With the Addition of Luc Armant to the Ozone Test and Design Team, research on the Mantra R series has continued and progressed to the next level. What you can see in the photos at right is a new prototype which has proven to perform at about 3:1 (a full 3 points of glide) better than the current competition wing standards (that’s with a 45kmh trim speed). Although we love getting your emails, don’t bother writing us for more info on this project as this is really all we can tell you for the moment 😉
While this particular design won’t be hitting the PWC circuit any time soon, it is the interesting result of a simple concept: Maximum Performance – and we believe it has achieved perhaps the highest performance of any paraglider built to date. It will be interesting to see how these latest developments can be worked into our production Mantra R and M series as well as on our more widely flown wings. Stay tuned for more info… and enjoy your flights!

Cheers from all the Team.

Mathieu Roanet recently returned from the European Championships in Lomza, Poland. This is his comp report, in his words:

“The tasks were really interesting, and I think their variety gave us accurate results / podium at the end. The weather was not always good, sometimes raining, and in the end there were only 6 tasks, which is the minimum required for a Championship event, and the average is generally 10 to 12 tasks.

The French team was largely new this year, with many young pilots that were new to the scene.
Alexandre Mateos and his sister Coralie were there for their first international competition, Alex flew a Viper 20m (he’s 16 and still very small) and Coralie flew her Rush Power. They did well for their first major comp. A few beginner mistakes put them a little low in the final standing but just a little bit more experience will put them at the top I think. I was impressed from the first day with their performance in spot landing precision, and they scored maximum points in this category even in turbulent air. They also performed well in the slalom events.

The first task was spot landing, with some very turbulent conditions, and some gliders had closures (collapses) on the approach. Second was a speed task in a limited time, and here of course the fastest gliders were the wings with reflex profiles. Third task was an incredible race with pylons – it was an economy task where you had to turn a maximum number of times around the pylons. I finished second, just after a 4 stroke motor which has a clear advantage in this fuel consumption task. It was incredible to fly with 40 gliders in the same area, same direction, at the same time!  This was for sure the funnest task of the competition. The fourth task was a Japanese slalom; I finished second again, and Alex did well also, his Viper 20 is highly maneuverable and turns in a small radius.
Fifth was an economy task, with a maximum number of turnpoints to reach. I made a big mistake on this task, and could not find the thermals I was expecting under the huge cumulus streets. I made a radical choise to follow the clouds, which was not a wise choice on this day. It was a big mistake, resulting in no sanction for the task for me, which was 400 points. Therefore, my overal result of third place is quite acceptable, considering this error.
The sixth task was a minimum speed / maximum speed just after. Here also French team did well, and could maintain their overall second place ranking. At the end, The French team took the silver medal. This is a great result, considering that there were only 2 well experienced pilots in the team, and all of the others were new competitors! I was the first French, and 3rd overall.

The next Ozone pilot in the ranking was Alex Mateos. Even though he is only 16 years old, he was 17th overall in his first international competition. This is very impressive.”

Excellent work Mathieu, and everyone! A special congratulations to the Mateos family: we’re sure that this will become a major name in the worldwide PPG competition scene!

Cheers from all the Team.

Gabriel and Fred are now a significant part of the way into their 10,000km journey from Monaco to Peking, and are currently in Kazakhstan. The guys report that the Vipers are going very well, handling a massive range of conditions including serious turbulence over unlandable terrain! They are also testing a new Viper2 proto, we’ll get back to you with more news on that soon.

For the moment the most recent videos they have are from several weeks ago in France and Italy, if you want to check them out then go here: http://www.campdebase.fr/Camp_de_base/MONACO.html and the home page of the two adventurers can be found here: http://www.monacopekin.com/

Stay tuned for more, and wish them luck as they Viper their way across the wildest parts of Asia.

Cheers from all the Team.

Luc Armant has now joined the Ozone Test and Design Team to work together with David Dagault (cheif test pilot and designer) and Russel Ogden (test pilot).

We are extremely happy to have Luc with us and very excited to work with him on new projects. We have stolen Luc from the Fluid Dynamics industry, where he worked as a fluid dynamics and hydrology expert as a Naval Architect and Engineer. Luc and Dav have already collaborated on some incredible new designs that are a long way from becoming part of our serial glider line but are impressive and fascinating to say the least – sorry, we can’t tell you any more for the moment!

In Luc’s words, he likes to work on “Complex projects involving fluid dynamics, and finding solutions to technical problems.” Luc, we think you’re going to like your job here.

Luc is also an excellent, yet humble, pilot. Last year Luc made an incredible solo vol-bivouac flight in the Himalaya using an Addict Lite, and he has also proven himself to be a formidable competition pilot.

Thanks for coming, Luc, we look forward to the future!

Cheers from all the Team.

Marius Jansen and Knut Ståle Thomassen have made an amazing tandem PPG flight over the summit of Mt Blanc, using the Ozone Magnum. Reaching a max altitude of 5009m ASL, the two were able to fly around some of the most amazing terrain in the Alps, not to mention right over the summit of the highest mountain in Western Europe. Even with a total weight of 228kg, their Magnum delivered the performance necessary to make this impressive flight.

