No. 383 MARCH 2021 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding AssociationAt least 10,000 devices will have been subsidised up to a limit of £250 if the scheme is fully used. Most BHPA members who took advantage of the scheme have bought FLARM-enabled devices from Skytraxx, Naviter and XC Tracer. If you look on the sites that connect to the OGN, you can see FLARM-equipped paraglider and hang gliders flying. This is good news as sailplanes within FLARM range will be able to see us too. However it’s important to correct the misunderstanding that gliders shown on the OGN will be visible to every FLARM-equipped glider – that is not the case. FLARM is a short range (typically 5km) anti-collision protocol, received directly by its own units and not over the Internet or the OGN. A very small number of BHPA rebate claimants bought ADS-B CAP 1391 devices in the form of the SkyEcho 2. This device was in a sweet spot for rebate purchases at roughly £500, so getting the full subsidy at the ceiling of the possible payment. It was therefore a choice that attracted General Aviation (GA) purchasers too. This device bridges the divide between two of the different disciplines of EC. It receives and transmits ADS-B (which is no good to us), but can also, for a £30 subscription, receive FLARM directly. Another facet of the SkyEcho 2 that makes it popular with microlights and GA is that it is a stand-alone, carry-on device. It therefore requires no paperwork in the case of microlights, and in ‘Certificate of Airworthiness’ GA aircraft no requirement for work done by licenced engineers at a considerable cost. With a SkyEcho 2 looking out for us, we get noticed by GA and microlight aircraft whose pilots may have a high workload, especially where radio work is involved, or close to complicated airspace. What can we in the gliding community do to convince power pilots to take up the FLARM option on their purchase? I can only suggest that it’s by engaging with them in the magazines they read and on the websites and forums they use. In order to be convinced, they’d need to know what the take-up of devices was. Maybe, when the Rebate Scheme is wound up, we can get a rough figure of how many rebates went through on BHPA membership cards. That figure will give us a rough – but not 100% accurate – number of how many new FLARM devices are in the hands of BHPA members, and therefore how many hang gliders and paragliders will trigger alerts in microlight or GA aircraft that wouldn’t have done before the mass purchase of EC devices under the Rebate Scheme. There’s another player on the scene that can make us more visible to GA and microlights. PilotAware ground stations receive the FLARM we radiate, translate it into PilotAware P3i and beam it back up so that 4,000+ aircraft with PilotAware units, mostly in the UK but also in mainland Europe, can receive it if they are in range of a ground station. For this to work there needs to be a good ground station network, and although there are a lot of ground stations (200+), some areas in the UK still lack good coverage. Putting up a ground station is easy. Some of the equipment is provided for free by PilotAware themselves, and the rest can be bought cheaply or, where more specialised, at cost from PilotAware. At least one UK club is already in talks to put a station up; any others that are interested should talk to Keith Vinning at PilotAware by Areas with low coverage density include the rectangle bounded by Newcastle, York, Burnley and Carlisle, the Scottish borders, Cornwall, the area around Llandrindod Wells, the area around Llangollen, Highland and Central Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Salisbury Plain also needs a tiny amount of infill. You’ll need to put up three aerials on a pole, spaced out, with high quality coax cable to connect them back to a Raspberry Pi. Free software is provided and it will auto update. An Internet connection will be needed. XC Guide developer Indy and I have both put up stations and can vouch for the relative simplicity of the task. If you have a suitable existing OGN ground station, PilotAware will provide all the additional electronic hardware to upgrade to the full ATOM-GRID spec. for free. A free SD card with software is also provided, and help with configuration if needed. Email the address above for details. Why not view the PilotAware YouTube videos on ‘The ATOM GRID’ and give it some thought! 