May 19, 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
The 2012 USPA National Collegiate Parachuting Championships came to a finish on December 31st, just in time for New Year’s celebrations. The winners definitely had a lot to celebrate. Of the eighty-seven competitors, eight new records were set. The 2012 USPA National Collegiate Parachuting Championships wrapped up on the last day of the year in Eloy, Arizona. 14 colleges and universities brought a total of 87 competitors to the small town 65 miles southwest of Phoenix. The Air Force Academy had an extremely strong showing in multiple events. Air Force Legacy set a college record with a 36 point dive…
The very first Indoor Skydiving World Championship was a big success with over 400 skydivers participating from more than 10 countries and a prize packaged valued at over $120,000 USD. The competition was held at the largest indoor skydiving facility in the world at the facilities of iFly Singapore. Fresh off a victory and a gold medal performance at the World Skydiving Championship in Dubai, team Arizona Airspeed‘s momentum continued in the indoor arena with a first place finish over fellow countrymen SDC Rhythm XP who took second. The Canadian team, Evolution, finished in third place at Indoor Skydiving World Championship in Singapore. In the Freefly,…
The Foundation for Free Flight is an organization that helps promote and conserve the free flight sporting industry in America. The organization was originally founded in 1987 to help support teams competing in hang gliding and paragliding competitions. In 2001 the organization was reorganized to focus on preserving the legacy of free flight sports, educating the public and promote proper safety procedures for its sports enthusiasts. The foundation still supports hang gliding, women’s hang gliding and paragliding competitions. The entire Foundation for Free Flight staff is composed of volunteers that love the sport. The Board of Trustees, officers and executive…
During the summer months the beaches in Florida are lined with adventure seeking tourist looking for a bird’s eye view from a parasail. Little do they know that their adventure is widely unregulated in Florida with minimal government oversight to ensure their safety. Currently, the FAA only regulates the air space the parasailing activities use. The Coast Guard regulates the boats and by requiring that a license be onboard allowing it to carry passengers for hire. Other than seeing the parasail doesn’t run into an airplane or that the boat floats, the goverment doesn’t have any compelling safety requirements. Seeing that this oversight…
Many residents of the United States and Canada are familiar with hot air balloon festivals. There is nothing like watching a sea of colorful balloons filling up in the cool of the early morning, listening to the whoosh of the burner, and watching the balloons take flight to decorate the sky. It is unusual to hear hot air balloon news from the country of Taiwan though, because there are only two legal balloons in the entire country, both of them owned by the county of Taitung. Taiwan is just catching on to this beautiful sport, and they are looking to…
Hot air balloonists will kick off the New Year in style with the Monument Valley Balloon Event. The 3rd annual festival is being promoted by the Navajo Parks and Recreation organization. Festival activities begin on Jan. 11 and conclude on Jan. 13. The event calls for morning launches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 8 and 10:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday schedules wrap up with a balloon glow in the evening. The event concludes with a Sunday morning launch between 8 and 10:30. Monument Valley is a sacred site for the Navajo people and one of the most iconic of…
Indoor skydiving has become the newest craze for those seeking the thrill of skydiving without the risks. But indoor skydiving is not just for the timid amateur and an upcoming event is making indoor skydiving news. World renowned, iFly Singapore, the world’s largest skydiving windtunnel, will host the 2012 Indoor Skydiving World Championships this December 13-16. FAI-certified judges from the USA, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Russia and Finland will preside over the event. It is expected that 400 entrants from around the world will participate in the competition which features five disciplines in the professional category. The USA will be…
The conclusion of the 2012 FAI World Parachuting Championships Mondial in Dubai dominated skydiving news this week. The US Team finished second in the competition behind France, with the US taking six gold medals in the competition. Curt Bartholomew, 26, of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, won gold medals in 3 events including Canopy Piloting Overall , CP Speed, and CP Zone Accuracy. Bartholomew took 3rd place in CP Distance while fellow US Team member, Nicholas Batsch, took Gold in this disclipine. Bartholomew has been a professional skydiver for only four years, becoming a professional skydiver in 2009. Although his original career goal was to…
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…
