No. 366 OCTOBER 2019 The magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association2 SKYWINGS OCTOBER 2019 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 At the Classic Accuracy Nationals/British Grand prix in August, French pilot Bruno Lautard heads towards the individual win and Best Veteran award Photo: Arthur Bentley THIS PAGE Stuart Smith, Air Conception Nitro and Dudek Reaction over Bramford in Suffolk Photo: Stuart Smith 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 Go For the October issue enter the username Oct_2019 and the case- sensitive password rfHC*2tA For the November issue enter the username Nov_2019 and the case-sensitive password ~82m+#Rt DEADLINES News items and event/competition reports for the December 2019 issue must be submitted to the Skywings office by Monday October 28th. Letters for the November Airmail pages should arrive no later than Friday October 18th. Advertisement bookings for the November edition must arrive by Friday October 11th. Copy and classified bookings no later than Friday October 18th. regulars reviews attitude 4 SKYWINGS OCTOBER 2019 In all honesty I’m still not sure I do have any business being here. It’s Day 1 of my SIV course; I’m CP plus ten hours and I’m about to head out towards the ‘Playground’. My wife Emily does her best to distract me, but suddenly this doesn’t seem like the good idea it was at the kitchen table over a glass of wine. Before booking, I had an ask around the club for opinions on where and when to do SIV. This got me some deep intakes of breath and comments along the ‘Nah, that’s not for me’ lines. I decided any training is good training and I had been recommended Flyeo at Annecy. The website talked about tailoring training to specific goals and abilities, including low-airtime pilots. I booked first and looked at YouTube later. We were sent a form before arrival asking for strengths, weaknesses and fears, and what we wanted to achieve. This settled my nerves slightly – fingers crossed I’m not going to be pushed off the hill and left to fend for myself. 8am Monday morning and I seem to be in the waiting room for the X-Alps. Everyone else looks super swept up, and here I am with my faded old bag and a very nervous look on my face. As I consider the spent canisters from the buoyancy aids of people who’ve taken a dunk, and my life choices, I’m called into the classroom. The course turns out to be a great bunch: two Greeks, two Polish guys, an Indian, a Frenchman and an American. Despite being an English-language course I am the only native speaker. Malin Lobb is our main instructor for the week, a quietly-spoken Brit who goes round the room asking for our experience and what we hope to achieve. He doesn’t seem fazed by my total lack of experience, but points out it could be windy today and they will assess conditions at launch. His manner inspired confidence – as Emily asked later, ‘If Malin asked you to jump off a cliff, would you?’ Well … yes! After introductions we get a theory briefing to help us relate to the instructions we would receive in the air, and then it’s up the hill. Jack Bailey, also British, looked after us on launch. A great instructor with a firm grasp on the coarser aspects of the French language. I made it off launch … let’s leave it at that. The flight out to the lake was beautiful: amazing views and smooth air. Once communication was established, the first exercise for all of us was a lesson in pitch and roll control, the foundation for everything done on SIV regardless of previous experience. The landing area wasn’t enormous but, as on take-off with Jack, it felt like Malin kept an extra eye on me given my airtime. Before each flight we got an individual brief of what we would achieve, and after everyone was down safe we got a video debrief on the previous flight, including commentary, to keep. My major embarrassment came on the second day, after practicing frontal collapses. In the light morning wind I misjudged landing and impaled my wing on the windsock. The big concern was not wasting a perfect day’s training weather. Flyeo kindly lent me a wing for the day and I was back in the game! By the end of Day 2 I had managed an asymmetric collapse into autorotation. Not a perfect recovery, but I understood where I had gone wrong. At no time did I feel pushed so far out of my comfort zone that I was no longer learning. The third day was scrubbed due to poor weather and we all went for dinner and drinks. Beware the Polish man with tequila! I love what an open, friendly and inclusive sport this is. It already takes dedication to reach CP, and speaking to the guys on the course makes me realise how lucky we are to enjoy the BHPA coaching system, supported by committed club coaches. In no other form of aviation though do you get sent out on your own without practical training in what to do when things go wrong. When you train to fly a Cessna you simulate cloud flying and do some pretty fruity stalls. This doesn’t make you an IMC pilot or acro trained, but it gives you