Hi there, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Cloudbase Mayhem. I just got off the phone with Suhail Barikani, a pilot in Iran who just broke the Asian record on August 2nd. He went 440K. I had some other friends with him that also had a really big day, just short of that. So I thought I'd reach out to him and talk about flying in Iran. This show will really make you want to get on a jet plane if you don't live in Iran and get over there and fly. Although, obviously, not right now with the COVID situation going on. But in normal times, it's just been a place that has fascinated me for years. Nick Greece, I believe, was the last U.S. pilot to go there. He wrote a couple of fantastic articles about his experience there.
And high base, flying really fast, big mountains, tons of flatlands, gorgeous scenery, incredible cultural place. And just fascinating. So just had a great talk with Suhail that I think you're really going to enjoy. We talk about all that and some of his history and his PWC chasing and all that stuff. And we talk about the community there, which is 6,000-something strong. I had no idea they've got more pilots there than we do in the States, I believe. So a very fun talk. I don't have too much housekeeping here, but wanted to remind everybody that I know there are some comps happening. In the world, but in the Swiss, PWC is about to get going here.
But, you know, we can't travel to Switzerland right now. So there are some comps happening in the world. But certainly everything here in North America has been shut down, at least temporarily. But my friend Stacy Whitmore down at CUASA, that's C-U-A-S-A, Central Utah Air Sports. They're holding the Red Rocks flying, which I went down to last year. That starts September 28th through October 3rd. And they're going to have a little hike and fly race the weekend before that. So to find out more, go to www.cuasa.com, cuasa.com, and you'll find out more about it. They've also got a Facebook group. But this is a phenomenal place. It's all the fall colors are going off. It's a great group.
It's incredibly cheap. It's like $80 for the week. It's a fly-in. It's not a comp. But the flying there is magnificent. You know, last year, a few people crashed. Worked off more than 200K still that late in the season. And the glass-offs there are legendary. And I just highly recommend it. The majority of pilots are kind of E &B, E &C pilots. But they set up these great conversations at night with people in the sport who are fascinating, give really good presentations and talks. And it's just a really supportive environment for cross country and learning and flying. And it's just a really supportive environment for flying paragliders and hang gliders. So if you can, if you're in the States or Canada or Mexico and you're dying to go to something and they are pulling it off, they're going to be following all kinds of guidelines to keep us COVID safe.
And I highly recommend it if you can. So in the meantime, enjoy this talk with Soheil Barikani, who just broke the Asian record, 440K, flying across Iran. Cheers.
Soheil, it's so great to have you on the show. I was, you know, I'm a fan of you. I'm an ex-contest junkie. And on the 2nd of August, I saw your flight pop up and a bunch of other big flights actually in Iran. And this is usually the time of year where I start seeing big flights out of your zone. And the new Asian record, congratulations, 440K. That's a monster flight. And so I can't wait to hear about it and hear about your history of flying in Iran. And I know you were very instrumental and helpful. So I'm
very happy to be here today. And I'm looking forward to getting
my friend Nick Greece over there. And like you said, before we started recording, he's probably the last American that flew in Iran. I can't remember what year that was, 2014, 2016, maybe 2016. Is that about right? But anyway, it's, it's great to have you on the show and it's great to talk about flying in Iran. I know it's a, it's a beautiful country and I've been wanting to get over there for forever to fly because the length of flights and the height you guys get is pretty impressive.
Yeah, hello Gavin, thank you, thank you so much. Yeah, we had a really great flight last week. Yeah, we try, we broke the Asian records. The last record was the 418K from my friend. And yes, we flew more, around 440K from the west of Iran to the close to the Tehran. Yeah, if you have any question, I'm here.
Yeah, I mean, so, let's talk about your flight first. You're flying the Boom 11. You were in the air almost nine hours. Your average speed was almost 50K an hour. So, that's pretty close to flatland speed. Was it pretty manageable or was it a little dicey in sections? Because you're flying, you're flying over some big terrain.
Yeah, actually, yes, I fly with the Boom 11.
And yes, actually, the Iran is not like Europe that there is a mountain, but usually you fly in a flatland. We have some mountain on the way, but because always we fly in a high altitude, usually around more than 4,000 to the 6,000. And actually, the mountain is not really important. Yeah, we can see some mountain on the way, but after we try to start the fly on the mountain, then we jump to the flatland and we use the high cloud base. The cloud base here in this time is around 6,000 to 7,000. And we try to stay high between the 4,000 to the 6,000. And we keep going until the afternoon.
