http://canadianparaglidingteam.blogspot.com/

Bad news from yesterday. A Chinese pilot who had been missing was
finally found by search and rescue, dead. Apparently something happened to him
yesterday, probably due to the cu-nimbs on course. There is going to be a
protest to get the day cancelled due to the unsafe flying conditions. We’ll find
out what happens tomorrow sometime.


But good news from Ewa Wisnierska. She’s OK and is resting. She did indeed get
higher than Everest while inside the cu-nimb (9947 m, according to the
tracklog), and lived to tell the tale. But she's dealing with the aftermath,
mostly being frozen. +20 m/s up, and -30 m/s down.

We'd love to see the tracklog. MSM story
here. Earlier story about a paraglider in cu-nimb
here.

A CHINESE paraglider found dead in northern NSW may have crashed
and died after being sucked into a storm cell, fellow paragliders believe.


The 40-year-old man went missing during a training flight yesterday.


His body was found by the Westpac Rescue helicopter 25km southeast of Bingara at
about 2pm (AEDT) today.


The man, a member of the Chinese national paragliding team, was last seen about
3pm (AEDT) yesterday while taking part in a training flight prior to the
Paragliding World Championships, which start next week in nearby Manilla.


The dead paraglider had 10 years experience, colleagues said.


Godfrey Wenness, from the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia, said he was one
of 200 people taking part in a routine training flight yesterday afternoon.


Thunderstorms had moved in and the man could have been sucked into a strong
storm cell that other pilots had avoided.


"We're not too sure about the exact circumstances yet but we know it has
something to do with the storm cloud," Mr Wenness said.


"Everyone else gave it a wide berth... Maybe he was trying to thread the needle
between two cells, but we don't know."

More
news. See the description of our flying with cu-nimbs at Manilla
here.