#Safety

How to Fly With Your Dog | Explained by Shams

Shams flies with his dog Ouka, and this is the practical version of how that works: the training, the equipment, and how to judge whether the dog actually wants to be there.

The Inside Story of Sports Racing Series (SRS) by Brett Janaway

Brett Janaway tells how the idea for the Sports Racing Series came up around 2012, with a few organisers over a beer talking about linking their events into one series, and why he is careful that…

Bill Belcourt: The Uncomfortable Truth No One is Talking about in the Current Safety Paradox

Bill Belcourt's answer to reducing fatalities is training, ahead of everything else, and he is direct that some pilots are racing who are not ready to be racing.

Insights From The Gaggle with Tilen Ceglar & Stan Radzikowski

Tilen Ceglar and Stan Radzikowski give the view from inside the World Cup gaggle on the debate that had been running across the community.

Pal Takats on Challenges, Change & The Future of Paragliding

Pal Takats says he is no longer willing to accept air that can collapse a wing no matter how good the pilot is, and argues that competition should reward the best pilot rather than the one prepared…

What is #CIVLRESIGN with Julien Garcia

Julien Garcia explains what the CIVLRESIGN movement is actually asking for, which he frames as an institution acknowledging a systemic failure rather than any attack on individuals.

Legacy and Lifetimes of Gin Seok Song: 5 Decades of Pioneering the Art of Free Flight

In this episode I sit with the founder of Gin Gliders, to talk about his 5 decade free flight legacy, Starting with rogallo shaped hang gliders back in the day to pioneering Boomerang competition…

Understanding Skymate: Paragliding Worlds First AI Driven Smart Harness System with Roman Barthelemy

Supair's lead harness designer explains Skymate, a harness that reads around a hundred data points every second and uses machine learning to tell an autorotation apart from ordinary flight.

The Resilience Equation: Erlend Ukvitne’s Unrelenting Path to X-Alps and the Brink of a World Record

Erlend Ukvitne talks through the route from wanting a place at the X-Alps to actually earning one, and the mindset behind his attempt at a world record.

Consequence Over Probability: Will Gadd on Why True Safety Lies in Clarity

Will Gadd argues that the people who show up determined to overcome their fear are the ones who do not last, and that the useful move is to accept the fear and build real capacity behind it.

Aljaž Valič : 777 : Paragliding’s Slovenian Mavericks Redefining the EN B Class And Elevating Free Flight Performance

Aljaz Valic, co-founder of the Slovenian brand 777, sets out the design thinking behind their EN B wings and why he believes development stalls once a class becomes effectively one single type and…

Alain Zoller: The Science of EN Certifications : How Work Group 6 Shaped Paragliding Testing, Innovation & Safety

Alain Zoller of Air Turquoise explains who actually decides that a wing is safe to fly, walking through the CEN technical committees and the Work Group 6 that writes paragliding's test standards.

A Note of Thanks

A short opening to 2025 in which the host thanks listeners for the first stretch of the show and sets out what is planned for the year ahead.

Storytellers : Marko Milutinovic (Mid-Air Collision)

Marko Milutinovic describes a competition where midairs, reserve deployments and serious injuries were happening daily, to the point that the jury wanted to stop for a day so everyone could take…

Risk Vs Reward 4 : Raúl Rodríguez

Raul Rodriguez invented many of the manoeuvres that acro is built on, and the conversation covers how a pilot should come into the discipline, starting with SIV on an ordinary wing to learn what it…

Brand Stories : Neo : Eric Roussel

Eric Roussel explains why Neo designs and manufactures in France rather than Asia, from the cost arithmetic that forces them into higher quality and more innovation, to the reason the brand is named…

Carabiner Fatigue : Finsterwalder & Charly (whitepaper)

A solo episode built on a whitepaper from Finsterwalder and Charly, about the carabiners connecting a pilot to the wing and why metal that looks perfectly fine can already be fatigued.

Risk Vs Reward 3 : Manfred Ruhmer

Manfred Ruhmer has flown fixed, flexible and collapsible wings across more than three decades, and this conversation is about what a career that long does to your relationship with risk.

Risk Vs Reward 2 : Subir Sidhu

Subir Sidhu rose through the sport quickly, and the conversation is about how to do that without outrunning your own margin, pushing where he wanted to and holding back where he had to.

Risk Vs Reward 1 : Philipp Zellner

Philipp Zellner has spent more than a decade flying at altitude in the Himalayas, and this first Risk vs Reward episode is about how he weighs that against the consequences.

New Technologies 4 : Veselin Ovcharov (Fly The Earth)

Veselin Ovcharov of Fly The Earth talks through the second version of his acro harness, and why he thinks the sport has been flying rucksacks for decades while the technology drifted elsewhere.

New Technologies 3 : Stephan Stiegler (AirDesign Paragliders)

In this episode of Paragliding Atlas, we have an exciting conversation with Stephan Stiegler, the innovative designer from AirDesign.

New Technologies 2 : Guillem Batlle & Adrià Grau (Niviuk Paragliders)

Guillem Batlle, the aerospace engineer heading R&D at Niviuk, and mechanical engineer Adria Grau explain how a wing is actually developed and tested before it ever reaches a shop.

PWC Lifestyle: Klaudia Bulgakow

Klaudia Bulgakow describes what competition flying actually teaches, and why pilots who turn up expecting to learn from the back of the field come away frustrated when the real learning sits in…

PWCA: Goran Dimiskovski

Goran Dimiskovski, president of the Paragliding World Cup Association, describes what it takes to organise racing at that scale and what goes on behind the scenes of a World Cup.

Navigating Panchgani (Pre PWC India) : Vistasp Kharas

Vistasp Kharas walks through Panchgani ahead of the pre World Cup held there, covering what the site asks of a pilot and what to expect from competition flying in India.

Navigating India: Jigish Gohil (Bonus Ep)

Jigish Gohil gives the local view of Bir Billing, starting with the safety briefing he thinks every visiting pilot should read before they arrive, and the landing out stories that explain why he…

Navigating India: Eddie Colfox

Eddie Colfox decodes flying at Bir Billing and the routes north through the Himalayas, including the run to Manali, with a warning to be careful of the cloud and of assuming that the pilot ahead of…

Navigating Colombia: Pal Takats

In the show's very first episode, Pal Takats maps out flying in Colombia, from the sites of the Valle del Cauca and their airspace to what a European should expect from the pace of life on the…

Can we Steer a Round Reserve Parachute? Urs Haari Answers!