2 SKYWINGS MARCH 2021 attitude EC and the CAA Rebate Scheme – does it end here? STEVE UZOCHUKWU, PARAGLIDER/HANG GLIDER/MICROLIGHT PILOT AND ATOM GROUND STATION MAINTAINER By the time you read this, the CAA’s Electronic Conspicuity Rebate scheme will have ended. Whilst this might be the end of the chapter, it’s not the end of the story. The photo above shows EC types working across boundaries. The large yellow aircraft symbol represents a microlight whose pilot is using a SkyDemon moving map informed by a PilotAware device. Directly below the aircraft symbol, the green glider symbols represent hang glider and paraglider pilots flying at Bo Peep in Sussex. They are transmitting FLARM. The green tower symbol at Deanland represents a PilotAware ATOM-GRID station, which receives the FLARM signals and retransmits them in the PilotAware protocol. It will also send weather reports for local airfields, and information about transponder-equipped aircraft. The yellow aircraft also receives information on ADS-B equipped flights in the area. All the traffic information is also available via a spoken alert.4 SKYWINGS MARCH 2021MARCH 2021 SKYWINGS 5 regulars regulars features 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 Urs Haari and Nova’s Aonic high-end A wing over the eastern end of Lake Maggiore, Switzerland Photo: Urs Haari THIS PAGE Yeray González and the Gin Camino at Belagua in Spain’s Aragon region. Photo: Jérome Maupoint 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 Email: SKYWINGS ONLINE Go For the March issue enter the username Mar_2021 and the case- sensitive password 79#Rk4V? For the April issue enter the username Apr_2021 and the case- sensitive password P7#95rl£ DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the May issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Friday April 2nd. Letters for the April Airmail pages should arrive no later than Friday March 19th. Advertisement bookings for the April edition must arrive by Friday March 12th. Copy and classified bookings no later than Friday March 19th.6 SKYWINGS MARCH 2021 news Bordairrace dates Willy Ludwig and Tomy Hofbauer have selected Altaussee in Styria for the first event of the 2021 Bordairrace series. The race runs from April 30th to May 2nd, during which time pilots will have 33 hours to cover the greatest possible distance from the start and return to the finish line in time. Distances of over 200km are likely to be flown and over 100km travelled on foot. The series, first flown in 2008 and thus the original hike and fly contest, has long been seen as a starter event for would-be X-Alps contestants. The second event will be at Sillian in East Tyrol on June 4th - 6th, and the final race at Wildschönau in Tyrol on July 2nd - 4th. There are fallback dates for each event. Registration opens four weeks before each event and is usually fully booked inside 48 hours. Details are at The Shark Race Christophe Dubois at Objectif-flying is organising a new type of seven-day competition at their new centre at Epidavros, on Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula, in June. The objective will be to reproduce – and improve on – an XC flown for the first time in 2007 by X-Alps 2013 runner-up Clement Latour. The flight has only been repeated twice since, not least because of the 7km sea crossing involved. Boats and safety procedures will be provided for the duration. There’s more information and registration at BHPA membership fees increase As expected (see Treasurer’s Report, February), BHPA annual subscriptions will increase on April 1st. Fortunately the increase isn’t as great as had been forecast earlier; the headline individual annual adult membership will increase by 7.75% to £139. Other annual memberships will be: Family: £124, Concessionary (under 21/over 67) £119, Non Flying: £51. One-day Introductory Membership will be £20 (under 21: £5), three months introductory Trial Membership £75, the Joining/Rejoining fee £25 and a Skywings subscription £50. The reduction for direct debit for all annual subscriptions remains at £7. Insurance supplements will increase by an average of 4%: the Instructor Supplement becomes £85, the TI Supplement £30 and the Paraglider Dual Pilot Supplement £85. RAeC bursaries – apply now! The Royal Aero Club Trust’s 2021 bursary scheme for young people closes on March 31st. Perhaps due to the current emergency, very few applications have been received so far. In 2020, given the earlier national lockdown, the period for realisation of the award was extended and it’s likely that this will happen again this year. The awards are of up