The Paragliding Podcast, Episode 4

Spring is here! In this episdode Tarquin and Ed talk new EN-Bs the team flew at the Pelvoux Testivol in the Ecrins. In particular, Tarquin shares the respective merits of Advance Theta ULS versus the Gin Bandit 2 – as well as a flight that didn't go as planned. He found himself at 3,200m in the wrong gloves with painfully cold hands and – too light on the wing – struggled to descend.  Ed dives into the incredible – and longread story of Ariel Zlatkovski's successful quest to fly 100 100km flights in a year. Spoiler alert – he succeeded, but it came at quite a personal cost. The pair then discuss Ryan Southwell's remarkable photos from a paramotor trip around the land of volcanoes, gorges and Norse gods, AKA Iceland. For anyone who wants to fly just one 100km flight, Tarquin shares some of the tips in this issue that XC coach and Nova CEO Ferdi Vogel gave in his Masterclass. They include learning to recognise triangles in the terrain, and why it's better to visualise thermals as condensation droplets and not honey. It was a record year in the Kerio valley earlier this year and Ed brings up the stories of Titi Macquet and his wife Blandine's record 252km tandem flight as well as the 363km flight by hang glider pilot Jeremy Soper. He tells the podcast that he's on a one-man mission to keep the distance records in the hands of hang glider pilots, otherwise "it's an existential threat" for the sport. Ed and Tarquin finish up talking about what's coming up, referencing the Monte Grappa Trophy and the stories they are working on for the next issue, which include an in-depth look at eyewear for pilots and the new book, 101 Ways to Fly Better. 

Thanks for listening! Join us every 6-8 weeks as we dive into the stories inside the latest issue of Cross Country magazine. Cross Country is the world’s international free flying magazine and is available online and in print.

Subscribers enjoy articles on new flying techniques, inspiring stories from across the world and deep dives into micro-meteorology, the latest equipment advances – and much more. 

As well as receiving eight premium quality issues, subscribers can access six Masterclass coaching sessions and discounts on merchandise, books, and flying accessories. 

Cross Country is a flying trip found nowhere else. Find us online at www.xcmag.com and on social media @xcmag.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello and welcome to episode four of the Paragliding Podcast brought to you by Cross Country Magazine. I'm Tarquin Cooper.

SPEAKER_04 0:07

And I'm Ed Ewing.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

This is the podcast where we discuss the trending stories in the sport, the latest gear releases, and some of the other great stories and features that go into our amazing magazine and weekly newsletter. So, Ed, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_04 0:20

Yeah, very well, thank you, Tarquin.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Licking your wounds, because you were supposed to be in Cuba, weren't you?

SPEAKER_04 0:25

I was. I was. I was meant to. It's not really a time for big international travels, is it? In Cuba. But I was lined up to go to Cuba with uh a really interesting outfit called Convergence Paragliding. Chris Garcia, his American guide, and he's a former adventure sports guide. He's guided loads of sea kayaking adventures in Cuba. And a few years ago he got into paragliding, and now he's taking tours to sort of off-beat off-track destinations where maybe people don't go a lot. So he's been to he goes to Cuba, he goes to Kenya, northern Kenya. He's recently been scoping out flying in Bhutan, which actually we're running an article uh feature on the next issue. Anyway, I was due to go to Cuba with him, and then at the last minute, everything sort of kicked off geopolitically. And yeah, no, I I'm not going to Cuba. Everyone decided let's not go to Cuba. Some people still did. The the US contingent went, but all the Europeans, the suddenly Cuba was on all these no-go lists, and it just became uh yeah, it became too difficult to travel.

Pelvoux Testivol

SPEAKER_02 1:29

If it's any consolation, everyone I speak to at the moment who's planning trips normally is is now caveating that with depending on the world situation. It is what it is. I mean, I was talking to uh Damien Lacaz in Valoise Pelvou. We were there for the testival, and that was he was saying the same. He's got a trip planned for Pakistan with Fabi Bull, but you know, subject to the world still being here still being here. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of Valoise Pelvou, um, that's where I was with the rest of the team, um, Charlie and Marcus. And yeah, it was great. It's the first testival I've ever been to, Ed, where it was flyable.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

Can you tell us where it where is it? Where is it exactly?

