May 21, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
World Record Jump Attempt in Arizona -Sunday, April 14, 2013
Beach Blast Cancelled Due to Government Restrictions -Saturday, April 13, 2013
USPA Tests New Event in 2013 -Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Red Bull X-Alps 2013 -Monday, April 1, 2013
World Hang Gliding Championship -Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Hot Events in Chilly January for Hot Air Balloon Lovers -Tuesday, January 15, 2013
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April brings disappointing powered paragliding news: Beach Blast, an annual powered paragliding (PPG) event at the Edgewater Resort in Panama City, FL, has been cancelled. Beach Blast was the largest PPG event in the U.S. in 2012, hosting 225 pilots from 14 different countries. John Black, owner of Panama City’s Freedom Flight Center, and the event’s organizer, told the Panama City News Herald the cancellation came on the heels of a proposed city ordinance that will impose new restrictions on take-offs, landings, and flights in the future. Furthermore, the proposed ordinance will require pilots to register with the local police…
Calin Popa has taken the sport of aerobatic paragliding into levels of precision that it’s never seen before. For years, Calin Popa practiced the difficult moves required to pull off a Rhythmic SAT. He failed time and time again. He realized that what he needed was an instructor that could tell him the precise timing of each move. Failing to find such a teacher, he set out to build one. Popa used his training in civil engineering, and help from software engineer Ovidiu Ban, to build the Voodoo Trimbulind Robot (VTR). The VTR is a portable computer that gathers data, crunches…
The United States Parachute Association held its first quarterly meeting last month, and it was perhaps as exciting as that sounds. For those waiting with rapt anticipation on the status of a wingsuit-instructor rating proposal, the bad news is that it wasn’t adopted, but the board is considering other training requirements for first wingsuit flights. On the other hand, amidst the more dry results of the meeting, we were intrigued by a change in 2013′s National Skydiving Championships. Or more accurately an addition; a 2-way vertical formation skydiving test event was approved, and will make its debut at this year’s…
The Red Bull X-Alps race is one of the most thrilling and challenging competitions yet devised by man. Most athletes around the globe regard it as THE top adventure out of all of the world’s extreme sports. The event demands superb athleticism, endurance and strength, technical skill, breathtaking courage, outstanding intellect, gut wrenching determination, and the survival instincts of a wolf. The race is a combination of paragliding and mountaineering. The objective is to be the first to arrive in that playground of the wealthy, Monaco. Oh, and by the way you start in Austria, with a route which takes…
On January 17th the 2013 World Hang Gliding Championship held in Forbes, Australia, saw Manfred Ruhmer take first place for men’s hang gliding with a total of 9010 points, winning his fourth world crown. Alessandro Ploner and Fillippo Oppici, both from Italy, finished second (8871) and third (8560), respectively. Ruhmer took first place by a margin of only 139 points over the last year’s world champion, Alessandro Ploner. Ruhmer is noted as one of the most prestigious hang gliders in the world, having won the World Championship three times previously and the European Championship four times. In 2005 he retired…
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Jan 23, 2013
Hot air balloons, team roping competitions, chicken-fried steak and wine. Those are just some of the attractions planned for the Lamesa, Texas, Crossroads Balloon Rally and Chicken-Fried Steak Festival. Organizers are expecting between 20 and 40 balloonists for the second annual event which will be held April 26-28 in this West Texas community located about 60 miles south of Lubbock. The weekend begins with, of course, a chicken-fried steak dinner on Friday night. Balloon flights are scheduled for sunrise on Saturday and Sunday as pilots soar over the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado on the southern High Plains. Saturday…
The World Team‘s most astonishing achievement to date is their 400-way jump in Thailand. With 400 skydivers all joining into one free-fall formation, the World Team broke the world record for the largest free-fall formation. Currently, they are in the process of attempting to break yet another world record, only this time, things are a bit more complicated. The World Team is now attempting to break the record for the largest 2-point formation. During the jump, all 222 members have to come together to build a formation, break off, and then build another formation. The timing and accuracy of each…
For most people, skydiving in and of itself is an incredible feat. For one former star of the children’s program, The Power Rangers, jumping wasn’t enough. He combined his talent with mixed martial arts to break a skydiving world record. Jason David Frank got involved in Mixed Martial Arts after he finished his Power Rangers career. After several victories in the ring and being inducted into the World Karate Union Hall of Fame, he was ready for a new challenge. This week, Frank completed a jump over Rosharon, Texas, and while freefalling, broke seven pine boards with his hands. The…
Topping the headlines today in skydiving news, David Frank is going to attempt to break as many pine boards while skydiving from 14,000 ft. The current record holder Travis Donley, won the record in 2011 by breaking two during his free fall. David will attempt to break the record at Skydive Spaceland this January while an official Guinness World Record television station will be recording the entire thing in the event he is able to beat the current record, it will be recorded. David said in his interview, he has alot of respect for the sport of MMA and martial…
January is cold but the hot air balloon news this month is off with a sizzling start at the Havasu Balloon Festival January 18-21, 2013! This is their third annual event that has become a hot ticket for the new year! It will be highlighted by skydivers, illuminated balloons at night and off course lots of beautiful balloons in the skies during the day! A great family outting to get the new year started! You can find out all the details on this event http://www.havasuballoonfest.com/ . Also hot this month is the Mesquite Hot Air Balloon Festival January 26-27, 2013….
