SIV finale

Saturday November 17, 2007

Now, having seen the pitiful videos, I was focused on getting the timing and intensity of my wingovers down. First set of wingover showed a slight improvement over day 1. Using my calibration I found a point where I always get an “out” part of the wingover. Then I focused on timing. Watching the video is painful, but I can see the incremental progress.



The night before Gabriel told me part of the problem is that I want to go too big. He said if I just focus on the timing I’d get it. Today I was set to do that.

The lines on the dragon3 are just a big longer than on the merlin. Gabe said I was getting used to that too. I really is almost as simple as developing more patience. I can feel the downswing now. I have to wait. When the pressure is highest, swing out the hips.

Flight 148

Gabe asked that I pull some SATs on my own. There is something to know about the SATs. You have to turn 180˚ before you pull hard to induce the SAT.

I was a little surprised when Gabriel asked me to pull a second SAT. I think he wanted me to just build some confidence. In truth, that’s what I needed. I was beating myself up big time over these wingovers.

I’m sure there are more difficult maneuvers, but getting wingovers right is the biggest challenge I’ve faced in paragliding. The SATs look really impressive, but they’re easy to do. For some reason asymmetric spirals are just a bit harder. But the wingovers have been it for me.

This video really shows what I’m doing wrong. It’s not about fear, strength or the desire to go big. It’s about timing. You can see how I’m way too early. Then too late. I’ve got to feel where I am in the pendulum and trust what Gabriel is telling me.

Flight 149

The second flight of the day was interrupted by a towline break. It took a while to get things back together. Main point here is if the towline breaks on your tow don’t disconnect. The guy who did made it much worse than it needed to be by disconnecting. Another boat on the lake ran over it. It was a long delay for everyone.

If the line breaks on you just fly back to the LZ with it. Gabe will tell you where to drop it.

What I liked about this flight most was canopy control. Canopy heading for the lake, brake. Control it. It’s easy now. Coming out of wingovers, asymmetrics and SATs is a piece of cake now. I almost need to shoot for the canvas to get in trouble now. That’s great and if that isn’t a fulfillment of the promise of the clinic I don’t know what is.

Flight 150

After yet another towline break I got a chance to take a 3rd run. I wanted to end the day positive.


If the line breaks on your tow, don't disconnect. Fly it back to the LZ.

The wingovers were good, likely the best of the day. I had a lot of confidence. Gabriel then explained a helicopter. You pull both brakes nearly to the point of stall, then let up and hang on to the risers. The first 3 rotations were nearly perfect. I flet some tension on my right hand and let up a bit, that caused an oscillation that ultimately ended the helo.

I started another SAT and threw it into a spiral. Gabe told me how to correct it with braking, and I felt how it could ease into the SAT but only after I stopped the spiral. I like how the wing spins while I’m out on the side. I’m going to want to induce that on purpose in the future.

I don’t want to sound smug, but the helo’s easy. After it was done I so wanted to do wingovers again.

This final time I did something different. I looked at my watch altimeter, 3500 feet. That’s 1000 over the lake. It’s likely that I can get 6 or 700 feet over the ocean at Torrey. I said to myself, “This is my lovely take-home gift.” I am going to nail some wingovers at carabiner brake strength just as I would at Torrey. If I don’t fall in my canopy this is a practice I can resume when I get back up.

It was a complete success.

Following Max’s advice on doing wingovers with eyes closed I did something just a bit different. Rather than look at the wing, which is how I’ve initiated most wingovers, I just looked at the horizon, not caring much what the wing was doing and just waiting for the feeling of the downswing. This was much easier. If you do it right the wing comes to the horizon anyway so it’s a good practice.

One more thing, I love anticipating the tug of the tow line.

Since leaving the clinic I keep thinking about that feeling, sitting in a SAT, watching the horizon spin by your wing, the security of your harness, the sound of the wind on your windward side. I love the G’s. I can’t wait to go back.

