< Previous10 SKYWINGS JUNE 2020 safety matters Unlockdown warning! The cautionary words below have been proven prescient by the events of the third weekend in May. Pent-up frustration at the lack of flying led to a stampede for the hills, and a number of serious accidents and near misses ensued. Please read the following lines carefully and adapt your new flying plans accordingly ... Should you find yourself on the hill or the tow field, and not in conflict with government advice, please recognise that you will not be current. Fortunately the rough air and powerful thermals of spring will mostly have passed us by; nevertheless you will be about to commit aviation after a long layoff. It’s possible that some pilots won’t have flown all winter. This will be an unprecedented situation. Even those who were lucky enough to get an overseas trip in before the shut-down won’t have flown for a couple of months. So pick a calm day when the conditions – gusting winds, off-the-hill winds, difficult terrain, heavy traffic, etc, etc – won’t be adding further layers of difficulty. And take it slowly. Assemble your glider and gear carefully; concentrate on the task in hand rather than nattering to folk you haven’t seen for a while; brief yourself initially for a short and simple flight; don’t skip the Will Gordie Have His Cat Aboard Today mnemonic. You will have had plenty of time to overhaul and update your gear. If you will be flying with something – anything! – new, remember that you will be unfamiliar with it. Check your instruments and radio and that you can remember how to operate them. And if you have any plans to fly away from the site, make sure your air chart is up to date and/or your nav instrument has the most recent air chart loaded. When lacking in recent flying practice, all pilots need to be extra careful in assessing the conditions and give themselves wider safety margins than usual. Acknowledge that you will be rusty and take things slowly. Resist the urge to fly if conditions aren’t suitable, and land if you’re uncomfortable. You’ll only regain currency by flying, but pick another day if conditions aren’t ideal. Finally, bear in mind the increased risk of mid-air collision from the mix of hang gliders and paragliders, all with rusty skills and none heading off XC, particularly on light-wind days. Be vigilant.. If the cartoon (above) appears familiar, it’s because we ran it in February – and for the same reason! How to run a deployment/repack session On Sunday March 15th, when flying and outdoor gatherings were still a thing, writes BHPA tech. Officer Ian Currer, the Cumbria club hosted an emergency parachute deployment event at the Keswick climbing wall zipwire. As the long outdoor wire runs across a muddy field, actual deployment was not advisable, especially on a breezy day. Instead each pilot was briefed on the technique and performed an indoor static deployment from a custom-made stainless steel frame, kindly supplied by UK Airsports. Although these were all successful, a couple of issues were discovered. One system had rubber bands so badly perished they no longer retained the loops of line properly, and one harness inspection revealed a rough seat-plate edge wearing through the pilot’s leg-straps (the harness looked fine during a casual inspection). The parachutes were then disconnected and replaced with a dummy emergency parachute installed into each pilot’s harness, Patrick and Richard of UK Airsports providing the expertise to ensure that this was done correctly. Each pilot was then briefed on using the zipwire by local instructor Malcolm Grout, and fitted with a climbing harness and safety line. The zipwire operation was overseen by Jonny Simms, a relatively new pilot but a highly experienced operator of a mobile zipwire/bungee jumping operation. Each pilot was launched down the wire while holding the controls in the normal way. Malcolm, stationed in the field below, blew a whistle to prompt each pilot to deploy, and timed the interval between the whistle and the dummy parachute hitting the ground. By the time pilots had practiced a couple of times their deployments had become faster and much more assured – even when spinning and trying to do mental arithmetic or recite the alphabet backwards at the time! I deployed whilst ‘flying’ backwards; a clean grab and throw