No. 435 JULY 2025 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association On Tuesday March 25th, after not flying for seven or eight months due to life constraints, I returned to the air at Bell Hill. It was my longest time of not flying since I started in 2020. I want to share some details of the experience, and some thoughts which others who have been out of it for some time may relate to. I did have some nervous thoughts. What if your piloting muscle memory is gone? What if the wing shoots and you don’t catch it? Can I trust myself to pilot this wing competently if I haven’t been flying for quite a while? I was back in a ‘school’ mindset: not yet having trust in one’s abilities to fly – self-doubt, but somewhat based on reality. I responded to my inner voice in kind. OK, you are back to super- beginner mode. You are going to go to the take-off, get your gear out, see what people are doing and saying, ground handle for a good 15 minutes to get the feel of the wing. And then, if you feel good, take a short flight. But it’s totally OK to go without flying – just ground-handling a little and going home would be a massive win. Having moved the goalposts much nearer I relaxed a bit. The Windy forecast was 9-18 mph; knowing that Bell usually calms down in the evening I thought I’d get there in the afternoon and wait it out. Approaching the hill I saw lots of wings in the air. This activated a memory of many afternoons approaching Bell, seeing wings in the air, getting excited and having a great flight. This triggered dormant thought patterns, and I found myself mentally annotating the pilots’ flight paths. He is going to try nip round that corner; he is heading back to landing and will turn any second now … and there we go! This brought other things to mind in a rush of thought, my ‘paraglider pilot self’ reawakening after a long sleep. I got my gear out and chatted with some other pilots, but found myself in something of a mental fog when setting up. Oh, I remember this, this is how it goes. Yeah, gosh, it’s been a while! It’s funny how mentally distant things become after just a few months. As lots of people were flying I walked halfway down the slope to ground-handle for a bit. Strapped in, I brought the wing up. It came up pretty strong, and after controlling it I found myself in the air! A gust must have come by, and even halfway down the slope I got plucked up. I guess I’m going for a flight! I found myself struggling to get into the pod. I couldn’t remember how I used to do it so easily, so I left it and just focused on piloting the wing, an old Rush 4 I had just acquired. The previous owner had upgraded the brake handles and added acro grips. It was unfamiliar, but after a few seconds I was like, Wow! This is so much easier than using the brake handles! I fiddled with the pod and got into it once I had some height, and ended up having a 43-minute flight! The air was strong, gusty, thermic and turbulent – not what I was expecting for my first flight after such a break. I was just trying to fly it and keep it simple. The most interesting thing was this: for the first 30 minutes or so I found myself kind of like a ‘middle manager’. My body and muscle memory weren’t on autopilot and weren’t reacting immediately to wing feedback. Due to the sometimes-turbulent conditions the wing needed active piloting. When it tried to shoot forward after hitting a thermic bubble I found myself giving instructions to my body from my brain how to react: OK, it’s going to shoot in 3, 2, 1 – brake hard now! My mental bandwidth was entirely taken up by piloting, with nothing spare. However mentally inefficient this was, my brain was in ‘manual pilot mode’ giving instructions for every piece of wing feedback. After about 35 minutes I noticed my body starting to relax and pilot the wing intuitively, automatically catching it shooting on the brakes, spontaneously stabilising it using weight-shift if it rolled out of a turn, etc. As my mental bandwidth slowly eased up I started to relax. I still didn’t enter the thermals that everyone was going for. I had faint memories of my last flight at Bell, assertively wheeling my wing in a tight turn to carve into a narrow thermal, buffeted by winds trying to push me out, my vario beeping, totally in flow state and having a great time. But I just didn’t have the muscle memory for that level of flying right now, or spare mental bandwidth for more things to think about. Instead I flew up and down the lift band in as simple a way as possible. It took me a while to land due to the huge amounts of lift, but by the end of the flight my body was really starting to remember. I top landed nicely on my