SIV arrival

Thursday November 15, 2007

Getting to the Golden Trout was an ordeal. I wouldn’t whine about it here if one’s personal situation, the ‘P’ in PWAIT, wasn’t relevant to paragliding.


Gabriel, Max and Tim reviewing the tapes.

I didn’t sleep at all the night before the 5-hour drive from San Diego to Lake Isabella. Some of that was my fault, a bit too much wine Wednesday night. The rest I blame on our 4-year-old, Trinity, who made several trips to our bed that night, an irritation I accept joyfully.

I loaded up the SUV and waited for the girls to return home from their various activities. Just as I was about to pull out my iPhone gave me a strange message: “Unable to access SIM card. See support.” The only number I was able to call was 911. I went to the nearest ATT store and got a new SIM card from them. Same message. I bought a new iPhone with the intention of returning it after I had a chance to get to an Apple store. No dice. The iTunes store was down? What a pain in the ass.

I quickly scheduled a genius bar appointment in Costa Mesa which is on the way. They’re open until 9PM and I had an 8:30 reservation. They replaced the phone. I connected it to my computer and it began syncing. By 9 all was well, but I still had a 4-hour drive, at least. With the help of iTunes and In-and-Out I arrived at the Golden Trout at 1:30 AM. Some of the guys were still up playing poker. I was exhausted.


Lake Isabella LZ / tow zone.

Friday November 16, 2007

I tried to sleep in Friday morning, but I couldn’t I was up at the crack of dawn with less than 5 hours of sleep for a second day. I felt a bit light headed as I drove to the tow zone. I had a perfect excuse to pussy out on the clinic on day 1. I was listening to DMSR by Prince which has the line,

Everybody, get on the floor
What the hell'd you come here for?”

Right, what the hell did I come here for? To pussy out on day 1? I don’t think so. Still, on my first tow I wanted to take it easy, just get reintroduced. Gabriel knew that my big goal for the trip was spin recovery, but he let me do wingovers and a asymmetric spirals.

Flight 146

Watching the videos of my flights I have to say that the feeling in the air is much different than what you see on the screen. I think having videos of your flights is invaluable. Just as in kung fu, it can be impossible at times to know what you are doing without seeing yourself from an outside perspective.

It’s all about the feel, but feelings can be relative. When I was talking with Max about getting the timing on the wingovers right he said, “Try it with your eyes closed.” Now that’s some zen shit right there - 5,000 feet in the air doing wingovers with your eyes closed. I’m definitely going to do that one day.

It does make perfect sense.

I’ve often thought that I fight better when I’m blindfolded. When you’re required to act on feel, or more importantly, when your forced to rely on senses other than sight, you have better proprioceptive perception. We like to think we’re going big, and we’re going bigger at an SIV than we do elsewhere, but when you see the video your first thought is, “That’s it!?”

OK, my first and second set of wingovers sucked. It’s amazing. In my head I’m thinking, “I’m 6K up. I can screw up as much as I want. Go BIG!” And yet, when I look at the video I look like an old grandfathers clock pendulum. I was trying, really. Later Gabriel told me that was the problem. I was thinking “Go BIG” instead of feeling the harness and controlling the canopy. I had to wait for the evening for that.

I pulled a huge asymmetric deflation. That was very cool. Unlike in the past where we were taught to ride on the good side until the bad side re-inflated, we now throw ourselves into the bad side. This causes a much fast re-inflation. It’s a great feeling too.


Gabriel and Robin preparing Haute Cuisine.

Flight 147

Second tow up was the big one. We started with the spiral. I waited for the wing to approach front and let out the break. Then I caught the surge. Awesome. I nailed it. That gave me enormous confidence. I did a pair of SATs. SATs are fun but they’re not particularly challenging. It’s actually an easy maneuver. I was much more interested in finally nailing wingovers.

The only thing I need to add to my SATs is to get out of the starfish position. My legs look awful dangling around in the air in those.

Here’s what I know about wingovers: You start slow and build. Like a kid swinging on a swing set there’s a perfect time to move your legs, “pump and back” as I say to my 4-year-old. With wingovers the moves are weight-shift and brake. On downswing, with a snap, you lead with weight shift, then give tons of break. It’s the timing that’s been my problem. I’ve always been either too early or too late.

