Avisos publicitarios de Flytec

Un poquito de humor aplicado al vuelo: una serie de avisos publicitarios realizados por Flytec para que se vote el mejor (solamente para miembros de la USHGA).

Personalmente, el que mas me gusta es el Go For It, que me recuerda la vez que estuve pateando como 3 horas, con 35 grados de calor, rodeado de mosquitos y sin agua (ahh ... que tiempos aquellos !!)

Compe de Grecia II

Un mensaje de Ramon Morillas a la lista de parapente francesa, donde cuenta y expresa su opinion sobre lo sucedido en la compe de Grecia.

If there is life, there is hope:
Last day October 9th, in the European Paragliding Championship in Kalavrita (Greece) several incidents took place during task 9. In the second turnpoint, Spanish pilot Xevi Bonet had to use his parachute. He luckily landed ok. However, Spanish pilot Carlos Izquierdo, around the same time and place as Xevi, had an accident that cost him his life. Two more pilots -Polish Malik and English Jon Bates-, went that day to the hospital with serious fractures.

It is really a pity that we have to wait for these accidents to happen to come out these types of problems that have been yet occurring for a long time in paragliding championships.

No matter how much we discuss and argue about the issue, nobody will give our dead friends back or avoid those accidents. However, it is essential to end with the cynicism and draw some conclusion for the future. I would ask the organizers of this Championship, hosted in Kalavrita, to be more sincere. The facts that took place that day showed how bad the emergency system worked, and it was the Championship's Director who should monitor this.

After the fateful accident, both the competition's director and Xavier Murillo tried to explain the inexplicable in two briefings: How is it possible that it took the organizers 30 minutes to request the helicopter since Belgian pilot Philippe Debroers asked them about it to rescue Carlos? How is it possible that it took 2 hours and 40 minutes to the emergency team to get to the accident site, if they were so experienced according to their publicity? Why does it take 2 hours for the doctor to get to Carlos? Why does this doctor tell Philippe "there is nothing to do" when he was actually doing a heart massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in that moment? What kind of doctor is that that he could say his diagnosis so quickly?

This info is true and has been checked against Philippe, Xevit Bonet, and Luis Castellanos' statements, who arrived to the accident site and were able to see this.

It is also inexplicable how negligently the other two badly-injured pilots were assisted that very same day. The Polish pilot, with serious fractures, had to wait for more than 4 hours to be evacuated. He spent the first 2 hours alone, and the other 2 with his wife. She managed to reach him thanks to the coordinates he sent to her, whereas the rescue team was in nother valley looking for him. If you want further info, please check with the Polish team.

It took them 2 hours to evacuate the English pilot, who had serious fractures in his lumbar vertebras.

Considering all this, they want us to believe their explanations in the briefing, which, in the end, seemingly showed that the pilots were responsible for the accidents. I wonder, is it so difficult for them to admit their errors?

Another important issue was the track of every task. On day 9, task 9, the wind was too strong, 27km/h, and the cloud base was too low as well, 2,000m. With these conditions, the organizers decided to do a long task with plenty of turnpoints and a return to Kalavrita. Why? Was it perhaps the cause of the accident that they ignored the weather forecast? And, instead of considering the pilots' security they prioritised Xavier's proposals, which indeed were good tasks but for good weather conditions days. We all know they wanted to make it difficult for those who were not flying too fast and therefore not letting them reach the finish point. They wanted a task to determine a champion. We all could see the speed statistics, and how the design of the task would definitely influence on the final results.

Is all this necessary to figure out that the most appropriate tasks are those longer than 80 km.? It is well-known that in order to set tasks one has to be very familiar with the area, to choose the perfect turnpoints (in Kalavrita old turnpoints were used: on top of mountains, passes, and hidden sites), to have access to the best weather forecasts and to understand them (a meteorologist was available in the takeoff place), and, most important, the main thing to consider is security, and I insist, of all pilots included, "fast and slow."

One of the most important jobs to do in a championship is choosing the task and those who do it are mainly responsible. Xavier Murillo has a great knowledge in competitions, however, the last word should not be his. He should admit that there are more correct opinions than his and that he is not always right. In this case, it is pretty clear that they made a big mistake designing the task. I am not aware of how much time they invested in planning the best type of tasks for the area of Kalavrita. But, I know for sure how it is done in other FAI championships. The director assistant, appointed by the FAI, arrives on the site from 2-4 days before the event takes place in order to check that everything is on schedule, as well as the jury. However, these facts are not enough to choose the tasks and assume the responsibility for them. Therefore, the assistant should be informed by a local expert who has flown a lot on the area and knows everything by heart: the local weather, the best turnpoints, etc.

