www.FlyingMax.com – Paragliding

Incidence in flight/Vol) was that tr there is a huge percentage of experienced cross-country pilots (flying at least 10-25 years) have never done a SIV course. It seams like that the biggest percentage of SIV participants are flying for 3-5 year. The most what I got out of the workshop was the different types of methods to get down to the ground fast. Here are the different methods: 1] The most common one is “Big Ears”. This gets you down with up to 12 m/sec (only with 3 liners, not 2 liners). Keep in mind, going down faster does not mean gaining more ground speed/airspeed, if anything, you are flying slower. A lot of pilots use this method thinking they fly faster to fly away from something, which is not true. “Big Ears” work very well, but can not be used as an overall maneuver to get down. Sometimes it is better to fly away as fast as possible from big lift and then spiral down instead of staying in big lift with “Big Ears”. 2] “B-line stall” which is not recommend anymore as it can lead to a “kravatte” and maybe gives you about 12 m/sec sink. Check your manufactures manual, some advice not to fly “B-line stalls” at all. 3] A “deep Spiral” can achieve more then 20 m/sec, but it creates a lot of g-forces and can lead to black outs and can be rough to do in turbulent air.

4] The most interesting maneuver was the 60% asymmetric collapsed spiral dive. With this spiral dive you have less g-forces and a stable decent of more then 25 m/sec in turbulent conditions. I was very surprised to experience how stable and save this spiral is. My big worry was to get into trouble with lines getting caught in the canopy during this maneuver or when stopping it. But based on the experiences the SIV schools had, there are no incidents like that at all. The most important result of this workshop was learning about the asymmetric collapsed spiral dive and to be able to practice it over water. Thanks again to Walter Holzmuller, Mik Brochard, Toni Bender and Nova to put this on for us.

After the Octoberfest I drove back to Sillian as I was guiding one more week in the Dolomite’s for Bluesky.at. We were a group of 12 pilots including Lucille from Edmonton and the weather was awesome. The first day we flew at Monte Piano (next to the 3 Zinnen) and the rest of the week we flew at Col Rodella and Belvedere. On 2 days most people logged flights with over 2 hour.

Every morning some of the participants joined for a “hike & fly” before breakfast to enjoy the morning air. The last morning was very spectacular as we could watch and fly over the cold air (fog) flushing over the Corvara pass down to Arabba.

Now I am on my way to Achensee for the Nova SIV.

After the

“Flight with the Balloons“flight, we managed to get one more flight from St. Hilare and then headed to the Dolomite’s. By the way, Mik’s video had over 26000 views in the first 7 days, which I was very surprised by. A massive low pressure system moved over Europe and the week for flying in the Dolo’s did not look very promising. The tour started with a hike around the 3 Zinnen. The day after we could fly for hours at Col Rodella. Then we had a day of hiking at Fasso Falzarego and the Piz Boe. Penny, Carrie and Dave spend one day in Venice which was a amazing trip on its own. Even if you can not fly, the Dolomite’s are spectacular and always worth a visit or just a couple hours away from other amazing places like Venice. Before the tour finished, we still got one more day of great flying and some people managed to fly to the Marmolada and to

fly back to the hotel in Arabba. All in all it was a great week.

After the Dolomite’s we headed north and visited the main office from Nova near Innsbruck. Dave was very excited to help to get

his Ion2 tuned with their computerized tuning system. The days after we flew at the Brauneck (bei Lenggries) and had a good time with our tour guide Mik and his family. Thanks again for your

time Mik. The last 3 days we spend in the Allgaeuer Alps to fly and to check out the castle, ruins, food and the last day/night we had a very good time at the Oktoberfest in Munich. Now I am back in Sillian to get ready for one more week in the Dolomite’s.

For this years Dolomite/Germany tour we started at St. Hilare at the “Coupe Icare“. Wow, explains it all!! Mik, Toni and Hannes from Nova organized tents and thermo-mats for us, and showed us around, showed us where to camp and gave us all the “inside” details of what to do and what was going, during our stay.

Thanks again for all your help. The Coupe Icare is a must for every light aircraft pilot. I have never seen so many people attending a flying event. I heard that they had about 100.000 visitors. I am not sure if it is true, but the take off and landing sites were jam packed, traffic was blocked up for kilometers, and pilots of any kind were seen in the air for 3 days. The flying expo was amazing and it was super interesting to see what the manufactures are offering and planning for the future. The parties in the evening were just awesome with some wild bands and performers. The evening light up was fantastic and we really loved the mini hot air balloons. We also managed to get some flights in and the most amazing flight was in the early morning (with fog) flying around hot air balloons. See the video (from Mik) and pictures below.

paraglider meet hot-air ballons @ coupe icare 2012 from Mik Broschart on Vimeo.

