Paragliding Fanatic

2011 Wrap Up

2011-10-04T18:54:00.020-06:00

It's official: 2011 was my worst year of flying since my second year of paragliding. I logged under 10 hours of airtime this year and had around 10 flights total.

What happened?

A lot, fortunately and not. First, during the winter I didn't go on a flying trip, which is something I usually do and which gives me airtime for the season. Second, when I planned on attending the Rat Race in Oregon this year I got very sick and couldn't go. Then in July I went to the Canadian Nationals but the rain prevented any flying from happening. August I was busy with other things and now here we are in October where it seems the flying season is almost at an end.

I'll sum up my dismal flying season as a combination of bad weather, bad timing on my part and priorities elsewhere some of the time. It's actually a bit shocking to see less than one full page of entries in my logbook for this year though it all totally makes sense.

A few unfortunate events also kept me from flying less aggressively. Be it the high-profile deaths earlier on in the season or a fellow somewhat local pilot getting seriously injured and likely being wheelchair bound for the rest of his life. It sure makes you stop and think. It saddens me to think this way but I feel like I'm fooling myself if I don't. Paragliding is an amazing sport but god, anything it gives you can also be completely pushed out of whack if it rears its ugly head and takes from you...

On a lighter note, a friend of mine is doing exceptionally well flying tandems and I've been living a bit vicariously through her lately with her regular tandeming. I'm truly so happy for her - she's such an awesome person, friend, and a fantastic pilot. Her joy is contagious and it always makes me smile. :)

I think 2012 will be a better year overall. After volunteering on the local club's board of directors for a couple years, I feel it's more than the right time to get out and experience the non political side of flying! I've most definitely spent at least 10x more time talking about paragliding lately than I have spent actually flying. Next season will be different. I'm also hoping at some point to have a paragliding themed holiday and that the weather will be better!

Unless something unexpected happens, I can only assume that I won't be flying for a few months, so I'll sign off with an old flying pic from the Dominican Republic. This was from my first ever coastal soaring flight and was one of my longest flights up until that time, joined by more amazing friends. Love it!

2011 Lakeside Event

2011-08-11T12:18:00.004-06:00

Last weekend was the 35th annual Lakeside Event in Invermere BC. I love this event - it's a spot landing competition where paragliders land in a kiddie pool with an inner tube in it and the hang gliders try to land in an inner tube in the lake. The weather is always great and the turnout is good too.

On Saturday morning the winds were already strong and pilots began to worry that the day would blow out. But loe and behold, the winds died down and as the organizers always joke, the forecast was bang on - sunny and hot!

After getting up at launch and taking off, I found lift immediately and started soaring around launch. It was amusing as I could hear a lot of the pilots cheering as I must have been one of the first to climb over launch that day. I didn't have a vario (I didn't want to get it wet by landing in the pool) so my flight was eerily quiet. I haven't flown without a vario for a long time, so flying along without those reassuring beeps was strange. I flew out into the valley and ended up thermalling in what seemed like 3 or 4 thermals somewhat connected. Without my vario I certainly wasn't the most efficient at thermalling, but I was able to get back up to launch height again.

My attempt at spot landing this year was nothing like a couple years ago - I didn't even come close to the kiddie pool. I landed probably 15 feet from it - boo! After landing, I had to call it a day. By then I had way too much sun for the day and couldn't imagine being up at launch again where there is little shade. I spent the afternoon socializing instead.

My boyfriend's first attempt at spot landing was better than mine, but he was not that close to the target either. On his second attempt however the winds had picked up and he was able to come in nice and slow and land in the kiddie pool with one leg in the inner tube! He ended up winning the event for paragliders - yay!

That night was a party with a live band and some balloons were released in memory of Dano, a past organizer of the Lakeside Event who had died suddenly this year.

The next day we went flying again and I had a nice little flight, playing with some strong thermals. I didn't fly for long as I was still feeling the ill effects of the sun from the previous day, but it was nice. The day ended with a nine hour drive back home.

I have a lot on my plate for the next month or so but I hope to find some time to be able to fly again in the coming weeks. The weather is mixed and not entirely favorable as seems to be the trend this summer, so I may opt for mountain biking instead but a decent XC flight this year is something I'd definitely still love!

2011 Canadian Paragliding Nationals Washout

2011-07-22T12:24:00.004-06:00

A few days ago we arrived in Golden for the 2011 Canadian Paragliding Nationals. Two days before the event I had a less than desirable flight off Mount 7 but at least I flew. My launch was absolutely atrocious (wind was cross which still doesn’t justify how poorly I did) and in the air I didn’t feel comfortable. It was rough, the wind was from the south and I got sick of it quickly.

For the next couple days we didn’t fly. It was either cloudy or rainy and although there were small windows where pilots flew, it was mostly sledders in conditions that weren’t great. A couple days into the Nats a few of us decided to try flying Mt. Swansea in Invermere after the day was cancelled in Golden. The wind was on the stronger side in the valley when we arrived, but it looked reasonable.

Cycles on launch were strong but five of us managed to launch safely and we had nice ridge soaring flights for the next half hour. I started to get concerned when I noticed my groundspeed was only 5k, so I started heading out into the valley, worried that the winds had picked up there as well. Sure enough, the further I went into the valley, the more I could tell that it had become more windy there too.

At one point I hit some pretty funky air and my glider started oscillating and just acting weird. It was lifty and sinky at times but mostly the air started to feel like something was building as it started to get a little too buoyant (there were quite a few t-storm cells around us, but nothing too close to be worried about) so I made it my mission to get down safely.

At this point I was pushing full speedbar and only going about 5k’s forward. I kept my upwind heading for a while, pulling big ears, then doing a few spirals. The spirals were great except for that they pushed me quite a bit downwind and when I exited and went on full speed again, I was now going 5’s backward. This is when I started to get very concerned. I was in contact with my fellow pilots, telling them about my experiences during my flight, (most were still ridge soaring) but now I was worried that things were deteriorating quickly and that we wouldn’t all be able to get down safely.

I pushed full bar until I was around 200-300 feet off the ground, then I slowly released. My glider catapulted me backwards and I kept looking behind me to see what I would be hitting. There was another big field right across the main LZ field which was what I was flying over at this point but behind that there was a treed area.
I was pretty calm throughout the whole experience, just focusing on myself, my safety, and keeping rational. The last 50 feet was an elevator down but thankfully the wind was lighter there and I plopped down into the field unhurt. My glider immediately started dragging me so the “safe your life manoeuvre” where you grab a line and just start reeling your glider in, came in handy. The long grass left me unscathed.

Meanwhile my boyfriend was running towards me making sure I was ok (he had landed a few minutes prior to me by doing some bigger manoeuvres) and I was looking up at the three pilots who were still in the air.

Now they were all 1000 feet or less above us, but all were going backwards with their gliders flopping around. One of them was getting lower so my boyfriend ran towards the woods thinking that he would probably hit a tree, and I meanwhile quickly took my flying clothes off, grabbed my SPOT and first aid kit and started running too.

Now there was only one pilot in the air who I was watching closely and who I started following so I could help him when he landed. At first I thought I could keep up with him, but it quickly came apparent that trying to keep up on foot with a glider who’s getting blown backwards and downwind is next to impossible. I found my boyfriend a few minutes later in the woods and though he didn’t find any of the pilots, he had radio communication with them and all were safe.

The three pilots in the air landed a few kilometers downwind from the main LZ – four or five fields down from where we landed. They were incredibly lucky that there were so many landing options down that way and I’m still shocked that nobody got hurt. They also said that the air become much more buoyant than when I was flying and that not only had the wind increased, it was even more difficult to get down. I felt very lucky too, having another field next to the main LZ to land in, and I was thankful that I didn’t get blown into the trees that were only a couple hundred meters from where I landed.

This was a flight I could have done without. All of us were pretty experienced pilots but in paragliding, I’d say there’s always some sort of element of surprise. Maybe it would have been better to stay in the air and wait until the winds died, but I'm glad we made the decision to get down. With overdevelopment in the area, rolling the dice that way seemed to have worse odds.

Driving back to Golden after that adrenaline-packed flight, it started pouring. The next day it rained on and off as well and the competition day was cancelled again. We left Golden that day.

Today is the last day of the Paragliding Nationals and I’m sad to report that so far, only one task was flown. The task was tiny and nobody made goal. The conditions sounded marginal as it seemed like damp flying but at least the task was valid. Last I checked it was raining again in Golden so I doubt there will be a task today either.

Last week during the Hang Glider Nationals in Golden, they had two tasks, and again, this was between showers. The mood in Golden was different this year – I think pilots were pretty bummed about the weather and not being able to fly such a world class site. The mosquitoes this year were at an unreal level this year too, and I don’t think that helped lighten the mood....

It looks like it may clear up this weekend in Golden, so I may make my way back and try again. I’m sad that the Nationals will be over by then but there’s not much you can do. The pilots in the meet who stayed all week have my admiration – my patience wears thin when camping in the rain, being eaten alive by bugs and not being able to fly. In any case hopefully the weather will improve soon and Golden will once again deliver.

Back at it

2011-07-09T19:07:00.007-06:00

You know why I haven't updated my blog for over a month? Because I haven't flown since I last posted, that's why! Isn't that awful? I was sick for a few weeks and that prevented me from doing really much of anything. But now I'm back in the game!

I drove out to the Fraser Valley today and tried my luck at Mt. Woodside. I was really surprised at the cloud development as I didn't see anything in the forecast, but nothing was overdeveloping, so I didn't worry about it too much. There was talk of a strong wind developing, but I don't think that happened until very late in the day.

In any case, I prepped myself today for flying in Golden and I had a really great 1.5 hour flight. There was a series of conjoined clouds which hovered over the ridgetop behind Woodside for quite some time, but it was really fun to get up to base, try finding lift elsewhere, then returning back to the reliable clouds - I like cloudsuck when it's in small doses!

The big family of clouds slowly started dissapaiting and cloudbase rose too. After purposely taking a shitty climb in the lee for my Golden prep, I thought it was time to try to go somewhere.

I headed towards the antennas to the northeast of launch and at first it was a little sinky with kind of average climbs, but finally I managed to hook a ripper (ok, 3 m/s) and got myself back up to base.

I skirted around the cloud band and got to Aggasiz Mountain where the clouds there were a little on the big side (you can't really tell from the pictures). I thought about flying back to Woodside, but instead I thought I would hop over to Cemetery Hill, see if anything was there, and if not, land at Harvest Market. The thought of crossing over to Bear wasn't really on my agenda - had I hung out for twenty minutes or so around Aggasiz Mountain, I think it would have been more doable, but heading to Cemetery Hill seemed like more fun rather than landing out far again. On the way there, I took some pics:

You can see Harrison Lake in the background - so pretty!

I found no lift at Cemetery Hill (nobody ever seems to) and landed at Harvest.

The grass was quite long and it was the ankle twisting sort - it kind of bunched up as you walked and I tripped on myself a couple times. After packing up my glider in the heat, I hitchhiked to get back to the where my car was.

The lady who picked me up was super nice and offered to drive me all the way to my car, but I politely declined, thinking it was too much hassle, and told her that dropping me off by the highway was fine. I thought I could use a little exercise. BIG MISTAKE!

My walk back to my car was more Golden prep - the mosquitoes were terrible! There was an absolute swarm of them following me, biting my shoulders and arms, and as I waved my hat trying to keep them away (so glad I had it with me), my arms burned in the sun. That was one long-ass 1.5 k walk!

I got to my car sweaty, frazzled, and with severe blood loss, and so thankful I made it back in one piece. Ha ha ha, an exaggeration, but I was done for the day.

I've missed paragliding these last few weeks - as long as the weather holds over the next while, you can be sure I'll have more flights to write about.

-----------------

On a somber note, I think it's important I mention the deaths of three paraglider pilots this past week. Everyone in the community, around the world, is in shock that two pilots at the PWC in Spain died on the same day and Xavier Murillo lost his life in Peru.

I had the pleasure of meeting Xavier last year in Golden and will always remember his funny yet appalling t-shirts, his infectious smile, and his overall charm. Xavier gave me some sort of DVD on DHV Certification which I've yet to watch, yet whatever the DVD is about seems of less importance now than who it came from. It will serve as a reminder of how fragile life truly is. Bon vol Xavier.

Fun in Pemberton

2011-05-21T21:47:00.013-06:00

The day before yesterday my boyfriend and I made the trip out to Pemberton for the first time this season. As the west coast has been living up to its nickname of the "wet coast" lately, we saw a break in the weather and figured it was time to take advantage of it.

Considering it was a weekday, there were plenty of pilots out and about. When we arrived at launch, it was the first time it felt summer-like, with the sun beating down and pilots in short-sleeves (and even topless - yeah!!!)

I had a really nice launch - nobody was around and as I had set up quite far back to let everyone go ahead of me, I had a little ways to run. I brought up my wing, expecting just to kite it to the edge, set it down and wait for a cycle and then go. Instead, I brought it up and kind of trotted along, paused at the edge realizing the cycle was still good, and then was airborne. It sounds kind of silly, but it felt really magical.

The air was what I would describe as "squirrely" and is one of my least favourite types of flying conditions. It was the type of air that kind of swirls and seems to have a few directional components to it which makes it hard to figure out where you should and shouldn't be flying. There seemed to be an inversion at around 1450 metres and as I wasn't keen on flying above the peaks, I kind of flew in front where the thermals just didn't seem to get above that height and a south-westerly wind battle ensued. There also seemed to be some northerly winds higher up (which is not a good direction), so I stayed away. In any case, I didn't really like the conditions and after half an hour or so, headed into the valley.

Pemberton Valley, looking towards Lake Lillooet

Valley floor. Racetrack/soccer field is the LZ

I was at around 1000 metres when I started boating around the valley, and that was by far my favourite part of the flight. It was so smooth and lift was everywhere. The air was warm and I could smell the thermals as I flew through them; one from a nearby small fire, another from a farmer's field. The Pemberton valley was so clear, so sunny, so beautiful and without barely trying, I extended my flight by another 15 or 20 minutes.

First vanity shot of the year

Mt. Currie - so gorgeous!

My boyfriend ended up having an awesome flight - top landing 20 k's or so downrange preceded by wingovers with foot dragging to test the snow pack, and flying all the way back. He was the only one to go anywhere that day and although a part of me wanted to join him, a much bigger part was happy that I didn't go with him, as I had a good flight and flying in that messy air longer than I had wasn't my idea of fun.

The next day Jim from Cayoosh Adventures offered to lend me a sort of "hybrid" paraglider to test fly. It was kind of a cross between a light mountain glider and a speedflying wing - the Nervures LOL. I truly believe that the reversible harness, glider and front mount reserve combined weighed less than my paragliding harness!

I reversed off launch and when I felt a small thermal, turned the glider, much to my surprise, a lot steeper than I had intended! I let out a little giddy "woooo" and continued to try and thermal the light morning lift. It was a little early in the day for thermalling, so I headed out to the LZ. I opened the trimmers all the way up and felt the acceleration of that little glider - it was awesome! I really felt like I was going somewhere quickly - it was delightful and a really fun change from a regular paraglider!

After landing, we headed back up to launch for an xc flight but the stomach problems that I had experienced from the night before really started to kick in, so I opted not to fly. Although the conditions looked stellar at first - good cloud development, lighter winds, etc., it didn't last long and a nasty east wind developed and the clouds were not reachable. A handful of pilots did go xc, but not far and few made it back to the main LZ.

All in all, spending time in Pemberton was great - good people, great flying, and excellent adventure.

First 45 Mins of Airtime!

2011-04-12T00:21:00.003-06:00

Last Friday I clocked my first 45 minutes of airtime for the season - hooray!

There was still some snow up at Woodside launch but cycles were strong enough to reverse, and even with my imperfect feeling foot, I was able to launch well and had a nice flight.

There were quite a few pilots out that day - around 25 or so, so I found it crowded at times, but I ran away from the crowd and was able to find my own thermals out towards the valley rather than closer to launch. It was harder flying that way, as the thermals generally weren't as strong, but I liked tuning into my own flying, rather than worrying about everybody else's.

After 45 minutes, the tips of my fingers were starting to get cold, and as I was slowly getting lower, I headed out to Jim's ranch and landed.

All in all, a great first flight of the season. No pictures unfortunately - my camera battery died, though I will be more prepared next flight.

Time for an Update

2011-04-06T03:25:00.012-06:00

Five months ago I didn't think I would be updating my blog again until I flew, but here I am again, unable to resist the blogosphere. Did you miss me?

I had a somewhat traumatic winter, first by having my remaining wisdom teeth removed and then having by foot surgery and all of the fun rehab associated with that. I haven't been ready up until very recently to seriously consider paragliding, but I was finally somewhat ready to fly last week. Unfortunately the weather on that day didn't pan out as expected, and hasn't been especially reliable since. The next few days do look promising however!

I was looking through my old paragliding photos a couple of weeks ago, trying to find some good ones for a website. I noticed that quite a chunk of my pictures were missing, but didn't worry about it too much, as I figured they were backed up somewhere. Well, unfortunately for me, they weren't.

I have backup CD's dating back to 2003, but then I stopped backing things up on CD's and DVD's and went the digital route in 2008. After having my HP laptop essentially die (I vow never to buy another HP product in my life again), and then replacing my PC, somewhere in that kerfuffle, a full year's worth of pictures are gone.

I'm quite disheartened, as all of my pictures from Australia are gone, the pictures from my trip to France where I flew the Ozone Chabre Open have dissapeared, and most bothersome to me - my tandem training pictures went "poof!". That's the bad and sad news. The good news is that I still have this blog, complete with all of my stories and even some pictures that otherwise would have been lost. It may not be everything, but I do like to think I post only the best of the best photos here anyway, even as horribly amateurish as they often are.

The lesson learned is to back up your back ups. One backup is not enough, especially if you accidentally delete it like I did. Silly and unfortunate mistake.

I do hope to be flying again soon, posting here more often, and posting more pictures than ever before!!! I've missed flying - it has been SUCH a long time and I'm really looking forward to another season. My flying plans so far include doing two not-so-serious comps this year, which should hopefully be as fun and rewarding as they usually are.

It's good to be back.

The New Paragliding Fanatic

2010-11-05T21:50:00.017-06:00

Wow, it's been almost two months exactly since I last posted something here. And that's exactly how long it's been since I've done any paragliding too.

There were days in the last couple months were I definitely could have flown, but I had my usual bag of excuses.

I still enjoy paragliding, and my enthusiasm for flying always returns when I travel someplace new to fly, or I fly in a competition, or I'm pretty certain I'll be able to fly some distance that day. But outside of that, on a daily basis, I find it hard to convince myself to drive two hours to fly just to fly. I think I have finally figured out why paragliding has lost part of its appeal for me: Challenge.

A flight with no challenge is a flight that I often find boring. It sounds terrible to say, with paragliding being such an incredible thing to be able to do to begin with, but if you've done something hundreds of times, it simply becomes repetition. However, if you are presented with a challenge, the task itself changes, as you start to analyze, calculate and define what it is you must do to conquer the challenge and achieve your goal.

I think this explains why I am not fond of ridge soaring, sleddies, or flights where I am restricted to the bubble infront of launch on days where thermals are small and weak. This type of flying is not challenging, or like staying in light lift, it's challenging, but in a highly redundant way. Similarly, I think this also explains why I am drawn to competitions - the notion of making goal is a challenge presented to you in the form of GPS coordinates your instrument is reminding you of every second of your flight. Your challenge in a competition is to make goal, but it's the final challenge in a vast array of challenges you will face on your journey to get there.

It's safe to say that as a person, I get bored easily and tend to entertain myself through childish antics when there's nothing to do on launch, or after landing. So I suppose it's carried over to actual flying as well. I purposely land all the time because I'm simply bored or I don't bother to go flying at all because I feel indifferent about the less-than-stellar-conditions - is that a terrible thing to say? Can paragliding be boring? Am I the crazy one when everyone else lands with smiles on their faces exclaiming how smooth the air was, how fun it was to fly for four hours, when I would describe my own flight as say, average?

I feel guilty for making a post like this. I am certainly not nearly skilled enough to say I have mastered any one part of paragliding, and that's what's causing the boredom, because I certainly have not. It's not that I don't have great flights and it's not that I don't enjoy the sport as a whole or am just jaded as a person. Although I can often sit and read for hours on end, I just don't get the same level of entertainment or enjoyment out of many paragliding flights. I know it sounds strange but I hope it's okay to admit that, even though I often feel I am alone in my sentiments.

I've made posts similar to this one in the past, just about how my feelings towards the sport have changed, so this is nothing new, although I think narrowing it down to thinking about it in terms of challenges, is. I had a good early start to the season, flying in Nepal, and having some great flights in Pemberton and Golden. Flying a personal best in Golden was especially awesome this year and I still get excited talking about that flight - that flight challenged me on a LOT of different levels, that's for sure.

For everyone who lands excited when I am not, I try feeding off their energy and try to share in their excitement, although secretly I envy and wish how I could be like them.

Perhaps I just need to find my own zen within paragliding again - that moment when you're just happy to be flying. And if my moment comes a lot sooner than everyone else's, I need to start accepting that too.

------------

I don't think I will update my blog until I fly again. It may happen in three months, or perhaps six. Or maybe before the year ends, an opportunity to fly will come my way. I would like to explore someplace new - perhaps Brazil? Perhaps Europe again? A new challenge presented by a new flying environment alone almost guarantees good flights when travelling.

No matter what the case, I wish my fellow pilot friends who are flying now, very happy, enjoyable, and challenging (in a positive way, of course) flights.

Lake Lillooet Acquaintance and Acro of a Different Sort

2010-09-04T15:28:00.007-06:00

We headed up to Pemberton for a couple days to do some flying, hoping for one more good XC flight of the year. We used the upper Mackenzie launch which is just awesome! You could easily lay out 9 gliders at a time, 3 deep. Conditions unfortunately proved quite light, but most pilots got a flight of about an hour or so, slowly descending until the clouds blocked out the sun and the lift was gone. It was a nice flight, but the air felt quite fall-like.

The next day we went to Lake Lillooet to do some boat towing. I was looking forward to doing some acro, as this year I've done none. Instead, as I towed up, the weaklink broke when I was about 20 feet up, and after my glider surged infront of me, I tried to turn it back to shore, but didn't have enough height. So, into the lake I went.

I've never landed in water with my glider before, and it, well, it sucked! My harness was trying to drown me, which I suppose stupidly, I should have taken the foam out ahead of time. Meanwhile my feet were getting tangled into the lines and my flight suit seemed to be sucking up the lake around me. My boyfriend jumped into the water, and the boat turned around to help me out. Thankfully I was only about 10 feet away from the shore, so it was a fairly easy “rescue” that way. I think that unexpected dunk in the lake was more exciting than any acro manoeuvre I could have done that morning!

I had a lot of stuff in my harness and even had my glider bag with me, so everything got soaked. The rest of the morning was spent drying everything out, and right now as I type this my harness, glider and reserve are spread out across the living room. The silver lining is that everything got washed – my glider is now back to white and red, instead of beige and red. :)

As we started to drive home, it was absolutely howling, so my boyfriend suggested we go to the airport to check out the sailplanes. When we arrived, we looked at the different types of flights they offered and the aerobatics flight piqued my interest, so we both signed up for that.

I've been towed behind a vehicle and a boat before, but never a plane, which was was pretty interesting. Suddenly you have an object towing you that's travelling in three dimensional space, versus 2D like a boat or car. It was pretty cool. I liked watching the movement of the plane as it swayed side to side and up and down. We were released from the tow somewhat near lower Mackenzie (the paraglider launch), and started thermalling. It was very cool to do that in a sailplane – as a paraglider you often think that a thermal is pretty small and yet being in a sailplane with a turning radius maybe 10 times ours, we easily managed to stay in a 5 m/s climb.

