No. 388 AUGUST 2021 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding AssociationWe can calculate a reasonable annual risk of death for licensed pilots by the number of deaths of licensed pilots/licenses granted annually. The resultant odds are absolute for an average flying career (i.e. not the annual risk). Even though that is the wrong measure of risk. The notion of holistic risk optimisation occurred to me whilst driving back from a day’s flying. I had noticed how much calmer and safer my driving was after experiencing fairly boisterous air, and enjoying the mental quiescence associated with reduced (healthier) stress levels. There is also evidence that we each manage a personal risk budget and spend it according to our inclinations. Our risk- averse culture leads us to top-up risk; participation in extreme/dangerous sports has increased in step with safety culture. Maybe I was driving back sedately because of reduced stress levels – or maybe it was that I had used up my risk budget for that day. Or both? Free flight should be classified as a risky activity, but the question to ask when assessing the risk of an activity is not how risky the activity is, but how risk exposure would change if the activity ceased. Where risk is being assessed, the flipside also needs to be considered. The same applies to benefits, so where is the balance point? There are three scenarios to consider to help us understand this: Scenario 1: The individual pursues a crossover risky activity. Crossover activities such as mountaineering, like paragliding, carry risk which is dependent more on the attitude of the participant than the inherent risks of the activity. The risks taken with the crossover activity are therefore dependent on the perception of risk in spending the risk budget. Marathon running is quite a risky activity. That this seems surprising suggests that risk is underestimated. The opposite probably applies to skydiving. Perception of risk has conscious and subconscious components. I don’t know anyone who uses a spreadsheet for risk budgeting; it is the subconscious perception of risk that will form our approach to the crossover activity in an attempt to meet our risk budget. If our perception of risk is out of kilter, the crossover activity could be more or less risky than the displaced one. Scenario 2: The individual pursues a more sedentary life. Like stress, risk will be flattened so that chronic low-level risk will become more significant due to health and stress issues, but the peaks of acute risk will be reduced. In short, Scenario 2 will extend a few people’s lives dramatically, but shorten most modestly. If we are assigning equal value to every stage of life, and if we could gather the data, this is a simple calculation. Scenario 3: The individual finds an alternative active but not risky pastime. If physical risk is curtailed but the benefits of outdoor exercise are retained, the surplus risk budget could be spent on things with a positive or negative outcome, like starting a successful business or binge-drinking. People are poor at understanding personal fulfilment. It could be that spending time building dens with their children, rather than sitting on a hillside staring at the movement of gnats, brings them the lifelong sense of fulfilment that sustains contented old age, as well as reducing risk. Probably best park that one. In holistic danger therapy we must consider the impact on people other than the subject. Primarily family, but also those whose job it is to deal with the issues of health and accident. Although consideration is given to the paramedics and pilots who attend accidents, we should also consider those who oversee the slow decline in health that comes with age. So far I have been framing these arguments in terms of deaths. This has the advantage that it is purportedly a binary and well-documented condition, whereas injuries have a scale from a broken fingernail to complete physical incapacity. Like many, I have a greater fear of the latter than of actual death. What we fear here is loss of self – that is, those qualities that we value from which we construct our self-image. The risk calculation for disablement is a similar one to death and does not change our calculation much. However some people fear the loss of self associated with old age more than death. The logical outcome for this sort of risk calculation is an inversion of the process, such that risky pursuits become an insurance policy against old age. The worst outcome would then be physical incapacity into old age, meaning the best strategy would be to engage in activities which are usually fatal when they go wrong. Examples would be free soloing, cave diving, base jumping. People may mimic this extreme mindset when they identify so little with their future selves that they assign no weight to their later years in the risk calculation. It’s obvious we can’t put numbers to the holistic risk-reward calculation and must fall back on wisdom, including the oft- repeated mantra in paragliding circles: Be honest with yourself about your motives, abilities, equipment and currency. I would add: Do not consider the investment of the journey to launch, or how long till you can fly again, or that you have unpacked your wing in your decision whether to launch. These things help inform the final pivotal holistic decision point, the sublime moment when the notional becomes real and you step off the ground to dream once more that you are free. 2 SKYWINGS AUGUST 2021 ‘It was the right decision not to fly,’ is often said to a crestfallen pilot. Logically, given that flying increases risk, it is always the