And then when we will try to back to the mountain, we try to go down the mountain and continue, but yes, we must of the time we fly in a flat lands.
And this flight was west to east. Are most of the flights typically like that? I've seen some other track logs that kind of follow the range more. Is this an unusual day or is this really kind of the standard when things are lining up and good? And you have, it looked like from your pictures that you had pretty good cloud support that day. Was it? Is this kind of the standard thing? of the typical just not typical obviously this is a really good day but is this is this a route you guys fly a lot yeah
We know we, it's not, uh, actually we, we the day that we broke the record is not a great day. It's, it's, uh, it's not a usual day also. You know, we, the usual day we have, we could fly more than 5,000, but on that day I just one time climbed to the 5,000 and, yeah, the condition was not really easy to fly. Is, is really, uh, with the turbulence and yet two or three time I decided to go to land, uh, just, just the point that we had at that time. We hadn't any big clouds, we hadn't any, uh, our development afternoon, so we can continue until the 8 p.m.
Usually I had a three, three hundred with them better. Average speed, my average speed on that flight was 49 km per hour, but I had close to the 500, 500, uh, I had a average around 55 km per hour. Uh, so I had, I hadn't, um, you know, the best day on that, on that day. So, but, but fortunately we had a good wind and, um, we, we, I and my friend can continue until the 8, so we flew nine hours and, uh, yeah, we flew more than 400k and
When you, when you, I noticed your flight, you landed quite near Tehran. Uh, Tehran, is that it? That you fly those mountains quite a bit too? Are you, are you, are you in Tehran normally? Is that where you live? Yeah,
I live in Tehran. We try to fly to the our flying city flying site, but um, I flew, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because my my team waiting for us there, but um, I flew 30k short, so yeah, I couldn't land in the or flying site, but yes, I try to fly close and close to my home are
You, uh, you know, on a—if you say this wasn't a really great day, if you had a really great day and took off from this site that you used, I would have been really happy to have you there. Is it—is it possible to get over the mountains of Tehran and fly into, like, Turkmenistan, or is our borders an issue? Can you—can you do that? Or is that—no way, you'd have to land in Iran.
No need, no need. We can fly a thousand kilometers inside the Iran. Iran is huge, so no need. Yeah, we can. If someday we can fly more than 500, we can pass the Tehran and we have a mountain, uh, big mountain, and we can fly more than 500 kilometers, and we can fly more than 500 kilometers, Kutaij mountain, 4,000 meters mountain, keep to Tehran and we can continue it. That was my goal, that finished the day on the mountain and, um, because in 4,000 mountain is still you can continue one hours more than that was, but unfortunately on that day I, I had a catabolic win and I, I couldn't join to the mountains, so I, I continue on a flat land. But in my opinion, yes, we can fly maybe more than 500K in Iran.
There airspace issues, or I remember Nick talking about, you know, there are just places in Iran that you just can't land. That's just, you know, it wouldn't be good for you. Um, you know, are there, are there a lot of that kind of thing? I mean, talk about kind of the logistics of flying in Iran, yeah.
This is a main problem for foreigner and also for us. There is a lot of aerospace, aerospace on the way, and we have a lot of military zone, so it's really important that you know where you go and where you want to land in this flight. I have all airspace in my instrument and I, I, I try to our way to all the air spaces and, and I found a regular way and, you know, the safe way to fly to close to Tehran. It's not easy, but I, I did and
It looked like, um, your friends, uh, Hadi and you know, you, they, they also had huge days. Were you guys team flying for most of it, and then just at the end you guys separated, or were you separate the whole time? Yeah,
We, you know, we had a plan to fly together, especially in beginning of the day, but I don't know why always after one or one hours we get to separate. Um, you know, with the one term out, the second you can, you can lost the other one. So yeah, usually after one hours we lost together, but I, I flew faster than others. And also in middle of the way, in 20 250k, I, you know, I had a live track, uh, in the exit track, and my team, my brothers, always send me, you know, I had a live track and my team, my brothers, always send me the message, and they explained me about the weather in front. And then they, they informed me that the wind changed a little.
We, we accept the west wind, but the wind changed to the southwest, so I decided to fly more to the northwest and it, it helped me to have a better speed. Then I, I tried to turn to the Tehran from the north. So, yeah, we had a plan to fly together, but it's actually, it's not possible to fly to Tehran, but it's not possible to fly to Tehran. I, I talk with the Rafael Saladini a lot, a lot, and I try to do same method in Iran, but here is, is a different place, you know? The, the big thermal, high cloud base, it's, it's different, but what he tried to find the best way, you know? The teamwork helped a lot at the, at the beginning, you know?
