909 Km’s Home

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

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!

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!

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...

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!

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

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.