We then headed over the valley and my pilot stalled the glider. The nose pointed upwards and we fell backwards towards the earth. With that energy, we did a loop, which was nice. I liked being upside down, looking up at the earth beneath me! With not enough energy from the loop to do another one we did some wingovers. The stalls, wingovers and loops were pretty tame to me – I didn't find them overly exciting, and I think paragliders are scarier when dong these types of manoeuvres.

We did some more of this stuff and the pilot then said he'd do a spin. Whoa! That made my heart skip a beat! It was a really weird sensation with only half the glider flying. We did maybe 4 or 5 rotations and then he pulled out. YEAH! I knew what I'd be telling my boyfriend to ask the pilot to do on his flight!

We came in for landing, which was interesting only because our downwind leg seemed waaaaayyy too downwind for me! I had a moment where I was concerned we wouldn't make it back to the airport, but that's only because I forgot for that second that we didn't have a lame glide ratio of 9 to 1 like a paraglider! We touched down beautifully and the flight was over. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me use these amazing pics, Mr. Hemingway!

I think someday I'll get into sailplanes...but doubtfully in less than 20 years from now. I think it attracts an older crowd, one that's older than even most hang gliders! In any case, it was fun, and something I think I might just pursue someday.

Sweltering Heat at Woodside

2010-08-16T14:34:00.006-06:00

Yesterday a friend from the States came up to visit, so I decided to do so some Fraser Valley flying with him along with another friend.

I didn't expect conditions to be great, and they weren't. It was disgustingly hot - around 35 degrees and barely a cloud in the sky. I hung out on the ground at Woodside launch for a while and didn't go until I thought I could stay up for a while. After launching I found small thermals just about everywhere but I couldn't get more than a two or three hundred feet above launch.

I briefly throught about attempting a low cross country, but the thought of having to ask someone for retrieve, even from the nearby Harvest Market, didn't much appeal to me in that heat.

So instead I bobbed around for a while until I got bored, landed, packed up my gear, and then just about passed out from the heat in Jim's barn.

Not a great day for flying, but a good socializing day anyway. I am missing Golden already - a short trip to Pemberton (mini-Golden) should happen in the next two weeks, weather permitting of course.

2010 Canadian Paragliding Nationals: Final Recap

2010-08-05T16:30:00.005-06:00

Well the Canadian Nationals are over, unfortunately ending with some less than ideal weather.

The last few days of the competition mostly consisted of strong southerly winds, so I elected not to fly. My feelings were in the majority as almost nobody with a 2/3 and under launched during those days.

On one day we did fly but when I launched, about 20 of us sunk out at the same time. Thermals were small and with 20 people scratching along the same ridge – it was nearly impossible to get up. It was funny heading to the LZ – it ended up raining paragliders for about 5 minutes. Some people did end up flying most of the task that day, but those who did were part of the head gaggle who did manage to get up. The rest of us weren’t so lucky.

Here is a really well done video highlighting the 2010 Canadian Nationals. At the beginning you’ll notice my giggling with the girl asking me a question – it was just one of those times when you laugh for no reason with someone, so enjoy our giggles.

Canadian Paragliding Nationals 2010 from Blurry on Vimeo.

I don’t have any immediate flying plans although it would be great to go back to Golden for a few days in the next couple weeks. If not, I’ll head to Pemberton at some point. There are a lot of forest fires in BC again this year, so hopefully we’ll get some rain to clear the air out.

Canadian Nationals Day 2: Silly GPS Mistake

2010-07-27T19:26:00.003-06:00

Today's task was 57 k's - fly from launch to Donald Station, to Moberly Peak and then land at Chris Muller's old place.

I launched at about the middle of the pack and found some climbs right away. It seemed to be inverted or something around 2500 meters and the winds were pushing in from the south. I was in a climb dribbling around the antennas when the start window opened. I was a bit confused at first why my GPS showed me to go back to launch, but by the time I was half way across the valley, only then did I realize that I must have flown outside the launch cylinder, thereby not tagging it. With the south winds being the way they were and not being very high to begin with, I decided that I didn't care that much about the task, and decided to free fly instead.

I flew out to Moberly Peak, but I flew in front of it, in the valley, instead. It was pretty amusing because I found plenty of great climbs there and I could see everyone struggling at Moberly to get up. I felt like shouting, "hey, look at me! The climbs are better in the valley!!!"

Then I flew downwind for a bit, just checking out the area. I thought about flying to Donald Station, but I could see that it wasn't as close to the highway as the tempting field that I had my eyes on, so I flew there instead. Total distance: 20 k's.

I'm a little disappointed that I made such a silly mistake today, but there's a bigger part of me that doesn't really care. I've never flown North in Golden before so that was pretty cool in itself.

It overdeveloped today and it looks like it might do the same tomorrow, but earlier, so I'm not sure we'll be flying. But if we do, I'll be readier than ever baby!

GOOOOAAAALLLL!!!! 107 K'S!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-07-26T22:58:00.006-06:00

I will make this post short and sweet. Today was the first day of the 2010 Canadian Nationals. The task was to fly from Golden to Invermere with a total distance of 107 kilometers.

I found a climb off launch right away and did my best to deal with the rough conditions along the way. I didn't really get low until the last 20 kilometers which I really wasn't sure if I could make. I basically ended up having to ridge soar part of it and take really lame climbs, but it paid off!

I am so excited and happy. I had a personal best, I made goal, and I had my highest altitude flight of 4200 meters!

There are about 45 competitors in the Nats and I think around 20 made goal.

I've been waiting for this day for a couple years now and it feels great!

I'm gonna sleep well tonight! :)

Leonardo Flight Link

Pemberton Rocks!

2010-07-09T01:57:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I got back from doing some flying in Pemberton, and man, Pemby DID deliver!

I was out there for a couple days with my boyfriend and a friend; the forecast finally looked good and the 30 degree Celsius temperatures finally made it feel like summer.

On Wednesday I managed to find a climb pretty quickly after launching from lower Mackenzie, got high, and headed northwest along the ridgeline. Climbs were chunky at times and there were some east winds to battle, but I had a good little cross country of about 20k’s. Last time I flew Pembie was on my birthday last year and I had a good flight then, and this one was pretty good too.

On Thursday I felt more comfortable with the area and flew to Coppertop Mountain and back. Total distance was around 45k’s for an out and return – not too shabby! According to my vario I got to 3200 meters, although according to Leonardo it was higher. In any case, it was a fricken awesome day. Climbs were to be had pretty much everywhere and although sometimes a bit gnarly, they were good and strong. I had to talk myself through some breathing exercises at one point, but that was also the point where I found a 5 m/s climb that took me the highest I had been that day. I think it’s pretty cool too when you decide to land because you want to, not because the conditions are dictating it. I barely thermalled on my way back to the landing zone on the flight – uber awesome. Leonardo Flight Link

The views are so amazing in Pemberton. The big peaks, the glaciers, the snow – wow. I didn’t have my camera with me for my second flight and although I really regretted that, at the same time, I just don’t feel comfortable snapping pictures when I feel like I should be concentrating on keeping my wing centered and above me. I think what matters are the images from a flight you can ingrain in your mind and remember forever.

I really realized that part of the reason why the second flight was so great was that I flew with other pilots. There were times when I was alone, but for the most part, I could always see somebody in front of me, behind me, and sometimes even below me, ha ha! That in itself always makes me fly further and gives me the confidence to try something new. On the first day I was left to my own devices half way through the flight, and especially when I’m not familiar with a place, my sense of adventure dissipates. Part of what made Thursday’s flight so sweet was flying with others, saying “hi” on the radio, and not only knowing where everyone was, but seeing them too. It can be a sort of monkey see, monkey do type of unspoken encouragement.

I had a fantastic couple of days, and I will make sure to head up to Pemberton again when it looks good. I’ll admit to anyone that I’ve become a bit of a flying snob over the last couple years; not flying because it’s too stable, too much cirrus, too far to drive, etc. But man, I’ll take one awesome flight over five average ones any day. The Fraser Valley is a nice place to fly, but I think Pemberton is a kick ass place to fly. It’s probably not half as consistent weather wise, but I think that’s why it can be so great there – similarly to Golden. I’d like to practice some more before heading up to Golden to fly in the Canadian Nationals in a couple weeks – hopefully Pemberton will soon deliver again.

P.S. This is my 200th post on my blog. I'm glad it's a happy one. :)

Lumby Air Races

2010-06-15T13:46:00.007-06:00

Last weekend I went to the Lumby Air Races for the first time ever – it’s an annual fun meet for paragliders and hang gliders and is held in Lumby, BC which is about 20 k’s outside of Vernon, BC.

I didn’t arrive until Friday late in the day, and thankfully, didn’t miss anything. The conditions weren’t great, and the task that day did not end up being valid as nobody made minimum distance. Saturday looked much more promising and around 70 paraglider and hang glider pilots headed up to Cooper’s Launch and set up their wings for what looked to be a good flight.

Conditions at launch were good, and although pilots weren’t getting very high at first, eventually people started flying on course, and I got my stuff together and launched. The thermals weren’t particularly strong, and sometimes were a bit hard to follow, so it was nice having others in the air to figure out where the best lift was.

Our course was basically two small triangles from Cooper’s Ridge to Lumby Ridge, to Saddle Mountain, and then back to Cooper’s. From there, the task was to fly to Lumby Ridge again, then onto Satellite Mountain, Camel’s Hump, Cooper's Launch, and then land at Randy’s (which is where most people were camped).

I ended up flying the course quite slow, as I could see that it was a bad day to get low, so I took my time, and didn’t jam on the speedbar more than around 40% at any given time. For the most part, climbs were easy to find, although some thermals seemed to simply dissipate at heights that were quite low and then you had to move on and find another one, which again, made things a bit slow going.

After completing the two small triangles and making my way back to Lumby Ridge for the third time, lift was getting harder and harder to find, and I ended up doing quite a bit of ridge soaring. I was with quite a few other pilots, and everyone started hitting the deck one by one. I fought really hard to find something that would take me higher so I could make my way to Sattelite Mountain, but I just couldn’t get above 1100 metres. After playing around for about half an hour, and seeing that nobody else was going anywhere, I flew towards Sattelite for a couple minutes, then turned back to Lumby Ridge to land in a field by the highway for an easier retrieve.

Total time: 3:05. Total distance: only 16 k’s!!!!

Overall for paragliders I placed 8th, and first for women (not an official category at this comp, but I use it as a benchmark anyway. I should also mention there were only 3 women who competed). Not bad I think, especially considering how I haven’t been flying very much lately. Claudio Mota was the only paraglider to make goal and Sunday nobody flew the task as it was blown out. Results here: http://lar.pgcomps.net/comps/

Things I did right: I tried to stay as high as possible throughout the flight, instead of racing to the next thermal which may or may not have been better. I was very observant with watching other pilots and adjusted my glide angles, and spots where I took thermal climbs, based on what others did. I didn’t take the competition horribly seriously (like I usually do!) and just had fun flying.

Things I did wrong: I launched too late – I should have been in the air half an hour before hand. I think I would have completed more of the task had I done so. Also, even though I was low at Lumby Ridge, I should have tried to fly towards Sattelite, as other pilots mentioned that there was pretty good lift there. I’m not sure I would have made it there with any height, but perhaps I would have found a climb in the valley. I didn’t want an inconvenient retrieve, which may have prevented me from tagging more waypoints.

Cooper’s Ridge is a special place for me because I had my first thermalling flight there. It was cool to be back a few years later, and fly the same site again. I had a great flight on Saturday and I really enjoyed seeing everyone again. I enjoyed the Lumby Air Races very much and hope to be back next year.

Leonardo flight link: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/340892

Escaping the Rain

2010-05-31T00:17:00.001-06:00

Vancouver weather has SUCKED lately. Actually, it seems that most of Western Canada’s weather has been pretty lousy for the last few weeks. Rain and wind in Vancouver, snow in places like Calgary and unseasonably cool in both.

When I don’t see the sun for a few days, I get the urge to run away and seek bluer skies, so somewhat last minute I convinced my boyfriend to go on a short trip to the States to get away from the bad weather and hopefully do some flying.

While driving south we encountered plenty of rain and essentially the same weather I was trying to run away from. We took our time driving, checking out things along the way, and eventually ended up at Oceanside, Oregon.

Last year after the Rat Race, we checked out Oceanside, but only my boyfriend flew, as it was blowing slightly down and I simply can’t run that fast! Yesterday our luck was better and we encountered a bit of sun and a healthy number of paraglider pilots at launch.

The local pilots were pretty friendly, and although the conditions weren’t ideal for soaring (the winds were too light), we both had a little 5 minute flight, which I quite enjoyed. I’m not typically a fan of sled rides, but when I’m flying a new site, I think they’re alright. Of course, it would have been awesome to have been able to stay up for a while, but I think you have to learn to take what you can when it comes to weather and paragliding.

Oceanside is beautiful, as is the Oregon coastline. Hopefully someday I’ll have the privilege of flying along the Oregon coast again. It’s unlikely that I’ll be doing any more flying for the next two weeks, but mid-June I will be attending a fun paragliding meet in the BC interior – my fingers are crossed the weather cooperates.

Skydiving and Paragliding

2010-05-21T17:18:00.002-06:00

After checking my blog today and realizing that I haven’t posted anything in over a month, I figured an update was in order.

I’ve only flown once in the last month, and I missed some pretty epic Spring flying too. The flight I had was on a windy day and seeing how my practice flying in those types of conditions isn’t exactly up to speed these days, I decided that I didn’t want to go XC, and just bobbed around launch, around the clouds, and then came into land. It was a good flight, but nothing really to write home about.

A couple of weeks ago I went tandem skydiving, which was really fun. I went solo a few years ago and blacked out when I let go of the strut on the plane - I came to when my chute opened, so I don’t have any recollection of my couple seconds of freefall. The tandem I went on, thankfully, went infinitely better. I was definitely anxious, but I felt as calm as I think I possibly could have. I quite enjoyed the jump actually and I think I can thank paragliding for being OK with being high and not freaking out, as opposed to a few years ago with my first jump, when I was still a newcomer to paragliding.

In fact, I think skydiving is something that I would like to pursue. I think it’d be fun to do a course and do the freefall stuff. I would love to do some somersaults and try positioning my body differently and noting the effects. The only thing stopping me is my ears. Unfortunately I have a lot of scar tissue in one ear, and during my tandem, I felt like my head would explode. The pain was pretty bad, so I am seeing a specialist to see if there’s anything I can do about equalizing my ears better when there are big pressure changes. I’ve tried yawning, chewing gum, etc. on planes in the past, and it only seems to help to a point. Maybe some special ear plugs would help? In any case, hopefully the doc can give me some suggestions.

I’m going to a small fun meet for paragliding in about 3 weeks which should be good. I should really get out flying at least a couple times between now and then, but I’ve been quite busy with other things lately, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m starting to feel happier about my decision to sell my tandem gear, because already, paragliding has taken a back seat to other things this year. I still have some flying goals I’d like to achieve this season, including doing a vol bivouac, so hopefully things will work out. My last XC flight was back in Nepal a few months ago – my goal is to hopefully do another one (even if it’s short) between now and the end of May.

This blog has moved

2010-04-17T00:05:00.001-06:00

This blog is now located at http://paraglidingfanatic.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://paraglidingfanatic.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Passing the Torch

2010-04-16T23:53:00.003-06:00

Today the opportunity to fly arose, and after exactly 4 weeks of not flying, today was the big day.

Bridal Falls was the site to be at, and so I got my stuff ready to go and as I stood on launch ready to reverse, I definitely had a case of the nerves. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so nervous about flying – maybe when I first started but certainly not recently.

There I was, at the same launch site I got hurt at before, and suddenly I felt different about paragliding. I started having horrible thoughts of collapses, ending up in a tree, but most of all, I felt scared that I would somehow hit my knee again.

The cycles at launch were pretty decent and were stronger and straighter than they had been the day I got hurt. I lifted my wing up about four times before I felt comfortable with a cycle, and when I finally picked one I ran down the hill the best I could, going, Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! every time I took a step, as my knee gave me a bit of pain.

I flew for just over an hour with a lot of other gliders. Lift was light and there was too much cirrus, but I enjoyed myself anyway. It was hard to get back up to launch height after taking off, so after a good half hour of being below launch, I set myself the goal of making my way back up there. Sure enough, after 20 minutes or so of trying, I did it! It was a nice little way of getting some satisfaction out what would have otherwise normally been a somewhat average flight.

I came in and did a bum landing, and all was well. A friend of mine and I were being silly and even did a couple cartwheels in the LZ! Funny, certain movements like running, and walking up and down stairs I find cause me discomfort, but doing a crappy cartwheel was ok!

This friend of mine is a really fun and sweet girl who flies A LOT. Her enthusiasm for paragliding is something that I’ve always admired, and whether the conditions are booming or super-light, she’s out there, ready to fly. She’s been flying for a long time now, and after finding out that she was interested in becoming a tandem pilot, I offered to sell her my tandem gear. She took the offer.

So, my tandem days are probably done for now. Why did I choose to get out of it? Basically, it’s hard to justify sitting on something that’s worth thousands of dollars without using it regularly. Living an hour and a half away from the main flying sites makes it a bit difficult to be able to do a lot of tandems, and with gas being expensive, it just didn’t end up being worth it to pursue commercially for me. It was a goal of mine to be a commercial tandem pilot, but sometimes when you crunch the numbers and they don’t make sense, it’s time to move on.

I really enjoyed doing tandems, and I don’t regret getting my certification or buying really great equipment one bit. My goal for a long time was to take my parents and my sister tandem and I achieved that goal last summer. There is a part of me that feels sad about not being able to share flying with others anymore, but I’m sure I could always borrow somebody’s equipment if I really felt the urge to take somebody flying although I think that’s fairly unlikely.

I am psyched for my friend, and I truly wish her all the best in her tandem flying career. It makes me feel better about “passing the torch” so to speak to somebody who not only I like personally, but who is a skilful pilot and a female pursuing something that few ever do.

The decision to sell my tandem gear was not related in any way to hurting my knee and was something I thought about for a long time during the winter months. Although I don’t think I’ll be flying tandem in the near future, I like to remind myself that circumstances change, and it could always happen that I choose to pursue it again. I did 45 tandems in all from four different launch sites and with a lot of different passengers. It was fun and I’d recommend it to any advanced pilot looking to learn new skills in the wonderful world of paragliding.

Tree Surfing at Bridal Falls

2010-03-20T17:13:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I headed out to Bridal Falls for my first flight of the season in the Fraser Valley. Conditions looked reasonable and as it was a bit early in the day for flying, three of us decided to hike up the mountain as some other pilots who were driving drove up our wings.

At launch, the wind was quite cross from the east at times, but there were also some straighter cycles. A few pilots launched before I did and when a good cycle pushed through, I did a reverse launch and started running.

When I was very close to the edge of launch, I could feel my wing start pulling me back. It was a split second decision I made at that point, and I decided to keep going. As I got airborne, I was quite low and immediately started hitting things. First a tree branch in the face, then I hit my knee on what I think was a tree trunk and then my left wing tip clipped a tree. When I saw my glider hit the tree, I thought I was done for and would be hanging from it the next second. I’d say about 20% of my wing hit but to my surprise, I just kept going and was soon clear of launch and in pain.

With adrenaline pumping, I was at this point hanging fully from my leg straps in a “starfish” position. I tried bending my knees to get into my harness properly but my right knee was in a lot of pain so I stayed in this position for a few minutes while assessing the conditions in the landing zone. I could see that there was very little wind and at that point I decided it be best to do a bum landing instead of landing on my feet and risk further injury to my knee.

With that in mind, I realized I had no choice but to sit in my harness properly. After a series of pull-ups using my harness and many attempts at some modified ab crunches while leaning backwards, I was finally able to pull myself up and sit down. Lift was everywhere, as is always the case when you want to land, but after about 15 minutes, I was able to set up and land safely. It was a stressful approach, but when I came in, I pulled my feet upwards and kept them straight and pointed in front of me, and simply took a wrap, and then another one, and then another, as my glider slowed I came into land with very light winds. With that, I was down on the soft grass in the middle of the LZ. This was the highlight of my flight - a smooth and uneventful landing!

I unclipped myself from my wing and radioed the pilots flying at Bridal for help. Fedja and Rob S. both came into land and helped administer first aid. They put my leg in some bandages and a splint and folded my glider. The pain was tolerable except when my knee was rotated in either direction. I knew I could not stand on it so when my boyfriend landed, he and some other pilots carried me to the car and we then drove to Chilliwack Hospital.

The treatment I received at the hospital was great. A doctor saw me in less than 5 minutes, ordered xrays and then came to tell me the good news: nothing broken, no fractures, just a good smack to the knee! He invited us to look at the xrays for ourselves, so we took a quick peek.

We were in and out of the hospital in about an hour and a half. They gave me some Tylenol and an injection of Toradol (used to decrease pain and inflammation) and told me to refrain from walking for the next couple days. They gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and pain medicine, but today the pain is much less and although my knee is very swollen and it’s difficult to walk, I don’t think it’s necessary to take any meds for it.

All in all, by the very definition of the word "accident", what happened yesterday was preventable. Had I stopped running when my glider started dipping, I think things would have worked out better. It can be tricky when launching sometimes as it is often better to keep going rather than to abort a launch in a dangerous area, but then again, the second you’re airborne and low, your risks increase as well.

I think I was unfortunate in that Bridal has a lot trees in front of launch and if you’re low, it’s very easy to clip them or in some cases, get stuck in one. However I was very lucky in that I managed to fly away and that my reserve handle wasn’t pulled, my glider wasn’t damaged, my lines didn’t snap, and that I was in good enough shape to manage a safe landing.

Paragliding can be a very humbling experience at times and yesterday was another reminder of that. I’m very thankful to Fedja and Rob S. for cutting their flights short and helping me in the LZ and to the other pilots for carrying me to the car and helping in whatever way they could. Thank you too to my boyfriend Greg, who took me to the hospital and carried me into a restaurant on the drive home! Yesterday’s flight is one for the logbook...

Parahawking in Nepal

2010-02-10T23:16:00.003-07:00

Although I had seen video clips of parahawking and read about it in magazines, I never thought that I would get to experience it when we booked our trip to Nepal. But after seeing the birds in the aviary at Maya Devi, I quickly realized that it was a rare opportunity to experience something incredibly unique while paragliding.

A day spent parahawking is broken up into three parts: a tandem ride, basic falconry lessons and then a solo flight with the birds. With the tandem, the bird (an Egyptian vulture) is released from launch by a handler and as the pilot blows a whistle, the passenger grabs bits of meat from a pouch and stuffs it between their thumb and forefinger and then extends their arm so that the bird lands and then feeds. This is all done with a leather glove on, of course, as a bare hand and sharp talons do not make a good combination!

After a couple of feedings, you definitely get the hang of it and in fact it’s quite simple. It’s funny to think of it as simple though, when one considers the amount of training involved to teach a bird that was once abused or rescued in some other way, to fly with paragliders. It truly is an amazing feat.

After that the falconry lesson consists of a very informative and interesting talk about birds of prey, their behaviours and some basic anatomy while a trainer holds one of the kites. Vicky was our falconer, and what a wealth of knowledge that woman is! Ask her any question and she has an answer.

You then handle a kite yourself and learn to call it from its perch onto your hand to feed. I was amazed at how light the bird I handled was! Less than a pound, she was all feather and no meat but had a very nice temperament.

Finally, the solo flight (the best part!) begins with a ride up to launch in a taxi with a bird handler and one of the vultures. Bob was my feathered friend for the day, and he was sooooo cute! His spiky feathers on the top of his head made me laugh, and when he waddled on the ground, he reminded me of a big silly chicken. Bob is brown and will be turning white, while Kevin(the other Egyptian vulture) has already malted into a beautiful white.