We usually, we try to start at the 11 o'clock in the morning, uh, sometimes 10 30 I'm looking for a place that I can fly under 10 o'clock in the morning, uh, but at the beginning is not easy because the flatline is not working well and you have to stay in a mountain. Uh, yeah, at the beginning the team working helped a lot to to increase the average speed especially and, uh, try help to to, you know, you always we have a low saving, uh, and teamwork will help a lot to find the best core of the thermal at the beginning of the day, um...
Yeah, I was just down. I get my first real good taste of proper team flying this year. I went down to Texas, uh, to chase the world record with, and Donna Zete joined us. So Rafael and a lot of the guys that have been chasing it down in in Brazil all these years were supposed to come up, and then, you know, Kovid happened, and so, but Don, is that day lives here in the states, so he was still able to come, and I, wow, I learned a lot from him because he of that team for, you know, a decade now. And it's, it's, it requires a lot of discipline, but like you said, it's one thing to do it in the flats and it's another thing to do it in big booming. I, I gather that your conditions, you said before we started recording that you spent years, uh, traveling the world and going to a lot of comps and that kind of thing.
I don't know if you ever got over to the States, but the, it sounds like our flying in the Rocky mountains is, is quite similar in some respects to yours, you know, really high base. You know, I see your climbs are wicked strong. Um, I imagine it's pretty rowdy or is it, is the air, I mean, it's, it's quite dry air. I imagine it's pretty, pretty full on.
Yeah. You know, the, this year we had a special year, you know, this year the weather changed, uh, and it's not the same as the past. This year we had a lot of cumulus in a high altitude. You know, the, I living in Tehran in a, and always I check the weather and the matter. And when I found the good weather, I jumped to the airplane, and usually I'm going to the west of Iran, to the Kerman Shah in one of the big city in the west that is close to the place that always we try to fly from there in the way on the, on the way onto the Kerman Shah. Always I can see the, the route that I have to fly the day after so I can see the cumulus the cumulus this year the cumulus was always always more than six hundred six thousand five hundred meters some days, 7,000.
So, yeah, yes, usually, usually in a, in the past, you know, we hadn't this type cumulus. We had a huge cumulus, big one and a lot of cumulus. But in the past, you know, we had a cumulus but not like this year, you know, the, one big cumulus and nothing. The 20k, maybe maybe 30k, and another common loose, but this year I don't know, I don't know why, because maybe for a humidity we had a lot of commoners under all the sky. So this common loose, you know, stopped me always on the on the 6 p.m. at the when I passed the
300 kilometers. The the shadow coming and always I I bomb out after 300. If you if you look at my track, you can see I have a three 300 kilometers the better average speed. One day I passed the I passed the 300 before the 5 p.m. and it it me, it showed that if I can fly until the 8 p.m. I can break the 500k. But but always the, you know, good day coming with over developing afternoon. So yeah, so we have to, yeah, so we have to find the not really good day, normal day without over developing afternoon. So we change the method and we, yeah, when
You say you fly over, you know? This, this launch was quite near the border of Iraq, so when you fly over to the west, do you mean you have a plane and you fly it, or you get on a commercial flight? And is it quite, is it quite inexpensive to fly around, around Iran commercially, or is it like these domestic commercial flights, or you got a buddy with an airplane, uh?
It's not really expensive; it's a commercial flight. Yes, uh, it's not really expensive for a foreigner, for American maybe, I don't know, maybe 20 for tickets, but for Iranian is, yes, it's not really expensive. But yeah, I have to jump to the airplanes depend to the day of the week. In a weekend, it's expensive, but in the middle of the week, not expensive. But I did, I, you know, I repeat 10 times this method that jumped to the airplane. When I checked the weather, the weather looks good, I jumped to the airplane. Yes, I went to the Kerman Shaywstein hotel, and the early morning I was in the takeoff, and I tried the routes.
I try maybe three, four different routes, and finally I found that I found the best one.
I found a one.
with a lot of air. Also in the south of the world rn some of the countries where u live is really
Do you have a chase team on the ground, or can you hitchhike? How do you get home? If you bomb out, what happens?
