#204 – Flying High with Martin Jovanoski

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Martin wins the PWC in Aksaray, Turkey 2022

Martin Jovanoski has been flying his entire life. Sailplanes, Hang gliders, Paragliders- in any and all forms. He got started in accuracy, moved into cross country competitions and pretty much does it all when it comes to free-flight. He’s one of the big reasons Krushevo, Macedonia has become such a mecca for competitions, and he instructs, guides, flies tandems, designs wings, consults and more. I’ve been lucky enough to compete with Martin many times in World Cups and hands down Martin is the cream of the crop when it comes to unabashed love for our sport. He’s always got the biggest smile on launch. He’s the pilot who seems to have retained that first flight wonder of flying we all have throughout his long and very storied career. In this episode we dive into his history, how he turned accuracy flying into sponsorship and a means to pursue flying full time, competition flying and how to become successful at the highest end of the sport, how to fly safely, and a lot more. Enjoy!

Launching Aksarary, Turkey

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#203- The French Domination with Julien Garcia

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The French own the podium at the Targassone PWC. Maxime Pinot, Honorin Hamard, Baptiste Lambert

It’s no secret that the French are operating on a very different level. If you’re French and into flying and lucky enough you can start young at the Polisport (the French Olympic training center) which aims to develop pilots into the future French team members. The objective is simple- be the best in the world, and win championships. In other words- you can go to University to paraglide! Charles Cazaux, Luc Armont, Pierre Remy, Honorin Hamard, Meryl Delferriere, and Maxime Pinot are all products of the French training program and Julien Garcia, our guest on today’s show is their coach. For years he was the coach of the junior team and is now the coach of maybe the most elite team the world of paragliding has ever seen. 5 of the top 10 pilots in the WPRS ranking are French right now. In last week’s PWC in Targassone, home of the Polisport training center all three top spots went to French pilots. In this episode I grill Julien on the secret sauce of winning. What are the steps the team takes; what does it take to get on the podium with consistency; how do you strategize winning with such different talents; should you focus on strengths or weaknesses; flying “defensively vs offensively”; the “three rules” of paragliding and a lot more. We also dive into Julien’s remote navigational and weather support of Maxime Pinot and Eli Egger in the Red Bull X-Alps. A fascinating talk with a generous individual. Enjoy!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:10 — 61.5MB)

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#202- “The Flying Yogi” Jim Mallinson

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Jim Mallinson has a lot of titles. Baronet, Sir, Professor, Doctor, Mahant, and of course Pilot. Jim is the world’s leading expert on Hatha yoga and Sanskrit. He has translated texts that go back thousands of years. Jim became fascinated with India on a trip there when he was 18 years old and for every year since other than during Covid he has spent 6 months of every year there living as a Sadhu, or “one who has renounced worldly life”- basically a vagabond, but then during the other 6 months has achieved an unbelievable resume in academia, mostly through Oxford University. He’s the author of nine books and scores of academic articles. Described as “perhaps the only baronet with dreadlocks” Jim is one of the most fascinating individuals in our sport. He was one of the Sky Safaris founders who guided XC trips in the Himalaya with legendary pilots Eddie Colfox, John Silvester, Debu Choudery, and Antoine Laurens for over a decade. In this episode we discuss Jim’s views on western and eastern culture, the concept of “dissolving the mind”, his recent amazing flight across the Solent, finding the balance between stillness and achievement, losing his dreadlocks, language extinction, guiding, racing, and what he would do differently if he could rewind the clock. A fascinating talk with a fascinating individual. Enjoy!

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A buck an episode, that's all we ask

If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a subscriber to ensure our high-quality content continues. You can also help contribute to a healthier, greener planet through our partnership with Our Forest. See our donation and subscription options here.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:34:39 — 86.7MB)

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Bonus Episode! Leaving the Nest with Calef Letorney

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Right after Calef and I recorded the #201 Podcast he reached out to say he thought he'd missed an opportunity to talk about instruction, namely that very fragile time in a pilot's career when they first get their license and are sent off on their own to figure it out. So here it is, a veritable primer on leaving the nest.

This content is only available to Members of the Cloudbase Mayhem. If you have subscribed to our newsletter or have supported us in the past through PayPal, Patreon or another way you should have an account all set up with us and you can login below (username is typically your email). If you aren't a member, all we've ever asked for is a buck a show so please if you can join now! Can't afford a buck a show? We want all our content to be available to the flying community regardless of your financial position, so just send us an email and we'll sort you out.

#201- Calef Letorney and Community, Confidence, and Cloudwhispering

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Calef Letorney was a professional whitewater kayaker back in the early 2000’s who made the switch to paragliding and has never looked back. When you think of places to fly, you don’t often put the North East US on the list. The mountains are relatively small and flat, there’s a lot of trees, cloudbase is low, and the weather is fickle. But after a few seasons in the Colorado Rockies, Calef moved home to Vermont, and soon realized that to continue enjoying paragliding he needed to build a community to fly with. So he learned to be an instructor, then a tour guide, then an SIV instructor, and finally started training other instructors to help the cause… and the rest fell into place. Where a few years back you’d be lucky to have two paragliders on launch in Vermont, these days when the weather cooperates there’s often 40+ and a solid crew chasing cross country flights. In this fun episode Calef discusses his own approach to SIV (no scary stories, it should be “anticlimactic”), a few  “code brown” mishaps from his  early days (including standing on speedbar while taking a pee, oops!), the psychology of decision making, the Dunning Kruger effect, the low probability / high consequence nature of accidents, how losing a close friend early in the sport affected his approach to flying and a lot more. Enjoy!