definitely required focus. There were 84 dynamic deployments from the wire in addition to 28 static throws. There were no technical issues that would have prevented a successful deployment, although one pilot did throw his parachute backwards over his shoulder, which might have gone through his lines in a real situation. JUNE 2020 SKYWINGS 11 The event had a slightly different focus from Matt Wilkes’ excellent study of the mechanics of deployment, but was well worth doing. The main benefit was learning how just a few repetitions of the correct procedure for deploying pays huge dividends in effectiveness. Being mentally primed to go for the emergency parachute makes a big difference to pilots’ reaction times when things go to worms. When the pilots had finished their practice session, Patrick and Richard helped them re-install their parachutes. In addition those named already, a number of other coaches and instructors from the Cumbria and Cayley clubs helped out and ensured the whole operation ran smoothly. Many thanks – you know who you are! 2019 saw seven fatalities among UK pilots (including one who was not a BHPA member). There is a fair chance that if all those pilots had been similarly primed with this kind of training and had attempted to deploy earlier, some of the outcomes may have been different. If any other clubs (or group of clubs) would like to arrange a similar event, UK Airsports have the zipwire harness hangers available. Jonny Simms is happy to discuss what is involved in setting up a wire; or liaising with a local operation to provide this service. If dealing with a commercial operator, it is worth knowing that the BHPA insurance policy does cover such club events, provided all the participants are members of course. A short video of this event is available at Tech Manual amendment 19 now available All BHPA licence holders – please download the latest update of the Technical Manual available at and refer to the amendments list on page iv to see whether the amendments affect your operation.12 SKYWINGS JUNE 2020 Over a long weekend in March, a small group of local hang glider pilots headed to Birchip in north-western Victoria. Birchip is a small town about four-hours drive from Melbourne in the middle of the Victorian wheat belt, where the conditions tend to be very reliable all year round. It’s also home to the annual Easter ‘Flatter than the Flatlands’ comp. We have an agreement with a local farmer who lets us use his property and it’s ideal. There are no hills to jump off – it’s extremely flat – and the only way to get in the air here is by ground towing using a car. Car towing works well here as it’s so simple, and we have the huge paddocks needed. We use about 600m of rope attached to a tow gauge on the towbar of a car. The pilot locks the radio on during the tow. There is also an electronic monitor stuck to the dashboard that displays tow tension – that’s the key kit you really need. You’ll usually get about 1000ft or more, depending on wind strength and how much paddock you have. Sometimes the movement of the car triggers a thermal at the far end of the tow and you can hook straight into it. If not, just land and try again! The turnaround time is quick as the car just floors it back, drops the rope off and heads out to re-connect. We lucked out with the weather and were able to fly each day. I put my hand up to drive on the first day, but set up just in case others didn’t get away. This turned out to be a good decision as another pilot offered to tow for a bit and I jumped in. I got away on the second tow with a decent climb to about 4 grand, then about an hour of scratching along at 1500ft before I fell out of the sky at about 25km. One of the things I love about flying up here is you can land absolutely anywhere. You can afford to get low and work every scrap of lift, knowing you can turn into wind and land at any point. You also get big wedge-tailed eagles out here; they are usually friendly and they’ll often thermal up close with you if you’re lucky – an experience that’s guaranteed to put a massive grin on your face! With similar conditions on the second day we went to the same spot. This time I got away on the first tow and was joined soon after by Pete Lissenburg on his Combat. It’s not often you get to fly with others on the same radio channel when ground