Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast

Accidents are ubiquitous in free flight but recently there's been a huge spike in fatalities in our sport and in this podcast with Jeff Shapiro and Will Gadd we aim to take on the subject of risk and where we get it wrong sometimes- and why.

Deniz Burnham is an Alaskan resident who just happens to RUN an oil rig. Not work on an oil rig, she runs the show. She's the only female on the rig and has worked in some of the most remote places on Earth, which would be more than enough to fill an entire podcast on its own, but this is a free-flight podcast so we reached out to Deniz to talk about her rather adventurous relationship with free flight and her passion for flying just about everything that flies. Deniz pilots seaplanes, helicopters, paramotors, hang gliders, paragliders, sailplanes and from time to time- jumps out of them (or walks on them!)!

We've had a LOT of amazing talks on the Mayhem over the past bunch of years but this one is in a category of its own. Last summer Larry Bunner and three other very experienced Hang Gliding pilots (Glen Volk, Robin Hamilton, and Pete Lehmann) flew from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border in a series of tow and mountain launch flights over 21 days (1884 miles) and 11 States. This is their story...and a LOT more.

This is another Ask Me Anything show that we typically release as bonus content but we got so many great questions that cover such a wide range of topics we've decided to release it as a regular show and for this one I went out to the experts to get the answers. Max Jeanpierre, Bruce Goldsmith, and Reavis Sutphin-Gray take on a wide range of questions, and their answers are gold. Enjoy!

Tyler G is on the board of the Canadian Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association and he's taken on trying to solve a tough problem in our sport right now: To create a syllabus and model for learning to speed fly safely. Speed flying, especially in North America is still totally cowboy and there's a vacuum for information. And it's taking its toll. Accidents, often serious are plentiful and the YouTube culture is driving the desire for the thrill but pilots are skipping the necessary steps.

Maxime Bellemin is a name all veteran competition pilots know well. Not just because of his decades of experience and multiple wins at the national and international level but because of his performance coaching with the French team and his two incredible books dedicated to flying "Performance Paragliding."

Hang On. That's what Chris Gursky had to do for the longest 2 minutes and 14 seconds of his life on his first even Hang Gliding flight. In what has been dubbed the "Swiss Mishap", this American got a little more adventure than he was looking for in Interlaken when his pilot forgot to clip him in. This is his truly amazing story. Enjoy!

Laurent Borella began flying in 2001 and very quickly afterwards changed his entire life to accomodate more free flight into his world. Eleven years ago his passion for cross country and hike and fly lead him to create the VercoFly, an annual 4 day hike and fly race/adventure in the Wallis region of Switzerland that is simply brilliant. Using 8 mountain huts around Laurent's home town of Vercorin the athletes hike and fly without a supporter and stay in the huts at night.

Primoz Susa is the pilot you will see year after year at the top of the rankings on XContest. He's been sending huge, huge lines for years, competed in the 2009 Red Bull X-Alps, flies tandems commercially, guides, flies a LOT of competitions, and on most Hammertag days in the Alps the guy you'll see (along with Alex Robe, who we listened to in episode 98) right at the top of the XContest top scores.

Jean Baptiste Chandelier makes films that transport millions and millions of viewers into an aerial world of fantasy and fun. In this episode we learn about JB's creative process and how he turns his dreams and ideas into films that connect to audiences regardless of their interest in flying.

This is a special episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem to give all of the fans of the race a little insight into the greatest game on Earth directly from the perspective of the athletes. In this second of three installments we hear from Tom De Dorlodot (BEL 1), Patrick Von Kanel (SUI 2), Chrigel Maurer (SUI 1), and Cody Mittanck (USA 3), and Eduardo Garza (MEX 1).

There is the most information-dense podcast than possibly any previous show we've done. Alex Robé and one of his main flying partners Primoz Susa are nearly always the two guys right at the top of XContest on the big days. Alex won the XContest in 2015 and 2017 and is currently in 3rd this season (his lowest value flight is over a 260KM FAI, and the two pilots ahead of him both went to Brazil last fall!). But Alex is extremely limited with his time and how much he can fly. In a typical year he'll only fly 10-15 times! So for those of you who are restricted with time, prepare to be inspired!

This is a special episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem to give all of the fans of the race a little insight into the greatest game on Earth directly from the perspective of the athletes. In this first of three installments we hear from Nick Neynens (NZ 1), Kinga Masztalerz (NZ 2), Aaron Durogati (ITA 1), and Gaspard Petiot (FRA 2).

Christian Ciech has been flying Hang Gliders for over 30 years. He remembers watching his Dad fly when he was just four years old. He has an arsenal of trophies that showcase his legendary competition skills, including 3 World Championship wins. Christian became a test pilot and designer for Icaro in 1991, a position he still holds. In this episode we discuss competition strategies and the art of winning, how to read the sky and flying the conditions you find...[more]

Willi Canell will represent the US in the 2019 Red Bull X-Alps, the 5th US athlete in the history of the race to call Sun Valley, Idaho home of the 10 US athletes who have competed. He'll be lined up with me in Salzburg June 16th in the greatest game on Earth as a rookie. He's my neighbor, flying partner and consistently surprises me with the way he thinks about this crazy sport we all find so compelling. I invited Willi onto the Mayhem because he recently shared his private journal with me and I found his thoughts and ideas about paragliding, risk, training, fitness, and the ultimate question- why we all do what we do not only fascinating but informative and thought-provoking

Patrick Von Kanel is only 25 years old but in a few days he'll be one of the athletes to really watch in the Red Bull X-Alps. His mentors include Michael and Chrigel Maurer, he's a test pilot for Advance, he's big, he's strong, he's of course Swiss (no non-Swiss pilot has ever won the X-Alps), he's solid in acro and he came in second in his last two hike and fly races- to the Eagle himself, Chrigel Maurer.

Wolfi Siess has been chasing it hard for the past 19 years. He watched his Dad fly from the time he began to walk- the flying blood runs thick in this family! As soon as it was legal (and his mom gave him the ok!) Wolfi took to the skies and hasn't looked back since. He's big on the comp scene, flies tandems all summer, speed flies, makes films- basically does whatever he can to keep the dream alive. Four years ago Wolfi tumbled low on a perfect day in Elsinore and a delayed fear injury set in that took over three years to come back from.

On October 25th, 2018 Marcella Uchoa flew into the record books by flying 411 km across the Sertao, Brazil. She broke Seiko Fukuoka's record of 402 km in Australia set in December of 2015. Marcella was in good company, team flying with Rafael Saldini, Frank Brown, Samuel Nascimento, Marcelo Prieto (the same group who flew 564 km to break the world distance record a few years back) as well as Sebastien Ospina, an ace pilot from Colombia.

Let's face it- sometimes things go wrong. And sometimes you get lucky. This is one of those stories and there is a LOT here we can all learn from. Rick Heatley was having a lovely day in the sky on a near-perfect day at a new site on the rugged and wild Vancouver Island, British Colombia when suddenly things went proper pear shaped. Moments later he was on a super steep slope, his wing was in a tree and he was in knee deep snow. It was going to be a very long, cold night...

TEM is a simple system that helps pilots identify threats so they don't lead to errors which if they multiply could lead to an "undesirable aircraft state." It's simply an awareness protocol laid out through a series of checklists and procedures that become built-in threat mitigation.  Threats in all forms of flight are ubiquitous- internal and external threats are everywhere. So how can we use this remarkably successful program in free flight to reduce risk?