April 5-15. 6-8 guests.
We confirm the rumours. Brazil is cool. That’s why we’ve been going back for quite a few years now. The World Cup takes us and we oblige with pleasure.
This time we decided to share the experience with eight of you, pilots from around the world, and show you what we’ve learned so far – about the country, the terrain, and how to live and fly it best.
Mostly how to fly it best. Daria and I are both taking intermediate gliders, so all ten of us can have the opportunity to fly together and learn from one another.
Call it a traveling XC seminar. The idea is to fly with the same objectives on the same comp-like tasks we’ll be setting daily, trying to stick together and learn how to fly more efficiently, therefore faster. On the radio, on takeoff, and in workshop sessions on the ground, we’ll be discussing all questions XC and racing. The goal is to get better in it and enjoy the process like the good game that it is.
Included is:
– Transport with our van in the flying area between the towns of Baixo Guandu, Castelo, and Valadares
– Daily transport to takeoff
– Morning weather forecast
– Flying site briefing
– Daily task briefing
– In-flight radio guidance by two instructors
– Daily task debriefing and analysis
– Landing retrieval
– Arranging local accommodation
Who we are
Daria Krasnova has been flying since she was 11. Winner of two World Cups and many other international competitions, she has a kickass attacking style that’s cool to watch and learn from. She has guided pilots in Colombia, Turkey, Ecuador, and Indonesia. She speaks English, Spanish and a bit of Portuguese.
Yassen Savov is the most decorated European paragliding competitor east of the Alps, and one of the fastest pilots in the world. He speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French.
– European Champion, 2012
– 5 World Cup podiums, including 2nd place in the last World Cup of 2018 (Turkey)
– Current Bulgarian champion and holder of the Bulgarian straight distance (355km) and FAI triangle (234km) records
The plan
We’re starting on April 5 from the place Yassen considers the most beautiful for paragliding in the world – Rio de Janeiro. If the weather is flyable, we will meet in the morning to fly in Rio and, fingers crossed, do the epic flight to Cristo Redentor (see the video above). If it’s not flyable, you can check out the city instead.
For Rio’s finest, see Yassen’s article on it here: Cristo Redentor
The same evening we’ll be leaving by night bus (very comfortable, it allows you to lie down and sleep all night) for our destination – the area of Castelo / Valadares / Baixo Guandu. Once there, we’ll be hopping on our rented van and starting to chase the weather around those three locations, aiming for the most flying and variety. This means that instead of going with a fixed day-to-day plan, we’ll be flexible and choosing every day’s location according to the weather forecast and how we feel. What we want is to fly a lot, stay happy and safe, and get better.
(Check out this video from Castelo by our friend Brett:)
We’ll provide you with a list of turn points for the area to upload to your instruments, so we can all fly the same tasks and try to stay together in the air, hopefully all making goal. We’ll be having a briefing before every flight, then in the air we’ll be discussing the situation live, and finally we’ll have a debriefing, discussing the result to a beer or two.
We’ll be taking the night bus back to Rio on the evening of April 14. And, just like in the beginning of the trip – if it’s looking flyable, we’ll fly, hopefully to Cristo. And if it’s not, we’ll use the day for checking our that gorgeous and wild city from the ground.
(All photos by Yassen Savov)
Price: 600 euro