Episode 128- Ari in the Air and the philosophy of flight

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Ari Highlining at sunset in the Cascades- Photo Zack Doleac

In this entertaining and thought-provoking podcast with Ari Delashmutt, a big mountain skier, world-record highliner, paraglider, film maker, and pursuer of the absurd we take on what is sometimes the hardest question of all. Why? Why do we pursue activities that can quite easily go wrong and kill us? As Will Gadd often says, it’s the question we all need to have an answer for and the answer often changes over time. “Truthfulness is a muscle we have to flex.” Let’s flex the muscle we often neglect. Enjoy, ponder, discuss and send your comments. I think you’re going to dig this one.

Ari has his own podcast which you can enjoy here. 

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Show Notes:

  • Cultivating a sense of your own vulnerability
  • Coming into the right relationship with reality
  • The power of collaboration
  • The attitude we should have
  • What does maturation (becoming more mature) look like?
  • It’s time to grow up- as people, as a society
  • “We paraglide for an emotional response”
  • The identity loop- we all only exist in relationship to one another
  • Knowing the reasons you do what you do
  • Maturity- taking what is unconscious into conscious
  • “In paragliding we’re having a hard time talking about safety”
  • How do we support one another in a way that addresses one another constructively?
  • Using paragliding as a tool for transformation- can we use it to change the world?
  • The egoic pursuit
  • “Personhood is an achieved state of being”
  • Doing it for the right reasons- bringing reverence and gratitude to the game every time
  • How does free flight compare to other high-risk sports?
  • What is true in paragliding is true interpersonally
  • Extending the awestruck
  • The requisite virtues of a good pilot and the 4 cardinal virtues
  • Knowing the path vs walking the path
  • Why do some people have such an affinity for high-risk activities?
  • Why paragliding is so much better than kitesurfing:) Why the 3rd dimension makes the experience so much richer
  • You have to walk the path!

 

Mentioned in this episode: Sketchy Andy, Discovery channel, the Turkey Boogie, GGBY, world record highline, Super Frenchy (Matthias Girard), Jon Malmberg, Jeff Shapiro, XContest, John Vervaeke, Red Rocks Fly-in, Will Gadd, Cody Tuttle, Nick Greece, Matt Beechinor, Nate Scales, USHPA, Josh Cohn, the Matrix, Sage Cattabriga-alosa, James “Kiwi” Johnston, Bill Belcourt

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:30:37 — 83.2MB)

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Episode 127- Hypoxia, Cold, Accident and Reserve Studies and more with Dr. Matt Wilkes

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ER and Critical Care physician and paragliding hound Matt Wilkes returns to the Mayhem to share the many takeaways from several large studies he’s been involved with since his last talk three years ago on hypoxia and cold; the largest and most comprehensive study done to date on throwing a reserve; and an accident analysis study done with the BHPA and Cross Country Magazine. How dangerous is free flight really? What leads to most accidents and what does the data support? What do we find from the “Exposure Model”- ie what is more dangerous- flying more and having more currency, or flying less and having less exposure to risk? What are the most common pilot errors that lead to accidents? We know reserves work really well but many people either freeze up or lose track of their height and don’t throw- why? We discuss how should we throw them, what can go wrong if you do, creating the right mindset for throwing, the importance of standardizing the gear and a lot more on tossing the laundry. How much does cold, altitude, dehydration and other environmental factors cripple our cognition? How vulnerable are pilots who are just out of their initial training? We discuss the debacle on Mont Blanc last summer and how we can make bad judgements with the best of intentions, we revisit intermediate syndrome and a ton more. Listen, learn, and share with your friends; this one has a ton of valuable information we all need to digest.