Fall is one of my favorite flying seasons. This is the time of the year to give lessons as the conditions are mellow and way more relaxed then during the spring and summer season and great for “hike & fly” as it is not to hot for hiking and still having good conditions for nice x-country flights. So far August and September (until mid September) just was a “blur” with all the activities we did. Besides flying, we did a lot like camping in the west Kootenays, Stand-up paddle boarding, multi-day canoe trip down the Columbia River, fishing, hiking, exploring, partying and so on.

Now we are getting ready for our “Fly the Alps” tour. This will be very exciting and fun. Penny and I will travel with a couple Canadians to St. Hilare to the Coupe Icare and then we will be guiding for www.BlueSky.at in the Dolomite’s. After the Dolomite tour, we will be traveling to Achensee to visit Nova to check out what they are working on and fly at their flying sites. After the Achensee we are traveling to the German

Alps to fly over the fairy tale castle Neuschwanstein (see pictures and more info at https://flyingmax.com/dolomite-tour/). This tour will be finished off with a visit at the October Fest in Munich. After this I will be doing another Dolomite tour (also with some Canadian’s) for www.BlueSky.at and right after this I will participating at SIV course at Gardasee.

A day after the SIV, Steve Nash (UK xAlps pilot) and I will be holding a xAlps workshop for Nova junior pilots from Mt. Blanc following one of the xAlps routes. The following weekend will be the Nova pilots meet in Austria to finish off the European trip. All this will be jam-packed into a 5 week period. I will be posting pictures and posts during the trip.

October 25th 2011 at 20:00 Uhr
xAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich

For the Paragliding Club “Bodenlosen” in Munich we will do a presentation about the 2011 race together
More details at
http://www.bodenlos.de/aktiv/2011_10_25_Xalps.php 

Day 6:

Intro and briefing at www.BlueSky.at in Sillian in the morning. The German intro and weather forecast was very detailed and the guests were informed of details with a lot of graphs. The Canadian intro version was “Sunny and Hot” and watch out to not get blisters on your ass from flying too much.

With that, we headed to Monte Piano and set a task to fly from Monte Piano to the 3 Zinnen, via Cortina to Arabba and land right at the hotel Olympia. I think this is about a 40 km flight and right though the middle of the Dolomite’s. The conditions started weak and with a lot of east wind. 2 hours later, the thermals got stronger and blocked the wind. After launch, there were some nice, but not strong enough thermals to get over to the 3 Zinnen. Being patient, and on my second attempt to cross over, I reached the 3 Zinnen at half the summit height. To get higher, you needed to scratch close into the towers of the 3 Zinnen and I have to say it was very spectacular watching the rock climbers on the walls and slowly “thermalling” to pass them on the wall, and eventually reach the summits of the the “the 3 summits”. Once I was about 300 meters over the summit, I headed south and fueled up more height over various exposed summits before crossing over to Mount Christallo.

Mount Christallo worked very well and at 3300 meters I crossed over Cortina and scratched along the west side of Cortina but barely crossed a low ridge over to the foot of theTofane. I was very low and was close to landing at the gravel field below the massive 1100 meter rock face of the Tofane and literly at my landing approac
h my vario started to beep and I could do one figure eight along the gravel, gaining about 20 meters. From then on I kept scratching and slowly worked myself up this massive and never ending wall right to the summit. I have to say that this was my most rewarding flight I have ever done. Just amazing to soar so close in absolute gentle lift up to the summit along such a massive rock face. Once I got about 300 meters above the summit things got a bit rough with the east wind kicking in, but I continued my flight to Arabba and landed right at the hotel. After I landed, Frank called me on the radio to say he already had a couple beers ordered. He had the same experience as I had on the Tofane and agreed that this was the absolute highlight. The only part Frank missed was the 3 Zinnen as he was to eager to get the beer first. The rest of the group landed either at the regular landing site and 3 others landed in Cortina. Our 2 non-pilots had a great day hiking around the 3 Zinnen and Kari discovered the mountain named after her family name “Paterno”. Very cool as well.

Day 7: 

Sunny and hot. So we headed to Col Rodella and after watching some crazy take offs on the east side we started flying later on the SW side of the mountain. The conditions were superb and I had an amazing flight over the Lang Kofel, the Sella, the Marmolada, again along the Sella to the east and back to Arabba to the hotel again. Everyone had great and safe flights and the non-pilots were hiking on top of the Col Rodello.

Day 8: 

Sunny and hot again. The thermals were a bit weaker, but we flew the same route as the previous day. Our 2 non Pilots did a great hike from the top of Sass Pordoi.

Day 9:

Sunny and hot again. This time we decided to take the Gondola up to the Sass Pordoi to enjoy an amazing view of the Dolomite’s. After that we headed to Col Rodella again and once again we flew all over the place, including the Marmolada. Our 2 non-pilots headed for an overnight trip to Venice and had an amazing time.