to £1,000; all young fliers or would-be fliers reading this should take note: these bursaries represent free money for young pilots to progress their flying! Well over 100 bursaries have been awarded over the last three years, several of them to young BHPA pilots. Applicants must be aged between 14 and 21 (up to 24 in the case of a follow-on bursary). Full details and application forms are at Applications must be submitted through a ‘sponsoring organisation’, i.e the BHPA. You have less than a month – act with haste! CAA prosecutes in bizarre case On January 20th Richard Wood, 60, was fined at Caernarfon Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to two offences of flying within RAF Valley’s ATZ without permission. In his defence, Wood claimed that he had set off from Fairoaks, Surrey, in his Pilatus PC-12 – a heavy turbine single seating at least eight – to visit his mother in Yorkshire. On learning, in flight, that his mother was busy, he landed at Valley instead despite having received no response over the radio. Military personnel there, believing Wood was making an emergency landing, deployed fire and rescue vehicles. Wood claimed that he had landed to visit the nearby beach. When it was pointed out that Valley was closed and Wales was under strict Covid-19 travel restrictions, he got back into his aircraft and took off. Alison Slater, head of the CAA’s Investigations and Enforcement Team, said, ‘This was a case of poor pre-flight planning.’ And the rest! Magistrates fined Wood £1,700 for each of the two offences and ordered him to pay £750 in costs and a £190 victim surcharge. Tosh tells all Anyone who caught Wez Murch interviewing Himalayan vol-bivver Steven ‘Tosh’ Mackintosh online in January will know they witnessed something special. Wez turned out to be a gifted and engaging host, while Tosh came over as a man of steely nerve but almost Zen-like calm. Most interesting was his concept of immersing yourself in the journey: ‘The people you are talking to will dictate what happens next, and no day plays out the same’. The Zoom session, organised by Tosh’s sponsor Flybubble, attracted almost 300 participants. Tosh is still raising funds to complete his film of the Nepal Traverse. Any profits from his talks and film royalties will go to Nepali charities: supporting education and tackling poverty among Nepali children through Karma Flights, and saving the country’s last free-flowing river, the Karnali. The GoFundme link Tosh’s Pilot Profile on page 24 of this issue. Swiss Challenge Cup finds permanent home Last season Urs Haari won the Sport Class (up to EN C) of the Swiss Cross Country Cup for the fifth time. According to SHV rules, whoever wins the Cup three times in a row, or five times in total, is allowed to keep it. Urs, now 56, has dominated the European XC scene for three decades. Back in 1992, flying the original Nova Phantom, he took the world open-distance record to 227.7km. He won the XC Cup in 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019 and last year, mostly when flying an EN B Nova Mentor. Urs has to select his flying days carefully as he has also, since 1994, been running High Adventure, developing stuff like the Beamer parachute. Anyway, respect is due. Another trophy to polish! It has been threatened for several years, and the new website is about to go live. The old site was so very broken that the new one should be a vast improvement, but please have a look and let me know what you think. As ever, the idea is to help my customers realise their dreams of flight, and after 45 years I have a handle on what most people need to help them get some epic flying. The secret is that it doesn’t have to cost the earth, and you don’t have to have the latest kit. Both these photos show me having a ball with choice secondhand kit which is stock, or was until I sold it! The new website has several hundred items that may help YOU. Have a look, and if you have any doubts about what might be good for you, call me for a chat. I have a selection of used paragliding harnesses from groundhandling only to brand new bargains like this Karpofly X-Alps at £424 - £300 below list for a new one! I also have a choice of hang gliding harnesses to fit different bodies and pockets, usually starting at around £85. This Woody Valley Flex 2 is new, and a rare size 2M. At just £525, it is £320 below the This photo shows the ZOOT flexible mic for open-face helmets. My ZOOT headsets are legendary - prices start at £34.50, or £77 complete with a 2m band radio! There