Tools of the

XCTrade by Gavin McClurg photos by Jody MacDonald

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avoided paragliding consciously for over 10 years. Many good friends were pilots, and all of them continuously prodded me to make my first jump. It looked like a blast, something I’d probably take to, but I also kept hearing the old saying: “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.” Accidents seemed frequent, with rather long-term consequences. I’m a total adrenaline junky. I don’t have a very good “stop” button. If a conservative, methodical approach were required to be safe, then paragliding was not the sport for me. I dreamed of flying, but kept my feet on the ground. Then I started hearing stories about pilots going places. It seemed preposterous—launching in one location and landing somewhere entirely different. I heard crazy stories about taking long train rides home after epic flights across the Alps in Europe because of landing in countries other than the one taken off from. Right here at home in the Northwest, one day a friend circumnavigated Mt. Hood and then threw some acro over the Columbia Gorge, before landing in his front yard! This was too much to resist. I had to see what flying was all about. That was back in 2006. After receiving my license and getting my first small taste of cross-country flying, my flying addiction has grown with every season. Whenever I get the opportunity, I chase distance.

I often compare the sport to a game of chess in the sky. One wrong move and the game is over. But it’s not a game. The endless decisions and resulting potentially serious consequences lead to the most exhilarating, sometimes scary, and always quite absurd, thing I’ve ever done. I haven’t OPPOSITE Eric Reed getting ready for another XC had a flight yet where at some point I mission. ABOVE The author didn’t think, “I cannot believe I’m doing getting ready for another big this!” flight. My pursuit has brought me to the highest mountains of the world in the Himalaya, to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, across the deserts of Namibia, and all across Europe. Recently, I joined an XC binge trip across the Sierras with a few of the finest pilots in the world—to date the longest vol biv expedition in North America—one we dubbed “The Sierra Safari.” It was a successful attempt at flying the full length of the Sierra range in California. This summer I was fortunate to fly in my first World Cup in Sun Valley. I still consider myself a novice XC pilot, and the opportunity to fly with some of the best pilots was an incredible opportunity to hone my skills. Before the competition began, a series of amazing US distance records were set—all by pilots who were also competing in the World Cup. Matt Beechinor flew nearly 190 miles from Baldy Mountain in Sun Valley, eclipsing the previous record. A few weeks later Nate

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Scales, launching from the same site in Sun Valley, went even farther into Montana, flying 199 miles. Not to be outdone, Nick Greece and Jon Hunt took off from Jackson Hole and flew a remarkable 204 miles. These are all distances that until very recently were thought impossible in mountain flying. ABOVE Honza Rejmanek on So when these exceptional pilots, as the road. OPPOSITE Gavin well as three-time X-Alps competitor McClurg flying down the way. Honza Rejmanik, the flying “guru” Bill Belcourt, and world champion Russell Ogden started talking at the Open Distance Nationals in Sun Valley, I took notes. At the top of my notes I scribbled “Tools of the XC Trade.” No matter where you are in your flying career, and what you hope to accomplish, having the right kit is the first place to start. And by “kit” I don’t just mean equipment, but everything that is required to go far and fly safe. Here’s what the best in the biz recommend. Attitude Bill Belcourt said it best. “When you’re going XC, you have to always look for reasons to fly, not land.” This

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one sounds simple and obvious. But this is not the approach of nearly every XC pilot. Usually when we are in the air we look for signs to stop: hunger, fatigue, fear, wind, cold, etc. Bill isn’t recommending we stop being conscious pilots and ignore things like deteriorating weather or realizing that we just aren’t in the right headspace to make good decisions. What he is recommending is that when the right day happens, which isn’t always one we can identify from a weather report, but something that happens two hours into a flight (not one of the pilots listed above knew he was on to a potentially record-breaking day when he launched) is that you’ve got to “bring it,” as Bill likes to say, when these days come along. To “bring it,” you’ve got to have the right attitude. You’ve got to be aggressive, confident, and you’ve got to make great decisions. You’ve got to “bring it” when you get low on the lee side and flying your wing feels like holding onto a roller coaster. You’ve got to “bring it” when you’ve got a potential landing area beneath you and a sea of trees ahead and have no idea where you are. The only way to get into this kind of headspace to begin with is to fly all the time. Hours

