PMA data base for paraglider flight test videos onlineThe PMA has created a data base to be used by the experts, PMA members and test centers. This data base will contain all flight test videos of all paragliders which have been tested from 2010 on. If you belong to the group of experts and want to access this data base please contact the administrator.
03.07.2010
New Forum for PMA membersWe have created a new forum for the PMA members for internal PMA discussions. If you want to use this forum you have to register. An automated e-mail will be sent to the administrator.
14.05.2010
May 15-16 Super Paragliding Testival in Kössen
26 paraglider- and harness brands from 11 different countries will present their products for free of charge test flights during the 2. Super Paragliding Testival in Kössen. Also the International press will be present. The brands Advance, Aircross, Airwave, Dudek, Firebird, Gin Gliders, Gradient, Icaro, Independence, Kortel, Mac Para, Niviuk, Nova, Ozone, Paratech, Pro Design, Sky Paragliders, Skyline, Skywalk, Sol, Sup’Air, Swing, UP, U-Turn, Wings of Change and Woody Valley are waiting for the pilots in Kössen read more…
01.05.2010
Deregulation of paragliding in Austria will be in force from May 2010 onThe Austrian ministry of transport made a statement, that finally the long awaited new ZLLV 2010 (decree for civil aircraft and airsport devices) is expected to be in force by May 2010. All non-motorized paragliders, hang gliders and parachutes will not have to be registered anymore in Austria by any authority.
Martin Jursa, the former director of the -in these days- joint German/Austrian technical department of DHV/ÖAeC was in charge on behalf of the PMA for achieving the deregulation of the mandatory licensing and registration of paragliders in Austria. Martin Jursa can also be called the father of our internationally used and accepted EN-926 testing standard for paragliders.
Following the new ZLLV 2010 paragliders are allowed to be flown in Austria provided, that they are airworthy and comply with the state-of-the-art and the manufacturer has given this statement on the type label of the paraglider. The owner of the paraglider is responsible to maintain the airworthiness by following the maintenance instructions of the manufacturer in the manual.
All complicated administrative acts to register the paraglider with ÖAeC (Austrian Aeroclub), get labels and airworthiness certificates issued by ÖAeC etc. will be dropped.
What is the legal situation now for motorized paragliders in Austria?
The new ZLLV 2010 does not provide a complete deregulation for motorized paragliders, but registration will be easier and more flexible compared to the current situation. Additionally to the requirements for non-motorized paragliders a test by a first flight of the paramotor glider by ÖAeC is required as well as maintenance checks executed by companies which have been approved by ÖAeC. There is no need for a registration anymore and therefore also companies outside Austria will be able to sell their motorized paragliders in Austria.
Austria has been completely deregulated now for non-motorized paragliding. The manufacturers take over the full liability for the products they sell.
Germany is, after the deregulation in Austria, the only country remaining worldwide, where paragliding is still regulated by a national law. It is expected that the authorities in Germany will realize as well, that there is no need for this last national autocracy in paragliding and Germany shall follow the European way as well.
05.02.2010
New airworthiness standards for paraglidersThe new LTF 2009 was released and published on Dec.17 2009 but it is not yet legally binding for the test centres until the current laws in Germany have been modified. This may take a few months. In the meantime the test centres can test according to the old LTF 2003 or the new LTF 2009. The PMA and the LBA (Civil Aviation Authority in Germany) acknowledged test centres DHV and EAPR have agreed to test only according to the new LTF 2009 airworthiness standards for paragliders, which are almost identical to the existing EN standard. The agreement was not to wait for the changes of the law in Germany, but to implement the new higher standard immediately. Pilots looking for information to which standard a certain paraglider has been tested can find this with every paraglider test published in the databases of the test centres. An obvious sign also is that the new LTF 2009 uses the same paraglider classifications as the EN 926-2: A, B, C, D instead of the classification of the old LTF 2003 1, 1-2, 2, 2-3 and 3.
Download the new LTF 2009 in English here… PMA also plans to get a French version of the new LTF 2009 done.
03.01.2010
United certification standard for paragliders for the whole WorldThe PMA has reached their most important goal: A united certification standard for paragliders for the whole World. The new LTF 91/09 with EN-926 inside has been published on December 17 2009. It replaces the old LTF 35/03. All pilots have waited for this since a long time and finally it’s reality.
To enable identical testing for all testing laboratories, some annotations have been added to EN-926 for detailed clarification. These annotations have been elaborated by the EN-working groups consisting of experts from the 4 testing laboratories as well as from the PMA.
A full English translation as well as a French translation of the LTF 91/09 will follow soon. Most of the wording in LTF is the actual EN-926 which exists in the different languages. Here you can read the German wording of LTF 91/09.