Important links from the show:

Free Flight Physiology Project: https://www.freeflightphysiology.org/

Extreme Environments Laboratory: https://www.port.ac.uk/research/research-centres-and-groups/extreme-environments-research-group

Link to reserve throw video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HS1ppN6vw4&feature=youtu.be

Link to current first aid kit and advice: https://www.freeflightphysiology.org/first-aid-key-skills/

The Killing zone: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Killing-Zone-Second-How-Pilots/dp/0071798404

Critique of book: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24013111

Brilliant avalanche article, massively applicable to paragliding

http://www.sunrockice.com/docs/Heuristic%20traps%20IM%202004.pdf

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Show Notes:

FIRST AID

  1. The scene and team
  2. The airway
  3. External bleeding
  4. Bind the pelvis
  5. Environmental protection
  6. Tourniquets, spines and helmets etc.

STUDIES

  1. Instrumented pilots in live flight, including XC and acro, heart G
  2. Simulation
  3. Reserve throw – zipline, G force sim
  4. Lots of other work, BHPA analysis, XC survey

OWN LEARNING

  • Guiding / tandem
  • Bandwidth, theirs and my own
  • Lots of SIV courses – talking to experts/andres and paw
  • Understanding the challenges facing beginners (so easy to overestimate)
  • LLSC

XC SURVEY AND BHPA ANALYSIS

  • Exposure model (‘the more flying, the greater the exposure to risk’) vs. ‘currency’ model (‘the more flying, the safer the pilot’).
  • Member numbers – hugely variable
  • Babadag (7 per 100,000 flights) Tandems? Acro?
  • 1.5 deaths and 20 serious injuries per 100,000 flights (BHPA pilots)
  • Pilot error
    • Decisions and glider control
    • Misjudgement of distance
    • Passive safety is not the most important factor
  • High pilot workloads
  • Proximity to terrain
  • Rotational forces
  • Isolated limb and spinal injuries
  • Reserve parachutes protective
    • 50% reduction in chance of injury (even if some low/tangled).

SIV / PILOTAGE

  • Not the complicated stuff – autorotation, and understanding the power of the glider
  • Jocky and Escape
  • Flyeo, unable to do this year (individual practice -Garda – totally lame)
  • Nothing has ever been that bad

PHYSIOLOGY

  • Tiredness like driving a car
  • Take-off phase
  • Acceleration forces sufficient to LOC in spiral

HYPOXIA AND COGNITION

  • Testing is challenging – sim vs. live flight
  • No gross distortion up to 3660 m
  • Small numbers
  • Heterogenous responses
  • Lack of physical jeopardy

COLD

  • Vulnerability to cold injury and dehydration
  • 4ml.kg.hr (320ml per hour when cold – normal insensible loss?)
  • Hand protection
    • keep a warm core
    • Don’t burn yourself with heated gloves
    • Pods really help

G FORCES

  • Trainable and mitigatable
  • Affected by temperature and hydration, blood glucose concentration, alcohol, hypocapnoea, hypoxia, infection, previous exposure and currency

MONT BLANC

  • All of this added up

RESERVE PARACHUTE EXPERIMENTS

  • Large sample of amateur pilots
  • Handles on hips
  • Extractable in any direction
  • Integrated systems
  • check strop length
    • long enough to avoid pulling/rotating the deployment bag before pins released
    • short enough so the bag is well clear of the harness before arm is fully extended
  • Single sweep
  • Secure front mounted reserves at the base
  • Just throw it!
    • Can’t innovate under stress
    • Complicate directions are pointless
    • Practice, practice, practice – post take off check?
    • Students need to understand the system – do not be afraid
    • Gabe (partytillimpact) – potentially a loaded gun, need to understand how and when to use; manufacturers need to learn from skydiving (if moving towards BASE systems)
    • Malfunction junction – more, but not that many more
    • Limited comparison with skydiving

HUMAN FACTORS

  • Minimise workload with checklists
  • intermediate syndrome
    • killling zone (majority of pilots in 50-350 hours bracket, those longer alive by definition)
    • might be around 2000 hours
  • mastery is assumed before it is achieved
  • Heuristic traps
    • familiarity, consistency, acceptance, expert halo, social facilitation and scarcity