I can feel that I’m too early and too late. I feel it in my ass, the harness and the wing. When I get it right it feels so easy. When I get it wrong it just stops the wing.

My breakthrough on this clinic was measuring my brake input. I took a wrap and brought each brake to the carabiners. That’s enough break to get the ‘out’ part of the wingover. You won’t get over 90˚, but that was okay with me. I just wanted to work on the timing.

Weight shift and break. Let up, Pump with both to adjust and prevent collapse. Wait for the downswing and repeat. One more thing, keep your angles crossed or you look like a dick even if the wingovers are solid.

At the end of my second tow I felt that I made some progress, but I still wasn’t doing wingovers.

When I approached the LZ the wind was starting to really kick up. It was difficult to get down. I’m not sure what it was but I wasn’t thinking straight. I drifted around. I could have pulled big ears and landed anywhere, but I didn’t really feel like landing. I was just drifting. Then, all of the sudden I found myself drifting back over the water. WTF! I landed about ankle deep. Gabe said on the radio, “Kite! Kite!” I’m not sure why but I just let the wing fall in the water. It was wierd. I think I was g-ed out, but the strange thing was I wasn’t g-ed out on the approach. It all came to me just as I was landing.

There’s a big lesson there: G’s happen. Landing safely is important. I had more than enough presence of mind to do a proper landing. I just needed to tell myself that, and I didn’t

Upon some reflection, it’s not just the G’s. When you go up to nearly 6K, do wingovers, fall into 80% asymmetric collapses, pull a couple SATs and drift to an open shoreline LZ you just don’t think landing will be a big deal, You don’t even think it’s important. I really don’t think it was the G’s. I think I just didn’t care if I did a good landing. That’s not right. It’s not just what you do in the sky at a clinic, it’s everything: the tow, the maneuvers, the approach and the landing. Thankfully I have this blog to remind me before my next tow clinic.

Tim Green debuts on liftband

Timothy Green is another leading US pilot. I don't know much about him except that he kicks some serious acro ass. You've got to watch this video to the very end where he dips a wing tip in the water then lands on shore. Awesome! Quicktime required.

Max's first tow

Max is Robin's son and one of the best acro pilots in the USA. This awesome run was nothing special for him, but us novices got a real thrill watching him fly.

He brought his kiteboarding wing to the clinic as did I and I was hoping to have some fun on our boards when the wind blew us out of the air. Turns out it was too violent for our kites as well. Quicktime required.

Love is the opposite of fear

The first thing to know about an SIV clinic is that everyone’s scared. No one wants to fall into their canvas or pull their reserve because they’re in a free fall. The reality couldn’t be further away from the nightmare fantasies we create for ourselves as we prepare for the 1st tow.


Stine Cove at Lake Isabella: A graveyard for your fears.

If there’s any maneuver where you’re in a free fall it’s the full stall. For the first 50 feet or so you actually are in a free fall, but you learn soon that you’re not accelerating at 32 feet per second per second, In fact, you’re flying backwards in a choppy but stable glide.

I’ve found that it’s usually the biggest talkers at the gliderport that are the biggest chicken-shits at the clinics. I take that back, the only chicken-shits are the pilots to don't take SIV clinics. Regardless, I think it’s best to just be honest. When I’m afraid I say so. I’ve found that everyone gets real all the sudden and starts to share their experiences.

When I’m afraid first I check in with my intuition: Is this fear fake or real? It’s not natural for man to fly, so some trepidation before any flight is natural. The question is: is this fear real? I know real fear, it’s a message from your intuition. It’s simple, guiding and quiet. I know fake fear as well, in fact, it’s far more familiar than real fear.

Fake fear is the fear you taught yourself. It’s how you beat yourself up. You got it from movies, society and your parents. It’s learned. Real fear is different, it’s actually not fear at all. It’s a simple message. In my assault prevention training that I teach with Andre Salvage I know that every assault victim says the same thing, "I knew something was wrong". That’s true fear. It’s the voice of your intuition keeping you safe.