21.12.2009
The discussion about the FAI definition of paragliderOn one side there is yellow, on the other side is red, in between we have orange. The question which we had to answer was: How much orange is still yellow and when does it start to become red? There are two possible extremes of a wing with a pilot who is suspended below this wing by lines: A very simple paraglider just consisting in cloth and lines without any Mylar or other reinforcements and an Atos-type wing under which the pilot is suspended in a paragliding harness by 2 lines, holding 2 or 3 other lines in his hands to control the wing. Somewhere in between these two extremes we had to draw a line, which defines where a flexible paraglider ends and where another type of aircraft starts. read more...
28.10.2009
Free FLight Tegelberg 2009
The Free-Flight Tegelberg 2009 in tents below King Ludwigs fairytale castle Neuschwanstein. Organizer Benno
Osowski stepped on the speedbar and pushed foreward. It did pay off. The Free Flight was really worth a visit. A total number of
13.000 to 14.000 spectators were present. 5.000 of them visited the exhibition tents.
Friday had a slow start, but on Saturday and Sunday the Allgäu presented itself in perfect sunshine. The visitors had to make the difficult decision whether to talk to the experts at the exhibition stands or to make a test flight on the new paraglider, which is on the list for personal presents for 2010. Read more about the
Free-Flight Tegelberg here…
28.05.2009
The Super Paragliding Testival in Kössen
What a Testival, Paragliding Festival and Party Lets do it again and keep it nice and simple was the summary of pilots
and manufacturers after the first Super Paragliding Testival in Kössen.
What
a phantastic event, 4 days with 1000 pilots and 5400 flights. A really
great replacement for Winter Paragliding Testivals in Stubai or
Bregenzer Wald.
The stands of the manufacturers
The perfect flying weather on Thursday and Saturday and the always
friendly Team at Sepp Himbergers Fliegerbar created heaps of happy
smiles.
Reini and Sepp
22 Paraglider and harness manufacturers from 10 different countries
from all over the World were present. Up to 200 pilots at the same time
filled the skies above Kössen with colorful spots.
Next year the
Super Paragliding Testival in Kössen will be even better. The dates
will be around ascension day May 13 again. From May 13-16, Thursday to
Sunday.
A total of more than 1200 paragliders or harnesses have been
given out for testing. And the most important thing was zero accidents
and only happy faces!
The Fliegerbar gets busy
Next year we hope to have Christoph Burgers "A Buena Vista" back to
listen to the relaxed Cuban Sounds on Saturday until 23:00. During the
day the music will be more balanced in volume for a perfect chill out.
And who knows perhaps the Renegades liked it as much as well, that we can watch a revival of their excellent show.
The landing Field
The girls at the Fliegerbar will enchant you even more with their smiles when they serve your perfect steak.
All paraglider brands will have the best product range ever and even Petrus has already promised us the perfect weather.
So don't be late to book your holiday appartment in Kössen for the SUPER PARAGLIDING TESTIVAL from May 13-16 2010.
See you again at Sepp's Fliegerbar in Kössen
The Renegades
Thanks to Jo Bathmann for the pictures
19.04.2009
LBA Approval for Para-Test
After the test centers of www.dhv.de and www.para-academy.eu a third test center, Air Turquoise SA www.para-test.com by Alain Zoller in Switzerland has been approved by the LBA.
Alain Zoller writes:
Friday April 17 2009 a letter from the LBA (Luftfahrt Bundesamt; German Civil Aviation Authority) arrived our office that is stating approval for Air Turquoise SA as a test-center of type-inspection of aerial sports equipments according to 3rd DV LuftGerPV.
The approval enables the performance of type-inspections of single- and double-seated paragliders, paraglider harnesses and protectors and rescues according to § 10 Abs.1 of LuftGerPv. This means that Air Turquoise SA can test and certify paraglider equipments according to EN standard and for Germany according to LTF (3rd DV LuftGerPV - also called DHV in the past) as well for worldwide use.
Flight test Paraglider Next week and the weeks after we will begin to test paragliders we have in progress to also be valid for Germany (LTF). To respect the LTF standard we have to perform extra tests. At this moment we will not charge the manufacturers for these extra tests and administration.
Load test Paraglider We have offered the manufacturers load test according to EN and LTF already since one year and it is working very well.
Rescues For the rescues we have in progress for EN we will also do extra tests for validating LTF as well. We are very flexible since we are using a helicopter. We have to charge the manufacturers for the LTF tests of rescues.
Harness + Protectors This is new for us since we have not tested harnesses before even not according to EN standard. We have tested some prototypes to be sure how to handle the instrument and software and we know the procedures well.
