Brazil pics and Alpes maritimes in the authumdress.

It’s realy beautiful here right now. Sunny and fantastic colours on the trees and houses. SKP S´mile new tandem flying low over Crosscountry office in Cipieres.

I have mainly spent my days behind the computer, sorting among the 1400 pics i took in Brazil…

Now i’ve delivered some 240 pics to XCMAG. Hope U get to see some of them in the mag. www.xcmag.com for subscription.

My parkandplay flying got on peoples memorycards… I had a good time with the Sol Torck

3 pics above by Joe Vieira Da Silva.

And another nice one by Fernando from SOL.

Well since i got back to France i’ve been working alot. But also some good flying. Last sunday i spent at Roquebrune with Anthony Green and Verity Sowden(xcmag).

Verity flying her Gradient Delite, Anthony his Sol Supersonic.

We got some nice acroflying and lots of sunshine! Did some fun syncroacro with Ant. Check my latest video at http://www.vimeo.com/7326660

Yesterday i went to Gourdon for some thermaling. Lisa Jönsson and Tomas Fridsen joined. We took off and i stayed in the air for 45 minutes. Lisa and Tomas did not have the same luck…

I scratched around and about with my Ozone M2. I was lower than Gourdon village but managed to climb out and get back up on Cavalliore, flew around there, together with Patrick from Ascendance, for awhile and then landed on the little landing by the carpark. Had a coffe at Auberge du Gourdon and then back to Cipieres. Very nice day.

Here’s some pics from Brazil. Enjoy!

Mauro, Marcus, Jose and me. Mauro and Jose helped us loads in Brazil! Big thank’s!

Birthday, my 44th, in Brazil. Well it was my first in Brazil… Happy Fred.

the posse who had fun in Brazil. With some help of the englishspeaking kids! Thank’s guys and girls. Paolo and his friends was needed.

The Soltent, perfect for casting shade on overcookedpilots…

Flymasterposse, the boys behind the Flymaster B1 Nav. Mean machine

Araxá, beautiful site. Go there, fly, eat, drink and have fun!

UP Trango X-Light. The best looking glider at the moment in my opinion. Phillipe Rigall flew one in Araxa. I had a short try with it… I like it! Alot. Last picture of the UP Trango X-Light is from Coupe Icare.

I’m still planing to go to La Palma, but havent sorted anything more then registration…

La Palma. Another good flyingsite.

Back from Brazil, now in France.

Yeah back in Greolieres. The trip back from Brazil was not soo fun. Five flights in 25 hours + car traveling…

Took a day to get back in the shoes. Now i’m in Crosscountry mags office trying to get something done with my pics from Araxá. Sofar not much done… abit lazyness still stuck in the body from all nice days in Brazil.

I will just give U a short little taste of Brazil, the best photos i save for Crosscountry magazine.

Photo by Marcus King, he is a jolly good chap.

Keeping me company at the skateboardpool above Ipanema beach. The pool was good fun!

Photo by Fernando from Sol Paragliders.

He got me a Sol Torck to try out during the contest. I could not help myself playing around abit with it even though the window was not open

Another pilot flying Sol was Cecéu Prieto who had the world open distance record before the 500 barrier was broken.

Sebastian Bouchet is a very good French pilot and a allaround nice guy. Flyes a UP Edge proto.

I had my birthday there to, and as of a coincidence the day was cancelled because of crap weather so the organisation arranged a lunch bbq with all the good brazilian food and drinks. I had alot of it all as U can see…

Me and Kingy got the chance to see the mines of Araxá and also their Zoo!!! we even got to pet a tiny anteater. Supercool little animal that sadly had lost it’s mum in a sugercane fire…:-(

On the fourth of november i go home to Åre, Sweden. Honestly i miss Åre alot. But most of all i miss Jonna.

At the moment i’m trying to sort a good way to get to La palma open Desafio, that runs during the 28th of november until 3rd of december. A realy good place to go to during that part of the offseason. Check it out at: http://lapalma.parapente.net/. The comp is FAI2. The organisation are used to run comps on La Palma so tasks are always good fun.

Araxá xc open Brazil.

After a couple of good days in Rio de janeiro with poolskateboarding, swiming at the Ipanema beach, getting drunk at an irish pub and other amusing adventures. Though we missed the flying… Crap weather the second day stopped us.

