Maxime Pinot is a very accomplished world cup competition pilot and French team pilot who came up through the French Juniors team. Maxime has been making big waves in the last few years in the world of serious hike and fly racing. He was second in the 2018 X-Pyr, and second in his first Red Bull X-Alps in 2019, when he gave Chrigel probably his toughest run to date. He just jousted Chrigel for 1st place in this year’s Bornes to Fly in Annecy and he’s already laid down two 300+ flights this season, including an FAI world record for speed over course. In this episode we discuss how Maxime approaches training (physical and mental), his thoughts on just making better decisions instead of doing SIV for pilots who don’t have the money or time, how to manage your emotions, how to thermal and glide better, dealing with the “mental pain” that sometimes comes with flying, finding the opportunities from mistakes, the importance of visualization, and we look back at a couple key moves that made all the difference for Chrigel in the 2019 race. Please enjoy this information-packed episode, there’s a lot here!
Show Notes:
* Gavin recounts a low reserve and hard pound this weekend
* Maxime and Gavin discuss the difficulties of preparing for this year’s race due to the Covid situation
* The new Red Bull X-Alps route
* Maxime discusses how he’s changed his training going into this race and specifics for physical training
* To scout or not to scout?
* Dealing with irrational fear
* Thermalling, planning and gliding- get the volume
* Have a plan before you get to cloudbase- ie on the way up
* How to approach speed to fly in a race like the X-Alps
* Learning from the best
* Identifying the big days and weather forecasting
* The art of finding a thermal low
* Dealing with the “mental pain” of flying
* Dealing with the emotions of flying
* Active dreaming and the importance of visualization
* The importance of rest and recovery
* Review of a couple of important moves in the 2019 race
Mentioned in the Show:
Malin Lobb, Annecy, Dilan Benedeti, InReach, Garmin, Nate Scales, Willi Canell, Matt Beechinor, Thomas Theirillat, Chrigel Maurer, Robbie Whittall, Nick Greece, Laurent Valbert, Tom Payne, Jon Chambers, Maxime Bellemin, Ayvri