Once you launch your glider (with a leather glove, whistle and meat pouch on your chest strap), your bird is released. He starts finding thermals right away, and when you learn to trust him and go where he goes, you are quickly higher than everyone else and you get ready to feed him. It’s a bit tricky trying to manage your glider while grabbing bits of meat, putting it in your glove, whistling and then extending your arm for him to feed, but after a couple tries, it gets easier, and you develop a bit of a system. I was desperate to take pictures of Bob as I was already multitasking, but that was nearly impossible. Only when I went on a smooth glide could I manage to whip my camera out and snap some shots, most of which didn’t turn out. The rest of the time, I was concentrating on feeding Bob, making sure he flew away from the glider safely, all the while paying attention to where I was going, my height, and of course, other paragliders!

I did the parahawking with a friend, and for our solo flights, we were both working with Bob. I would say that for the solo flight, ideally you have two pilots of similar abilities and similar gliders and who launch as close together as possible, as my friend and I were split up quite quickly and I ended up being the bird hog for the day which on one hand was really cool, but on the other, didn’t make things fair.

It was super-sweet having a feathered friend to fly with, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Pokhara, Nepal. You can get in contact with Scott Mason who runs the parahawking at: http://www.parahawking.com.

For anyone concerned about the treatment of the birds, Scott is a falconer who has many years experience and the birds that are used for parahawking are rescued birds who would never survive in the wild on their own. They are treated well, are cared for by very trained staff and with every tandem flight or day spent parahawking, money is donated to vulture conservation funds in Nepal. Don’t miss your chance to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity!

A Celebration Gone Wrong

2010-02-05T03:16:00.001-07:00

A European pilot lost his life paragliding today. I do not know his name or exact nationality. I will say what I know, but will not claim it to be fact as I would not want to dishonour him by recounting events that happened differently. Although the circumstances surrounding his death seem fairly certain, there is always a chance that things aren't the way them seem.

This pilot was experienced and in celebration of his 200th flight here in Pokhara, he decided to jump from his glider into the lake. Unfortunately he jumped from too high (20 meters) and hit the water chest first and did not surface. His harness attached to his wing slowly floated away, but he was nowhere to be found.

I didn't see it happen, but was there when the chaos ensued trying to find this man. An ambulance never arrived (perhaps someone canceled it?), and the police were slow to show up. Some efforts on the part of the locals were made to locate the pilot, but it was more that fellow pilots jumped into the lake with snorkels and fins, or grabbed kayaks and other boats, in a race against time to find him. The murky waters made things difficult, and they returned to shore empty-handed.

The local officials are presently trying to recover his body with a couple of row boats with barbed wire stringed between them to scrape the bottom of the lake. It sounds barbaric, but organizing a dive team does not seem like a possibility out here.

I am saddened by the loss of a fellow pilot and I offer my sincerest condolences to his family and friends, some of whom witnessed the event.

This morning I went parahawking and although the flight was amazing, I will write about things in my next post as I don't feel it's appropriate here. I hope I do not offend anybody by writing about today's events, but I feel that it would be more disrespectful not to write about them at all.

Rest in peace fellow pilot.

Mini XC in Nepal

2010-02-02T04:29:00.001-07:00

Our four day paragliding trek went really well and was overall a very good experience. Our adventures included visiting an elementary school where we were each given at least a couple dozen flower necklaces (leis), having some local ladies dance for us while offering us home-brew alcohol (Roxy) from a Jerry can, and of course, the paragliding. I think everyone from our group had at least one great flight and whether it was flying in amongst the clouds or simply marveling at the height of Himalayas, it was an experience to remember.

Flying with vultures is extremely common here, and boy, are they huge! It's quite intimidating flying with these massive birds who are so curious about paragliders that they will literally fly wingtip to wingtip with you. Although there have been cases where the birds have collided with gliders, the best advice I was given is to simply thermal the same direction as the birds. That way, it is less likely that they will collide with your lines and you can enjoy your flight with these majestic creatures. I've certainly never flown so close to birds before – these ones will follow you, check you out and as you fly, you can literally make eye contact with them – how cool is that!

Distance-wise, we had to fly from one site to another on two out of the four days, and thankfully I made it! A couple times I got low, but managed to climb my way back up again, usually thanks to the plentiful birds who marked the thermals. The distances were never huge – around 20k's or so, but it sure is nice when you don't have to find your own retrieve after landing out.

Every day is flyable here although like anywhere, some days are definitely better than others. I haven't flown for the last couple of days as after the trek I wanted a bit of a break to check out other things, but now that I'm ready to fly again, my stomach is not allowing me! Everyone in our group has experienced stomach problems since arriving here and I guess it was finally my turn. That's the crappy (ha ha ha!) thing about Nepal – you'll likely be bound to the toilet at some point during your trip.

I'm still here for another week and I'd like to do some more cross-country around Pokhara. I'd like to try a new route, so we'll see how that goes. I could do without riding the public bus again for retrieve, so my goal is to always land back at Lakeside! In any case, it'll be good to get in the air again.

Taking In Nepal

2010-01-25T04:46:00.002-07:00

After spending a couple of days in Hong Kong (which is a really great city) and 36 hours in Kathmandu (which must be the one of the worst places on the face of this earth) and then surviving a 5 hour bus ride where I had to close my eyes for most of it, I arrived in Pokhara, Nepal.

Nepal is interesting. It is a lot more “Indian” than I ever thought it would be and it certainly feels different from any place I've ever visited before. Things are cheap here – you can easily get a hotel room for under $10 US and have a really great meal for $5. Unfortunately the power and internet is out for a lot of the day and a hot shower seems to be a luxury. The air isn't the cleanest and the Nepalese seem to have incorporated spitting as part of their culture. It's pretty gross considering the irony, as the shopkeepers have an incredible sense of pride in taking care of their storefronts, sweeping the streets, dusting their inventory and making sure everything is spotless. But then they spit a big loogie on the sidewalk and suddenly the immaculate feel to their storefront disappears.

The people for the most part are very nice, but are extremely aggressive when it comes to selling you pretty much anything. You can't walk 5 feet down the streets of Pokhara without being asked if you want a cab ride, a hotel, or to buy a knock off North Face jacket, or even some hash or weed!

Yesterday was my first time flying here in Asia and I had a really great flight. After four months of not flying and having a bit of an off-season in terms of my attitude towards paragliding, that flight definitely rekindled my interest in flying.

It was really great meeting up with our pilot group from Canada and going for a fly together. We didn't go XC (unless you count 5k's as XC) but bobbing around a hill in a new part of the world with people whose company you enjoy is a pretty fun time to me.

With today's flight, I got nice and high right away and without my Canadian buds, I crossed one of the valleys and tried to fly that range there. It was funny because I felt kind of smug at one point before the crossing, out-thermalling a couple Boom 5's and feeling rather confident, until I crossed over to the other side and couldn't find lift for the life of me. Suddenly, all the gliders I was once above, schooled me just about to the ground. Luckily, I made a low save and did some ridge soaring for a bit until I made a classic beginner's mistake – I did one too many 360's and suddenly found myself behind the ridge and not very high – ooooh, how amateurish!

Anyway, I flew away as fast as I could from the ridge on the rotor side, flying through some rotor sink, but it didn't end up being too bad. I landed in an already harvested terraced farm field as three ladies looked on. After landing, they immediately greeted me with the warm Nepalese greeting of “Namaste”. and helped me pack my glider. My boyfriend landed with me shortly and after saying our goodbye's to the nice ladies, two young girls came and walked us to the main road where we could catch a bus. The one girl spoke a bit of English and I enjoyed asking her simple questions as she held my hand and guided me towards the road.

We had perfect timing as we waved down the bus immediately and we climbed onto the roof with our gliders.

My god, that must have been the most terrifying bus ride of my life! There were low powerlines hanging everywhere, and we ended up constantly ducking until I finally gave up and laid down uncomfortably on the bus roof as round metal bars dug into my back. After 15 or 20 minutes of this, we spotted some taxis and got off the bus and went back to our hotel. I would argue that my boyfriend and I were almost decapitated and electrocuted during our bus ride, but he thought it was only slightly wild, so you decide.

In a couple of days we are going on a 4 day guided paragliding trek to do some flying. I am really looking forward to it – great flying, great people, and 11,000 kilometers from home!

It's Time to Run Away Again

2010-01-12T23:04:00.005-07:00

First off, I have been receiving a lot of blog comments lately, even on posts that were written a couple of years ago. I just wanted to say Thank You to all of you who read my blog and provide me with encouragement along the way. It really does mean a lot and keeps me motivated to keep writing. Thanks so much!!!

I said I wouldn’t update my blog until I fly again, but this post is only breaking that rule by a very short amount of time - I’m off to Nepal!

Some of my friends who I have travelled with to France and the Dominican will be there to join in on the fun, and I’m really looking forward to flying with them again. I haven’t flown for four months now – I barely feel like a pilot and I hope I remember how to do that thermalling thingy.

I’m a bit of a sucker for cute kids and on this trip, I’ll be bringing along some little gifts to pass out along the way, especially when I land somewhere after flying.

I read a guide book about Nepal, and there was a comment about how tourists are silly to be handing out trinkets to locals, presumably, because it encourages them to bother all tourists for handouts. I definitely see this side of the coin and I agree that I don’t want to be hounded everywhere I go and being asked for some sort of donation. On the other hand, growing up in poverty is surely difficult and because money is funny, (how much do you give, when is enough, is it appropriate, etc.) especially when it comes to children, a little gift with a bit of Canadiana should hopefully be OK. I don’t want to set some sort of precedent with the locals that a paraglider pilot = gifts, but when you have so much compared to a poor child, I think it’s a nice gesture.

I have 50 of these handcrafted little baggies for both girls and boys – where the hell am I going to find room in my harness for them???

I will update my blog when I can during my travels as from the sounds of it, the internet should be fairly easily accessible. Expect an update in around two weeks! Adios Amigos!

Flying Dry Spell

2009-11-03T21:08:00.007-07:00

It's been almost two months since I last posted here, but my excuse is pretty good: I haven't been flying.

This year was a bit funny for me. My enthusiasm for paragliding dwindled and my passion for the sport, although there, wasn't nearly as strong as it has been in the last few years.

It's funny how your priorities can change. A couple years ago I was so gung-ho about flying and fantasized about being an amazing tandem pilot, doing competitions and doing well, and blowing everyone out of the water with my sweet acro moves. I kept up my enthusiasm for quite some time, but then the realities of other life related things took over, and now other goals and ambitions have superseded being the ultimate paragliding goddess.

I'm not about to quit the sport or anything, but my attitude has changed to flying when I want to (not because I'm being forced to, etc.) and landing when I'm not having fun anymore. That's what I did this summer and I clocked about 50 hours, whereas the pilots around me clocked twice or three times that.

I do miss flying, but I'm not going through any withdrawal since my last flight. I'm also OK with the reality of probably not flying for the next couple months.

A possible trip to Nepal is in the cards in the new year, and I would most definitely do some paragliding out there. Nothing is confirmed at the moment, but regardless, that would still mean a minimum of three more months without any flying.

In any case, I try not to bore you, the reader, with blogs posts just for the sake of posting, so I will not be updating my blog until I fly again. This is a temporary hiatus for me, and I will be back. You can count on that.

A Shockingly Small World

2009-09-13T19:40:00.000-06:00

Yesterday my boyfriend and I were asked if we could do tandems for one of the schools and if we could also give a ride out to the Valley to a passenger who lived nearby. The strange coincidences began right away...

A background: the girl who used to live in my apartment was someone I got to know as, long story short, she first rented her apartment out to me until we arranged for me to simply take over her lease. Anyway, at one point she asked me if I needed a TV as one of her friends didn’t need hers anymore. I said “sure”, and a few days later, I found myself taking a TV out of the vehicle of a girl who I had only met for a few seconds.

Back to the tandems – after talking to our tandem passenger, we very quickly discovered that she was the one who had given me her TV a few months prior! Weird!!!

We chatted about the girl who used to live in my apartment thinking it was a strange coincidence that she connected us with the TV. She then mentioned how they used to be roommates, worked together, etc. Then she mentioned that she used to work for one of the airlines, and we soon realized that she used to work with my boyfriend’s friend’s wife! Weird again!!!

The day was HOT and stable and we both did 3 tandems. It was kind of an odd day as there wasn’t a blip of lift anywhere until late in the afternoon, and even then the bubbles were so small, not one pilot could manage anything more than a sledder.

We drove back to my place and as I entered the building, I almost died – there was the girl who used to live in my unit! She lives in the same building as me however I see her less than once a month, if that. Her friend had already called her to tell her about the tandems and the strange coincidence of meeting again, so we chatted for a bit about paragliding and such.

Metro Vancouver’s population is around 600,000 (Greater Vancouver is over 2 million) so chances were slim I’d meet the free TV girl again, nevermind being the tandem passenger we were to drive to the flying site! Super strange day and a good reminder that the world can be a very, very small place.

BANNED at Wasa!

2009-09-12T20:13:00.005-06:00

A few days ago we headed to Wasa (not far from Cranbrook) to do some flying. The road up to launch is great – it’s long (14k’s) but it is 2 wheel drive and in very good condition.

When we got to launch the cycles were a bit cross but the conditions seemed pretty good. The launch is fairly steep and I had a bit of trouble inflating my glider as the leading edge kept falling onto itself and as the ground is uneven, I found myself being a bit scared that I’d step funny and sprain my ankle. But anyway, that thankfully didn’t happen, although I did have to run after my harness as it decided to start tumbling down the hill!

Anyway, once airborne we did some ridge soaring and then I finally got a good climb off one of the northern knobs. The wind was fairly strong and conditions were a bit bumpy for my taste. I got to base, decided that flying the main range was too intimidating for the conditions, so I didn’t go anywhere exciting. I was a bit scared on that flight for some reason, so I opted to try and topland so I could drive the car down.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha, why is it that when you try toplanding, launch is surrounded by a 3 kilometre radius that is lifting at 2 m/s?! Ok, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration on size, but after flying way in front, and on both sides of launch, I could find nothing but 2 m/s lift, so opted to go and land in Lloyd’s field instead.

Now, a few weeks ago I headed to Wasa and a few of us stopped at Lloyd’s to introduce ourselves. Lloyd is a very old man who owns a huge field where he allows paragliders to land. He only asks that you introduce yourself.

I landed in Lloyd’s field, put my glider by some trees in the shade, and started walking to his house to thank him for allowing paragliders to land there. Lloyd wasn’t around but his wife was there and we had a lovely chat for almost an hour, where she invited me inside, showed me her dried flowers, etc. A super nice woman.

As I started walking back towards my glider I could see a vehicle parked nearby. As I got closer I could see that it was an old man, so I asked "Is that you Lloyd?" Lloyd was pissed!!! He started yelling at me telling me how I wasn’t supposed to land in his field without his permission, how I was being disrespectful, how all paragliders are bad people, etc. etc.

I explained to him that we had met before and that I had asked for his permission a few weeks prior. He then countered by saying "You have to ask me EVERY time you want to land here!!!!" A bit of a misunderstanding, as I thought asking for permission once was enough.

We continued on and as I tried to defend myself, explaining I had just talked to his wife, just left my glider by the trees so it was out of sight and not because I wanted to jump the fence, knew that I had to leave the field by the logs, thought I only needed to ask him permission once to land, etc. he wouldn’t have any of it. "Balony!!!" the old man would shout, and I quickly realized no matter what I said, he wouldn’t believe me. "You can’t land here anymore!" he said and then went on to say that he had already called somebody to confiscate my glider as he physically couldn’t, and that I was lucky it wasn’t gone already.

I felt terrible for making the old man angry and asked him if there was any way I could make it up to him. "NO!" he shouted and drove off.

Pretty shitty ending to a flight, especially when you make an honest mistake and you’re given no mercy. It was a total misunderstanding and after talking to a local pilot, he kind of laughed and said that’s the way Lloyd is and there is no changing his mind when he has an opinion.

Anyway, I was pretty bummed about making the literally, 90 year old man with a pacemaker angry, but we ended up going up to launch again for another flight.

I wasn’t too keen on flying, but finally convinced myself to go and after standing on launch for a LONG time for a very light straight, and not cross cycle, I went. Unfortunately for me, as I did a forward inflation and didn’t see anything wrong, I had a big knot on my upper brake line cascade so the glider kept turning to the right and of course, felt really strange in the air.

It worked out okay though as I made primarily left turns and weight shifted to the right and I landed fine in a field that certainly wasn’t Lloyds!

SAT Arm

2009-08-30T23:21:00.001-06:00

For me, the season has been pretty decent for paragliding but one thing that has been lacking until now has been anything even remotely close to acro.

We went up a spot near Pemberton this weekend to join a group of guys that were doing some boat towing. Exciting for me especially because I had never previously towed behind a boat – only a vehicle.

My first tow, was…pretty embarrassing!!! I find that paragliding has a funny way of reminding you that you’ve always got lots to learn and kind of bitch-slaps you once in a while and says “you suck!” only to then reward you later with feelings of utter bliss. On my first tow, to keep this short and sweet, let’s just say that it was a combination of pilot error, a bit of a misunderstanding, and a possible tangle that had my glider end up in a small tree and me landing in the sand. I will stress the pilot error part though – I take responsibility as my arms were too far back initially, etc. etc. The good news was that the boat operator stopped immediately, my glider essentially stopped me, I didn’t get hurt, I didn’t get dragged, and my glider was fine!

Anyway, after that humbling experience, I went for it again, launched fine, and soon found myself at 3000’ nervously laughing at the prospect of doing some sort of manoeuvre. I did a couple full stalls, and tried some big wingovers – nothing overly eventful happened, which was good!

Essentially after my first flight, I primarily tried SAT’ing, did a B-line (kind of a useless manoeuvre but I had the strength to pull one, so yeah!), tried some spins, and did more wingovers. I definitely need WAY more practice with my SATs and wingovers – my SAT’s are spins or weird spirals most of the time and the second I feel like I’m going over my glider with wingovers, I kind of freak out, and basically spiral out of it. I don’t apply enough outside brake on my wingovers, which is also my problem and a worry too, that when my wingovers get bigger, the “whack!” will be bigger, which is something I have experienced many times!

In any case, it’s all DAMN fun! Practicing acro is fun, when you actually “get it”, that’s fun, when you realize there’s way more to learn, that’s fun, and when you know that there’s always water beneath you in case you get it wrong, that becomes a fun part too!

It was a great weekend overall, even though my very sore arm muscles currently feel like they have been horribly, horribly, abused. I’d also like to thank my special coach who helped me out on the radio when he saw how my lame solo attempts had me doing everything but what I wanted to do, and then showed me the way.

Unfortunately my camera’s whereabouts are unknown at the moment which was a big bummer for me this weekend, but hopefully it will turn up soon so that I have some pictures to post here for next time. The season’s not over yet!

Milestone

2009-08-18T10:54:00.001-06:00

When I first got my tandem rating last year, I looked forward to the day I could take my parents tandem – last Saturday, that day came.

The weather didn’t look great as we travelled to the Fraser valley; moisture from the previous days was hanging around in the form of low clouds and the forecast didn’t call for much sun either. As rain wasn’t in the forecast, I still remained positive it would be flyable somewhere.

Mt. Woodside was pretty much the only mountain in the valley that had clouds below peak height, whereas Bridal Falls and Elk Mountain seemed out of the question. We managed to snag a ride with one of the pilots and soon we were up at launch.

My dad has always shown a bit of an interest in paragliding, but strapping him into the passenger harness was definitely a bit strange. Sometimes you wait for a day to come for a long time and when it arrives, you’re not sure how to feel. I probably gave him a 15 minute briefing, triple and quadruple checking he was strapped in properly. The second you’re responsible for your own family members, it’s like you feel you need to overcompensate for what you’re about to do.

We had a great launch – as good as it could ever be and as we flew away from the mountain, my dad fiddled with his camera, looking down, almost blissfully unaware of how high we were. Needless to say, he wasn’t scared and felt totally comfortable. We flew straight into the valley as my vario barely made a beep, and when he gave me permission to do a spiral dive, that’s exactly what we did!

He admitted that it was a bit scary but as we didn’t have loads of height, we didn’t stay in it for more than a few rotations and it was soon time to land. A happy landing, and a happy flight.

Upon getting to launch the second time to take my mom tandem, some tandem pilots were talking about how when they took their moms tandem, things happened, and it didn’t end up being the best of a flight. Naturally, my anxiety level went up a bit, but confidence in what I was doing kept me balanced.

Our launch was good – a bit lacking in form but otherwise fine – and we were soon airborne. I could have scratched a bit looking for lift but it looked like an awful lot of work, so I flew straight again to the landing zone.

Barely one rotation into the spiral dive, my mom asked me to stop, so I did and we flew around a bit until we had a nice landing in the tandem field where my dad was waiting.

One word to sum up the flights: Phew!

After five years of flying, I am happy that this year I took my sister and both my parents tandem – something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Although I don’t think any of them will ever do a solo flight, I’m glad that they got to experience something I tend to talk about a lot.

Knowing what it feels like to run off a mountain with only a paraglider above your head is pretty cool and I’m happy I got to share it with my folks this weekend.

A memorable milestone.

Lakeside Event 2009!

2009-08-18T10:31:00.001-06:00

A combination of busyness and waiting for pictures made me late in writing about the Lakeside Event, as it happened over a week ago, but here’s my post!

We arrived in Invermere Friday night and it was surprisingly windy. All night the tent shook as the wind howled and it was only until morning that it died down. The next day was beautiful; hot and sunny and forecast to be flyable all day.

I had never flown off Mt. Swansea before so this year’s Lakeside Event was special for me! I can’t say I was crazy about the steep 20 minute hike up from the parking lot but I am obviously out of shape, so perhaps it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

The launch is nice – there is both a south and west launch and conditions looked great when we arrived at the top. After launching, I did a couple small turns in a weak thermal (it was pretty early) and headed towards the beach.

The purpose of the Lakeside Event is that it’s a spot landing competition for both paragliders and hang gliders. Paragliders try to land in an inner-tube in an inflatable pool while hang gliders try to land on an inner-tube in the lake. First prize is $500 for each discipline, $300 for second place, and $100 for third, so the incentive to win is pretty big!

As I set up my approach, I eyed the inflatable pool and told myself aloud that I would land in it! Yes, I talk to myself sometimes in the air! Sure enough, I timed my approach well and, whoo hoo! One foot in the inner tube!

I climbed out of the pool with my harness wet and watched as my boyfriend came into land.

Now, he has won the event in the past before, so I watched him very carefully. As he came in on final, he was, well, high! He arrived 10 feet or so above the pool, but he slowed his glider all the way down and basically plopped right in! Dammit!!!

Ok, so I was happy for him, but being competitive means I always want to win. The announcer mentioned we were tied for third and after drying our reserves and repacking them, we headed back up to launch.

There was a bit of development to the west and as the wind picked up, we kept an eye on it. I wasn’t sure how things would shape up with the weather and as I could see some wind on a small lake, so I decided to launch and fly straight out to do another spot landing. Others thermalled and soared for a while, but as I wasn’t entirely happy with the development in the distance and figured that if the wind picked up any more, I wouldn’t be able to make it to the beach, so I didn’t bother trying to stay up, and instead prepped myself once more for landing in the pool!

My second attempt wasn’t nearly as successful: I landed on my ass about 4 feet short of the pool – boo! Remembering my boyfriend’s technique of overshooting then practically stalling your glider, I was anxious to see his second attempt.

