www.FlyingMax.com – Paragliding

Archive for the ‘Event’ Category

Sunny & Hot, that was the weather at the 28th annual Panorama Easter meet.
Saturday was an exceptional day with pilots flying up to 3000 meters and 2 flying out to Invermere.
I ended up landing at the Invermere airport and getting a ride back to Panorama shorty after.

This years winner is Pete Peter Kozak followed close by Kelsey, Frank, Tanya and Erik.
Thanks again to all the staff and the Panorama Resort for accommodating us and to everyone who came.

Pilots tasks will be dropping Easter eggs (plastic bags filled with snow) and target landings at the designated landing site (Golf driving range). And if possible race out to the valley to Lake Windermere.

Not just about flying, it is also about socialising with pilots, family and friends.
Free social and paragliding event. Pilot lift ticket is $40/day.
Pilots meeting is March 30th at 8:30 am at the day-lodge.
Let me know who is planning to come this year so we can make arrangements for the Saturday evening dinner.
Contact Max Powers at max@flyingMax.com

ParaFreddo.com is coming from Quebec to the Columbia Valley and will be doing a Reserve Clinic just before our SIV at Whitetale lake. He will also be offering a Paragliding Reserve Parachute Workshop, for those who want to learn to pack their own reserves, and will be doing Paraglider inspections and trim tuning services while he is here.

Please register early (e-mail max@flyingMax.com) as we only will have limited spots available!

Reserve Clinic
9:00 am to noon June 8th 2018
Invermere Airport Hangar 5
Cost $50

Our Paragliding Reserve clinic teaches pilots to decide when and how to throw their reserve parachute. It is highly recommended to practice this once a year, particularly one day in advance of our SIV course.

Paragliding Reserve Parachute Workshop
1 day starting at 9:00 am June 11th 2018
Invermere Airport Hangar 5
Cost: $200

This workshop is essential to pilots who like to have the skills to inspect, maintain and repack their paragliding reserve and eventually want to be certified to repack reserves.

Paraglider inspection and trim tuning
Freddo is going to be in the Valley from June 8th to June 13 and will do the trim tuning here in Invermere.
We only can take a limited amount of wings to be done here and the once he can not do here in Invermere, he will take them with him to Quebec (shipping charges will apply)

NOVA Trim Tuning – $100
We will measure all the lines, analyse the trimming using special software and then put your wing back to its optimal flying condition.
https://www.nova.eu/en/service/nova-trim-tuning/

Complete control Paraglider inspection – $190
Complete control inspection (porosity check, line and tissue strength) structural check and trim
adjustment)

*these prices are higher than Freddo is listing at his website to cover fro Freddo’s travel expenses. The overall cost is still lower considering you are saving the shipping costs. More info at www.parafreddo.com

The last couple of days, Penny and I have been talking lots about the upcoming xAlps, starting in a couple of days! We have lots and lots of great memories. What is going on there right now? … everyone is now in Fuschel am See, checking in, going through the safety and race meetings, working on the final touches of their gear, going over the route again and again, meeting fellow pilots, supporters, photographers, runners, and you name it…. It is a huge family!

We feel very privileged to have competed 4 times in the race. The xAlps helped shape us into who we are, how our relationship evolved, and what our family is today.

Yes, we would love to participate again, but we also know how much commitment it takes to be there and we are now at a different chapter of our lives. We created lifelong friendships over the years of racing, and we learned a lot, but it was time to move on, and pursue other goals and adventures in our lives.

Our thoughts are with everyone there, as well as Hannes’s family and friends, being the first race without him. It won’t be the same, and he will be sorely missed.

Penny, the kids and I wish all of the xAlps teams, the competitors and supporters, and everyone involved in the race, all the best, good health, and a lot of fun, in the very unique and personal adventure of the 2017 Redbull X-Alps!!! (www.RedBullxalps.com)

Thanks again to everybody (pilots, family and friends) who came and made this such a special event!

We had 3 days of great flying conditions and one of them with lots of nice thermals. Frank Kernick​, Deryk Yuill​ and Max Fanderl were able to fly out into the Windermere Valley on Saturday.

First prize this year was shared with Chris Wilson​ and Max Fanderl​, 2nd was Frank Kernick.

A big thank you again to Sheri and Diana for all their help with registration and at the LZ, and also to everyone else who helped make this such a great event.
I would also like to thank Panorama Mountain Resort for supporting this event, and paragliding at the resort, for 19 years. The resort and all the staff are amazing!

Mark your calendars for next years meet, as it will be the 20th!
March 24, 25, 26, 2017.

Max, Penny, Katia and Erik

Click here for more pictures

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from
Max, Penny, Katia and Erik,

We are having so much fun up at Panorama Mountain Resort and it is hard to do all the activities we like to do in one day.
Below is a short video of our annual Santa flying on Christmas day, followed with down hill skiing and than snow-shoeing which includes to shake as many trees as possible…
We call this now our Christmas Triathlon!

Seasons Greetings and a happy and healthy 2016!

This years Lakeside event was an amazing event with great people and a awesome party and dinner.
Instead of writing about it, have a look at Danny Wolf’s video to see our playground and mark your calendar to come for the 40th annual Lakeside Splash down Aug 6th 2016.

Well done Danny

Thermal & Cross Country Clinic
June 26-28
Thermal & Cross Country Clinic with Max Fanderl

This Thermal XC Clinic will help pilots who have never flown in thermals, and those who want to perfect their technique. Pilots gain a huge amount of insight and knowledge by the end of the clinic allowing them to take their flying to the next level, and start working towards Cross Country flying. Here is a list of some of the topics we cover in our thermal clinic.