towing; I hang points Flat out down-under EX-PAT DAVE MOORE EXPLAINS PADDOCK FLYING DOWN UNDER I’m an ex UK hang glider pilot now living in Oz, and following a few discussions on Facebook I agreed to write something about a recent flying trip here. I now live in Melbourne where there’s a reasonable number of sites for both coastal and inland flying. If you are able to get some time away and drive a lot further inland, there’s some brilliant flatland flying to be had all year round. ‘The landscape stretched out like a map, the sun streaming through the clouds and the vario singing away …’ Setting up for the day All photos: D av e Moorewas delighted as I figured we could help each other along. Pete wasn’t interested though and soon shot off, in what seemed like a bizarre direction, and I left him to it. It was a blue day with few clues of lift. I opted to try to scratch high up rather than low down, heading straight downwind and north toward the NSW border. I veered off every now and then to what might be a trigger, and mostly it seemed to work. I landed after 3.5 hours and 115km as I was buggered! I picked out a decent spot next to a track and tried not to crash – you don’t want to hurt yourself out here as there is nobody around. It’s always a nervous moment after you land, when you pull your phone out and hope you have a signal. I have had to climb fence posts, send a text and throw my phone in the air in the past, but this time I was OK! The retrieve car turned up 20 minutes later with a cool box full of cold beer; we headed to the nearest town to find a pub for dinner. The next day saw us in a different take-off paddock as the wind had shifted around. Local legend Rohan Holtkamp was running an XC clinic and they all joined us for the day. With very light winds and nobody finding any lift it wasn’t looking hopeful. It turned on at 2-ish though, and I got lucky with a cracking climb straight off the tow to about four grand before I lost it. I headed off downwind and flew over my team-mate Andy Phillips on the deck. I thought I was about to join him when I stumbled into a rough little thermal which turned into a cracker – all the way to base at seven grand. I had one of those moments – the landscape stretched out below like a map, the sun streaming through the clouds and the vario singing away – and thought, wow - this is just amazing! I can’t understand why people would not want to do this! After 2.5hrs I decided to put it down as the day was getting late and I was knackered (I’m not used to long flights two days in a row!). I’d made about 80km and was glad when Andy pulled up and offered me a beer. Legend. Hang gliding is awesome! JUNE 2020 SKYWINGS 13 View from our campsite at Lake Tchum Rigging in the only shade I could find Paddock posse (L-R): James McGinty, Pete Cass, Dave Moore, Pete Lissenburg and Andy Phillips14 SKYWINGS JUNE 2020 Dave is the South Wales club’s main hang gliding coach and volunteer tandem pilot. He has taken many of us pilots, newbies, returners, family members – and any waif and stray who happens to be walking up Rhossili – for a tandem flight. He is tireless in his support of new pilots and returners like me, in getting new people into the sport, and just appreciating the beauty of flight. With all this in mind, I started thinking there had to be a way to help him acquire this expensive bit of kit, especially as he cannot receive any payment for the tandem flights – and would refuse it even if he did. I contacted friends and local pilots Lorne Jeal and Huw Parsons to see if they thought we could crowd-fund the reserve. Between us we reckoned it was do-able but it had to be in secret. From the donors’ point of view it must be seen to be an independent initiative; more importantly, we felt Dave would have stopped it before it ever began. We had to present him with a fait accompli. Roles were assigned: Me: Banker and to get a ballpark price (Thanks, Simon Murphy) Huw: Telegram setup, recruitment and sales pitch Lorne: General dogsbody and, most importantly, to brief Isobel, Dave’s partner. We were unsure how long we should allow to raise the money. Too slowly risked Dave buying a reserve before we were ready – hence Isobel being involved, to give us some warning. Too fast risked not being able to raise enough money. We decided to let it run and decide