I try to avoid to bomb out. I try to fly close and close to my home. So always, if I found that I can fly more than 300K, I continue. But if I look at the average speed, and if I feel that the weather is not really good, I land close to the Kermanshah and back with the airplane and after and onto the home.
Wow, no kidding. So you don't have any ground support. You don't have people in cars following you or anything. You're kind of on your own. No. And are you always foot launching in Iran, or do you toe launch as well?
What do you mean? No, no. We take off from the mountain. Okay. No, no. So
nobody's doing any toe launching. Because you mentioned flatlands. I would think that toe launching would maybe allow you to maybe take off earlier or something. But is there just no toes in Iran? If
you have a toe in here, I know I'm working on these methods. You know, I need to explain something for you. You know, at some point, I believe that maybe Iran is one of the best in the world. Sure. Dry, yes, dry conditions, high cloud base, and good wind speed in a high altitude. In the last flight, before the records, I had 100K. I had 125K per hour trim speed in a 4,000. Can you imagine?
That's moving.
Okay. So if we can fly in a high altitude, our average speed is always, always is more than 60K per hour. But we have, you know, general air mass in Iran in the north side of the earth is coming from the west to the east. And it's opposite of the Brazil. In Brazil, the general air mass is from the east to the west. And the sun coming from the east to the west. So it's help that, you know, it's, you know. You're
following the sun in Brazil and everywhere, like where I fly, we're always going east as well. We're going the opposite way.
Yeah. But Iran is, unfortunately, it's opposite. So we have to wait until the 11 o'clock. So, no, I'm working on a place that maybe I can find the place that we can fly. Yes. Start from the east side of mountain and we can continue some hours. Then we change the method from the west to the east. And maybe from the towing. Maybe we try with the towing. Yes. I'm working on it. I try. Yeah.
How big is your community there? How many pilots do you have in Iran?
It's the last time it was more than 6,000. 6,000 pilots.
What? There's more than 6,000 pilots in Iran? Are you serious? Wow. Yes. That's more than the States. That's awesome. I mean, I don't know why that's even relevant, but that's, that's, that's awesome.
It's a, it's a paradise for paragliding because you can fly all the season. We have a four season in Iran. You know, the, the, the spring and the summer is perfect and is north, but in the winter and autumn, we jumped to the airplane with the high speed. Half hours flying, we go to the south and again, good place for flying for cross country. So the, you know, it's, it's, it's not like it's Canada, something like some place of the Europe. We can fly all the, all the years.
What's your favorite season?
Is May.
May. Okay.
Yes. It is the time of the courts.
Yeah. I see. I see big flights there in May. Um, when did you get into this? I
saw the paragliding from the, I think 2008, uh, uh, I'm, you know, my store, my, my stories is funny because I'm, I was, you know, I'm a mechanic engineer and I working in a factory and uh, but, but you know, the, I don't like that lifestyle that I, I have to go to factory all the weeks. But. And one day I decided to change the life and, uh, I knew the paragliding and I, I told to my boss that I need to go to travel to Europe for one month for, uh, for paragliding and he answered, okay, paragliding or your job. I said, okay, sorry, bye bye.
I selected paragliding. So yeah, I, I, I left my job and I started paragliding. Yeah. It's funny. Yeah. Because after nine months, after nine months, I broke the Iranian records just after nine months that I, I, I started paragliding after nine months. I broke it because no, I, I'm a mechanic engineer in fluid mechanic and I can understand everything in a paragliding and that was easy to understand the, the theory of the paragliding. So yeah, after two years I was an Iranian champion. And, uh, then I, in 2014, no, in 2012, I, I, I had the first competition in Turkey.
Then in 2014, I start my, my competition, uh, in the PWC. I start from Switzerland, France, and I was always in trouble, but I, I had the five time trip to the Brazil, uh, and the Mexico. Yeah. And everywhere. And it's funny that it's, it's not easy for Iranians to get a visa that I have to, to apply for a visa for each one, each trip that I have to, to find, to travel, to apply for a visa. So it's not easy, but my love for paragliding, I did all and, uh, yeah, I traveled a lot to Europe, to the, um, to Brazil, to Mexico, uh, to the Nepal and, uh, all over the world.
So
how, how, because you chose paragliding over, you know, fluid mechanical engineering and yet another engineer in this sport, it's just fascinates me. There are so many engineers in, in flying and we've, we've talked about it a bit on the show, but it's, it really seems engineers really gravitate to this sport for, uh, you know, many reasons. I think probably your analyst analytical mind being number one, but what did you take up? Work with when you left that behind, are you still a mechanical engineer now you're just doing that less or how did you, how did you go to being a full-time pilot and fund it? Was it through sponsorship or something else?