After an rather epic trip we ended up in Araxá. This is a nice city with lots of great restaurants and shops. We are living in Virgilius palace hotel. With in and outdoor pools… It´s all good.

The first day of the comp was a late start because of long briefing. Safety is high on the agenda. I was also late on takeoff, but got up and had a nice 40 k flight with the headwind being the main problem. It was hard work. I did good and was in the middle of the resultlist. Flying here is beautiful.

Second day i was on. Before the briefing i had a little wagga session. Perfect play conditions and only me and one more pilot in the air. It was a good oportunity to get to know the Sol Torck that Ary and Fernando from Sol lent me for the comp. I´m heavy on the Torck L so it was playful but still good for xc flying, easy to control and understand. I had lots of fun with it doing alot of toplandings, wingovers and swoops. I got alot of compliments for my flying :). I have know understod that i am a ¨park and play pilot¨…

The task was going with the northeastwind and it was to be a good task. After some low save struggling i got to base together with Xavier the Frenchie, and i sort of followed him. Big mistake, he had no clue were he was going… So after a fantastic session of cloudsurfing(great photos later) i looked back to check for Kingy. He had been shouting after us to get on route again. We missed that. Kingy was doing right and me and Xavier were lost…

But we flew to a big quarry with a lake that had a strange green surface, and i got some very nice pics that U might be able to see in the next crosscountry magazine. I got to base there but Xavier bombed… I was alone. Got company with a UP Edge flown by Nesser. He left in the opposite direction. Confusing me even more. But i was not in the mood to go alone out over Brazilian boomercountry. Not even being on the route of the day. It would have been a very long back to civilisation. So i got as much altitude as i could and turned back,

The winner so far when it comes to long retrives is by far Sebastian Bochet. He is now on second place in total but leading retrive hours… I promise U he has storys to tell from this comp.

Day tree. On takeoff the wind was rather strong. The top ten pilots took of and struggled against the wind. The compgliders was ok, the 2-3´s had problems penetrating the air. I was on takeoff with Kingy next to me. He did not like the conditions, to much wind. I thought is was probably not so nice in the air. Waited a little to see what would happen. Then the window was closed. And did not open again. Day was over. Before it was closed Natalia B threw her reserve, big collapse to cravatt. She landed safely. And one pilot got lifted of the takeoff with twisted lines and the thermal lifted him up and then he had a huge collapse. Luckily the glider was safe and sorted it for him… Swing Astral6 was the glider. When i get to a computer with photoshop i will sort the pics and show U.

Kingy, me and Matt Church then had a great lunch in the restaurant on takeoff. Took the buss back to the hotel and chilled in the jacuzzi with a beer. The day was later cancelled because not enough pilots made the minimum distance.

Yesterday. I wanted to fly far. I was ready for battle. XCpilot on… I took off early and had abit of a struggle staying up. But working hard and taking a risk on a low glide got me up there with the second gaggle. I was using every meter of climb i could find, staying high, and optimising my thermaling. I was flying good. Under a big black cloud i thermaled all the way to base and had to pull bigears to stay out of it. Went on another long glide but had a few pilots infront giving me hope. I could see Hans Baunwisen, Natalia B and Kevin Mc land and i managed to stay up and climb together with Matt Church and together we continued. That´s when we were notified that the task had been stopped. I was sadly behind the above mentioned pilots at the time the task was stopped… But, i ended up on 15th place witch put me in 21nd place overall so far. Happy Fred.

Today is my birthday and it´s raining. No flying but the organisation is arranging a bbq this lunch. With caipirinhas and food… Happy Fred.

Blogg lost in cyberspace.

I honestly wrote my best ever blogg tonight.

A long story of all the fun that has happened to me and Kingy on our Brazilian trip sofar.

I managed to lost it somewere during uploading it…

Hope to get myself together for new update. But not now. Sad i lost a good article in cyberspace.

No 0ne reads it there…
Take care and thanks for checking in

Fred Gustafsson

Little Cloud tandem and other fun stuff…

At Coupe icare Little Cloud showed their new little tandem. At 31 m2 it is shure to be amusing and fun for two people. Cant wait to get my hand on one.

I will have one in Åre this winter.