Sure enough, history repeated itself, and his technique had him land in the pool once more! Both of his feet went into the inner tube, but as the wind was light, his feet dragged the inner tube to the edge of the pool and his glider overshot him. Still a bulls-eye, but the judges deducted him on style points.

After everyone had landed, we all enjoyed a dinner buffet after which prizes were awarded. The organizer of the meet made my boyfriend decide if he wanted to award the third place prize to me, and as he would not allow us to share the prize, my boyfriend ditched me and instead accepted the prize himself!

I was glad that some of the fellow pilots told my boyfriend that he was dumb for not awarding the prize to me. I mean, it’s not about who had a more precise landing – it’s about making your girlfriend happy by letting her win! Jeez, some men need to be reminded of these things!

Anyway, I politely clapped for him, totally not meaning it, and was interested to learn that a very new pilot had won first prize for the paragliding class! A definite shocker for those who seem to do well year after year, but a nice little shake-up at the event.

The party afterwards involved a live almost-all-girl rock band, and the usual boat races. If you don’t know what the boat races entail, you’ll just have to go to the Lakeside Event or the Panorama Easter Meet and find out for yourself.

The Lakeside Event, by far, provided the most value out of any sort of meet I have ever been to. The $50 entry fee included rides up to launch, a dinner, a cool t-shirt, a chance to win prize money, and an almost guaranteed prize at the prize giveaway after the awards. My number was picked almost last at the prize giveaway and yet I still got a paragliding DVD!

Lakeside was great – it’s definitely high on the priority list for next summer.

Last Flights in Golden

2009-08-04T14:51:00.006-06:00

Well, the Willi is over and my flying in Golden has come to an end this year. I didn't have any more epic flights after my 66k out and return as conditions were, well, weird.

The typical Golden "holy shit lift" wasn't really there and if anything, conditions were tricky as they involved lots of scratching at times and being quite technical in terms of where to go to find lift, glide lines, etc. As I don't enjoy flying in rough air below peak height in Golden, I wussed out more than once and only flew 10k's or so before coming back to the main landing zone. I'll write more about this topic later. I still somehow managed to get 3rd place in my category though which was a nice surprise.

There were three big gust fronts during the Willi and in all three cases, pilots were in the air. The first gust front had about 8 pilots or so still flying (hang and para) and that one you could see from the air. I'm not sure if the other two were especially obvious as this year Golden had a lot of strange haze which sometimes obscured dark clouds...in other words, it was difficult to tell sometimes if the haze was from forest fires, was a thunderstorm, rain, or what it was. Bizarre.

It was great seeing everyone again and I had fun catching up with folks. It was especially hot this year (30 degrees Celsius almost every day) and there was a fire ban which kind of broke the party-mode pilots are usually in, but then again there are lots of fires burning out of control in BC so I think it's a good idea. Here was one I drove by on my way home that was between Merritt and Hope:

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure what my flying plans are at the moment...I may go to Invermere for the Lakeside Event, or Pemberton once the fires nearby are controlled, or who knows. In a perfect world I'd be flying in Annecy, France right now, but maybe next year I can make that happen. Until then, I'll have to have some local flying adventures only!

A Golden Day

2009-07-29T19:06:00.001-06:00

This morning I woke up knowing I’d fly some sort of distance today. It was just a feeling, but I prepped myself mentally and for the first time ever slid on an adult diaper (ha ha ha!), totally ready to be in the air for hours!

The forecast didn’t call for overdevelopment, but the wind had an easterly component again which in Golden isn’t exactly ideal. Thankfully however, it didn’t turn out to be a big deal, and flying was pretty cruisey. Plenty of cumulous clouds filled the sky and there were at least 20 gliders (hang and para) who started flying south, downrange.

It was pretty fun and climbs were decent. A bit choppy at times, but hey, this is Golden. Like on many cross–country days, things were easier if you stayed high, as climbs lower down were lighter and as the wind had an easterly component to it, they were also a bit leeside.

After flying 33k’s, I noticed the pilots ahead of me were getting low and some were hitting the deck. There were plenty of clouds, but with that came a lot of shade. I then saw a couple competition pilots turn around and to try flying back to the main LZ. It was more a case of monkey-see-monkey-do than my own decision-making, admittedly, but that’s exactly what I did too.

I got low once on the way back, but flying back was quicker than flying there. Lots of big sink holes, but I did manage to make it, so all in all, it was a really good day. A personal best for me in terms of an out and return flight (66k's!) which was great. I peed in the air for the first time too! Competition-wise the extra bonus is that out and returns count for more points than straight distance and landing back at the main LZ entitles you to an extra 100 points which is the equivalent of 10k’s straight distance. Not that the Willi is an especially competitive competition, but hey, it’s always nice to do OK.

I didn’t take any pictures from the air as I forgot to bring my camera, but I’ll try to do so tomorrow. Hopefully it’ll be another good day!

Too Close to Utter and Total Carnage

2009-07-26T20:30:00.004-06:00

Oh Golden! You never cease to provide excitement.

Yesterday was my first time flying out here in around a year and it’s good to be back. I love Golden not only because of the flying but also because it’s a chance to catch up with fellow pilots who you end up seeing only once a year and only out here.

The forecast called for thunderstorms in the afternoon but that’s typically not surprising out here with such a big valley system. I ended up flying around Mt. Seven for a little while after heading south towards Pegliarrow (the next mountain over). Climbs were pretty strong and choppy at times but nothing unmanageable. After getting to Pegliarrow and getting higher than I had previously been, I could see that the wind had an easterly component to it which meant we had been flying in the lee around Mt.Seven. I climbed to about 9000 ft or so and started heading towards the next mountain past Pegliarrow when my vario started croaking and I started going down at 4 mp/s then 5 mp/s, then 6 mp/s and thought “shit, I’m in rotor here somehow” even though I was directly above the ridge (clearly not enough east however with so much wind). Sure enough WHACK! I got a bit collapse.

I’ve had collapses before (duh), but this was by far my most spectacular. I can’t even recount exactly what happened but it was like a slow motion SIV course where I controlled a big surge, saw my wing below me off to the side, went weightless, fought additional collapses, etc. (not in that order of course!) Anyway, this lasted for maybe 5 or 6 seconds where I basically shat my pants and decided I didn’t want to play paragliding anymore, so I ran away from the mountain as quickly as I could.

I crossed the valley to the other side, flew just past Sanders Lake, tried to fly back to launch to attempt a mini FAI triangle and landed. Total distance: 23 k’s. Total time crapping myself: probably 1/3 of the flight after my SIV show.

Throughout my flight there was a cu-nim sitting around 50 k’s downrange or so to the south. I saw it, everyone saw it. Some people flew towards it (but not toooo close), turned round and came back. A couple other pilots saw it after launching and decided not to head towards it at all. I thought it was OK during my time flying towards it but then again, I never got especially close at all.

I landed at the main landing zone, took a shower, came back and noticed that the cell was much closer and the sky turned milky. The pilots in the air were being sent to the moon! They were going up everywhere without turning and almost everyone had big ears on. Some people got down just in time, before the wind really started to pick up. First to 30 kmph, then 40, then gusts to around 55 kmph!

Some hangliders managed to squeeze in some landings, and they were not pretty. I never EVER want to see something like that again - people fucking pounding into the ground like rag dolls. Amazingly, the hangglider pilots managed to walk away and were fine.

The paraglider pilots who were still in the air were getting collapses closer to the ground and most still tried to push upwind. They were getting blown back obviously and we’d just see them disappear behind the trees towards the town of Golden. Long story short, one guy landed in a school yard, another in the swamp, another at the airport, and another in a railyard, etc. And you know what? They are all fine. Other than some cuts and scrapes and one guy with a tailbone injury, everyone was OK.

It blows my mind that nobody got seriously injured. It was absolutely horrifying seeing people fly in that sort of air and reaffirms my respect for flying in Golden. Big cloud development is not a funny thing here and you have to respect what comes along with it - gust fronts from far away. I’m not being preachy as it could have happened to me too, but hell, if I start seeing wind in the valley or clouds growing, you bet I keep an eye on it and if I get scared, I land asap. If it means I fly less distance than everyone else, so be it.

A paraglider pilot out in Revelstoke didn’t get so lucky as the pilots here in Golden as he also got caught in a gust front yesterday. A broken knee, a broken wrist, a broken arm, a broken leg (all on different limbs!!!), and an injury to his L4 – fuck, how terrible would that be?

Anyway, it’s not my place to lecture anyone about safe flying – pilots make their own decisions and hell, some of the pilots who got caught in the shit yesterday were a lot more experienced than I am. I’m just happy that nobody died, everyone will heal, and that everyone learned something so that it hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, never happens again.

Hot & Sticky at the Bridal Falls Air Races (BFAR)

2009-07-14T12:25:00.003-06:00

BFAR is an annual event hosted by the West Coast Soaring Club here in BC to raise money for the club.

Solo pilots pay an entry fee for a chance to win tasks including highest altitude, furthest flight, best picture, etc. Tandem pilots are asked to do free tandems where all proceeds are donated back to the club. There are t-shirts for sale as well as a steak dinner where tickets are also sold.

It is quite a popular event and on the weekend it was my first time participating.

I was asked to do tandems, and they went very well. I had excellent passengers who were super-stoked and we had great launches and landings. It's nice when tandem flying comes together so well.

The organization of the event was also excellent and the weather for flying was great, but man, it was too freaking hot! It was over 30 degrees Celcius for sure, and my guess is that it was more like 35. In any case, I am a big baby when it comes to heat. After doing my second tandem, I didn't feel too well and after being offered a chance to do some solo flying, I declined and instead drove home missing the dinner and a live band. I didn't feel well that night, but the next morning was worse as I started throwing up and I felt like I had a terrible hangover. Needless to say, I didn't do any flying that day.

After spending 5 months in Australia, one would think that I've become accustom to the sun, but after getting sick in AUS, it's almost as if I'm more sensitive than ever. Super-sucky...I drank TONS of water Saturday night and throughout the day as well, wore a hat, and tried to be in the shade as much as possible. Next time I suppose I have to do these things even moreso.

In any case, attending BFAR was very cool. At one point there was more than 40 gliders in the air and people along the Trans Canada hiway were stopping to take pictures. It's a great event to raise the profile for paragliding and money for the club.

Flying-wise, I won't be doing any anything for just under two weeks, at which point I'll be heading to Golden. I'll be there for over a week and my goal is to fly my first 100k's - can't wait!

Birthday Paragliding!

2009-06-30T10:27:00.002-06:00

On Sunday my boyfriend and I drove to Pemberton (approximately 3 hours north of Vancouver) to do some flying. I was pretty stoked as “mini-Golden” is a site I’d been wanting to fly for a long time, and it was cool that we were finally making it happen.

Unfortunately Sunday was totally blown out but it ended up being fun anyway as we kept getting lost looking for campgrounds and did a lot of driving on roads not meant for cars which in the end was kind of comical.

Yesterday (my birthday!) looked more promising when we awoke and after a nice fancy breakfast, we met up with some pilots in the LZ and got a ride up to launch.

The launch at Pemberton is quite nice and is well-maintained. A few pilots launched but didn’t really manage to extend their flights as there wasn’t much for thermals. We waited a bit, and after an hour or so we decided it was time to go. I found a light climb almost immediately, which turned into a very smooth 4 m/s that got us nice and high. My boyfriend at that point was with me in the same thermal and yelled for me to “GO!” downrange.

The climbs after that were pretty messy, and not especially pleasant. They weren’t as strong as the first thermal we flew in, and they were just kind of annoying! I would stick in the messy climbs for a while but then decided to keep pushing forward, looking for something better a little more organized. But one mountain short of the ridge splitting, I could feel and see on gps that we were then punching a headwind and flying into the lee of the mountain ahead of me was not something I was especially interested in doing. I certainly didn’t want to have any big birthday assymetrics!

At that point I flew into the valley and my goal was to fly back to the main landing zone (about 10 k’s away). I mentally pretended that it was a competition day and that goal was at the main LZ and that I could only use thermals that were in the valley.

I had a bit of a tailwind, and it turned out to be very surprisingly buoyant over the valley. I didn’t have to thermal to get back, and even had a bit of height to play with when I arrived. My boyfriend ended up following me and after landing, agreed that continuing to fly down the range probably wouldn’t have been very fun.

I kited my glider for a bit, smiling that I had such a cool birthday flight. After taking a dip in a lake and having a nice dinner, we headed home.

From the one flight I had in Pemberton, it is definitely a beautiful valley to fly in and it does draw parallels with Golden. I can’t wait to go back and do some huge XC!

Grouse Mountain Flying

2009-06-24T15:08:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I flew Grouse Mountain for the first time as a guest of Nicole's.

Conditions didn't seem especially inspiring and I figured we would all just get in a sledder, but a pilot who launched as we went up the chairlifts showed us that there definitly was lift out there.

Grouse is an interesting site; first off, you have to be a member of the Grouse Flying Team to fly there and after flying yesterday, I understand why. The launch is fine, although it is parallel to a chairlift which you have to fly over. The landing zone is also quite tricky as it's small with a hill behind it and surrounded on three sides with tall trees.

After launching, I flew around for about an hour, regretting that my camera was in an inaccessible pocket and that I couldn't take pictures from the air. The view was very pretty, even though downtown Vancouver was somewhat hazy. On a nice clear day, I think Grouse would be a beautiful site to fly.

There were about 15 of us or so who flew yesterday which was pretty unexpected. I have a new respect for the tandem pilots who fly there - I hope someday I can build my skills up to a point where I would feel comfortable flying tandem from a site like Grouse.

All in all, it was great to fly Grouse; going up the tram and then taking a chairlift to launch is a really cool experience, something that would be awesome to have on every mountain! It's nice to also know that I have flying site only half an hour or so from my place - sweet.

Wedding Tandems

2009-06-21T19:17:00.009-06:00

Yesterday a friend of mine got married and as he had his ceremony at one of the local paragliding school's ranch, he asked me along with another tandem pilot to take his photographer and videographer tandem to get some aeriel footage.

I was pretty skeptical that it would happen at all; the forecast called for rain and I figured that if it were sunny it would be windy and we wouldn't have much height to play with over the ranch.

But I went along anyway, launched when we were told to, and surprisingly found some good climbs that got us nice and high. We were to fly over the ranch at 12:30, and we got there at about 12:35. I noticed that the ceremony looked a bit funny from the air as people were standing all over the place and I couldn't see any action happening.

We landed fine, packed up, and walked towards the wedding guests only to find out that the bride was late! 45 minutes later she showed up, and the ceremony took place. I was pretty happy - I had never been to a wedding before so it was cool for me to see the actual ceremony.

Later I took one of the wedding guests tandem which was a lot of fun. It was quite windy by then, and it didn't help that he was a skinny guy, but he really enjoyed the flight and should be taking lessons soon. Very cool. When we landed a couple young kids were dressing up in my tandem passenger gear pretending to be pilots - so cute!

I had a little bit too much "fun" during the reception and took advantage of the free wine which had me paying the price this morning. All in all, it was a good day and I am still amazed that we were able to pull off the tandems exactly how they should have gone. Paragliding doesn't usually work that way...

Congratulations to Jason and Crystal Warner!

That Little Moment of Zen

2009-06-19T23:37:00.003-06:00

Although the weather did not look promising this morning, I had tandems to do, so I made my way out into the Fraser Valley today.

I still find tandems very interesting and they most definitely excite me. Admittedly, a bit of confidence in lacking on my part but I know it just comes with experience. Tandem flying is very different from flying solo and because it's still pretty new to me, concentration is something I need.

My first tandem launch wasn't particularly good, and conditions were fairly strong. The flying part is easy and landing was fine but when I stood on launch the second time around, I noticed what was missing from my first launch: my moment of zen.

If there are 100 people standing on launch watching me, I always make a point of having my zen moment, after which I launch. It's like a split second in time when it's just you and the elements and you think of nothing...you feel the wind on the back of your neck, you hear it through your helmet, and as you grip the risers tensioned between your fingers and stare at your glider, for that one little moment in time, you and your paraglider are one.

Today I was reminded of how important it is for me to have this "moment", especially when I fly tandem. If I ever feel anxious, nervous, intimidated, etc., that all goes away when I pause, if only but for a split second.

My second tandem flight today was amazing. The rain clouds had broken up and big puffy cumulus slowly started to fill the sky. After launching we ridge-soared for half an hour where we flew next to eagles, a couple of other gliders, and cool fluffy stuff in thermals. After a few minutes of flying and of me yacking about thermalling, my passenger was rather quiet, and so I asked, "Well, what do you think?" She paused, and replied, "For one of the first times in my life, I am absolutely speechless." I looked around and thought about how cool it was to be flying right there and then sharing paragliding with a complete stranger, and I thought the very same.

A magical tandem flight - I love it.

Final Flights and Thoughts in the US of A

2009-06-10T22:39:00.003-06:00

After the WCPC, I hung around Woodrat for one more day. Unfortunately conditions were surprisingly average, so I was a driver instead of a flyer. I didn't mind at all - I clocked my fair share of airtime during the previous week.

My boyfriend flew down to Medford and we had a couple of days to make our way back to Vancouver. We drove to Pacific City on the Oregon coast and looked for some of the nearby flying sites.

We found Oceanside without a problem, although the wind was very light, swirling, and mostly blowing down. I had a couple failed launch attempts - I guess I'm just not very good at downwind launches! My boyfriend took my small glider and managed to run it off the hill for an epic sleddie! It was fun watching somebody else fly my wing - now I know what it looks like in the air, and damn, it looks good!!!

We then drove back to Gammonds Launch/Cape Lookout as the wind had a northerly component to it. Again, the winds were light, so I only had a sleddie, but it was fun! Very beautiful to fly next to the coast and then land on a beach, if only for a minute.

That concluded our flights in the US but they were short and sweet.

I don't have any plans at this point to attend any other meets or competitions although I am eyeing Golden and plan to make an appearance out there sometime in July. I would also like to do some flying out in Pemberton, or "mini-Golden" as they call it.

Although the last day of the WCPC gave us good weather and it was fun and challenging to make my way towards Goal, I'm still a bit put off by the whole competition experience. I'm sure I'll do another FAI comp at some point, but I'm not seeking any out right now...I'm just not that of an emotionally mature pilot. I still get angry, upset, frustrated, etc. when I fly against other pilots, and although I've improved in that area, I still take things too much to heart. I'm sure that as my total paragliding airtime continues to tick upwards, my attitude will change.

Until then I need to focus on flying better against one person, and that person is me.

Redemption

2009-06-06T23:35:00.004-06:00

Today a nice and decent task was set - 6 turnpoints and about 40k's of distance.

I launched relatively early and boated around the sky which was filled with nice puffy cumulous clouds. Soon everyone in the competition was surfing the clouds, waiting for the start to begin.

I tagged the first turnpoint relatively easily but the second one was trickier as I got low on glide. But hell, I stuck with the shitty climb I was in and it took me to base. Next turnpoint was back at launch, and there too I was nice and high.

The next turnpoint, Rabies Ridge was where I struggled as I was there all by my lonesome. With fierce determination, I somehow managed to stay in a weak thermal and as a hang glider pilot came to join me, he showed me where the thermal got stronger. That took me back to base, which was great.

Back to Burnt ridge where again I got low, and noticed other gliders also struggling. I managed to find a climb in the valley and a low Boom 5 soon joined me. That climb also took me to base, and off I glided with the Boom to the next turnpoint.

The next turnpoint, Cemetary, was bouyant along the way, and I tagged it with the Boom and another Boom without a problem. Our next destination: Goal!

From Cemetary, goal was approximately 11 km's away. The two Booms got ahead of me quite a bit, and I was left to my own devices. I aimed for a ridge that was just behind another ridge which was where goal was. As I watched the two Boomers ahead of climb out no problem, I thought I had goal in the bag.

When I arrived at the ridge, the cloud that had been above it dissapeared, and all I could find where broken patches of light lift. I searched and searched, but it was soon game over. I landed 4.5k's short of goal.

It was nice to be congratulated when I arrived at headquarters, and I ended up winning the day in the women's class - yay!

Four hours in the air today was a looonnnggg time. I obviously flew the course very slow and remained very conservative throughout. Maybe I could have pushed it a bit harder on my way to goal - perhaps I should not have bothered looking for the climb and just pushed forward instead. But whatever, shoulda, coulda, woulda, didn't. Next time.

The competition is over and tomorrow looks good for flying. My urge to fly isn't especially strong, but setting my own task tomorrow at one last day at Woodrat sounds good to me.

Too Much Drama

2009-06-05T17:48:00.005-06:00

Yesterday's task was cancelled - too much wind.

And today happened to be a fairly interesting day...you know when you're sitting up at launch and things feel a bit funny? I wasn't really feeling into things today, but a task was set, and it was soon time to fly.

After flying around for about 15 minutes above launch, I suddenly saw a glider in a stable stall falling out of the sky. It was as if it was in slow motion, watching the pilot seem to be fiddling with something and after what seemed like an eternity, throwing his reserve. A pilot near me relayed his position to the people on launch, and as he landed fairly close to the take off, he was immediately found. Thankfully he was completely unharmed.

As this was unfolding, the start window opened, and pilots went on glide to the next turnpoint. I topped up a bit, and also went on glide, trying to take a buoyant glide under some clouds. As I neared the dreaded Rabies Ridge, I was not going anywhere quickly, and I was definitely sinking. Approaching it in low and in the lee wasn't the greatest position to be in and sure enough as I hunted around for lift, I had a 75% collapse. I was about 150 feet above some trees/bushes, and I managed to control it as it popped open, and I flew away. I thank my SIV courses in the past for staying calm, and simply leaning and turning the opposite way of the deflation. But hell, I sure was lucky I didn't end up in the trees today!

At that point I was low, and made my way back to the LZ. Even getting there was a bit gnarly as the wind had picked up, so I ended up landing in a field next to the main LZ. As on the other days, I was not the only one.

One pilot landed going backwards and as she did, a gust of wind picked up her wing and started dragging her towards a barbed wire fence and some trees. Thankfully some pilots ran towards her and collapsed her wing so she was unharmed, as was her gear.

When I got back to headquarters, one pilot had hurt his knee on launch and may have torn his ACL so I helped him hobble to a vehicle where he was to be taken to the hospital.

Some of the competition pilots who were leading the competition up until today were also at headquarters as they had a tough time today too. Apparently 3 pilots made goal - that's the last rumour I heard before leaving.

I'm kind of re-evaluating whether or not I want to do competitions anymore...flying in marginal conditions is not my cup of tea. I think too when you're flying a DHV 2 in such conditions, it makes it just plain frustrating. I'm tempted to say that flying a less serious comp with more serial class gliders is a direction I'm leading towards for next time. Anyway, we'll see.

One more day of the competition - a good task day would be nice, but who knows. This competition is ending just in time for me - I've kind of had enough. It's time to make flying fun again, and not just a task.

Competition Sled Runs

2009-06-03T19:45:00.003-06:00

Another flying day, another day of overdevelopment. As the task committee set a task, clouds behind launch were building, but everyone hoped that we would be able to get away in time. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Before I had a chance to launch, the task was cancelled. Almost everyone flew anyway, if only for 10 minutes. Kind of funny seeing competition gliders barely making a turn and simply heading for the landing area. Here's a pic:

You can't see the clouds behind launch in the picture, but as I was packing up my wing, it started to lightly rain. It was a relatively small cell that passed pretty quickly but it seemed that the wind picked up at higher altitudes after that, and it ended up raining again afterwards too.

The forecast doesn't look especially promising for the next two days, after which it is supposed to improve.

All of my frustration from yesterday is gone, and even those 10 minutes in the air were fun today. Not much you can do when the weather sucks, that is to say, you do something other than fly.

One more really good competition day would be fantastic - we'll see what happens.