Tarquin tries EN-A BGD Banda

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Right, so Valoise Pelvou, if you're looking at a map, is 12 kilometres to the west of uh Briançon in the Ekran uh massif, or Briancon, as my my satnav called it during the Rebel X Alps of 2017, which always tickled me. But yeah, it's the gateway to the Ekran, those mountains on the sort of southwest of kind of Anasi and Geneva. And they have a reputation of being pretty rugged, pretty wild, home to mountains like the Bar de Ecran, La Mege, is not so built up as the rest of the Alps, and definitely to cross the Ekrran is is quite a big thing to do. And also in springtime, it has a reputation of being quite strong, quite punchy. When we were there, there was a lot of it was really, really hazy. And this was due to the um you know Sahara Sand situation. And as Damian explained it to me, there was this was actually a good thing in a way for the testable because it was it was dampening down, it was softening the thermal. So it was still unstable, it was still great, but yeah, it wasn't quite so it wasn't we weren't experiencing you know six or seven meter thermals, which is good when your currency is almost nil because you've had a winter in the UK or Northern Europe where it's just been a washout and you've hardly done any flying. But that was that was really great. I got to try lots of wings, as did Marcus and Charlie. I started off on a BGD banda. I thought I'll have a go on an ENA. It was a lot of fun, enjoyed that a lot. I mean, ENA is is it's just great just to get on, not worry too much about you know having to be too active with your flying.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Can I just ask on um Pelvoo, what is the setup like for the actual testival? Is there a cable ki, is there a train? Do you road to launch?

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Yeah, so you're in a ski resort, you're in a ski resort, and uh there's a ski lift, a cable uh chairlift that goes up, and they slow it down for us uh to getting on, and they slow it down when you get off, because getting off a chairlift on foot is actually quite difficult. So it's a really good little setup. Um, it's quite small. I suppose comparing it to a Stubai, it's it's a little bit smaller than Stubai, but also quite similar, actually. Talking to Pierre, who organizes that, he said they had about 125 people on each day, which was higher than expected. So that gives you an idea of numbers. Most of the brands are represented, but represented by their French dealers. They're not there in person.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

So are you flew to Ander and you liked that?

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Liked that.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Is that is that one of the ENA sort of plus or is it a school wing?

Cold hands at 3,200m

SPEAKER_02 4:43

ENA a hike and fly wing. So it's a little bit of an all-rounder. Yeah. So after the ANDA came down and decided to have a go on the ozone buzz, which I haven't flown, and uh give that a go. Unfortunately, they didn't have my size. In the buzz?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

You thought they would have had all sizes in the buzz?

SPEAKER_02 5:02

I think there were no, someone had it. Someone it was already out. So the the the weight range began at 85 kilos, and I I lost a little bit of weight since Christmas, and I was around sort of 82, 83. So a few kilos under the the lowest, you know, uh, you know, weight range. Um, but they kind of said, oh, you'll be fine, you'll be fine. Now on launch, it was super, super hot. So uh I felt I didn't need obviously my my gloves, my thick, warm mittens. I kept them in the bag because why would I need my super warm gloves? Because it was so warm. Uh launched. And the the other thing, as they said, is they uh there was a little bit of a wait before we did launch because they didn't want people to fly because it was quite strong. So we wait a little bit. And in the end, partly because I'm just itching to fly, I haven't flown all winter, off I go. And yeah, it wasn't it wasn't super strong. It was worked, it just worked really nicely. And we launched a uh pushed out, got into a thermal, and I was soaring beautifully. It was lovely smooth. Um, it was about plus two, and I'm just watching my altimeter go up and up. I was at sort of 2005, 2006. I was a bit like an auctioneer. Give it every we got 2007, 2007. Oh, my hands are getting a little bit cold. We got 2008, and we've got a 2009, yeah, and and up we go and up we go, and then my hands are getting a little bit more and more cold. We've got to 3,000 meters. Can I do 3001? Come on, come on. And so we climbed up to about 3,200 meters, and it was absolutely magical. I was feeling on top of the world, except for the fact that I'd lost all feeling in my hands, and it's just not really it's difficult. I mean, previous experience climbing, I'm used to being able to shake out the arms, get the blood flow back in. But you can't really do that very effectively when you're in when you when you're you're not generating any warmth sitting down, and it's difficult to shake your arms out when you sort of need your hands on your brakes.

