A Shockingly Small World

Yesterday my boyfriend and I were asked if we could do tandems for one of the schools and if we could also give a ride out to the Valley to a passenger who lived nearby. The strange coincidences began right away...

A background: the girl who used to live in my apartment was someone I got to know as, long story short, she first rented her apartment out to me until we arranged for me to simply take over her lease. Anyway, at one point she asked me if I needed a TV as one of her friends didn’t need hers anymore. I said “sure”, and a few days later, I found myself taking a TV out of the vehicle of a girl who I had only met for a few seconds.

Back to the tandems – after talking to our tandem passenger, we very quickly discovered that she was the one who had given me her TV a few months prior! Weird!!!

We chatted about the girl who used to live in my apartment thinking it was a strange coincidence that she connected us with the TV. She then mentioned how they used to be roommates, worked together, etc. Then she mentioned that she used to work for one of the airlines, and we soon realized that she used to work with my boyfriend’s friend’s wife! Weird again!!!

The day was HOT and stable and we both did 3 tandems. It was kind of an odd day as there wasn’t a blip of lift anywhere until late in the afternoon, and even then the bubbles were so small, not one pilot could manage anything more than a sledder.

We drove back to my place and as I entered the building, I almost died – there was the girl who used to live in my unit! She lives in the same building as me however I see her less than once a month, if that. Her friend had already called her to tell her about the tandems and the strange coincidence of meeting again, so we chatted for a bit about paragliding and such.

Metro Vancouver’s population is around 600,000 (Greater Vancouver is over 2 million) so chances were slim I’d meet the free TV girl again, nevermind being the tandem passenger we were to drive to the flying site! Super strange day and a good reminder that the world can be a very, very small place.

BANNED at Wasa!

A few days ago we headed to Wasa (not far from Cranbrook) to do some flying. The road up to launch is great – it’s long (14k’s) but it is 2 wheel drive and in very good condition.

When we got to launch the cycles were a bit cross but the conditions seemed pretty good. The launch is fairly steep and I had a bit of trouble inflating my glider as the leading edge kept falling onto itself and as the ground is uneven, I found myself being a bit scared that I’d step funny and sprain my ankle. But anyway, that thankfully didn’t happen, although I did have to run after my harness as it decided to start tumbling down the hill!

Anyway, once airborne we did some ridge soaring and then I finally got a good climb off one of the northern knobs. The wind was fairly strong and conditions were a bit bumpy for my taste. I got to base, decided that flying the main range was too intimidating for the conditions, so I didn’t go anywhere exciting. I was a bit scared on that flight for some reason, so I opted to try and topland so I could drive the car down.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha, why is it that when you try toplanding, launch is surrounded by a 3 kilometre radius that is lifting at 2 m/s?! Ok, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration on size, but after flying way in front, and on both sides of launch, I could find nothing but 2 m/s lift, so opted to go and land in Lloyd’s field instead.

Now, a few weeks ago I headed to Wasa and a few of us stopped at Lloyd’s to introduce ourselves. Lloyd is a very old man who owns a huge field where he allows paragliders to land. He only asks that you introduce yourself.

I landed in Lloyd’s field, put my glider by some trees in the shade, and started walking to his house to thank him for allowing paragliders to land there. Lloyd wasn’t around but his wife was there and we had a lovely chat for almost an hour, where she invited me inside, showed me her dried flowers, etc. A super nice woman.

As I started walking back towards my glider I could see a vehicle parked nearby. As I got closer I could see that it was an old man, so I asked "Is that you Lloyd?" Lloyd was pissed!!! He started yelling at me telling me how I wasn’t supposed to land in his field without his permission, how I was being disrespectful, how all paragliders are bad people, etc. etc.

I explained to him that we had met before and that I had asked for his permission a few weeks prior. He then countered by saying "You have to ask me EVERY time you want to land here!!!!" A bit of a misunderstanding, as I thought asking for permission once was enough.

We continued on and as I tried to defend myself, explaining I had just talked to his wife, just left my glider by the trees so it was out of sight and not because I wanted to jump the fence, knew that I had to leave the field by the logs, thought I only needed to ask him permission once to land, etc. he wouldn’t have any of it. "Balony!!!" the old man would shout, and I quickly realized no matter what I said, he wouldn’t believe me. "You can’t land here anymore!" he said and then went on to say that he had already called somebody to confiscate my glider as he physically couldn’t, and that I was lucky it wasn’t gone already.

I felt terrible for making the old man angry and asked him if there was any way I could make it up to him. "NO!" he shouted and drove off.

Pretty shitty ending to a flight, especially when you make an honest mistake and you’re given no mercy. It was a total misunderstanding and after talking to a local pilot, he kind of laughed and said that’s the way Lloyd is and there is no changing his mind when he has an opinion.

Anyway, I was pretty bummed about making the literally, 90 year old man with a pacemaker angry, but we ended up going up to launch again for another flight.

I wasn’t too keen on flying, but finally convinced myself to go and after standing on launch for a LONG time for a very light straight, and not cross cycle, I went. Unfortunately for me, as I did a forward inflation and didn’t see anything wrong, I had a big knot on my upper brake line cascade so the glider kept turning to the right and of course, felt really strange in the air.

It worked out okay though as I made primarily left turns and weight shifted to the right and I landed fine in a field that certainly wasn’t Lloyds!