Met onder andere: Hike&fly naar de top van de Mt. Blanc | Parakites in opmars | Mount Manganui (Nieuw Zeeland) | Red Bull X-Alps 2025 - interview met Nederlandse deelnemer Sebrand Warren | Harnassen en protectie deel 2 | Vliegdagen voor paramotor, delta en ballonnen | Recensie: Moyes Gecko | Paramotorvliegen over Lelystad Airport | Afsluiting Acroseizoen 2024 | Liftlat: Doseah Morriën

'Extreme botany' - Paramotors help conservationalists to protect ecosystems in Peru

Bij radiotherapie is foutloze identificatie van patiënten essentieel. Biometrische technologie maakt dit proces efficiënter en minder belastend. Hiermee wordt zowel de veiligheid als de patiëntenzorg verbeterd.

Ever stopped and looked at your karabiners in flight? Bastienne Wentzel investigates our most critical links.
They weigh less than 100 grams – the two karabiners that connect us, via our harness, to the glider. But each one of them is essential: failure of a karabiner in the air inevitably results in a reserve ride. Isn’t it strange that it’s the only part of our equipment that doesn’t have to meet a standard? They deserve a bit more TLC than we usually give them.

FLOW consortium to acquire a complete understanding of the cell's quality control network.

In the 2024 round of NWO Gravitation grants, the new consortium FLOW was awarded 23 million euros. Running from 2024 to 2034, FLOW will investigate the cellular factors that determine the fate of proteins throughout their life and learn how to influence that fate.

A chemically modified version of the antibiotic vancomycin is much more effective against MRSA and other Gram-positive bacteria than the original. Leiden university professor Nathaniel Martin and his group developed this guanidine modified lipoglycopeptide. They recently published their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

A promising target for cancer therapeutics is the protease family of cathepsins. Researchers from the Swiss EPFL institute in collaboration with Dutch researchers from Radboudumc in Nijmegen succeeded in developing a highly specific, targeted way of inhibiting cathepsin activity. The results were published in May 2024 in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

Postdoctoral project: Innate immune activation and sterile inflammation in microglia in human brain

Timo Oosenbrug is fascinated by immune receptors. "It is the first line of defense against viruses," he explains. "But what makes it even more interesting is what happens when these receptors keep firing all the time, causing sterile inflammation. The translation to this clinical condition is exciting."

Een nieuwe toepassing voor een bestaand geneesmiddel betekent dat nieuwe patiëntgroepen sneller, beter en vaak tegen lagere kosten behandeld kunnen worden. Investeringen in deze repurposed drugs zijn hard nodig. Daarbij kan octrooibescherming voor de nieuwe toepassing van het bestaande middel als vliegwiel fungeren.

“Dive, swoop, climb, soar…” Launched in a blaze of high-octane glory in 2022 parakites have now definitely come of age – attracting new pilots from disciplines like skydiving and kiting as well as paraglider pilots who want to go high-wind soaring at the coast. Bastienne Wentzel dials in...

Met onder andere: Vliegstekken: Mons Klint (Denemarken) | Sospel (Frankrijk) | Gran Paradiso (Italië) | Harnassen en protectie deel 1 | Dutch Open deltavliegen | Chabre Open paragliding | Delta Free Air festival | Liftlat: Marcin Krawczyk

"Welcome to the Harness Files – where science writer Bastienne Wentzel explores what we need to know about paragliding back protection and why. If you’re thinking of changing, going lightweight, or upgrading your harness, then this is eye-opening stuff. Essential reading."

Sky Paragliders recently brought in new blood from young company Drift, attracted by their two-line EN-C Merlin. Erwin Voogt and Bastienne Wentzel find out more

Met onder andere: Reizen - Wilder Kaiser in Oostenrijk, soaren op Lanzarote, De Portugese Algarve | Technora zeil voor delta's | EN-C tweelijners | Liftlat: Anne-Jan Roeleveld

It reads like a storybook. In 2021, fundamental research conducted at AMOLF formed the basis for the startup company Lumetallix. The company developed an easy to use
and affordable method for the detection of lead. Two years later, Lumetallix has sold thousands of test kits and now has collaborations with scientists, NGO's and even forensic experts.

Ron Heeren established fundamental research in the field of mass spectrometry and imaging of molecules at AMOLF. When fundamental physics gradually changed to applied medical and biological research, he moved his group to Maastricht University. His M4i institute's research, which enables the visualisation of molecules on and in cells to help clinicians improve their therapies, is renowned worldwide.

