Austrian Arena

Raúl Rodríguez, the most well known and respected ACRO world champion pilot ever, has announced that he is to quit competition flying. Raul has perhaps been the most influential pilot within the sport of paragliding and his contribution to the discipline of acro has been imeasurable. Raúl, invented most of the extreme acro manouvres used today, such as the “Sat” or the incredible “Infinity Tumbling.” - He is still the current Guiness world record holder for the most consecutive “Infinity Tumbles” completing a perfect108 tumbles in June 2006.

He now wishes to concentrate on working even closer with Olivier Nef and the rest of the research and development team at Niviuk paragliders. His retirement from competition does not mean that the name “Raul Rodriguez” will be forgotten, quite the opposite, he will continue to work hard to improve this growing sport and even with his new direction, he will without doubt maintain a worldwide, high profile within the world of paragliding.

This very famous pilot who has made his mark in paragliding history, was born in Albacete and started his paragliding career in 1992. He now leaves us after many successful years of competition and by pushing the envelope of paragliding, he has left us with his own extreme and wonderful manouvres which will surely be continued by his brothers Alex and Félix, and his cousin Horacio, all three world class competitors.

After a terrible comp season I decided to just start flying for fun again and not worry so much about the results. by doing this I had some terrific flying in the UK, with 5 flyable days on the bounce.

From soaring Sarn with just a few mates on the first day, I’ll post a picture when Hyman gives ‘em to me. Then some cracking climbs of 4-5m/s on Sarn and the Mynd. What was nice about taking the pressure off myslef was the fact that I could take in the awesome views that the Long Mynd area had to offer. Plus I got a chance to help a few mates out by marking climbs for them and I hope turn correctly so they could see where the lift was. After this I loved the easy top landings next to my car. No headaches with retrieves or thumbing a lift back to launch to get my car.

Perfect days and looking forward to St.Andre where I hope to have a better head and a less demanding wing. The FR3 has great glide and climb but at a somewhat demanding price. Although it rarely blows out when it does it’s a bit of a handful, I believe that 8:1 aspect ratio is a little too much for a glider, esp. in the Alps.

I’m now looking at Macpara, Magus 5 or 6, an Axis Mercury or Boom5. i need to do some testing but will for sure be chaning my wing. Anyone wanna buy a 80hrs old FR3? Sensible offers at info@austrianarena.com,

See you on a hill some time in the future hopefully, take care

KF

Coming soon will be a new website solely about flying in the Bassano, Feltre & Pieve d’Alpago regions, on it pilots will find out a more detailed brief as to what is on offer in the highly reliable place to fly.

Next winter I’ll be running some weeks for pilots wishing to become more efficient at mountain and flatland flying, plus it’ll give pilots to stay curretn during the long winter lay off. Cheap flights can be had to Treviso with ryanair, so check it out when the adverts appear in Skywings.

All the best
KF

Myself and flat-land specialist Kai Coleman are considering doing a 2 week course in the famous Govendor Valerdares in Brazil. The conditions are very UK and very reliable. If anyone is keen the maximum numbers will be 8 and price will be around £1000 inc. accommodation and airport transfer. If the course proves to get enough interest we’ll move to the next stage of planning.

Fly in beautiful conditions with 25deg at cloud base with one of the best flat land pilots in the UK. I’ll be there helping of course in my usual way of ironing out pilots mistakes and helping their technique and decision making.

KF

Just to let people know that the course that Mark Leavesley and myself are running in September is now full. We were considering taking more(with one other guy helping) but I decided that the final number would be easier for the pilots on the course to get the most out of the week.

mark and I will be working on some moer projects together in the future and I think Ager will become a regular thing. Please email me if you want to have your name down for next year.

KF

After a bit of thought I decided not to bother flying in the comp and just go free flying here. Much to the confusion of my friends here expecting me to want to catch up on the lost points after Spain.

I think I’m just a little bit over comps at the moment and had some of the nicest days just spinning up to base then top landing next to my car at the end of the day. Also there was no retrieve laid on for pilots and we were expected to get ourselves home from wherever it was. Wondered why I spent the £60 on a comp with no lifts to launch and no support at all. Still it was great to fly with friends again and enjoy my stay instead of being hung up on points and my performance.

Reminded me of the old saying when I was skate boarding 24/7 “the best skater is the one with the biggest smile”. And I gotta say I was smiling a lot the past 5 days :) 

Just finishing packing my kit ready to fly to the UK fo rthe 2nd leg of the British Open. It’s to be held at the classic XC site of Long Mynd. Let’s hope for good weather and a chance for me ot claw back some points after my terrible performance in Spain.

We’ll soon see All the run reports will be on this site whenever I have a chance to write them.

KF

After nearly ruining his chances of winning by taking a very unorthodox route thru the French Alps Alex Hofer will be crowned X-Alps winner for the second time in a row. After he pulled a massive 120km+ flight today. Although fellow Swiss Martin Muller beat him to the last turnpoint he has to wait 36hrs before he can fly down due to a penalty dealt to him for an airspace infringement.

Man of the Comp for me would be the Romanian Toma Coconea who only flew 24% of the entire course against Hofer’s 60%. The rest of the time the Romanian was not hiking as the icon on the website showed but was running the whole way. An incredible feat. Respect.

Hopefully my friends Aiden Toasse and Ulric Jessop make it to the finish before the 48hr deadline is up, good luck lads.

I gotta say that it was an incredible race and the most exciting thing that has happened in Paragliding in the last 2 years. Looking forward to the next one already.

KF

The British Open at the Long Mynd in the UK will start next week. looking forward to flying in the UK again. And hoping for some nice flights. Looks like all the usual suspects will be there. Except maybe Nick Roberts who I heard crashed and hurt himself over the last few days, but from what I heard it’s not to serious and he’ll be out delivering mail soon, so don’t panic if you live in Wales. I’ll not be taking it too seriously as I’ve done so bad the last round that I need a miracle to get back into even the top ten in the nationals, I’m going for a jolly, see my family and have some nice relaxing flights.

Also heard that Neil ‘the Pimp’ Roberts flew a declared goal of 135km from the Mynd the other day, well done mate. Hope your track log was in order this time

Anyway see you on the Mynd if anyone goes to have a look, it’s from the 8th - 11th August.

KF