No. 369 JANUARY 2020 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association2 SKYWINGS JANUARY 2020 THE BHPA LTD 8 Merus Court, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1RJ. Tel: 0116 289 4316. Skywings magazine is published monthly by the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association Ltd to inform, educate and entertain those in the sports of Paragliding and Hang Gliding. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, their Council, Officers or Editor. The Editor and publisher accept no responsibility for any supposed defects in the goods, services and practices represented or advertised in this magazine. The Editor reserves the right to edit contributions. ISSN 0951-5712 SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DELIVERY ENQUIRIES Tel: 0116 289 4316, THE EDITOR Joe Schofield, 39 London Road, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 9BH. Tel: 01379 855021. COVER PHOTO Lyndsay Nicole and Ozone Buzz Z6 at Golden, BC, Canada. Full review on page 32. Photo: Benjamin Jordan THIS PAGE Modern vintage: Andy Keyte flies Dunstable aboard a 30-year-old Rumour 1, a very hot ship in its time Photo: Tony Margiocchi DESIGN & PRODUCTION Fargher Design Ltd. Killane House, Ballaugh, Isle of Man, IM7 5BD. PRINT & DISTRIBUTION Newman Thomson Ltd, One Jubilee Rd, Victoria Ind. Est, Burgess Hill, RH15 9TL. ADVERTISING Tel: 07624 413737 SKYWINGS ONLINE Go For the January issue enter the username Jan_2020 and the case-sensitive password D6g[Z4a$ For the February issue enter the username Feb_2020 and the case-sensitive password j3UmY*x8 DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the March 2020 issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Friday January 31st. Letters for the February Airmail pages should arrive no later than Friday January 17th. Advertisement bookings for the February edition must arrive by Friday January 10th. Copy and classified bookings no later than Friday January 17th. regulars reviews features regulars 4 SKYWINGS JANUARY 2020 After six years as Chairman it became clear to me, in late 1999, that it was time to stand down. My legal career was just getting started and I needed to focus on my own future. I was succeeded by Harriet Pottinger. Initially I returned, as it were, to the back benches, resuming my role as Insurance Officer. When, in about 2000, it became clear that my knowledge of the BHPA, of hang gliding and paragliding, and my newly-formed legal skills would make me a desirable asset for injured parties seeking to claim against the BHPA policy, I stood down from Exec altogether to avoid any conflict of interests. However within months I was recruited by a leading Defendant firm of solicitors and any prospects of my working on behalf of claimants went out of the window. Soon after, I was re-elected to Exec and have served continuously ever since. In 2012 Harriet’s successor, Martin Heywood, announced that he needed a break. He had served as Chairman, following Harriet’s resignation, for eight years continuously and was at that point the longest-serving Chairman. Having watched him cast around for alternatives without success I volunteered, on the basis that I would serve just one year to allow a successor to be found. Seven years later I am still serving as Chairman. The problem with finding a Chairman is twofold. Firstly, the BHPA Chairman needs to have a good understanding of the work of BHPA Limited. We are an extremely complex business with many interlinking threads. We used to have a joke – in the time of our esteemed former Treasurer, Dick Long – that the BHPA was like a huge ocean-going cargo ship. One tiny error on the helm and you would find yourself on a beach somewhere. The Chairman needs a good sense of navigation, particularly when the seas become choppy, and that comes from having a deep understanding of the complexity of the business model and its regulatory environment. Secondly, the Chairman needs to have good contacts with the members. Such a person will be an experienced and active pilot and also either a member of the BHPA Exec who has spent some time learning the ropes, or an experienced business leader, willing to rely on trusted colleagues to guide them, but also able to explain to newer and less experienced members of Exec why their particular brilliant idea is nonsense. Exec elects the Chairman from amongst its own number, and it will only elect someone who it trusts to lead the team successfully. The result of these many requirements is that, speaking generally, a BHPA Chairman needs to have served on Exec for a few years before being in a position to take on the role of Chairman. It’s almost impossible to join Exec and take over as Chairman immediately. And so, we come to the crux of the matter: it’s time for a new BHPA Chairman. In checking the precise dates for this item, I came across an Attitude column from