Crazy Air? Relax!!!
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...
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...
posted by Veronica at 8:58 PM
1 Comments:
Hello Veronica,
I linked your blog from the Willi 2008 results page.
Nice blogging you're doing. I wouldn't say crappy thermals but small punchy thermals. Can sure be dangerous for paragliders. Very good flights were had on Tuesday, which was described as epic. I missed it because I was too tired myself and also needed to catch up work. Mount 7 is quite something. Sure can satisfy any appetite for flying. :)
- Serge.
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