SPEAKER_04 6:50

You just swing your arms, you see people swinging their arms like this. Absolutely.

Advance Theta ULS vs Gin Bandit 2

SPEAKER_02 6:53

And it was a bit like being in, you know, in someone's kind of wash, you know, just the shaking about. And I was trying to cross over to the other side, to the west facing side. This is an area also where you can do these really nice little triangles. You know, you can work the east siding east side mountains in the morning, cross the valley, and work the uh the west facing side in the afternoon. It works really well. But I just couldn't think about that. It was suddenly became all kind of encompassing this pain in my hands. It was really acute, and maybe it was the altitude, but I also started to feel a little bit nauseous as well. And I didn't know whether that was from the pain or the altitude. So I'm breathless, nauseous, and really in a lot of discomfort. So I thought, well, I better come down. Pulled big ears, went on bar. And even then, my vario kicked into life and I started going up. So I thought, okay, how do I get down? So uh pulled, um, went into some spirals, and I'll only say that that didn't really help with either the warmth in my hands or the nausea, a little bit of mild nausea. Eventually landed, and I literally I dumped the stuff and I just I just walked like 200 meters away and found a little spot to just kind of you know cry and have a and warm my hands up. And yeah, so the I think the lesson there, that there is definitely a lesson there, which is that I should have had the cross-country warm mittens, but yeah. Anything, anything, anything, anything, yeah. But happily the next day I had the completely the opposite experience. So in the morning I got to try advanced theta, and then in the afternoon I had uh I would wait, what was that like?

SPEAKER_04 8:21

What is that? So morning advanced theta. Is it the theta or the theta?

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Theta, uh Tita, if you're Spanish. And in the afternoon, I went on the Gin Bandit 2. Now, what's interesting is that Marcus also tried both these wings and we had kind of opposite impressions. So Marcus, obviously, super experienced pilot, used to flying two-liners, ENCs, and been flying for decades. He loved the theta, he found it really responsive and he found it quite sporty with just a bit more security as you would expect as you're going from a from a C to an EMB. On the other hand, for the Bandit, the Gin Bandit 2, he liked it not as much because he felt that it was just, it softened some of the reactions. He he found that it was almost to have it like it had no pitch. He had less control on it. Me, on the other hand, I'm obviously uh a fairly new pilot, I had the opposite kind of impression. I absolutely loved the gin bandit 2. I just felt so comfortable, so confident, it just felt so secure. The uh Theta, on the other hand, just felt a little bit twitchy. It was, you know, it was quite sporty for me. And you know, that's great. I mean, I remember going into one turn, I pulled pulled brake a little bit too hard, and whoa, off I went almost into a spiral. And some people will love that. It's very talkative. So it's it's all about what you want, really. So interesting that some Marcus and I had had kind of different um impressions. But after the other thing with me, and it is subjective, of course. My flight in the theater was in the morning and it wasn't quite working. So basically, I spent you know half an hour scratching around. Whereas in the afternoon, where it was working really well, I had just the most amazing flight in the bandit. We climbed up to 3,000 meters, and it was with Charlie, and it was with Marcus, and then Marcus led me off into the deep, and we saw these 3,000 meter mountains in the Ekrran and just had this most magical flight. So obviously, I landed after that with just the biggest smile on my face of all time.

SPEAKER_04 10:19

Sounds fantastic. Um, just to dive into that a little bit more. So the theater is I'm just looking, I'm doing my research as we go, the theta ULS, the ultralight mid-beat adventure tour. So it's an ultralight wing. So I guess that you know is it always as is the bandit, the bandit. As is the bandit. They so they pitched that as an ultralight uh mid-beat adventure tour. Okay, so it's light for light. Very good.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

It's a very healthy place to be in the EMB market because the ozone vibe has just come out as well, the new vibe, the vibe GT. Unfortunately, no, that wasn't there, but all eyes are on that. You've also got the uh Nivyv have their HICO as well, which is also in that mid-B market. So the Mid B market is quite an exciting place to be.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