right decision not to fly – so well done to the 99% of the population who never fly and thereby reduce risk. Don’t they? Holistic danger therapy? Alan Spey, paraglider pilot and data analyst attitude4 SKYWINGS AUGUST 2021 regulars regulars 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 Chrigel Maurer en route to a seventh Red Bull X-Alps win Photo: Lukas Pilz/Red Bull Content Pool THIS PAGE North-South Cup pilots crossing the river Usk in June Photo: Hugh Miller AUGUST 2021 SKYWINGS 5 regulars reviews features 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 The BHPA Exec have determined to remove password protections for a trial period of six months. All issues of Skywings magazine are now freely available at DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the October issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Friday September 3rd. Letters for the September Airmail pages should arrive no later than Monday August 16th. Advertisement bookings for the September edition must arrive by Saturday August 14th. Copy and classified bookings no later than Thursday August 19th.6 SKYWINGS AUGUST 2021 news Maurer does it again! Multiple X-Alps champion Chrigel Maurer claimed a seventh consecutive victory on June 28th after flying nearly 400km from Fiesch on the penultimate of the 2021 race. Maurer made the Zell am See finish line in eight days, six and a half hours. Almost a day later, Patrick von Kanel and Simon Oberrauner finished second and third. Two days earlier, French pilots Benoît Outters and Maxime Pinot had been close to Chrigel in the Mont Blanc region and Maxime was ahead at one point. However Maurer chose to route north of the main Alpine chain despite a forecast of strong winds and thunderstorms; Pinot, Outters, Oberrauner and von Känel headed south to Italy. The rest really is history. Maxime Pinot and Benoît Outters also reached Zell am See before the clock – and the race – stopped, with 15 pilots still in the hunt behind them. These included lone British entrant Steve Bramfitt in 16th place overall, 330km from goal, and sole remaining female entrant Yael Margelisch in 18th at 412km. Despite renewed interest from several manufacturers in building X-Alps gliders to take advantage of the event’s growing profile, the top ten pilots were flying just three makes of wing. The first two pilots home, along with those in 6th and 8th place, were aboard Advance’s Omega X- Alps; Skywalk X-Alps pilots took 3rd, 7th and 10th places; and the new Ozone Zeolite took 4th, 5th and 9th. With a superb publicity machine, no big incidents or rescues, and an exciting new 1200km route taking in Mont Blanc, the 10th edition of the X-Alps has been a resounding success. As for Maurer … words fail! Electric circumnavigation Sacha ‘Flight of the Swans’ Dench’s latest expedition is an anti-clockwise flight around Britain that began at Loch Lomond on June 26th. Her Round Britain Climate Challenge, the first attempted circumnavigation of mainland Britain with an electric paramotor, is designed to draw attention to climate issues. The trip, heavily sponsored by green industry as well as Dudek, Parajet, SkyDemon and Spanish paramotor manufacturer Paracell, is designed to inspire the UK to get involved in tackling the climate crisis ahead of November’s COP26 summit. Sacha will be landing frequently to gather information from individuals and communities, schools, farmers, entrepreneurs, etc. A compilation of these stories will be presented at the summit in November. ‘I want to capture the imaginations of the young and old, rural and urban, and focus on answers to the climate crisis,’ says Sacha. ‘We’ll be investigating how climate change is affecting different regions of the country, and showing progress in cutting carbon to preserve and restore our environment.’ Follow her progress at Wacky Weekend breaks records Lincolnshire’s Wingland airfield hosted its biannual Wacky Weekend on June 11th-13th in superb weather. The resident British Bulldogs paramotor club pilots from across the UK to a weekend of flying, raising £3,500 for Macmillan Cancer Support and the local air ambulance in the process. Local microlight pilots joined in, as did, a number of gyrocopters and a (small) airship. Chris Thompson, Bulldogs’ club chairman, said, ‘We’re determined to do some pretty special things here in Lincolnshire, whether amazing XCs for our pilots or welcoming national and international guests who come to experience our hospitality and amazing coastline.’ Ufly4fun CFI Mike Chilvers reported, ‘This is quite a moment for the airfield, and for us and the Bulldogs club. We’ve had the highest attendance of pilots and raised our largest-ever amount for the charities we support. As well as an amazing airfield we also have a great team of people, who will do whatever is needed to give a great experience of flying here.’ Airfield owners Pete and Jenny Higgins have worked hard to make Wingland a Mecca for paramotorists. Pilots from all over Lincolnshire are becoming members; Wingland’s reasonable prices allow them to recover their costs in just a couple of weekends. Wingland’s next Wacky Weekend is set to take place between 28th and 30th August 2021. Info is at Photo: D an Burton/ Conserv ation Without BordersBy the time you read this the first Charly Vitesse helmets should be with their UK customers. Manufactured by the expensive “Inmould” process, weights start at only 380 gm, making this the perfect paragliding and hike and fly helmet. Weigh your old helmet to make a comparison! Colours are stunning: White/Pearl, Cyan/Blue, Black/Silver, Lime/Green, and Lemon/Orange, and I have ordered them in all sizes from XS (53-55cm) to XXXL (64-65cm). Each helmet has an adjustable headband which really does give a precise and comfortable fit. They can also cater for narrow and round heads, giving new hope to those people who struggle to find a helmet that fits. I have ordered them all, although some will not be included in the first delivery. The website should have the whole When great gliders come along I just have to buy them. This large Airborne Sting 2 XC is only £1500, but I am open to offers! Form an orderly queue….. Things don’t always sell as quickly as I think they should. I have had this gorgeous, almost unused Nova Ion 4 for a few months, so make me an offer! EN B, 80-100 kg AUW, and a very versatile machine. Among the mountains of used kit I have for sale is this Double Gliderider. The genuine article, serviced and as good as new and with added padding! £110 ono. The Firebird Mowenpik is still my all-time favourite reversible PG harness. This one is medium size and in great condition, so is something of a bargain at £395. If somebody doesn’t buy it soon, I will! Oh. I already did…. I have several HG harnesses too. This Aeros Viper is almost unused, and I also have a large Moyes Matrix and a selection of Von Blon Silents. Give me your sizes and I’ll give you some options Rucksacks, stuffsacks, HG bags, Flying suits, I have both new and used at clearance prices. Check the website, or call for a chat. I’m in and out of the office – out more if the weather is good! My Vintage glider selection is slowly thinning out. Anyone looking for a really nice Airwave Magic Kiss in flyable condition? I will only sell it to a good home, but am open to offers. I hope to be flying again very soon, but until that time my friends and customers (much the same thing….) are doing it for me. None more dynamically so than Jezzer who, when the BOS looked likely to be wet, followed the forecast to Scotland and had several epic XC flights. Next plan is to sally forth to comps in Spain and Slovenia. Golly! 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 is being replaced by the new Vitesse, and I have a small selection in all sizes, white or black, price reduced to £55 each! 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 Simon Murphy’s Flying Circus tel: 01404 891685 Luppitt, Honiton, Devon, EX14 4SA Charly Helmets New Helmets!8 SKYWINGS AUGUST 2021 news St Hilaire festival After cancelling last year’s event, the Coupe Icare organisers are doing everything possible to make the 2021 festival happen on September 12th - 19th. Several alternative courses are being imagined and prepped, and organiser Daniel Raibon-Pernoud insists that the festival, his last as head of the team, will take place. Even if the fabled gathering of flyers is limited to a digital projection of the film festival – the worst-case scenario – Daniel intends on keeping his word. The film festival has two year’s worth of flying films to get through and should be a humdinger. All the usual attractions – trade fair, testival, airshow, film screenings, tandem rides, kids’ attractions and the fly-down carnival – are planned in and will go ahead in some form. Daniel and his team are to be commended for their belief in the festival and their determination to run it come what may. If there is one event in the free flying universe that everyone should attend at least once it is St Hilaire. Information and updates are at Skywings online Since January 2016 Skywings has been available online both in a viewable page-turning format and as a downloadable pdf. Whilst older editions are open for anyone to view, the BHPA Exec initially determined that each issue would be password-protected for six months before being made freely available without the need to log in. Exec has always said that a move to an online-only version of the magazine appears to be inevitable at some point, but only once the take-up of the online version is significant. In fact the take-up of the online version of Skywings has been extremely low to date; some readers have said the passwords have been hard to copy. As an experiment to try to judge the popularity of the online version of Skywings, Exec have determined to remove the password protections for a trial period of six months, starting immediately. We reserve the right to re-introduce these should we feel it necessary or appropriate, but we hope that this trial goes well. The July 2021 online issue of Skywings magazine is now freely available at the foreseeable future, Skywings will continue to be delivered in hard copy through the post to your door. Northern Skies successes Ric Womersley’s new paramotor school near Goole (see Skywings, June) is already producing results. Computer programmer Phil Wood, 49, from Baildon in West Yorks, has wanted to paramotor for a couple of years. Initially delayed by the pandemic, his first lesson was on May 27th and his first flight a fortnight later on June 13th, along with a number of other students who were nearing the end of their courses. ‘I just want to enjoy the experience,’ he reports. ‘If I could go up with a pipe, slippers and a mug of hot chocolate it would be my perfect flight. Northern Skies benefits from very easy access off J34 of the M62. For details contact Ric at 07713 477069 or go to Rob Softly] New tracklog-analysis app Jeremy Soper, aka Soperman, has created a web app, XCBuddy, which analyses .igc cross-country gliding tracklog files, instantaneously generating numerical and graphical flight reports on glide and climb performance for hang gliders, paragliders and sailplanes. As greater numbers of glides and thermals are collated over multiple flights, glide