seattle AeroBattle and any other paragliding aerobatics competitions that pop up. I'll do anything I can to make that sort of thing happen. Still, ifI had one wish, it would be that people would enjoy simple flights, gliding down and landing for the awesome experience that it is. Chris: Any parting shots? Enleau: My favorite thing has been to watch my wife become the best female aerobatics pilot in the world. She has worked really, really hard and she does beautiful stalls, spins, wing-overs, loops and SAT's. She is smoother than any of us. I'd like to see her continue to improve and to see her recognized as being the best or among the top three in the world at least.

Enleau (29), Anne (26) and Cameron (7) O'Connor live in Northern California. Enleau is an Advanced Instructor and tandem pilot. When they are not doing over-thewater courses they are teaching people in their area to fly. They can be reached at gonetowing@hotmail.com or (530) 472-1427 • PARAGLIDING

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r------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------, USHGA CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ORDER FORM 50 cents per word, $5.00 minimum Boldface or caps: $1.00 per word. (Does not include first few words which are automatically caps.) Special layouts or tabs: $25 per column inch. (phone numbers: 2 words, P.O. Box: 1 word, E-mail or Web address: 3 words) photos: $25.00, line art logos: $15.00 (1.75" maximum) DEADLINE: 20th of the month, six weeks before the cover date of the issue in which you want your ad to appear (i.e., September 20 for the Nov. issue). Prepayment required unless account established. No cancellations or refunds allowed on any advertising after deadline. Ad insertions FAXed or made by telephone must be charged to a credit card. Please enter my classified ad as follows:

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2001

FLY ABOVE ALL - Experience year-round paragliding instruction in beautiful Santa Barbara, CA! Our friendly, experienced staff offers hands-on, personalized, radio-controlled lessons. Enjoy soaring the best training hill in the Western US and when you land, shuttles will whisk you back to the top for your next scenic flight. USHGA certified, solo, randem and powered paragliding instruction, equipment sales and tandem flights. Visit our Website at www.flyaboveall.com or call at (805) 965-3733. HIGH ADVENTURE - Paragliding, hang gliding school. lcquipment, sales, service at world famous Marshal Peale USHGA tandem instructor: Rob McKenzie. By appointrnent year round (909) 883-8488, www.flytandem.corn

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VIDEOS

PUBLICATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS

BALI HIGH, by Sea to Sky Productions. An exotic paragliding adventure on the island of Bali, 1ndonesia. Great flying footage. 38 min $29.95. WEATHER TO FLY, by Adventure Productions. A much needed instructional/educational video on micromcteorology. Dixon White, Master pilot and USHGA Examiner, takes you through a simple step-bystcp process shov,·ing where to acquire weather data and how to interpret it. For pilots of any aircraft. Learn about regional & local influences and how rn determine winds aloft and stability. "Weather To Fly" is an over-all view packed with useful details and incl,1des great cloud footage. A straight-forward presentation chat is easy rn follow. 50 min. $39.95. TURNING POINT IN ALPINE THERMALLING, by Dennis Trott/Alpine Flying Centre. 50'X, HG, 50% PC. Discover techniques to tame the elusive alpine thermal. Beautiful footage set

PARAGLIDING: THE COMPLETE GUIDE - By Noel Whittall. The most complete guide to paragliding on the market. Over 100 color photographs & illustrations, 200 pages, $26.95 +$4.75 s/h. USHGA, PO Box 1330, Colorado Springs CO 80901. (719) 632-8.300, fax your MC/Visa to (719) 632-6417. Om most popular book!

UVEX helmets arc the best and are now on sale for only $215, you save up to $110! Check http://www.fun2fly.com/news.htm or call 206-3209010 for more info. BUSINESS & EMPLOYMENT ACCEPTING DEALER lNQUIRlES - Popular helmet and PG reserve.(303) 347-8995, leave message. DISTRIBUTOR US MARKET Leading paragliding manufacturer is accepting inquires. (303) 347-8995 leave message.

Your ad is read by more than 5,000 paragliding enthusiasts. Advertise with us today. 46

PARAGLIDING: From Beginner to XC - By Sollom/Cook. A great addition to your paragliding library. Wonderful XC tips. See Steve Rori's review in the March/ April 2000 Paragliding. Over 120 pages with superior illustrations & color photographs, $29. 95 +$4.75 s/h. USHGA, PO Box 1330, Colorado Springs CO 80901. (719) 632-8300, fax your MC/Visa to (719) 632-6417. SOARINC - Monthly magazine of The -Soaring Society of America, Inc. Covers all aspects of soaring flight. hill membership $55. Info. kit with sample copy $3. SSA, P.O. Box 2100, Hobbs, NM 88241. (505) 392-1177.

against Europe's 1nosr dra1natic mountains. Also features comments from top pilots & great animation. 24 min

$35.95. STARTING PARAGLIDING by Adventure Productions. Covers basic preparations, weather, proper attitude, ground handling & those first exciting launches. 30 min $29.95. FLY HARD: Viking hims newest release. Rob Whittall, Chris Santacroce & a vintage Buick convertible full of paragliders. Outrageous flying at several west coast flying sites. Meet HG aerobatics champion Mitch McAleer along the way. Excellent rock soundtrack, professionally filmed & edited, 35 minmes $35.95. PARAGLIDE: THE MOVIE by Viking Films. Rock-nroll world class competition at Owens Valley. Professionally filmed & edited, 35 minutes $35.95. Call or fax USHGA (719) 632-8300, fax (719) 6326417, please add +$4 domestic s/h (+$5 for two or more videos). Great to impress your friends or for those socked-in days. MISCELLANEOUS VIDEOS, BOOKS & APPAREL - Call USHGA for your Merchandise order form (719) 632-8300, fax (71 9) 632-6417, email: ushga@ushga.org,www.ushga.org DON'T LEAVE YOUR GROUND-BOUND EQUIPMENT SITTING IN THE GARAGE. SELL IT IN THE CLASSIFIEDS.

