No. 418 FEBRUARY 2024 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association2 SKYWINGS FEBRUARY 2024 attitude Mindset – a case study BEN AKHTAR, MULTI-DISCIPLINE PILOT AND ENGINEER The term ‘mindset’ is thrown about a fair bit in almost every adventure sport. A quick google defines its meaning as ‘the established set of attitudes held by someone’. We all have a mindset at some level, and we all know why it’s important in relation to flying and other sports involving risk. What follows is not a repetition of the usual risk-awareness lessons but a personal case-study, a glance into my ‘first decade’ mindset as a 24-year-old pilot with a varied background. The point? To invite some thought on how mindsets can change between sports and sports cultures, and with age, experience, etc, and perhaps to prove or dispel some stereotypes. Some context: I began flying paragliders in 2013, aged 14, with no history or family links to aviation. A kid with a passion. With good instruction I was competing abroad in accuracy two or three years later, and had picked up winch, square and power (paramotor) ratings. From 2015 onwards I focused mostly on flying power, keeping average currency in the rest and working on a few flying projects. From 2018 onwards my professional life has been as an aeronautical engineer and fixed-wing pilot. My side sports or non-flying interests can be summed up as racing motorbikes, climbing, skiing and, recently, skydiving; I’ve always liked the psychological and personal-development aspects of all these sports. Learning young in paragliding and paramotoring brought early mindset challenges. There’s a general stereotype that anyone below 24-25 (particularly men) has an inability to be fully risk-aware. In fairness, this links to evidence that the prefrontal cortex (risk perception, judgement, impulse control) isn’t fully developed until your mid-twenties. Stereotypes generally exist for a reason, but it doesn’t mean risk perception can’t be actively taught and ingrained to the right mind at a young age. When I think of my own mindset, its clear attitude to risk comes from a mix of nature and nurture. I’ve always taken pride in being what I’d class as above-averagely risk aware, calculated in nature, but also fortunate to have had good nurturing from a young age to cement a stay-alive priority in all high- risk sports. The intricacies of how to stay alive are different in each, but my approach to progression in paragliding and paramotoring, fixed-wing flying, biking, etc, has always been fairly constant. I also believe that expanding into different recreational sports improves your own ‘universal risk approach’. It keeps you balanced (as you’re at a different working level in all), reinforces good risk- management habits, teaches you new ones and, when you meet setbacks, humbles you in all. Some form of professional influence definitely adds another layer to this sandwich of personal risk-awareness. For me this came from industry processes as a practising engineer, human and performance factors when working towards fixed-wing licences, and from working on some technical sponsored flying projects. In summary, I am glad to have built a ‘universal’ risk management capability, based on experience and experiences, that works for me to stay alive as best as I can for the years of adventures ahead. And, absolutely, you can achieve this when young. But everyone will still have their own take – risk perception is by nature a mix of personal limits unique to you. Some take the view that you can never be fully appreciative of risk until you have either seen or experienced something go wrong. I think this is similar in principle to empathy. For me, a paramotoring accident in 2016 resulted in a snapped femur and landed me a touch-and-go two weeks in ITU due to post-surgery complications. I’ve also been at my share of helimed scenes as a spectator. Experiences like these definitely change your mindset and risk awareness, as there’s no replacement to experiencing something first hand and knowing how it feels, or seeing the impacts on those around you. That said, accidents aren’t always a wake-up call with clear takeaways in terms of taking on an entirely new mindset – it depends on what level you were operating at before, and the nature of causation. Witnessing or experiencing an accident is by no means a requirement for a complete or balanced mindset, but it’s clear that it adds another layer, for good and in some cases bad. The above is mostly paragliding and paramotor specific, but it’s also interesting to see how your approach to risk changes (or doesn’t) between different sports. Early last season I spent a week in Spain learning to skydive. My personal limits on approaching a new sport as a beginner, and on progression, were as I’d imagined, and directly translated from free-flying. The physical risks as an Accelerated Free Fall student are very different to those of paragliding and paramotoring, but there is also some crossover, i.e. when under canopy where you’ll feel pretty much at home, particularly if you’ve flown squares before. Although being involved in other adventure sports probably gives you an advantage when it comes to mindset in skydiving, and in progressing in the right way (particularly in comparison to other students with no airsports background), freefall is a very different and ‘new’ environment that is totally unlike any other sport. It was no surprise that some of the best students on the course were the most ‘fearless’ and relaxed in freefall. They mostly came from backgrounds without any existing mindset through previous airsports, that might demand slower progression or greater confidence in ability before moving to the next stage. Experiences in the form of previous accidents or witnessing friends having accidents obviously