Remarkably, we don't know everything about the common cold virus HKU1, part of the coronavirus family. ICI researcher Joost Snijder (Utrecht University) and his team recently not only proved where and how HKU1 binds to the host cell, but also showed how this binding triggers a remarkable conformational change of the spike protein that is fundamental to how this virus enters the cell.

Early 2024, a remarkable publication appeared in Science in which Florian Winau at Harvard and his team describe how they discovered the function of a specific glycolipid called Gb3 found on B cells. From their results, they conclude that Gb3 has the potential to act as an adjuvant to improve vaccines against viral infections such as influenza.

PhD project: Targeting metabolism of the enteric glial cell in Parkinson’s disease

The enteric nervous system possibly plays a key role in Parkinson’s disease, making it a target for possible treatment. Anastasia Markidi at Utrecht University set studies the effects of bacterial metabolites on enteric glial cells.

PhD project: The role and effect of pathogenic amyloid proteins on neutrophil extracellular trap formation in the central nervous system

Enebie Ramos Cáceres is a jack of all trades: his PhD project comprises chemistry and immunology and he is doing all that on his own. He not only develops chemical probes to study key enzymes related to NETosis, relevant to Alzheimer's disease, but he also collects, prepares and studies human blood samples to test his probes.

Omics data sets are an increasingly important part of the research of wet-lab cell biologists and immunologists. But they are usually not equipped with enough bioinformatics or coding skills to be able to analyse these data sets. A first for PhD students in the ICI program, this spring they had the opportunity to participate in the online training "Omic data analysis and visualisation using R" which focuses precisely on these skills.

Met in dit nummer: Stubai Cup 2024 | Hike&fly in Stubai | Tenerife | Welk scherm vlieg jij? | Recensie Airdesign Vivo 2 en LiVi | Interview Fatemeh Eftekhari | Zelfbouwcockpit voor paramotortrike

Op de startplek op de Babadağ hoog boven Ölüdeniz in Turkije loop ik Fatemeh tegen het lijf. Alweer, want een paar maanden eerder vertelde ze mij in Oostenrijk al over haar leven als paragliderpiloot in Iran maar toen was ze snel weer verdwenen, op weg naar andere vliegstekken in Europa. Deze keer laat ik haar niet gaan: ik wil meer weten van deze bijzondere dame. Dit is haar verhaal.

We krijgen niet wekelijks de kans om een directe vergelijking te maken tussen de ‘zware’ en de ‘lichte’ variant van hetzelfde scherm. De Vivo 2 en de LiVi van Airdesign die we afgelopen najaar uitgebreid mochten vliegen zijn helemaal identiek ontworpen, behalve dat de LiVi van lichtgewicht materialen is gemaakt. Het zijn beide EN-B schermen en ze hebben dezelfde vorm, afmeting en strekking. Wat merk je daarvan als piloot?

Where there is not even a hillock in sight a winch is the only way for paragliders to get airborne. All that is needed is a long open space roughly in the direction of the current wind. "Towing opens up a completely new range of flying areas," says Michael Gebert, a guide with the Swiss company Fly with Andy organising trips to fly from tow in Uruguay, Argentina, Brasil and the Balkans. "And it's a supersafe kind of flying," he adds.

Even knijpen en je weet of de avocado, perzik of tomaat rijp is. Zo doet een zachte robothand dat ook, bijvoorbeeld bij het geautomatiseerd oogsten. Maar tot nu toe had zo'n grijper sensoren nodig in zijn 'vingers' om te kunnen vaststellen of de vrucht rijp genoeg is. Shibo Zou en Bas Overvelde van AMOLF’s Soft Robotic Matter Group ontwikkelden een manier om van buitenaf, zonder ingebouwde sensoren de interactie van zachte robots met de omgeving te meten. De techniek is bovendien eenvoudig toepasbaar op allerlei bestaande zachte robots. Het onderzoek is op 15 januari 2024 gepubliceerd in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Nature Communications. (Foto: AMOLF)

"I'm Fatemeh Eftekhari, one of the most well-known pilots in Iran. I'm one of the owners of Xagros Clouds air sports club in Iran. I am an active XC and competition pilot. My best flight so far was 241 km on a Skywalk Chili 5 in 2022. But my goal is to bring more ladies to the women's sport community."