later. The other problem was what to do if we overshot the target of £855. In the end the choice was simple: Flyability, the BHPA’s associated charity which helps disabled people experience our sports. Thanks to Huw’s excellent Telegram recruitment, and regularly updated running totals, we smashed through the target in six days to produce a grand total of £1131.11. (To the person – I know who you are – who buggered up my accounting by donating £11.11 – you owe me a pint next time the pubs are open.) We heard through Isobel that Dave was looking at a reserve. This meant bringing the presentation forward to a time when Huw was unable to be there. After checking with Isobel, Lorne and I ambushed Dave in his own lounge and presented him with a cheque. It is fair to say he was totally gobsmacked and totally unaware of what had been going on. It has taken Dave a few months to decide which of the various hang glider tandem reserves would suit him, fit his harness, etc. However he now has an XXXXX, supplied and fitted by Pete Montgomery. Sometime soon, after the horrors of this spring, we will see Dave helping more people experience our sport over Rhossili bay. Lessons learned Keep it simple … • Payment by BACS only, although a couple of cheques and some cash sneaked in • Insist on a payment reference: ‘XXX Fund, then donor’s initials’ • The above means you have a very nearly real-time idea of the amount raised, and it is easier to produce accounts for inspection. • Finally, if people believe the cause is worthwhile they will be generous. The average donation was just over £20. Thank you to all of you who donated, and to Lorne, Isobel and Huw for their help in organising. The various suppliers, who without exception offered large discounts on the list prices, and of course Trigger for his tireless support for our sport – and being the friendly reassuring coach I needed on my return after 20 years out. hang points Crowd-funding a tandem reserve PAUL KENT REVEALS HOW TO RAISE £1131.11 ... WITHOUT THE RECIPIENT KNOWING Late last summer, after a day out flying, Dave Tregaskis (Trigger) mentioned he needed a new reserve for the tandem flying he does on the giant Wills Wing Falcon. Dave Tregaskis on tandem duty Paul Kent (L) and Trigger at the presentation Photo: Katy Cole Photo: Lorne J ealDiscounted paramotor deals Ex-demo and part ex-gliders - Great A-wings to Fancy B wings Harness and Reserve Offers Brilliant part Ex Deals - Save £££ FREE UK Delivery Deliveries from our base in Devon Wicked discounts off future holidays Advice is Free - Get in touch book review Originally aimed at new CPs, it soon became clear that Prepare to Fly appealed to a wider audience including much more experienced pilots. In a way the book’s evolution has tracked Simon’s own development as a pilot. Initially he sought to collate all the snippets of gossip and flying lore picked up on the hill and in the pub, en route from new CP to competent flier. The next edition included much that he’d learnt along the way to starting XC flying, including the emerging field of electronic flight planning. This third version, greatly revised, includes the lessons learnt from Simon’s expanding XC experience. The new information includes a warning about getting into paragliding on the cheap; a really good section equating aspect ratio to EN ratings (and suggesting that aspect ratio is a more reliable guide to how easy a wing is to fly); new stuff on electronic conspi- cuity; and good advice on replacements for XC Planner now that airspace doesn’t work on it any more. There’s also a new ‘actual flying advice’ section that includes some really thoughtful insights on speed to fly (and at what point in your career you need to really understand it); much food for thought on gaggle flying; and a strong section on the need to really understand the airspeed/ground- speed disparity. In short, this new edition is not a lick-of-paint job but a thorough rewrite. If the book has a guiding ethos it is sheer common sense and the need to develop clarity of purpose. Our kind of flying is an exacting game and it’s very easy to become discouraged when you think you’re about to join all the dots … and find yourself on the floor, 15k from the hill and watching everyone else fly over your head to the coast. As well as his own considerable achievements, Simon