Tandem Paragliding in Sihanoukville

The tandem flights finally started and passengers are already lining up, so far another four bookings for the next weekend.:)
A short 360° from the take off. When you press pause you can take a close look at the view, the landings on top and in the valley.
I do mainly top landings here, safes us the walk back up to the motorbikes.

Pics of last ground handling

Seems Michaela got the hang of taking nice pics with the smartfone. Just want to share her best ones with you.:)

The passenger harness fits every size from our 11 year old son to our friend from Kentucky, who is 1,95 cm and over 100kg.

The pilot harness is really huge and can replace any sofa in terms of comfort. With the rescue installed and the spreader bars attached it adds up to about 8 kg. plus water, which of course every pilot is supposed to carry for safety reasons, particulary here in the hot tropics.:)

Ground handling clip

A short video clip of the first ground handling sessions with the new tandem. The wind was very gusty and went on and off every few seconds, hard to keep the wing up for a bit longer. That's why I decided to try some solo handling instead and will choose another spot closer to the sea next time for more laminar wind conditions to exercise with a passenger attached.
Some friends came over to watch the show as well as the family.

Just picked up the Paragliding tandem gear in Vietnam

What a trip, I started by night bus to Saigon two days ago, arrived yesterday in the morning, jumped on the next free motorbike taxi to the wing distributor, where I got welcomed by a huge family and a wild kid, who started playing with me the right away as I just would belong to the family. When the seller, Mr. Cuong arrived, we opened the box from Ozone together and checked the delivery. Of course, everything was perfectly in order, so back on the motorbike taxi with this huge backpack in hi-speed through Ho Chi Minh City, to the bus station. There I had to wait for like eight hours for the night bus back. The bus took the route over Ha Tien, which was far faster than going over Phnom Penh like before. We finally passed the Bokor Mountain in Kampot on our way back as a appetizer for the coming tandem flights from the back side of the old casino on top of it.
The gear:

The Oxygen1 harness on the left is the pilot's one, the Oxygen2 opposite for the passenger. I had already adjusted it, installed the rescue parachute in this picture as well as attached the spreader bars and connected them to the rescue, so the gear is ready be used in long ground handling sessions ahead, prior taking it to the mountain. The first launch exercises with the family will be of course filmed and published on the blog very soon.:)
Last but not least, the equipment is very nice made, with a lot of attention to detail, nothing found yet to complain about and I'm not wondering that the former small company, who made my so much liked solowing, the "Addict" has grown to the most successfull wing maker in the world when it comes to sales and competition results in the meantime.
After five years abstinence from paragliding, it's definitely time to fly again, often felt kind of "ground-sick" when looking up to the clouds like a dog who can't reach the bone on the other side of the fence.:) Hopefully the upcoming rainy saison will stay back until end of May to do a few flights before monsun kicks in. We are also planing to move to Kampot in September to get the best out of the next fly season.

Awesome paragliding video on youtube/My next job

Paragliding in Bir Billing:

I am working on making the gear for the coming season.:)
The fixed plan is to start tandem flying and live of it all over the world in 5 months from now,starting in Nepal.We intend to be in Nepal at mid September to obtain the proper licence after holding the FAI grade 4 license since 2003.:)
The tandem flying itself is way easier and less demanding than the Sportclass solo wing I did fly in Europe-a Ozone Addict in every kind of condition.The tandem wing will be a Gingliders Safari:

The two harnesess,a Gin Gingo 2 plus a Safari passenger and a 50 cell Yeti light rescue parachute.A Competino+ Vario and a variable tandem bar will complete the equipment.The wing itself in 40sqm. is perfectly suited from 105 to 205 kg take-off weight.

The stockmarkets are likely in fullstall next week

To fly a fullstall with the paraglider requires guts and abilities.
The first is to short the steering lines by wrapping them a couple of times around the hands.At next you pull the brakes below the a.. and wait for the wing to collapse in a impressive way like seen above until the wing ends are touching each other in a circle.To survive this acro figure it's urgently necessary to wait until the wing is above the pilots head before ending the full-stall again while the break lines are still held down at the lowest.
At next while falling from the sky like a rock from a cliff while the wing is bashing around over you it's about time to fore-fill the canopy by slowly rising the breaks up to shoulder level,while the wings behaviour is critical watched.Once the canopy opened properly again and remains over the head the last remaining quarter of the steering lines gets finally released.If the wing remains in a open stall mode just push the A-lines to get the wing back in usual flight stage and consider yourself among a small minority of pilots who ever tried that in real.:-)

The markets are next week very,very close to a fullstall and to be honest i doubt that the responsibles in politics on the dept crisis steering lines are having the guts nor the abilities to fly this demanding and spectacular manoeuvre without crashing the markets at the end by falling into the forward shooting canopy because of releasing the breaks to soon before the wing was back over the head.That will increase the drop speed significant.
Check out this DAX chart:

The stockmarkets are these days at least as exiting as a little fullstall in the afternoon at cloudbase >2500m.:)

Pilots are unlearning to fly manually

Today in N-TV:
A video about the research of air traffic disasters:

The automation is getting some pilots in trouble when the flight stage comes to the necessity to fly the aircraft by hand.The research by a flight simulator is showing plenty of wrong decisions and a frightening lack of abilities who are according to the research responsible for 60% of the most recent 46 air traffic accidents.More frequent training flights are suggested at the end.