in the air teaches attitude. Get some. “When in doubt, go deeper.” This dicey little saying was voiced to me by Nick Greece on a flying expedition in Haiti last winter and belongs in many ways in the Attitude category. It’s listed on its own here, because no other words have had such a radical effect on my personal flying. Obviously, this isn’t necessarily safe advice, nor is it the advice you’re going to receive when getting your pilot’s license. But when you make the jump from small XC flights to longer, more committing XC flights, a big change in approach is needed. The key is simply to believe it can be done. Don’t for a second abandon all the critical observations that are required for successful distance flying (triggers, wind, clouds, time of day, sun, heating, etc.) when you are about to make a decision to go deep. These expert pilots are not suggesting that you blindly go into tiger territory. But if you want to go far, you’re going to have to abandon the rule that you should never fly over terrain where you can’t land. That’s a negative, and, in this game, you need positives. You’ve got to be thinking about making great moves, and you’ve got to be ready to make them for 6, 7, 8, or even more hours. Which leads me nicely into… Training Sitting in the saddle for more than six hours while flying in active air over complicated exposed terrain isn’t something a low-hours’ pilot can or should do. All of the pilots mentioned above spoke in length about the importance of physical and mental training. One of the tasks at the Sun Valley World Cup was 196 kilometers, the longest task ever set at a World Cup. The pilots who were used to flying for five hours or longer were like little kids at Halloween chomping at the bit to sink their teeth into the task at hand. But a lot of pilots were scared, even some of the best in the world. A guy like Honza Rejmanik doesn’t think too much about the downside of going into remote terrain, because he knows he has the physical ability to get himself out. Russ Ogden is a long-time test pilot for Ozone, which means he’s constantly doing SIV on purpose. He’s never once thrown his reserve. This isn’t because he’s lucky; it’s because when the shit hits the fan, he knows what to do. Nate Scales was adamant that cross training in other sports was as important as flying itself. So, clearly, being physically fit is key. But no less important is being mentally tough, which comes from hours in the air. Disaster is the inevitable outcome if you can hold it together for six hours, but decide

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If you’re going to be flying in the western United States or Canada, or taking a trip to the Himalayas, don’t even think about not using supplemental oxygen. Climbs to 18,000 feet aren’t common, but they can certainly happen, and this summer they did frequently. to push on for another hour when you’re starting to become mentally unglued. Every pilot spoke in length about how critical it is to do regular SIV training and regular ground handling. If you spend a long time in the air, things will ALWAYS go wrong. You’ve got to be prepared for it. So… Be Prepared Preparedness was something I just started figuring out. For years I thought I had a great routine of basically

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dehydrating myself the morning of an XC day, so I wouldn’t have to urinate. Once again, Nick Greece came to my rescue. He told me, “What sport exists where NOT eating and NOT drinking would be recommended?” Paragliding requires first and foremost good decision making. Brains only work well if they are well lubricated and well fed. You’re not going to pull off low saves or glide well if you’re sugar starved. Be hydrated fully before you launch. Eat a solid breakfast. Don’t drink too much the night before. Get a full night’s sleep.

Drink regularly during your flight, and eat something every hour with high caloric content. Bananas are my favorite, and I never launch without a few packs of Sharkies energy treats, as well as a Red Bull or some kind of liquid kick in my flight deck. Wear enough clothes. Many a flight has ended due to being cold, and this should never happen. Use a condom catheter (boys) or a diaper (girls). Develop systems for all of this that work. If you’re going to be flying in the western United States or Canada, or taking a trip to the Himalayas, don’t even think about not using supplemental oxygen. Climbs to 18,000 feet aren’t common, but they can certainly happen, and this summer they did frequently. Until recently the “hard core” contingent in distance flying shunned the use of oxygen. Matt Beechinor was one of them, consistently flying to altitudes near and above the death zone without ever feeling the need for O2. Until one day at a relatively low altitude of 13,000 feet, far below where he was used to flying, he started

getting hypoxic. Matt postulates that the reason might have been a bit too much coffee that morning, or too little sleep, or the hike up and the resultant dehydration. The point is that each day is different, and his story of losing the ability to communicate, then losing the feeling in his hands and limbs ABOVE Launching Baldy in Sun Valley, Idaho. is terrifying. Imagine trying to fly in extremely thermic conditions with no feeling whatsoever in your arms! Finally, today we have one other remarkable resource that the previous generation did not: Google Earth. Spend a LOT of time on XContest and Leonardo studying track logs for where you plan to fly, and you’ll find your distances will make a big jump. Read Burkhard Martens’s Thermal Flying no less than three times, cover-to-cover. Then read it again. Equipment To go far and be safe, all of the above are absolutely critical, but nothing is as important as having the right