So I check in first. Is there a message? Does something feel different? I hear my intuition mostly through feeling. Some people feel it in their gut or the hair on the back of their neck. So far I’ve never heard that voice before flying. So far I’ve been safe. If I ever do hear that voice, I’m not flying and I don’t care if anyone understands my explanation. I’ve learned to trust my intuition unconditionally.

When I’m certain that I’m not experiencing real fear I need to take care of that fake fear that can be so debilitating. If you go into a tow thinking, “Oh my God I hope I don’t fall into that fucking canvas!”, you’re not going to have a very good flight. It could happen, because you could accidentally get back into the moment, instead of living in your self-imposed fear chamber.

A better attitude is to focus on what you love. Love is the opposite of fear.


What's not to love about this?

I love flying. I love everything about it: the freedom, listening to nature, the peace, going to places and seeing things few others have seen. I love being safe in the air. I know that with each tow I’m coming back a better pilot. Without fail that’s what's happened. So, I scrub out all those petty bullshit fake fears with my love of the sport, every aspect. Don’t overdo this, when it’s time for your tow drop it, focus on your goals, check the lines, even the chin strap. This is work for before the tow.

If you go into your tow thinking, “I love this. I’m going big! I’m going to nail this!”, you’re going to go big and you’re going to nail it.

November SIV Clinic

This was a great clinic. I signed up because I took such a big fall at the last clinic. That’s when I fell nearly into the canvas after going in to a negative spin.


Landing approach at Lake Isabella in my Dragon3.

SIV is a acronym from the French “ Simulation d'Incident en Vol”; literally “Simulated Incidence in Flight”. The purpose of the clinic is to develop your piloting skills by inducing incidents that can be remedied with active piloting. It’s also practice the maneuvers a pilot must to to master control of the canopy. SIV is a universal term for this kind of training. Gleitschirmfliegen is German for paragliding, parapente is French, but the term SIV is use in all languages for this kind of training.

This was my third clinic, so I’m getting to be somewhat experienced at this now. That doesn’t mean I’m any more expert, I just have more experience. Here are the maneuvers I’ve performed:

Collapses
- Asymetric
- Large Asymetric (over 50%)
- Frontal
Spins
Stable Spirals
Stalls

In addition to catastrophic events like these we practice descent techniques. There’s no stick on a paraglider cockpit. You need to rely on your soaring skills to ascend. When you need to descend quickly you use a descent technique:

Big Ears
- With Speed Bar
Big Big Ears
- With Speed Bar

These are the basics. If you experience rotor or perform some other move poorly in flight you can enter one of these conditions. Knowing how to get out of them is life saving.


The situation at the clinic in full swing.

After you master these it’s time to increase your canopy skills by doing tricks, or acro. Here are the maneuvers I’ve performed so far:

Whip Stalls or Porpoise Dives
Wingovers
SAT
Helicopter
Asymmetric Spiral

It’s getting to be quite a list, and especially after a clinic like this I want to write about all of them if only to reinforce my understanding. Before I do I’ve collected a list of maneuvers I haven’t performed yet as a to-do list:

Ground Spirals
Riser Twist Recovery
Reversals
Tumbles
Loops


Photos by Scott Smith .

Savannah's First Flight

Quicktime required.

Flights 140-3

This is a perfect day: 10AM conference call with my partners at the gliderport nailing down some specifics of a technology that, when commercialized, will save the world. A few hours writing specs to a illustrator who’ll be building our collateral. Another hour of working on the pro-forma and conditions got good for flying.


From astocker.com.

I took my wing out. It was very north again. I opened it up, worked out some kinks in the lines and put it back down. The wind died down. Back out with the spreadsheet.

Within an hour conditions were good again. A number of wings had taken off including Gabriel with a news reporter.

Flight 141

My first flight was brief. I was trying to do wingovers in the background as the cameras were fixed on Gabe and the news babe.

