The idea of performing the Infinity Tumbling with a passenger has probably flashed through the mind of all the acro pilots who already mastered this ultimate figure. Just like me and Gábor who started to dream about this a few years ago...

Pál Takáts together with co-pilot and passenger Gábor Kézi are planning to attempt the World’s first tandem infinite tumbling sequence at lake Walensee in Switzerland on 7th August 2010,

The pair will use U-Turn’s new XXL Thriller acro glider. Designer Ernst Strobl says, “The loop can be performed because the Thriller is extremely light and dynamic but also extremely resistant to drops in pressure”. It has a reinforced nose profile and additional ventilation flaps on the upper sail to improve stability.

“Infinity Tumbling is one of the most difficult acro tricks with the highest degree of difficulty for both pilot and glider“, says Pál. “The glider is very big and has therefore got long lines. As a result, you have got a longer way and need more time to turn the glider and thus the acceleration has got even higher ‘G-Kicks’ in the lowest point.“ Pál estimates the kicks to reach up to 7G or more.

To perform the manoeuvre

Grillmayer Alexandra in female and Pál Takáts in the overall category have won Paranoia Acrobatixxx, the first of the - only - two World Cup events of the season, held in Zell am See, Austria for the fifth time! As usual the altitude in the flying box was pretty low, between 3-400 meters so the pilots were performing 3 maneuvers only. It means that everything has to run perfectly, otherwise even a small mistake makes out big differences in the scoring. Regarding the new rules now the landing takes 20% of the total scoring (it is the double than it used to be) and the ground spiral coefficient jumped up from 3 to 4 which makes the landings a lot more exciting since everybody is giving a try for the spiral-raft landings to get out maximal points.

However the competition situation looked quite like terrible in spring, at the end we can now look forward to a pretty busy August, as the final of the year's comp season. A quick overview of the next events:

Revoluttion 2010, Spanish Open - La pobla del segur, Spain, 05-08. August
http://www.revoluttion.es/

Swedish Championships and Norwegian Cup, in Åre - Sweden, 5.-8. August.
www.downteam.com/challenge2010

Swiss Championship - Melano-Lake Lugano, Switzerland, 13-15. August
Only 10 days left to register!
http://acrogeneroso.wordpress.com/news/

Sonchaux Acro Show - Villeneuve, Switzerland, 19-21. August
http://www.acroshow.ch

AcroAustria APWC - Ossiachersee, Austria, 25-29. August
http://www.acroaustria.at/

Unfortunately we don't hear too much about the american acro scene and happenings. Somehow the big distance also makes it difficult to follow up with the europe-based scene, however there are a bunch of really skilled and talented pilots over there. Nova Dasalla is one of them and as a competition newcomer a few years ago we could get to know this symphatic guy who now managed to perform his nation's first Infinity Tumbling!

Pál: Nova, please tell me a bit about your flying career, when did you start flying and how did you get into the acro scene?

Nova: I have been flying since 2005 and knew right from the beginning that I'd get into acro. I blame the acro part of the movie "Never Ending Thermal" for changing my life! But it wasn't until 2007 that I really got into acro, spending a lot of time and money on training

The Acro Jam, a friendly non-commercial paragliding meeting will take place this weekend (10-11. July) in Austria at the Krippenstein. Many acro pilots will gather together to enjoy the perfect summer weather conditions together and get some more training flights before the first World Cup event in Zell am See (coming up on the following week).
More infos at http://acrojam.jimdo.com/

Have fun!