NEWS

22 March 2016

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ORBITUARY

Too young to go

It is with great sadness that we learn of the death of 30-year-old paragliding athlete Peter Von Bergen, Switzerland, following an incident in Fiesch last Sunday.

Peter launched from Fiescheralp on a routine flight.  Whilst carrying out several acro manoeuvres above some steep terrain, he lost control of his glider and spiralled to the ground from several hundred feet.  His reserve parachute had not been deployed.

Peter Von Bergen, known in the paragliding community for his Hike & Fly exploits: the Jura Hike & Fly in 2014, victorious in the Vercofly in 2014 and 2015, and recently his participation in 2015 in the Red Bull XAlps.

Our condolences go to his family.

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5 March 2016

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ADVENTURE

5 hours to the summit

Paragliding pilots and rock climbers, Brendan Reid and Mark Robson, tackled one of the great classic routes in Buachaille Etive Mor in Glencoe last week.  With perfect conditions and light winds, Brendan and Mark took on the Grade IV 4 route up the North Buttress with ultralight flying gear.

Brendan on an Ozone Ultralite 2-16 and Mark Robson flying an Ultralite 3-19 both launched from the summit after 5hrs of climbing the route manned with crampons and pick axes. The flight straight back to their car only took them a leisurely but they were able to take some great footage of their adventure to share with us.

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Hernan Pitocco joins the Ozone family

Hernan Pitocco joins the Ozone family

Admired by many for his imaginative projects and vol-biv routes through the Himalayas and the Andes, Hernan Pitoco is also a World Cup acro champion and cross-country distance world record holder.

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20/02/2016

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CCC gliders

Delegates vote for 90kg

It looks like at the CIVL Plenary meeting, delegates have passed their vote on a number of important subjects, notably the manufacturing and testing of the CC class or “CCC”.

It has been agreed that CCC gliders will be scaled using the XS size and maximum take-off weight of 90kg in order to pass certification. All other sizes will use linear scaling from this XS size to produce other gliders in this class.

Existing gliders are not affected by the new standard and their configuration will stay the same, and it is unlikely that there will be further scaling down from the mandatory XS size, however in the event that a manufacturer wishes to do so, this will now be possible.

The new certification standard will open doors for other paraglider manufacturers to produce competition wings, as well as enable lighter, smaller competition pilots to fly CCC class gliders.  In the past the lighter pilots and indeed female competititors have been deprived from flying a comp wing because of sometimes having to carry up to 33kg of ballast.

There will be many happy faces amongst the manufacturers and the competition pilot community. CIVL will be no doubt be releasing a full report soon.

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