The Paraglider Podcast

The Paraglider Podcast episodes:

• 11.23.2018

  Solo Vol Biv and Hike and Fly Comps

  Kinga Masztalerz is a Polish pilot who spends half her year in New Zealand and the other in Europe, chasing an eternal summer. She is one of the very, very few women to undertake big solo vol biv trips and...

  
• 07.08.2018

  Dust devils

  Our latest podcast with Matt Senior and Jesse Williams is on dust devils. The Scientific American describes dust devils as small, rotating columns of air that we can see because of the dust and debris they pick up from the...

  
• 06.14.2018

  X-Pyr 2018 route analysis with Greg Hamerton

  Greg Hamerton is well known as the Paragliding Evangelist at Flybubble UK. His videos and articles on techniques, safety and adventures are a fountain of knowledge and entertainment. Greg was a competitor in the 2016 X-pyr and here he shares...

  
• 05.17.2018

  Preparing to Fly

  Simon Blake is a pilot from the north-west of England. Having learnt to fly paragliders, he was very diligent about noting down his flights and what he learnt from them. A few years ago he put his collected experience into...

  
• 04.28.2018

  Participating in the X-Pyr

  The X-Pyr started in 2012 with just a dozen competitors. The first edition was 438km from Hondaribia on the Altantic coast to Port de la Selva on the Mediterranean. The biannual race flourished from there, with top hike and fly...

  
• 04.11.2018

  Acro and the British Acrobatic Paragliding Academy

  British acro pilots Lee Tryhorn, Alex Colbeck and Jack Pimblett set up the British Acro Paragliding Academy to promote the discipline and help pilots to progress in an organised, safe way. The BAPA aims to get British acro to the...

  
• 10.25.2017

  Effective Coaching: Site Briefing

  Every pilot has had a site briefing and most have provided one, but there is a dearth of guidance on how to effectively do one. In this podcast Judith Mole mulls over some of the critical information that should be...

  
• 08.01.2017

  Ten Random Questions for... Lawrie Noctor

  Originally from the Isle of Wight, Lawrie lives and flies in the Peak District. A member of a flying family (his dad, uncle and cousin all fly), he was connected to flying from a young age. He was an instructor...

  
• 06.21.2017

  Ten Random Questions for... Sebas Ospina

  Juan Sebastian Ospina, commonly known as Sebas, was born in Colombia, has lived for many years in England and now lives and works as a tandem pilot in Switzerland. A member of the UK national team, he is a multiple...

  
• 06.12.2017

  Ten Random Questions for... Tim Pentreath

  Tim Pentreath is an Advance UK XC Team pilot from Bath. He has been flying for many, many years and last year finally made his first 200+ km flight in the UK - joining a small, select group of people...

  
• 04.05.2017

  Ten Random Questions for... Dara Hogan

  Dara is an Irish pilot from Dublin who describes himself as a weekend pilot rather than a Sky-God. As he approaches 70, his ambition is to fly 50km sometime soon. He is the former chairman of the Irish Hang-Gliding and...

  
• 01.16.2017

  Ten Random Questions for... Kussy Gomez Roa

  Kussy is originally from Venezuela but has lived and flown in New Zealand for many years. A skydiver and competition pilot, she nevertheless likes to do her own thing. In this podcast she answers questions on her all time PG...

  
• 11.28.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Malin Lobb

  Malin is a pilot originally from the SW of England. He flies speed wings, paragliders and paramotors. A keen competition pilot, he has been instrumental in organising the British Paragliding Racing Academy , which aims to train up-and-coming British comp...

  
• 11.01.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Rhona Carrigan

  Rhona Carrigan is a Pennine Club pilot and member of the Pennine Posse. In this podcast she answers questions on what she would change her vario tune to, whats the most frustrating thing about paragliding and how long she had...

  
• 09.28.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Bob Moore

  Bob Moore lives and flies in the south-west of the UK. He has flown in various areas of Europe and Australia. He is retired but keeps busy with his video camera reviews which you can see on youtube here. He mentions...

  
• 08.31.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Gavin Jillings

  Gavin Jillings runs Rose Valley Lodge in Sopot, Bulgaria. He was so taken with the place that he and his wife Lucy packed up and shipped out from Belfast to live the dream of being paragliding/motorcycling guides and restauranteurs. Gavin...

  
• 08.07.2016

  Good Karma - flying and charity

  Many of us travel to far-flung places to appreciate the amazing scenery, cheap drinks, food and accommodation and better flying weather than we can find at home. We are treated hospitably and are often helped by locals when we land...