an idea of where the edge of the envelope is and how to get back from it. In our game we seek out training from responsible providers who will tailor it to our needs, in the name of self-preservation. I am a new kid and I don’t know all the answers. SIV abroad isn’t for everybody, but I will definitely be back in a couple of years. Next time I’ll try and miss the windsock! Photo: Andy Claxton Low-airtime SIV RICH HAWCUTT, RECENTLY-QUALIFIED PILOT I am a newbie. I am crouched on the launch at Annecy with my wing still in its bag, desperately trying to remove the red streamer without anybody seeing … so that when I mess this launch up I’m a muppet that messed up my launch rather than a muppet that has no business even being there. The South Devon Club’s annual outing to Slovenia provided a brilliant week of fun and flying in a spectacular landscape. I was rather fortunate to be invited to join them again, and had a ball. I’m no great shakes as a paraglider pilot, but I do know how to enjoy my flying. I’m the only one with any dress sense (?), but the other guys were all cool dudes. Except, perhaps, for Colin Blagdon, who is standing next the me in this shot. He described my business model as being like “a spider waiting in his hole to catch a fly”. How very rude! Probably about right though. Visit my WEB site (ho ho ho) to get a better idea of what I’m doing. I always fly in a Charly No Limits helmet. I’ve cracked a few helmets in my time, and I think it is the safest and quietest free flight helmet. All my stock is top-notch for quality, and I sell hundreds of radios and headsets, but still managed to forget to connect mine. Twice! Take out the idiot factor and my comms stock can help you keep in touch with your mates and retrieve drivers. Plug it in! Mr.Blagdon made amends by snapping me cruising in from 6000 feet to the landing field. Nobody knew where I was, and Klavdij was getting worried. My BGD Cure kept me safe, as always, and drew appreciative remarks from lots of people. Sky-God Weightless Champion Mark Nicol commented that it has an amazingly clean top surface. Praise indeed. Yes, it could be for sale…. Colin is brilliant at friendly insults (don’t mention Brexit!), but the “hole” analogy is a little unfair on Turfhouse, surely? It is one of God’s Own Places. Unfortunately, it just isn’t big enough for all the kit I have to sell at the moment, so I’m going to have a sale from mid-October. I need more room! The Sale will include several hang gliders, and they are all HOT HOT HOT Machines. How about this superb Avian Evo, that is a peach to fly? Or a Litespeed RS3.5 (don’t tell Soperman!), an RX 3.5, a small Stealth KPL, or a Stratos rigid wing? All priced to clear. It isn’t just hot gliders - I have a few beginner/intermediate gliders to clear, too. This large WW Sport 2 is almost as new, and there is a similarly immaculate small Clubman 140. Both possibles for a new pilot, but priced rather differently! Not to mention a well-used K2 that would be an ideal Lanzarote wing and is as cheap as There will be a selection of EN A, B and C paragliders up for grabs, too. This superb medium Raven is such good value at £499 that I really should buy it myself! Check out the website mid-October. Whilst peering into the cluttered depths of the hangar recently I noticed that one wall was glinting softly. I have thousands of pounds worth of uprights for all sorts of different gliders, and will reduce them to sell a few off. Choose from Moyes XT / XTL / SX / CSX, Ventura, Sonic 190, WW Sport 155 and 175, Funfex, Sting 2 XC 175, Zoot Airwave Calypso and K series, Fun 190, Disco 195S, Avian Airfoils, Clubman rounds and even some round uprights for K2 small A-frames. Prices will all be bargains! CHECK OUT THE SALE IN Like a Spider? Charly Helmets 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 £225. 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 £158, and weight is only 660gm! The stylish Charly Loop costs £120, 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 £84. The Charly Breeze has a swoopy polycarbonate shell, comes in four sizes in either White or Matt Black - with contrasting removable ear covers to suit different seasons. There is also a version in two adjustable sizes for commercial operators schools and tandem. It weighs about 480gm, and costs £87. 