Flight 142

I got some nice lift and really tryed to lay into my wingovers. Wingovers are a lot like swinging a swingset in the sky, except, you never move backwards. That is, when you swing on a swing set you move back and forth. In wingovers you swing forward and turn right, swing forward and turn left, etc. I’m not sure why I never noticed this before today. There’s very little chance of falling in the wing which I suppose is the big fear. I came down to adjust my harness.

Flight 143

This was a long one. I headed south towards the mansions. There was plenty of lift at the last ridge before the pier. There’s a large apartment complex there which usually I’m eye-to-window with. This time I was well above it. I considered taking a run all the way to the pier for a moment, then decided I better test the north winds for the ride back first. That’s a long walk.
As I headed north past the mansions I started to sink. It seems no matter what I did I was going down. I passed the rhino horn and hoped for a recovery in front of the LZ. I just kept going down. I scraped as close as I’d ever scraped at Torrey.

Nothing.

Scraping that close to the ridge the little thermal bubbles that pop off were more in control of my wing than the liftband. I spotted some nudies on the beach and decided to land so that my wing and lines were as far from them as I could navigate.

Down I came.

Considering the strong lift I had experienced at the pier I never imagined I’d end up on the beach. Within a minute Dan spotted me on the sand. He yelled, “I’ll be right there!” I wouldn’t have asked him to come land on the beach but within 5 minutes he did some wingovers down to a nearly perfect landing to hand me a bottle of water. Amazing.

It was pure camaraderie. Dan came down to be with me. It’s no fun to walk up that hill. It’s much more fun to have a friend and share the experience. That was nice.

We drank some water and started the hike up talking about work, women, life and love.

By the time we were back on top it was late. I had to buzz out to pick my daughter up from French class. No loss. The wind had died down very low and was more north than ever. A perfect day though, through and through.

Dragon3 tests

Flights 136-9

It was another mild day at the gliderport; flyable but intermittent.


Mine's red.

That's fine. I think the success or failure of adaptiveNRG is going to depend in some part on bad weather.

Gabriel suggested a bunch of runs down the hill without launching to get the feel for the stall point on my dragon3. It was a good day for that, very north. I gave it a few runs down the hill looking for a launch. There was really only one run where I felt the wing stall.

The dragon is much more responsive than my merlin. It needs less brake to get the same effect. The effect of weight shift seems to be about the same, but there's a chance I'm already forgetting what the merlin feels like. After a while Arman came over to me and asked if I knew I was facing the wrong way when my wing was collapsing. I said yes, that I was playing with the wing and not really concerned about that. In fact I should have been. He was right and I think I wasn't so much feeling out my new wing as fighting it.

Flight 136

Armin said, "You'll learn more just flying." Just then the conditions were great. As I launched he pushed my harness to help. No one's ever done that before. That was fun.


Armin.

I just want to play with this thing, the dragon3 that is. I got some altitude and did some wingovers. Of course now I'm watching the horizon and the outer wing. I wasn't pushing it too far as I don't really know this wing yet. In fact, I'm not sure how far I would have pushed the merlin. Still, I got a few good ones in.

I landed just as the wind died down.

Flight 137

I got my laptop out and intended to work on my proforma. Within a few minutes the wind was back so I launched. This time I went up the north ridge to bathtub rock. It was very intermittent. On one pass I was over 500 feet. The next I was afraid of walking back on the beach.

One thing I did learn doing my LZ dry runs was that this wing needs very little brake input, far less than the merlin. In the air it's not as apparent. I laid off of the brakes quite a bit, just hanging pressure. I'm getting more comfy.

Flight 138-9

137 was an unintentionally long flight. I was out there for over an hour. After landing I realized I needed more practice landing. I came in quickly and went back out. One my next landing the wind just died. Fair enough. I had a great day and really learned a lot about this wing.

One of the things I love about Torrey is how gentle and consistent it feels when you land. It's pretty much the safest LZ you can imagine. That's only a problem when you go somewhere else and are not ready for a tough landing. It seems like you can do just about anything there.