We are actually, while you say that, Bastien Wetzel is writing a big piece on the mid-B market and the different wings and stuff for the next issue. So not the one that's out at the moment, but the next one. She's going to do a big deep dive into the mid-B because you're right, there's lots of interesting things going on. And it's just seems to be one of those years where the manufacturers have brought out mid-Bs, and there's this uh quite a lot of interesting wings.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Talking of wings, in the magazine, actually, the main focus is on ENAs, and there are loads of ENAs out at the moment. Skywalk, the Mescal 7, the Air Design Easy 4, we've got the Gin Valero 8, and also the um Nivuk Coyote 6. So lots of ENAs about as well.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

Oh, yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I mean, it's just that time of year, isn't it? I was gonna say, sorry, I thought you were saying something wrong, but no, because we have we did ENA Plus, a big feature on ENA Plus last issue, this issue, we've done the ENC class, which is interesting because that has also now developed into this classic ENC, and then sort of sports class ENC, you know, upper level ENC. So high, and I'm not gonna use the word low ENC, but standard ENC, and then there's definitely a high ENC. And Marcus King has dived into all the differences and different skills needed for different gliders, especially with wings like the advanced Tau DLS is out now, which is a pretty racy wing.

100 x 100km flights

SPEAKER_02 12:26

But yeah, lots going on. So we've just had a magazine out, issue 264. What are the big features for you, Ed, that stand out? You worked on this one, I'm gonna answer it for you. It is this guy, Ariel Zlatovsky, who flew 100, 100 kilometer flights.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Yeah, Ariel is just this amazing character who I've got to know. Uh, I didn't know him before. He sent me this really uh neat email. Hi, Ed, I've done this. I last year, well not last year, in October 2024, I set myself a goal of flying 100, 100 kilometer flights in 12 months on X Contest. And I just thought, wow, that's a story because I've heard people have done it before, people have done like 52, which works out at one a week. You think, okay, that's achievable. People have done a bit a few more. But yeah, he set himself this goal, and it sounds exciting, it sounds brilliant, it sounds like you're gonna spend the rest of the year, the whole year just traveling around doing amazing flying. And in the article, which is actually one of the longest, most in-depth articles we've ever run, it's like 7,000 words. He sets out what he did, why he did it, and why basically it was a mistake to set himself such a goal. Because although he did manage to fly, and he did, you know, this is the spoiler alert, he did manage to do it, it wasn't easy, it wasn't straightforward. You know, when he got stuck in weather windows, like in Switzerland, he got stuck and it was just rain for two weeks. It you know, it had a serious effect on not just his mental health, but you know, what he was doing. He missed all these family occasions that he was meant to do. He's meant to fly back to the States. He just he couldn't do anything apart from focus on this goal. And it put himself, he had some good days, he had a lot of good days. Obviously, he had a lot of good flying. But you know, on the 200k days, he would stop himself at 120 because he wanted to, you know, he knew he'd have to fly again, so he didn't fulfill the potential of the day. On the bad days, he was quite often the only person out flying, so he was putting himself in situations which might be risky. He had a couple of near misses, he hit pylons.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

You know, there was just this not so much near miss as he had some, you know, some nasty incidents. I mean, one of which is extraordinary, is this he hit an electricity pylon and and and and call and really hurt himself.

SPEAKER_04 14:44

Yeah, I mean, he was lucky to get away with uh basically he he was doing that thing of like, oh, shall I shall I launch? Shall I walk down? He took the easy option really and he thought I'll fly over it, but he didn't fly over it on launch, and he bumped into it, and and yeah, that was bad. And he was hospitalized, but he didn't explode in flames or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

Uh, but still carried on the next day, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

Uh I don't think it was quite the next day, but certainly it was the next week. He had to, you know, within a few days he was back in the air. He had his his harness was totaled, his glider was totaled. He got through three gliders on this. How many hours did he spend in the air? He spent uh over 800 hours he spent in the air in one year. I mean that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

It's amazing in itself.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

But it does seem like, you know, there's a cautionary tale here that he created this project, he set himself this goal. And we we generally in our in our societies, we lord people who who kind of create big projects, achieve them. But that on this, you just think, oh, this this didn't really work out in the way that he intended. It just became this, he became it became his prison, you know. He his It became his prison, yeah. You know, and he he was a slave to it and he had to do it, and his whole life had to revolve around this project. And he was flying when it was just generally wasn't sensible to fly. And you know, the fun part was kind of went a little bit out the window as well.