December 1999 Skywings in which I revealed that I was feeling burned out after six years. Amongst the many projects that I have been working on, the development of the European Hang Gliding and Paragliding Union (EHPU), from largely a talking shop to something which delivers benefits for all of us, has been one of my favourites. The EHPU Presidency rotates through the member states in alphabetical order (in English), and in February 2021 the UK will take over the Presidency. At the end of our year, in February 2022, we will host the EHPU AGM and annual dinner. I am beginning to feel a little burned out. It is my plan, assuming I continue to be re-elected between now and then, to stand down as Chairman at the AGM in March 2022. In order to find that talented, experienced and willing volunteer, we need some new blood on Exec. Many of us have been around for ever! Eight out of the 12 current members of Exec have served at least six years, seven have served at least 12 years. Although I am writing this in November 2019, you will not read it until the closing date for nominations for this year’s AGM has passed. So there is plenty of time to think about it. Could you serve the Association as a member of Exec? Could you possibly become Chairman? We welcome observers at our three ‘in person’ meetings each year, held in the Leicester Office. If you are interested, give me a call, drop me a line, or even use social media! New blood MARC ASQUITH, BHPA CHAIRMAN Photo: Katy Cole I have been Chairman of of the BHPA for two periods. On the first occasion I was the second Chairman of our Association, replacing Tom Hardie who had led us through the trauma and excitement of amalgamation in 1992. I served a six-year term from October 1993 to December 1999. By the time I was elected as Chairman I had served for two years on the Council of the British Hang Gliding Association and another two years on the Executive Council of the BHPA. I had been Public Relations Officer, Safety Officer and finally Insurance Officer. I was elected as Vice Chairman in the year before I was elected as Chairman, and during that time I shadowed Tom. The aerodynamic Charly NO Limits is available as an open - or a full- face helmet. The pressure-formed aerodynamic Kevlar- reinforced fibreglass shells are renowned for their quietness, and come in four colours and four sizes, starting at £225. A clear visor comes as standard with optional Tinted visors available. The Charly Insider is probably the top-selling free flight helmet of all time. The Kevlar-reinforced fibreglass shell is fully-lined, and I stock eleven colours and six sizes from XS to XXL! Prices start at £158, and weight is only 660gm! The stylish Charly Loop costs £120, weighs around 505gm and comes with a helmet bag included. There are three sizes and six colours: Gloss White, Matt Blue, Matt Black, Matt Red, Matt Orange and Nova Silver – see them all on The Charly Ace has a polycarbonate shell and comes in four sizes, with a choice of Gloss White, Matt Red, Matt Black or Carbon-look. Weight is around 560gm, and prices start at £84. The Charly Breeze has a swoopy polycarbonate shell, comes in four sizes in either White or Matt Black - with contrasting removable ear covers to suit different seasons. There is also a version in two adjustable sizes for commercial operators schools and tandem. It weighs about 480gm, and costs £87. I stock all the Charly helmets optional accessories, too! The Ace, Breeze and Loop will all accept the optional visor, available in Grey, Yellow, Orange and Mirror finishes. Prices start at £28 per visor, with the fixing screw set costing another tel: 01404 891685 Turfhouse, Luppitt, Honiton, Devon, EX14 4SA email: Why buy your reserve parachute from me? I’ve been selling reserves for over 40 years, and have had a successful real-life deployment, too. I am UK distributor for reserves from Charly, Skyman and Independence. My brands have sold tens of thousands, and have hundreds of successful deployments to their credit. Not everyone can afford new reserves, so I also try to keep a representative stock of second hand ones, too. My deployment came while paragliding in Switzerland, and proves the wisdom of always flying with a reserve installed in your harness! If you aren’t already convinced, read the full account on my website or, if you have a free half hour, just ask me about it! Independence Cornetto, from £585 The new Independence Cornetto is available for both paragliders and hang gliders, and brings us a square reserve at the price of a round! It’s light, too, starting at around 1.5kg. All our reserves can be supplied with Rotor swivels at extra cost. Independence Annular Evo, from £580 Charly Second Chance from £460 Charly Clou2 from £620 Charly Diamond Cross, from £699 Skyman Ultra Cross, from 1kg and £825 Forty years in the business - my extensive range allows you to choose what best suits