Meet The 2007 U. S. Paragliding Team!
Tom McCune, U. S. Team Pilot
Born in Atwater, CA 1962, Height andWeight: 6’ 0” 185 lbs
Married for over 21 years with one son and one daughter.
Occupation: Began auto body and refinish at the age of 15 in Roseburg, OR, and continued professional career until 2003. Recently earned my Business AAS Degree following lower back surgery.
Paragliding history: Began flying in 1997—just can’t get enough! I have approximately 800 flights and always want more. Living on Tiger Mt outside of Issaquah, WA; I love the challenge the Cascade Mountains offer. Considering myself a mountain pilot, I feel at home here. I broke our local site distance record on my second cross-country flight and several times since. After flying my first comp nearly 4 years ago, I realized I had been missing the best part of paragliding. Being challenge-oriented, I have always done well in competitions. A nice aspect about paragliding comps is the ability to compete while sitting down—just the thing for someone in their mid 40’s who still loves to compete. Nearly every flight in a comp is an adventure. From camping out to meeting new people to seeing wildlife after landing out, I love this sport!
Top results: 2nd place Rat Race 2004, 1st place Rat Race 2005, 1st place Canadian Nationals 2005 and several finishes in the top 10. I fly a Mac Para Magus 4 and an Ava Sport Samurai pod harness. Never had a paragliding accident, have not thrown my reserve, and hope I won’t need to. I will fly on active days but also will be one of the first to drive off the mountain when conditions appear dangerous. Having excellent natural flying skills and determination has brought me up in the national rankings quickly. Being on the U.S. team is a great honor. The support and camaraderie is priceless.
I am sponsored by: skycosports.com and Mac Para
Josh Cohn, U.S. Team Pilot
Age: 34 Height and Weight: 5' 9" 150
Birthplace: San Francisco, CA;
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Buyer, independent music wholesaler
Education: Masters, geology
Glider type: UP Targa 3
Reserve: High Energy Quantum
Harness type: Woody Valley X-Rated 2
Home flying site: Mt Diablo
First altitude flight: Whaleback, CA, 1989
Ratings: P4
Total number of flights: ~2700
Total reserve deployments in anger: 3 - Criteria for hucking laundry: “If you think you might die, get it out.”
Worst injury resulting from reserve ride: Blisters, from hiking down 4000’.
Philosophy: Attitude is key: It is your reaction to events that determines your happiness more than the events themselves. While it’s good to be motivated, taking oneself too seriously often sabotages success.
Favorite flight: Flying from Billing to Manali after the Pre-PWC India in Nov. 2002 with 9 others. It had only been done a few times before, was off our maps, and there were high passes in the way. The flight was fairly easy, though massively committing. The landing in 20mph valley winds on rice paddy terraces at the end did provide some excitement.
Flying goals: Go bivouac flying in a cool spot, win the US Nationals again.
I am sponsored by: www.paragliding.com, UP, Flytec
Top 5 Results: 1st 2004 Monarcas Open, Valle de Bravo, Mexico
1st 2003 SoCal Open, San Bernardino, CA
Winner(tie), task 5 of 2003 World Championships, Montalegre, Portugal
World Declared Goal Record: 177 miles, from Edinburgh, TX
US National Champion 1999, Aspen, CO
Kari Castle, U. S. Team Pilot
Castle was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, in 1960, and she got her first taste of hang gliding in 1981. She was a natural in the air. For a while, Castle stuck to a 9-to-5 job to cover her expenses, but eventually she moved to Bishop, California, to pursue her “flying addiction” full time.
Just as Castle mastered the Owens Valley, she also mastered her competition in contest after contest. She won the very first U.S. Women’s National Hang Gliding Championship she attended, in 1988, and thirteen more U.S. titles came fast and furious. In 1996, she captured the first of her three Women’s World Hang Gliding Championships. But women weren’t her only rivals. Many high-profile hang gliding events welcome athletes of both genders, as long as they survive the rigors of qualifying. In 1993 Castle made headlines when she became the first woman in history to win a major competition (the Sandia Classic) over a mixed-gender line-up, and when she entered the Canadian Nationals in 1995 – the sole woman in a field of elite men – she won the gold there, too.
Meanwhile, Castle had also taken up paragliding in 1988. “I was ready to try something new, and hey – it flew, didn’t it?” Castle laughs. She was crowned U.S. Women’s National Paragliding Champion in 1995, 2001, 2002, and 2003.
Castle thrives on a non-stop lifestyle. Besides participating in top paragliding and hang gliding competitions throughout the year, including Hang Gliding Worlds and Paragliding Europeans, she’s a paragliding and hang gliding instructor, and she leads tours both in the United States and in far-reaching locales like South Africa. Her skills in the air, which also include paramotoring and piloting ultra-light aircraft, make her a popular choice for film, print, and stunt work, and she has appeared in movies such as Flying with Condors, as well as in a number of videos and advertisements. (It doesn’t hurt that she climbs, bikes, skis, kites, and surfs, either.)
http://karicastle.com/
Bill Belcourt, U. S. Team Pilot
Age: 43 Height and Weight: 5’9” 155
Occupation: R&D, Black Diamond Equipment
Glider type: Advance Omega 7 26
Reserve: Metamorfosi 18
Harness type: Kortel Kannibal
Flying goals: To keep learning and having fun with my friends ·
Flying since 1990 · Numerous top finishes in competitions since 1996 ·
Qualified for 5 US Paragliding World Teams since 1997 ·
Set multiple distance records in the state of Utah, including the Utah state paragliding record of 154 miles.
Top Results since 2005: 1st 2006 Wood Rat Open, 2005 US National Champion
I am sponsored by: Superfly and Landcor Properties
Copyright
. Tony Lang. All rights reserved.