As free flyers, we are exempt from quite a number of rules and regulations that apply to larger and motorised aircraft. A lot of our sport is self-regulated which makes it such a beautiful and free sport.
An example of this self-regulation we find in the certification process of paragliders and their maintenance. When you think all the norms, checks, inspections and repairs must comply with laws, rules and regulations, you could be disappointed. But the lack of a legal framework doesn't mean these things aren't important. It just means we can't hide behind a law but have to take responsibility ourselves.
(Foto: Nova)

Met onder andere: Coupe Icare 2023 | Lofoten, Noorwegen | Luke de Weert wereldkampioen acro 2023 | X-Swiss | Hike&fly: Grindelwald | Climb&fly | NK Berg paragliding | WK deltavliegen | Recensie: Gin Evora

Targeted anti-cancer therapies are the future of cancer treatment. Immunotherapy is booming, and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) are a fast growing class of therapeutics. These consist of a cytotoxic drug connected to an antibody that targets a tumor marker. Although much research is aimed at elements of ADCs such as the drug payload or constructing nanobodies, the international research program TACT is bringing all aspects of this research together, from fundamental chemistry to the initial stages of biological assessment. ICI-partner WUR is involved.
The EU-project TACT combines state-of-the-art research in antibody-drug conjugates with extensive training of new researchers. (Image: TACT)

Herpes viruses can invade the nervous system and stay there unnoticed for a long time, before causing disease. But not much is known about the interactions between the virus and the nerve cells. Sabrina Krepel finds out using advanced techniques such as mass spectrometry and electron microscopy.

Microglia play a crucial role in neuronal diseases such as MS or Alzheimer's. But there is a large gap in knowledge about the processes involving microglia and the development of these and other neurological disorders. Without understanding of the fundamentals, there is no chance of a cure. PhD student Viktor al-Naqib at NIN studies these fundamentals in cooperation with chemical immunologists in Leiden.

Een fictief nieuwsbericht - 4 dec 2038.
Milieuvriendelijke, veilige en betaalbare batterijpakketten voor opslag van elektriciteit thuis, dat was jarenlang een heilige graal. Door Nederlandse onderzoekers in samenwerking met het bedrijfsleven wordt dit nu realiteit.

Flying the Airdesign Vivo 2 and its superlight sibling the LiVi at the same time is a great opportunity to make a direct comparison between a regular wing and the exact same one in a lightweight version. Both pitched as easy B gliders, the airfoil design is identical. The differences are mainly in lighter fabric, unsheathed lines and nitinol instead of plastic rods in the nose. What does that mean for the pilot?

This year's acro competition scene was more exciting than ever. There was a change of competition rules for the better, a neck-and-neck battle between the two top pilots of the year: veteran Théo de Blic and upcoming star Luke de Weert and there was a good effort to make it all more accessible to the public. Here's an overview of the year through Luke's eyes.
(...)

This article was published in Cross Country magazine #246, December 2023.

Being a lightweight pilot in paragliding is a disadvantage. It's no myth that the smallest paragliders fly worse than larger ones. Some competitions such as the BGD Weightless even have a separate ranking for light pilots for this reason.
But recreational pilots struggle as well. Reader Angela Bonato ("considered lightweight by most wing manufacturers") emailed us: "I unfortunately only fly with much heavier guys and at almost every flight I have the feeling we flew in a very different air from what they say to me."
Lightweight competition- and ex-test pilot Joanna diGrigoli can fully relate. Among other wings, she flies an XS EN-B glider below mid-weight range. "I feel light against the wind. It has no bite." On a lightly loaded glider it can be harder to enter thermals, Joanna says. "But the main problem is into wind."

This article was published in Cross Country magazine #246, December 2023.

AMOLF-onderzoekers ontwikkelden een eenvoudige test voor het aantonen van giftig lood door gebruik te maken van de speciale eigenschappen van een perovskiet halfgeleider. Dat materiaal is bijvoorbeeld geschikt voor leds en zonnecellen. De spray licht fel groen op in contact met een oppervlak dat lood bevat. De test is 1000 keer gevoeliger dan bestaande tests en de onderzoekers vonden geen vals positieve of vals negatieve resultaten. De studie werd op 27 november 2023 gepubliceerd in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Environmental Science and Technology. (Foto: AMOLF)

"I am Lorenzo, aka Energy Papi, entertainer, content creator and MC for paragliding events. I live in Eindhoven in The Netherlands. This year I traveled through the Alps with my small campervan, flying as much as I can. As a kid we went to the Austrian mountains for holidays. That's where my love for mountains was born."

This interview was published in Cross Country Magazine #245, November 2023.

Hike&fly is hot and with it comes our urge to slim down our equipment. A lighter wing, harness and reserve and yes, also a lighter helmet. Recently we have seen the number of pilots choosing a climbing helmet for hike&fly rise significantly, in competitions and recreational flights alike.

This article was published in Cross Country Magazine #245, November 2023.