your needs. Find lots more on the website: www.turfhouse.com Zoot headsets: Four models for open- and full-face helmets and various radios. Prices from £34.45. Zoot Radio outfits: A great radio and a choice of Zoot headsets for just £77! I stock various speaker/mics and antenna, too! Instruments from lots of manufacturers, priced from £79.95. Charly Quickout Karabiners for tandem pilots. Weighs 200 gm with a breaking load of 4000kg. £60each The Austrialpin Delta Steel karabiner for hang gliding, weighs 215gm and is rated to 32Kn. £24 each Charly Pinlock alloy Karabiners: Weighs 80gm, certified to 25 Kn. £27.50 each. The new Charly Snaplock alloy Karabiner, weighs 75gm and certified to 30Kn. £23 each. Tow releases from £48. Hang glider wheels from £51.10 a pair. Zoot Camera Mounts £29.50. Zoot Pip-pins, three lengths from £10.75, and Zoot Caps at £2.75. SMFC Speedarms, assorted colours and sizes at £29.50 Simon is on a motor bike in New Zealand, back February 16th6 SKYWINGS JANUARY 2020 news mi-SOS? A newly-launched service may offer the possibility of more effective care for injured pilots. mi-SOS, which logs a pilot’s individual medical details on a database that can be accessed by emergency services, could speed up A&E procedures and save lives. Approved by the NHS and paramedics, the system has a GDPR licence to allow secure data storage. For a £10 annual fee a pilot would be issued with a helmet sticker, wristband, etc, to identify them in case of an accident. Members can update their medical profile online and emergency responders are able to access key medical details for more effective treatment on the scene and at the hospital. CSC club coach Graeme Stephenson is enthusiastic for the new service and hopes to help roll out a trial with a BHPA club or clubs. Details are at contact Graeme at No more Parafest! Having run five versions of Parafest since 2015, Mark Meadows will not be running an event in 2020. ‘That’s the lot,’ he says. This time it’s for real – I want my life back!’ Parafest has grown from just 500-odd pilots at Llangollen in 2015 to a substantial gathering at Caerwys last year. The weather has generally been kind, although storms wreaked havoc at Llanbedr in 2018. In that time the event has seen repacks, accuracy coaching, exams for power pilots, the BVHGR, many traders attending and much flying, plus lots of activity for children. In addition Mark has secured non-stop top end music at each of the events, and pilots have almost unanimously reported a good time. Before Parafest the UK trade and schools had no event to promote themselves, their products and the sports to a targeted audience, and pilots never had an event combining a fly-in gathering with a family-friendly festival; its absence will leave a big gap in the summer flying calendar. Mark will also step down from the BHPA Exec in March. BHPA AGM As reported earlier, the BHPA’s 2020 Annual General Meeting runs at a new location – the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall, Shropshire – on the afternoon of Saturday March 7th, straight after the BHPA Trainers Conference (Friday March 6th and the Saturday morning). The current Exec will report on their work and To encourage XC flying within the Rutland Airsports club Hugh Burnaby-Atkins put up an annual challenge trophy, won so far by Phil Bibby in 2017 and Tom Garner of the RAF in 2018. Hugh also put up a bottle of bubbly as a prize for the first ‘tour du lac’ of nearby Rutland Water. Having, perhaps embarrassingly, achieved the feat himself back on May 12th, Hugh was relieved to discover that fellow clubman Richard Barber had also circumnavigated the reservoir, in the other direction, to land about an hour later. ‘I didn’t take off until 2:30pm as I was on launch marshal duty,’ writes Hugh. ‘It took about two hours to get round and it was still booming when I came back – the potential for much bigger triangles or open distance is huge.’ Both pilots were able to record their flights as 28km FAI triangles (see Hugh’s tracklog above). At the end of the season Hugh was presented with his own trophy for what is believed to be the first-ever circuit of Rutland Water by paraglider. Led by Hugh’s example, Rutland Airsports’ winch operation at North Luffenham, in the heart of the east midlands flatlands, is becoming an emerging force in XC flying. It’s a new club and the local airspace airspace is mostly unexplored! The photo shows the view south-east across Rutland Water with North Luffenham central on the far side. Tour du lac (UK)! Chrigel Maurer in the UK With support from Advance, XC Magazine have managed to entice Swiss legend Chrigel Maurer (left) to the UK in January to share his multimedia show with southern pilots. His two-hour presentation on the Red Bull X-Alps – which he has won six times – will take place on Thursday January 23rd at the Fire Station in Bristol, and on Friday 24th at