Web page Since EN and LTF are two totally different standards and tests we have chosen to separate the web page completely. You will find all reports and news concerning LTF on www.para-test.de. EN reports and news will still be on the main web page www.para-test.com
In General We will inform manufacturers later about the prices and how to proceed with new equipment for tests for both tests (EN and LTF). Contact us if you are in a hurry and we will describe what and how to do...
28.11.2008
Further explanations regarding the application of the EN-Standards
The EN 926-1 and 926-2 standards will remain unchanged. There were only some comments added to clear up some issues and some points adapted to the practical requests. As well there were some translation errors into German corrected. These comments are agreed by all the test centres (Air Turquoise, Aerotest, Academy and DHV).
It's a working instruction how to deal with the existing En 926-2, not a change of the standard. A change would have taken too long, as well all agreed, that it's too early to rebuild the EN-standard, as we have not enough practical experience with it yet. Our working groups keep on working and a reconstruction of the EN-Standards is projected for the next 2 years (so valid maybe by the end of 2011) read more...
22.11.2008
November 18, 2008 4th Round Table Meeting in GermanyNovember 18, 2008
4th Round Table Meeting in Germany
On Tuesday 18th of November the 4th Meeting of „The Round Table“ took place at lake Starnberger See in Germany. The participants agreed about the future standards for paraglider test flights and paraglider load tests.
The „Round Table“ is an institution put in charge by the German Civil Aviation Authority, Luftfahrt Bundesamt, to negotiate about the airworthiness standards which should be applied in Germany (LTF). The Round Table members unanimously decided to ask the Luftfahrtbundesamt to change the LTF as follows: The European standards for paraglider flight tests EN-926/2 and paraglider load tests EN-926/1 will be the basis for testing also for the German LTF (airworthiness standards). read more...
05.11.2008
EN-926 paraglider test flights working group meeting
There was a meeting of the EN-926 working groups for paraglider flight tests and paraglider load tests in Villeneuve Switzerland, at October 28 2008. The participants were members of the testing laboratories Aerotest (F), Air Turquoise (CH), DHV (D), EAPR (D), of the Paraglider Manufacturers Association PMA and as well the chairman of the EN working group WG 6.
The atmosphere during this meeting was very constructive. Several agreements have been met, which not only consisted in further technical developments, but most of all will lead to greater transparency of the tests.
Through these measures the demand to define a one and only testing standard for paragliders was met. The goal is the implementation of the EN Standards 926/1 and 926/2 into the LTF (German airworthiness standards).
Bregenzerwald Cup 2009The PMA members and the flying school Bregenzerwald have discussed again intensively the possibility of organizing a Bregenzer Wald Cup 2009. Both parties agreed to stay with their decision to cancel this event for the upcoming winter.
The amount of energy spent by all exhibitors and by the flying school Bregenzer Wald as the organizer of the event as well, has not been justified by the results. Next to a later date during the warmer part of the season, the PMA also wants to increase the services offered to all pilots and visitors in future events. Therefore the PMA has created a new concept, which will help to make future events even more attractive.
The flying school Bregenzerwald will organize a big testival with all paraglider brands, which are distributed by them, from May 1-3 2009 in Andelsbuch.
The presentation of the product range 2009 of the whole paragliding industry already has a big podium during the events in St. Hilaire end of September 2008 and in the German speaking area during the Thermik trade show in Sindelfingen on December 13 2008.
Next year the presentation of the 2010 product range of the paragliding industry will take place during the Free Flight Tegelberg 2009 from October 2-4. During this event there will also be the possibility to test all paragliders.
Further dates of big testivals during the 2009 season will be announced on the PMA website www.p-m-a.info
26.10.2008
Situation in AustriaRead more about the current situation in Austria -as per 2008 October 27 - for flying paragliders and hang gliders.
24.10.2008
Free Flight Tegelberg 2009 October 2 - 4The PMA has choosen
Tegelberg to host the Free Flight 2009, the big paragliding
flying-event and trade show in the German speaking area. Tegelberg
offers the best possibilities to concentrate everything in one
location: Trade show, manufacturers demo flights and test flights by
pilots. Out
of the 6 different applications for Free Flight 2009 Tegelberg provides
the best possibilities, everything can by reached walking. Moreover there will be a Bus-Shuttle service to the nerarby flying site Buching for more paraglider test flights. The trade show will be located in mobile exhibition halls right next to the Tegelberg cable car station and the landing field. There are also places to park your camper van right next to the exhibition area. So let's meet at the Free Flight Tegelberg 2009 October 2-4. Apart
from this trade show and flying event at Tegelberg there will be
several big testivals in 2009 at different locations supported by PMA.