FUTURE

  • With reserves, how can we make people throw them
  • Really need to look at crash protection- always the same bit
  • Still unsure about the value of oxygen for lower altitudes, definitely use for higher, remember it’s harder work to take off
  • Smarter use of instruments and wearable tech
  • Defining the margins for safety

 

Mentioned in this episode:

Pal Takats, Kiwi, Myles Connelly, Anneka Herndon, Bill Belcourt, Reavis Sutphin-Gray, Patagonia, Cross Country Magazine, Ed Ewing, Verbier Summits

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:12:54 — 91.3MB)

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Episode 126- An oldie but goodie with the legend Pal Takats

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Pal Takats (HUN) performs during the Red Bull X-Alps in Lermoos, Austria on July 6th, 2017

This week we’re doing our first “rerun” as Gavin is in the field deep in remote Nevada on a major SAR effort to find our good friend James “Kiwi” Johnson, who was recently on the show. We will get caught up with new shows on schedule soon. This is our most popular show to date and we’ve cleaned it up for your listening pleasure. Listen and learn!

Pal Takats began flying 16 years ago in the flatlands of Budapest, Hungary and has since created a career any pilot would envy. One of the first Red Bull acro pilots and the man responsible for many of the current and modern acro combinations (the Joker, Cowboy, Esfera, etc.) Pal does paramotor demos for Red Bull at air races around the world, base jumps in his free time, founded JustAcro.com, flies speed wings, has twice competed in the Red Bull X-Alps (he was 8th in 2009 and 7th in 2017), is an exceptional cross country and World Cup competition pilot but it hasn’t all been a walk in the park to get there. In 2012 Pal had an accident flying a 6M speed wing that put him in a coma and nearly ended his life. Later the same year he demolished his knee cap making a poor decision on landing after a base jump. What can the rest of us learn from his mistakes and how can we eliminate a huge, huge percentage of accidents in our sport? How paragliding schools are missing out on the foundational stuff, the importance of ground handling and how this is leading to way too many accidents. This talk covers a lot of ground. A fascinating discussion with a fascinating, passionate individual.

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Show Notes:

  • Brief history of Pal’s many, many accomplishments
  • Pal breaks the Tandem Infinity Record
  • Moving from caving to flying- the inception
  • Becoming a professional pilot and making a living from flying
  • How not getting into University became a blessing
  • Transition from Acro to Cross Country and getting disillusioned with Acro and judging
  • Pal’s accidents in 2012, coming back from a coma and the takeaways
  • Becoming a Red Bull athlete
  • How does media, sponsors and making films affect decision making? What are the bad and good sides?
  • How to avoid bad situations and the IMPORTANCE of training
  • The IMPORTANCE of groundhandling and where the schools fall short and why the basics are being skipped and how this is failing new pilots
  • Where to learn acro, and what wing to start on
  • When to move up to a higher aspect wing? Beware!
  • How paragliding doesn’t have structured rules across the board and why that’s bad for our safety and our sport
  • Highs and lows of the 2017 Red Bull X-Alps

 

Mentioned in this episode: Nik Hawks, Red Bull Media House, Reelwater Productions, JustAcro.com, Sidetracked Magazine, Squash Falconer, Will Gadd, paragliding schools, Theo Le Blic, Cody Mittanck

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:31:40 — 73.5MB)

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Episode 125- Breaking the Asian Record with Soheil Barikani

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Enroute to the record across Iran…

On the 2nd of August the summer of records continued when Iranian world cup pilot and instructor Soheil Barikani flew his Gin Boom 11 nearly across the width of Iran 430km, a new Asian free distance record. Imagine getting on a plane to fly to the launch and flying home! This talk covers quite a bit of ground, but mostly it’s going to make you want to fly Iran! Big strong air, tall cloudbase, big mountain ranges, spinning turns across one of the most fascinating cultures and landscapes in the world…I had a blast talking to Soheil and learning about their 6,000+ strong flying community. The lines in Iran are just starting to get tapped, keep an eye on these pilots who are pushing the possibilities.

Here is Soheil’s track log (note there were several other big flights from the same launch that day).

