The Spark is the easiest and most reassuring PPG wing that we have ever flown, and we think it is the perfect choice for any aspiring PPG pilot’s entry to the sport. Any PPG pilot who wants the ultimate in simple launching, easy ground-handling, and uncompromised in-flight passive safety will enjoy the reassuring and enjoyable flight characteristics of the Spark….

Read more information about the Spark here

The Slalomania slalom race was held simultaneously, which Alex also won, flying a Slalom 19m. Aurelien Ganaye finished 3rd, flying his Viper 22 and Viper 20.

The 15 year-old, up-and-coming pilot, Nicolas Aubert, took place in his first major competition and managed to place in the top five of three separate tasks. Unfortunately he made a few basic beginner errors such as missing an entry gate, which cost him dearly. However, he is clearly one of the most talented young pilots in the world and is destined to be a champion in the future!

In France, the Tandem Foot-Launch category is a very popular event, and three of the teams in the competition were flying Ozone… and all three teams finished on the podium flying the Speedster 33m!
1st. Christophe Charon + Alexandre Bouin
2nd Jean Mateos (again!) + Celia Domingues
3rd Yann Leudiere + Audrey Fournier (World Champions 2012)

Cheers from all the Team.

The MagMax an ideal choice for professional tandem instructors, but also part time weekend pilots. The high levels of glide and climb efficiency, thanks to the high performance profile, moderate aspect ratio and low total line drag, makes the Magmax suitable for a wide range of motor and trike units.

The MagMax is now available in 2 sizes: 38 and 41 and 2 colors. More information can be seen here. We look forward to hearing your impressions of this exciting new tandem & trike wing!

At the Expo Montegrappa, a majority of the pilots were flying Ozone, although there were several team pilots from other brands. A figure 8 FAI slalom task was flown. Alex Mateos (Viper 18) and Aurelien Ganaye (Slalom 21) completed the tasks with impressive times of 30 and 32 seconds, 5-6 seconds faster than the next pilots in the ranking. Congrats guys, well done, and we assume that was great training for the upcoming French Champs.

The first league of the Italian PPG championships was organized during the first weekend of April. Of the event,  Raffaele Benetti said, “Finally in Italy the level of competition is gradually aligning to the rest of Europe, with more and more technical tasks, improved pilot skills, and the best equipment”. On the podium of the first event, three Ozone Slalom pilots stood together. In first place, Sandro Passeri (Seven time Italian champion) once again affirmed his lead.

Italian Championships:

1) Sandro Passeri (Ozone Slalom 21)

2) Raffaele Benetti (Ozone Slalom 19)

3) Walter Camozzi (Ozone Slalom 21)

Cheers from all the Team.

The New OZO Reversible Harness is now available to order, and is a ~530g backpack and harness combined. It is available in a 26L and 33L size. When combined with the XXLite, your harness, pack, and wing will all weigh in at a grand total of around 1700g! For more info check out the OZO page and the XXLite page, and don’t miss the video.

Keep Your Wing in the Shade…  The new Ozone Sombrero is a cover to protect your wing during the inevitable parawaiting sessions that we all endure from time to time. While you’re sitting on take-off, keep your wing covered with this UV-reflective, water-resistant, light-weight cover. Perfect for competitions, or just a weekend on the hill. Available now from your local Ozone dealer.

New Nutshells!  The Ozone Nutshell is now available in 3 different colours (Charcoal, White, Blue), and we are also offering chin guards to make the Nutshell a full-face helmet. Chin-guards are sold separately and require some simple assembly. Check out the Nutshell page for more info.

New Spreaders for Tandem Pros:  With the addition of our new light-weight tandem to our range (The Mag2Lite), we have released 2 new spreader systems to choose from. The Lite Spreaders are simple and extremely light, at just 60g a pair. The new Soft Spreaders are 382g, and adjustable in length for easy calibration to all passenger weights.

All of the above are now available and in production, so ask your local Ozone Dealer. Cheers from all the Team!

