Birthday Paragliding!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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!