feet, thank God, and kited the wing back. One thing I noticed: I had remembered to do everything before strapping in – except inflate my back protector! When the autopilot is rusty we forget things! I have been through some difficult experiences in the last seven months, and not having paragliding was extra difficult for me as it is a great source of joy! Yet today I noticed that I was a much more mentally stable pilot, more skillful at dealing with the constant doubts that come up whilst flying: Maybe it will collapse! Maybe that wind is a gust front and you need to land now! It seems that paragliding had been something of an emotional crutch for me; not having it for so long has been kind of a gift. Because I have learned to develop positive internal thoughts that aren’t dependent on anything external, even in difficult times, those neural pathways have, thank God, become part of me without me even noticing until now. When I started having nervous/scared/self-doubt thoughts in the air, unlike eight months ago when I would need to mentally debunk them, this time I found I had a stream of positivity flowing through me. I was dealing with the negative thoughts without having to devote precious mental bandwidth to them. I suspect the best pilots have the best mental management. When things become really challenging they never run out of mental bandwidth because they are using their minds in the most efficient way, without negativity in their thought processes clogging it up. Being away from paragliding for eight months has been interesting. Things I took for granted – a chat on take-off, meeting amazing people who are into the same niche thing that you are, or feeling a pleasant slight sunburn on my face when getting home – was pretty exciting and brought back good memories. It is these little details in the experience that give so much. I’m grateful to be part of this sport, and club, and look forward to many more great flights with you all. Returning to the air DUDI ROSS, PARAGLIDER PILOT 2 SKYWINGS JULY 2025 attitude4 SKYWINGS JULY 2025 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 Franck Van de Maele and Gin Calypso 2 at Col des Frêtes, Lake Annecy Photo: Jérôme Maupoint THIS PAGE Brilliant acro shot from the 2025 Buttermere Bash in May Photo: Danny Taylor 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 All issues of Skywings magazine are now freely available DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the September issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Wednesday July 30th. Letters for the August Airmail pages should arrive no later than Friday July 18th. Advertisement bookings for the August edition must arrive by Friday July 11th. Copy and classified bookings no later than the following Friday July 18th.JULY 2025 SKYWINGS 56 SKYWINGS JULY 2025 news To be in Scotland in May! It’s generally reckoned that, every year, there are maybe a couple of weeks in May when the Scottish Highlands are the place to be. On May 20th Joe Dart took advantage of these exceptional conditions to set a new UK triangle record: 139km on his Zeno 2 from Mount Blair in the southern Cairngorms. Next day, Highland pilot Matt Church identified a window to shoot for 200km from the far north. This resulted in Matt and Joe, Oliver Carr of the LLSC and Aberdeen pilots Neil Rollings and Julian Robinson assembling at Warwick Lister-Kaye’s place near Inverness to push north for Quinag in trackless Sutherland the next day. ‘Airborne from Quinag at 10:30, broken thermals and strong leesides were the fuel of the day,’ reported Joe. ’After Ullapool we hit turbulence. I dived at a mess of fast-forming cloud to find 4- up, but Jules hesitated and we were separated.’ Some pilots with nothing better to do were watching this adventure unfolding live on Puretrack. It was riveting. One by one the other pilots dropped out: Oliver at 100km, Matthew at 148km, Warwick at 153km, Julian at 158km and Neil at 162km. But Joe just kept going. ‘Ben Nevis wasn’t quite on the way,’ he reported, ‘but I didn’t take much persuading and made a course correction to overfly it, 156km in, at about 17:50.’ [See photo above] To those watching online it was astonishing: Joe was still in the air an hour later, eventually coming to earth at Loch Tulla near Bridge of Orchy after 195.7km and over eight hours in the air. An amazing flight, coming on the heels of the triangle record and also two 185km+ flights from Malvern on May 9th and 10th. Also on May 9th, Carl Wallbank, now flying an Aèriane Swift, set a Class 2 and all-classes hang glider triangle record at 217km from Malvern Aerotow. Next day Jeremy Soper flew 211km from Malvern to Anglesey, so far the year’s best hang glider straight distance. There were stacks more big flights on those two days, including six 200km+ paraglider flights on May 9th and seven on the 10th, mostly from Malvern. And over 230km from messrs. Robinson, Carter (x2), Meek, Guthrie and Cruickshank from Parlick to goal at Dunbar. Passing just 6km from Morecambe Bay, Julian was close to a UK coast-to-coast record. It’s been a May to remember! Paramotors buzz (around) RAF Marham RAF Marham in Norfolk, home of the F-35B Lightning, saw a change of pace on April 30th when the sound of two-stroke engines replaced the roar of jets. The Bulldog Paramotor Club had been invited to fly from and around the base during a carefully- coordinated evening safe time period. The opportunity to fly down an operational runway was not to be missed and the event attracted a great turnout. The objective was to give local pilots a chance to fly in an area ordinarily to be avoided, and to generate interest in the sport for those based at Marham. Both aims were met; the group enjoyed a few hours of flying and hosted interested onlookers who had been drawn to see what was going on. A fun and informative evening was had before normal military airfield operations resumed. ‘My sincere thanks to the Royal Air Force for the incredible opportunity,’ said Bulldog pilot Lee Jackson afterwards. ‘Being able to fly paramotors at a base with such important strategic and technological relevance was an honor. It’s a privilege few of us civvies are lucky enough to experience, especially at such a time. We are deeply grateful for your generosity and professionalism, and for sharing a glimpse of the important work you do.’ Report: S/L Cosbie-Ross; image: AS2 Coulton. Paragliding Worlds team selected The 19th FAI Paragliding World Championship will be held at Castelo in Brazil from August 30th to September 13th. The UK will field an incredibly strong team consisting of 2024 Europeans Silver medallist Seb Ospina, 2023 World Champion Russ Ogden, young-pretender and ex Junior teamster Dylan Mansley, longtime stalwart of British World and European teams Martin Long, and accomplished competition pilot Magdalena Janaway, who was second placed woman at the Roldanillo Open in January. The team will be led and managed by Richard Meek. The selection process has been in line with Comps Panel rules designed to find and field our strongest team – see Augstburger award BHPA Chair Jenny Buck was on hand at Bavaria’s Joint Services Centre on May 21st to present Karl Augstburger with a BHPA Merit Award on his retirement. Karl, a DHV Senior Instructor, tandem pilot and examiner, had just concluded his final EP course having trained over 7,000 service personnel in 25 years of service at JULY 2025 SKYWINGS 7 CALL THE SPECIALISTS 0800 5999 101 FOR BHPA MEMBERS life insurance EST 1989 Run by Pilots for Pilots We Fly What You Fly! Protect Your Family, Mortgage or Business 205 SkywingParamotors skyscraper ad 0125-297x104.indd 1 Oberstdorf and elsewhere. Within the Services Karl’s patience, precise instructional technique and analytical debriefs are legendary. Photo shows Paul Mahoney, Karl, Jenny Buck and Centre OC Maj. Carlos Vickers. Tinto windfarm news The drive towards net zero and cleaner energy has led to a tsunami of windfarm proposals, particularly in Scotland. As reported in the May issue, this has led to a need for a cross- border connection to export the electricity. There are also proposals to build solar farms in England. A windfarm just south-west of Tinto, first proposed in 2022, was to consist of six turbines of up to 136m diameter and a maximum height of 150m. When the developer failed to engage with the free flying community the LLSC, with SHPF and BHPA support, submitted an objection. When the local authority rejected the planning application, the developer hired consultants and a legal team to launch an appeal to the Scottish Government. Recently, after much argument and counter-argument, the appeal was withdrawn. ‘I’m sure that our objections were only part of the story,’ writes BHPA sites officer Martin Baxter. ‘The military and environmental lobbies also objected, but the questions asked by the planning authority indicate that our views were taken seriously. The development rights (sic) have now passed to another onshore windfarm company for an undisclosed sum. ‘Much of the detail of the case was quite technical,’ says Martin. ‘Suffice it to say that we now have an archive of background information and are familiar with the arguments involved. Developers may now also be more aware of our activities, although this could be a double-edged sword. If your club is faced with a similar development, please feel free to approach me for information and advice. Be aware that I am a part-time volunteer, and that most of the work will ultimately fall to you. ‘One key lesson we have learned is that early engagement is essential. The more money that a developer has poured into a project, the less inclined they will be to compromise. Don’t ignore that initial email or voicemail in the hope that it will all go away. If you put the effort in you can win.’ Exploring fear in flight We all know that fear is part of flying, but how does it really affect us, and what helps some pilots manage it better than others? Researchers at the University of Portsmouth are exploring how paraglider pilots respond psychologically to witnessing or hearing about accidents. This phenomenon, known as fear injury, can increase fear, impact performance, or even reduce participation in paragliding. Their study is investigating how resilience, risk perception, gender and experience influence this process. All active or recently active BHPA paraglider pilots are invited to complete a brief, anonymous online questionnaire 8 SKYWINGS JULY 2025 news (approx. 10-15 minutes). Whether you are a seasoned pilot or just starting out, your perspective could help build a clear understanding of how fear influences safety and progression in the sport. Please consider taking part; the findings aim to support better mental health and safety strategies for pilots. See lead researcher Sophie Ryan’s more detailed explanation, and a link to the questionnaire, on page 24 of this issue. New H&F event for Grasmere This year’s Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show on August 24th will include a new H&F event. Brainchild of local pilot (and distiller!) Paul Abbott, the race is intended to cement the longstanding relationship between the Grasmere show and the Cumbria club. Overseen by X-Lakes director John Westall, tracking for the one-day race will be live-screened in the arena and there will be cash prizes for the winners. Already slated to contest the event are Tom Hodgkin, Richard Mackie, Paul Abbott and Junior Worlds teamster Jacob Aubrey. Initially only for 12 pilots, it is hoped to run a B competition for less-experienced pilots next year. Details are at New model for airspace design June 2nd saw a big CAA fanfare, even reaching national news bulletins, for the rollout of its new Airspace Design Service (UKADS). This is billed as a ‘single guiding mind’ to deliver the ‘holistic, modernised design for UK airspace’ imagined by the CAA’s slow-burning Airspace Modernisation Strategy (AMS). It’s largely targeted at facilitating fuel-saving arrival and departure profiles – and widespread drone ops. And, probably, more places like Southend becoming cheapie-flight hubs. Unlike the situation in most other countries, UK airspace design is delivered via a complex model where multiple airports and NATS individually sponsor and fund airspace change proposals. It’s generally reckoned to be a mess. However the driving force for change is coming from government, the airlines, drone developers and NATS, not bottom-feeders like recreational GA and free fliers. The new service is tasked with implementing UKADS1, to rapidly streamline the complex London airspace region; and, ultimately, UKADS2, which would become the single body responsible for all changes to UK airspace. There will be lots of consultation built in, but the intent, if not the timescale, is clear. Also unclear is the extent to which ACP consultation responses will have any effect. While rationalisation of UK airspace may be welcome, our place in it remains under threat. As ever, the price of free flight is eternal vigilance. In brief RASP-style parameters in Windy.com. British sailplane pilot Tom Gooch has created a plugin for the Windy.com weather app. SoarCalc shows RASP-style soaring parameters, eg BL top and CU base. It works for all Windy models (ECMWF, UKV etc), and is often more frequently updated than RASP. It’s less user-friendly than RASP, but useful if you’re already a Windy.com user. Explore SoarCalc at DC record equalled. Anton Svoljšak’s European Paragliding Accuracy record of four consecutive DCs, set at the Vlore World Championships in 2017, was equalled on May 7th by Kosovo’s Fanol Shala flying a BGD Adam 2 at the Albania Open at Vlore. Svoljšak’s identical World record was eclipsed last year by China’s Yang Chen who went to five consecutive DCs. Dales Fly In/X-Dales H&F dates. These two events will run on September 5th-7th, hosted at the usual campsite at Langcliffe, Settle. Further Dales Fly-In details and links to the Eventbrite ticket page are at Details of the X-Dales event will be on Ed