SPEAKER_04 16:10

The fun part, yeah, the fun part went way out the window. He does he did have uh a lot of successes as well, though. Wasn't all miserable. Um if you look at his stats, he's very into his spreadsheets and his stats and his numbers, and he will show you there's one uh countries flown. He was in Beer, India, uh, where he got most of his flights, most of his 100k flights. So he was there in sort of October, November, and he did 37 100k flights. 37 100k flights. I would like to win in B.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

I'd be happy to won it.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

Yeah, but that's what I mean. I mean, he was just it's sort of I mean, it's incredible. And then he he's a veteran of these places, you know. He knows he he be he did it in India, he did it in Colombia, he was in Italy, Switzerland, France, and Austria. Um, so he knows all these places very well. He knows all their secrets and how to fly them. And in Bia, he did in Billing, he did this one really amazing 100k where he actually did an out and return 100 kilometre flight without turning at all. So he didn't he didn't turn um one, three. He just took off, started soaring, and traced his way around the mountain ridges all the way, sort of 50 kilometers along, and then turned and came back. And he didn't turn. And so he was very proud of that.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Where was that again? I need to write this down.

SPEAKER_04 17:25

It's in the magazine, it's in it's in Via Billing. In the the Indian Himalaya. I'm gonna he so he did the classic milk run there. He did the classic 100k milk run. Um, yeah, without turning, without 1360. So there were lots of high points. One of the great high points is the support he got from his friends and his family in the flying community. A lot of people were supporting him as he went, but actually he said that he found it quite lonely quite a lot of the time, because again, you know, he'd be out on the days when no one else would bother, and he was like, Okay, I've got to go. And of course, you don't every time you go out, you don't fly 100k. So there were many days where he canned the day or he went out and it was he made 80k. A couple of times he made sort of 95k, and he just describes it as devastating, you know. So to be devastated, we've talked about this before, to be devastated having done your 95k flight, it's not the point of the sport at all.

Ferdi Vogel tips

SPEAKER_02 18:20

For anyone else who wants to fly just one 100-kilometer flight, such as myself, uh you do worse than turn to um the magazine and find there's another we've got a uh masterclass we had from Ferdy Vogel, and we've we've put it in the magazine. And in this, he's talking about some really interesting techniques to improve your thermal flying in the Alps. And two of the theories he talks about are there's the triangle theory, just visualizing the landscape in triangles. The triangles give off thermals and just trying to see the triangles when you're flying in the valleys, whether it's ridges, whether it's the trees where they're forming, and thinking about the the top of those triangles, that's where the thermals uh are giving off. And something else to take away from that talk, which is which is now in on the um online as well, is the idea of the droplets. We talk a lot about imagining the earth with honey. Honey is a bit can be a bit thick and sticky. He says, much better to think about it as the condensation droplets on your tent, and that's a better way of visualizing where um thermals are kicking off.

SPEAKER_04 19:24

Water, yes. You know who also talks about water rather than honey? Kriegel Maurer. He says that that he says that when he was when he learned that when he was a young pilot, he said, Oh, that just made being able to visualize air flowing over terrain as water, he said it just changed everything for him. And the other person who also had a big realization with that, I think, was Fabi Bull, and not in cross-country, but I read somewhere in some article about him that when he was struggling to get to grips with understanding valley winds and airflow and the rest of it, pilot, friend of him, took him to the river and sat him down and said, Watch the river, watch the water flowing over the rocks, see where it tumbles, see where it rotors, see where it turns back on itself, see where it flows faster. That is airflow in the mountains. So it's a really, really, really good tip. You know, water, imagining water flowing over the landscape. Where's it going up? Where's it going down? Where's it triggering off in bubbles?