are four models, built to suit different helmets and radios, and you can always get spare parts from me – ex stock! Buy the Zoot outfit and you get everything you need for £77. Choose helmet type and the colour of the radio, according to what is in stock at any one time. Speaker/mics, whip aerials and magmount aerials are also available. I have a selection of new and used flying suits from about £15 up to £175. It is very hard to do justice to them all, but the new website should make a better job of it. Check ‘em out at If you like the idea of minimal instrumentation, this Fairhaven Micro Vario Plus will do it for you! As-new condition (used once) but £20 less than new price at £99! I always have several minimal instruments for I also have a selection of instruments that are anything but minimal! This picture, taken in the rain on a dark and drab day, tells part of the story. But check the website for more info on these and other instruments. As you know, I am thinning out my collection of vintage gliders, and last month posted a photo of my Fledge 2. It was snapped up within a week of the advert coming out, so is there anyone out there who lusts after a Wasp Gryphon? This one needs a bit of TLC before it could be considered safe to fly, but it is basically all there. Rare, beautiful and….it could be yours. 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 £230. 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 £165, and weight is only 660gm! The stylish Charly Loop costs £125, 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 my website: 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 £85. The Charly Breeze Tandem has a swoopy polycarbonate shell with removable ear covers to suit different seasons. They come in two sizes, S/M and L/XL, with adjustable headbands for fine tuning to a variety of heads - ideal for schools and tandem pilots. White only, they weigh about 480gm, and costs £90. 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 New Website! Simon Murphy’s Flying Circus tel: 01404 891685 Luppitt, Honiton, Devon, EX14 4SA Charly Helmetsnews 8 SKYWINGS MARCH 2021 St Hilaire dates The fabled St Hilaire festival will run in a new week-long format from Sunday 12th to Sunday 19th September. The innovations planned for 2020 remain on the schedule: more flying slots for pilots and a greater focus on the film festival by separating it from the main flying days. After the opening ceremony on September 12th, the 39th ‘Icares du Cinema’ will run each evening until Wednesday 15th. Demo flights on dealers’ equipment (‘Icare Test’) will take place from Monday to Wednesday, when the funicular railway will be free to all enrolled pilots. ‘Icare Show’ flying follows non-stop from Thursday until Sunday, culminating in the famed costume fly-down now dubbed ‘Icarnaval’, plus lots of concurrent fun on the ground for children. Everyone should go there at least once in their life! Details: Nova’s brake travel indicator Experienced pilots normally feel what their canopy is doing via the risers and control lines, intuitively pulling or letting up the brake lines to keep the angle of attack optimal. Student pilots need time to develop this feeling, sometimes pulling too far under stress and stalling the wing completely. Nova’s new Brake Travel Indicator shows, by means of graded colour on the brake lines, how far the pilot is pulling the brakes. New pilots thus get a visual aid as to what is normal and where the ‘red zone’ begins. Developed in conjunction with the DHV, the system offers a green visual reference for steady flight, allowing instructors to issue commands with greater precision. During SIV training the system will enable instructors to give very specific commands for manoeuvres such as approaching the stall, stalling, backfly, spin approach, etc. ‘We hope it will provide practical help to less-experienced pilots and add a little to safety, says Nova’s Niki Kurcz. The new system has been incorporated into Nova’s new EN A Prion 5 training wing, along with new width-adjustable brake handles. In brief BHPA AGM. As reported, the 2021 BHPA AGM will take place online on Saturday March 13th 2021 at 11am. The BHPA Exec may gather, socially distanced, at BHPA HQ in Leicester, but the meeting will be live- streamed over the BHPA Facebook page and a meeting platform. To watch, or if you have questions for the Exec or suggestions for how the Association should go forward, check the BHPA website or BHPA Facebook page for details. Arne Hillestad. A valued