#210- Louis Tapper and Reducing Carnage

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Adventure often runs in the blood of Kiwis, and in Louis Tapper it runs thick. Long before Louis got hooked with flying he broke a world distance record in kitesurfing in Brazil and was (and remains) a pretty hard-core paddler. When he discovered flying he dug in hard. Louis competes regularly in World Cups around the world; is a 5-time New Zealand National Champion; and currently holds the out and back triangle records in New Zealand. In this episode we explore many aspects of managing risk, beginning with his epic in Brazil. We discuss the crossover between paddling and flying, best-practices for progression in paragliding, and the lessons Louis has learned from flying sailplanes. The conversation then shifts to the topic of the recently published New Zealand Safety and Accident Report, which Louis and several others researched and penned. We dive into what the comprehensive report uncovered, why it’s almost always a string of errors that lead to an accident, where the greatest change is needed, who is most at risk, and why too many accidents in paragliding, speed flying, and hang gliding keep happening. We explore the concept of human factors in accidents and the potential for applying lessons from commercial aviation to improve safety in free-flight. Turns out it remains pretty obvious: it’s the basics that can make a big difference- ground handling, launching, and landing. Louis emphasizes the importance of margin and observation in reducing accidents and the importance of personal approach, wing handling, and situational awareness. The conversation also highlights the significance of decision-making and why pilots don’t throw when they should, the risk assessment for different pilot levels, and the need for a community-based safety approach. The slow progress in changing the safety culture in New Zealand (and around the world) is acknowledged, along with the compromises in safety associated with lightweight gear. An important talk with a fun individual! Enjoy!

To read the Safety Task Force Report go here.

To see the FlyTop approach to safety that Louis discusses in the show go here.

What is old is new, 20 year old recommendations for the Hang Gliding community that still stand true today.

Éxcellent collection of safety ideas and concepts- Now in English

Home

French study on Paraglide instructor accident rates (turn on subtitles)

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Takeaways

  • Persistence and thoughtful decision-making are important in extreme adventures.
  • Observation and risk management are crucial skills in paragliding, hang gliding and speed flying.
  • There is a need for better accident reporting systems and a focus on human factors in paragliding.
  • Lessons from other sports, such as backcountry skiing, can be applied to improve safety in paragliding.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:32 Kitesurfing and Distance Record

04:03 Challenges of Flying in Brazil

05:09 Sailing Experience and Challenges

06:06 Risk and Safety in Flying

08:34 Unofficial Distance Record

09:35 Learning from Mistakes and Challenges

10:25 Managing Cortisol Levels

11:46 Nick Neynens and Independent Thinking

16:13 Crossover between Paddling and Flying

20:23 Progression in Paragliding

22:58 Flying Sailplanes and Paragliding

28:24 The Importance of Accident Reporting

32:24 The Safety Report and its Purpose

35:02 Underreporting of Accidents

38:08 Human Factors in Accidents

41:36 Applying Lessons from Commercial Aviation

43:08 Backcountry Skiing and Paragliding

43:54 The Future of Safety in Paragliding

44:19 Addressing Basic Mistakes in Flying

45:58 Importance of Ground Handling and Margin

47:00 Key Factors in Launching

48:16 Common Mistakes in Landing

49:38 Lack of Observation and Margin in Landing

51:42 Personal Approach to Flying and Safety

53:09 Importance of Wing Handling and Situational Awareness

54:28 The Role of Decision-Making and Throwing Reserves

55:53 Risk Assessment for Different Pilot Levels

58:19 Risk in the First 100 Hours of Flying

01:01:40 Successful Safety Approaches in Norway and Other Countries

01:09:33 Slow Progress in Changing Safety Culture in New Zealand

01:14:26 Comparison of Risk Between Expert and Intermediate Pilots

01:17:39 Compromises in Safety with Lightweight Gear

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:34 — 58.8MB)

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#209 Thad Spencer- the Comeback