Yeah, no, no sponsorship in Iran. Nothing. Uh, yeah, I tried to join to paragliding business here. Uh, I joined to the Jingleider. I'm a team pilot for Jingleider. The no, I am in. I'm a. I'm a, you know, dealer of the Jingleider and Ozone Glider in Iran and paragliding is full here. His name is Claude Pace and no, I, I mixed the paragliding with my life. You know, I, I, I haven't coming from paragliding and I spend in paragliding, so the addiction
feeds the job and vice versa. That's, that's great. So is there quite an active. Uh, competition scene in Iran, you know, Iranian nationals and all that kind of thing. Do you have a lot of, are there comps happening there quite a bit or do you have to travel to compete?
Yeah. You know, always we have Iranian championship and usually two or three competition per years, but now due to the COVID it's all canceled. But fortunately we have a Turkey keep to Iran and there is a lot of competition and we always going to Turkey for competition. Yeah. And our country close to Iran, Nepal also is good. And always in during the four years, you know, last four years I always had a two or three PWC competition or world championship in Europe or I always try to, to go to this type competitions also. Yeah. And
all your travels, all the places you've been and flown, what's your, what's your favorite?
Yeah. Uh, I like Switzerland, uh, and the Brazil, Brazil. I had a really good memory from the Castelo. I was close to the podium to finish the first, but with the one mistake in the last day, yeah, I just lost the podium, but I liked the Brazil. I love the people in Brazil, but the Switzerland, yeah, Switzerland is one of the best place that always I try to travel in the summer to the Interlaken. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have a friend there and I, I tried to go there one time per year. I
really, I really wanted to go to the PWC that's starting here any day, I guess. Uh, but of course the Americans can't really travel anywhere right now the way we're handling COVID it's kind of unfortunate, but yeah, same with, same with you. I'm sure. Um, tell me more about, you know, if, if someone who's listening to the podcast wanted to come fly in Iran and, you know, let's forget for the moment. COVID, uh, but wanted to come, what would be the time you would recommend? What would be the process assuming you can get a visa? Um, you know, is it, is it, is it pretty easy to just show up at the airport and make it happen? What are, what are the things people should be aware of?
For traveling for Iran, Iran is really nice is, uh, we have a lot of historical place and the natural is amazing. Uh, for visa. The just six country need a visa be from the before and the other one they can apply for as a airport visa, uh, for flying, uh, you know, the local flying is okay, no problem for local flying, but I can suggest to anyone to come to Iran to, to have a long cross country alone. Uh, we have, as I explained before, we have a lot of air spaces, military zone, and some time. Uh, so. You know, some place that we don't know where is it. So we have a, you, we try always to fly in a known route that, and we try to avoid from the airspace and military places.
Uh, so honestly I can, I can tell to friends that if you like to see the Iran and have a cross country, maybe the competition is the best choice. Uh, the competition in the competition. You can register. It's okay. Uh, you can fly cross country and if you land somewhere and there's no problem because you have a support team, you are in competition, but for a cross country is not easy to manage it. You know? Uh, so if someone like to come to Iran for a cross country, I suggest to, to have a team here and connect with somebody that know about the rules. And. And, uh, maybe he can manage some agreement with our federations and have some license for this type of flying and, and need to fly with the team, with the other Iranian pilot to, to guide this, this pilot to the good routes, good place and select the good state for flying.
I hope that I can explain enough about this subject.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a lot of experience. And when Nick, you know, when Nick went over, he wrote a couple of beautiful articles about his experience, I ran and, you know, which I felt was, was culturally actually really important to read because I think, you know, as, as Americans we see in the media and I'm sure Iranians the same see it in the media and it's pretty politicized and, uh, often probably not very accurate, but is it, you know, would you, would you wholeheartedly, you know, say, Hey Gavin, you could come to Iran. to Iran, and you know, safety is not a problem, is it? Is it an issue, or is it something that, you know, I have to be a little bit worried about just because of, you know, where I come, yeah.
Uh, honestly, I can tell you that the about the security inside the Iran is, you know, I feel, I feel, uh, you know, Iran is sick more secure than some country that I traveled before. Yeah, really, uh, you know, the there is no problem, you know, if, how can I explain? I had to travel to some place of some country in south of America and I'm scared there, but in Iran about the security there is no problem. Um, the the only the only the point that you have to accept the rules, you know, we have some special rules. I, you know, I accept, maybe it's not regular, but it's a rule. So if you accept the rule, no problem, it's okay, you can come, you can, I can manage your trip.