polars and corresponding speed-to-fly curves emerge from the averages, useful for comparing different gliders quantitatively. Multiple same-day flights can be used to compare competition tactics, whilst sufficient numbers of flights over time can detect performance deterioration due to wing ageing, or gains thanks to improvements in technique. Check it out at Buddy next month. Pi 3 weights Keen readers of the spec table for the Advance Pi 3 (June Skywings) may have noticed our unforced error. Here is the corrected version of the certificated weight ranges for each size Pi 3 in different certification classes. More Model 16 19 21 23 25 27 EN/LTF A (kg) 60-85 70-95 80-105 92-115 EN/LTF B (kg) 50-95 85-100 95-110 105-120 115-125 EN/LTF C (kg) 50-90 In brief Paragliding distance record – 610km! On June 26th US pilot Sebastien Kayrouz flew 610km from Del Rio, Texas on an Ozone Enzo 3. In one flight he has claimed Rafael Saladini’s 587km free- distance-via-three-turnpoints world record of 2019, the previously- unset free distance world record at 610km ... and Guy Anderson and Harry Bloxham’s 2019 straight-distance-to-goal world record at 555km – only ratified five weeks earlier after a record delay! Sebastien is also able to claim all three of the above records at North American regional level. 610km is about the straight-line distance from London to Loch Lomond! Murray Rose. Hang gliding pioneer, designer, constructor and guiding hand for many pilots, Murray Rose, 79, died on June 30th. After service in the Royal Navy Murray became a motor racing engineer. In the early 1970s he began to design and build Chargus gliders, and in 1975 flew in the first-ever hang gliding World Championships. 20 years later he conceived Speed Hang Gliding – a low-level downhill speed trial around pylons – and engineered an FAI World Championship in the discipline. In recent years he lived in France, writing nautical books under the name Walter Gunn. [Appreciations of Murray’s Life appear New British paramotor champion. Ric Womersley became the new British Paramotor Champion after 16 hours of flying over three days at the British Open Championships at Winglands airfield in early July. 13 pilots flew in the Open class with a further seven competing in Discovery. ‘It was definitely the most flying I’ve done in a single competition,’ said Ric. ‘The speed and stability of my Ozone Speedster 3 allowed me to cover over 600km in some very active skies.’ Ric also secured the Precision Trophy. Full report next month. British hang gliding Nationals cancelled. With ever-changing restrictions and too many unknowns, it has been decided to cancel the British Nationals scheduled for Laragne on August 18th - 31st. A second round of the BOS may be held on the same dates. For further details go to European distance. Finland’s Jouni Makkonen is claiming a new European paragliding straight-distance record after a 500.86km Enzo 3 flight in his home country on June 11th. The flight surpasses Bogdan Bazyuk’s 2015 record of 429km. The world record stands at 582km. Dragonfly fatality at Morningside, USA. Paul Harrison, 54, an experienced aerotow tug pilot, died on July 12th after a Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly tug, landing at Morningside Flight Park in New Hampshire, hit a power line. The pilot, Ilya Rivkin, 47, remains in hospital with non-life threatening injuries. There has recently been some discussion about whether taking part in competitions that offer prizes could invalidate your insurance. The short answer is yes … and no. For third-party liability cover there are no issues. The BHPA master policy contains no exclusions in respect of competitions where prizes or prize money is on offer. However for travel, personal accident and rescue cover the situation is different. Many policies contain an exclusion for professional activities such as competitions. The concern arises if the insurers were to view the offer of prizes as making the flight commercial or professional, and use that as a reason not to honour cover. The reality is that prizes on offer in UK comps are rare and of very modest value. While I’ve personally never won, nor am ever likely to win, anything more valuable than a T-shirt, and I’d still be overjoyed to win even that, I see no reason to panic and eschew such token prizes. Overseas prizes can occasionally be more significant, but at any level still fall well short of a means of supporting yourself. Would that we suffered the hardships and problems of sponsors offering huge sums to attract the finest participants that sports like golf and tennis have to bear. The ‘yes’ bit arises from accident cover overseas, where we have already seen one company of insurers try to argue that the pilot was participating in professional sports. A while ago a British pilot was involved in an extremely serious accident in Spain, and the insurers were refusing to pay the hospital treatment and repatriation costs on exactly those grounds. Had it not been for Jenny Buck sitting in the insurers’ office for eight hours they would have stuck to their position, with terrible medical and financial consequences. An argument about insurance cover is not something you want to have in the back of an ambulance. You can always talk to your insurer before travelling (I’d get it in writing too) but, given the difficulty in getting cover in the first place, this may backfire. As things stand the best advice is to avoid comps offering anything beyond trivial prizes, because (perhaps sadly) their value is not likely to make it worth the risk. Bill Bell, BHPA Competitions Officer Competition prizes: be careful!Next >