In fact,paragliding is as manually as it can gets.:)

Paramotor flights around the Petronas Towers/Kuala Lumpur

Just fascinating,flights right over the town.In many countries would this be unthinkable.:)

Where to buy used paragliding gear?

Germany is the country with the highest number of paragliding pilots in the world right before Japan.So why not just check the largest online-market for wings&gear-The page of the DHV.:)

Pilots of all over the world are buying used wings etc. via this webside.:)
Many wings are because of the mixed weather conditions almost new and the loss on value of a new wing is like 40% in the first year,after in average 20-30 flights.:)
I had more than 600 h. on my first one (UP Makalu) and even sold that thing at the end for 400€.:)

A paragliding buddy dedicated his life to flying

First time i did meet Brad Sanders in Thailand while we did fly together for a few days at Kao Den.
Brad was flying since a year in that time.Now,seven years later he became a sponsored pilot of my personal brand of wings-Ozone.Brad is now also flying an Addict,the wing i loved so much during i guess 300 hangtime hours in Austria.:)
He is also a professional tandem pilot (Ozone Magnum) and it seems he is living since years well of this job.He worked also for quite a while during the season as a fire fighter in Alaska.Brad served as troup leader of the guys who jump out of a plane straight in the fire area.:)
Brad Sanders is travelling the world with the wing,no second wasted while living such a life.
Good luck,Brad.:)

Brad Sanders Pic collection

Brad's Travels Blog

The Cambodian wing

While checking wings for the coming season i just thought this could be the right design for the 'Kingdom of Wonder':

That is the canopy of a 'performance intermediate',the Ozone RushIII,a allmost beginner adequate wing with simple take-off behavior,long steering distances and relaxed reactions while colapses.
The Addict in comparance was a lot more demanding,but of course also better in performance & agility,just a higher classified 'Sportclass' wing in comparance to a 'Intermediate'.

The Ozone RushIII in detail:
http://www.flyozone.com/paragliders/en/products/gliders/rush-3/info/

I 'll start flying again

I intent to get myself a harness,rescue and a nice solo wing over here for next fly season after monsun(guess December).
I saw the cloudbase today at 600-1000 meter ,adequate for some nice soaring,acro flying and spirals(i love to fly spirals).The wind was quite strong,so it needs to be a fast wing again,at least a DHV 2,like my last Ozone Addict-a good wing indeed.
Guess i dump the tandem idea and get some quality solo air time again.:)
In Austria i had 2 harnesses,a very light Supair hiker harness and a Advance Impress,a closed one(looks like the guy is flying in his sleeping bag)for cross country(haven't made it that far).
In the Sihanouk Ville area to fly would be cool for certain in like today's conditions.:)
100's of used wings are offered in the internet and i would just have to make it clear with the seller to send it to our post adress in Sihanouk Ville,visible left hand side.
I sold my Addict to a pilot from Hungary,so sending them all over the world is no problem.
I also could buy the new Addict follower in Thailand,from a guy i flyed quite a time together.
This would be the solo wing,if i would get the new one:
http://www.flyozone.com/paragliders/en/products/gliders/octane-flx/info/

Paragliding in Chumphon

I did not allways went flying only by myself and often invited pretty girls like this two beauties from England to join me.We had a good time together.:)

The Kao Pang near Chumphon where i used to fly allmost every day during the dry season.

The take off from the air.

Preparations And Paragliding pics

We are very busy these days to get all necessary provisions done.Much stuff got allready sold,more will follow.
Today i sold my car,a Ford Fiesta TDCI Ghia and got a quite resonable price for it in relation to the cars shape.Last week we sold a Car navigation,a good drill from Bosch,a child car seat and the harness of my paragliding gear.To quit paragliding is quite a big loss because i just love this sport.The region of Austria where we live is a paradise to fly if the weather conditions are appropriate,what requires a lot of patience sometimes.But then its absolutely impressive to fly over a sea of mountain tops,valleys and little lakes.
We had two years ago very dry air from the Sahara dessert for like a week.That made the cloudbase moving up to over 4000 meters,which was the highest alltitude i've ever flown.The cross country opportunities are very good in this region,too.
Here some pics of paragliding in Kärnten/Austria:

Emberger Alm in the Drau valley of Kärnten/Austria

Greifenburg below the Emberger Alm

Weissensee in the Drau valley

It's unfortunately not possible to fly in Cambodia.Many deserted parts of the country are still full of landmines and the mountaintops are overgrown with jungle.Also the neighbor countries are not what anybody would consider as a pilots paradise.But there are other things to do.I've to get over it.
I saw in the internet that a guy does paramotor flights in the region of Sihanoukville.I'm looking foward to meet this fellow.:)