30.07.2008
Protector test rig of EAPR approved by PMA experts
The PMA has appointed the independent engineering bureau Dr. Sibaei+Hastrich to produce an expertise and to scrutinize and compare the protector test rigs of the DHV and the EAPR. The analysis of the protector test rig of the EAPR has been completed, the conclusion of this expertise states:
Conclusion: On the basis of the comparative measurements made and after scrutinizing the protector test rig itself, the final conclusion has to be made, that the protector test rig of the EAPR is capable to fulfill the task of measuring according to NFL II 35/03 (German airworthiness requirements) with sufficient accuracy.
The DHV so far has refused to let the independent experts, who were appointed by the PMA, check their protector test rig. This has the consequence, that at the moment there is only one protector test rig, that has been approved and found to produce correct results. The PMA asks all manufacturers to do protector tests only on approved test rigs, otherwise the risk might be there, that the results could be questioned and might be declared unvalid.
15.05.2008
Further evolution of the EN standard 926-2 flight test for paraglidersThe NEW WAVE specialists group is a subgroup of the Working Group 6, in charge of the evolution of the EN 926-2.The members of the group are:
The 4 test centres (in alphabetic order): Aerotest (Marion Varnier, Vincent Teulier) Air Turquoise (Alain Zoller) Academy (Toni Bender) DHV (Hannes Weiniger, Reiner Brunn)
The manufacturers (PMA): Thomas Ripplinger (Advance) David Dagault (Ozone) Hannes Papesh (Nova): coordinator
Furthermore other experts will be contacted for their feedback (Bruce Goldsmith, Michael Nesler, Ondrej Dupal,..). As a first step to proceed with this issue, Alain Zoller is asked for a Statistic about which maneuvers were the most critical ones in the EN 926-2 in the past. Alain is preparing such a list for the WG-6 NEW WAVE. All other group members are asked for their experiences as well.
02.04.2008
PMA Meeting GarmischAgents of 10 paragliding manufacturers joined the PMA meeting in Garmisch during the Free Flight exhibition.
Ilona Albrecht (Turnpoint / Gradient) presented a new trade show concept.
Toni Bender informed about the EN / LTF in Germany and the discussions with the DHV. The PMA recommends an international working group to work out a revision of the EN during the next 1.5-2 years. Further results of the process to change the LTF (implementation of EN) will be published after the next round table meeting in Germany.
The voting of the boards of directors: 1. Chairman: Hannes Papesh (Nova) 2. Chairman: Thomas Maurer (Paratech) Cash Manager: Günther Wörl (Swing) Cash Auditors: Manfred Kistler (Skywalk), Stefan Kurrle (Flymarket)
Further topics: The one-sided info politics of the DHV at Stubai Cup, "Breitenerprobung" (field testing) in Germany and problems with the DHV certification of harness protectors. The next PMA meeting will take place on the 18th September in Saint Hilaire.
01.02.2008
"LTF" instead "DHV".In the meeting in Stubai all participants agree on the following: All manufacturers who took part in the meeting will give up the name for certification classes ‘DHV1’ or ‘DHV1-2’ but name it ‘LTF1‘ or ‘LTF1-2‘ etc. in the future. This is a political instrument to ensure the acceptance of other test laboratories beside the DHV. Changes in websites, catalogue etc. will be executed step by step now.
22.01.2008
EN self certificationAn international PMA meeting took place during the Stubai Cup 2008. More than 25 Manufacturers were present. Apart from the rather dry topics of PMA Bylaws, it was agreed among the PMA Member circle to fully support the existing institutes for paraglider certification. The unanimous decision proclaims that all PMA Members will abstain from self-certification!
17.01.2008
Stubai CupThese days the scene is meeting in the Austrian Stubai valley. A big PMA meeting is scheduled on Friday. On Saturday the EN community (incl. DHV) is meeting to discuss practical feedback and future changes of the EN test standard.
20.12.2007
2nd round table in Bad Tölz (Germany)The round table have had a meeting on 19th of december in Bad Tölz. The meeting proceeded in a constructive atmosphere. Regarding the flight tests a joint statement was made.
The Round Table agrees about the EN926-2 to be the basis of the flight tests
of a future LTF (German airworthy requirement). There is agreement, that the
maneuvers deep collapses and spiral have to be improved. These improvements
should be projected in the EN. Should the adaption of the EN need to long, the
possibility to to realize these adaption inside an LTF is projected. The
technical agreement of these new maneuvers should be done until the 1.4.2008.
The realization until 1.9.2008.
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