Will offer Google Earth presentations, including track logs and XC maps, on the most popular XC routes in the Columbia Valley, BC.
There are so many topics to cover over a weekend clinic you will find it to be a very rewarding experience regardless of the weather. You can bet when a good flying day presents itself we’ll head up the hill and plan an XC route for the day.

Happy landings
Max

Winter in Canada, for most paragliding pilots, means to either dream about flying or going south to find warm thermals.

In Invermere however, we are a bit different, as we are very lucky to have the great Panorama Mountain Resort, which offers downhill skiing, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, amongst other great activities, and also welcomes paragliding pilots.
January and February are super smooth months to fly due the cold dense air and it lets you enjoy the extra glide you are getting with it.
At the beginning of March, when the snow starts melting off the trees, you will see the beginning of the nice, wide and smooth thermals, and start doing your first XC flights of the year. The thermals are typically wider and smoother than in the spring and early summer months, as they generate from a bigger area (the trees), in comparison to generating from dry ground (the ski runs with no snow) and are great to work slowly into XC flying for the season.

For 17 years we have been flying at Panorama in the winters, but it seems that a lot of pilots avoid coming as they are probably thinking of the cold, harsh winters of Alberta. Sure, it can be cold here too, but remember, it is usually about 10 degrees warmer on this side of the Rockies.

About 6 weeks ago Mark Damm, from Cochrane, asked me if I would run a Ski-launch workshop at Panorama, as he and a couple of his buddies would love to learn. We scheduled the workshop for Friday Jan 9th evening, and 2 full days of flying on Jan 10th and 11th.
Pilots came all the way from Saskatchewan, spending 11 hours getting here, and the others were from Alberta and BC. The evening session on Friday was held at the Station Pub. Thank you for the private room and the excellent meals and service.

We discussed different launch techniques with skis and reviewed XC flight planning. Saturday and Sunday brought fantastic mid winter weather conditions, and pilots had up to 6 flights a day. All in all we flew lots, had a lot of fun throughout the weekend, and watched 15 pilots flying and landing with happy faces and we all made new friends and meet some great new people.

I would like to share some tips here in my blog to help others who are interested, and who were not able to be here for this weekend.

Panorama offers 2 launch sites:

• First choice. and most used launch site is 2/3 up the mountain at the top of Roller Coaster, below the outhouses. (870m vertical). This is where the Cappuccino Hut used to be for those who remember it! This is an easy, but shallow launch site and accommodates up to 5 gliders facing NW.
• Summit Launch “Roy’s Run” (1200m vertical) is a steep, wide open launch (up to 4 gliders, strategically layed out) facing W to SW. This launch is only for good skiers. It can be a tricky launch site to set up your wing as the slope is steep and the wing tends to slide down while you get into your harness. As well if the wind picks up at all, it will slide down too. Do not set up your wing at the very top of Roy’s run layed out on the “easy way road”. This will be conflicting with the ski traffic.

For the two different launch sites you need to adjust your launch techniques simply due to the nature which they are.

At the Summit takeoff, overall, the wing inflates very fast and will have a tendency to overshoot due the steep terrain. The summit take-off site does not allow you to make any mistakes as things happen very fast, and you can end up in the trees beside the run very easily if you do not work with the wing at the speed required.

If you are just getting used to winter flying, I do recommend to start 2/3 up the ski hill on the shallow launch. The tricky and unusual part at this launch is to lead the canopy for much longer than you are used to. Furthermore, you also need to be more patient and allow yourself and the wing to pick up speed for take-off. The takeoff process on skis at this launch site are way slower than you would do by foot. You should get into your harness as close as possible to the trailing edge and be a bit offset from the centre of the wing. This way as you turn downhill to start skiing you can ski (turn) into the position where you want to inflate the wing and be in the centre of your wing. If you start with tension on the lines, you might inflate the wing sideways as you stand sideways to the hill with your skis and might not have enough momentum to inflate the wing due to being sideways to the hill and with your skis on.

See the following 2 videos. One shows you when you do not guide the wing for long enough and not being able to get airborne, and the second video shows you how much you need to charge forward and patience you need to get airborne.

I want to thank Panorama Mountain Resort again for all their support to the pilots, for the sport, and allowing us to fly for so many years.
Please respect Panorama Mountain Resort’s basic rules so we can enjoy it for many more years.

• Novice Rating
• HPAC Liability Insurance
• NO Speedwing flying, Paragliding only
• All pilots to sign the 2014/2015 waiver
• Pilots are required to get in touch with Max Fanderl (max@flyingMax.com) to get the waiver forms

Please respect the following points:

• No flying over the bottom high-speed Chair (Mile 1 Quad) area at all.
• No landings at the village. Only land on designated landing site or on Golf course if it gets to windy.
• No launches after 3:00 pm
• Stay at least 150 feet above lifts and ski runs
• Pilots need to have skis or a snowboard to get a ride with the lift
• Contact RK Heliski before you head up the Mountain at 250 342-3889.
  This is just to let them know we are flying as they will inform their pilots of the activities.

More detailed and current information about of flying at Panorama Mountain Resort is at https://flyingmax.com/area/panorama/

More pictures about the ski launch workshop at
https://plus.google.com/photos/107366320201211493303/albums/6104683265941420513 

Here is a video of a flight from Panorama to Invermere