"It Doesn’t Count"

2009-06-02T18:22:00.007-06:00

Wow, this competition feels like it’s breaking me. Here’s a recap of today:

Conditions seemed promising on launch, and because I bombed out the last two days, I knew full well that if I did not launch in the first 15 minutes (where anyone can launch) I would be waiting until the very end, so I geared up, and was the first competitor off the hill.

Climbs were easy to find and I was soon joined by Nicole McLearn (Canada’s top female pilot) and her boyfriend Alex (who is also an excellent pilot), who is a windtech at this competition. It was really fun flying with them in the same thermal – I kind of thought of it as Team Canada’s thermal!

I flew for an hour and a half before the start gate opened. There were plenty of clouds and lift everywhere, so it was pretty cool thermalling with 40 other gliders in some great conditions.

The start opened, and everyone went on glide to Rabies Ridge. I topped up in the thermal I was in, and watched everyone closely. After topping up enough, I went on glide too, and watched as gliders were hunting for lift. A few gliders in front of me were playing with a small thermal in the valley, so I joined them as I continued to watch everyone else. As that petered out, I headed towards the ridge, but I couldn’t really find anything. Suddenly I noticed three gliders climbing towards the left of the ridge in the valley, so I joined them too.

It was a good climb and meanwhile chatter on the radio indicated that it was starting to overdevelop on the course line. My flying route was pointing me into a big cloud, but I as I watched others head towards it, the cloud was not sucking at any real notable rate, so I headed for it too. I caught some lift and circled a bit, but mainly flew straight and slow as it was a big cloud and I figured there wasn’t really a point in turning. I wouldn’t say I was 100% comfortable flying under the cloud, but at no point did I think I was in any serious danger. I should also mention that there were a few pilots ahead of me and two behind me who I was also keeping an eye on.

Clouds I was flying under

This went on for a while until they announced on the radio that the task had been stopped due to overdevelopment and that all pilots had to land immediately.

I had a perfect landing on a farming road and 10 minutes after packing up, it started to rain. Retrieve picked me up after walking to the main road and as we drove, it started to pour.

When I got to headquarters, there were a lot of people there and I was asked about my flight. I felt pretty good about it and explained where I flew to and landed, etc. A lot of pilots said they simply landed because they did not like the overdevelopment and thought that because it was OD’ing all over the place, it would join together and go “nuclear” so to speak all at once.

There were no pilots who made it to goal, and the task had not elapsed for more than 1.5 hours, therefore the task today didn’t count. Those words were like daggers to the heart – 2 days of bombing out, and finally a good day where I fly somewhere, and my flight counts for nothing.

I had a good flight today, yes. I should leave it at that. But, the competitor inside of me is ready to ram her head straight into a brick wall. I know nobody will talk about this competition 5 years from now, but it’s hard when you see your name at the bottom of the list comp after comp.

Anyway, I know I have to stop taking competition results to heart so much. Maybe I should consider myself lucky that things didn't go crazy and that I didn't get sucked up to 30,000 feet...perhaps I was pushing it too much today. In any case, tomorrow is another day although currently there is a flash flood warning in effect:

Glad I’m not camping!

Keeping Positive

2009-06-01T23:32:00.003-06:00

Another day, another fight to stay alive. Oh, how tough it is sometimes to be paraglider pilot!

As the pilots of the competition turned their eyes skyward today, the mood was somewhat, well "blah". Torrents of rain last night again made the air full of moisture and with a lot of high cloud in the sky, the flying today did not seem particularly inspiring.

A task was set, pilots launched, and although nobody was rocketing skywards, everybody was staying up. After a few minutes of flying I joined a huge gaggle above launch and was proud to (eventually) be one of the gliders at the top, circling round and round, staying in a light and somewhat broken thermal.

One revolution later, everyone took off on glide while I continued to circle, somewhat taken aback at how quickly the comp gliders left the thermal and went on course. I stayed in the thermal for about 5 minutes longer and then decided to go on glide too as I wasn't really climbing anymore anyway.

As I glided towards Rabies Ridge (same ridge as yesterday), I prayed to god I would make it over. As I got closer, I was sinking, but kept the faith, and hooray! Made it over the ridge with about 100 feet to spare. YES! BRILLIANT! I AM AWESOME!

Well, maybe not so much...

Looking above at the much higher comp gliders, they were now playing in front of the ridge, and as there was nothing but sink behind the ridge, I turned around too. I tried working whatever was there out in front, but there wasn't much. So, now comes the hard part - I landed in a small field in front of the ridge. I didn't even have enough height to make it back to the main LZ.

I'm not mad, and not grumpy as I have been in previous comps - I'm just disappointed. It's hard not to feel disheartened when you give it your all, and it's just not enough. I also have to realize that I don't fly a comp wing, and I have to play my strategy cards differently than those who do - it's just a simple fact.

There were pilots in the bombout fields again today, but that gave me less solace today than it did yesterday. Now, it's personal Woodrat! Tease me with an excellent flight on a non-comp day, and now bestow your shittiness on me! How dare you!

This comp is starting to be a bit of a confidence shaker for me even though I'd say I've had a good flying year so far.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement - I kind of need it right now. Tomorrow's flight is for you!

Woodrat Flying

2009-05-31T21:17:00.003-06:00

A couple days ago I made the drive from Vancouver to Ruch, Oregon for the WCPC. It took about 12 hours, but factoring in 45 minutes at the border and a stop at Starbucks, I’d say that wasn’t too bad.

Yesterday I headed up to Woodrat launch and flew in some somewhat choppy but stellar conditions; I got to 2800 metres and flew about 30k’s (?) or so in total, and landed at a vineyard and got free wine. It was a pretty damn good flight on a site that was brand new for me!

Today was the first day of the competition. There are just over 40 pilots registered for the meet, so it’s a nice smaller-sized group.

Today’s task was 42k’s – sort of a “Z” like-shaped task. I was still stoked from yesterday’s flight, and I felt good about today’s. After launching, I found climbs to be quite light, and everyone seemed to be struggling. The head gaggle, not particularly high, went on course as I was still grovelling around launch height, although thankfully not alone!

Man, it was hard work! I ridge soared the best I could, thermalled the hardest I could, but only managed to get a few hundred feet above launch after more than 45 minutes. When the lead gaggle had left earlier, they did not seem much higher, so off I went on course too. The first turnpoint was to the right of a ridge, where you can expect to find climbs behind the ridge. As I glided for the ridge, with a strong valley wind, I couldn’t make it: I was probably 150 feet below it when I arrived (I was pushing bar too, of course), and the front of the ridge doesn’t produce any lift...

So, off I turned round to the LZ! It made me feel alright that there were a lot of pilots there – pilots with comp wings too, so that provided me with a bit of solace. I would estimate that the number of people who bombed today was around 15+ which out of 40 is quite a few. The ones who did make it over that ridge however, probably made it all the way to goal.

I’m in good spirits – it’s only Day 1 out of a 7 day competition. I flew well yesterday and today I tried my damn hardest. If I had to do the flight over, I’m not sure how I would have flown differently...that lack of knowledge is probably what differentiates me from great comp pilots. But that is the challenge right there and every hour in the air teaches you something new.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the week!!!!!!!!

It's Comp Time!

2009-05-26T22:29:00.005-06:00

Somewhat last minute, I decided to register for the West Coast Paragliding Championships in Ruch, Oregon.

I wanted to do one competition this year, and was disappointed to discover that the Canadian Nationals are being held in Quebec. Quebec is not an overly fantastic place to fly, and after airfare, accommodations, etc. it would be a pretty expensive trip. I hope next year the Nats are held in Golden - hell, that should be its' permanent spot! But I digress...

So, instead, the WCPC is my pick this year. I've never flown in the US, and I've heard good things about Woodrat as a site, so I'm stoked. I feel ready for a comp right now and I feel antsy anyway because I haven't left the country in a while, so it's a good time to do some proper flying.

Fingers crossed for good weather. Wish me luck!

Dirty Girl

2009-05-18T00:23:00.003-06:00

Today I had an interesting flight at Bridal Falls. It was one of those days where you sit on launch and you're psyched and ready to go somewhere - venture into the beyond and see where you end up.

A few of us where gunning to do some xc flying and so we set a little task. It looked like there was a fair bit of wind while we looked up at the clouds from launch, but really, until you get into the air, sometimes it's not 100% certain.

The wind was quite strong but I managed to get a climb immediately after launching and slowly flew upwind towards our task direction.

Pilots in the Fraser Valley here like to fly something called a "Sammy". Basically you launch from Bridal Falls, and fly towards Elk Mountain (10 k's or so away), fly back towards Bridal, then tag Ludwig Mountain (10 or 15 k's from Bridal Falls), then back to Elk, etc. Nothing wrong with that, but it seems everyone's done it. Flying past Ludwig is tricky because towards Hope the valley narrows and therefore the venturi makes it windy and out of the question a lot of the time. Flying past Elk doesn't seem to be especially popular, as the mountains turn into a ridge and flying becomes more difficult.

I guess I like to do things a bit differently, so I followed the clouds and flew to Elk Mountain, and decided I was going to fly further and see what happened. So, off I went, upwind, hovering here and there as it was even windier in that direction, but maintaining and getting one decent climb off an antenna. Because of the strong wind, it seemed kind of pointless to turn in thermals that were .5 m/s when they'd push you so far downwind that when you were upwind again, you were at the same altitude. Regardless, it's something I should work on.

So, I mostly flew slow as I wasn't sinking much, and slowly made progress, until I realized that the end was nigh. I flew towards Highway Number 1, landed in a farmers field with 4 foot high grass, got very muddy because there was a ditch I had to cross, did a terrible pack job with my wing as it was windy and I didn't want to spend much time on the property, and then lost my hat in the ordeal. But it was SO worth it! I love flying someplace new and landing in weird and wonderful fields.

Nobody managed to fly our task, but it I think it's great when you can fly with a goal in mind. I will fly this low, but very long ridge (that gets bigger) again and some day follow it until I hit the US border! It is a ridge that has some pretty big gaps and gets low at times, but hey, that's the challenge.

And hey, if I can't make it and my gear gets wet in smelly mud again, it'll still be an awesome adventure, just as it was today.

Bad Girl

2009-05-16T00:20:00.004-06:00

I have been a very bad girl lately - I've been flying plenty and haven't been updating my blog.

Today's flying has made me exhausted. 2 hours of driving to Woodside, flew for an hour to Harrison Hot Springs, landed on a beach and got lost in a residential area, found my way back to the main road, thankfully got a ride out to Bridal, immediately drove up Bridal launch, flew for an hour, drove a vehicle to Harrison to pick up a fellow pilot, then another 2 hours of driving back to Vancouver.

I'm not complaining or anything, but flying in the Fraser Valley, when you live in Vancouver, is a full day commitment. Eating properly and staying hydrated is proving to be a bit of a challenge but at least the flying has been good!

I've had all sorts of flying adventures in the last 3 weeks which I didn't write about, but I will write more about my flights, soon. I've clocked almost 15 hours this year, which all things considered, is not too shabby. My Addict was only a bitch once to me, giving me about a 40% collapse on speedbar (ok, so there was some rotor that day too), but other than that, she's been well behaved.

Too tired to write more now - I want my bed now, so will write more later. Stay tuned.

Tandems and Ankle-Talk

2009-04-30T00:54:00.002-06:00

Over the last couple of weekends I’ve been doing more tandems than flying solo, which has kept me happy.

Last weekend I took my sister tandem – something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Unfortunately she wasn’t as stoked about paragliding as I had hoped, but for those few minutes, it was pretty special flying with her. It’s cool with me if she never takes up paragliding, but I hope she’ll let me take her tandem at least one more time.

Lately I’ve found that I’ve been doing quite well when it comes to flying tandems…I haven’t sunk out, I have managed to find climbs when I need them, and I feel quite confident in the air. Landings have also been excellent. Launch-wise, I’m finding that in stronger conditions, the glider tends to accelerate and overshoot much more than I would like. It’s been a bit frustrating, but I suppose I need to adjust my launching style to the launching style of glider. Bring it up slower, hang onto the rear risers better, let go of the A’s sooner, and maybe even shorten my brakes by a few centimetres? The Bibeta 4 has 5 cm’s of slack as I recall…hmmm, might need to consult some experts on that one. In any case, I’ve been practicing, but I need to practice even more…I want to be the best!

Ankle-wise for me, things have been pretty good. Even though it's been over a year, I feel it pulling at the back when I hike or walk on a beach, but it doesn’t give me too much grief. In the last three days, I have witnessed two ankle injuries at my trampoline/gymnastics classes and this evening especially, it reminded me about how important first aid training is.

Tonight’s ankle injury happened to a girl who basically landed funny doing nothing remotely dangerous (doing straight-jumps on a fast track). I saw the whole thing and the coach heard a pop. I was very disappointed in that nobody seemed to be in a hurry to splint her ankle and get her to a hospital; talking about past ankle-injuries seemed to be higher on the agenda. I was disappointed in myself too as I asked her if I should drive her to Emergency, when I should have been more assertive and said “I think I should take you to the hospital” when I saw her ankle swelling. Sometimes when you’re in pain, you downplay it, and I think it’s good when you have others who encourage you to get things checked out.

I did end up driving her to Emergency, and I’m still waiting to hear what the x-rays show. Tonight I was reminded that injuries often happen when you least expect them to, and first aid training is important. I’m not a doctor, I’m not a nurse, but the few things I learned in my first aid training, which is a requirement for paragliding instructors, helped me this evening.

I feel fortunate that I’ve never had a serious injury and although I intend to keep it that way, it’s smart to be ready for things that will hopefully never happen to you or the people around you.

New World Title! First-Ever to Paraglide in Ski Boot Liners!

2009-04-20T14:38:00.009-06:00

As you can guess from the title of this post, a couple of weekends ago, I believe I may have set a new first in the paragliding community by launching my paraglider in ski-boot liners. Yes you read that right! Also don't forget that I am also probably the first person to fly a paraglider with a "Taco" sign between my teeth. What will I think of next?

Where did this latest feat in pragliding take place? At Panorama Ski Resort - about 15 km's from Invermere, BC. I headed out there for the annual Easter Meet where paragliders get super-cheap lift tickets, launch on the ski hill and try their hand at flying xc or trying to win the spot-landing competition.

On Saturday I was ready to go flying so I rented some ski boots, stuck on my skiis and took the lift up to launch. OWWWEEEEEE! I obviously have something very wrong with my feet as the ski boots I put on were absolutely killing me. The pain was AWFUL! Long story short, by the time I got to launch, my feet had started to swell, and I sat there for the longest time in my socks. I had one launch attempt on skiis, which went, well, pretty badly, so after hitting the ground, like a fussy child, I threw the ski boots off my feet, stomped up the hill in my socks, and thought of a way to launch without those torture devices on my feet. Enter the idea of launching in liners.

I was a bit worried about slipping, but you know what? It worked out pretty good. Here's the video for the Guiness people:

I had a very nice flight and landed with one foot in the target. Unfortunately I didn't win the competition, but it was probably rigged because of discrimination against those who have skiing disabilities, but that's ok.

My next flight was OK, although a storm was rolling in so there was some cloud suck combined with what I thought was rotor sink from one of the nearby mountains. I landed fine, although definitly in a hurry, and some of the pilots who launched after me had an exciting flight pulling Big-Ass Ears, spiralling, etc.

There were no incidences relating to the storm per se, although one unlucky pilot this weekend landed in the trees...twice! Poor guy...

That night there was a nice dinner, a booze-filled party, a bit of dancing, and some instances of overall wackiness on behalf of the pilots. The next day was blown out for flying, although some pilots stuck around to do some skiing or snowboarding. Needless to say I was not one of them!

A fun weekend overall. If you like skiing and like paragliding, the Panorama Easter Meet is for you!

Quick Update

2009-04-06T13:41:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I had a nice little thermic/soaring flight around Woodside. Didn't get too high, and couldn't go anywhere (too much cirrus again) but flew for an hour which was nice. It was really good practice and has reinforced how much love my new wing too - it even turns when I ask it to! The best part about my flight though? Thermalling in a small core with an eagle - so beautiful.

An update on Saturday's flight - a handful of pilots flew 40k! So I definitly messed up there. When I said I didn't think it was XC-able, I meant more when I first launched, but with the whole valley producing lift when I was trying to land was probably the time to think about going somewhere. Oh well, live and learn.

Clocking Up the Hours

2009-04-04T20:52:00.008-06:00

This morning's destination: Woodside
Objective: Get High
Objective Successful: Yes

Today I had another flight at Woodside. Fresh snow up at launch but it was nice and sunny today and great to be up there.

Flying-wise, I think I'm doing pretty well this season. I got high right off the bat today and the last few times I've flown have gone pretty well too. Launching is not the greatest though. I think it's a combination of being rusty and not being 100% familiar with my new wing, but in any case, I need a good groundhandling session.

Anyway, conditions today were interesting. There seemed to be a few sheer layers which made things a bit bumpy sometimes but overall, it was pretty fun. I debated whether trying to go XC, but I didn't really feel the conditions were all that suitable. I didn't think I could make any notable distance today and I figured that if I tried, I'd ditch it 5 or 10k's down, which meant retrieve, etc., and I wasn't in the mood. Maybe I was being pessimistic? Not sure if anyone actually did manage to fly anywhere today, but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Since it was nice and sunny, I fooled around with my camera a bit and took some nice shots. The results:

Pilots prepping at launch

Looking at launch

South Knob, looking towards Mt. Cheam and Bridal launch

Redneck Beach! Packed today!

Vanity Shot - notice the mittens

When I was ready to land, I flew out to the Farm, and was greeted by lift absolutely everywhere. When recounting my flight today, I said to one pilot, "I had a hard time getting down!" and he corrected me by saying that it's stupid to say that - in that kind of lift, you can most definitely get down. To me however, it's an expression: no matter where I flew (over green patches, light patches, etc.), I was going up anywhere from .5 - 1.5 m/s and to get down meant I had to pull some sort of maneuver (spiral, big ears, etc.) which meant some effort on my part, hence the expression "hard time getting down." But anyway, I digress.

At first it was cool - flying with a hawk then an eagle and going up, up, up. Then, it kind of got annoying. I've never experienced having a challenging landing because things were going "off", but man, today was the day. At 30 metres off the deck, I was rocking up at 2 m/s. The only reason why I say it was kind of annoying is because from a safety perspective, it was a bit irritating. Things were switching in the LZ from second to second, so an approach was a bit tricky. Then preparing myself to land, only to find I was going up again, and making sure I wasn't in the way of any obstacles, etc. was definitely interesting. It wasn't the smoothest either...

Anyway, I don't expect any sympathy, I had a great flight! I can't believe I've clocked a few hours this year already, and it's only April, and I'm flying in Canada! Yeah!

Cool Flying

2009-04-03T13:28:00.003-06:00

Last weekend I had my first proper thermalling flight of the season – hooray!

It was great: I launched from Woodside, got to base fairly quickly, and ended up hanging next to a cloud for quite some time. In Australia I was scared of clouds, but now I like them! I am still pretty cautious, but the one we were under was a happy cloud, and I was having fun.

Anyway, I decided them to glide to another cloud and as I did, I descended. Oh the pain in my fingertips! The change in temperature made me feel my fingers, and wow, did I ever wish I hadn’t! I flew back to the cloud above launch, hung out for a while, and quickly realized I couldn’t handle the cold in my fingers.

I flew out into the valley, of course finding lift everywhere, attempted a spiral to get down only to find that my fingers could barely wrap around the brake handle, tried again, succeeded, and landed. Flight time: 1 hour. I literally stood clipped into my glider for about 5 minutes trying to warm my red fingers while I moaned in pain. Yikes!

After packing up, I called a special someone to ask where he flew to. He said he was in Hope (25 k’s or so flying distance from Woodside, but about 40 k’s driving distance) and needed to be picked up. Knowing that the only two cars to drive out there both had manual transmissions, I cringed...I don’t drive standards!

I asked a pilot for a 5 minute lesson, and ambitiously hopped into one of the cars and started to drive. It wasn’t pretty, and I was scared of a big hill, and I was careful not to ride the clutch, and there were some tense moments which took 100% of my concentration, but good golly, I made it!

It sure was a bummer that I missed out on an XC flight because I had crappy gloves on but on the other hand, the adventure of driving to Hope in a car I didn’t know how to drive, was probably even more exciting! The next day however, I went out and bought a pair of down-filled mittens made of Gore-tex and a million chemical handwarmers. Bring it on, Fraser Valley!

Well Ventilated Pants

2009-03-26T14:56:00.003-06:00

Last weekend the pilots of the Valley ventured out to Woodside again for some spring flying.

After waiting for a while for a ride up, the Mog picked us up and off we went. The drama began a few minutes after putting chains on the tires (still snow up there) and almost falling to our deaths on a corner where one wheel of the vehicle hung precariously close to the edge where a creek below lie. After getting out of the vehicle (not before getting hit in the head by some tree branches!) we all climbed out at which point I noticed my ripped pants!

Now to my horror, this rip was not of ordinary sort. It started half way up my thigh on the front, and ended, well, let’s say, towards the direction of my belly button. Thankfully, my winter jacket was long enough to hide the, er, interesting part of the tear however, it was still quite large and very noticeable.

Somehow, the Mog made it all the way up to launch while us pilots hiked the rest of the way up. After getting to the top, I realized again, to my horror, that I did not have my sunglasses on my head. First thing first though! I put on my flightsuit so that the hole in my pants was no longer visible. Frantically, I searched my gear, and myself, and then the Mog for my sunnies – nothing. I figured I must have dropped them on the Corner of Doom, so I hiked back down to the spot where we all climbed out of the Mog. Still nothing.

Trekking back up to launch with a heavy heart, I thought about my sunglasses and how much I missed them already. Upon arrival at launch, the sun was shining and my eyes hurt. Everyone asked if I had found them, to which I sadly replied I had not. One last desperate attempt at searching my gear yielded results: there they were, staring back at me from the bottom compartment of my flight deck. Joy!!!!

Ok, granted, that is a rather dramatic account of what happened, but I was pretty bummed; ripped pants and lost sunglasses are not a great start before flying.

Shortly after composing myself, I launched and followed another pilot around the knob to have my go at some light thermals. Nothing spectacular, but any bit of thermalling I can do these days is great.

I flew around for about 25 minutes and decided to fly over the river for fun. Did that, turned around and landed at Riverside among the brambles (they’re everywhere!!!!), which I ever-so-carefully picked my precious glider out of.

After packing up, walking back, etc. we all went down to the local pub for dinner, me of course, still in my flightsuit. How hardcore! Definitely an interesting day where I was reminded again of how sometimes the drive up can be more exciting than the flight itself.

Another adventure awaits...

First Flight of 2009

2009-02-22T16:19:00.004-07:00

The last few days in the Fraser Valley provided some lucky pilots with some decent flying. Flights of a couple hours on nice sunny days have occurred, although no XC flying, as far as I know.

Yesterday the weather forecast implied that it would be flyable, so off we went to Woodside. The road to launch was drivable most of the way, although a hike of about 25 minutes or so was required, as the last bit of road was snowed in. However, one very determined pilot did manage to drive his Toyota FJ all the way up to launch on a mixture of slippery, packed and deep snow which provided some entertainment.

It was great to see everyone again and find out how pilots were surviving the winter. Winter on the west coast isn’t really like your typical snowy, cold, winter that I’m used to. Out here, it’s obviously more just putting up with rain and trying not to get depressed when you don’t see the sun for days on end. That being said, the weather in the time I’ve been out here has been pretty decent for the most part with sun shining more than I ever expected it to.

Everyone got in a sleddie yesterday. Some cirrus moved in which shut things down, if there was much to begin with, so a top to bottom it was. It was nice to get in the air though, especially considering that it's still February. I didn’t do anything special, other than pulling an asymmetric just for kicks, but after not flying for months (my last flight was October 18th), it was just nice to fly.