uses his his own blunders, mistakes and misunderstandings to illustrate his points, but also emphasises that it’s not all about time in the air. Planning, preparation and sorting your equipment is key to emerging as a confident, organised and successful pilot. He also cautions against becoming obsessed with logged hours, and firmly against deluding yourself that trading up to a hotter glider will make you a better pilot. The peripherals are well addressed and a wealth of useful online resources are quoted. Usually, when covering a book of this type, one begins to compile a list of things that it seems to have missed. In the case of Prepare to Fly it’s all there; there’s nothing that could or should have been included that isn’t. All of this is couched in an extremely readable style, divided into clearly grouped headings that make it easy locate the bit you’re after. Simon engages well with the improver mindset and readily admits that he has made all the mistakes. But he’s aware of the upside, the sense of achievement that comes to those prepared to put in the hard yards that make our sport the most satisfying of all recreational endeavours. It should be clear that Prepare to Fly is no substitute for good hands-on instruction. The difficulty of making progress in free flying is that after leaving school there isn’t always much help out there – some clubs’ excellent coaching schemes notwithstanding. And, of course, in the air you’re on your own. By studying this book, keeping it handy and continually referring to it, you’ll be less alone … and success and achievement will come. There’s no comparable title for hang glider pilots, but much of this book is relevant to hangies and no hang glider pilot should be too proud to engage with it. Whether you’re part of your club’s active red-streamer coaching set, or a pilot who often flies outside that welcoming support network, Prepare to Fly really is essential reading for all who seek to improve their basic flying and their XC achievements. It’s exhaustive – but not exhausting. Inspiring, more like! [JS] Prepare to fly, ISBN 978-1-291-01293-4, is available from Lulu at £16.66 plus postage. Prepare to Fly PARAGLIDING TIPS I WISH I’D LEARNED SOONER – THIRD EDITION BY SIMON BLAKE This very useful volume first appeared in 2012 and went on to sell well over a thousand copies. An enlarged edition appeared in 2015 and sold another thousand-plus copies – and was by then also available in Chinese. Now, just in time for the lockdown, Simon has released a third, greatly enlarged edition, much enhanced by the use of colour.16 SKYWINGS JUNE 2020 There were no automatic measuring devices (AMDs) in those days and Nigel’s scores were manually judged on to a 10cm disc. Four years later Andy Shaw became the British and unofficial world record holder – on a 5cm AMD – by scoring three consecutive DCs at the 1987 Parascending World Championships at Little Rissington. At the first FAI World Championships, held in England 2000, US pilot John Eiff achieved four consecutive DCs on a 3cm AMD and described the experience as ‘being stuck in a bit of a rut.’ French pilot Francois Barriot is the current record holder, with three consecutive DCs on a 2cm pad, a feat he has achieved twice! The table below lists both UK and unofficial world record holders for the most consecutive DCs. Consecutive By UK pilots Event By World pilots Event DCs on 10cm manual Nigel Horder (4) Dutch Ram Air 1983 Nigel Horder (4) Dutch Ram Air 1983 5cm AMD Andy Shaw (3) Worlds 1987 Andy Shaw (3) Worlds 1987 3cm AMD James Goldsborough (2) Dutch GP 1997 Graham Cooper (2) Birdwings 2000 Derek Godfrey (2) UK Nationals 2001 Charlie Grantham (2) UK Nationals 2001 Martin Robe (2) UK Nationals 2001 Andy Webster (2) UK Nationals 2001 Don Bodill (2) Dutch GP 2002 Simon Godfrey (2) UK Nationals 2007 Andy Shaw (2) UK Nationals 2011 John Eiff (4) FAI Worlds UK 2000 2cm AMD Martin Robe (2) UK Nationals 2014 Simon Sykes (2) UK Nationals 2018 Dave Crowhurst (2) UK Nationals 2019 Francois Barriot (3) French GP 2014 & UK Nationals 2015 By way of comparison, in the parachuting world Russian parachutist Andrey Savin holds the official FAI world record with seven consecutive DCs and Jeff Chandler holds the British record with three consecutive DCs, both scored using 2cm pads. Back in 2011 there was a Skywings article