On the 8th of September 2018 we will be celebrating the 55th anniversary of the invention of the modern hang glider. The ceremony in Grafton, NSW, Australia, will see the FAI Hang Gliding and Paragliding Diploma given to Pat Crowe, the driver of the boat that towed to celebrity the first ever working model of the hang gliders we know so well.
A key aspect of a successful drone race is safety – for spectators, race officials and pilots. Racing drones can go from 0-150km/h in seconds and typically have four propellers spinning at high speed, which makes them potentially dangerous flying objects. In a large competition like the upcoming 1st FAI Drone Racing World Championship in Shenzhen, China for example, preparation and planning starts months in advance – and top of the agenda is safety.
The 18th Asian Games get underway in Indonesia later this week. And for the first time, paragliding pilots will be among the thousands of athletes competing, as the air sports takes its place alongside more than 40 other sports involved in this action-packed, pan-Asian event.
Both cross-country (XC) and accuracy paragliding are making their debut at this year’s Games, with pilots from across Asia battling it out for the six gold medals up for grabs.
A total of 65 world-class pilots from 10 countries have come together to participate in the 16th FAI World Microlight Championships, being held this week at Nagykanizsa Airport in Hungary.
The competition, which was declared open on Saturday August 11 by FAI Microlight and Paramotor Commission (CIMA) President Wolfgang Lintl, includes five different disciplines and is the 16th event of its kind so far.
It’s 40 years since American balloonist Ben Abruzzo broke both the distance and duration ballooning records by flying across the Atlantic Ocean from Presque Isle, Maine to the village of Miserey in France.
The crossing, which he undertook with team members Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, took 137 hours, 5 minutes and 50 seconds, and covered a massive 5001.22 km.
Junior drone racers are dominating this year’s FAI Drone Racing World Cup so far, with young pilots claiming the first three spots on the leader board after the first 11 events.
Korean JoonWeon Choi, 16, is in pole position, followed by 17-year-old Thomas Grout of France in second place, and Poland’s Jan Wielgosz, 18, in third.
Their journeys to the top of the field have been marked by success at different contests. Choi’s best performance was in Bali in April, where he came first to win a total of 48 points.
The Acro World Tour 2018 continues with the 3rd qualification stage being held August 11-15th in Italy’s AcroMax festival.
In the two previous stages - Norway’s ‘Vertigo Voss’ and the Italian ‘King of Brenta’ - international aerobatic paragliders took to the skies to show their incredible technical skills and impress the judges.
Seven pilots have already gained places to compete in the final of the Acro World Tour, to be held at the Sonchaux Airshow in Villeneuve (SUI) at the end of August.
Thousands of people descended on Texel, the largest of the Wadden Islands in North Holland, the Netherlands, to attend the Leaseweb Texel Airshow 2018 this weekend.
Held on Saturday August 4, the colourful event sponsored by official FAI partner Leaseweb involved a diverse mix of contemporary, historical, military and civil aircraft hailing from the 1930s to the present day.
Top Polish pilots defended their titles at the 35th FAI World Gliding Championships, held from 8-21 July 2018 in Ostrow Wielkopolski, Poland.
(Photo shows L-R Silver: Łukasz Grabowski (POL), Gold: Sebastian Kawa (POL), Bronze: Christophe Ruch (FRA))
"I had a team goal to get two medals and for the second time in a row it happened. I still can’t wrap my head around it, but the happiness is enormous!”commented pilot Łukasz Grabowski