 

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Show Notes:

  • CUASA and the Red Rocks Fly In
  • The big air and big possibilities of Iran
  • X-Contest
  • Teamflying
  • Risks and dangers
  • Weather changes/ climate change
  • Visas, be careful where you fly, the seasons of Iran

 

Mentioned in this show:

Nick Greece, Gin, Cross Country Magazine, USHPA, PWC, Stacy Whitmore, CUASA, Rafael Saladini, Donizete Lemos, Matty Senior

Getting tall in Iran!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:09 — 77.2MB)

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Episode 124- Owen Morse, professional juggling (and joggling!), and a new HG World Record

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Owen Morse breaks the out and back world record- 222 miles

On June 19th of this year Wills Wing pilot Owen Morse ticked off something he’d been chasing for six years- a new out and back world record. Owen flew an incredible boomer from Walt’s Point in the Owens out off the end of the White’s- AND BACK, flying 222 miles. A huge flight in some of the strongest air on Earth gave us plenty to talk about, but Owen also has maybe the most interesting job of anyone I’ve ever met. He’s a professional juggler (where he holds world records for things like juggling chainsaws) AND he hold several world records in the sport of “Joggling”. Sound hysterical? It is! Owen runs and juggles. And he’s damn good at it. He’s done the 100 meters in 11.6 seconds while juggling three balls! He’s run it in 13+ seconds while juggling 5! He and his buddy Jon Wee have been working together for 32 years as “The Passing Zone“, a comedy juggling duo who have played for the Queen; been on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (twice); and Jay Leno (among MANY others); were in The Addams Family movie; have twice been on America’s Got Talent, and regularly perform with Penn and Teller. They juggle a lot of things that are on fire, running chainsaws, rat traps, and throw knives at gorgeous women- and get paid for it! These guys are absolutely awesome and you must must must check them out. We had a really fun talk about flying, juggling, choosing cool life paths, making people laugh, and chasing your dreams. Owen was granted the USHPA Presidential Citation award in 2009 for his hang gliding display at the John Wayne Airport, as well as purchasing (along with Len Szafaryn) the property at Andy Jackson Airfield so free flight could continue there. Enjoy!

Watch Owen’s incredible Ayvri tracklog here: https://ayvri.com/scene/6vk1zgy9jx/ckbnvb0w300013e5rhjv415x9

Watch his launch and landing on the big day: https://vimeo.com/434377178

His recent Penn and Teller appearance: https://youtu.be/uPjhb1e-qJ8

Joggling ridiculousness:  https://youtu.be/H_f27jQ5n1o

Chainsaw juggling world record:  https://youtu.be/drlZBOQJ4os

 

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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Show Notes:

  • The record goes down after 6 years of chasing it
  • Mindset and training
  • Flying the mountains
  • Dealing with the pressure of performing in front of huge crowds
  • Putting a hang glider in the John Wayne airport in 2008 and getting the USHPA presidential citation award
  • What focused practice and training can do
  • Being able to stay in the air for 10 hours
  • Racing the sun, not other pilots
  • How flying has affected Owen’s life
  • Flying and leading a charmed life

 

Mentioned in this show:

Cody Mittanck, Penn and Teller, Johnny Carson, XC Magazine, George Stebbins, Tom Weissenberger, Larry Tudor, The Passing Zone, Jonathan Dietch, Dave Turner, Chrigel Maurer, Will Gadd, Covid-19, USHPA, juggling, Zac Majors, Jonny Durand, Andy Beem, Joe Greblo, Rob McKenzie, Jon Wee

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:51 — 68.6MB)

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Episode 123- Best Towing Practices and Safety

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Cody Mittanck and Gavin McClurg on tow from Hebbronville, Texas. Photo Greg Bryl

I just spent three+ weeks down in southern Texas chasing a world record with team members Cody Mittanck and Donizete Lemos, and our tow techs/ retrieve drivers Greg Bryl, Greg Cusick and Ricardo Costa. We had marginal weather at best, which leaves the world record hunting for another year, but we did a ton of tows in very strong conditions and we all learned a ton (and thankfully we did get a few pretty awesome flights). This podcast is dedicated to towing and towing safety in an interview I did with the “eWinch” inventor, Greg Bryl with Miami Paragliding. Greg is an expert tow-tech and his knowledge of tow systems is vast. We used his all-electric winch in really rocking conditions and were all blown away with it’s lightness, ease-of-use, and redundant fail-safes for safety.