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 tel: 01404 891685 Turfhouse, Luppitt, Honiton, Devon, EX14 4SA 6 SKYWINGS OCTOBER 2019 news The distance from Vesoul, near Besancon, to Plobannalec near Quimper in Finisterre is around 780km. Colin’s machine is powered, uniquely, by an aerial version of the frugal three-cylinder four- stroke engine fitted to the Toyota Aygo city car. With an auxiliary tank boosting fuel capacity to 72 litres it has a still-air range of nine hours and around 850km. An earlier test flight had already yielded 400km in 4.6 hours, averaging 85km/h. The existing record had been set at 749.8km by German pilot Hans-Ulrich Dörr in 2017. ‘For the first 60km we made good progress in the smooth morning air, writes Colin, ‘with a 20km/h tailwind giving us an advantage. As the wind began to fade our fuel consumption proved well short of our calculations – after just 150km we had consumed over 20 litres; I doubted we could break the world record but we might still gain the French one. Approaching Orleans we had to climb for safety above a huge forest, with few options for a forced landing. Then came a low-level sector under military and civilian airspace and around two nuclear power stations, putting us in the more turbulent air. ‘At our halfway point near Blois we were able to climb again to 3500ft. Our fuel consumption improved and we thought we might still have a chance at the world record. Our fuel consumption improved further as the machine became lighter, and as the easterly wind strengthened, with 300km to go, we became more confident. However we were now into serious afternoon thermals and could see dust devils forming over the dry plains. ‘Arriving at the Bretonne peninsula, sea breezes converged with the easterly flow – it was like flying inside a washing machine. Luckily Louis is also a paraglider pilot and is not at all fazed by such conditions. With 20 litres of fuel remaining and 100km to go we were pretty sure of our prize, and we could soon see the Atlantic. Crossing beautiful Bretonne bays and beaches on our final approach was a special moment. Louis flew on the rear wires while I called up the airfield at Plobannalec, just 3km from the ocean, to hear the jubilant voice of proprietor Claude Bouhannic. Absolutely delighted to welcome a fellow Celt to his airfield, Claude (pictured right) piped us in with Bretonne bagpipes and champagne. We had been in the air for just under eight hours – it was an emotional moment for us all!’ Tandem microlight record! At 07:27 on Saturday September 14th, Skywings designer Colin Fargher and his son Louis set off on an Air Creation Skypper trike from one of the most easterly airfields in France – heading for the furthest airfield in the west. Their aim – to traverse the entire country and set a new tandem flexwing microlight (RWL2) non-stop world record. Jack Pimblett finishes 7th at Acromax French pilot Theo de Blic won the final event of the Acro World Cup Tour at Trasaghis, Italy in August. Runners up at the Acromax event – which will host the World Aerobatic Championship next year – were Cesar Arevalo Urrego and Victor Carrera. Sole British entrant was Jack Pimblett who finished in a creditable 7th place. From an airport lounge, en route to his next assignment in Denmark, Jack sent this report: ‘Warm! That was the word used to described the water prior to my first Acromax training runs. Warm … it is not! Cold, mild at best. I learnt this after many, many water landings during my week at Lake Cavazzo, perfecting the hardest manoeuvre I’ve ever had to learn, the spiral landing. Perception of height is fairly easy to judge over ground, but over water these landings are a different beast. But after many training runs and multiple times in the water, followed by some time to reassure myself of my gender, I nailed the landing. Wingtip touch, foot touch … and on the raft with a smile. Thus ended my best run at Acromax and I walked away with 7th place. Not my best performance, but it’s hard to be sad about spending a week crashing into the water with your mates.’ Jack, pictured above, is currently ranked 10th in the acro WPRS. In the three weeks since Acromax he has flown in Switzerland, France, Slovenia and Bulgaria! Photo: Le T élégr amme de Brestnews 8 SKYWINGS OCTOBER 2019 BGD Weightless heads south After successful events at Tolmin and St Jean in the last two years, Bruce Goldsmith and his team are to take the BGD Weightless event south for the winter – the 2020 event will be at Roldanillo in Colombia in January. The move has been prompted by the success of the British Winter Open there earlier this year, and by the need to allow more space in the calendar for the multiplicity of summer events. Colombia’s well-structured and friendly environment will allow the BGD team to build an event ideal for fledgling XC pilots through to seasoned competition hands; to introduce the region to those unfamiliar with the area and help all competitors in their competition learning curve. The timing and location will also allow pilots to fly when otherwise grounded by the UK and European weather. Roldanillo will then immediately host the Colombian Nationals and the British Open, offering an opportunity for dedicated improvers to sign up for all three comps. Flights from the UK typically cost around £500-600 return, accommodation is typically £10-15 per night and food is inexpensive but good. The event runs from January 4th (registration) to January 10th; the other events will be held in the following two weeks. For more details go BMAA and LAA in merger talks Proposed changes to legislation about how heavy a microlight can be and still remain a microlight have seen the British Microlight Aircraft Association (BMAA) and the