Feria was a big event organized by Santiago City to promote outdoor sports. Paragliding and paramotor was a discipline represented by Francisco Fluxa and local pilots from Santiago. Francisco and I made a PPG show over the city of Santiago flying Slalom 19 and Speedster 19, Here is a video:

I travel a lot all around the World with my motor and I have to admit that the warm welcome I received in Chile was wonderful and totally unexpected. As soon as I arrived I had some problems with my luggage (not all of my paramotor arrived) – everything was sorted and organized for me within a few days. I received invitations from local pilots to visit many places in Chile and Argentina to fly PPG with local pilots. I visited all the nearest to Santiago local flying sites such as: Colina, Vizcachas, Maintencillo. I also had the opportunity to fly with Elke Reinarz in Puerto Montt, who is the only female PPG pilot in Chile. Elke’s house is situated on the cliff above the beautiful bay of Couhuin, and we had a great time flying together for several weeks.

Video with Elke Reinarz, in Puerto Montt:

Another event, this time in Licanray, was at a lake surrounded by volcanic mountains. Many PPG pilots arrived from Santiago and Temuco. It was the biggest number of Chilean PPG pilots that had ever met in one place in Chile. The weather was wonderful and we enjoyed many hours flying together. The biggest gift for my last flight in Chile was an evening fight to the beautiful Villarrica Volcano. The late hour and the lack of power in high altitude didn’t allow me to climb all the way to the top but I was within 200m of the summit (Villarrica is 2847)! Landing in the campsite after the dark I thought to myself, “next time! At least I have another good reason to come back to Chile.”

Thank you my Chilean friends for all your help and sharing so much time together! See you next year, you are awesome!

“I was sitting at home in France during a cold spell in winter, dreaming of flying my paramotor in the sun… and then I remembered that the Las Candelas event in the south of Spain is the perfect place to fly paramotor in my t-shirt! I checked the weather conditions, called my friend Aurelien, and made a quick decision. We packed lots of toys: Macfly Thor 200 paramotors, 3 new Ozone Slalom wings, our Viper 2 20 and new demo Speedster 22 and we decided to hit the road early. Already on thursday we were in the sky over the beautiful lake of Las Puebla de los Infantes. The location of the event, next to magnificant lake, was a perfect playground. Light wind conditions allowed us to play over the water, doing endless footdrags and easy wing tip touches! What a place!

Sunny weather meant lots of pilots this year at the event. I was happy to show our new Slalom wing and the Speedster 22 to all of them. On Friday our youngest team mate, Nicolas Aubert, joined us and we flew together a lot. He was happy to try the new Slalom 19, which has just arrived for him. We had lots of fun sharing our flying passion with Spanish friends. As every year, we enjoyed the Spanish food and village fiestas with big fires all night on the streets of La Puebla. Saturday and Sunday the wind picked up. The conditions were not very stable, but we could still fly the smallest sizes of Slalom (19) and Speedster (16). Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to our Spainish friends and the Spanish sun and hit the road back to the French snow. See you next year!”

- Alex Mateos

Photos: Marie Liepmann, Pilots: Aurelien Ganaye (Slalom 21), Alex Mateos (Slalom 19), Nicolas Aubert (Speedster 16)

My first leg was through the southern end of the WPNR into beautiful flatlands.  Eastwards I could see the Anysberg National Park, and the land unrolling beneath me was soon dotted with curious springbok, twitching their tails in uncertainty as to whether I was a threat.  I flew into a gentle southerly, but with trims open maintained a comfortable 40 km/h ground speed.  Although it was early, the sun breaking through patchy clouds was generating small thermals.  This called for constant throttle adjustments; I tried flying at various levels but eventually settled for cruising at 300ft above ground and riding it out.  After 20 minutes of southward progression I turned west along a valley, rewarded with views of some ruined stone farmhouses and dilapidated kraals.  A hefty eland bull regarded me with contempt while his two cows batted their ears.

