Weather

Understanding the weather for paraglider pilots and free flight pilots

Flying the Dutch sand dunes in winter

Strong-wind soaring the Dutch sand dunes

Bastienne Wentzel heads to Wijk aan Zee on the Dutch coast to power up the mini wing and finesse her high-wind skills
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Illustration of katabatibc flow in mountains

Understanding katabatic flow

Cross Country’s meteorologist Honza Rejmanek tells us how to read downslope winds – and whether it’s safe to make those end of the day sled rides
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Masterclass: Paragliding XC forecasting secrets with Matthew Scutter

A highly detailed tutorial on forecasting for big XC days! This is a 75 minute lesson with the creator of SkySight Matthew Scutter
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Understanding-the-Sky-new-edition-2022

Understanding the Sky – New Edition

Understanding the Sky has been re-issued in a brand new format. The classic weather book for sport pilots by Dennis Pagen has been updated
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How to deal with valley winds

How to Deal with Valley Winds

Caught out by the valley wind? Here are some tips to help you get down safely – hopefully without being blown back
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Paraglider in high mountains

Flying in the Lee

Flying in the lee is commonplace for cross-country pilots, but there are a few things you should consider before diving in
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Annecy-April-1-Jerome-Maupoint

How to get ready for spring in the mountains

It's April ... Red Bull X-Alps pilot Jon Chambers explains how to prepare for those first flights of the season in the Alps
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Andean condor

Understanding how condors fly

Emily Shepard and her team at Swansea University have been tagging and tracking condors for five years. They have learnt that condors almost never flap in flight
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Chrigel Maurer performs during the Red Bull X-Alps 2021 at Mont Blanc, France on June 26, 2021

Meteorology: Understanding mountain gap winds

Every pilot knows about the Venturi. But do you know about "gap winds", where the same effect happens on a much larger scale? Here's a serious primer.
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A temperature map for western North America on 29 June 2021, when an all-time high temperature of 49.6C was recorded in Lytton, British Columbia, western Canada. The next day the village was evacuated before it burnt to the ground as a wildfire swept through. Two people were killed. Image: Nasa

Extreme weather? Think ‘compound event’

A succession of record-breaking natural disasters swept the globe in 2021, including floods, heatwaves, drought and wildfires
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