I am convinced after this trip that with a good winch and good tow-technician, launching via tow is much safer than foot launching and gives the free flight world access to incredible flying in conditions when terrain flying would be too risky. If you are currently doing any tow launching, or plan to in the future give this podcast a listen.

Interested in purchasing an eWinch? Get 10% off using this exclusive discount code during checkout (valid for 2 months after publication of this podcast, July 17, 2020): cloudbasemayhem

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Show Notes:

TOW SAFETY

4 main areas: rig safety, pilot knowledge/skill, attachment, and conditions
RIG SAFETY:
  • rig: almost any rig can seize/bind or otherwise put too much tension on the pilot.
  • With payout you add the power of the car – pay-in may be safer in this regard
  • so care should be taken to eliminate that as much as possible
  • use a weaklink: it’s a double-edged sword b/c you remove some risk factors while introducing others; if recommend no WL, probably hasn’t towed enough
  • use lower pressure in initial phase of tow; watch the pilot closely, etc.
  • have hook knife at rig
  • if rig binds and brakes WL close to ground, better to overbrake and stall the wing and fall down than pendulum into ground
WEAKLINK:
  • even if it’s weak, it will not break in time if rig seizes and goes from paying out to static line with the car moving and full car power applied to pilot. So don’t fall in trap of thinking a weak WL can’t get you in trouble; use a strong enough WL and change it OFTEN, especially in high winds
PILOT:
  • must hold wing overhead enough for tow to start safely; strong wind –kiting skills, weak wind — must run backwards or forwards to create airspeed and keep overhead;  must fly wing at all times and stay on course, including running out launch; must have hook knife
  • must manage cross-wing (see Conditions below)
  • also here: weak winds, driver rolls to take up slack as pilot walks back towards car; strong wind — leave slack or keep tension down so that pilot can run towards wing to pull it up (or better yet- use cobra launch).
ATTACHMENT:
  • no tow bridle on market that’s satisfactory in all respects. some let you put the pin ring through the loop so can’t release – bad; some don’t allow you to release easily at full tension and/or at no tension; some have metal – not ideal, some don’t attach to glider/beaners the right way, etc.; gotta make sure you use your model correctly
  • speed assist: like WL, good and bad. good: it auto-corrects heading of wing so that new pilots don’t’ get too far off course; also lets wing pitch back less; cons: accelerates wing so less climb and less altitude/more runway, at high angles pulls down – not good. overall, good for newbies, and most others can do without it later in their towing
CONDITIONS:
  • you can tow in weak cross or strong straight-in wind, but not in strong cross wind (unless expert). driver use less tension in stronger winds, a bit more in weak
  • managing cross-wind: if crossing from right, wing will want to fly right, so drift left and align the tow force with direction of wing; if see bow, drift down-the-crosswind to take out the bow; stay more or less square to the line; on launch and pulling up wing in cross: if crossing from right, be ready to pull left brake and immediately drift left after lift-off; have no bow in line and you’re good
  • releasing from tow: taking both brakes in one hand is recommended, but if good bridle that can release at high tensino and no tension, can just take hand off brake and release

 

 

Mentioned in this show: Sebastien Kayrouz, Thomas Theurillat, Cody Mittanck, Donizete Lemos, Cedar Wright

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:01 — 72.1MB)

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Episode 122- Storytime with James “Kiwi” Oroc