The valley widened, and in the distance I could see a large farm, my first accessible bail-out point after flying 50 minutes. I checked fuel carefully.  I had been observing that the wind was very westerly in the valley I had been flying, which was limiting my ground speed and increasing fuel burn.  I wasn’t sure whether this was due to the topography or if the forecast was wrong, but my fuel situation was just acceptable:  more than one-third into my planned route I had used 5 of my 14 litres supply.  To be safe, I decided to shorten the route, and climb through a valley 10km closer.  Turning north, I ran low-level thorough beautiful vlakte devoid of any sign of human influence.  A startled group of rhebok cantered off on a tangent; a single massive but elegant gemsbok shook its long horns at me. I began to climb into the mountains.

The westerly wind was blocked in the valley, and in its absence the thermals had been building.  Feeling the familiar lag of the wing dropping back as we entered a thermal, I throttled back in anticipation of the exit, but after a few seconds was still climbing.  A brain-switch flipped; suddenly I wasn’t a paramotor pilot but an XC paraglider.  Leaving the throttle I threw my weight over, pulled in the trims and was soon lazily circling at 1.8m/sec upwards in a beautiful morning thermal.  What a pleasure…and good for fuel consumption!  The bliss was prematurely terminated; reaching ridge-height the thermal rapidly became turbulent and then broke up.  I checked my drift and realised the cause:  the westerly wind was in fact a north-westerly that had been channelled along the valley, 90 degrees off the forecast!  This was bad news:   1h15 into my flight I had burned 9 litres, and still needed to fly back across a head-wind.  Opening the trims again, I angled towards the only road leading back to the reserve.  A small herd of zebra ran along my path, almost as if to offer encouragement.

Reaching the road I turned and kept low, using the hills to funnel the wind into a tailwind.  My fuel was receding into the bottom of the tank, but now I could see the mouth of Elandskloof and the WPNR ahead.  I gave up on checking fuel checked possible landing fields as they passed.  Coming into the valley, I made a quick radio call: “Witteberg International, WMX approaching low-level from the north, requesting expedited landing runway 01.”  I could hear the laughter in the background as my wife answered from the “tower” (our tent): “WMX, land at your own discretion!”  The Speedster descended me gently through the turbulence, and I took a few minutes to enjoy the silence and smell of mountain fynbos before checking the fuel one last time.  Just over a litre remained… but my tank of experiences was full to the brim.

Ross Hofmeyr, SA

The track log on Leonardo can be found here.

]]> http://www.flyozone.com/paramotor/en/news/headlines/21141?source=rssfeed Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:15:32 +0000 Ozone Paramotor http://www.flyozone.com/paramotor/en/news/headlines/21141?source=rssfeed Here’s a new short film about the Ozone R&D Team and our recent adventures in high performance paraglider research and competition… full description follows, below.

The new Slalom is a fast and agile wing for intermediate and experienced pilots who want to carve tight turns at high speeds. Based on our highly successful Speedster design, the Slalom provides a stable base for pilots who want to take their PPG flying to the next level, at competitions or just for fun. Although the Slalom was designed for competitive pylon racing pilots, it is ideal for any experienced pilot who is searching for new levels of agility, coupled with ease of use, stability, and excellent launch characteristics. The Slalom’s high-speed stability and comfort also makes it an ideal choice for high-speed XC flights.

An introduction to the Multiball Steering System by Ozone Team Pilot, Mathieu Rouanet. The Multiball System is available exclusively for the Ozone Slalom, our newest PPG wing. The Slalom is an excellent choice for pilots who want to fly fast and carve turns on or off the slalom race course. The Multiball System allows for highly precise and stable steering inputs in highly accelerated configurations (For instance, with trimmers fully open and full speed bar applied). The three sections of the system are “handles” which allow a range of possible positions for the pilot to use – simply choose the section which is most comfortable to reach according to your harness configuration and arm length. This riser system is feature-rich, but clean and easy to use on the ground and in the air.