changes you, even when looking across at other sports, whether you are experienced in them or not. So what’s the takeaway? Mindsets between sports, the risks they involve and even the cultures around them, are obviously different. Developing a balanced approach to risk perception and management is a good thing when you combine sports. And anyone, at any age, can have a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ attitude – pending their nature and experiences. Reflecting on how your mindset might change (or has changed) over time, and why, is also not a bad idea. I try to keep a rolling review of what I’m up to in the flying world, and where my head is at against currency in every sport. And finally, yes, your mindset and attitude to safety management is Priority 1, to stay alive and fly for as long as you can. But whoever’s having the most fun is always winning, so enjoying whatever you do should be Priority 2. Photo: Ben Akhtar4 SKYWINGS FEBRUARY 2024 regulars reviews features FEBRUARY 2024 SKYWINGS 5 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 Pierre Neveu and Ozone’s Buzz Z7 at Château de Peyrepertuse, Aude Photo: Antoine Boisselier THIS PAGE Ozone’s Power Manager, Emilia Plak, explores Iceland Photo: Matias Nombarasco 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 All issues of Skywings magazine are now freely available DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the April issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Friday March 1st. Letters for the March Airmail pages should arrive no later than Friday February 16th. Advertisement bookings for the March edition must arrive by Monday February 12th. Copy and classified bookings no later than the following Monday February 19th.6 SKYWINGS FEBRUARY 2024 news Ramón Morillas: another paramotor altitude record On December 23rd, using oxygen, Ramón Morillas and passenger Carlos Peña took a foot-launched paramotor to 7,186m (24,898ft) to claim not only the absolute foot-launched tandem altitude record, but also the fastest tandem climb to 6,000m at 1 hour 40 minutes. The pair were flying a Niviuk Takoo 5/PAP Tinox 1500 outfit powered by Vittorazi’s water-cooled Cosmos 300 engine, from Cenes de la Vega near Granada. Ramón, four times world champion, has held the solo foot-launched altitude record at 7,589m since 2009. The new record, if ratified by the FAI, will eclipse Ant Green and Eliot Nochet’s mark of 5,066m set in 2015. The current British solo altitude record was set at 6,629m (21,746ft) by Giles Fowler in 2015. Free hangie winch ratings at Suffolk club Suffolk Hang Gliding are offering free tuition to anyone seeking a winch tow rating in 2024. They also offer a hang gliding refresher course for anyone wanting to regain currency, under the watchful eyes of the club’s four senior tow coaches and many club coaches. The club’s base, at Mendlesham near Ipswich, has long runways facing most wind directions, giving an average tow height of around 1,000ft at a cost of £2 per tow. On any reasonable day 60% of the pilots at the field will go XC, and on a cracking day most will get away in the safe environment of the Suffolk flatlands’ big landing fields. Club membership costs just £36 per year. One of the Suffolk team is working towards a BHPA Instructor assessment, to enable the club to assist pilots from other schools to complete the CP syllabus. It is hoped to begin in late summer after the harvest, when almost the entire area becomes a landing zone. Anyone interested in any of the above courses should contact Steve Meadows Lakeland dinner invite Readers may recall reading (March 2023 Skywings) about the annual EHPU convention and dinner, hosted by the BHPA in the Lake District. This very successful gathering is now widely seen as a near-unrepeatable benchmark for such events. Last July the Royal Aero Club offered to host the annual conference of Europe Airsports – the voice of sports and recreational aviation in Europe. In the light of our recent experience in hosting such an event, and on condition that we could repeat the EHPU arrangements, the BHPA offered to organise the EAS conference. As a result the Association is organising a return of this event, albeit under a different banner, on Saturday March 23rd, at the Lakeside Hotel and Spa, Newby Bridge. The format will be the same as last year: the EAS AGM during the day, and events starting at 18:00 with a musical set from Kathryn Tickell and Amy Thatcher. A three-course dinner will follow, ending with Angus Pinkerton’s whisky-tasting lecture, plus drinking and socialising until late. A number of tickets for the evening function are available to BHPA members, on a first come, first served basis, at a cost (including wine) of £48. B&B at the hotel is £181.50 for a single- occupancy room, but there’s no obligation to stay there; dinner tickets can be purchased alone. Bookings should be made through the BHPA Office (01162 894316 not through the hotel, who will tell you that they are full! The booking deadline is imminent - don’t delay! The event is funded by the Royal Aero Club, Europe Airsports and sponsorship; no costs will fall on the BHPA budget. Lakes Charity Classic update The LCC, hosted in the Lake District by the Cumbria Soaring Club, runs at Grasmere on June 20th-23rd. The A and B competitions run on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd, with the coaching group – a great introduction to mountain flying – operating in parallel on the same days. The hardcore two-day X-Lakes race across the Wainwright fells also runs from Friday to Saturday; the one-day Academy race will be on the Friday, and Sunday 23rd will be a free-fly day. Camping is available throughout. Registration is open now at AirTribune – note 2024 fees reduction. [Ed Cleasby’s photo shows Heron Crag, north of Grasmere, during