Cleasby’s site at Kinga’s world record claim. On May 1st Kinga Masztalerz flew a 272.57km triangle from Antholz in Italy’s southern Tyrol. Her flight, aboard a Phi Scala 2 Light, eclipses the 269.13km women’s free-distance- triangle world record set in 2019 by Germany’s Brigitte Kurbel. European record. Also on May 1st, Austria’s Thomas Hofbauer flew 212.5km from Stoderzinken in Styria aboard an Ozone Swift Max to claim the European multiplace free-distance-via- 3-turnpoints record. There is no mention of who Thomas’s passenger might have been. The existing record has been held by Hungary’s Norbert Varga at 197km since June 2015. X-Scotia postponed. The X- Scotia Hike&fly event scheduled for May 24th and 25th had to be postponed due to poor weather in the Highlands. The organisers have said that, when finalised, a new date will be posted at Stuart Blackburn. In early June Stuart Blackburn submitted his resignation from the BHPA Exec for personal reasons, with immediate effect. BHPA Chair Jenny Buck expressed her profound thanks for Stuart’s work on Exec, in particular his involvement in establishing and promoting the Association’s DE&I policy. High flight! On May 24th Chinese paraglider pilot Peng Yujiang, 55, was sucked up to an altitude of 8,598m after tangling with a cu-nim in northern China’s Qilian mountains. Peng’s alarming video of his -40 degree flight was posted online by fellow pilot Gu Zhimin and went viral. Both pilots were banned from flying by Gansu Provincial Aviation Sports: Peng hadn’t registered his trip; Gu’s crime was to have ‘released the video without permission.’ Although some doubt has been shed on the veracity of Peng’s video; one is left asking, ‘Who benefits?’ The record for being sucked into a cu-nim without oxygen and living to tell the tale belongs to Eva Wisnierska, who reached 9,947m while unconscious in 2007. BHPA 500 Club WIN CASH PRIZES AND HELP THE ASSOCIATION! May winners Mark Morrison £134.00 Neal Lewis £67.00 Neil Draycott £33.50 Douglas Johns £20.10 Tommy Abdy Collins £16.75 Robin Looms £16.75 Ed Cleasby £13.40 Larry Lawes £13.40 Graham Phipps £10.05 Michael Paice £10.05 BHPA £335.00 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. Quick facts abo out the NG series: weight(m²) Surface g)(k Max load NG g)weight (kg)t (k G NG light The world´s leading rescue systems Use of high-qu• even at low spe g, g • Available in 3 s certified accord • New, innovative • Excellent sink r to a jump from • Very reliable op • Intelligent, light ality lightweight materials eeds gp sizes as NG and in the light versio ding to EN12491 e X-Flare concept for high efficien rates, each just over 5 m/s, equiva a height of about 1.3 m pening and extremely good pend tweight construction for fast open g, NG 140 Ser NG 120 Ser -geneous load distri --flares for homoX NG 100 Ser on NG light, ncy alent dulum stability nings, 33 1401,85rie 291201,6rie 25100rie1,45 1,49 5 1,3 18 6 concept. -Flare innovative X s to the , thankface -Nearly flat top sur 5 1, for fa ow L ast opening canopy height projected surface area bution across the large geneous load distri stability pendulum outlets for air defined Precisely The Buttermere Bash A PLACE IN HISTORY? BILL MORRIS REFLECTS AFTER 18 YEARS It can be hard to catch up with the deceptively laid-back Gordie Oliver, the Bash’s organiser and chief component, as he hurtles round the beautiful site getting water, toilets and showers installed, marking out camping areas, helping the caterers set up and so on. Gordie, now ‘21 going on 55’, was born and bred in the Lake District. His late father became only the National Park’s second ranger when, ten years after its formation in 1951, it was realised that a single ranger wasn’t enough. Gordie remembers always being involved, even litter-picking as a toddler. ‘The Lakes Charity Classic had started, but we liked to party,’ says Gordie. ‘We’d do it in pubs, getting banned for being too lively! We began having parties in fields; later, post foot-and- mouth, Steve Giles (of The Sick and the Wrong) and I used some grant money to stage some raves. ‘When that ran out everyone said, ‘We need those parties!’ So we had an all-out party on Solstice night, on top of one of our paragliding sites. Next year we did the same, but Pete Tong found out and it went out on Radio 1 during a rave dance show. We were inundated with most of the northern rave scene. It was chaos, people in skimpy party gear trying to walk up the mountains, and I knew our cover had been blown. ‘So I came to this very field with an image in my mind, to do this pure thing here. I went to the club and said, “Don’t worry lads, The Bash’s idyllic location Photo: Tom McNallyNext >