And, uh, for example, I, I, I try to tell you some reason that, for example, the foreigner, uh, have to to stay in a hotel, okay? Not allowed to to stay in a home. Or, for example, uh, you have to inform the governor where do you stay? Not really, not really, uh, as a report by hours, but if they want to check if you stay in a hotel, there is okay. So it's, it's, it's because of the the security of the the foreigner is the reason. And for flying, we have some rules that if you, you, if you have a flying plan, you have to send your information to the federation and then they, they, they give you some license that then you can flying
And if somewhere the police ask you about the flying, if you show the the license, it's okay. So, uh, it's it's a—we have some, uh, method for this type traveling, you know? So, I can suggest if somebody, if someone like to travel to Iran, contact to some pilot in Iran and ask him to contact to the federation, and then there is a process that it's okay that you can continue what
What is it? How would you compare the cost, you know, of being in Iran and traveling there and staying in hotels and eating? How does it compare to other places? Is it cheap? Is it expensive? Is it—what's it like? So,
Let me explain like this, uh, with the one dollar you can
Put the 10 liter fuel in your car, so it's maybe it's okay for you? That okay? Yes, it's at the moment is, uh, you know, we haven't the economic is not really good. The dollar increase too much and it's, it's a paradise for you. The hotel is like, it, I don't know, the good hotel maybe 20 per night. The good hotel, wow. And the ticket is not expensive. The food is cheap, yeah.
i'm coming
It's much, much better than Brazil. Wow, that's
Amazing! Wow, that's amazing. Yes, and and tell me about the consistency, you know? And usually, in in desert environments, like I'm imagining you're flying in in Iran, it's it's similar to here in the states. We we deal with many days that are too windy, and so we, you know, we can fly in the mornings and we can fly in the evenings, but you know, to tap the XC days as uh can be difficult, you know? You need you need some things to align, and you know, so in in a typical year, you know, I would get way, way, way more hours if I lived in the Alps than where I do. You know, I can fly most days, but it's a lot of times just mornings, you know, just a little quick sled or something, get some exercise, but you know, for cross country, it's often just too windy.
What's your—you said your season's kind of year-round, but um, you know, if you if you're really kind of chasing it in Iran, can you get a lot of hours? You
know, it depends to the season. The, you know, the as I told you them, the May, uh, the May is starting for a, for a long cross country. Usually, the day start with the, you have a short time for takeoff and, and then the wind is increased and you have to stay in an air until the afternoon, then landing. But if you want to land in the middle of the day, you have to someday, you, you have to backward landing and the wind is, is, is more than 30k usually. But then, uh, when to this, you know, from the August and September is really good for a normal cross country, uh, but the 13 Weather, I would say 300 K, uh, high cloud base
it's good for cross country we try to put our cross country course on this time uh and then after the september uh until to the december we have to go to the south for flying, If you want, if I want to explain about this, some good flying site in Iran. Und Restückt, you know how is it what's your answer? we have some flyings interaction north of iran, and we have a lot ofijnair at iran. Iran. It's a green area. It's like Brazil, somewhere in Brazil.
And in Tehran, we have a high mountain. And you know, we have two big mountains in Iran. One of them is Alborz, that is in the north of Iran. It starts from the northwest and continues to the northeast. And we have another mountain that is a Zagros, that it's starting from the northwest and continue to the southeast. So we have two big mountains for flying. And Tehran is kept to the Alborz in the north. We have a really good flying site that maybe you know that it's Ruh. The name is Ruh. It's close to the center of Iran in Zagros, close to the Isfahan.
And it's really good. And another really good flying site is in the west, is Kermanshah, the place that we broke the records. You know, we, until the last years, we tried to always break the record in Ruh, in the center. But we found that the average speed in the east, in Kermanshah, is much better.
You know, in Ruh. In Ruh, you can fly early, earlier, maybe in 10 o'clock, and you can continue until close to the 9, 9 p.m. But, you know, the wind direction maybe is not really good, and average speed is not, is not good for records. But in the west, we have a really good average speed.
What do you think is, I mean, it sounds like, it sounds like 500 for sure is on the docket there with a, with a good day. But what do you think is possible?