last year’s LCC] Buttermere Bash dates The UK’s greatest charity flying festival returns to Buttermere on May 31st-June 1st. Camping will be available from May 28th. Further details are on the Bash’s Facebook page. For tickets go New flying weather app Ginger Nomad have developed an easy-to-use weather app for the Peak District. The main flying parameters – wind direction, strength, strength at height – are already there and more functionality will be added soon, along with more flying areas. Add this to your phone’s home screen for instant access to Derbyshire weather, superimposed on a DSC sites rose. Very useful indeed! Find it at In brief Extra SRS date. In addition to the forthcoming SRS rounds at Berga in Spain, Montalegre in Portugal and Krushevo in Macedonia (see calendar), a final round has been announced for Saint André les Alpes in France on September 9th-15th. For details go Skysurfing repack. The Skysurfing club will be holding a parachute repacking event at Hamble, near Southampton, on Sunday March 10th from 12:00-16:00. Details from Brian Parkins Records fall at Iquique. On December 16th Benjamin Sepúlveda flew 308km from Iquique in Chile on a Gin Leopard, to claim the previously-unset South American triangle and out-and-return free distance (303km) records. A week later fellow Chilean Raúl Espejo reset Benjamin’s triangle mark to 323km, also lifting Tomaž Eržen’s 2022 Free out-and-return distance world record with a new mark of 315km. World records ratified. Clément Latour’s 311km out-and-return flight from Chalets de Vormy near le Grand Bornand last July has been ratified as a world and European record, along with the 300km O/R speed record at 35.16km/h. The flight eclipses Tomaž Eržen’s, 304.9km distance from 2022 and Jošt Napret’s 32.1km/h speed mark from 2018. More world records ratified! Justin Puthod’s recordacious July flights from Annecy’s Planfait have netted FAI approval of his 50km triangle speed claim of 43.1km/h at both World, European and Junior World levels. His 40.7km/h over a 25km triangle four days earlier has yet to be ratified. Justin is still just 23!It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it! First you have to dig out twelve issues of this gazette from January to December 2023. Then you must visually scan the front covers in the hope that you’ve marked the page number, author or title of an article that has grabbed your attention. Out of the twelve copies in front of me, I see that there are no less than eight potential winners. That’s great. So I get reading … First I’m going to start with a hang glider pilot. Halfway through the year, in June, I liked the Pilot Profile of Sam Keyes, CFI with Fly like a Bird in North Devon. There are pearls of wisdom and some nice humour in his answers to the questions put to him. In the same issue, Ian Grant’s From Harting to the Dyke relates a paragliding adventure along the South Downs with two friends. A great piece of writing that captures the excitement of the occasion wonderfully. Another candidate was Paul Robinson; I enjoyed reading his account in the May issue of his first XC milestone: The Excitement and Challenge of the BCC. But in the end this prestigious annual award goes to … Gary Burchett. He started to tell his story, with the intriguing title It’s now or never, Gaz … in September’s Skywings, concluding with Part 2 in the December issue. Many pilots have done an SIV course, but how many have gone on to learn how to perform Acro? That’s what Gary writes about in his no-holds-barred account of two trips to Oludeniz. He discovers what it takes to enter into this almost-forbidden world, where two reserves are essential requirements to your flying kit! Congratulations Gary. Mike Hibbit news Saturday February 24th at 11am Holywell Park Conference Centre, Loughborough University, LE11 3GR • Election of Officers to BHPA Executive Committee • Officers’ reports to AGM • Presentation of BHPA Awards • Members’ discussion forum Wings Over a Cloud Award 2023 AGM 2024 the AGM will be live streamed for all to participate - see the BHPA website or the BHPA Facebook page for detailsParakite training Black Mountains-based Crickhowell Paragliding are the UK’s Pro Partner (aka dealer) with Flare, developers of the Moustache wing and more recently the Line parakite. They are now offering training to CP-qualified Hill and Speed Fly Hill pilots on parakites and on the Flow Mullet. These wings are said to provide great soaring in strong conditions, and the ability to proximity speed-fly on shallower slopes than a normal speed wing requires. Their reflex profile and the riser system’s ‘depower’ ability (hang glider-like pitch control) allows pilots to launch, fly and land in strong conditions with greater comfort than with a traditional mini wing. To enquire about training contact Early flight book For those interested in the earliest days of aviation, US early-flight authority Simine Short has brought out another book on the American pioneer Octave Chanute. Flight Not Improbable – Octave Chanute and The Worldwide Race Toward Flight is probably the most comprehensive book on Chanute ever: 441 pages, fully- illustrated throughout. Flight Not Improbable is published by Springer Biographies at £19.99 (ebook) and £24.99 (hardback). 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BHPA 500 Club WIN CASH PRIZES AND HELP THE ASSOCIATION! December winners: Dan Bailey-Taylor £129.00 Dan Haycocks £64.50 Matthew Grose £32.25 Mike Hibbit £19.35 Russell Hicks £16.13 Merlin Crossingham £16.13 Gerald Nolan £12.90 Brian Gittings £12.90 Gerald Nolan £9.68 Mike Cowley £9.68 BHPA £322.48 Winners will note that payments of the above sums have been made to the account from which they contribute to the 500 Club by standing order. In case of error, please contact Marc Asquith on 07802 525099.Next >