New head of UP designs

UP announced: ˝As you all know we have been busy restructuring the R&D department at UP – we are proud to present to you Mr. Frantisek Pavlousek, 43 years old and new head of UP designs.

'Franta' has worked with Axis Para for a decade, as both the creative spirit behind the wing designs and as production manager.

During his studies to become an engineer, Franta already built his first gliders - he now looks back at 20 years of experience as a designer! His vision when it comes to building gliders reflects UP’s philosophy: finding the perfect blend between performance, handling and safety for the task at hand.

We're very excited to welcome Franta on board and look forward to work with him, designing winners for UP during the coming decade and more.˝

Source: UP NEWS

Some "feel-good" news from Sasa in Nepal

Published on UP web site

15.12.09 13:34 Age: 8 min
Some "feel-good" news from Sasa in Nepal

As regular readers here will know, our most intrepid UP fans, Sasa and Tadej from Slovenia, are on a monster trek across Asia with their UP wings.
This morning I chatted with Sasa via Skype

Hallooooo Mads can you hear meeee!!???

At the moment the duo is in Nepal, having spent a few weeks in Bir/Billing (India) literally flying their socks off.

Sasa had lent her Kantega 2 to a French pilot, he had flown a SAT on it and I commented that I have heard from others that it wasn't the SAT machine - here is what she answered, it put a big smile on my pale winter face:

"you have a proof now... he was excited about the manouver, easy, smooth... he flies niviuk hook, used to short brakes... bir... I did my PB in breaking distance rec, altitude, thermal strengths... you can check few stories on the blog when you have time... the rest will follow... in pictures and stories... we flew bivouac... unbelivable, really... so much power you get of flying good!"

I thought I'd share this good vibe with you all - it reminded me once again why we fly!

Happy holidays from Mads S at UP

Only now I am ready with photo gallery from our CIAF 2009 taking part. Take a look how great the Chineese was organize it. It was very pleasant trip for all our team. And let's waiting Pascal's Vallee video.

Alexander Bogdanov

www.ParaWorld.ru

UP published: Travel report from Sasa and Tadej - Mongolia

Slovenski prevod...

As regular readers will know, UP friends Sasa and Tadej from Slovenia are on a monster trip around Asia with their paragliders. Here's a story about their trip around Mongolia, with stunning images as usual!

Lake, mountains, peace and wind...in the middle of nowhere...Mongolia

After a busy Beijing Mongolia will be the place where we will escape away from the big cities. We have thirty days’ visas to spend in the country of blue skies. We plan to organize ourselves by renting a car and travel different places from eastern side of Mongolia to the south to Gobi up to the western and northern region. The cost of this 'duo' adventure would be way high so we rent a van together with other travelers and change our itinerary according to the plans of the group. More...

Great images from Mongolia on UP's site

Slike iz Mongilije na UP-jevi strani - Images from Mongolia on the UP's site.

So jim ble vsec kr vse;-) They like almost all of them;-)

Letenje z UP padali - Flying with UP gliders

UP friends on a big trip

Some months ago I got a real letter for the first time in years - haven't been getting letters since they invented emails, so I was well excited...
Turns out it was from a young man in Slovenia who was planning a long overland trip, and would we lend him a wing for the trip?
I got in touch with the Slovenian UP rep who knew Tadej (as his name was) well, and had only praise for him. So I set up a meeting with the guy, and his co-travelling girlfriend, and we sat down to talk about it in a truckstop somewhere on the Slovene/Italian border. The idea was too good to let pass; going from Slovenia to China and beyond, going Overland (no airline travel involved) and flying as many new sites as possible along the way... more

Slovenski prevod:

Prijatelja UP-a na velikem popotovanju

Nekaj mesecev nazaj sem prejel, odkar obstaja e-pošta, zanimivo obicajno pismo. Pisal je mlad fant iz Slovenije. Planira dolgo potovanje in sprasuje, ce bi mu UP lahko posodil padalo. Stopil sem v stik s slovenskim zastopnistvom UP-ja, ki dobro pozna Tadeja.

Podali so zelo pozitivno mnenje o njem. Sam sem se dogovoril za sestanek z njim in njegovo sopotnico Sašo.

Tolmin, 15. maj 2009

Dobili smo se na avtocestnem počivališču na poti proti Italiji. Ideja, potovati iz Slovenije do Kitajske in še dlje, ter leteti s padalom, kjer je le mogoče, se mi je zdela zelo zanimiva. V UP-ju smo z veseljem sprejeli pobudo Tadeja in Saše, saj radi podpiramo take projekte. Zato smo smo se odlocili, da jima posodimo 'krila', zameno, pa nam bosta za novice na nasi internetni strani poročala in pošiljala fotografije iz njunega popotovanja.

No, tu je že prvo tako oglašanje:

»…Živijo kolegi. Sva že na cesti, malo pa tudi v zraku. Letela sva v Budimpešti in izgleda nekako takole...

Jaz pa sem naredil nekaj poletov tudi v Eger-ju, kjer je dobro leteti. Bila sva 15 min prepozna za prelet pokrajine, ker sva morala hoditi peš na vrh hriba.

Do sedaj sva letela na Madžarskem – Eger… super plac. Slovaška – Stranik, bilo je preveč vetrovno. Nad Javorovy na Češkem, kjer je doma El speedo, na severo-vzhodu Češke. Tu je letenje neverjetno noro. Lahko je pridobiti višino. Saša pravi, da je Kantega 2 nora. Zaradi dobre termike je padalo mirno in gre gladko skozi. Sicer sva mislila, da bova imela več letalnih dni, vendar nama vreme ni naklonjeno. Najbolj pomembna stvar pa je, da so vsi madžarski, češki, slovaški, poljski padalci spraševali, kaj delava v njihovem koncu, ko pa gredo oni vsako leto letet v Slovenijo, v Tolmin, kjer je raj za letenje v Evropi. Vidva sta nora!? Ne ne, sva rekla, midva hočeva raziskovati nove kraje za letenje in srečati druge kraje in ljudi… za naju je v tem koncu letenje avantura…

Lep pozdrav,

Tadej

Foto: Iz AsiaTmin: Od Tmina do Tallina - From Tmin to Tallin