Rain is in the forecast for the next week or so, but there’s always a chance the sun will make an appearance on the weekend – fingers crossed.

Vancouver Living

2009-01-20T23:21:00.003-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive, and no, I haven't been flying lately. Happy Super-Belated New Years everyone!!!!!!

Ok, I've been a total slacker when it's come to updating my blog lately, but you know what? I've got some damn good excuses. Be a friend and lend an ear:

On New Years Day I drove out to Vancouver from Calgary. 1000km's of driving fun! I ended up having to overnight in Kamloops due to shitty driving conditions, but I made it here without incident, which was a huge relief.

I've been working full-time for a company doing internet stuff. No, it does not involve a webcam (well, ok, once in a while it does) and it's respectable. So far, I like my new job.

I've been working on my own business stuff and starting new projects too. During the week it seems I have no life though.

I joined the circus twice a week! Yeah, that's right, I take trampoline and trapeze class which is super-fun and challenging. You can sing circus songs all you want - I've found a wicked way to get airborne without a paraglider.

I've had to deal with stupid little things like getting a brake job for my car, dealing with my dumbass-pot-smoking-alcoholic neighbour who plays his stupid ass music continuously, trying to find a new place to rent, getting lost over and over and over again in this city, living out of boxes, and all the other stuff that comes with life.

Lots of changes over the last 3 weeks, that's for sure. I'm happy these days though, but very busy. I miss flying.

The silver lining is that I have big plans this flying season and the second the weather turns, new adventures begin.

Flying Hiatus

2008-12-11T23:08:00.005-07:00

Well, it's been almost a month since I've written anything here, and as I could feel the anticipation growing to dangerous levels across the globe, I figured it was time to grace you all with my online presence.

These days it seems plenty of pilots are going on flying vacations, upgrading their gear, or talking smack on the pg forum as usual, but I can't say that I've been participating in any of these things. My life has taken a bit of a turn, and I have decided to move out to the coast...VERY shortly!

I love to fly and it's been a huge priority for me over the last couple of years, but for the next little while it's time to prioritize other things. That's not to say I'll be flying less - quite the contrary. Around Calgary the flying is quite limited unless you are willing to hike, or drive at least a couple of hours. My new home will have me living much closer to the flying sites, and with a longer flying season, that should mean more airtime.

Right now, the days are short, the weather is typically shit, and the flying is minimal, marginal, or non-existent most days, but as a lesson in patience is regularly bestowed upon me in paragliding, it's time to apply that lesson to my attitude towards paragliding in general, and to other areas of life as well. There's not a doubt in my mind that I won't fly in the next couple months - I'm just on a sort of flying hiatus right now.

A break is probably a good thing - even the thought of taking my wing out of its bag after weeks of being paraglidingless only increases my excitement to fly again anyway!

The Best Paragliding Tandem Movie in the World

2008-11-16T21:38:00.004-07:00

A couple months ago when I was still working on my paragliding tandem rating, one of my passengers took along a video camera and took some footage of what turned out to be a pretty fun flight. Check it out.

You won't understand the "Chili Cook-off" footage at the beginning, so I'll enlighten you by saying that when it's flyable and I'm not in the sky, I tend to imitate Homer because I'm immature and childish. Also, I think singing songs with passengers adds to the ambiance of a flight and is therefore awesome.

Chiu is a great friend, a great pilot, and a great tandem passenger - thanks for the vid man!

http://vimeo.com/2245630

Politics Without Paragliding

2008-11-08T03:03:00.006-07:00

Since my towing flight a few weeks ago where I did a couple stalls and such, I haven’t flown. The weather put a bit of a monkey wrench into my plans a couple times, and when it was flyable, it seemed I had things to do. I definitely could have made a bigger effort, but I didn’t, am now regretting it a bit.

Although not paragliding-related, the media almost made me hurl with the amount of coverage they gave to the US election, and now that it’s over, our southern neighbour's relentless infatuation with Obama still makes me nauseous. White or black, the President is a politician, politician’s lie, and Americans are fooled if they think any man can instantly fix the mess they have created for themselves. Americans: You’ve chosen your leader, we all know you’re proud, but he is not a wizard and your problems won't magically dissapear; stop patting yourselves on the back, thinking that you've found your new messiah...

Back to flying: Not much to say, other than it’s always at the back of my mind. I haven’t groundhandled, haven’t read too much about it lately, and have actually had mostly non-paragliding related conversations with people, which is a bit unusual. A flying trip is not currently on the books, but hey, life is rather dull right now and I do like to create my own adventures...

Adrenaline Fix

2008-10-18T12:05:00.005-06:00

Thank goodness I went towing with the hangie group again today – I got a much needed dose of adrenaline and now I’m feeling a bit more sedate and the world is a good place again.

This morning seemed windy so I didn’t immediately head east to fly, but later in the day things died down and the second I got the message that things looked good, I ran out of the house in a mad rush, crashing into things and possibly other people along the way, just so I wouldn't waste a second of possible flying time. Flying in general can be so spur of the moment like that; “Oh my god it’s flyable!” and suddenly whatever you were doing seems totally unimportant, and the only thing that matters now is getting to your takeoff spot as quickly as humanly possible, much to the utter dumbfoundedness of the non-pilots around you.

When I arrived there were about 15 people out and about – hangies and their significant others, but I was the lone paraglider. It’s not very often us bags are outnumbered by the stiff-wings, but today was the day.

My first tow was good and conditions were much nicer than they were last week, as the wind wasn’t nearly as strong. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to stall my wing, so that’s what I did. The first one was fine – the entry was easier than on my old Rush (lighter brake pressure and higher stall point) and it came out fine. The next attempt had my glider exit in a tip tuck on one side and a cravat on the other. The second I saw the problem I thought “hmmm, no wonder this is a DHV 2..." I really had to yank the cravat out hard with the stabilo line and I just pumped out the tip tuck with the brakes.

A few times during SIV in the past when I’ve done a maneuver and the glider didn’t exit cleanly, I wouldn’t even notice until the instructor would point it out. I thought this was the best thing I did today after doing the stalls – not assuming that things were okay, and immediately checking my wing for any issues. It sounds simple, but after doing a maneuver I think it’s easy to get caught up in what you just did, almost letting your brain process the feelings and the event that just happened, rather than being fully conscious and aware of what your glider is doing and how it’s flying.

The second tow was my left hand hard-core spiral practice. Not having done a deep spiral as of yet on my Addict, I thought the amount of altitude I had would be perfect to dispose of by plummeting towards the earth at 15 - 20 m/s.

I locked in immediately and holy shit did those G’s ever build up fast with tunnel vision setting quickly. After a few seconds of this and my face being contorted in ways that probably had me look like hideously demented gargoyle, I thought, Exit! Exit! Upon normal flight my jolt of adrenaline had me give out a big “YEAAAAAAHHHHHH” and with a huge grin on my face, I knew I had just done my deepest spiral to date.

Tomorrow if conditions are good again I'd like to try going XC, but if not, the plan is to do a couple more stalls, maybe some spin-appreciation and then try a SAT. Throw some wingovers into the mix, and that's what I'd call a truly perfect day.

Towing in the Wind

2008-10-12T13:00:00.008-06:00

Yesterday I quenched my thirst for flying (well, partially anyway) by going towing near Strathmore, Alberta. The two weeks I've had without flying have been long!

Before I left the house, I checked the upper winds and everything seemed in order; Nothing showed higher than 8 knots in the surrounding areas which was more than reasonable, so I jumped in the car and made the drive out to the prairies.

Even though I grew up in Winnipeg where it's flat as hell and spent most of my life out there, the prairies now seem kind of alien to me. Almost everywhere that I've travelled to has had some sort of notable vertical topography and so going back to the flats is kind of bizarre. It's like, what am I supposed to fly off of? And why can I see for miles and miles? Funny, I suppose I don't miss the prairies much because I've discovered the playground of the mountains and I like it so much more...

Anyway, a couple hangies were already out there and one was doing a tandem. It's cool watching hangies tow - the release off the back of the truck is neat and more dramatic than a paraglider running behind a vehicle. Tandem hang gliders typically come into land on wheels which is kind of funny to watch as they come towards the earth face first.

The wind was fricken howling! At first it was cycling, but then it seemed to be consistently very strong. Having faith in my new glider and figuring is wasn't quite blown out, I got ready for my first tow.

I asked one of the hangies to anchor me as I was doing a reverse, as while clearing my lines I was getting picked up. So, with the bridal attached and an anchor behind me, I inflated, turned round fine and was immediately airbore.

Towing is kind of a weird feeling but one that I got used to quickly. Your glider is obviously behind you, there's pressure tugging from the hips and the different shear layers are noticeable while towing up. Then came the release, hee hee, my favourite part! I liked pulling on the handle and kind of falling back for a split second before flying normally again. Maybe it reminds me of the start of a stall, which is probably why I liked it...I like that freaky feeling when all goes quiet back there and back you go into a stall. Not that the release was really all that stall-like, but maybe just a little bit.

XC potential was pretty much nil as there didn't seem to be anything for thermals so I was hoping instead to do some stalls, etc. on my new wing. Unfortunately the wind was strong and even a few 360's had me travelling waaaaayyyy downwind, so I opted for some pretty tame mucking about. Both tows I had, especially the second one, had me going backwards on landing, which was fine because there weren't any obstacles, but I wouldn't say it was especially pleasant.

I'm really glad I finally got to experience towing and was in good hands with experienced hangie pilots who were also very good tow operators. Too bad the conditions were kind of sucky, but I'd certainly go for another tow any day.

Conceding Defeat

2008-10-04T01:30:00.000-06:00

It hasn’t been that long since I suggested that I would still fight to find a paragliding work opportunity overseas but at this point I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel.

I’ve e-mailed pretty much everyone I know in the sport and have asked if they know of anyone looking for a tandem pilot/instructor and the response almost across the board has been “I’ll let you know if I hear of anything.” Other than finding a couple of small opportunities in New Zealand which I would have loved to take except for being quite certain that it would cost me money instead of make me money, it’s been kind of quiet.

Sooooooo…feeling a bit dejected by the world of paragliding, I’m forced to put the sport on the side, get a job, and try my best not to think about it for the next 6 months. Oh, woe is me! Ok, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s disappointing.

I’ve been scouring the internet for sports that I can take up during the winter months so that I can get excited about something else. I’m not big into skiing or snowboarding (my ankle still gives me grief and with a cracked bone on my other foot, probably not the greatest idea anyway) so something indoors is probably the way to go. The thought of going without a hit of adrenaline kills me! Auuughhhh! I need a fix! I need something exciting to do! Extreme swimming? Bad-ass badminton? I’ve already looked into joining a circus group, but I missed the registration date – damn!

Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise; when wanting everything NOW, sometimes life has a funny way of putting the brakes on for you, probably for your own good.

909 Km’s Home

2008-09-30T15:56:00.004-06:00

True to my word (finally!) I started driving home yesterday and 10 hours later, I was back in Cow-Town.

I hate goodbyes and it makes me sad when I have to leave a place with great people and great flying. A lot of people are envious of my travels over the last couple of years and although the adventures I’ve had and the places I’ve been to have been amazing, socially it’s hard. Sometimes just when you’re starting to get to know the people around you, it’s time for you to leave. At first I took the approach of not letting people get close to me, knowing that I’d have to say goodbye at some point, but now I try to do the opposite. From an emotional perspective I’m not sure which is the easier, but I don’t think that building “walls” because of an inevitable goodbye helps with building solid friendships so I’ve changed my tune and as a result, now know some really fantastic people.

My last couple days in the valley outside of Vancouver were mainly spent doing tandems although I did manage to sneak in a flight with my new wing.

Funny going from a flight with the tandem and then switching to a solo... I find spiralling the tandem requires a lot of force and doing it asymmetrically makes it go “in” a lot faster and more dramatically so I tend to opt for that when I don’t have tons of height. Maybe a third of the brake on the Addict, and whoosh, you’re leading edge is level with the horizon. It’s a pretty quick reminder that flying a solo and a tandem are NOT the same. Launches and landings on the tandem have been going well, so I’m quite pleased. Here’s a little takeoff vid:

Still scratching my head formulating a plan to fly all winter – I certainly haven’t given up yet.

That New Wing Smell

2008-09-26T19:51:00.004-06:00

I am a firm believer in rewarding oneself for hard work so as a “congratulations” to myself for keeping up my enthusiasm for flying and for achieving my tandem rating, I splurged and bought myself an Addict 2 (good bs story, eh?!) That’s right, no more pictures of a blue wing in the sky anymore – you will now see images of my new best friend who just so happens to look red hot, but in a sort of subdued manner. Canadian colours with a splash of grey, red Addict 2 colours but rearranged, – whatever you see it as, red, grey, and white are the colours of my new “A2.”

My first flight on my new wing today was excellent. An hour of thermalling in small bubbles below launch (stupid inversion!) was exactly what I needed to get used to how my wing handles. I originally testflew an Addict XS but opted for a small instead, and indeed, the two felt different to fly. In today’s light conditions at Woodside, the small was probably a better choice, but we’ll see how things go when conditions are nuking.

My second flight was more bobbing around but for fun I did some riser twists (which then started to twist more and more on their own – oops!), played with the speed system, and finished off with a low spiral as today wasn’t a day where altitude accumulated easily and where something like a SAT was realistic. With ground spirals I’ve personally witnessed one go very wrong and know of pilots who have been injured doing them, so I’m trying to remain conservative and train myself slowly into doing them closer and closer to the ground. In Broken Toe Acro, Enleau O’Connor talks about approaching learning them in a progressive manner…common sense for sure, but sometimes there’s that little voice that tells you to push it harder and just fricken “giver” and see what happens! But right now the last thing I need is a membership to the back injury club, so I’ll just stick with my cautious fun and get better at spiralling towards the earth in a “safer” way.

My supposed 2 week trip to Vancouver has now lasted something ridiculous like 7 weeks, so I am pulling the pin and going home in a few days – sunshine or no sunshine. The forecast looks great for next week, but it’s time to turn the other cheek and just say “no!” I’m still poking around for flying jobs overseas - crossing my fingers something will come up.

Stability Sux!

2008-09-18T20:07:00.007-06:00

Up until yesterday the weather has been nice...for non paraglider pilots that is! Hot and stable with not even ridge soaring potential has been the name of the game out here. Admittedly it's been getting to me a bit which has resulted in a bit of grumpiness on my part...

As soon as paragliding isn't fun anymore, I try to distance myself from the sport for a few days, and that's exactly what I've done. I spent a few days in Vancouver with a friend looking around at the sights and sounds and playing tourist. I'm not a Vancouver convert, but Vancouver is what it's cracked up to be. The weather is pretty hit and miss, but the city has grown on me and I can now see why so many people call it home.

Yesterday I went to Harrison to check out some sand sculptures with a friend. There was some sort of competition held with the best of the best, who could create masterpieces including my favourite:

As an artiste of the sky, I thought I would also try to express myself through sand. The result:

Today was overcast, tomorrow looks the same, and then the rain moves in. I'll fight tooth and nail to get some tandems in, but it might be a bit of a longshot with base so low. Gotta keep the faith tho!

Flight Number Tree Fiddy!

2008-09-12T23:27:00.006-06:00

Another small milestone today - flight number 350!

As I bitched about the other day, ridge soaring is kind of lame. Today when I got to Bridal along with an accomplice, we decided that trying to go XC would be our goal and that we'd probably either end up with a 15 minute flight or with something much more exciting. Thankfully we did much better than a sleddie.

We both left at about launch height, if not a bit below, and made our way to the next spur which had a few bubbles here and there. I decided to milk what I could, while my partner in crime dashed forward to the next spur. Neither of us had great climbs, but lift was there and we slowly but surely got higher.

On glide again to the next little ridge, again working ridge lift with small thermals. When I got to Cheam I found a decent thermal which got me back up to 1100 meters which seemed to be the ceiling today. Off to Butterfly on glide, bobbing around in lift here and there.

Around the corner to Ludwig where the valley narrows and with the strong valley breeze today, was not the greatest position to be in. I watched my friend push over the river, but with no sun and only sink, I thought it best to push back towards Bridal...not that I actually thought I would make it that far in that kind of wind, but pushing further into the valley where it seemed to venturi seemed like a worse decision.

Anyway, with super limited landing options and a shitload of wind, I wasn't going anywhere fast, but saw a small area to land in where an exit branched off the TransCanada highway. I've always wondered what it would be like to land in a spot like that and today I had that experience.

Two sets of powerlines, lamp posts, road traffic, trees, a sloping LZ, bouyant air and a wind gradient made my approach a tricky one, but I pulled it off and landed safely. I was never too worried about crashing, other than a split second where I thought something horrible could happen, but keeping a logical attitude when flying in precarious situations always helps.

No, I didn't hit that small tree where my glider is sitting - I landed on the side and my glider fell in front - whoo hoo! I came in harder than I would have liked, but nothing noteworthy.

My logbook as of today: 350 flights and 175 hours. Lots and lots of sleddies over the last 3.5 years, but having to land so many times is probably what helped make my landing today, safe.

LEONARDO flight link.

Not a Ridge Boring Kind of Girl...

2008-09-10T22:50:00.003-06:00

Soaring, soaring, boring. Lately ridge lift with the occasional thermal is what the flying sites around here seem to be offering, ho hum, ho hum.

I suppose I'm a greedy pilot - I want it all; flyable in the first place, pleasant on launch, cu's popping everywhere, nice big smooth thermals, and somebody to hand me a cold beer when I land - is that too much to ask?

I've never done too much ridge soaring throughout my flying "career" - I usually seem to fly sites that are mainly thermic and I've only flown the coast on a couple of occasions. Now that the last 10 hours in my logbook are ridge soaring hours, I can officially say I've had enough!

Don't get me wrong, I love to fly, but man, making endless passes on a ridge are not my cup of tea. I find that my mind wanders, or I start nitpicking at the way others fly and start getting annoyed at how they always seem to be pushing me out of the lift band, or they thermal too broad, or they thermal the wrong way, or whatever. Reminds me of driving: the slow drivers are sissies, the fast drivers have a death wish, and you are always driving at the perfect speed. Right...

Anyway, today I ridge soared for about 45 minutes and had to top land to launch a student, which was good timing because I had to pee! Then after a break, I relaunched, soared for another half hour, got annoyed, got bored, then did some spirals, a B-line stall and pulled some big big ears just for fun. God I love altitude! The last few minutes of my ridge soaring flights are what bring a smile to my face when I land.

The forecast is hot and sunny! 30 degrees on the weekend in Vancouver in mid-September?! What the hell?! Hot and stable might be what we get, but this tropical-like weather is still A-OK in my books!

Canada's Newest Tandem Pilot!

2008-09-07T23:00:00.006-06:00

Call it laziness, or whatever you wish, but for some reason I just haven't been motivated to update my blog. Normally when I have a good flight or an opinion about paragliding, I run to the nearest computer and write my thoughts down, but for the last couple weeks it's been a bit different. Over the next couple weeks however, I vow to be more consistent with posts, and hopefully pictures too!

My latest news? I'm a rated tandem pilot! Whoo hoo! Yes! Hooray! Cheers to me! Ahhh, what a nice feeling. No more bugging pilots to be my passengers - I can take anyone I wish tandem which certainly opens up a lot of doors. I've taken a few non-pilots as passengers now and things have been going very well. Landings have been soft, even in little wind, although admittedly, lately my passengers have been very light. But progress is there and it is still sweet!

Solo-flying wise, I've done a lot of ridge soaring lately. My best xc flight out here was under 10k's where I bailed because I felt I was in rotar sink. No big deal, but I just got the hell out of that spot FAST, and of course, sank out. But hey, I got away from launch, and that's fun in itself.

Other than that, I've tried a couple of SAT's and keep of messing them up for some reason which has been pissing me off. I testflew an XS Addict 2 the other day and although I flew it in what were (unfortunately) only ridge soaring conditions, I quite liked it. I would like to testfly it again in spanky conditions (i.e. turbulent air) to see what its characteristics are, but I'm definitely interested in getting one...affording one is a different story, but whatever, you live once and I consider paragliding kind of like my education tuition; you make sacrifices for a few years, but eventually things will pay off. Anyway, my Rush has been good to me, but I think it's time to kick things up a notch and fly something a bit spicier.

The weather out here is beautiful but it was windy today, and tomorrow could be much the same. I would like to do as many tandems as I can and push myself solo too before I'm out of here in the next couple of weeks. No plans yet on going overseas, but I'm certainly keeping my eyes open for tandem/instructor jobs in warm countries...

The West Coast Experience

2008-09-01T02:50:00.003-06:00

The dry spell has ended! You are reading an update to my blog – hooray!

My paragliding travels have led me to Vancouver where I’ve been flying some sites just outside the city. I’ve always found Vancouver and BC in general kind of an easy place to make fun of; the old “4:10” joke, the constant rain, the threat of earthquakes and high taxes – `nuff said. Deep down, us Albertans know that BC is a very nice place to live, but that in our province, it`s perfectly acceptable to drive a Hummer really fast on a 2-wheel drive highway wearing a cowboy hat (bought without paying PST!!!) with the AC cranked listening to Nickelback on the way to Banff without one single ounce of guilt, and THAT right there, is what makes our province great!

Anyway, admittedly, Vancouver is impressive – it does seem to rain a lot, but with that comes a mild climate and a pretty, green, and very scenic place to fly. The days are getting colder and the season is slowly coming to an end, but I’m a para-optimist who thinks there has to be at least one good xc day left this season…it’s GOT to happen!

I’m so close to officially being signed off as a tandem pilot, it’s not even funny. One flight! One flight! That’s all I need! I’ve done some really great tandems out here lately that I’m very happy with; ridge soaring, floating near the clouds, having passengers take video and photos of other pilots – it’s 100% pure fun. I know I haven’t done many, but the tandems I have done lately are just as special as the first ones – I love flying with other people, I really really do.

So yes, things are generally good. I feel privileged meeting the amazing people I have, having truly fantastic accommodation and being able to fly new sites in Canada – something I really haven`t done much of. I’m disappointed and sad to have encountered politics out here, but I suppose it exists everywhere; I’m here to fly and I totally don’t care who it’s with, or where it’s at. At the end of the day paragliders are like one big family who all want the same thing: good lift, adventure, and most importantly, happy landings.

Dreams of Invermere

2008-08-17T21:48:00.010-06:00

What a great weekend I had! Flying, friends and adventure - ahhh, superb.

Saturday was an exciting day. First up, I did a tandem that went well and was enjoyable as always. I've had nothing but great pilots as passengers so far and maybe that's making me spoiled, but it's certainly not any hard work flying with people whose company you enjoy - I hope all my future passengers are just as nice, and know how to run properly!

After that, we all went back up Seven and after some very short parawaiting, I decided to launch; some pilots were maintaining and the (very) scattered clouds indicated to me that the day was working - time to go! I launched, got a great thermal off launch, and had a buddy to get over to the peak of Mt. Seven with. Oooooh, the view, check it out!!!

I flew over to Pegliarrow, where I wasn't very high, but got another boomer just above the cliffs which took me to 3300m. Images of drinking beer and eating ice cream in Invermere (110 k's from Mt.Seven) came to mind, so off I went downrange. Peak to peak I skipped, marvelling at the view (even though it was inverted and therefore hazy) but wow, even when the thermals were rough, I couldn't help but bask in the beauty of the Rockies.

After an hour and a half or so, I got below the inversion and decided to push forward anyway after flying through some weak thermals. Then I found myself in a bit of a precarious situation...