Check out Calef’s school, Paraglide New England

To hear the bonus episode we did with Calef about “leaving the nest” click here.

Support the Podcast

A buck an episode, that's all we ask

If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a subscriber to ensure our high-quality content continues. You can also help contribute to a healthier, greener planet through our partnership with Our Forest. See our donation and subscription options here.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:23:46 — 67.1MB)

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#200- Going pear shaped in Pakistan

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Welcome to the 200th show of the Cloudbase Mayhem! And this week we’ve got one heck of a story that honors that number. Pilots and friends Pierre Carter, Jeremy Holdcroft, Scott Baker, Richard “Barbs” Barber and legendary mountaineer Andy De Klerk set off this June to attempt to break the altitude record by flying up the Baltoro Glacier to K2 in Pakistan. Everything was going well…until it wasn’t. Andy suffers a heart attack (in the air!), and Scott breaks the rule of not making a tricky situation worse by blowing a landing on the wrong side of the river and suffers a broken ankle and leg, which turns into an epic on its own. A wild story from a wild part of the world and we break it down into everything that went right, everything that went wrong, and lessons we can all take on board to help our community be safer and more prepared in the mountains. This is also a great primer on best-use practices for the Garmin InReach. Mandatory and entertaining listening!

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A buck an episode, that's all we ask

If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a subscriber to ensure our high-quality content continues. You can also help contribute to a healthier, greener planet through our partnership with Our Forest. See our donation and subscription options here.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:55:59 — 79.7MB)

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Episode 199- A story of avoiding inconvenience with Alejandro Barañac

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We have a saying in our sport, “never avoid inconvenience.” But it’s easier said than done. An easy field a kilometer away from the train station, or a really tricky field right next to it? Landing in strong wind across a river that means a long walk, or landing in strong wind near a road that will have rotor? In the 21′ Vercofly a number of pilots were injured and the race was cancelled due the unusual level of carnage. Some were due to rowdy conditions, but several were just because of pilots making poor decisions. This is one of the latter stories from a first-time hike and fly competitor, Alejandro Barañac. We originally recorded this show as a bonus episode for subscribers, but the lesson here is so important we’re releasing it as a regular show. Alejandro touches on a number or great subjects, including fear injuries. Enjoy!

Support the Podcast

A buck an episode, that's all we ask

If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a subscriber to ensure our high-quality content continues. You can also help contribute to a healthier, greener planet through our partnership with Our Forest. See our donation and subscription options here.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:12 — 38.7MB)

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Episode 198- Going Big in…Israel? A flight to remember with Eliya Zemmour

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UPDATE to this podcast: Cross Country magazine has just (July 2nd, 2025) broke an incredible story that Eliya Zemmour, featured in this episode has been regularly faking his flights on XContest, using other pilot’s flights as his own. As Cross Country wrote, it is both sad and shocking in equal measure. This remains an interesting and exciting show, but we have no idea what is truth and fiction…

Eliya Zemmour is an Isreali-born climber, endurance athlete, hike and fly guidebook author and…formerly incarcerated conman, but that’s another story to be told soon on the podcast! In this show we take a deep dive into his recent 228km flight from the southern tip of Israel past Jerusalem, which broke the country record. Flying in Israel isn’t without it’s difficulties (tricky borders, sea breeze, no fly zones) but for the adventurous conditions can be amazing and the scenery mind-blowing. Come along for the ride!

Here is Eliya’s record breaking flight on XContest: https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:Eliya/11.03.2023/07:04

Support the Podcast

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If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a subscriber to ensure our high-quality content continues. You can also help contribute to a healthier, greener planet through our partnership with Our Forest. See our donation and subscription options here.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:12 — 43.3MB)

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Episode 196- From World Record Skydiving to Paragliding, Reserve Testing, pro repacks with Andrey Kuznetsov

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Andrey Kuznetsov has been on the national sky diving team for many years, holds several world records and the genius record (100 way canopy formation record) and has been a long-time test pilot for reserves. He made the transition quite easily from sky diving to paragliding in 2009 and skipped the C class altogether as he found it too slow! He recently flew across Vermont and landed on the beach and owns AirQuest paragliding, a professional reserve packing and line-trimming company. In this episode we talk about his history of sky diving, the transition to XC paragliding, why SO many people don’t pack their reserve correctly, trimming gliders, why it matters and a lot more. There’s some terrific information here. Enjoy!

Support the Podcast

A buck an episode, that's all we ask

If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a subscriber to ensure our high-quality content continues. You can also help contribute to a healthier, greener planet through our partnership with Our Forest. See our donation and subscription options here.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:13 — 62.5MB)

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Bonus Episode! Behind the scenes before the start of the 23′ Red Bull X-Alps

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The toughest adventure race on Earth starts in a few hours! 32 athletes go head to head in a mind boggling journey by foot and by sky across the Alps for 12 days. I sat down with many of them- Aaron Durogati, Celine Lorenz, Damien Lacaze, James Elliot, Lenart Oblak, Logan Walters, Markus Anders, Nicola Donini, Tanguy Renoud-Goud, Tom De Dorlodot, Rich Binstead and Tommy Friedrich a day before the gun goes off to find out how they are feeling, what are their biggest concerns, thoughts on some of the new rules, the pinch points in the course, the weather and a lot more. This is an intimate look at what’s going on in the minds of the athletes in this year’s race. Enjoy!

Support the Podcast

A buck an episode, that's all we ask

If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a subscriber to ensure our high-quality content continues. You can also help contribute to a healthier, greener planet through our partnership with Our Forest. See our donation and subscription options here.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:31 — 84.8MB)

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