An instructor and student preparing to launch a paraglider. Photo: Fabian Gasteiger
Photo: Fabian Gasteiger

Cross Country issue 255: Feb 2025

Welcome to the Progression Issue

20 January, 2025

Cross Country Issue 255 February 2025

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The learning curve

Surely nothing can be as frustrating as the learning curve? Just when you think you’ve got the hang of it, something happens to show you that you don’t really know what you’re doing (yet). It’s like a real-time, real-life game of snakes and ladders. You take what you think is the biggest ladder, and then you just slide down the biggest snake almost back to the start.

In flying that invariably means you are on the ground looking up, probably at pilots flying over your head and almost certainly at cloud streets stretching to the horizon. Your watch says 2.30pm and it will be at least three hours before you get back to where you started. You have a long time to think about your mistakes, and what you should have, would have, could have done better.

It can take a long while before you stop sliding down the snakes each time you take off or catch a thermal. The progression to being able to thermal effectively and then to link those thermals together into cross-country flight can be difficult and long. Landing satisfied at the end of the day, goal reached, triangle closed, personal best distance covered is so elating because it’s hard. 

In this issue we have taken the idea of “progression” and explored it. It will mean different things to different pilots, depending on where you are at. But like clouds, we’ve tried to look at it from both sides: from the intermediate pilot wanting to develop new skills; and the experienced pilot who wants to perfect them.

Because the truth is of course that we are all, always on that learning curve. Sure, the learning slows down and we can plateau, but the road to mastery is long. 

The start of the year, ahead of a new season for many, is a good time to reflect on what we want from our sport in the year to come. What we want to achieve will dictate how much time and effort we will need to put in. Reassuringly, the two things are related: work hard and you will succeed. 

Success of course comes in all forms, but if you are in the air, and if you can learn something from that day’s flight, regardless of outcome, then that in itself is success. That’s learning, that’s the learning curve. Enjoy the ride!

Ed Ewing, editor

In the Core: People, news and insight

Thailand

Flying Paradise

“I want the world to know.” Living the high life on Koh Larn in Thailand

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Serge Durrant

On launch with Serge Durrant

Serge Durrant on a lifetime in the air – and learning to paraglide

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Nathan Longhurst

The Great Peaks

Climbing and flying the 100 best mountains in the Southern Alps

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Oana Matei

Progress has a pace

Tenerife paragliding guide Oana Matei on how to build hours, safely

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Matt Henzi

My flying life: Matt Henzi

The sensei of American paragliding on what matters most

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Flying IQ: Helping you fly better

Paraglider thermalling

Fundamentals: The five senses of thermalling

Mathilde Chivet explains why – and how – good pilots use all their senses to get the most out of every thermal

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Paraglider flying above clouds

How To: Learn the art of Vol-Bivouac

“The wonderful mix of paragliding and camping.” Jake Holland takes us step-by-step into sky camping

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Nova pilot

How to be a ‘good pilot’

Théo de Blic explains what it (really) takes to become a “good pilot

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Rhamphorhynchus fossil

When flying reptiles ruled

Science has revealed the importance of ‘inflatable tails’ in pterosaurs

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Paramotor foot-dragging

The ‘100-hour pilot’ syndrome

Rich Dolan explains how to navigate your first 100 hours as a paramotor pilot

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Paraglider at sunset

‘My heart is beating’

Allen Weynberg recalls his early days of taking flight

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Paragliding in Madeira

Destination: Madeira

How to get big airtime in Madeira, the tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean

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Features

Paraglider launching

Progression: The Ultimate Guide

So you want to be a better pilot? Bastienne Wentzel explores how to navigate those crucial first seasons

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Chrigel Maurer

Where eagles dare

“Most pilots pursue goals but very few actually train specifically.” Till Gottbrath talks to Chrigel Maurer

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Will Gadd

It’s a knife fight

“Every flight is a knife fight” says veteran pilot and adventure athlete Will Gadd

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Tschäggättä and paragliders

Where the wild things are

Andy Busslinger discovers the Lötschental’s unique Tschäggättä monsters – and the valley they inhabit

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Kitlist: Design insight

Measuring cloth porosity

A better way to measure porosity

You’ve been thinking about porosity all wrong! Here’s the new way

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Advance Lightness 4

Insight: Advance Lightness 4

Advance’s popular pod has been updated – complete with brand new fairing

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Supair Evo Lite 2

Insight: Supair Evo Lite 2

To pod or not to pod? We take a look at this new modular harness 

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Modular paragliding harnesses

Insight: Modular harness systems

Learn how you can adapt one base harness to different modes by adding cocoons, airbags, and reserve containers

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BGD Base 3

Design insight: BGD Base 3

Designer Lucas Bonin tells us about this new ‘compact’ high-B 

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