Not a good time to be in the sky! 🌩 Learning more about thunderstorms and how they form can help us avoid getting caught out in one! In the latest issue Vincenzo Levizzani, professor of cloud physics at the University of Bologna, explains what's going on inside storms in an extract from The Book of Clouds.
🗞 XC265
🔗 /thunderstorms
"Rowan and I stand on a slope just large enough to lay out a wing and launch, but certainly not large enough to mess up. Rowan has me on a makeshift belay while I gather my footing and ready to pull up my wing into the wind. A belay in the sense that there is a rope attached to me. Makeshift in the sense that we just made this system up. No one I know of or have heard of has launched a paraglider on belay before".
Knowing when to push and when to back off is one of the most important lessons you can learn. Christian Black and Rowan Lovell headed to Peru last summer to climb-and-fly some of the most beautiful peaks in the Cordillera Blanca.
🪂@niviukparagliders Ikuma 3 P 24m2, Kode P 16m2, @novaparagliders Bantam 12m2
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🔗/fightorflight
“As the prayers started to chant to the wind, we knew it was time for us to get airborne. We played around for a while, looking down at the contrasting mosaic of the valley floor, where the squared fields and rural life moved in slow motion.
At the distance, we could hear voices coming from different corners. As usual, in these remote places our paragliders are something new to the local eyes and cause excitement every corner we glide to.
After our local exploration, at the landing, we got an extremely warm reception from the farmers that were harvesting potatoes, happy from the aerial interruption and chewing their traditional “Doma”, a warming, betel-leaf stimulant that generates body heat and a mild “buzz” against the Himalayan cold.
In my interaction with these welcoming and beautiful people, what struck me most was their vitality and contentment, qualities that in the West are often undermined and replaced by material pursuits. They simply stopped what they were doing to enjoy our unexpected visit.”
A fragment of “Land of Thunder Dragon” Read the full story in the latest issue of @xcmag 265: /bhutan
#adventure #paragliding #bhutan
The @airdesign_gliders BoxR is an open paragliding harness suitable for beginners and travelling pilots. We tested it in the south of France – Watch the full video at /BoxRFirstLook
The definition of reflex is, “A quick and automatic response to a stimulus”. For paragliders, it is used to automatically stabilise the tendency to pitch the nose down. Most paragliders these days have some reflex, and without it there would be no paramotor wings, no parakites, and no two-liners.
Reflex is perfectly demonstrated in the video here – but what exactly are the advantages of it for our paragliders, and what are the trade-offs?
In the latest issue, Bastienne Wentzel dives into the history and progression of the technology in our flying machines.
🔗/reflex
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🎬Demonstrating reflex with the Dune Rider Hopper, filmed by @bastiennewentzel
📷 Flare Bandit photo montage; Dudek Warp 3; the science!
PWC Governador Valadares, Brazil 19.-26.4.26
A brilliant event with 7 tasks over 7 days. It was great fun! Thanks to the whole organising team!
Music “Vario Song” @menjamist
Created in 2005 for the Worlds.
#paraglidingcompetition #officialparaglidingworldcup
In February, a team of seven pilots including Boulder-based Kris Holub, succeeded in flying a 345km convergence line in the Estepa, the low-lying steppes of Argentina near Bariloche. While it’s not a national record, it’s a new line and could be a Patagonian record, Kris said.
Read about the flight at /dryline 🔗 XC265
Sound on! Just the sounds of nature, my footsteps and the vario on a hike-and-fly adventure in the southeast of France.
#hikeandfly #neverstopexploring #djiosmo360 #paragliding