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James “Kiwi” Oroc is a journalist, photographer, artist and pilot born in the small South Pacific nation of Aotearoa (New Zealand). Since 1998 he has been pursuing and reporting on the cutting edge of extreme sports in more than 40 countries around the globe and has written three books- the non-fiction cult classic Tryptamine Palace, The New Psychedelic Revolution and the just-published fictional Under the Influence, 20 Tales of Psychedelic Noir and has been flying paragliders since the mid 80’s, when gliders had 7 cells! Kiwi and I sat down together in Texas (we’re here mostly unsuccessfully chasing big distance!) to do what I’ve wanted to do for years- have him recount some of the insane stories he’s been witness to in his last 35+ years of flying. In this episode we hear about the early years in Jackson Hole, time spent doing the absurd (not just flying) with Robbie Whittall; learning how to “thermal” (tongue in cheek); flying off Cotapaxi in Ecuador; Many, MANY close calls; bringing flying to MTV sports; theft of a glider leading to saving a life; the history of Edel and Pro Design and all many legends back in the day; competing in the first-ever PWC (with more than 250 pilots!) in Venezuela in the 90’s; the early crazy days with Richard Gallon, Othar Lawrence, Chris Santacroce, Will Gadd, Dave Bridges, Josh Cohn, Miguel Gutierrez, Bill Belcourt, Bob Drury, Raul Rodriguez, and many others all over the world. Light a fire, pour yourself a glass of wine and soak in the stories!

To find out more about Kiwi or his incredible books, visit here.

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Show Notes:

  • Starting to fly in Queenstown on 7 cell gliders in in the 1980’s
  • Learning how to “thermal” in Jackson Hole, Wyoming:)
  • Becoming the Spin Doctor
  • The early craziness
  • The first PWC in the world
  • The Valle discovery
  • A whole bunch of carnage and leaving the sport
  • The early wings certifications
  • The Legends
  • The early days of Ozone
  • The carnage in Spain in the 2001 Worlds
  • The dream of the Serial class
  • The early days in Bir
  • Flying in a reenactment of an ancient battle near Cuzco, Peru
  • Xavier disappears
  • The carnage in Piedrahita
  • “My imagination has never kept up with the reality of paragliding”
  • The 2 Liner revolution and chasing big distance
  • Breaking the New Zealand distance record in Brazil
  • The flying tribe

 

Mentioned in this show:

Queenstown, Robbie Whittall, Nate Scales, John Patterson, Kurt Kleiner, Jon Hunt, Nick Greece, Andre Agassis, Hans Rey, John Yates, Josh Cohn, ProDesign, Mitch MacAleer, Greg Smith, Dave Bridges, Alex Lowe, Chris Santacroce, Othar Lawrence, Xavier Murillo, PWCA, Richard Gallon, Raul Rodgriguez, Miguel Gutierrez, Bill Belcourt, Monte Bell, Larry Tudor, Will Gadd, Bob Drury, Russ Ogden, Matt Taggart, Andy Hediger, Cross Country Magazine, Hugh Miller, Jim Mallinson, Eddie Colfax, John Sylvester, Jeff Crystal, Peter Chernowski, Guy Anderson, Garmin InReach, Matt Beechinor, Matty Senior, Steve Ham, Chris Mueller

Photo Phillip Bethge

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:29:35 — 71.8MB)

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Episode 121- Stefan Bernhard and Mindset

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Stefan Bernhard

Stefan Bernhard has only been racing paragliders for a short time and was recently ranked in the top 15 in the world. In this episode we find out how a former German Air Force fighter pilot has taken the skills he learned flying in the military and now flying civilian aircraft to free-flight, and the many things missing from most of our own education. How much should new pilots rely on passive safety? Free flight is an “extreme sport” so why do we try to dumb it down? What lessons in tactics and strategies cross over from flying military jets to paragliding? What’s missing in our flying schools and what should we change? The danger of having easy access to an extreme sport and not getting the right answers, the importance of calibrating your mind to flight, expectations vs reality and a lot more. I think you’ll find this talk incredibly informative and inspiring. Enjoy!

Stefan is an instructor for Jocky Sanderson’s Escape XC. Find out more here.