I think the high level pilots have is over trusted, since they usually finish all the tasks, and sometimes we all think the strategy is more important than the best design of a task. I also think it is quite difficult to believe that no one in the organization questioned the emergency system when it was known that it did not work properly, and that it was logical to continue with the tasks. Even though, nobody suggested it was better to cancel the tasks.

They set the rules, like the one that stated that a task was valid when a pilot made it to the finish line. This only leads to speculate with the security. I am pretty convinced that our system of rules can be reviewed in order to make it easy and simple, and not to foul our own nest. I hope all those involved reconsider the facts that took place and we all come up with solutions to these problems.

- Ramon Morillas

Compe de Grecia

De Ojo Volador: Carlos Izquierdo, miembro de su selección nacional, falleció durante la 5ª manga del Campeonato Europeo de Parapente al estrellarse sobre la montaña Falkos, cerca de Kalavrita en el sur de Grecia.

Nuevo diseño de ParaBlog!

ParaBlog tiene un nuevo diseño! Hace un mes empece a diseñar la nueva pagina donde se encuentran todos los articulos, fotos, etc que fui juntando durante este tiempo.

El nuevo diseño no tiene mucho agregado en contenido, la intencion fue crear un sitio un poco mas atractivo que el que estaba antes y organizar un poco mejor las cosas que ya existian

Espero que les guste!

Hannes Papesh sobre la nueva Tattoo

Hannes Papesh - diseñador de NOVA - comenta sobre la nueva Tattoo

Nuestras metas para esta nueva vela comparada con la Aeron son las siguientes. Pudimos cumplir todas:

- mejor manejo: menos presion de freno, mas reaccion con menor recorrido de freno, mayor agilidad, mas rigidez, mas facil de girar incluso en termicas fuertes.

- mayor seguridad y mejor confort: apta para un mayor numero de pilotos ya que se encuentra en el medio de la categoria 2.

- por supuesto, mejor performance en planeo, tasa de caida y 'termiqueo'

- un 'look' mas agresivo con mejor marketing

Luego de probar con el concepto de la Aeron, nos dimos cuenta que teniamos que encontrar un nuevo concepto para cumplir nuestras metas. Realizamos entonces algunos experimentos con diferentes formas, curvas, tensiones y perfiles.

Finalmente la Tattoo tiene casi todo nuevo con respecto a la Aeron: mayor curva en la vela, estabilos menos fragiles, lineas mas largas, nuevo perfil, diferentes tensiones en la vela ...

El perfil tiene una 'mordida' impresionante incluso en termicas suaves. La performance en termicas es una de las mejores que logramos. Tiene ademas una aceleracion suave y muy estable, asi como un largo recorrido del acelerador. El perfil pliega mas suave que la Aeron, requiere menor presion en los frenos y el rendimiento es mejor. El perfil y la tension en la tela mejoran el rendimiento incluso con menor alargamiento proyectado. Tambien con el potencial de seguridad: no fue necesario cambiar el trim para la certificacion: sigue siendo el calculado por la computadora y optimizado para el mejor rendimiento.

A mandos libres es casi igual que la Aeron; tambien la velocidad maxima. La vela es solo un poco mas pequeña, pero da la impresion de estar volando una 'S' por su mayor agilidad.

Certificaciones DHV

Ultimas certificaciones DHV:
Windtech Tempus 31, DHV GS-01-1281-04
Windtech Tempus 27, DHV GS-01-1286-04

UP Kuna S, DHV GS-01-1285-04
UP Kuna L, DHV GS-01-1284-04

Independence Excalibur M, DHV GS-01-1283-04
Independence Excalibur L, DHV GS-01-1282-04

Swing Axis 3.30 Twin, DHV GS-01-1287-04

Wanted

Muchas noticias en el mundo parapentista, mucha vela nueva, varias certificaciones ... pero, para variar un poco, un post que salio en el foro de BigAir:

HUMOR: Wanted - Good Woman

Good Woman Must be able to Drive 4WD, Navigate using GPS, Use Uhf/Vhf Radio, Organise retrieves, Pack Glider and Possibly reserve and Cook with good Camping skills. Please send picture of 4WD and Tent to (...) :-)