"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."

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.

"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)

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.

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.

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?

"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.

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.”

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.

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."

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)

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.

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.

An imbalance between two types of T cells causes problems in autoimmune diseases and cancer. A selective intervention in the activity of these cells could be a therapeutic strategy, but the question is: how? Researchers in Utrecht and Leiden are finding unique metabolic features that discriminate between the two types.

The Nyos 2 RS is an update of Swing's high-end EN-B. With four EN-B's, Swing is a steady contributor to the populair EN-B class. Erwin Voogt investigates how the Nyos 2 RS stands out from the crowd.

Designing a paraglider without a computer is unthinkable nowadays. But for most of us the design software is mainly appreciated for the colorful images it creates. However, new developments in software mean our gliders get much better, much faster. Let's take a closer look.

A superfamily of four-transmembrane proteins called tetraspanins are organizers of the membranes of immune cells. Although ubiquitous, understanding the precise role of some of these tetraspanins in the complement system is the challenge in this combined project in Utrecht and Leiden.

Is minimum sink on a paraglider with brakes at 30% or hands-up? Advances in paraglider design mean things have changed - and that means updating teaching and flying techniques.

Just announced as the new race director of the Red Bull X-Alps we talk to Ferdinand Vogel. “I’m going to watch and learn in 2023,” he says.

Bastienne Wentzel joined a beginner's XC course organised by Parafly and guided by Ferdinand Vogel. Here is what we learnt.

Bastienne Wentzel took Skywalk’s new reversible harness for a spin during a week of XC flying in Bassano.

Is it a speed glider, paraglider or kite? It’s a Moustache! Seb Ospina and Luke Nicol flew one of the first production wings. Bastienne Wentzel finds out more. (Photo: Miriam Joanna)

Specialists in single cell dynamics of research institute AMOLF together with CRISPR-Cas researchers of TU Delft were able to measure for the first time how quickly a single cell can build new memory and remove invading DNA using the CRISPR Cas system. Remarkably, they noted a large variability between individual cells in different populations. The results were published on April 25, 2022 in the open access scientific journal Molecular Systems Biology.

"I am a former competition pilot from Feltre, Italy. I started flying in 1987 in Feltre on a Brindazur 24K. The K is for kevlar, it was one of the first paragliders with lines of kevlar. I was lucky because it was one of the best gliders at that time. To launch it you had to pull hard with your hands over your head and you had to yell 'Banzai!'"

“I pull to the right and instantly know I shouldn’t have. Too late. The lines go slack.” Bastienne Wentzel joins an all-women SIV / Acro course with Rise Paragliding in Oludeniz, Turkey.

An acro wing suitable to learn your first tricks and have fun, says Erwin Voogt.

"I am the first woman from Qatar to register and own a microlight aircraft. I am a sports coach from Doha, Qatar. Flying is my passion. I fly a weightshift microlight aircraft, a paramotor and a paraglider. I am learning to fly a fixed wing ultralight aircraft and I plan to obtain my gyrocopter licence."

Following a single protein inside the cavity of a GroEL chaperone for the first time, researchers at AMOLF led by professor Sander Tans discovered how protein folding can be accelerated. Amino acid chains are pulled inside the open cavity of the chaperone, where they collapse on top of themselves and fold. The findings have implications for our understanding of cellular protein control and folding diseases. The research was published in Science Advances on March 4th.

Women's World Champion Yael Margelisch on chasing records, doing the X-Alps and winning the Worlds,

"I am a retired Airforce fighter pilot from Cologne. You sign up with the Airforce for twenty years and when you turn 41 you stop flying. I did a tour in Afghanistan which was really hard. Four of my friends didn't make it. So it was time to leave."

Acro World Champion Victor 'Bicho' Carrera about his dreams, the mental game, fast air and new tricks.

How much do you know about paragliding? Bastienne Wentzel, Erwin Voogt and Cross Country developed a quiz to find out. There is a quiz for everyone: newbies, beginners and experienced pilots.

Find the quizzes at beginnersguidetoparagliding.com/quiz

The web engine behind the quiz (developed by Erwin Voogt) is fully functional examination software used in schools. Send us an email (info@bmedia.nl) to find out more.

"I grew up in a mountain village in Switzerland, it was paradise. We went hiking, skiing, climbing and motorbiking. But ever since I was young I dreamt of flying. At 17 I started to fly a sailplane, that was my biggest passion. I was on the air field all the time but the summer flying season was short."

When the wind is strong even the lowest dunes offer the potential for some fantastic days out. Bastienne Wentzel heads to the coast to power up the mini wing and finesse her high-wind skills.

It sounds like a do-it-yourself project: take a tube light and convert it into a chemical reactor. Yet DIFFER researcher Edwin Devid received an NWO-XS grant for a project proposal to do just that. Within a year, Devid wants to build a device that can efficiently convert CO2 into green chemicals and fuels with renewable electricity.

"I've been flying all my life. I grew up in Graz, Austria, where my dad, Willi Friedrich, ran the Flugschule Steiermark. I'm 19 years old now and I still live in the house where I grew up."

"I grew up in Bucaramanga, Colombia where we taught ourselves to fly paragliders in 1994. The first foreign pilots only arrived here two years earlier. There were no instructors or schools. I remember my first flight where my friend said: “Just run and when your down there, put your hands down!”

If you’re looking for the ultimate guide to learning to paraglide, this is it! Published in October 2020, Paragliding: The Beginner’s Guide is the essential training guide to learning to fly safely and quickly – from your first flight to becoming a qualified pilot and beyond.

"I'm a 29 year old pilot living near Stuttgart. In daily life I am an orthopedic technician, I build prosthetics. But in the evenings, weekends and vacations, everything is about flying activities."

If you are looking for a top quality glider, Skywalk has always been the go-to brand. Skywalk say an important part of their market demands durable gliders, because of the rough and rocky take-offs and landings for example in Turkey, Iran, Spain and Brazil. But somehow, they've managed to outperform themselves with their new sports class glider, the Cayenne 6.

Imagine converting CO₂ into useful molecules, only by heating it to a plasma with a microwave. Researchers at DIFFER can, but nobody really understands the processes that take place in the plasma. Let alone be able to make the process efficient. DIFFER researcher Luca Vialetto can calculate what is going on.

“I like to think out-of-the-box. So when my TU/e supervisor Niek Lopes Cardozo asked me if we could use 3D-printing to fix a long standing problem in fusion reactors, that's what I did. I designed a divertor using liquid metal contained by 3D-printed tungsten."
Peter Rindt, postdoctoral researcher at DIFFER, about his recent research.

The trademark BGD colors radiate rather boldly while I'm preparing the Cure 2 for my first flight. It seems as if all available shades of cloth are present in the 'Alkaline' colored review glider. More than the in-your-face colors, the sheer number of parts dazzles me. It looks like great skill is needed to sow all these parts together flawlessly.

"I always knew I wanted to fly. My parents are both hang glider and paraglider pilots. We lived in Frankfurt in Germany and all our holidays were flying holidays. I first flew when I was six but my mother did not really want me to fly. She told me if I wanted to fly I would have to make my own money, so I delivered newspapers until I had enough. At 13 years old I did my first course in Wildschönau in Austria."

All Swing paragliders are now equipped with a RAST partition, which causes parts of the glider to inflate or deflate slower or quicker depending on the situation. This gives for example remarkably easy launching behaviour and dampens the adverse effects of collapses. But such a complex internal structure would surely result in a heavier glider, right? Swing now proves that it doesn't have to be with the new lightweight hike&fly performance glider Helios RS.