Light Aircraft Association (LAA) engage in a series of co-operative discussions about how they would handle the new class of aircraft, and avoid conflict over which organisation would oversee their airworthiness. The new class would be outside European certification and handled by each country individually. This has led to discussions on the possibility of a merger. Chairmen and Chief Executives of both associations have had a series of meetings and have now decided that a merger – last discussed and abandoned about 15 years ago – is back on the table. The LAA intend to discuss it at their AGM and set a date for a vote. BMAA Chief Exec. Geoff Weighell wants to sort out what the merged association would look like and how it would function before putting it to a vote of BMAA members. If approved, the combined association would have over 11,000 members and over 4,000 aircraft on Permits to Fly, as well as representing those SSDR owners who opt for membership. As the UK’s largest GA body it would therefore wield considerable influence. Drone industry flexes its muscles Sooner or later, commercial drone operations will be upon us, driven forward by parcel delivery services and others. The buzzword here is BVLOS (Behind Visual Line of Sight). To safely integrate with emergent drone operations, the European Commission intends to set rules for drone ops by mid- 2020, and crucially the creation of specific airspace. See-and-avoid rules for visual flight in uncontrolled airspace won’t work in the drone environment as such devices are too small to be visually perceived. To this end, an EASA drone workshop last May discussed airspace proposals. Their idea is to create a special drone airspace category (‘U-space’) from ground level up to 500ft agl. It has even been suggested that manned aviation will have to register to enter U-space, and possibly even pay for the ‘privilege’. A further aspect is the idea that all manned aircraft should become visible by means of EC devices. A recent CAA presentation at the RAeC appeared to endorse the EASA proposals, although no consultation on these issues has appeared. Plans announced recently by Cranfield University and UAV/drone researchers Blue Bear Systems reveal an experimental 12km ‘BVLOS corridor’ to be established between the north of Bedford and Cranfield – which already has its own ‘virtual ATC’ facility. At fault here is the assumption that no manned aviation takes place below 500ft apart from at airfields, and thus drones in U-space will only have to deal with each other. Gliders, balloons, hang gliders and paragliders, rescue helicopters and others all occupy this airspace, often with great unpredictability. A further weakness is the cost – of access, of EC provision, etc – which, it appears, are intended to be borne by manned aviation. The potential exists for commercial drones to develop into something useful and to successfully integrate with manned aviation, but many critical issues are as yet unresolved. The consensus among flying associations is that drones must abide by existing rules of the game, not the other way around, and that manned aviation must not incur costs in order to coexist with drone traffic. Whether the current EASA proposals see the light of day or not, a time is coming when the corporate might of potential drone operators will equal that of the airlines. We have already seen where that leads. Nova Bordairrace series The Nova Bordairrace series ended with the third round at Austria’s Altaussee in August. All three of these hike-and-fly events have been fully booked within a few hours. At Altaussee southerly winds, thunder and mostly sluggish thermals didn’t stop the pilots from some hard slogging and flying. After 133km on foot inside the 33-hour limit, Daniel Oberauer won the contest ahead of fellow Austrians Dominik Asteiner and Fabian Reichholf. In the up-to-EN-B class Daniel Renner won ahead of Matthias Helm and Arno Flitsch. Details are at BHPA AGM The 2020 BHPA AGM will be held at Lilleshall National Sports, Centre, Shropshire (TF10 9AT), on the afternoon of Saturday March 7th. The meeting will follow the BHPA Trainers Conference that is scheduled to run from Friday 6th until the Saturday morning at the same venue. As well as the Election of Officers, the current Exec will report on their activities and members will be able to cross- examine them on their achievements. Any BHPA member thinking about seeking nomination for election should contact Chairman Marc Asquith or another Exec member to find out what’s involved. The closing date for nominations will be November 30th. More details next month. BHPA 500 Club WIN CASH PRIZES AND HELP THE ASSOCIATION! August winners Janice-Anne Crombie £133.40 Ann Matterson £66.70 John Aldridge £33.35 Gordon Hutchins £20.01 Ed Cleasby £16.68 Philip Lovemore £16.68 Mark Barrett £13.34 Alastair Lea £13.34 John Mills £10.01 Dominic Doran £10.01 BHPA £333.48 If by the time you read this you have not received your cheque, please contact me on 07802 525099. Marc AsquithNext >