Fabien Blanco enjoying his passion

Fabien Blanco is the founder and head instructor at Flyeo in Annecy, one of the most-respected paragliding schools in the world. Their focus is on teaching SIV, Cross Country and adventure flying. Fabien was a professional acro pilot and is a passionate ski-mountaineer and brings a wealth of knowledge from various “extreme” disciplines to our sport. He discovered when they first started teaching SIV that rather than focusing on ticking off the maneuvers and calling it good they needed to focus more on pilots’ mental fundamentals. By watching a pilot doing very basic maneuvers- like a rapid exit from a 360 turn Fabien can assess 90% of that pilots skill and then adjust accordingly. Many high level pilots have very poor foundational skills and the Flyeo teaching method aims to resolve these basic shortcomings and help pilots do better self-assessments of their skills. In this information-packed episode we discuss SIV in detail- when is a pilot ready for SIV; the importance of becoming an autonomous pilot (and methods for gathering these skills); how to deal with fear in SIV; the fallacy of focusing on glider performance rather than pilot performance; single surface wings; how to “unlock” the genie in all of us; the danger of self-doubt and negative thoughts; the top three reasons for accidents and how they can be avoided; how to get into vol-biv and adventure flying and a LOT more.

PLEASE check out Flyeo’s Patreon page to watch their great instructional videos.

A buck an episode, that’s all we ask.

Show Notes:

• SIV- maneuvers or mental?
• When is a pilot ready for SIV?
• The fallacy of focusing on gear rather than the pilot
• The danger of self-doubt and negative thoughts- keep it positive!
• The top three reasons for accidents and how to avoid them
• It’s not the glider- it’s the pilot!
• Single surface wings- how to learn flying these exciting wings- differences, advantages and disadvantages
• What should and shouldn’t be done on a single surface glider
• The dangers of getting lost in the distances and competitions and performance- fly to have fun!
• What’s essential- just to fly!
• Bivvy flying- how to learn, where to go, why it’s important to learn
• Wings are built to travel, that’s what they are built for!
• The Full Stall. How important is it for Cross Country Pilots?

Mentioned in this episode:

Flyeo, Honza Rejmanik, Karel Koudelka, Adam Robinson, Ben Abruzzo, Bruce Marks, Matt Wilkes, Fabien Blanco, Seiko Fukuoka, Adel Honti, Bill Belcourt, Niviuk, Ed Ewing, Cross Country Magazine, Anneka Herndon, Recaps

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:40:41 — 69.2MB)

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