Heli’s

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!!!

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

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

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

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?!

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...