SIV Course Prep

I promised myself that before I leave for the SIV course at Mara Lake on Wednesday afternoon, I would watch Broken Toe Acro, read up on maneouvers, and watch the DVD of Chris Santacroce talking about SIV that I got last year. So far, it hasn’t happened, but I’ve still got 2.5 days left! Last year I found that I wasted a lot of time trying to understand the different maneouvers, and not really “getting” it until I was in the air. This time around I want to know what to do, and what to expect from my wing when I do it, knowing of course that Chris will be at my side guiding me.

I keep thinking about the course and what exactly I want to get out of it. I’m so curious to see what it’ll be like taking the same course one year later as a better pilot and on a newer wing. One moment I’m like, “Yeah! I totally want to full-stall my wing! Burying the brakes, here I come!” The next it’s like “Ummm…maybe some simple b-line stalls are extreme enough for me.” Man can you ever psych yourself out in this sport! I know I want to practice some spirals and maybe go from there with Chris’s advice. I’m so pumped!

I have to laugh at the ridiculousness of the last couple weeks outside of paragliding. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy clearing up business matters, and not benefiting from them financially at all. How annoying - I totally didn’t sign up for this sort of thing! Not making money is not something I live well with (curse my North American consumer habits!) so when I got a call about a one-day yoghurt promotion at a soccer camp, I happily took the job. Long story short, the girl who was originally supposed to be the mascot couldn’t do it anymore, so I was asked if I would.

So, yes, I am publically announcing that yesterday I had to wear a smelly mascot costume and do my best dancing around in public while being accused of being a fake by snotty kids, and almost getting blown over when the wind picked up! LOL, I always wind up with the weirdest jobs! Ok, maybe prancing around downtown as “Bat Girl” for a corporate game still tops yesterday’s experience, but being a yoghurt mascot is right up there! The things I’ll do in the name of extra paragliding cash make me worry...

Another Golden Weekend

I spent part of this weekend in Golden again to get more practice in before the SIV course with Chris Santacroce in 2 weeks.

More than anything on Friday I got 2 extended sled runs in. The first one was kind of gnarly as I had my first major deflation...maybe 50% or so? I kept finding some very small punchy thermals and as I was creeping up the spine of Mt. Seven, I found myself entering and exiting these little air pockets and then suddenly missing half my wing. I just leaned towards the inflated side, and it came out on its own in a couple seconds. I was about 600 feet or so over the trees, so I didn't worry, but it was kind of surprising and gave me a little shot of adrenaline.

Yesterday there was a wedding up at launch, so we had quite the audience when us paragliding folk showed up. A couple of the guys launched, and although they maintained, I wasn't in any hurry to go as I figured things would only get better as time went on. WRONG! I don't think any of us looked to the south before setting up as the wedding guests were standing there initially, and once I did stand up there and saw rain in the distance, I thought it wise not to launch.

Long story short I ended up waiting with 2 hangies and another PG for the patches of blue behind the grey to arrive, but our patience did not pay off this time. Sitting on the hang glider ramp, we watched as our blue skies soon turned dark, and as we sat in the light drizzle, I figured it was time to go home. Hesistantly I called a friend to get a ride back down and then headed home right after.

I think I learned an important and obvious lesson this weekend - make sure do a panoramic 360 of the sky before considering launching. In the past I've done this quite consistently, but it didn't really occur to me to wander up to where our audience was standing, and look at the sky from there (the north launch at Mt.Seven doesn't fully allow you to see what's happening to the south). Nobody got caught in anything serious, but I know I missed out on some decent flying because I assumed the sky looked a certain way, when in fact it did not.

All in all the weekend was very good. I got to experiece driving a sexy blue Toyota Tacoma (Brad's truck) a couple times down the mountain and once up, which was actually really fun. I also ended up driving it back to Calgary, testing out its handling at 150 kmph. Ha ha, what a nice, smooth, ride! I think I should be a spokesperson for Toyota - I totally want this truck!

Where One Journey Ends, Another Begins

Unfortunately last week I didn't keep up with writing my blog, and although I question my memory's exact accuracy, I'll finish up relating my experience at the Nats and the 2007 Willi XC.

After my horse field experience, the Nationals continued to be a real adventure. Sitting up at launch and wondering what the task for the day would be was really neat, and although I never made goal, I really enjoyed witnessing how for some, making goal wasn't the issue, it was more about how quickly they could do it.

There were a couple days were I was disappointed with my flying, but I had just as many moments were I thought I was really kicking some ass. I landed once at the Columbia Valley Lodge on a beautifully manicured lawn, and felt so proud that I was able to make it that far and land so well. Yes, some pilots flew 100 k's that day - I flew 18 k's or something like that, but you know, I was quite happy with my performance. I spent the next hour meticulously folding my glider with a big grin on my face - I totally fly for moments like that.

All in all I finished 58th out of 65 at the comp. A long way from the top I know, but for my first official comp, and first time actually seriously understanding and trying XC, I'm happy.

