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Skywings news stories posted online in Feb 2009 are displayed below.
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If you're looking for stories posted after December 2015, please visit our Skywings News page.
Steve Nash is a Nova pilot of the year
Each year Nova selects a handful of Pilots of the Year from their worldwide team. This year the chosen few were online XContest standard-class winner Wolfgang Bernhard (Austria), Mik Broschart (Germany) and our very own Steve Nash.
"Our choice isn't based solely on the pilots' achievements," says Nova CEO Wolfgang Lechner, "but also on whether and how the pilot engages his time for us. The pilot's personality also plays an important role."
Steve and his Nova Ibex won the X-Lakes and X-Scotia fly-yomping contests and flew very well in the British Nationals. He is described by Nova as an extremely dedicated and communicative team pilot. Respect!
The Scottish Federation reports 100% success in emergency parachute deployments at their annual repack Gathering in January.
The Edinburgh International Climbing Centre at Ratho saw 64 deployments using the 80m indoor zip-line. Many pilots had time to make two or even three deployments and repacks, aided by EICA staff manning the zipline and local club members helping on repacks, plus the Aerofix repacking service.
The 100% success rate is a first for a deploy-and-repack session, but nevertheless there were eight recorded slow openings and four pilots experienced difficulty extracting their parachutes. A great day was capped by a fascinating talk from John Silvester about his adventures in the Karakorum.
Tom Bradbury, British gliding weather guru and author, passed away in January.
Tom was an internationally renowned meteorologist whose services to gliding were recognised by the award of the FAI Paul Tissandier Diploma in 1983. He wrote the hugely influential textbook for soaring pilots, Meteorology and Flight, and countless articles in Sailplane and Gliding.
Tom worked for the Met Office for more than 40 years, was the met man at numerous gliding and microlight contests and accompanied the British gliding team to World Championships in Finland, France and Germany.
Those who knew him will remember an unbelievably knowledgeable and sometimes very funny gentleman. Free fliers will be forever in his debt.
This year's Lakes Charity Classic competition will be held at Buttermere on June 5th - 7th.
Online entry for the Open competitions is available at www.cumbriasoaringclub.co.uk/CSC_Events.php. Don't delay - the 100 places are usually quickly booked for this extended weekend of flying fun.
Attractions include acro displays and a Saturday night bash with live music. Camping will be available from the Thursday evening alongside Buttermere, arguably the most spectacular valley of the National Park.
Further information about the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association and skywings magazine can be found on the about the BHPA and Skywings magazine pages on this website.