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Thad Spencer returns to the Mayhem to discuss a very different topic than we did in our previous chat. A little over 18 months ago Thad went out with his friend Alex Peterson for what looked like a pretty good day to go big in western Minnesota. Alex towed up first without incident, then Thad hooked in and began to tow up and things went pretty quickly from good day to lights out. Thad discusses the selfish nature of paragliding and its impact on relationships. He also talks about his experience with the Zeno 2 glider and launching in challenging conditions. He shares his experience with emergency response and the hospital, as well as his injuries and recovery process. In this conversation we discuss various aspects of overcoming fear, taking risks, and embracing challenges as we age. We also delve into the topic of retirement and the process of redefining self-identity and finding purpose in this new phase of life. Thad shares his personal experiences and insights, highlighting the importance of confidence and the journey of releasing and rediscovering one’s identity. The conversation concludes with a humorous story about Bill Belcourt’s halo and a reflection on their shared love for flying. This is a humble and at times very funny story about bad luck, good luck, fear injury, family, pain, laughter, and returning to flying. Enjoy!

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SHOW NOTES:

Takeaways

  • Overcoming fear and taking risks can lead to personal growth and new experiences.
  • Injuries can have long-lasting consequences and make individuals more cautious in certain activities.
  • Confidence is crucial in extreme sports, but it’s important to find a balance between confidence and caution.
  • Retirement can be a challenging transition, but it also offers an opportunity to redefine self-identity and find new passions and purpose.
  • Creating and making things can bring fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment in retirement.
  • Releasing and rediscovering one’s identity is a journey that takes time and self-reflection.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:00 The Importance of Communication and Emergency Contacts

06:00 The Selfish Nature of Paragliding and Its Impact on Relationships

09:00 The Zeno 2 and Launching in Challenging Conditions

18:00 The Accident: A Big Frontal on Tow

26:00 Emergency Response and Hospital Experience

32:00 Injuries and Recovery

01:08:30 Overcoming Fear and Taking Risks

01:09:22 The Consequences of Injury

01:10:18 The Importance of Confidence

01:11:07 Embracing Challenges as You Age

01:11:37 Retirement and Self-Identity

01:12:31 Finding Purpose in Retirement

01:13:55 The Transition to Retirement

01:14:49 Accepting Aging and Redefining Self-Worth

01:16:14 The Process of Retirement

01:17:43 Creating and Making Things

01:19:01 Releasing and Rediscovering Identity

01:20:33 The Journey of Retirement

01:21:17 Walking and Reflecting

01:22:11 Bill’s Halo Story

01:23:22 Closing Remarks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:29:37 — 71.8MB)

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#208 A Love Affair with Flying- Phil Hystek

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Phil Hystek

“Flat out Phil” Hystek has been instructing free flight in Australia longer than anyone. It began with a fascination of hang gliding in the 70’s, becoming a hang gliding instructor in the late 80’s in California, being “forced” into paragliding in the early 90’s and his energizer batteries are going stronger than ever today. Phil has racked up 171,000 meters of vertical ascent in his back yard to date this year (at age 65!), just returned from a 4 weeks of vol-biv flying in Bir, India and is a story teller for the ages. We travel the world, meet the legends, pull off the absurd in Telluride, pack it hard in Bali, and find out who thrives in this sport and who should maybe take up a different activity. Sit back, crack a cold XXXX and enjoy, this one will have you in stitches!

Phil’s bivvy site in India

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:06:09 — 86.7MB)

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#207- Behind the Scenes of the Red Bull X-Alps with Tarquin Cooper

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Patrick Von Kanel approaches the Tre Cime Turnpoint in the 23′ race

Tarquin Cooper has been the voice of the Red Bull X-Alps the last few editions and this year was joined by your host and four-time X-Alps competitor Gavin McClurg to add some commentary and live footage from the air. In this episode the two of us sit down to share our own unique perspective of the race as we chased the athletes and teams around the Alps and had our own adventures (and misadventures!) in our mostly frantic attempts to keep up. I go into the full details of the unfortunate “tree incident”, we hear about Tarquin’s wild sail in the Fastnet race immediately after the Red Bull X-Alps ended, the athletes who most impressed us this year, Chrigel’s continued dominance, what it was like for me to be covering the event instead of racing and a lot more. If you’re in a bit of Red Bull X-Alps withdrawal this episode should help bide some time until 2025! 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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Bonus Episode! Decoding the Invisible with Calef Letorney

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The bonus episode on leaving the nest with Calef was such a big hit we decided to do another show, call it the "201" version, or the next step. At this stage pilots are a couple hundred hours in. They are chasing cross country, getting more comfortable with bumpy air, they've hopefully done an SIV and are actively trying to decode the invisible. We take a deep dive into finding the special sauce of flying XC.

