Voltij at Slieve Mish from Chris van Schoor on Vimeo.
Another winner from Chris van Schoor… gotta love those beautiful Irish slopes!
Chris’s Voltij has a four servo wing. He’s had it for a while and, like me, find he likes it more and more with time. They’re truly great planes and a joy to fly. Keep up the great work, Chris… really like those low passes!!
Ellwood Compilation from surfimp on Vimeo.
This is an extended duration compilation of footage of Swiss Peter and myself flying over the last few sessions we’ve had out at Ellwood.
Peter has mostly been flying his all-white 2.1m 635g Big Fish, and I’ve been flying my white-and-black 1.5m 470g Le Fish with Madslide-style stabilizer. Both planes are built with the ultralightweight construction methodology that Peter pioneered, and they allow us to fly in a truly new and unique way.
Conditions varied between 6-12mph over the course of the various days and sessions presented here. This is the sweet spot for this current crop of ultralightweight gliders.
Apologies for the shaky bits of video in the beginning – those were filmed by my 6yr old son who is showing a lot of interest in gliders, especially now that we can make them do flips 
The rest was filmed via my headcam.
Leviathan from surfimp on Vimeo.
Finally! Flight footage of Swiss Peter’s incredible 2.5m Leviathan. It’s his own design and construction taken to the limit. It’s all made of EPP with Depron for the flight control surfaces, and everything covered in laminating film. What a machine! I got to fly it a bit and it is truly amazing, there is really nothing else like it except for perhaps R/C blimps? 
You can read more about the Leviathan here.
Ellwood Duet from surfimp on Vimeo.
Fun single take, uncut video of Peter and I flying a bowl at Ellwood, filmed with my headcam. The wind was a lot better than in most of our videos, about 10-12mph and coming in nicely to this bowl.
We tried to keep the planes in really close, within 5-10ft of the lip, where the compression was working really nicely. It allowed us to get the planes “on step” and really rockin’.
I was flying my 16.5oz 1.5m Le Fish and Peter was flying his 24oz 2m Big Fish. Filmed with a camera mounted to my hat
Part I – The French Invade The Slopes
In recent months slope aerobatics has witnessed a resurgence of interest not seen since servos went from the size of a small shot glass to something not much larger than your thumbnail.
On days when the wind was questionable, many of us kept one eye on the wind markers outside and the other eye on YouTube videos from France that demonstrated a new and strange approach to slope aerobatics called VTPR. Roughly translated, it means “aerobatics close to the ground.” But it was more than this. VTPR also demonstrated a style that emphasized an almost ballet-like approach to slope soaring that stood in direct contrast to the more hyperactive style commonly associated with the American aerobatic pilot. Where the French were dancing to the waltz, the Americans preferred rock ‘n roll.
Multifun at Caher Conree from Chris van Schoor on Vimeo.
My good friend Chris van Schoor of Ireland has been flying the Telink Multifun for a while now and has begun using a keyfob camera to capture some footage. Here’s his first video effort, where he’s gotten some very nice VTPR flying in with the lovely Irish landscape in the background. It came out great! Music is Ríl a Dó by the band Kila.
Speechless.
That’s a word some might use to describe this beast, the latest creation from the mind of my favorite madman, Swiss Peter. It is 2.5m, 1.5kg and made entirely from EPP. It’s covered in “New Stuff” laminating film and uses a bunch of CF ribbon and tube spars for reinforcement. Full flying rudder and elevator. What an incredible machine…
When I was over at Peter’s place checking it out last night, I told him that never in my wildest dreams did I ever envision something like this.
He said, “Yeah, me either!”
Pretty awesome and exciting stuff!!!
Flight video to follow as soon as possible Flight video here! Peter is not happy with the elevator yet and is going to do some tweaks to get the overall weight down. Will post more details as they come available.
Junior Noblers from John Scahill on Vimeo.
More new VTPR glider experiments in SoCal! This time it’s a version of the Jr. Nobler made from a thin slice of EPP wrapped into an airfoil shape. AUW estimated around 10z… very interesting! Next versions to feature rudder and all moving tail. Big thanks to John “Big Gas” Scahill for the head’s up.
What an amazing summer for VTPR in California!
Cruising at Ellwood Part II from surfimp on Vimeo.
Watch in HD fullscreen for best results!
My 16.5oz (470g) ultralight Le Fish with Madslide-style full flying stabilizer gliding at Ellwood Mesa in very light 6-8mph (9-12km/h) wind. Shot with my hat-mounted camera.
This video was filmed later on the same afternoon as the original Cruising at Ellwood video, but the conditions had backed off some. It was still enough to have a lot of fun with the ultralighweight “MadSwissFish”. The large built-up floater you see from time to time is a kit-built 2m Spirit Elite, and was really the only other kind of plane that would’ve been much fun in such weak conditions.
The song “Star Fire Power” is by Gardens & Villa, an up-and-coming Santa Barbara band that was recently featured on NPR’s Song of the Day.