Paramotoring Iceland

SPEAKER_02 20:20

That's great advice. I love that. Go and sit by a river and watch the river and become uh a Jedi master of arology. They all are, that's what they do. Another really great story we've got in this on the it's on the cover, is a um paramountoring feature of Iceland. Ed, I don't know if you remember the days when Instagram used to be all about the still image, but this story reminded me of those long ago days of great, great photography. And the interesting thing about this story, so it's um it's written by well, it's a set of images from a photographer filmmaker called uh Ryan Southwell. He's from the US, and he did this guided uh paramounting trip around Iceland, and the images are just stunning. I mean, Iceland is this amazing location. When I went to when I worked at Red Bull, it was often the location for all kinds of shoots. You know, you've got the Northern Lights, you've got it's the land of Norse gods, these incredible, unpronounceable volcanoes like the Vatniokel glacier and things like that. And yeah, it's an amazing location. But sometimes even when you're looking at the pictures digitally on a on a big you know desktop, even behind the desk that you're at home, you miss stuff. And seeing some of the pictures on the printed page, there were things we noticed that we didn't see before. Like you actually say to me, Hey, have you seen this? This picture's actually got three wings in it. And I'd I'd seen two, but not the third. So it's a really amazing story, a really, really incredible set of images, and and makes you super inspired to actually go there and fly. I've been there myself back in my travel writing days on a pony. I did an Icelandic pony trek across Iceland. I've dived between the Tectonic plates of America and Eurasia, which you can do. It's like diving in Evian bottled water, um, cold, but just so clear. And you know, you've driven around these just incredibly rugged, beautiful locations. It's been the scene of films like um, you know, TV shows like Game of Thrones. So um that's well worth uh having a look at that.

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Yeah, definitely. It's amazing. Uh just on that diving thing, when just paddy diving, like scuba diving.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Yeah, you um you have to wear a dry suit because it's cold. And how deep is it? It's probably only about it's not it's not it's not super deep. It's only about I think we we went down about 30 metres from memory. It's not it's not, but you're it's really it it's definitely it's it's a chasm it between these kind of tectonic plates. So you're swimming through this um very, very narrow uh gully, diving even. Um yeah, your visibility is is is amazing. You can do it on a snorkel, but it's obviously a lot more exciting if you can go down.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

I always remember years ago doing a story, writing up a story because with a pilot who'd been flying in Iceland and he'd been flying along when an earthquake hit, and he said that everything he because he was flying, he said the whole hillside, you know, rocks started tumbling down, uh, there was a lot of movement, and he said the air started to vibrate. And so he was watching this earthquake happening, and he was also, you know, he said he was feeling it, he could feel the earth move from you know 300 meters up.

Kerio Valley Records

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Wild. You wouldn't imagine that you you it's almost like a sort of you know, like people on the water and a tsunami, you know, at sea when uh if you are far out to sea, you don't really notice it. But yeah, I'd I'd I'd never imagine that you could be an earthquake from from the air through through through your glider and like the lines and everything. Cool. Good. The only time I felt vibrations was on a mountain when there was an electrical storm, and that wasn't a very pleasant experience either. But I'll save that for another day. Otherwise, there's stories in the magazine. We've got harnesses. Malin Lobb is discussing harnesses, your first pod harness. That's quite interesting for someone like me. I'm thinking about getting a pod harness, and one takeaway from that it's not just about comfort, it's all about your seat authority. So that's well worth a read. Ed, any other stories that stand out for you?

SPEAKER_04 24:14

Um, I liked all the sort of the Carrier Valley Roundup. Uh lots Carrier Valley is this big escarpment in Kenya, and pilots go there in January, February to fly out and returns, and quite a few people did uh try to get records. Uh Titi and Blondie Marquette set a new tandem paragliding out and return world record. Uh, they did that last year as well.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

They returned in a homemade tandem.

SPEAKER_04 24:41

Harness, not homemade.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Yeah, but but well, I mean they they cobbled together their own um uh pod harness for that takes two people.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

Exactly. But no, the glider they were on was uh, I think in a Swift Max 2, so not home made. But and then Jeremy Soper, and you spoke to Soperman, he's the first person that we know of who has flown a hang glider there. He set a new hang gliding world record. I mean, the motivation to do that is incredible. One, to get your hang glider to Kenya from I think he lives in south of England somewhere, and two, then to get up the hill, and then three, just to keep flying until you get your world record. But you spoke to Jeremy.

Jeremy Soper

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Yeah, Jeremy, really, really interesting character. And the most interesting thing of all is that he's a 30-year-old hang glider pilot. Most hang glider pilots, I'm sure they won't mind me pointing out, are a little bit older demographic. And the the the interesting thing about Jeremy, who had paragliding held no interest for him. He always wanted to be, you know, face down. And so his first flying sport was hang gliding. And he's he's seeing it, he's on a one-man mission. He wants to ensure that the records, the main records, are held by hang glider pilots. I think we should actually hear from Jeremy in his own words and let him explain. I've got a clip here from our interview, and the question I put to him was: is it all about the records for you?