member of the European Safety and Training Commission, and former General Sec. of the European Hang-Gliding and Paragliding Union, Arne Hillestad died in January, aged 62. He rose from the free- flight section of the Norges Luftsportforbund to become an indispensable member of the EHPU, working long and hard to advance our sport in Europe. He is remembered warmly by all who knew him. Skywings online. The online version of this issue can be found at the username Mar_2021 and the case- sensitive password 79#Rk4V? For the April issue enter the username Apr_2021 and the case-sensitive password P7#95rl£. These details are also found on the contents page of each issue. X-Lakes put back. Following overwhelming interest in the 2021 X-Lakes Challenge, and to ensure a better chance of a successful and ‘Covid-safe’ event, the organisers have moved the dates back to June 26th and 27th. There has been substantial interest in both the two-day ‘Hardcore’ challenge and the entry-level ‘Day Tripper’ challenge. For details see this month’s Airmail or go to Paramotor Open brought forward. The British Paramotor Open has been brought forward from August and will now take place at Winglands airfield near Spalding in Lincolnshire on July 8th - 11th. For details go Paragliding World Champs. 200 pilots have pre-registered and the organisers at Coeur de Savoie in France hope to start the comp on May 23rd. There will be a curfew, restaurants will closed and there will be no food or drinks at comp HQ. A negative PCR test will be required; an onsite PCR lab will test pilots for their return home. The go/no-go deadline is March 15th; in the case of ‘no-go’ the event will be postponed until 2023. BHPA 500 Club WIN CASH PRIZES AND HELP THE ASSOCIATION! January winners Christopher Aegerter £130.40 David Forty £65.20 Adam Moores £32.60 Andrew Maddox £19.56 Jonathan Browne £16.30 Edward James Weare £16.30 Tony Mitchell £13.04 John Metcalf £13.04 Chris Dunford £9.78 Timothy Chandler £9.78 BHPA £326.00 If by the time you read this you have not received your cheque, please contact me on 07802 525099. Marc Asquith Kobo update Over the last eight years the Kobo/XCSoar combination has gained worldwide acceptance amongst free fliers and sailplane pilots. Even now it remains popular as a low-cost yet powerful ‘sunlight readable’ navigation aid and flight computer. For those relatively new to the sport, in summary the proposition entails: • Using a Kobo eReader as your flight computer and screen display • Adding a small instrument (e.g. a £60 Bluefly GPS/barometer/vario – www.blueflyvario.com) to provide positional and barometric/altitude data • Adding the XCSoar software to the Kobo eReader to provide a simple visual moving-map display, basic instrumentation and all the flight computations you’ll ever need. The Kobo Nia, released last Autumn, has been found to be a worthy successor to the Clara HD. Whilst the screen has a slightly lower resolution (212 vs 300dpi), the difference is undetectable. Usefully, the Nia doesn’t have the ‘first screen is blank’ startup quirk of the Clara HD. It’s also £20 cheaper, so without doubt it’s the unit of choice. For those considering a self-build, during testing we found the usual wiring route picked up EMF that disturbed the GPS signal. Mounting the Bluefly at the ‘other’ end was necessary to resolve this (see photo below). For those considering a second-hand unit, the table below lists all Kobo models and their compatibility with XCSoar (the Kobos highlighted in yellow are compatible with XCSoar). For further information, details on how to build a Kobo/XCsoar unit, or to purchase a ready-made unit, see Av ailability Model name Model number Screen Size Screen resolution XCSoar w orks? XCSoar supported? Ba ttery (mAh) SD card (Gb) ~Runtime (Hrs) Price guide (ne w) Current Nia N306 6” 212dpi 4 8 1,000 16 6 £90 Recent Clara HD N249 6” 300dpi 4 8 1,200 8 7 £110 Libra H20 N782 7” 1,200 8 £150 Forma N782 8” 1,200 8 £240 Discontinued Aura Ed 2 N236 6” 212dpi 4 4 1,200 4 7 (2016~2019) Aura One N709 7.8” 8 £190 Touch 2.0 N587 6” 170dpi 4 4 1,500 4 7 Glo HD N437 6” 300dpi 4 4 1,500 4 7 Aura H20 N250 6” Discontinued Glo N613 6” 212dpi 4 4 1,200 4 5.5 (2011~2015) Mini N705 5” 170dpi 4 4 1,000 4 4.5 Touch N905B &C 6” 170dpi 4 4 1,000 2 4.5 Touch N905 6” 170dpi 8 1,000 2 4.5 Aura HD N204B 7.8” 8 4 Aura N514 6” 4 N/A 4 wires from Bluefly (mounted on other side/fascia) Ground connection (alternative/improved connection) Kobo Serial port (avoiding difficult-to-solder ground connection)Next >