on classic accuracy records when a 3cm AMD was in use. Since about 2012 2cm AMDs have been used, and I have had another look at the best scores achieved during this period. The table below details pilots with most DCs in a competition (Martin Robe will be more than happy to tell you about his 2014 UK Classic Nationals sequence of 4, 1, 2, 4, 0, 0, 2 and 0 cm, achieving three DCs over four rounds). Simon Sykes also achieved three DCs at the 2014 Birdwings competition, with a less consistent sequence of 0, 0, 188 and 0 cm. Ultimately French pilot Pierre Asteix holds the record for most DCs in a competition when he scored four at the UK Classic Nationals in 2017. Most DCs on By UK pilots Event By World pilots Event 2cm AMD over 3 rounds M Robe (2) UK Nationals 2014 S Sykes (2) UK Nationals 2018 D Crowhurst (2) UK Nationals 2019 Francois Barriot (3) UK Nationals 2015 4 rounds Martin Robe (3) UK Nationals 2014 Simon Sykes (3) Birdwings 2014 Francois Barriot (3) UK Nationals 2015 Bruno Lautard (3) Dutch GP 2017 Martin Robe (3) UK Nationals 2014 Simon Sykes (3) Birdwings 2014 8 rounds Martin Robe (3) UK Nationals 2014 Simon Sykes (3) Birdwings 2014 Pierre Asteix (4) UK Nationals 2017 The table below details lowest scores per number of consecutive rounds anywhere within a single competition (i.e. not necessarily starting in the first round of a competition). Martin Robe’s exploits in 2014 also extend to the lowest scores over three to eight rounds for a UK pilot, although Dave Crowhurst has equalled Martin’s three-round score with scores of 1, 0 and 1 cm at the 2019 Birdwings competition. In 2018 Dave Crowhurst recorded the lowest scores over nine to eleven rounds at the Birdwings competition, but French pilot Pierre Asteix’s score of 16cm over 11 rounds achieved at the 2017 UK Classic Nationals will take some beating. It is worth noting that all the lowest scores have been achieved at South Cerney, or ‘the Billiard table’ as someone once described the site. Lowest score UK Pilots Event World Pilots Event 2cm AMD over 3 rounds Martin Robe (2cm) UK Nationals 2014 Dave Crowhurst (2cm) Birdwings 2019 Francois Barriot (0cm) UK Nationals 2015 4 rounds Martin Robe (2cm) UK Nationals 2014 Francois Barriot (1cm) UK Nationals 2015 Bruno Lautard (1cm) Dutch GP 2017 5 rounds Martin Robe (6cm) UK Nationals 2014 Francois Barriot (2cm) UK Nationals 2015 6 rounds Martin Robe (8cm) UK Nationals 2014 Francois Barriot (5cm) UK Nationals 2015 Pierre Asteix (5cm) UK Nationals 2017 7 rounds Martin Robe (9cm) UK Nationals 2014 Pierre Asteix (6cm) UK Nationals 2017 8 rounds Martin Robe (13cm) UK Nationals 2014 Pierre Asteix (8cm) UK Nationals 2017 9 rounds Dave Crowhurst (23cm) Birdwings 2018 Pierre Asteix (11cm) UK Nationals 2017 10 rounds Dave Crowhurst (27cm) Birdwings 2018 Pierre Asteix (16cm) UK Nationals 2017 11 rounds Dave Crowhurst (37cm) Birdwings 2018 Pierre Asteix (16cm) UK Nationals 2017 The above tables will be published on website and kept up to date as records are broken. dead centre the accuracy archives ANDY WEBSTER INVESTIGATES THE HISTORY OF CLASSIC ACCURACY RECORDS Through the history of classic accuracy the DC has got progressively smaller, with four sizes being used over the years. Back in 1983 Nigel Horder became the British and unofficial world parascending accuracy record holder when he scored four consecutive DCs at the Dutch International Ram Air Meet at Flevohof.JUNE 2020 SKYWINGS 17 Dave Crowhurst – UK’s lowest score over 9 to 11 rounds Martin Robe – UK’s lowest score over 3 to 8 rounds Francois Barriott – three consecutive DCs, twice! Pierre Asteix – Europe’s lowest score over 6 to 11 rounds Photo: Andy W ebster Photo: Andy W ebster Photo: Andy W ebster Photo: Arthur Bentle y18 SKYWINGS JUNE 2020 propellerhead Materials needed • 50mm thick disc of Celotex or similar (roughly 40 - 45cm in diameter). Using hard foam provides a rigid surface and allows you to stick pins into the board • Small carabiner for attaching to your seat • Strong round elastic (6 or 8mm shock cord is ideal) • Short length of webbing or strong cord • Piece of dowel or old fibreglass tent pole, or similar, to strengthen the board and prevent the attachment from pulling through • Gaffer tape to cover – optional but advised. Method Cut out a disc of foam to a size that will comfortably fit between the arms of your