Yeah. You know, if we can fly, you know, little early, maybe 10, 30, and we can continue to 8, 13 p.m. And with a good day, with a high cloud base, with a good wind, we can break the 500 for sure. For sure. You know, we flew 440 in a not really good day. So, in a good day, with a good average speed, we can, we can break 500 for sure.
Wow. So, Sihel, you're... You're 35, you told me before the start of the show, and you started flying in 2008. How, how has flying changed your life?
Actually, I can say that, yeah, the flying changed my, my, my lifestyle. You know, it's totally different with the past. No, the paragliding is my job. Always when I, when I wake up, first I check the weather. So,
yeah, it's, it's always, I, I'm in traveling. And always I fly all the mountain Iran. You know, these years I had actually two records. One record is, was a free distance record. Another one was, you know, we have a high mountain in Cape to the Tehran. The name is Damavan. It's highest mountain in Iran. is 5600 K 600 meters the height of the mountain this year's I climbed with the paragliding to the top It's, it's, that was really amazing in a moment for me that I, I climbing, I'm traveling. I, I reach Soarin and then finally I arrived to the mountain, to top of the mountain.
Uh, yeah, it's, you know, it's my life. You know, my life is like, uh, it's, it's coming with this moment—the fine mountain, new road, uh, new records, all is coming together. And, you know, and it's the paragliding is my life at the moment is
Do you do you have class one airspace there? Is your is your legal limit 18,000 or 5,400 meters, or is it different in Iran, uh?
Yeah, you know, we have some prohibited area here, restricted area here, but actually, uh, no, no altitude limit. Yeah, we have some, some in regular, uh, we have some limitation. Yes, you have, you have to hour to climb to more than five thousand, I think four thousand eight hundred or five thousand in a general aviation rules. But man, here we can climb to the five, seven thousand, and nobody's there. Yeah,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it sounds, sounds similar to Idaho, let
Let me tell you that maybe the, the, you know, Iran have a big difference with the other place. You know, we have a, you know, seven thousand meters common loose here with the more than four thousand asians, maybe four thousand five hundred AGL. It's, I think it's, it's, I how can I say, it's different is a shell for Iran. You know, in the last, in last term of that day, I had around four thousand AGL and I just gliding for 60, 60 kilometers. Look at my, my track, you can see the, the last glide, it was from the 5200 and I was in a
I just gliding, I... I have video that just did it, and I gliding for 60k. Wow, yeah.
I'm looking at your track log right now. I can see that part; that just looks amazing. Yeah, you went from five thousand something all the way to the deck of just one vlog. Oh, that looks—yeah, that's terrific. That's, that's a nice, that's a nice end of the day, yeah.
specialty of Iran is a high cloud base, yeah, a really high is seven thousand six and the AGL, you know, and the flatland is around one thousand five hundred, so you are really high, really high, and good wind. Then the average speed, the three minute speed, is always more than 80 kilometers per hour. Wow,
And just spectacular, too. I mean, I've seen a lot of the pictures that you're flying over these amazing, very historic landscapes. It must be... it must be quite surreal. Yeah, tell me about women, uh, flying in Iran. I... I understand you've got some great female pilots. Yes,
Yes, yes, we have a—we have a really good pilots here. Um, the female is not—not like a man, but we have a good number of the female here. We have some good pilot now. They're flying the two-liner and really good competitors here. And this year, just on the record day, some girls, if she flew around 320k with the env gliders.
Yeah, it puts a good female in or park lighting social, wow.
I got to get her onto the show. That's amazing. That's a good flight 320 on env. That's terrific, fantastic. Oh man, you've got me really jazzed up about flying. And in Iran, I had no idea there were six thousand so pilots. I mean, that, that's, that's, uh, that's very encouraging. And are there, are there just sites? And are there many schools and many sites to fly? Or are they, are they just sites to fly? Or are they just sites to fly, kind of more restricted to around where you are now?
The, yeah, we have a lot of flying site and we have a some club, uh, but here usually the instructor working separately and, uh, yeah, we have a lot of instructor here and some club, yeah, good number usually, I think, per per years, uh, let's say less than 500 pilot adding to our social. So, yeah, the number increasing, increasing, uh, and I think because of the or geography, we have a mountain, we have a good, good atmosphere for flying.
The the paragliding, uh, you know, improve year by year, I'm sure. And, uh, no, the governor know about the paragliding, the military, they know the paragliding, what is the paragliding, and, uh, yeah, and no, they have a much, much better, uh, reaction about the paragliding when one pilot landing in some zone, when they see the paragliding It's the atmosphere is changed, and it's getting better is
It is hang gliding much of a thing there.