Renew your membership online! PARAGLIDING

ness, med. High Energy Quantum reserve, Charley CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING RATES The rate for

"Insider" helmet XL white, Flytec 4010 vario, Alinco

classified advertising is $.50 per word (or group of char-

DJ-191 2-Meter radio. Contact Kevin lee (541) 955-

acters) and $1.00 per word for bold or all caps. Phone

1737, thermaltracker@bigfooc.com

number=2 words, PO Box=2 words, weight range i.e. 137-1851bs=2 words, web site or email address=3 words.

"AMERICAN FLAG" PARAGLIDER -

MINIMUM AD CHARGE $5.00. A fee of $15.00 is

X, identical to the one Scott Alan is flying in the inside

Lost by Fed-

charged for each line art logo and $25.00 for each

back cover Paraborne display ad. (407) 935-9912,

photo. LINEART & PHOTO SIZE NO LARGER

scott@paraborne.com

THAN 1.75" X 2.25". Please underline words to be in bold print. Special layouts of tabs arc $25.00 per column inch. AD DEADLINES: December 20th is the dead-

FLIGHT DESIGN S2VT - Two paragliders lost by the US postal service, shipped from CALIFORNIA to

line for the February issue. Please make checks payable

HA WAIi parcel post on August 19th, 1999. One large

to USHGA.

w/purple top, one medium w/orange top. Lois Hulmes

Send to: PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE,

Classified Advertising, P.O. Box 1330, Colorado

(530) 542-4937.

Springs, CO 80901-1330 (719) 632-8300 or fax (719) 632-6417, email jjelgarr@ushga.org with your Visa or

STOLEN WINGS are listed as a service to USHGA

MasterCard.

members. There is no charge for this service and lost and found wings or equipment may be called in (719) 632-

STOLEN WINGS & THINGS

8300, faxed in (719) 632-641 7, or emailed ushga@ushga.org for inclusion in Paragliding & Hang

GIN BOLERO -

XL Stolen in the MEDFORD-

WHITE CITY, OR area in August, 2000. Fuchsia color, has damage in center/leading edge, and/or parch,

Gliding magazine. Please call to cancel the listing when gliders are recovered. Periodically, this listing will be

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS Adventure Productions ............................. 6 Aerolight USA. ......................................... 6 Apco ............................................ 5, 71 1, 13 Critter Mountain Wear .......................... 16 Flight Design ........................................ .41 Flycec ....................................................... 9 Hall Brothers ........................................... 6 Mojo's Gear ........................................... 25 Sport Aviation Publications ................... .41 Sun Valley Paragliders ............................ 41 Super Fly, Inc ........................ 2,Back Cover Thermal Tracker .................................... 19 Thin Red Line ....................................... 21 Torrey Pines Gliderport ......................... 25 USHGA .................................. 12, 19,40,47 Vision Quest .......................................... 25 Wills Wing ............................................. 17

purged.

generally in poor shape. Also: XL Pro-Design "Jam" har-

Lo0k No Further

STARTING PARAGLIDING Covers basic preparations for your first flights. 30min. $29.95

PARAGLIDING-THE COMPLETE GUIDE

TURNING POINT (in Alpine Thermalling)

by Noel Whittal. The most complete & comprehensive guide on the market today. Over 100 color photographs. 200 pgs $26.95

50%PG, 50%HG. Learn to tame the elusive thermal. Filmed in Europe. 24min. $35.95

PARAGLIDING-A PILOT1S TRAINING MANUAL

Paraglide the western states. Great maneuvers, great sound.35min. $35.95

by Mike Meier;Wills Wing $19.95 Covers all aspects of paragliding. Equipment, beginner skills, flying techniques & more.

PARAGLIDING-FROM BEGINNER TO XC by Sollom/Cook. A great addition to your paragliding library. Wonderful XC tips. Over 120 pages with superior illustrations & color photography. $29.95

UNDERSTANDING THE SKY by Dennis Pagen. The most complete book on micrometerology for all sport aviators. Plenty of photos & illustrations. $19. 95

FLY HARD CLOUDBASE PARAGLIDING Great intro video. Meet the hot pilots & fly the hot sites. 36min. $34.95

PARAGLIDE: THE MOVIE World class competition at Owens Valley. Rock-n-roll & plenty of action.40min. $35.95

) MASTERS AT CLOUDBASE A paragliding music video. $19.95

USHGA, PO Box 1330, Colorado Springs CO 80901-1330 l -800-616-6888 Visa/MC fax (719) 632-6417 www.ushga.org Please add s/h [USA] $4.50 for videos, $5.50 for books. Orders over $50 call!

JANUARY

2001