A Guide to Speedflying Safely

This is a brief and opinionated handbook for speedflying safely, written by Joey Innes.

By writing this book, my goal is to offer good information and sound advice for pilots of all abilities. This is not a replacement for instruction. This resource is intended to augment proper guidance from schools and experienced pilots.

The opinions in this book are my own, and you should question everything. Some will disagree, and that is ok. Let's discuss it as a community on Discord.

I write this to provide a free resource, aimed at increasing the safety of our sport. This is a resource that I did not have when I began flying.

I also share some practices that help to strengthen the relationships that we must foster with lift stations and farmers, in order to preserve access to our precious flying sites.

The source of this book can be found in the site Git repository. I invite you to create an issue or pull request for any changes. Contributors will be credited on this page.

What is Speedflying?

Speedflying is an air sport, closely related to paragliding. A pilot flies a wing that approximately resembles a small paraglider, with some notable differences in design. The most obvious difference is that speedwings are smaller than paragliders, and are designed to fly at low angles of attack. These differences allow speedwings to fly faster than paragliders, at the expense of glide performance. Pilots can choose to descend steeply, or maximise their glide to reach some distant objective. Many pilots choose to follow the natural undulations of the terrain as closely as possible, in a single-player game. In a similar way to skiing, the pursuit of perfect turns carved precisely within the bounds of terrain is a joy that many people seek throughout their speedflying career. The reward is also similar, a feeling of peace and gratitude that we create exactly what we desire. The experience can be thrilling for some, and relaxing for others.

A Brief Partial History of Speedflying

Around the year 2000, a small group of french pilots and skiers, including François Bon and Antoine Montant began experimenting. They fabricated small gliders that were smaller in size than paragliders, and also lower in aspect ratio. The gliders had fewer cells, to account for the difference in size.

In Chamonix, first flights began with skis, as they experimented by combining the speed and agility of skiing with the ability to glide away from unskiable terrain such as cliffs. The birthplace of this discipline, now called speedriding, has no shortage of cliffs. The advantages of using these wings to negotiate steep and rocky terrain were clear. Little did they know at the time, they had pioneered a new sport that would capture our eyes and imagination for the following decades.

Following successful tests with skis, Antoine Montant began pushing the limits by combining the highest level of skiing with masterful control of his speedwing. The results can be seen in the ski movie Claim (2008).

In 2011, French skier, speedrider and speedflying pilot Valentin Delluc became known for pushing the limits of precision flying. With the help of French filmmaker going by the alias Jan Thinoks (that's funny if you understand French), Valentin released videos of his flying that would inspire many pilots as he redefined the perception of possibility within the sport. Often followed by equally able skier and pilot, and Valentin's close friend Ugo Gerola, they combined impressive stunts such as lift cable grinds with the highest level of speedriding. They were known for expertly speedriding the north face of Aguille du Midi that towers magestically over the french town of Chamonix.

Meanwhile in New Zealand, another small group of pilots, namely Dave Edwards, Malachi Templeton and Jamie Lee, used the strong wind and coastal sand dunes to soar. Using mechanical lift in this way was not new, but taking advantage of wind too strong for paragliders was novel, and these guys managed to accumulate many hours of airtime by soaring. This approach gave them masterful piloting abilities before most people had heard or seen of speedflying. While Dave continued to enjoy accumulating countless hours under his wing, Jamie and Malachi formed another duo that would inspire folk with their never-before seen piloting. They released videos of their flying in New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland, that would inspire a wave of youths and seniors alike to flock to this discipline of foot-launching.

One name that I must not omit from this brief history is Arnaud Longobardi. This tall and heavy Frenchman pushed the limits of wingload. He became known for stunts such as tandem speedflying, a mid-flight docking with two wingsuiters, often flying with some kilograms of added weight in a vest. He also managed some other impressive feats, such as landing inside a moving cablecar.

Hailing from Switzerland, Beni Kälin became known for his impressive piloting abilities with small gliders, most notably for his 'groundloop'. With a Gin Fluid 2, he did something that most pilots thought impossible. He managed a barrel roll in a flat landing. This stunt has since been replicated by many other pilots, and now made easier by the improvements in wing desgin and performance.

As these guys were pushing the limits and slowly building a loyal following of budding pilots, there were others that remained less known for their (often equally notable) skills. One such pilot that I will name is David Schropf. I name David because he was my speedflying mentor. David is an acro-paraglider, a tandem pilot, and a flight instructor. He was flying a prototype of a Gin Fluid original with around 25cm trim range. As I watched him fly, I could not understand how he was able to turn in the way that he did. He exhibited a combination of strong and impulsive weight-shift and brake input that allowed him to make sharp and steep turns between and under trees in steep terrain. As hard as I tried to replicate his flying, I never managed.

I feel sad to end this section without an exhaustive list of amazing humans that have enjoyed this sport, and newer pilots that are now pushing their own limits. Regardless, you're all loved.