I flew over a spine of a mountain and was flying infront of a peak when I got low, but the venturi made it a lousy spot to get stuck. There was a spine on both sides of the mountain and as I got lower, my indecision started costing me altitude and finally after cursing my own stupidity, I flew towards one of the spines and when I could feel a bit of lift, I flew min sink, not daring to thermal as I didn't want to get pushed to a place I didn't want to be. For a few seconds, thoughts of tree landings crossed my mind as the image of the spine raised in my field of vision, but a bit of outloud reassurance and confidence got me out of there and into the valley.

After feeling a bit frazzled, I dribbled a few k's downwind and landed in a long field next to the highway somewhere around the 40k or 45k mark. Not quite to Invermere, but for a tricky day (sheer layer between NW and W winds), not too shabby.

After that, a bunch of us got together and went for a memorable sleddie. Sometimes it doesn't take much to take what would otherwise be a pretty neutral flight and turn into something very special...

And this morning?! Well, I went tandem on a hang glider! No, I'm not crossing to the dark side, but wow, what a great experience! I'm hoping to get some pics off someone before I blog further about it, but I will say that although it was definitely a lot of fun, paragliding is still better!!!!!!!!!!

To date, this weekend was probably my best ever in Golden; Invermere didn't happen, but in the end, it didn't really matter.

Technicolor Hangies

2008-08-11T13:36:00.004-06:00

At the risk of being very unpopular among hang glider pilots, I’m going to point out how last week in Golden there was this one hangie pilot who had a bright pink glider and wasn’t afraid to be suspended in a harness that had stars and moons on it. Yes, you read that right – stars and moons! And you read that first part right too – neon, bright, Pink-Panther coloured glider! Imagine the contrast between the two! Forget the 90’s ski suits I laughed about in a previous post – I’ve never seen a paraglider pilot don pyjama patterns on their equipment before!

Or what about this? Wear those colours with pride my friend!

Ahhh, the entertainment. God Bless You, Hang glider Pilots!

Crazy Air? Relax!!!

2008-08-06T20:58:00.006-06:00

On my last day in Golden, with the Willi XC finished (where I got 3rd place PG Intermediate - yay for me!) the conditions looked great! Nice and hot in the valley and nice cues forming above the peaks. After taking a nap at launch, there was suddenly a mad rush to get off the hill as somebody had found the first decent thermal of the day and the xc window had suddenly opened...

I'll say it - most paragliding flight stories are boring, so rather than talk about how I took a climb here and how I flew there, I'll sum it up by saying that I have great respect for Golden as a flying site, and it's a place that I fly on high alert all the time because I find it intimidating...I'll only push it so much out there.

Climbs weren't insanely strong - my best climb was +5.5 m/s which for Golden is not particularly noteworthy, but I found the thermals to be extremely punchy and I've never had to "manhandle" my glider in flight the way I had to that day.

Most lift was the kind where your glider drops back and violently surges in front of you and as you're breaking the dive, the thermal feels like it's going to snap your lines and rip your puny glider to shreds! I didn't get any big collapses, but I was also flying as actively as ever. My wing still oscillated however and I definitely felt like I was being shoved around as the lift pushed me this way and that.

After about an hour and a half of flying and covering a bit of distance, I had visions of going home and finally sleeping in my own bed, which sounded more enjoyable than flying through crappy air, so I flew back to the lz (ok, so I didn't make it quite back - thanks for the ride Thomas!) and landed. There were a surprising number of pilots on the ground - bags and hangies - who also landed because they felt the conditions were a bit too rowdy. I'm almost certain however that some pilots flew very very far that day - finding lift wasn't really much of an issue as it was more (for my anyway) about staying calm mentally and convincing myself to continue to fly.

I definitly had to say to myself outloud to "relax" a few times, as sharp pointy rocks are not things I like to fly over when my wing feels like it wants to control me. In the same conditions in a treed area, yeah, giver! Mentally it's not half as intimidating flying through that kind of crappy lift over trees then when you've got cliffs and shear rock faces that would be a total bitch to land on under a reserve; Chances of injury throwing a reserve over trees? Minimal. Chances of injury throwing a reserve over rocks? Enough said.

It's all about finding your limit, recognizing it, and pushing it incrementally. I landed because I didn't feel comfortable with the conditions, and that's good. Scaring myself into being a better pilot is not the route I'm interested in taking.

I'll head back to Golden again sometime this month to try again for my 100k's - hopefully this time I'll gather the nerve to whip out my camera and take pictures of the peaks from above the summit of Mt.7 - the view is absolutely spectacular. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again...

Random Pics

2008-08-04T22:19:00.006-06:00

Too tired to write about roller coaster-like flight today, but came across these:

Your future tandem pilot...I sat on my Camelback, I swear!

No waaaaaayyyy...there are actually people under 50 in this sport?!?!

Yeah, go Mt.Seven rainbow!

Bedtime for me!

3 Tandems = 1 Rewarding Day

2008-08-02T21:57:00.003-06:00

Last night a few of us got together at a tandem pilot’s place and after a few drinks, he suggested that I take him XC the next day. I really hesitated as his height intimidated me a bit with launching and I sort of pictured having troubles landing in some postage-stamp field in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, he assured me that as a local, he was quite aware of the different landing fields between Golden and Invermere, and that landing fields wouldn’t be an issue, but I nevertheless decided to sleep on it.

After considering the different pilots I could ever take XC out in Golden, I ultimately realized that he was at the very top of the list, and that especially as a tandem pilot himself, it was a good opportunity for me learn and be critiqued. So, first thing in the morning I did a nice sleddie with one of the hangie pilots and then went back up to launch for my first XC tandem.

We didn’t have any problems launching as there was a nice 8k’s of wind or so and I found it quite amusing as he ran down the hill and I flew behind him already airborne, just controlling the wing. Hee hee, get your passengers to do the work if you can – saves you some energy!

Anyway, we scratched around for 20 mins or so around launch in some disorganized lift, which was good for me as I had a better idea of how the wing turned and handled and then we headed out towards the spine of Seven. Whoosh! Up we went in a sweet thermal which brought us level to the summit of Mt.Seven. After gliding past Willi’s Knob and past the cliffs of Pegley Arrow without much more than very weak lift, which we tried to work, we headed out towards the valley and landed just past the 15k field – not too shabby! We were soon joined by another 2 pilots and a third glided maybe a k or so past us – so, we definitely weren’t alone in finding the sink. Very cool to land out with everyone in a tandem.

I just finished taking a third person up for an evening sleddie which went very well except for the fast landing, which seems to be my biggest hurdle these days. I got some great tips from the tandem pilots out here this evening, so hopefully fast landings won’t be an issue anymore.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Willi XC Challenge and the forecast looks good – one last shot to kick ass!

Tandems Are Sweet!

2008-08-01T10:39:00.005-06:00

Ahhh, Golden weather - it's much to be desired this year! Rain and wind have put a downer on the Willi XC comp. We've all been flying here and there, but over the last few days it's been difficult to fly any sort of reasonable distance. Yesterday was howling and the day before that it was sort of marginal with cloud suck although a couple pilots did fly something like 30k or 35k...I wasn't inspired and decided to stay on the ground.

I managed to sneak in 2 tandems yesterday which was sweet. Launches are really coming along and the landings are slowly getting there too. Of course, the flying part is just fun.

Tandem out in Vernon, BC

Tandem out in Golden, BC

My sexy wing!

Trying to hit the lucky 7

I'm half way to my Tandem 1 rating - only 10 more tandems to go! Realistically I'm not sure I'll be able to do more than 3 before I go home in a few days, but I sure will try. The forecast looks pretty dismal for today and tomorrow, and I'd love to do some proper XC as well as tandems, but as usual, we are at the mercy of the weather and there's not much you can do when it just plain sucks!

Spirits are a bit higher and the friendly flying community atmosphere are making things as good as they can be. C'mon weather, give us a break please!!!

Willi Muller XC Challenge 2008

2008-07-29T12:52:00.005-06:00

Good thing I drove back to Golden yesterday! The conditions seemed so-so, but after waiting around on launch a bit, I got my ass in gear, launched and boated around Mt.Seven for a while. It was very difficult to get to cloudbase, although at one point I was a couple hundred feet below it. Everyone seemed to be struggling, as climbs were not consistent and semi-turbulant conditions didn't make the air especially plesant.

I was about level with Mt.Seven with I left for Pegley Arrow...I arrived there just above the cliffs as I was punching a bit of a headwind on the way there, and tried my best to work with what I had. Another pilot joined me (who was on an Ozone Addict - yeah!) and we scratched around for a while until I had enough of the crappy choppy stuff and headed back towards the main LZ rather than pushing forwards.

This decision I made was strategic for the competition; the Willi has different multipliers for different things: a multiplier of 10 for straight distance, 13 for an out and return with a return of 50% or more, and 15 for a full out and return. You also get bonus points for landing in at the campground. Sooooo...to make a long story short, I flew 11k's out and knew that if I landed back at the campground, I would have the same amount of points as flying 43k's straight distance! So guess what I did...

I didn't fly as aggresively as I probably should have, but considering most people didn't cover any distance, I'm happy with my normally laughable, 11 k out in return. I should say though that a couple pg pilots did fly 50k's+ which is pretty amazing, considering they didn't get above the peaks either. Today is blown out and tomorrow the forecast is for rain. The conditions change very quickly out here, so it's hard to say what will happen over the next few days. I was hoping to get some tandems in the mornings, but that hasn't happened so far. Anyway, I'm still positive, but I think this weather is starting to test people's patience!

Fatigue...

2008-07-27T18:46:00.003-06:00

I think my body and mind have had enough of my travelling shenanigans...apparently a lack of sleep and eating shitty food are not a good combination and eventually catch up to you, surprise, surprise!

Out in Vernon I tented and for whatever reason kept on waking up at 6 in the morning every day. There was a demented rooster partially to blame, as it did its thing at sunrise but also liked to run round the campgound, brushing its wings against my tent - try sleeping through that!

Anyway, that combined with maybe too much sun and eating irregularly and not the greatest of food, caught up with me in Golden. I drove out there a couple days ago and that night slept like a log...the next day (yesterday) was sort of marginal in terms of getting any decent flying in, and after spending some time sitting in a vehicle in pouring rain on the top of Mt.Seven, I did a sleddie to the LZ once things cleared up, temporarily that is, as more dark clouds were approaching.

Last night, I felt progressively more tired and decided to take a "power nap". Hah! Almost 3 hours later, I woke up, still tired, and realized how exhausted I really was. A thunderstorm was approaching and the forecast for today was t-storms as well, so I made an impulsive decision, packed up my gear, and drove home late.

So, I guess you can only abuse your body for so long...sleep deprivation is something that catches up to me quickly and travelling so much kind of gets to you after a while. There really is nothing like a good deep sleep in your own bed - aaaahhhhhh - so driving home was so totally worth it.

I'll head back to Golden tomorrow morning, even though the forecast is kind of dodgy for the next few days. I'm not sure about doing any big xc tomorrow or the day after, but hey, if you're not out there, it definitely won't happen.

Half Way to 100K....

2008-07-25T11:02:00.008-06:00

Yesterday I had a pretty successfull flying day...

In the morning I went tandem off Baldy and top landed on King Eddy, relaunched and landed in the LZ. Whoo hoo! Two more tandems under my belt! My launches were better and landings are coming along. Physically, my sissy ass arm muscles are preventing me from coming into land nicer...I put all my strength into flaring, and it's just not quite enough. Almost, but not quite...I guess I need to bulk up a bit.

After that a few of us headed out to Mara Lake, where I've done SIV in the past. I've never had the opportunity to go XC out there, so I was excited to see what the site had to offer in that area. I launched, played with some crappy thermals with small cores for a while, and then saw a pilot climbing better, so headed out to him. I got up to about 2400 meters and started my route to Vernon.

At one point one of the pilots was putting on a little SIV demo of his own over the trees, when his wing was surging violently and turned him round a few times. I was heading to that spot as I thought it would be a good thermal source, but after seeing him, I quickly changed my mind. I found out later he was on full bar and his wing just went ape on him. He had a good attitude about it though - after it happened we got an enthusiastic "Yee Haa!" on the radio, much to my relief!

I kept flying and flying, getting in deeper past Enderby and took thermals off cutblocks. In OZ I went in deep a few times so my comfort level in that respect, has definitly increased although I do my best to always monitor the winds and to make sure I have an escape route if I hit sink.

As the day went on, base lifted, and after climbing to 3400 meters, I thought I was high enough. Base was still 100 metres higher, but I was starting to feel a bit lightheaded so I glided towards Lumby and as the day was coming to an end anyway, I landed about 3 k's past town with another pilot - sweet! So, after 3.5 hours in the air, we flew about 51 k's - not too shabby!

I think I'll leave for Golden tonight after I hopefully squeeze in another tandem today - after yesterday's flight, I'm fricken tired, but feeling ready to tackle Mt.Seven!

Contagious Behaviour

2008-07-23T13:12:00.004-06:00

Things have been going quite well over the last few days - I just finished introducing some students to the wacky world of paragliding during a 5 day course and I've also been lucky enough to sneak in a couple tandems along the way - yay!

Teaching paragliding is something I've always hesitated getting into; watching instructors have to guide students in on radio or work on groundhandling on a beautiful xc day has always been something I never envied. Instructors sacrifice a lot of solo flying time to teach courses, and although commercial tandems are similar in that way, at least you get some flying in. I've always more or less approached getting my instructor rating as something I had to do because in Canada being an instructor is a requirement for the tandem I rating, and that is most definitely my ultimate goal.

I kind of surprised myself by enjoying teaching a lot of the course. Seeing somebody who has no idea about paragliding suddenly be able to take off safely, fly and then land is really cool....especially when they land and are so stoked about their first flights. There's a powerful energy in that and it's very contagious...it reminds me of what I was like on those very first flights and how "getting high" for the first time was an experience for me that I will never forget, but that also felt so right.

I've done a couple tandems as well, which is what I totally get stoked about these days. To date I've done 5, and I just love having company in the air. Laughing and joking while flying is so much fun, nevermind doing it while the sun is setting, flying over pretty landscape. I sure need to work on my launching skills though! And my landings need a bit of work too, but that will come with more practice.

Looks like I'll soon head out to Golden for a few days for the Willi XC Challenge, which will be great. If the weather's on my side, my goal is to set a new distance record for myself. C'mon 100 k's!

Tandem Training

2008-07-14T18:51:00.000-06:00

I bit the bullet a few weeks ago and bought a tandem wing which I’ll get to see very shortly, as it’s waiting for me in BC. Financially, it was like buying a used car and suddenly I had second thoughts about if it were worth it or not, but for various reasons, mainly commercial, I went ahead and bought my own equipment.

I ended up getting a small Advance Bibeta 4 – white and red, ooh la la! A lot of paragliding manufacturers don’t make tandem wings in small sizes and some companies haven’t updated their models for quite some time, which did make buying an Advance attractive. I did some research and the Bibeta has a good reputation too. I flew the Bibeta 3 when I did my training but at 42 square meters compared to my new 38, I’m hoping things will be a bit easier – mainly flaring. A combination of long brake lines and sissy weak arm muscles made coming into land a bit challenging a few weeks ago, so I will be ecstatic if there’s a noticeable difference with a smaller tandem glider. If not, well, I guess I’ll have to hit the gym. I can’t wait to see my new baby!

The end of July is approaching and I still haven’t flown Golden! Auuuggghhh! Work commitments combined with priorities such as getting my tandem training finished is interfering with flying at Mt.Seven, which definitely makes me sad! In a perfect world, I’d finish my tandem stuff in a week and head to Golden for the Willi XC Comp just in time. I find comps a great excuse to hang out with friends, get organized rides up to launch and get fed once in a while – and of course, the competition part always excites me too. I’m not counting on making it out to Golden in time, (so as to avoid disappointment) but if it works out, then sweet! Attending the Canadian Paragliding Nationals out in Chelan never was a viable option, so participating in at least one Canadian paragliding competition this year would be nice.

Not sure about internet access out in BC, but I will post pictures of my new glider and hopefully of very smiley, relaxed passengers, when I can.

Wicked Weather

2008-07-07T23:17:00.003-06:00

Today the Calgary Herald's front page had an article on how a thunderstorm last night spawned twisters outside the city and how Calgary could expect similar weather for the next few days.

Much to my dissapointment, I didn't see a tornado today, but most of Calgary did get another wicked t-storm today:

As I saw the wall of clouds approach, I jumped in the car and drove to a viewpoint not far away and took these pics. Didn't see any swirling clouds, although some did look unusual... but hey, there's always tomorrow.

Smelly Paragliding Gets Own Link

2008-07-06T17:25:00.005-06:00

No, I don't have too much time on my hands - in fact, I have WAY too many things to do right now, which is exactly why I devoted the last hour of my time slightly modifying my Smelly Paragliding post, and creating a special page for it. You will now see it listed on the right hand side of this blog under "cool links."

Yes, I will update the pictures on my blog one of these days as well, but that would require an amount of motivation which I just don't have right now. I do however have some additional witty comments and observations to write about, somewhat similar to Smelly Paragliding, which I will hopefully post in the next few weeks.

No plans to visit any exotic locations anytime soon which is a bit of a bummer, but my paragliding schedule does have me going west to finish of my tandem endoresment hopefully by the end of this month.

Playtime is over - back to work for me.

Heli’s

2008-06-26T14:28:00.003-06:00

Something I’ve always been intrigued by but didn’t think I’d get the opportunity to try are Heli’s. When I think about Heli’s, I always envision Russell Ogden and Jerome Canaud doing them on Performance Flying. Finding Parachutage, or the point just above stall, easing up a bit on both brakes and then initiating a turn by further easing up slightly on one side – my heart beats faster just thinking about it!

Under guidance, I was first asked to find the deep stall point , which I did, and then full stalled my way out of it. Great, I’ve got it! The next try was the actual heli. I found the deep stall point but then continued pulling a bit passed and tried to ease up on the brakes to initiate the heli, but by that point I had already pulled too much brake, so I had no choice but to stall my way out again. My third attempt was much the same.

So, my experience with heli’s was pretty much a series of full stalls. I actually really like full stalling my glider – the feeling of your wing slowing down then dropping backwards and feeling weightless is so cool! I’ve been wanting to do a series of full stalls just for practice sake anyway, so having to do them as a result of bad heli attempts actually worked out quite well.

I feel pretty comfortable stalling my glider, but I’m not sure that I would attempt heli’s on my own without any sort of supervision, or at the very least, a boat on standby. Maybe if it were a 3500 meter base day and I were feeling particularly ambitious and maybe a bit hypoxic I’d try it on my own, but I think since heli’s involve playing with the stall point, and with the risk of riser twists, that makes things a bit sketchy. I don’t want to have to throw my reserve if I don’t have to.

In terms of “tricks” I feel confident enough doing SAT’s on my own and I’ll have to keep working on bigger and bigger wingovers – ones that are almost as big as loops. I have no problems locking into spirals, but I do need to keep working on my asymmetric spirals and ideally get them even on both sides. Hah, this kind of sounds like a list of chores or something but man, paragliding acro to me reminds me of the ultimate amusement ride, except not only am I the passenger but I’m also the one in control. Awesome.

The Sweetest Flying Day EVER!!!

2008-06-19T01:54:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I had the most amazing day. I met some female pilots out here in Annecy, and we planned to do some XC together, flying from Planfait to across the lake etc. – we’d see where the clouds would take us. It didn’t quite work that way as one of the girls forgot her instruments and had to go home to get them, while the three of us split in the sky. I ended up doing a small xc, flying across towards Annecy to one of the nearby ridges, and then coming back in to land. It was a nice morning flight.

I got a ride back up to launch, thermalled my way up to Les Dentes (the Teeth), flew to the next ridge that kind of looks like the Dentes, and over to the Forclase launch, where I had tons of height. I flew out over the lake, and tried to throw in some SATs. I got in a couple of rotations, but they were messy, so I pulled out. It was awesome though being able to do some XC and end with Acro.

Funny enough when I landed, one of the girls who I took off with saw me over the lake, and came to land with me. So the two of us found one of the other girls who gave us a ride back to PLanfait to find our remaining team member. Funny enough when we arrived back at the Forclase LZ, she was coming into land. Awesome timing!

Just before she landed, a guy in a Apco Twister decided to throw in a ground spiral at less than 50 meters off the deck. The second he pulled in, his wind dived violently forward, and after less than one complete revolution, he smacked into the ground and bounced. HOLY SHIT! Everyone rushed over to him, but he was completely fine. He was so fucking lucky – he should have broke his back for sure! Man, I’ve never seen a person bounce off the ground, and I hope I never witness anything like that again. It was a bit of a reminder that acro and tricks are fun, but the closer you try things to the ground, the higher your chances of pounding in like he did.

We all went up again to Planfait to do vehicle retrieve, but I was able to fly. It was about 6 o’clock, and although some people still seemed high, most were just ridge soaring. I was determined to do my SAT, but I questioned whether I could fly to Forclase at that time of the day. I launched, ridge soared, and tried to work any little bubble I could. Heart and soul, I wanted to thermal out of there. Finally, I caught something. Half a meter up, I dribbled intently in this thermal until I was ¾ of the way up to Les Dentes. Then I saw somebody climbing faster than me on the side of the mountain, so I headed there, and got to base 5 minutes later. Whoo hoo!!!! I followed the clouds, and made my way to Forclase. I didn’t bother thermalling as it was buoyant, and just flew slower when there was a bit of lift.

I psyched myself up and secured my instruments when I was over the lake and pulled into a perfect SAT, yeeeeeesssss!!!!! What an awesome feeling! As I pulled out a small plane looked like it was watching me, so I lost my excess height with some spirals and wingovers. I landed, and as the girls saw me come out, picked me up at the SIV landing field. How perfect!

On my last flight I knew I’d pull into the SAT, but I questioned my XC skills…especially at that time of the day. It was pretty sweet knowing I was the last to climb out of Plainfait, and the last person with the balls to head to Forclase in what could have been a very sinky glide. It was incredible that I pulled it off - it TOTALLY made my day.

Today us girls are planning some more XC, and I’ll hopefully practice some more acro as well. Yesterday will be tough to beat!

Raining on My Parade

2008-06-16T01:01:00.002-06:00

Sitting in Annecy in the rain...ho hum, ho hum. What's with the weather these days? I left Calgary in the rain, arrived in Geneva in the rain, had plenty of rain in Laragne and now here in Annecy it's pissing down rain again - what a drag!!!

My goal is to have the SAT nailed by the end of the week, and throw in some sweet assymetric 360's and big wingovers. Kind of seems like wishful thinking looking outside, but I think all paraglider pilots have to be and are pretty patient people. Rumour has it the weather will improve by Wednesday so I'll just have to sit tight for a bit.

Being overcast yesterday wasn't condusive to epic flying, but scratching around the ridge for 25 mins at Planfait (spelling?) was good practice. The day before I flew for about an hour, getting to base, fighting the winds up high to get anywhere on glide and then doing it all over again. Annecy is such a beautiful place, every flight is enjoyable.

Hopefully my next post will be as the SAT Queen!!!!!!!!!!!

A Warning to All Women

2008-06-12T03:27:00.002-06:00

Something I didn't think was a huge deal at the time, but in retrospect, probably was, is something I would like to primarily bring up with female pilots.

Yesterday I ended up landing a couple k's from a small town, which I hiked to and was elated when I saw a phone booth. Dissapointingly however, it did not take coins but instead, only phone cards. Nearby was an open building where the locals gather their water, so I ditched my glider and went across the street to a house where an old man was sitting to ask if I could use his phone.

The old man was probably in his late sixties or even early seventies and greeted me quite warmly. In broken French I asked to use his phone and he motioned for me to follow him to his house. We went inside and close to the door was his telephone. I called the number for retrieve, relayed my position, and they said a bus would be on its way.