King’s Church in Lewes. Tickets cost £20 and are available through XC Mag’s online shop each venue is about 200; it should be a good night at both venues. Book early to be sure of a place.Post CP - Guided XC - Pilotage Join our BHPA Post CP Developmental Mentor course Work through pilot tasks, top landings, vital thermal skills clinics Suits rusty and low airtime pilots Fully GPS tracked XC guided holidays You concentrate on flying, we’ll take care of everything else Get some control Join our Pilotage Control course and SIV in May in Turkeynews 8 SKYWINGS JANUARY 2020 members will be able to cross-examine them on their achievements. Exec will be losing Richard Shaw and Mark Meadows who are both standing down. Exec thanks them for their useful service, and in Mark’s case his sterling work with five successive Parafest events. Exec members Marc Asquith, Martin Baxter and Paul Dancey are also standing down in accordance with Exec’s rotation policy and intend to stand again for election. Sub-70kg flexwing pilot Julie Drake, and Tom Prideaux-Brune and Simon Walker of Parajet are also standing. Members will be able to vote in person, by proxy and remotely. This last can be done by posting your voting form or scanning it and sending it to the BHPA Office (full details next month). The meeting will commence at 14:30 with the election of officers to the BHPA Exec, followed by Officers’ reports and a members’ open discussion forum. It will again be streamed live to the internet. Tandem helmet sticker The BHPA has produced a new helmet mem- bership sticker just for tandem pilots. The idea is to make qualified tandem pilots visible and verifiable on the hill for the benefit of clubs. All Dual-rated pilots will be issued with this stick- er on their next membership renewal. Overseas-resident members, including tan- dem pilots, will of course be aware that that they are not insured by the BHPA when flying outside the UK. The issuing of a sticker does not change that position. BHPA 500 Club WIN CASH PRIZES AND HELP THE ASSOCIATION! November winners Brent Pullen £131.80 John Vernon £65.90 Nicholas Rogoff £32.95 John Gibb £19.77 Ann Matterson £16.48 Robert Sutherland £16.48 Gary Williamson £13.18 Andrew Hill £13.18 Nicholas Simmons £9.89 Richard Holland £9.89 BHPA £329.48 If by the time you read this you have not received your cheque, please contact me on 07802 525099. Marc Asquith Heavyweight Falcon Dan Burton has been testing a prototype 34m Gin Falcon reflex paramotor wing. 30% larger than the largest (26m) production Falcon, the wing is aimed at the trike arena. Dan really likes it and says it’s extremely easy to launch and land. He has been flying it attached to his Fresh Breeze Bullix, powered by the 250cc water-cooled Swiss Auto four- stroke motor. Dan says, ‘With the big wing I have been able to drop my cruising revs by 600 rpm while cruising at 32mph, bringing economy well under 4l/h. Not bad for a heavyweight trike! The photo shows Dan over the over the edge of Dartmoor. In brief Domina Jalbert honoured. At the FAI’s annual awards ceremony in December, US paragliding pioneer Domina Jalbert was posthumously awarded the FAI Gold Air Medal for his contribution to the development of aeronautics. Jalbert, who died in 1991, invented the multi-cell ram-air Parafoil wing and patented it in 1963. His innovation was to eventually benefit hundreds of thousands of paraglider pilots across the world. The ceremony, at Lausanne’s Olympic Museum, was part of the FAI’s annual General Conference. At the same event Russian hangie Sasha Serebrennikova was awarded the Sabiha Gökcen Medal for her recent achievements, notably her 408 and 412km distance records set at Forbes in 2018. Electric doodlebug flies. An electric-powered hang gliding harness modelled on Ben Ashman’s Doodlebug made its first flight in October, somewhere in Germany. The motor is by Geiger Engineering, who specialise in electric power for lightweight aircraft. The battery, electric motor and controller are said to weigh 30kg in all. Details are scant but there’s an interesting video at Graham Craigie. On October 8th 2019, at around 16:00 local time, BHPA Pilot rated paraglider pilot Graham Craigie (52) died while flying at Annecy, France. Local police confirmed that he cut short his flight soon after launching, landed just below the take- off area and suffered a heart attack shortly after touching down. Under the circumstances the BHPA will not be undertaking a Formal Investigation. Skywings online. The online version of this issue of the magazine can be found at username Jan_2020 and the case-sensitive password D6g[Z4a$. For the February issue enter the username Feb_2020 and the case- sensitive password j3UmY*x8. These details can also be found on the contents page of each issue. Magazines with a cover date over six months old can be viewed online or downloaded without the need to log in.Next >