Thad hails from Minnesota, just sold a successful musical production company and is addicted to flying. The holy grail in the US has been the 200 mile mark, a distance very few pilots have pulled off and Thad has chased it hard for years. His chase has taken him through the full arc of what you have to learn to send, an arc that of course never ends. This spring he pulled it off in the flats of the MidWest with a 228 mile (very cold) beauty. A little while after he pulled it off he sent me an email that I've posted here nearly in full because...well because we all need a good laugh now and then and it's what lead to this show. Thad tells the "and there I was..." story better than anyone. Grab a whiskey and tuck in, you're in for a treat.

Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast

Episode 154- Going Big against the Odds with Thad Spencer

Burkhard Martens is one of the most-recognized names in the sport. His seminal work, "Thermal Flying", first published in 2005 is the world’s best-selling guide to the art of thermalling and XC flying. Cross Country’s team has been hard at work thoroughly revising and updating the text, line by line, and the design and photography has been refreshed to bring it bang up to date. I sat down with Burki a few weeks ago to talk about his new edition, what's changed since 2005, and the meat of the book- how to climb!

Episode 153- Burkhard Martens and Thermal Flying

Veteran Gin test pilot, designer, European champion, and multiple-time German team member Torsten Siegel has been racing paragliders for nearly 30 years. He designed for UP Paragliders and then Swing before moving to Gin over a decade ago and has left an indelible mark on the sport since the early 90's. I spoke with Torsten immediately after this years Superfinal in Disentis, Switzerland to get his thoughts on the first superfinal that's been held in the mountains and to get his thoughts on all things racing- the risk, the tactics, the equipment and how to be consistent in the ultimate game- racing fabric and string in the sky.

Episode 152- Torsten Siegel and Playing the Ultimate Game

I met Wally Arcidiacono on the comp circuit quite a few years back and have been trying to connect with him for awhile now for a show. Wally is a keen comp pilot, started a paragliding school in Bright, Australia back in 2010 and has turned a passion for flying into a way of life. What kind of headspace should we bring to competitions? How can we play this beautiful game with more aplomb? How should we approach the long game? What can we learn from the masters? Why does the local hero never take the trophy?

Episode 151- Comps, instructing, learning, and sending with Wally Arcidiacono

Justin Grisham is an emergency medical physician, wilderness medical expert, and search and rescue volunteer who wants to get our flying community better prepared for dealing with emergencies in the field. In this fascinating and note-worthy episode we brush up on some of  Justin's free-flight first aid curriculum: medical decision making, common paragliding injuries (what you can fix, what you can't), the primary assessment, secondary assessment, heat and cold injuries, the use of narcotics and pain medications for victims, drowning and water risk, wound care, tourniquets and securing a scene.

Episode 150- Critical Care for going Deep with Justin Grisham

My training took place during one of his SIV clinics with a bunch of very new students so I got to watch his team and his methods in action and came away super, duper impressed. In this episode Dilan shares why we don't have any kind of standardized training in the US and much of the world and why that needs to change; why so many pilots quit the sport too soon; why so many pilots choose the wrong wing during their progression; the dangers of "risk homeostasis", especially in free flight; why having a school AND selling gear creates so much conflict of interest (and why this isn't allowed in many countries); why the US instructor system is so flawed; and why having a basic understanding of psychology is so critical when you leave the ground.

Episode 149- Dilan Benedeti and learning to deal with gravity

This year's Red Bull X-Alps, if you could put it in a word- scary. We didn't have a single "standard" day of flying with light wind, nice cumulus, and good base, unless you count the Prologue! We had incredible heat the first three days, low base, wind and stable conditions, then the thunderstorms started, strong Fohn from the South and North, window-breaking hail, severe lightning and really, really strong wind for the remainder of the race. Every athlete I spoke with at the awards at the end had a look of just going to battle. For the first time in my four races, the bad weather got everyone, regardless of where you were on the course, and it didn't let up. There were times when all 12 pairs of my shoes were soaked. After a good showing in the Prologue and going into the race pretty beat up from a crash at the end of May, and carrying the remainder of a flu into the race, which later turned into some kind of pneumonia (we're not sure, but it was ugly!) and having a terrifically bad start, Team USA 1 started clawing back.