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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Show Notes:

  • German Air Force pilot
  • Starting with Hang gliding in the late 80’s
  • Leaving the sport
  • Combining family and work to pursue free flight
  • Professional training in the Air Force vs how we are trained in paragliding schools
  • The danger of having easy access to an “extreme sport”, and not getting the right answers
  • How to make good decisions
  • The importance of calibrating your mind to flight
  • The risks of pushing too much passive safety vs making the pilot safe
  • Expectations vs reality
  • A revisit to the “ground suck crowd”

Mentioned in this show:

Alex Robe, Manu Bonte, APPI, USHPA, Jocky Sanderson, Escape XC

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:20:43 — 73.9MB)

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Bonus Episode- The 2019 Red Bull X-Alps (Installment 3)

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This is the third and final special episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem to give all of the fans of the race a little insight into the greatest game on Earth directly from the perspective of the athletes. Live Tracking is amazing, but it misses a lot of the emotion and the background, and these interviews with the athletes take us behind the curtain. In this final installment we hear from Adrian Keller (SUI 3), Marko Hrgetic Hrga (CZE 1), Willi Canell (USA 2), Maxime Pinot (FRA 1), and yours truly (Gavin McClurg- USA 1).

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Episode 120- Lisa Verzella and Understanding XCSkies and Weather Forecasting

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Lisa Verzella flew hang gliders for over 20 years (many of those competitively), has been flying paragliders also for over 20 years and is a professional meteorologist based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She competed on the US World’s team in 1998 and 2008 in hang gliding. This show is in two parts. The first is our typical audio podcast that goes into Lisa’s vast and fascinating history of chasing airtime, and the second is a video tutorial of a deep dive into XCSkies and Lisa’s full weather flow (ie all the stuff she uses before she gets to XCSkies to identify good days to go flying). The learning here is VAST- this is truly an information packed show. Get out your paper and pens and build your weather forecasting knowledge!

 

Useful links that Lisa mentions in her weather flow:

A great internet weather resource, TropicalTidbits.com.

Here are the direct links I would use for Upper Air and Satellite, if you’d like to replace or just add these to the others.

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/?model=ecmwf-ens&region=us&pkg=mslp_pcpn_frzn&runtime=2020051212&fh=12

Satellite:

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/sat/satlooper.php?region=atlpac-wide&product=wv-mid

Upper Air Analysis:

http://weather.utah.edu/index.php?runcode=2020050712&t=gfs0.25&r=WE&d=SY

-click on Current

-shows (clockwise from upper left): high/low pressure; uplift; sfc pressure/precip; 700 mb winds/RH sfc to 500mb

National Weather Service:
www.weather.gov

-surface chart: https://www.weather.gov/forecastmaps

-satellite: https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/visible-and-infrared-imagery

(takes a minute to load, slide scroll bar down for latest timing)

-Radar (use local home NWS page)

-Forecast Discussion (use home NWS page, scroll down to find product)

-Soaring Forecast (if available on your home page, under Aviation)

XC Skies:

xcskies.com

-$4.95/month, well worth it!

Lisa Verzella, Meteorologist National Weather Service Salt Lake City

hang glider and paraglider pilot

lisaverzella@gmail.com

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Show Notes:

  • Back in the early days of hang gliding
  • Competition hang gliding, and the world’s team
  • The transition to paragliding from Hang gliding
  • Eagles in the Flesh, Erik Kaye
  • The wild bunch vs the community as a whole
  • Getting a handle on the big picture of weather and increasing possibilities and lowering risk
  • Finding narrow windows
  • Getting more airtime from understanding weather
  • Flying becomes your life and how to juggle it all 
  • Hang gliding vs paragliding
  • Dealing with turbulence and best practices for longevity
  • CUACSA
  • Safety tips and risk mitigation

Mentioned in this show:

Kari Castle, Linda Salmone, Ken Hudonjorgensen, Honza Rejmanek, Gavin Morris

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:48 — 45.1MB)

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