Day 10: 

Guess what…. yes, Suny and hot again. This time we parked on top of the Passo Pordoi and hiked for about 45 minutes to the Belvedere. Most people flew to the landing site and then up again to the Col Rodella for further flights. I launched later from Belvedere and did my usual round over the Marmolada and back to the hotel.

Day 11:   

This was our last day. After checking out of the hotel, we drove back to Monte Piano to fly over the 3 Zinnen again. The conditions looked a bit weak, but we set the task to fly over the 3 Zinnen, over to Sexton and then to the www.BlueSky.at office in Sillian. The conditions turned from weak to amazing again and everyone flew over the 3 Zinnen. Most of the group landed in Sexten and Cyril, Wendelin and myself managed to get to Sillian.

What an amazing week in the Dolomite’s. Every day we were able to have incredible flights and flew all over the place! I even had a double bonus, as I was able to hike every morning to the Sella rock face, with Wendelin (best BlueSky guide), before we started the tour.  It was a great morning flight along the rock-face and we landed right at the hotel. The pictures below will tell more than my words.

Day 12:

Back in Germany and the weather was sunny and hot. We visited the “Free Flight” at Tegelberg. The “Free Flight” was not as good as we hoped for and a lot of manufactures did not attend. We still had a great time getting a couple more flights in, and enjoyed the beer tent. One thing I was very impressed with at the show was the Atos with all the different motorized versions.

Day 13:

Some morning flights from Buchenberg and then on our way to the Oktoberfest in Munich. The Oktoberfest is so huge and the grounds are massive. It was wild how many people were there, but we only managed to see the first 50 meters of the grounds as we got sidetracked with the partying and dancing in the Paulaner Beer tent.

Day 14: 

Sunny and hot and lots of traffic to the Munich airport.

Wow what a couple of weeks this was. Simply amazing and almost unreal for both pilots and non pilots. I think we will offer a package like that for next year again. Let us know who might be interested to join us next year.

Here is how it started:
Day 1:
I picked up Frank, Tracye, Mike, Dave, Chris and Karie at the airport in Munich. First we headed to Kempten to have coffee and Oma’s homemade Zwetschgen Datscahi with my Mom and Dad.
The weather was sunny and hot and we still had enough time to head to Tegelberg to fly over the Schloss Neuschwanstein. Everyone had a great flight and I did a tandem with Erik.
Tracye, Karie and Katia had a nice walk and found a hidden hut where we ended up for a beer after the flight.

Day 2:  
Winds were light and forecast was sunny & hot again. This time we headed to Breitenberg. Conditions were light but a couple of us managed to get up below cloud base over Ruine Eisenberg and flew down the ridge towards Fuessen and back crossing the valley across Pfronten and back to the landing site.
On the way to the Schloss Neuschwanstein to drop off Chris, Karie, Tracey and Dave for their castle tour, we stopped at a BBQ chicken and haxen trailer. We had spare rips and “Schweins Haxen”. Man that was good and a lot of food. After we dropped them off at the castle, Frank, Mike and I headed to Tegelberg for another flight. Mike and I hiked up via the “Gelbe Wand” which was not a good idea with a very full stomach. The flight was great and rewarding and we all met down at the hut for beer again.
Penny was flying with us at Breitenberg, but had to head home to get the kids from school. Thanks for the train network here in Europe, Penny could walk from the landing site to the train station to get back to Kempten.

Day 3:
The forecast was sunny and hot with a low

cloud base in Germany, so we drove 25 minutes to Hahnenkamm by Reutte. The thermals started week, but we got some great flights right (up to 2.5 hours) right to cloud base and into the Tanheimmer tal and back. After some good bratwurst, beer and schnaps we headed to the Neunerkoepfle im Tanheimer tal. The gondala was already clsoed and we headed via the Oberjoch pass to Sonthofen for Coffee and beer. After this we picked up Penny from Kempten and drove to the Sudhaus for dinner. The Sudhaus is a micro brewery with a rustic restaurant for local food. The evening went from a dinner to a singing party with another group. Too bad I did not video the songs everyone was singing.

Day 4:
All of us, as well as the  kids, started the day with a visit the Viehscheid in Heubach.

After the Viehscheid we drove to Neunerkoepfle for another great flight. There were a lot of pilots and almost  too busy, but the conditions were great and I did a 1.5 hour tandem with Katia.

After the flying, I dropped off the group in Fuessen where they had a great italian Dinner an we headed back to Kempten.

Day 5: 
There was a concert with 100 Alphorn’s on top of Breitenberg. After the concert I did a 1 hour tandem with Erik over Ruine Eisenberg and another tandem with Katia. The conditions were way better then we anticipated.
See the video Mike did of the Alphorns.

Later this afternoon we drove 3.5 hours to Sillian to get ready for the Dolomite tour.
Part 2 of the blog will be about the Dolomite’s