After returning the phone to the old man, he motioned to the chair, and I think asked if I wanted to sit down. I kindly rejected his offer when he grabbed me and started hugging and kissing me. I pushed him away, but he increased his hold and I quite forcefully had to shove him away and say "no!" I then left with him following me slowly walking with his cane, and I returned to the water place. He walked to the end of the path to his house and stood there, staring at me while his dogs were running wild on the road. It was starting to make me nervous and I figured I needed an exit strategy when with impecible timing, the retrieve bus showed up. Wow, what a relief that was! Thanks Ozone and thanks to a superb bus driver who was in the area!

At the end of the day, I was safe and I didn't get hurt, but I suppose things could have turned out much differently. Generally speaking, I think most people are well intentioned and maybe in this case the old man was just very lonely, but it still surprised me and made me realize how naive I was not having my guard up.

Anyone, men or women, can find themselves with people who are potentially a threat, and this post is just to relay my experience and remind everyone that flying xc paragliding is usually an exciting experience, both in the air and on the ground. But it's good to remember that when landing out we are relying on strangers to help us, and sometimes these strangers have questionable intentions - especially if you are female. It's too bad that I had to be reminded of this in such an unpleasant manner, but better this way than in a situation with more serious consequences.

Fly safe, land safe, and get home safe.

Ozone Chabre Open

2008-06-12T03:10:00.002-06:00

Things have been good out here in France - the weather has improved (even though it does OD everyday) and we've had 3 valid tasks so far. Today looks blown out, but the sun is shining so it's not so bad.

On task 2, I was one of the first to launch and ended up coming 17th before the task was stopped due to cu-nims again. I was happy with that.

Yesterday I had a little bit too much to drink the night before, so flying was kind of challenging....it was fairly turbulent, so that feeling of icky things trying to creep up from your stomach was with me throughout the flight. I took off really really late, and a couple k's from rounding the first turnpoint, the task was stopped, so I didn't do great. I testflew an XS Rush Porcher wing which was nice, as the extra stability was something I definitly needed that flight.

Some pics:

Tomorrow is our last chance to fly out here - I've had a really fun comp and the region is absolutly beautiful - I sure hope to be back again sometime.

Turnpoint One Near Hit?!

2008-06-09T11:33:00.003-06:00

I got to France a couple days ago, greeted by light rain. The first full day spent out here was in the rain, but as a practice day, it didn't much matter anyway. On day two we went to one launch site region, but by the time we got there, the wind changed, and we had to go back to the main Chabre launch site. Some people got off and flew just before a big cu-nim headed our way - I wasn't one of the ones who got off in time, but missing what would have been an extended sleddie didn't bother me too much.

Today was looking decent, but as there was a chance of overdevelopment, I launched relatively quickly - within the first 20 or so of 120 (?) pilots. While flying, I didn't think twice about how I entered the cylinders into my GPS, and just sort of assumed things were fine. I thought the proximity alarm for turnpoint one beeped a bit soon, but the thought soon left me. I continued down the range for a while, following the clouds and timing when I wanted to go for turnpoint two. As luck would have it, this was still on course for turnpoint one...

So there I was, continuing ignorantly merrily along to turnpoint two, and then on course to turnpoint three. At that point, 15 k's in or so, the task was cancelled due to a cu-nim developing out at turnpoint two and I landed in a field next to the main highway, thinking I had a pretty good flight.

When I submitted my gps, they immediately said I had a distance of around 5 k's or so, which was sort of like a slap in the face. What?! How could I have a distance of 5 k's when I flew at least 15?! After submitting my backup gps, going through some settings, etc. the verdict was in: I entered the larger cylinder around turnpoint one correctly, but I completely forgot to enter the small, 400 meter cylinder around that same point. I ended up missing it by just over 50 meters. Fuck!

Man, for scoring purposes, I would have done better than I actually placed, but wouldda, couldda, shouldda, didn't. I'll NEVER make this mistake again, that's for sure!!!!

Anyway, sometimes it's hard to be positive about blips during competition, but at the end of the day, I think I flew well, and knowing that these types of technical glitches can and do happen to most paragliding pilots gives me solace in the situation. Perhaps writing about the situation makes me feel angrier than when I was first informed about it, but anyway, life goes on.

Tomorrow's forecast is apparently quite similar - overdevelopment early afternoon, but flyable in the morning. I'm going to enter everything correctly into my gps, and dammit, today has lit a bit of a fire under my ass, so watch out!

Pics soon...

My Very First Tandem!

2008-05-14T21:04:00.004-06:00

Last week I finally got to do something I’ve been wanting to for a long time – I gave someone a paragliding tandem!

Out in BC I took an instructors/tandem I course which I didn’t quite get to fully complete due to the weather, but it was totally rad nonetheless.

The tandems went well – only did two with one perfect launch, one average launch, one fast landing, and one decent landing. Practice, practice! Tandems are something I definitely want to pursue further – it’s a hell of a lot of responsibility, but man, to share flying with someone makes it totally worth it.

The drive out to BC through the Rockies looked something like this...there was even MORE snow on the way back - hopefully it won't melt all at once or we'll be in trouble...

I’ll have to finish up my endorsements in the summer, but meanwhile I’ll be off again in a few weeks to France for the Ozone Chabre Open and then off to do some acro stuff in Annecy. I can’t wait!

Ankle-wise, things are far from perfect, but are still very slowly getting there. No running far, stairs suck, and walking long distances hurts...it looks kind of demented too with all that scar tissue, but I am so thankful I can walk across the room to get myself a glass of water and then walk back! Knock-on-wood, I haven't seriously reinjured it, and I intend to keep it that way.

Crazy Canadian Weather

2008-05-08T23:52:00.002-06:00

Man, Canadian weather is crazy! After spending a few days in Calgary after coming back from OZ, everyone seemed somewhat embittered about the winter and how spring was yet to arrive. Well, doesn't look like things have changed much since...

Right now I'm in BC taking a paragliding course and I can't get home! The mountains have heavy snowfall warnings in some regions and the prospect of being stuck at Roger's Pass or something doesn't appeal to me much, so I'm staying put. It's kind of funny actually - who would have thought the Rockies and Calgary would have snowfall warnings in May? Ridiculous!

I've clocked something nominal like an hour and a half airtime out here in the last week but doing sleddies is okay when you're at a new site, or one you haven't been to for a while. It'd be awesome to do a little xc or something, but as long as I can do a spiral or wingovers or whatever on the way down from these mini-flights, I keep psyched about sleddies. And besides, flowers are blooming and there's no snow down low!

Anyhow, I've completely adjusted to driving on the right side of the road again and am happy that when I order a burger, there's no damn beetroot in it! I miss flying Mystic, but I totally look forward to kicking ass on home turf in the summer! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss!

Good Ol' Canada

2008-04-26T23:47:00.005-06:00

Back at home at last... after 30 hours of travel and a most delightful 13 hour sleep last night, things seem back to the way they were when I left home 5 months ago; snow on the Rockies when I left, snow on the Rockies on the way back.

5 months!!! It shits me to think I was gone for so long! I kept busy today sorting through my hoards of mail which made me feel marginally important and wanted, although annoyed when I was unpleasantly reminded that you still receive bills even when you're away...at least I've got some fun XC mag reading to catch up on!

Well, my OZ experience is over, and who knows when I'll be back. I think Australia is an awesome place to fly and every pilot who can should try to get out there. Consistent conditions and a beautiful landscape make Bright especially enticing. Lots of positive memories of Mystic.

On other fronts, well, there's no place like home. After being away for so long you quickly realize how much your friends and family mean to you and how being away can be hard. Good relationships take time to develop and the difference between a general acquaintance and somebody you care about was quite apparent for me in OZ. But hey, life is full of lessons, and I've learned plenty this year.

My second last flight from Mystic was a really nice one; flying next to Mt.Buffalo was awesome and is right up there on my list of favourite flights. Besides being one of my goals before I left, flying Buffalo was just really pleasant. I miss paragliding already.

Goal Acheived: A Smokin' 130 Hours

2008-04-19T17:55:00.002-06:00

A couple days ago I reached my slightly altered goal of having 130 hours airtime - hooray!

It's been flyable every day out here in Bright, but with all the burnoffs, it's not exactly the most pleasant flying...combine that with constant inversions and flying any kind of real distance has been tricky at best. My 130th hour was spent in thick smoke from a small fire nearby, only because I was positive there'd be lift there because I knew my 130th hour was approaching and I wanted to stay up. I think I almost suffocated, but hey, airtime is airtime.

Only a few more days in Bright - I can't believe I'll be home next week! The last couple weeks have been fun, but the closer I get to leaving, the more homesick I get - it'll be nice to be back.

Goal Acheived: Flying Feathertop

2008-04-10T03:00:00.004-06:00

Yesterday after flying for 3.5 hours another pilot and myself flew to Feathertop and back. Base was just high enough, and we obviously stayed there as much as possible flying out. Climbs were decent and as we weren’t punching an excessively strong headwind at any point, it turned out to be a really good flight.

The views were fantastic – here are some pics:

So yes, a very nice flight with lots of cloud practice for me. I definitely followed the other pilot a lot on this flight, as flying out there on my own would be something I’d only attempt if base were ridiculously high and winds wouldn’t be an issue. Regardless, it was awesome to be in the air for so long and fly to a point I’ve been eyeing for the last couple months.

Today I had a bit of an off day, so I called it quits when I got to Pyramid, and then flew back to the paddock at Mystic. I’m not sure exactly what my problem was, but I wasn’t really into it today...I think when your concentration level starts to go, it’s time to land. It’s all good though – after a couple evening sleddies, I almost clocked a couple hours anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

A few weeks ago I had the following (yes, somewhat unrealistic) goals:

Set a new personal best, fly over Mt.Buffalo, fly over Feathertop, do a proper SAT, and have 150 hours airtime all before I leave OZ

Out of that, I’ve flown over Feathertop, which could arguably be a new personal best, and airtime-wise, I’m up to 120, so quite a bit short of 150. SAT’s are something I’ve attempted many times, but just can’t lock into – I keep on almost spinning the thing, or I dunno, I pull out because they’re just spirals. Buffalo is a bit of a longshot at this point, but it could still happen I suppose. If I leave Bright with 130 hours under my belt, and have a flight come together like Feathertop, I’ll be happy. :)

Lazy Kung Fu Flyer

2008-04-08T04:51:00.003-06:00

One of my fellow paraglider pilots mentioned the other day how during launching I have this sort of funny kung fu kick going on. I sort of knew what he was talking about but didn’t think too much of it until I saw this picture:

Man, combine the kick with that ninja mask and I look like the ultimate poser! It’s like “look at me, I’m trying to be cool!!!” I don’t think I did it before my ankle injury, but now have to be very conscious of my goofy Matrix-like move and STOP doing it!

Today I clocked another couple hours, spread across two flights. I think I’ve come to the realization that I am a very lazy paraglider pilot. Sometimes I just don’t want to go back to logical thermal sources, and so I don’t, and then I deck it. Like today – we flew from Mystic to Clearspot (only a couple k’s away), I got to base (okay, so maybe I went inside the cloud a little bit…), and then flew straight towards a spot where previous pilots got low and where there wasn’t any cloud whatsoever. Needless to say, there were no climbs, and I decked it at the airstrip where along the way I did some spirals and tried b-lining my glider (which was interesting as it went parachutal after my attempt).

So anyway, why the hell did I fly to a spot where it was obvious there was no lift? The answer: I felt like it! I get this weird excitement when I know the air will be smooth and with lots of altitude, I can have a bit of a play with my wing. And I kind of like just boating around in light sink, going here, going there, and then landing. But then maybe I’m wasting flights and costing myself airtime with my very passive attitude. Today I could have very well turned back, got back up to base at Clearspot, flew back to Mystic, and tried a different route. But I don’t know, after flying for an hour, I just wanted to have some fun.

So yeah, I’m occasionally the idiot climbs to 2200 meters and then lands! I need to stop being so lazy, ignore the ground suck, and just build up my endurance levels so that I quit doing stupid things after the hour and a half mark, which seems to be my “special” time as of late. Strange!

The weather looks mostly decent for the next few days – my new goal is to kick these two new habits (no pun intended) before my time in OZ is up!

Taco Flavoured Flying

2008-04-05T03:51:00.002-06:00

After absolute shit flying weather last week, the weather gods seemed to have remembered Bright over the last few days and have provided some half decent flying days. Today base was surprisingly at 1950m but was fucking cold! It’s kind of funny when you’re flying up there and you start seeing your breath – I wonder if you can form your own clouds that way?....

I’ve happily clocked another few hours and just surpassed the 110 hour mark today – hooray! I was a bit disappointed having set a task before flying and not nearly finishing it, but at least I gained some more cloud flying experience and even the dark ones don’t seem so scary anymore. When I landed I very luckily scored a ride back up to launch where an end of day flight turned into a really sweet, smooth, boaty fly where I surprised myself climbing back up to base (albeit 1.5m/s at a time!), flying to Goldmine and then back to the landing paddock. It was pretty darn awesome!

I took this picture today and had someone in mind when I took it – definitely an inside joke. I've decided I have no shame in posting or saying things on my blog anymore because I’m sure most of you think I’m a bit of a cracked nut anyway, so rock on!

Chilly Australia?!

2008-03-27T00:43:00.004-06:00

The weather out here in Australia has turned surprisingly cold and average over the last few days, which has pretty much put flying on hold. Easter is the busiest time of year for the tandem operations out here and with up and down sort of conditions it was a bit of an eye opener when you witness first hand how shitty weather can impact running a paragliding business.

I did fly a few days ago though and had a fantastic flight! I didn't go XC, but I got up to base, flew to Clearspot, flew back, got low, scratched up again, got to base, boated around by the clouds, tried some SATs, almost spun my wing (auuughhh!!!!), did some spirals on both sides instead, and then landed in little wind on my ass with a big cloud of dust (ankle is still not in landing-condition!). That pretty much sums it up.

We'll see if the weather plays ball over the next while but at this point, I am considering coming home a couple weeks early. It'd make life a bit less hectic with the timing of things when I return, but I won't be hasty in making my decision. I do miss home though! One thing I've learned out here: you can never have too many Canadian flag stickers with you when you travel - spreading patriotism is good.

Own That Thermal, Bitch!

2008-03-17T03:19:00.001-06:00

One thing I really need to stop doing is being a thermal’s bitch. You ever feel like that? Where a thermal has control of you and almost a personality of its own and says “ha ha, you’re mine!” One second it treats you to smooth 5m/s lift, the next second it spits you out and makes you suffer as you fly through its rough edge, and then as you reinflate the one half of your glider that went missing in the process and fly upwind to fly through it again, it’s gone.

It’s definitely very stupid, but maybe a new reaction to this sort of thing could be a sort of american ghetto-attitude where as you do your 360’s perfectly climbing in a thermal, you can think to yourself “you’re mine, beotch”, and then if you find yourself in shitty scrappy lift and it gets a bit rough, combined with one of those fancy sideways snaps and head movements (brakes in one hand of course), you let out a defiant “oh no you din’t!!!!!!”. That could always ease a bit of nervousness and could be really funny if your radio were locked on.

OK, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about again – must be the fucking heat out here. Moving along…

I had a really nice time flying for almost 2.5 hours today reaching and surpassing the 100 hour mark (finally!!!) and as I did, I realized how important it is to use the pitch and dive energy of your glider to turn it on its yaw axis. Cores were fairly strong today and there were plenty of times where you’d be pitched back rocketing up and then you’d catch the dive as your glider accelerated forward. I know this isn’t anything new, but I guess what I experimented with was turning the glider with total weightshift as it would dive forward and I found that although instinctively it made me a bit nervous, doing it made me stay in lift much more efficiently.

Maybe it’s that see-saw sort of feeling that makes me want to shit my pants sometimes when paragliding. That rush of wind you feel when rocketing up sometimes, and then hoping that next second you won’t see the trailing edge of your wing… Or like today, I suddenly hit 4.5m/s sink, then watched as the reading on my vario went from -4.5 to -3.5 to -2.5 to -1.5, well you get the picture, until I was rocketing up at 5 m/s. As the readings changed so quickly, I was sitting there anticipating a juicy thermal, but a bit anxious because I had no idea what the climb would be like – smooth, choppy, how much, etc. But that’s half the fun of paragliding – there are always so many unknowns.

It’s all about feeling comfortable in the air though, that’s for sure. Your comfort zone expands each time you have a noteworthy flight, be it a conscious thing or not. With that your goals become more ambitious, just like mine: set a new personal best, fly over Mt.Buffalo, fly over Feathertop, do a proper SAT, and have 150 hours airtime, all before I leave OZ. Ha ha! What I want might be just a TAD unreasonable, but…yeah, so it might be totally unreasonable, but it’s fun to dream.

Smiley flights!

Ended: Four Weeks of Hell

2008-03-14T22:48:00.000-06:00

After a 4 week hiatus from flying, the day before yesterday I was reunited with paragliding again.

Launching was good although yesterday a better method of chucking invalids off the hill (versus the day before) was sussed out; basically the pilot should be in the forward launch position (A-risers and brakes in hand) and have one person on either side anchoring them by holding onto the chest strap and leg strap on their respective side. Then as the pilot inflates the glider, the “support team” lifts the pilot up by the straps (some if not most of the pilot’s weight is on the glider), runs (at this point the pilot has let go of the A-risers and is controlling the glider with the brakes), and sort of throws them off the hill. Of course you need to do this in quite a bit of wind, but I was surprised at how well it worked.

Both of my flights were a bit on the wild side…the first one was pretty rough and choppy with broken lift everywhere, and the second had small bullet 4 m/s thermals with 4 m/s sink around them. The second flight reminded me of being on a roller coaster – fun for the first while, but after an hour and twenty minutes or something, I pulled the pin and came down. I feel a bit rusty though, so in a sense I’m glad Mystic is putting me to the test.

Landing has been good too. Both times I got out of my harness and hung from the leg straps when coming in to land, and then once a few feet off the ground, I lean back and land gently on my back. Again in wind, it’s been quite good, and my rational behind hanging from the leg straps initially is because it’s easier to judge distance from the ground in that position (well, for me anyway). Other than being a bit of a numbskull yesterday and having to land in an alternate paddock because of misjudging the windspeed, coming down has been alright!

So yes, good to be back in the game again. Being injured I found it easy to become resentful when everyone else around you is clocking up hours, awesome flights, and fun, and you’re stuck being a spectator rather than a participant. The attitude of being happy for others is doable and was my genuine feeling at first, but after almost 4 weeks, I’ll be the first to say that finding happiness in other people’s joy gets old fast. I much prefer to revel in my own happiness rather than others’, thanks! Sounds selfish and harsh perhaps, but hey, ultimately it is the truth. Humans are selfish and I’m no exception.

Ankle-wise, I’ve ditched the crutches but I’d bet that any 75-year-old woman could outpace me! I sort of forgot how to walk on my injured side – my knee keeps on doing weird things, my ankle makes strange popping sounds and I’m not sure how to place my foot on the ground. And then when I do walk around, my foot aches like hell…and yes, I do wear a brace. I swear, I’ll never take things like speed-walking and running for granted again because man, being on crutches and then learning how to walk properly again totally sucks ass!

Anyway, same old, same old out here, although I should point out that my time in OZ is slowly coming to an end. At the end of next month I’m back in good old Canuckistan and although I totally look forward to being back home again, I won’t be able to fly right away, so I have to keep building my flying experience out here as much as possible. It’s a tough job, but I’m quite happy to do it.

Smelly Paragliding

2008-03-04T00:29:00.000-07:00

People who are uptight annoy me – fun is fun and dammit, I want to have as much of it as possible. Laughing at someone else’s expense is generally a not-so-nice thing to do, but I think in some cases it’s perfectly deserved and acceptable. Here are some things that paraglider pilots do or are which amuse me, irritate me, or send me running…

1. Wearing a ski suit when flying – I’m sorry, but anyone who does this looks like a dork…especially when their ski suit matches their glider. I know paragliding isn’t a fashion sport, but please people, in order to retain some shred of dignity, remember that your neglected 90’s ski suit shouldn’t match your wing and would probably look better hanging in the window of an op-shop than on you.

2. Short shorts – why is it that European men wear short shorts? There was one pilot in Manilla who wore these short purple shorts that had slits on the sides and would sort of flow as he walked by – how is that attractive?! It’s definitely not, and in fact it’s disturbing and disrespectful to wear such distracting clothing around fellow pilots! Paraglider pilot or not, men who wear short shorts should be arrested.

3. Blinding patterns – neon colours with repetitious patterns is not cool. Repeat that in a different way – paragliding equipment dated pre-2000 is generally not suitable for public viewing due to the risk of severe ocular damage. Nothing makes me cringe more when I see some guy whip out a harness with 8 different uv’d neon colours, attached to a glider which looks almost transparent. Besides the fact that this type of equipment might not exactly pass safety tests, it looks too ugly to fly, and should therefore be chucked. No two ways about it – if it’s hideous, it’s not airworthy.

4. Nerds – ever notice how many nerds there are in paragliding? I think it’s a fairly safe assumption to make that the majority of pilots are middle aged Caucasian men who work in the IT sector. The idea of communication systems, varios, gps’s, backup gps’s and entering waypoints into electronic gadgets must be heavenly – nevermind the incredibly exciting topics of polar curves, wing loadings, aerodynamics, and glide ratios. Paragliding is definitely a nerdy sport – think about it.

5. Caked on sunscreen – I always find it amusing talking to pilots who look like neglected children with sunscreen smeared all over their lips and faces. Many pilots must find the concept of blending sunscreen into their skin foreign, and therefore leave it on their faces until it eventually absorbs, but not without first getting all over their helmets, gloves, and other possible body parts. I understand that especially in our sport, sun-protection is vital, but I won’t apologize for the smirk on my face when talking to a pilot who has a perfect white ring flaking around his mouth.

6. Trotting off launch – why do people with perfectly good running skills trot off launch? You’ll see a fairly normal looking pilot in a regular setting and suddenly he turns into a complete doufus tip-toeing off the hill. It’s so disappointing! Run normally! Running like there’s shit in your pants won’t help you launch better and only makes you the center of attention in a very bad way.

7. Peeing around takeoff – maybe if I were a man I would have no problems whipping things out of my pants and relieving myself whenever I’d feel like it, but can you please not pee next to my glider? I don’t know how many times I’ve turned around to get my gear and there’s some guy standing nearby reacquainting himself with his trusty friend. Here’s a piss tip for all men out there: pick a spot where you think you should like to pee and walk 10 feet further from that spot and pee there instead. Avoiding awkwardness is helpful to all!

8. Profuse sweating – paragliding can be a sticky, smelly sport. There’s nothing worse than having 5 layers of clothing on scratching around the trees for an hour below launch height sweating like a donkey, getting up to base and freezing your ass off, and then landing in the middle of fucking nowhere in 40 degree heat. When this happens, the people who pick you up are doing you a real service by spending the time and effort to come retrieve you. Do them a favour when you get in the truck and KEEP YOUR ARMS DOWN! I’ve been to hell and back many times: sit in a vehicle with 4 men who have just landed, and who are using the seats as a sponge and the vents as dryers and then tell me if it’s possible that a date with the devil could be any worse. I don’t think so!

I don’t mean to imply by any of this that I’m not any of these things or have not worn short shorts at one time or another. I’d also love to believe that I smell heavenly at all times because as a women, I am a magical being who doesn’t ever have to worry about icky bacteria causing strange odours, but I do have to suppose it is possible that once in a blue-moon, this isn’t quite the case.

For the most part, I love paragliding, but the things mentioned above are not so fun. For things in our sport to be funner, only small changes need to be made. I suggest a revolution, one point at a time!