SPEAKER_01 26:03

I think that's key to revitalizing the sport. I mean, lots of people are trying to different ways of getting it back into the public consciousness. But I think the way that we can contribute is is the key.

unknown 26:55

It needs to be performing. Um the wing should be more performant.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

But if that's not reflected in um bigger flights and um bigger records, then it's not going to be very compelling for a new pilot to take it up.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Up until your record, I mean you've you've pushed it to um 363, but I think the the paragliding out and back record, not in in Kerryo, but was set, I think, in Chile, is is still 350. So you you you're only 15 kilometers ahead.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Yeah, definitely snapping at my heels. Um and then last year, what was the um triangle record being picked by um uh commodism mod it's uh I think it is an existential crisis for anybody's uh convenient as well.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Hence your comment on your next contest over to you um my wing isn't actually stuck because um the people I shipped it back with them assumed they they ship it back, but they it's just a one-way ticket.

unknown 28:33

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

But no, that's that means I I have extra incentive to go back to that was Jeremy Soper.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Yeah, he's really interesting character, and I think we'll hear more of him in the future as well. Yeah.

Other news

SPEAKER_04 28:46

Just on that, I think he is fighting a an interesting battle there. And probably the hand glide, what's the hand gliding open distance record? It's over 700, you uh 745 or something it is. The paragliding one is 605, so there's still some distance there, but the triangle is exactly the same, the uh with the you know the guys flying down in France. So, yes, that might be horse, stable door, bolted, all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

Yeah, uh what else is coming up, Ed?

SPEAKER_04 29:19

Uh well at the moment we're working on the next issue. We have a big article in there about EMBs, mid-EMBs, which we talked about, uh, lots of travel and adventure. We have just been working on our readership survey uh to find out more about everyone who reads cross-country. And that is really interesting, actually. We obviously that most people are paraglider pilots, and everyone who's who reads cross-country is quite a good pilot, you know. Like more than half of them have flown 100k. 15% of them, or maybe more, 20%, have flown more than 200k. You know, the majority of them fly high B or C paragliders, so they're all into XC. Um, so this it's just interesting every now and again to get a snapshot of who's actually reading the magazine and online and to to realize that we're talking to a very informed set of people. You know, there's not a lot you can get past. If you make any mistakes, they they let you know straight away. They do. And that's because they're educated, because they've been flying a long time.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

I've been uh researching sunglasses, and everything I thought I knew about sunglasses is wrong. So I look forward to sharing all the results of that in the next issue. Otherwise, there's a PWC coming up in Brazil, and there's also Monte Grappa, is that the race?

SPEAKER_04 30:33

Monte Grappa, yeah. Monte Grappa is uh over the Easter weekend. So for those who don't know, Monte Grappa is always the first big international competition of the year. It's held down uh in Italy, where the hills meet the plane in Bassano. Lots of people will know that. And it's very high level, it attracts very high-level pilots. And I think last year was washed out. They had a proper sort of tornado go through. Uh, this year, hopefully that won't happen. But yeah, when you look at the statistics, I mean the Alps, the Alps has had an amazing year already. You know, they've had a really good start in March. I think the first 200k flight was flown early March, and then there's been lots and lots of flying the first weekend in March. So more than four and a half thousand flights logged on both days on X Contest. If anyone wants to get into their flying to restart, if you jump on our website, you can sign up there for a newsletter campaign which takes you through a series of six articles how to get back into flying for the season, what to do, how to prepare, etc. for because not everyone is is on the horse again.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

You could also do worse than get the new copy of 101 Ways.

SPEAKER_04 31:40

Yes, we had great success with that. When you say what have I been up to, mainly I've been up to sending out emails to thousands of pilots. And we're very fortunate with our crowd, with the the audience that we have, because people know what we do, they like what we do, and they trust us. So we sold over a thousand books on pre-order. And 101 Ways is uh updated techniques book. Um, we are collaborating with Bruce Goldsmith, Greg Hamerton, Leo DeBlick, and then there's a bunch of other uh good pilots in there. And we've brought the whole techniques uh book, Bible basically, up to uh up to 2026. So, yeah, that's what I've been busy doing.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Well, let's leave it there, Ed. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Excellent. See you later, everyone. Bye bye.