  
• 07.15.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Greg Hamerton

  Greg Hamerton is a South African pilot who lives and flies in the UK. He is the chief paragliding evangelist for Flybubble, a job he describes as perfect. And you can see why, he lives, dreams and breathes flying and...

  
• 07.02.2016

  Ten Random Questions for...Ollie Chitty

  Ollie Chitty is a hang gliding instructor, competition pilot and British hang gliding record holder. A young pilot, he comes from a flying family and acted as ballast for his dad Nick Chitty for years. A rising star of the...

  
• 06.18.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Andrew Craig

  Andrew Craig is a pilot from the south of England (originally from London), but now lives in Wiltshire for the better flying opportunities. A former journalist, he is one of the moderators of PG forum and a Mastermind contender. We...

  
• 06.03.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Mark Meadows

  Ten Random Questions for Mark Meadows, organiser of Parafest. He is a keen paramotor and paraglider pilot who puts flying way before work. In this podcast he talks about his inspiration for the Parafest event and answers random flying-related questions...

  
• 05.19.2016

  Ten Random Questions for...Viv Fouracre

  In our continuing series of fortnightly podcasts called Ten Random Questions for... we have come up with 250 flying-related questions and put them into a random question generator. This weeks guest is Viv Fouracre, well known in the south west...

  
• 05.05.2016

  Flying Mothers

  In the second podcast on flying and motherhood I speak to Ruth Churchill-Dower and Judy Leden from the UK, Heidi Insam from Italy and Elli Torro from Finland about being a flying mother, childcare arrangements and flying with your kids....

  
• 04.24.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Tim-Patrick Meyer

  The latest in our series of fortnightly podcasts called Ten Random Questions for... is with Tim-Patrick Meyer from Germany. He learnt to fly in Chile and has since competed in various events, including a pre-PWC where he succeeded in getting...

  
• 04.13.2016

  Flying when Pregnant

  In this podcast I talk to Ruth Churchill-Dower and Judy Leden from the UK, Heidi Insam from Italy and Elli Torro from Finland. This podcast is one of two about paragliding and motherhood. Many women give up the sport when...

  
• 04.06.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Matthew Tandy

  At The Paraglider we have started a new series of fortnightly podcasts called Ten Random Questions for... We have come up with 250 flying-related questions and put them into a random question generator. We then interviewed a number of pilots...

  
• 03.25.2016

  Ten Random Questions for... Lee Tryhorn

  Our latest series of podcasts is called Ten Random Questions for... We have come up with 250 flying-related questions and have fed these into a random question generator. Each fortnight we interview a pilot using ten randomly selected questions. The...

  
• 02.21.2016

  Making Good Launch Decisions

  In this podcast Judith Mole examines how we make decisions, what influences our decision making process and looks at ways we can make better decisions. Drawing on research from economics, psychology and neuroscience, she explains how the brain works and...

  
• 11.17.2015

  Accidents - You Can Make a Difference

  John Hovey is an experienced first aid trainer and expedition leader with the with the National Outdoor Leadership School (www.nols.edu). This podcast looks at what to do in the event of an accident. It covers liability, taking charge, moving a...

  
• 10.16.2015

  Traversing the Rockies

  Gavin McClurg is a professional adventurer. As well as circumnavigating the world by boat, he used to be in the US ski team, is an accomplished white-water kayaker and he currently holds the North American foot launch distance record (387...

  
• 03.29.2015

  Sharing the Sky with Hang Gliders

  Kathleen Rigg is an extremely accomplished hang glider pilot based in Derbyshire, England. She has flown at the top level of the Womens World Hang Gliding Championships for years, has been the British Womens Champion numerous times and has been...

  
• 12.21.2014

  Testing and Demoing Gliders

  Ziad Bassil (Dust of the Universe) is passionate about testing gliders. He has flown a staggering number of them over the past 20 years. With his friends, he flies the mountains of his native Lebanon and makes glide angle comparison...

  
• 11.08.2014

  Collective Flying with the Flying Collective

  Phil Colbert and Barney Woodhead (Niviuk UK) are part of the Pennine Posse - a lose gaggle of pilots who fly and party together. Their strategy of sharing info, planning flights, travelling and flying together and then helping each other...

  
• 07.31.2014

  Seven Steps to Dealing with Fear in Paragliding

  Heike Hamann learned to fly in 1992 and recently completed a Masters in Process Oriented Psychology. After a few paragliding incidents she developed a fear of being high and as part of her thesis she started to examine her fears...