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.

#206- A Walk (and Fly) down Memory Lane with Paul Guschlbauer

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Paul competes in the 2011 Red Bull X-Alps
Paul in the 2023 Red Bull X-Alps

Paul Guschlbauer has been on the podium more than anyone in the Red Bull X-Alps other than of course Chrigel. He began his X-Alps journey back in 2011 when by his own account, he was a pretty beginner pilot. But that year the weather was horrific and he is a beast on the ground and he managed to nab 3rd place. This result lead to becoming a Red Bull athlete, a spot in that year’s Dolomitimann, and the rest is…well at least history in the making as Paul is far from done! This year’s Red Bull X-Alps was Paul’s 7th edition of the incredible race and a lot has happened over the more than a decade since. Paul now has two children; he’s flown his supercub from Alaska to Argentina; crossed the Alps not only 7 times in the race but twice more (once with Tom De Dorlodot during their ill-fated “Adriatic” expedition”); and he and Aaron Durogati have their own hike and fly series, the Wanderbird. In this episode Paul and I dive into his races and get into the stuff that fans probably haven’t heard. His huge mental struggles during the 2013 race; being in “flow” in 2015; his amazing run through the Lakes in Italy in 2017; what led to the very cool finish with Benoit in 2019; some very funny moments in 2021; and finally some thoughts on the outrageous pace in 2023.

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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: 1:57:23 — 67.2MB)

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#205- Chasing the Monster with Gordon Boettger

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On June 19th this year in the blackness of night Gordon Boettger and his copilot Bruce Campbell donned expedition clothing mountaineers use to climb the highest peaks in the world, stepped into a specialized high performance sailplane, put on their night vision goggles and took to the skies of the Sierra mountain chain at 0230. They didn’t know it yet, but they would be in the air flying “wave” (aka the “monster”) for over 17 hours and go farther than anyone ever has in a glider, ultimately ticking up 3055 kilometers, or 1898 miles. Gordon has been chasing the monster for years. It’s his specialty. It’s a little more tame than his day job, flying commercially for FedEx…and it certainly isn’t tame. Flying in the lee of mountains with winds that border on hurricane strength isn’t for the feint of heart. When you get it right you fly straight for huge distances, the vario beeping consistently and you can enjoy the view, which is pretty astonishing at heights that can reach well over 30,000 feet. But when you get it wrong it’s a pretty serious game of holding on and trying desperately to find an out. Rotor is extreme, the sink is alarming and it’s like trying to stay on a very pissed off bucking bronco. As the saying goes, when you’re high you’re high, when you’re low you’re low.

The pilots approach Mt Whitney at 0500 on second leg northbound

In this episode Gordon takes us through his history of flying gliders since he was a teenager and we crescendo with the record flight. He discusses a very close call on a previous flight in the Sierras where he missed the wave and found himself battling obscene sink. And we discuss what’s possible looking ahead. On a day Gordon called at best a 5 out of 10, what could pilots who chase the monster pull off?

“Watching with the (goggles) it was amazing to see the sky,” he said. “The Milky Way was blowing up, there were shooting stars all over the place — it was absolutely breathtaking. We were at 23,000 feet in the middle of nowhere. It really kind of opened a whole new door.”

Buckle up, this one will blow your mind.

The conditions at high altitude can be pretty extreme, even in a protected cockpit
Over Lee Vining looking east over Mono Lake on 2nd leg northbound
Looking south into the Owens at 1400 12 hours into the flight
Crossing 3,000 kilometers…
1915 hours S of Alturas looking NE trying for the 3,000 km barrier. Where to go?
16.000′ vertical velocity at 0800 over course line

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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: 1:47:37 — 147.9MB)

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#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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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: 1:41:23 — 69.6MB)

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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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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: 1:07:10 — 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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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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