Episode 148: Red Bull X-Alps 2021, Gavin answers your questions!

I sat down for a special edition of the Cloudbase Mayhem directly after the Red Bull X-Alps Prologue yesterday with my Salewa teammates Paul Guschlbauer, Aaron Durogati, Markus Anders, Chrigel Maurer, Simon Oberrauner, and Tommy Friedrich to find out how they are feeling going into the race, what they are most concerned about with the course, how they take care of their body for 12 days of pounding, how they train, what they changed coming into this race, funny stories from previous editions, critical gear choices and a lot more. We all had a blast with this and we hope you enjoy. The race kicks off Sunday, we hope you'll follow along and cheer us on!

Episode 147- Special Red Bull X-Alps Podcast with the Salewa athletes

In this episode we discuss how Maxime approaches training (physical and mental), his thoughts on just making better decisions instead of doing SIV for pilots who don't have the money or time, how to manage your emotions, how to thermal and glide better, dealing with the "mental pain" that sometimes comes with flying, finding the opportunities from mistakes, the importance of visualization, and we look back at a couple key moves that made all the difference for Chrigel in the 2019 race.

Episode 146- Maxime Pinot and turning up the Volume

Mitchell McAleer properly crashed a hang glider on literally his first flight in the early 70’s. But he shook it off and was in the right place at the right time and had the right mentors and right attitude and eventually became the winningest aerobatics pilot in history. Southern California was one of the true meccas of hang gliding in the 70’s and 80’s. It was the home of UP during their reign with the Comet, remains the home of Wills Wing and was where Mitch took on the sport in his teens and remains today after nearly 60 years of obsessed flying. Mitch was an early adaptor of paragliding (as a reference his go-to glider when we recorded this show is the Ozone R-12), has traveled all over the world competing in aerobatics and doing glider testing for a number of companies, and is just an absolute giant in free flight. Mitch has an encyclopedic memory and this podcast is a fascinating and at times totally unbelievable stroll down memory lane.

Episode 145- Standing on the shoulders of giants with Mitchell McAleer

Jeff Longcor has been flying only a few years and has a full time job, which makes getting hours tough, but he's completely enamored with the sport and has been chasing it hard, sometimes too hard. Jeff has made some inexpensive mistakes, and a few expensive ones. They've all provided volumes of learning, and his desire for the sport is as high as it has ever been. In this show we dig into all the little things that add up to help us all become better pilots, and in the end- better people.

Episode 144- Jeff Longcor and (mostly) Inexpensive Mistakes

Matt Scutter is an Australian competition sailplane pilot and software engineer who leads a team that runs the popular global soaring forecast platform Skysight. Unlike other platforms that use existing weather models to produce interactive forecasts for free flight enthusiasts like Meteoparapente and XCSkies, SkySight uses their own supercomputing systems to gather a wide range of weather data to create their own daily models. Initially designed for sailplane forecasting SkySight is now a go-to platform for paragliding and hang gliding forecasting as well.

Episode 143- Matt Scutter and SkySight Soaring 101

Urs Haari has been at this game since the game began. He got several world records early in his career in South Africa in the early 90's, stood on the podium multiple times at World Championships, PWC's and at the European Championships and brought home champion titles at the Swiss, AND US Nationals. This past season he won the sport class in the Swiss Cup Championship for the remarkable 5th time, and is now the permanent holder of this coveted award. Given he only gets to go XC 4 to 6 times a year because of his work- a hell of an achievement!

Episode 142- Urs Haari and the Sweet Spot

Where do you start with Robbie Whittall? He’s one of only three...

Episode 141- Robbie Whittall- Creating Connections and Changing Perceptions

Michael Witschi has an extremely impressive flying resumé. He's won pretty much everything you can in competition paragliding. He's a 3-time world champion; has won maybe more world cup tasks than anyone; competed in the 2015 Red Bull X-Alps; is a current coach of the X-Alps Academy; and is the mastermind, founder and organizer of the incredible EigerTour, a 4-day hike and fly race in the Bernese Oberalps. Michael is the father of two adorable children and is a very successful businessman and eloquently shares his vast competition experience with us in this engaging, very fun talk. 

Episode 140- Michael Witschi and Experiencing the Amazing through Competition

Free flight podcast hosted by Gavin McClurg

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Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast

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