To see the Google Earth tracklog (kmz) click here: http://no.flightlog.org/fl.html?l=1&a=34&gdf=2&trip_id=170317

Nice flight guys, and thanks for the beautiful photos (all taken by Knut).

Cheers from all the Team!

Last week Mathieu Rouanet dominated the French National PPG Championships with his Viper 2, taking overall and French National Title. Ex-World Champion, current Vice World Champion and European Champion, and now 2x French Champ, Mathieu’s competition record is almost unparalleled in the PPG world and his overall skill as a pilot is truly unmatched in the PPG scene.

Mathieu said that the Viper 2 (available to the public soon… stay tuned) was highly effective in the speed, slalom, and economy tasks, with excellent stability.

7 Ozone Vipers and 4 Roadsters flew in the championships. Laurent Salinas placed 4th overall flying his Viper, and 16 year old Ozone Pilot Alexander Mateos finished 5th, and Ronan Choullou in 6th on his Viper. Congratulations, guys! And congrats also to Coralie Matéos, who took 3rd overall flying her Ozone Rush in her first competition ever! Splendid!

After the closing ceremony the competitors were allowed a special treat – flying on the ex-NATO airbase, which has a 3.2km runway! Mathieu said, “I think we never launched from, flew over, or ‘barefooted’ on such a huge airbase!!! Also, the “Patrouile de France” (French Airforce Fighter Jet Display) also took of from there, 4 fighter jets at the same time!”

Photos at right courtesy of Mathieu Rouanet and his new ‘helmet cam’ set-up!

Nice work everyone, we’re glad you enjoyed the Viper and the Roadster 😉

The German Paramotor Association (DMSV) is now certifying paramotor wings.

The Ozone Roadster and Indy are two of the first wings to pass the tests necessary for the DMSV certification.

We are pleased to announce that the Roadster M has received DMSV B: (without accelerator) DMSV-MS-5009-08 and the Indy M has received DMSV A: DMSV-MS-5008-08

These results are in line with the character of both wings and also with the EN certification that they have already received.

Cheers from all the Team, and enjoy your flights!

The 4th annual Ozone Chabre Open has come to a close, with 3 valid tasks followed by a brilliant day of fun (free) flying. Even though the forecast was grim at the beginning of the week, much excellent flying was had, with many pilots in goal for the first time and a few even setting personal best XC flights! With too much wind to fly on the last two days, the final Friday was spent at the famous St Vincent Les Forts, where we soared above the Lac de Serre Poncon and made some nice little out and return XC flights in the mountains.

The overall win went to Mark Graham of the UK, who was also working for the organization as the scorer for the comp… don’t worry, we had someone check his work! 😉

Local hero Rachael Evans took overall 2nd place on her Rush, and also won the overall womens! Rachael has made several epic flights from Laragne in the past, including several long ones (100km+) on her Ozone wings, and is a flying role model for local pilots and for her husband, David.

Ruud van der Heijden of the Netherlands was 3rd overall and also won the Serial Class with his Mantra M2 – Ruud has always flown well and partied hard at the Chabre and this year was no exception, although apparently it was too cold on Friday night for him to dance shirtless, like last year!

For complete results, please visit http://www.flylaragne.com/ and go to 2008 Ozone Chabre – 2008 Results, where you will find .pdf files for each category. The winners of each class went home with a bag full of Ozone gear, and most of the pilots present at the prize giving won goodies in the raffle.

Congratulations also to David Bryans who won the raffle for the Ozone glider of his choice – David is already an Ozone Mantra pilot and is currently struggling with a nice dilemma: which free Ozone wing to choose! Perhaps an UltraLite, or a Geo II, or an Addict 2, or a Mantra M2… just let us know David, and we’ll get it sent out to you 🙂

A big thanks to the organization again, for all of their hard work. Without the tireless efforts of David and Rachael, Brian and Louise, all of the drivers and other volunteers, the Ozone Chabre would never be possible. Also another big thanks to Jocky, who provided his usual constant guidance, assistance, and inspiration to the pilots in the comp. They all kept everything fun and relaxed !

The Ozone Chabre Open 2009 is currently being considered . We’re trying to make it happen, but due to a date conflict with the Hang Gliding World Championships, we may need to change something… but we’ll certainly let everyone know as soon as possible.

Lastly, thanks to all of you, the pilots, for whom we love to work and without whom there would be no event or even sport for that matter. Thanks for coming to our events, following the news on this site, and supporting us at Ozone for nearly a decade! Cheers to you all, from the Team.

Frenchmen, Frederic Jacques and Gabriel Galtier, have departed on an epic PPG journey across Europe and Asia.

Using ethanol based Bio-Fuels, Fred and Gabe plan to arrive in China in time for the 2008 Olympics after more than 10,000km of PPG flying! We will post more news here as it arrives, for now we wish Fred and Gabe all the best on their incredible flight.

Fred Jacques is already the holder of 2 FAI world records with the Ozone Rush Power, but for this trip the guys will be flying the Ozone Viper 27 for the entire journey.

Stay tuned for more, Cheers from all the Team.