Not too much. We have some, but not too much. Okay?
is there is there like a federation of some kind like here in the states' We have USHPA that, you know, kind of lobbies and takes care of the sites and all that kind of thing. Is there something similar in Iran?
You know, it's funny that we had an air federation from the 50 years before, but no, not just we have associations. We have a FIAC here.
Yeah, USHPA not working here, actually. But the FIAC working little. We have some small activity of the APPI here, but our association is the main one.
Okay. So, Hale, if you could rewind the clock to 2008, you know, to your 50-hour self. You said you broke the Iranian record when you're nine months in, but you obviously picked this up pretty fast. But if you could rewind the clock to that, you know, the very beginning, what if… If anything, would you change?
You mean about my lifestyle or totally about the piloting? With
flying, what would you do? Would you do anything different in terms of your progression and learning or travel or anything? Just something that you… If you could go back and talk to that person back then, what would you tell them?
I try to start traveling maybe, you know. I start traveling after five years after I start paragliding. If I back at that time, maybe I start from the beginning.
I'm really happy that I had some travel before, you know, because, you know, the condition getting hard. And, you know, due to the economic condition, due to the, I don't know, you can see the COVID. I can travel now. I have a good number of traveling before, but I had a chance to travel to United States, for example.
Nick invited me to the United States. Matt Senior, I think. Matt Senior, he invited me for one competition that I forgot the name. It's a famous competition.
US Nationals.
Yeah, I always, I'm sad when I think of that moment that I lost. I lost this trip. Yeah, you know, I like to travel to United States. I like to travel to Canada. But at the moment, it's not possible. But maybe at this time, easily, I can travel. So, if I'm back again, at that time, I try to start my trip early, you know, from the beginning.
I like that. Do it earlier and do more of it. Yeah. I mean, we… I find that… One of the best ways to improve your skills flying is for sure to go to different places, you know. Fly in different air with different groups and different mentors and different sites. And that's where you really start to figure it out is when you start moving around. You know, when you lose the whole thought of the house thermal, you know, you go to new places and just figure it out. And I think you're… That's a great way to learn is to get outside your comfort zone.
You know, the one thing that I really like in paragliding, it's my friends. I have a lot of friends all around the world, from the Japan, all country in the Europe, and in Brazil, I have a family, really family, you know.
So, I miss them, you know. I like to travel. I have a, you know, I like… You know, I enjoy when I go to the Brazil, I call to my friend, I meet him. For example… For example, when I go to the, I don't know, Germany, when I call to friend in France, you know, it's like a family visit, you know. It's when I go to PWC in a family, when I see that some friends, for example, Pepe Maliki, Russ Ogden, it's like a family visit. So, yeah, I like this type of traveling, competitions, and this type relation with the friends, paragliding friends. Yeah,
yeah. That's a really special thing. That's a really special part of the community and part of the attraction of flying, for sure.
Yes. Just I want to say something that Iran is not like news, you know. It's not a bad country. It's not a scary country. You know, it's just media. You know, the people here, they have a warm heart, and they really have always good behavior with the foreigner. They like… They like the foreigner, they like the tourists, and always they have a good behavior. So, I hope that some days that this type reaction with the countries change, you know, the bad reaction with the… I know maybe we have a not really good, how can I say, the governor on top, but the people is different, is not, is a governor war, is not related to the…
The people. People is always, they like the other people. Yeah,
I mean, I think that we can say the same thing. So, well, Suhail, I have really enjoyed this. You've really made me want to come to Iran. I always have anyway for years, but I really want to come now. So, I hope we get to do that, and I hope we all get to get back to competing again soon. They're doing some comps, you know, in Switzerland and some places in the world right now. But you and I certainly can't get there right now, which is a bummer. But hopefully, the world will get back to some semblance of order here shortly. But stay healthy, stay safe, and thanks for sharing your story. And congratulations, man, on an epic flight. And it sounds like you're just starting to tap into more and more potential there.
So, I'll keep an eye out for more future Asian records. But you live in a cool spot, man, and I hope I get to come fly with you someday. But thanks. I appreciate it.
Thank you, Gavin. Thank you for calling. And hope to see you somewhere soon.
And hope to fly together someday in Iran.
I hope that happens. I hope so, too. Thanks, man. Talk soon.
Thank you. Thank you.
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