Tom is the Little Cloud designer.

Well the glider i was to bring to Brazil, a Niviuk Artic2 got stuck at GLS depot in Nice. This after calling them to get it myself and being told i could get it between 9 and 11 on sturday morning. This was offcourse wrong…

I hope the glider gets to Brazil some day

Anyway a BIG thanks to Niviuk.

Today i looks like i will bring a P81…

Last week british paraglidingschool Flying Frenzy was in the area…

Paul did his best to amuse the clients and others…

Done a few headers lately. From Coupe Icare.

Enjoy.

Frode thought he looked angry on the last picture i published with him on it… so here’s another one.Looking abit happy. 

Well tomorrow i leave for 20 days in Brazil. I will try to update blogg atleast once. Take care and fly hard

Wow, long time no see! Here’s news from Greolieres again.

It’s been a long time since i updated my blogg. Weeks. Sorry. Will try to update more often… Hiking up Dent de Crolles with Little Cloud.

It’s the first of october today and i leave for Brazil on monday. Very exiting! Though as usuall nothin is ready, Kingy still working on his mags, i still wait for equipment… It will be ok i hope.

Frode Fester and his lovely Brita was in Greo for a week, Filip Haraldsson and his lovely Helena was there too, both couples were staying at Gite du village.

They had lots of good flying. These 2 pics by Filip.

I tested a Paratech P81 for Crosscountry mag, here’s a picture from one of the flights. Marcus King took the photo, www.xcmag.com.

Kingy also did his third tandemflight on the 24th of september. Congrats.

This week Nic from Streamer(norway) is here with a group. They had some good days this week.

I will however only tell U about the last days. The rest is already forgotten

Last weekend i took Charlotte King and the little monsters to a Skateboard exibition in Opio. It was good fun. The boys loved it! i talked to a skater that said the local shop could supply a big skateboard for me! So the day after i went there, together with Anthony Green and his friend Nick.

Got a nice 33×9 inch skateboard with Indy169’s and 60mm Sector9 wheels. Good stuff. Happy  Fred. When leaving the shop Nick tried to pull the skate out of my hand to feel the weight of it? and i would not let it go in disbelief of his intentions :-). He then managed to step on the back of my beloved Coolshoes flipflops(used 3 days!!!) and as i was moving forward the flipflop was torn apart. Not happy Fred…

However this tuesday it was abit stable at Gourdon so i canned flying and went to Vence to get a new pair of Coolshoes flipflops, realy, they are the only good ones.

On my merry way there i stop to get fuel for Charlies car. I fill 20 euros worth of diesel.

Only problem is that it is a gasolincar…:-/ FUCK. Serviceminded people from Peugotgarage in Vence come and tow Charlies car to garage, empty diesel and put gasolin in it. Cost, 107 euros plus diesel plus gasolin. 150 euros.

But i did manage to find a new pair of Coolshoes flipflops so all in all a damn good day!

Yesterday i went to Col de bleyne to fly xc with Ulric Jessop. It was looking fairly good. When arriving there the northwest wind ruled and mission was aborted. Insted the Jessops, Ruth and Ulric invited me to a lovely lunch in their garden. Epic 3 course meal. 3 hour meal… They have a studio for rent, www.pottyplace.com

After that i went towards Lachens but stopped at the bottom, listened to the balise, took a powernap in the car. Woke up and the balise said 18 to 32 km/h west.

Magic afternoon at Lachens, i flew 30 minutes, toplanded by the westtakeoff and drove to greolieres happy again.

Barricade, yesterday evening. Me, Dav, Russ had pizza and chated like schoolgirls about everything from fucked up royal houses of our countries to designing gliders, freeflying or not and lots of other things.

Andres Floren and Cissi, who’s also in the village, joined in for dessert and beer… It was a realy fun evening. Good to catch up with Russ. He’s a jolly good fellow

A BIG thank you to Phillipe at Barricade for letting me use the wifi and being able to update this blogg! He even took this photo of me at the office…

Now i start to feel the travelfever coming creeping… Brazil here i come!

Some pics from the last two weeks… coupe icare, flying here in alpes maritimes and more. If You want the full Coupe icare report, read crosscountry magazine, www.xcmag.com, enjoy.

That’s it folks…