Met onder andere: Red Bull X-Alps 2023 - interviews met de winnaars | Aerothlon 2023 | Paragliden op Sicilië | Deltavliegen in Denemarken | Dragonfly | Recensie: Apco F3 en Minimot | NK Delta 2023 | EHBO op het veld

The ‘X’ in Step X stands for ‘cross’ which means at the crossroads between performance and light weight. With a weight of 4kg for the S, it is similar to other semi-lightweight wings such as the Advance Iota DLS. It replaces Supair’s Step 2 and Step Light. Supair’s designer Pierre-Yves Alloix says: “You do not need to choose between light and classic, this new Step is ‘all in one’: almost as light as the Step Light with similar durability of the Step.”

AMOLF-onderzoeker Christiaan van Campenhout vond een nieuwe, eenvoudige manier voor het maken van een materiaal met een regelmatig bandenpatroon van kristallen. Het patroon dat de kristallen vormen is geen toeval. De onderzoekers kunnen met een simpele opstelling heel precies regelen hoe breed de banden zijn en wat hun onderlinge afstand is. Dat is mogelijk een eenvoudige en goedkope manier om optica, elektronica of sensoren te maken. Het onderzoek is op 2 augustus 2023 gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift Advanced Materials.

Chrigel, congratulations! You said you didn't quite have the feeling before the race. What did you mean by this?
"Before the race, many things are unclear. This gives me the feeling of not being comfortable. It is always the same. The last experience is so far away, this feeling of insecurity starts to appear and I have to start to get into the next adventure to become comfortable and to focus on the race. And when it feels really good you can start pushing."
(...)

Bastienne Wentzel talked to Chrigel and some of the others who made it in, including Damien Lacaze, Maxime Pinot and the first woman to finish the race, Eli Egger. The final 10-page feature makes for essential reading for X-Alps race-watchers.
Cross Country Magazine #242, August 2023.

Met onder andere: paramotorvliegen in Saoedi-Arabië | Fish&chips en vliegen in het VK | Ellipse deltavliegers | Dolomieten | Hoe plan je een bijzondere overlandvlucht?

Thermal peptide exchange technology. The term sounds like a simple lab protocol. But at a closer look it's a perfect example of multidisciplinary, multi-group research where a fundamental background, a good idea and an interest in technology lead to new insights and relevant medical applications. What started as an idea from the labs of Sjaak Neefjes and Huib Ovaa has now grown into a user-friendly method for screening immune cell responses to any antigen, developed in a collaboration between multiple research groups. (Image: Jolien Luimstra)

The “easy B” class is crowded nowadays. New pilots and those who wish to fly for fun and keep things super simple often look for easy intermediates. Launched at the start of this year the Gin Evora is the latest member of this class. It is designed to be “undemanding for relatively inexperienced pilots, yet at the same time offer more than enough performance for the category” say Gin. To see what it has to offer I flew the Evora for a week in the fresh spring thermals at hotspot Bassano del Grappa in northern Italy.

UbiQ was founded in 2010 as a spin-off of the Ovaa-lab at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. The small company develops reagents for ubiquitin research and is involved occasionally in drug discovery projects, says co-founder Farid El Oualid. "Our mission is ultimately to help patients. With UbiQ, we aim to explore all possible drug targets using our technology, and to facilitate others to do their research by providing reagents."

It's an unconventional ICI-project in many ways. LUMC researcher Aysegul Sapmaz wrote the proposal to study ubiquitylation of Rab-proteins back in 2019 together with Huib Ovaa and Sjaak Neefjes. She then moved on to do the research herself in close collaboration with PhD student, Esther ter Linden from the Neefjes group.

Met in dit nummer: Sneeuwschoen-hike&fly | Stubai Cup 2023 | Vlieggebied Achensee | Fabrikant: Aeros | Recensie Swing Nyos 2 RS | De reservebridle | Vliegstek Col du Sapenay | Skywings wintermeeting 2023.

Handboek voor iedere paramotorpiloot
Paramotorvliegen is een avontuurlijke sport en volop in ontwikkeling. Met dit unieke boek willen de auteurs nieuwkomers in de sport voorzien van een grondige theoretische basis. Het boek staat ook vol met praktische instructies als aanvulling op de opleiding bij een paramotorvliegschool. Ervaren piloten knnen met dit boek hun kennis opfrissen.
Het boek is geschreven door twee enthousiaste luchtsporters. Peter Blokker is alpinist, paraglider, paramotorinstructeur, wingsuitvlieger en ASE-jumper. Hij is de eigenaar van Pedro Verticalo Adventures. Bastienne Wentzel is paragliderpiloot, de hoofdredacteur van het luchtsportmagazine Lift en wetenschapsjournalist. Ze werkt voor het internationale free flight magazine Cross Country en is de eerste auteur an het Engelstalige paraglidingboek "Paragliding - The Beginner's Guide".