Author: winguu

Tobi Böck, Jochen Schweizer and Felix Wölk cycled through Italy to fly Europe’s most active volcanos. Felix tells the story:

The idea: An ecofriendly paragliding adventure, no airplanes, no cablecars, no cars taking us anywhere. Just our legs and thermals, sometimes a boat to cross the sea. Our luggage: Tents, sleeping bags, a heavy bag of camera equipment and 3 Ultralights with OZO and F*Lite harnesses. We started with road bikes from our home base in Bavaria, Germany, to escape from Germany’s upcoming winter direction south.

Our goal: Cycling through whole Italy to climb Europe’s most active volcanos and fly them (Mt. Vesuvio, Mt. Stromboli, Mt. Etna) Start: 12th of November. Vesuvio near Napoli was a kind of warm up, although we had to spend the night at the crater to fly it. A strong northern breeze took us above the thundering crater of Mt. Stromboli, which is nonstop active. A devilish view from above.. We reached Sicily at the beginning of December, a time Mt. Etna (3352m) showed intense activity for more than 2 weeks. Climbing it was forbidden, we did it anyway, and took off from the edge of its main crater. The 30 minute glide was a fantastic …read more

Source:: Ozone Paragliders

Fly Products have created the new ASC (Active Sport Comfort) low-hangpoint paramotor system. They say it’s easy to attach and detach your harness from the frame using this system, without the need for time-consuming bolts. In addition, Fly Products say pilots will notice a greatly reduced propeller torque effect with the ASC system, which makes your flying a […] …read more

Source:: Cross Country – International Free Flying Magazine

Take our short fun quiz. It’ll help us build some interesting infographics for the magazine’s news pages, and we’re sending out some free Hoodies to say thanks too. If you’ve got a spare two minutes just give it a go! Take the quiz …read more

Source:: Cross Country – International Free Flying Magazine

As the winners, from 10th to 1st place, were called one by one to the loud applause of the Mexican spectators and fellow pilots to the flooding lights of the podium, I was saluting them all at slightly different volumes, each determined by my respectometer, but saving my loudest to that one and only first place, to the Champion we have this year. Not just because he was first – I don’t care much about that (the respectometer determines your ranking better than the World Cup formula) – but because of the sheer style in which he won. Stefan Wyss didn’t just win this comp; he showed a class of his own, over and above all the rest of us “best pilots in the world”, winning four out of eight tasks and doing very, very well in the other four. Here it is in numbers. His last four tasks were all over 980 points! He had actually already won the comp before the last task, but he took the last one too anyway, just to say “goodbye”. Yeah. Epic win. And where respect is due, respect should be given, so there you have it. Congratulations to our champion of …read more

Source:: Ozone Paragliders

Horacio Llorens headed to the far north for his latest project – flying with the Northern Lights above Tromso, Arctic Norway. To capture these images, Llorens was on standby for hours in -15°C, ready for take off in very cold, windy and damp conditions. And because he flew above the water, he also wore a […] …read more

Source:: Cross Country – International Free Flying Magazine

New Niviuk Down Jacket …read more

Source:: Niviuk

We’d like to send a huge congrats to Stephan and Seiko for winning the Superfinal in Mexico, and also to all of the many Ozone pilots who competed and filled the top of the rankings. Despite the poor weather at the start of the competition that forced cancellation at the first two days of The Superfinal, Valle de Bravo delivered eight excellent tasks in strong thermic conditions.

Stephan Wyss dominated the leaderboard with an excellent display of flying, winning four of the tasks to take the title ahead of Julien Wirtz (2nd) and Luca Donini (3rd) and the rest of the world’s best pilots. Ozone featured strongly on the leaderboard with the first 5 places and the vast majority of the top 20 all flying Enzo 2’s.

Seiko took the female title ahead of Laurie Genoves (2nd) and Emmanuelle Zuffery (3rd) beating (as usual) most of the men on the way, making for an outstanding 2015 season for Seiko who won the women’s class in the Paragliding World Championships in Colombia and set the new women’s paragliding world record in Australia in December.

We are also very proud of our R&D team, Honorin Hamard, Luc Armant, and Russell Ogden along with Seiko, …read more

Source:: Ozone Paragliders

Jean Baptiste Chandelier flies in for coffee in his home resort of Serre Chevalier, France …read more

Source:: Cross Country – International Free Flying Magazine

CIVL has released a statement about ‘desanctioned’ competitions. It reads in full: Dear Delegates and Friends, 2015 and 2016 have seen a number of Category 2 competitions appearing on the FAI calendar and then disappearing, sometimes just before the competition takes part, because they are ‘de-sanctioned’ on the request of the organizing NAC or by […] …read more

Source:: Cross Country – International Free Flying Magazine

Emanuelle Zufferey grabbed third place in the PWC 2015 Super Final …read more

Source:: Niviuk