The National Sky Diving Museum in Fredricksburg, Virginia welcomed seven new members to it’s hall of fame last November. The National Sky Diving Hall of fame honored the seven new inductees at a ceremony in Eloy, Arizona at a weekend celebration that took place November 9-11. Among the new inductees are Carl Boenish of California (posthumous); Bob Buquor, also hailing from California (posthumous); Claude Gillard, Australia; Craig Girard of Arizona & Dubai; Dan Poynter of California; and husband and wife Hank Simbro (posthumous) and Muriel Simbro of California. Carl Boenish was considered the Father of modern BASE jumping. In 1978,…
Balloon pilots are gearing up for the Hudson Hot Air Affair, one of the premiere winter hot air ballooning events. The annual event in Hudson, Wisc., is a ballooning event and winter festival that attracts thousands of visitors to the St. Croix Valley in western Wisconsin. More than 40 balloonists are expected to join the festivities for this year’s event which is set for Feb. 1-3. This year marks the 24th anniversary of the event which started in 1990 under the auspices of the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce. It is now managed by Hudson Hot Air Affair, Inc., a…
For the latest in paragliding competitions, we head south of the border. It was good news for American Josh Cohn, as he brought home victory at the Monarca Nextel Paragliding Open last month, January 6th-12th, in Valle de Bravo in Mexico. Josh Cohn, sponsored by Eagle Paragliding and Flytech and using a Niviuk Icepeak glider, took high scores across a series of six tasks, rising to the top in a field of 122 pilots. Cohn won Tasks 4 and 6, and those strong performances, along with consistent high scores overall (he never placed lower than 10th) would be key. At…
For most people, skydiving in and of itself is an incredible feat. For one former star of the children’s program, The Power Rangers, jumping wasn’t enough. He combined his talent with mixed martial arts to break a skydiving world record. Jason David Frank got involved in Mixed Martial Arts after he finished his Power Rangers career. After several victories in the ring and being inducted into the World Karate Union Hall of Fame, he was ready for a new challenge. This week, Frank completed a jump over Rosharon, Texas, and while freefalling, broke seven pine boards with his hands. The…
Topping the headlines today in skydiving news, David Frank is going to attempt to break as many pine boards while skydiving from 14,000 ft. The current record holder Travis Donley, won the record in 2011 by breaking two during his free fall. David will attempt to break the record at Skydive Spaceland this January while an official Guinness World Record television station will be recording the entire thing in the event he is able to beat the current record, it will be recorded. David said in his interview, he has alot of respect for the sport of MMA and martial…
It has been just a little over three years since Kamira Pereira flew 324.7km (about 201 miles) and set a women’s world record for paragliding. On November 20, Seiko Fukuoka slaughtered that record as she flew 345.6km (nearly 215 miles), beating Pereira’s paragliding world record by more than 20km. Flying a Niviuk Icepeak 6, she started off in north east Brazil in Quixada and landed over 10 hours later. October and November attract paragliders in droves to Quixada in Brazil. The consistent winds allow pilots to fly for long periods of time, a perfect set up for Seiko Fukuoka-Naville to…
Click on any photo for a larger view. One of the few new stories that offers the adrenaline rush not always found in the recent political wrangling is Felix Baumgartner’s October 14th Red Bull Stratos “space jump.” Like many air sport pioneers before him, Baumgartner’s risky jump made skydiving news around the world, including live televised feeds of his journey. While media channels are touting the event as the first “space jump,” those with a true expertise realize that a genuine space jump just isn’t yet possible with our current technology. In fact, the actual realm of space does not…
Calin Popa has taken the sport of aerobatic paragliding into levels of precision that it’s never seen before. For years, Calin Popa practiced the difficult moves required to pull off a Rhythmic SAT. He failed time and time again. He realized that what he needed was an instructor that could tell him the precise timing of each move. Failing to find such a teacher, he set out to build one. Popa used his training in civil engineering, and help from software engineer Ovidiu Ban, to build the Voodoo Trimbulind Robot (VTR). The VTR is a portable computer that gathers data, crunches…
Nothing enhances the thrill of a flight outing quite like recording yourself on video camera. What better way to share your adventures with the rest of the world? Filming one’s own self is difficult for paragliding and skydiving enthusiast unless you have a buddy flying in a perilously close formation, Blue Angels style. For those pilots seeking a more cinematic self-portrait touch to their in-flight films, the WingmanCam may be the ideal accessory. The WingmanCam is designed and manufactured by father and son team of Peter and Tim James of Victoria, Australia. Peter is a retired Boeing 777 captain. Tim is a commercial airline pilot…
Anyone who has ever gone paragliding has very likely, sometime later had a very vivid dream. In that dream, they were out flying and everything was effortless. They rode on never ending thermals that seemed to go on and on forever and finding new thermals were as easy as pointing in the right direction at the right time. Could paragliding ever really be so easy? One upstart software company says yes. Thermals Finder, newly developed software for the paragliding industry has software that they purport to do all of that, and then some. They say that their Thermocompass device will…
Skydiving is not a leap of faith; there are any number of preparations, precautions, and calculations that must be carefully considered before any jumper is willing to set foot in the plane. One piece of equipment that seeks to add even one more layer of calculation to the equation is the heads-up display for skydivers and wingsuit pilots. The beneficial implications of this flight instrumentation are making skydiving news. Wise hang gliding, ballooning, and paragliding pilots use flight computers to give them information about the three dimensional world they fly in. These pilots are fortunate that such technology is available…
