Walensee is one of the larger lakes in Switzerland, about 2/3 of its surface in the Canton of St. Gallen and 1/3 in the Canton of Glarus. It is also known as Lake Walen or Lake Walenstadt, named after the town of Walenstadt. Three rivers that flow into the lake are rivers Seez, Murgbach, and Linth. Its beautiful scenery makes it an attractive spot for paragliders.
Let´s get back to our Hungarian paragliders. They flew a specially built 333 sq ft (31 m2) version of the U-Turn acro wing, the Thriller. Billed as “probably the strongest paraglider ever built”, the wing has a reinforced inner structure and extra thick lines. The combined strength of the upper line cascades was calculated to be able to withstand a max. load of 9 tons (8.2 tons EU) and the main lines 5,7 tons (5.2 tons EU).
The need for U-Turn to build such a super-strengthened wing became apparent after the Hungarian duo’s earlier attempts to Infinite Tumble a tandem. Their first attempt ended in disaster when an already highly-reinforced wing disintegrated after the third revolution breaking all the A,B,C and lines. Pál Takáts piloted the U-Turn Thriller, but due to the extreme forces in play and high brake pressures needed to force the glider into and out of the Infinite Tumble it had to be controlled by both Pál and Gábor using a double brake system.
The team managed approx. 45 Infinite Tumbles in a row.
Source: eagleparagliding.com