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gear. Paragliding is indeed dangerous, and crosscountry flying can push the dangerous Richter scale right to the limit. But there’s a lot we can do to mitigate the risks. On the last day of the Sun Valley World Cup an experienced pilot from the UK crashed and disappeared. A major search-and-rescue effort was launched immediately, but the terrain was so remote and difficult he wasn’t found for two nights, and then only by a small miracle. He was badly injured but will have a full recovery. In a word, he was lucky. Had he had just one relatively cheap piece of equipment—SPOT—he could have been located in minutes and saved hundreds of man hours, thousands of dollars of expense and radically improved his chances. Equipment choices, of course, change, depending on the kind of cross-country flying you’ll be doing. Going 200km in the Alps is a lot different from going 200km SAFETY

ments when you’re way high. Take

 Reserve

 Full-face helmet

your gloves off at 18,000 feet and

 Trekking poles (optional, but

 Oxygen plus delivery system

you’ll lose the ability to use your

they are really nice if you land

(if flying above 10,000 feet, should

hands in seconds.

deep!)

be considered. Above 15,000 feet should be SERIOUSLY considered.)

FLIGHT DECK/ ELECTRONICS

CLOTHING/ COMFORT

 Leatherman  Hook knife

 Warm gloves (consider battery

 Condom catheter or diaper

operated)

 Extra food (for an unplanned

 Vario (with written visible

 Long underwear

night or two out)

reminders taped onto it for pre-

 Sunscreen

flight checks: i.e., helmet buckle,

 Lip balm

EMERGENCY KIT

harness buckles, oxygen turned

 Food

 Extra radio battery, extra phone

on). This little trick I learned from

 Snacks

battery

the XC master Josh Cohn. During

 Ballast bag

 Satellite phone (if you will be in

the World Cup, I launched three

 Hose hydration system (i.e.

areas where there is no cell recep-

days in a row and forgot to buckle

Platypus® or similar)

tion, which is practically every-

my helmet. Sometimes we need

 Down jacket

where when paragliding)

reminders for really simple things.

 Wind jersey

 Space blanket

 Back-up helmet or flight deck

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across Montana. Competition flying is a lot different from bivy flying. On the Sierra Safari, none of us had pods, because we had to carry a ton of gear and also wanted to be light enough that if we had to hike for a day or longer to get out, we could. During the World Cup, I was carrying 15kg of ballast, which would certainly not go over well on a 10-hour-hike out on a bivy expedition. Ask for advice from those who know more; there’s not a lot of room for ego in paragliding. Regardless of where you are in your XC career, below you’ll find a pretty comprehensive list for the days where you could go big. As the flying community witnessed this summer, we’re only beginning to realize the possibilities. Enormous improvements in wing design, skilled pilots pushing the limits, and a growing understanding of the tools we can and should use will lead to flights that right now can barely be imagined. Fly far, fly safe!

 Signaling mirror

vario (optional)

OTHER EQUIPMENT

 Smart phone with downloaded

 Concertina bag (saves your nice

wing in case you get caught out)

maps

XC wing plastics)

 Small wing repair kit

 GPS

 Laptop (for studying XContest

 Basic first aid kit: pain pills, ace

 SPOT

and Leonardo routes during off

bandage, first aid tape, epi pen,

 Radio

days)

lighter, iodine (for water purifica-

 Push-to-talk (PTT) communi-

 Pod (keeps legs warm, radically

tion and injuries)

cations installed with speaker mic

improves air dynamics = glide)

 Poncho

protected from wind

 XC wing—DO NOT fly a wing

 Head lamp

 A pencil or tool velcroed to

above your ability, but a wing spe-

 Tree kit (depending on where

your flight deck that can be used to

cific to cross-country flying cannot

you fly)

press the buttons on your instru-

be emphasized enough.

 Matches

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 Bivy sack (to be used with your

GAVIN McCLURG’S TOOLS OF THE XC TRADE 1.

Cross-country wing and accordion bag

9.

2.

Pod harness

10. Full-face helmet with push-to-talk (Thermal

3. Jersey and warm clothes 4.

SPOT device

Headlamp (Princeton Tec) Tracker)

11. Radio + extra batteries

5. Oxygen system

12. Hydration

6. Condom catheter

13. Balaklava

7.

Flight deck: Garmin GPS, Flytec 6030 + 6015

14. Wing repair kit

backup, Samsung Galaxy 5.0 Tablet with XC Soar,

15. Heated gloves

Locus Maps

16. First aid kit

8. Food and sunblock

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