motor frame. Ideally you want to fit an A3 map with the corners cut off onto the board. Any larger than this can get cumbersome and difficult to use. Mark the centre and cut out a slot to be able to insert the strengthening bar. This needs to be a nice tight fit and allow the bar to be sunk by around 1 - 2 cm, allowing the piece of foam you’ve just cut out to be replaced to cover the strengthening bar, and let you place pins into the board. Next, make a loop using the webbing, which will go over the strengthening bar and through the bottom of the board, allowing you to attach the carabiner. The loop needs to be large enough to go over the strengthening bar and poke through the bottom of the board, so around 3cm. It’s best to sew the loop ends to make it secure. Putting the strengthening bar through the loop ensures that the webbing attachment point doesn’t pull through when pulled hard. Make a slot through the centre of the board just large enough to allow the webbing loop to be pushed through (Fig. 1). Once you’ve got the slot and holes, cut and dry-fitted the bar and loop (Fig. 2), glue in place and cover the bar with the foam you cut out (or a new piece) to give a level top to the board (Fig. 3). The next step is to cover the board. This protects it, and provides a suitable surface to tape a map to and remove it without damaging the board. I use gaffer tape for this; I’ve found it sticks better if the board is first primed with spray contact adhesive, but this isn’t essential. Once you’ve got the basic map board, you can then customise it to your requirements and make provision to attach items such as a stopwatch or pens (Fig. 4). Attachment The map board is usually attached to your seat between your legs. A small carabiner (Fig. 5) attaches to a piece of elastic (around 6-8mm dia) which is attached to the leg straps (Fig. 6). This provides a secure attachment but allows for some stretch, which is important when running. The fixing needs to be tight enough to prevent the map board from dangling down your legs too far; ideally it should always be tight enough to stay above your knees, otherwise it makes it difficult to run. It may be worth doing a hang test with the map board to ensure it works before taking to the air. Attaching the map When attaching the map, it’s best to use tape on all edges and ensure that all are stuck down well. It’s important to prevent the wind getting underneath, or you’ll quickly find your map has become confetti having left your board and gone through the prop. The map board should sit comfortably on your lap. It should be tight enough that you can move your legs but will stay down flat when flying at 70+ km/h (Fig. 7). Taking off As with anything new, it may feel a little awkward taking off with a large round disc attached between your legs, but after a few take-offs it will become natural. Focus on your take-off and not the map board. Once in the air sort yourself out, get comfortable and locate yourself on the map. Orient it to the direction of travel and off you go. Landing As with the take-off, concentrate on your landing and forget about the map board. If you’ve got the elastic the right length the board should stay above your knees and not hinder landing. If it does drop below your knees, keep focused on your landing – the elastic should provide enough stretch to allow you to run. After landing, adjust the fitting if needed. As with anything, practice makes perfect and taking off with it will become second nature. Now start exploring and test your navigation – I hope to see you at the next competition. Good luck! How to make a PPG map board PAUL MARTIN GOES LOCKDOWN BLUE PETER For anyone wanting to utilise a paper map while flying a paramotor, a map board is essential. A good one provides a flat, stable surface that allows the map to be attached, and is able to turn to orientate the map to the direction of travel. Fig. 1.Fig. 2.Fig. 3.Fig. 4. Fig. 5.Fig. 6.Fig. 7.Photo: P aul Smith illustrations (opposite page). Photos: Paul Martin Fig. 1. Loop at bottom of board Fig. 2. Rod inserted Fig. 3. Rod covered with foam Fig. 4. Customise to suit your needs Fig. 5. Carabiner attachment at bottom of map board … Fig. 6. Connects to elastic attached to the seat straps Fig. 7. The board should sit comfortably, yet tight enough to remain flat when flyingNext >