The next week was the Willi Muller XC Challenge, which unfortunately did not have the same fantastic weather that the Nationals had. Basically when it wasn't raining, we were mainly doing sled runs. There were a couple PG pilots who managed to squeeze in some decent XC's, but they were pretty few and far between. On one occasion the organizers decided to have a spot landing competition which ended up being more of a "safely land" task, as everyone (including myself) ended up flying backwards over the LZ due to strong gusty winds.

It was a really great 2 weeks - I have a new appreciation for Golden as a flying site, and also some new respect. There were a few accidents and incidences during those 2 weeks, and although even I have a little 'oops' account of my own, as far as I know, most people walked away mostly unscathed from any less than ideal situations they were dealt.

Next year I will definitely enter the Nationals again, but with the bar set higher this time. Meanwhile, a few of us are heading to France mid-September to do some flying out in Annecy and St.Hilaire, and to check out Coupe Icare - man, how cool will THAT be! Hopefully the weather will be on our side, so I can attempt the fly-around-the-lake XC route in Annecy. I'm sure it'll be amazing.

After that, more travel is in store as I hook up with Flight Culture UK again and join them for the next few months assisting at their paragliding holiday trips. I'm certainly no stranger to adventure anymore!

Canadian Paragliding Nationals

I am SO glad I registered and was able to partake in the Canadian Paragliding Nationals this year. I probably learned more during that week than I have in the last couple months flying somewhat sporadically. Committing yourself to a competition like that forces you to revaluate the decisions you make and then have to justify them to your fellow pilots when you land early!

We had fantastic weather all week, and other than one day where I decided launching was not a great idea (along with 10 other pilots or so), I flew every day. The conditions were definitely ass kicking and gut wrenching at times, but I suppose that is part of the allure of paragliding in general. I had two flights were for the first time I felt physically sick being rocked around and fighting with the controls. I never had any major deflations all week although here and there I had some 20 or 30% deflations which always seemed to come out on their own – damn, my new wing is fine!

The first day I made the crucial error of missing a waypoint I could have easily tagged, leaving me with fewer points than I would have otherwise earned. On another occasion I started flying the task when the task window hadn’t opened yet – I’m learning! Over the next few days I’ll write more about the Nats and the Willi XC Comp., but for now I will retell one of my more interesting stories of the week.

-------------------------
Horny Autistic Horses
-------------------------
On the second day of the comp, I landed about 12 k’s or so from the regular landing zone and while picking my field to land in, decided to land in one next to a field with horses. I did this intentionally as I had heard warnings about horses getting spooked by paragliders, so out of respect for our saddled friends, I aimed for an empty field adjacent to the horse field.

This narrow field was technically difficult to land in, but I started to feel quite smug as I did my final flare to land just on the edge of it. Well! My final flare ended up being inside a small thermal which picked me up over the fence and had me land just inside the horse field. My feet barely touched the ground when one horse came screaming round the corner of a building towards me, running back and forth, going on its hind legs, and just overall acting completely out of its mind! I started feeling somewhat intimidated by this, so I slowly unclipped myself, walked away from my glider and jumped the fence, hoping that the horse would calm down.

Instead, the horse started running around more and more frantically and must have somehow telepathically communicated to his friends and that he needed company, so another horse jumped a fence to get into the field this lead horse was in, and his other friend came running full speed, round that same initial corner as the first horse. At this point I was staring at three horses running together around this field around my glider, going all over the place, and looking like they would crash into something or each other at any second.

I was really starting to get worried these horses would hurt themselves and that I would have to take advantage of the three million dollars third party liability insurance HPAC offers, so after a few minutes of watching, I got on the meet frequency for the competition, which is technically only supposed to be used for emergencies, and asked for any advice on what to do with spooked horses running around a paraglider. Surprisingly, a woman on the other end in a calm, slow, gentle voice responded by saying, “Just talk to them. They like to hear human voices”…

So! I start talking to these horses who immediately stopped running around my paraglider which was now moving around a bit in the wind, and which now also appeared to speak. I slowly started edging my way back towards my gear, gathered it up as quickly as possible, and packed it away a good, safe distance of probably 100 feet.

As I was walking out of the field, I noticed that the landowner was sitting on his patio, so I thought it fitting to let him know I landed in his field and to thank him for it. I ended up chatting with him and his wife for at least an hour over a nice cold beer, only somewhat casually mentioning that the horses saw me land but they seemed okay.

Later that day I was told that when I asked about the horses on the meet frequency and got probably the most hilarious response possible, the entire valley filled with paragliders must have broken into laughter. I suppose having your concentration in rough air disrupted by somebody asking for advice on crazy horses at an FAI paragliding comp is not very common.

Most pilots thought it rather odd that these horses were so spooked by my landing, but one did have a pretty logical explanation: I must have landed in a field full of frisky male horses who were very excited to see a female paraglider pilot, and almost crashed into the fence, the buildings, and each other because they were autistic. Makes perfect fucking sense to me!