  
• 04.08.2014

  Safety and Fun

  Tim ONeill started flying 44 years ago in sailplanes and has been hooked on aviation ever since. He began flying paragliders in 2002 and has been an avid XC pilot for the last 9 years. He makes his living...

  
• 03.06.2014

  Amusing Aviation Anecdotes - Landings/Retrieves

  Jug Aggarwal, Matt Beechinor, Alan Ford and Iain Frew. When you land out, you often find yourself in somewhat bizarre places, as is proved in this collection of funny retrieve and landing stories. In this podcast you will hear about...

  
• 02.13.2014

  The NorCal league: how to run a successful flexible competition series

  Jugdeep Aggarwal (Flymaster USA) - there are many formats for competitions. Larger international competitions usually run over one to two weeks. Smaller, national or local competitions have the luxury of being more flexible, since competitors dont have to travel quite...

  
• 01.24.2014

  Shhhh... don"t mention the S-word

  Timothy Bishop - in this podcast Tim and I discuss safety, including human factors, attitude and how we can improve paragliding safety culture. Tim comes from a military and civil aviation background and the discussion is informed by this knowledge...

  
• 11.15.2013

  Coastal flying

  Her-Hsin Tsai - as well as being a keen XC flyer, Hamish (as he is better known in the paragliding community) lives and flies at the coast. In this podcast he discusses a wide range of aspects of coastal flying,...

  
• 03.15.2013

  Possible Future Developments in Competition Technology

  Chris Trow (Fast Retrieve) - following my interview with the PWC and British Open retrieve manager for the Marshalling podcast, here Chris talks about possible future technological developments in comps, including live tracking, Spot and other satellite tracking...

  
• 01.15.2013

  Serial Class! A 2012 comp season roundup from the ex-open class perspective

  Josh Cohn, Nick Greece, Adam Hill, Craig Morgan, Russ Ogden, Yassen Savov and Adrian Thomas - during the 2011 Paragliding World Championships, CIVL banned the use of uncertified open class gliders in its sanctioned competitions. In the last year, much...

  
• 01.05.2013

  Serial Class! A 2012 comp season roundup from the sports/traditional serial class perspective

  James Bradley, Mike Miller, Idris Birch and Pat Dower - serial class has not only had a profound effect on former open class pilots, but traditional serial class and sports class competitors have also been affected - both in positive...

  
• 11.15.2012

  Marshalling and Supporting a Competition

  Steve Charlesworth, Sarah Frysol, Alex Hatfield, Alan Horsfield, Barbara St Aubyn and Chris Trow - many pilots are not aware of the immense amount of background work that goes into a competition, before, after and during the comp week. In...

  
• 10.15.2012

  Crossing the Pyrenees Unsupported

  Dean Crosby (Active Edge) and Steve Nash (Nova) - in August/September 2012 Steve and Dean set out to cross the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean by foot and flying. They did the trip completely unsupported so they had...

  
• 10.05.2012

  Vol bivouac and lightweight gear

  Steve Nash (Nova) and Dean Crosby (Active Edge) - in August/September 2012 Steve and Dean set out to cross the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean by foot and flying. They did the trip completely unsupported so they had...

  
• 06.15.2012

  The Big One - flying 233km in the UK

  Kirsty Cameron - on the 13th of May 2012 Kirsty flew a massive straight line flight of 233km from Milk Hill in Wiltshire to the flats of Norfolk. This is the second longest flight in the UK ever and only...

  
• 06.05.2012

  Competition scoring - for competitors

  Jorg Ewald - this podcast is about scoring formulas and how they work. It is not aimed at scorers, but competition pilots so they can know more about how tasks and competitions work and why some days are high scoring...

  
• 05.15.2012

  Flatland flying

  Steve Ham (flyPiedrahita) should need little introduction. He is a multiple record holder, former British champion and long term national team member. Since he discovered Piedrahita he has been a pioneer in the area and is now a legendary guide....

  
• 09.15.2011

  Breaking the British PG distance record

  Richard Carter - the big UK XC ambition of 2011 was to break the 200km mark on a paraglider. Richard bypassed this distance on the 9th of August with a flight of 253.4km from Derbyshire to Essex. Here he describes...

  
• 02.15.2011

  Flying in wave

  Steve Hudson (Derbyshire Flying Centre) - wave is a fairly common weather condition in the UK and can provide excellent and exhilarating flying, but it can also be scary if you dont know how it works. While hang gliders have...