Carlos Marquez takes a flight

Mexico's top mariachi singer Carlos Marquez came by for a flight at Torrey last week after his performance at Mariachi USA.


My business partner Dan, left, and Carlos Marquez, right.

As he was landing he was bellowing "Cielito Lindo". It was a beautiful sound and I'm sure they heard it in La Jolla.

Correction on wingovers

Gabriel read my last entry and makes a correction: When doing wingovers look at the horizon and outside wing.

Independence Dragon3

Flight 128 - 135

The weather at Torrey finally was good enough to fly today. This is the first day where I’ve been able to fly since the clinic.


I've got a new wing.

It took me nearly an hour to work out the tangles and straighten out the lines on my Merlin. Something just didn’t feel right. I kited for a while. At one point Dan was encouraging me to launch. I told him something just didn’t feel right to me, but Dan was insisting that conditions were perfect. Fair enough, but my personal conditions weren’t up to snuff yet.

I’ve heard many times from David and Gabriel that when you don’t feel good inside, when something tells you not to fly, don’t. Dan was applying full steam peer pressure. I’m not sure why. I told him to back off. I didn’t feel right. It’s funny how hard that is for some people to do.

Flight 128 - 131

Finally after adjusting my harness things did start to feel right, so I launched. The conditions were very north, WNW about 300˚. But, the wind was great, 12-14 mph. There was plenty of lift but maneuvering around was a bit challenging with so much north speed.

I landed and took off twice just getting readjusted to my wing. Something still didn’t feel right. It wasn’t a safety issue. I just did like the way my wing felt. Dan has the exact same wing as me, an Independence Merlin, same color too, but his is a medium whereas mine is large.

When I did my sat and wingovers at the SIV clinic I was using his wing. I felt like I had much more control in that wing. I’m sure there’s a better way to phrase it, but I felt like there was less chance of the lines going slack. I could take a wrap, turn, get out and up over the wing and not feel like I was going to throw myself in it. Since that flight I’ve thought I needed a smaller wing, but that would be a safety issue.

When I came down from my 3rd flight Gabriel arrived. While we were flying he was busy making phone calls for adaptiveNRG. He landed our first meeting with a landfill. Awesome. I complained a bit about my wing. Dan mentioned that you should have a safety check on your wing once a year. I’ve never had one and I’m in my 2nd year with this Merlin. I told Gabe, “I think I’m just going to buy the first Dragon I fly anyway.” He jumped up with enthusiasm.

When he came back he delivered my new wing. An Independence Dragon3
Large of course. My plan was to fly until 3PM and start working on adaptiveNRG’s proforma. This new wing completely threw that plan out the window.

The wing was already used once, I think by Henry at Owens so I didn’t exactly get that “new car” experience of unpacking a fresh wing. But it only used once and clearly new. I kind of liked seeing the bits of Owens sage in the lines.

I inflated the wing for the first time and immediately felt a difference, much more lift. That’s interesting because the wing is physically smaller.

It was Gabriel’s day off. He had a wing out and was doing all kinds of crazy manuvers out in the window. It was inspiring. Watching Gabriel fly is watching and expression of pure joy.

Flight 132 - 135

I took my new wing the edge and launched. There’s a lot more control and the wing moves much more dynamically than the Merlin. I got a lot of lift early and went over the ocean to do some wingovers. I immediately felt the control that I had with Dan’s wing, but this wing was built for my weight. I felt much more buoyant. This was awesome.

I noticed that my speed bar was not attached so I came in to land to attach it. This was interesting. The Dragon is faster and a bit more difficult to land. Gabriel said I’d adjust to it.

When you’re doing wingovers you need to look at your wing. I think that’s the trick. Because this wing is new I just want to keep looking at it. When I was doing my wingovers I just kept looking at the wing as the horizon came up to meet it, and they were much better. I don’t actually think it was the wing that made the wingovers better, I think it was the fact that my eyes were in the right place.

I put on full speed bar to fight the north wind heading to the golf course. I played for a while in the ravines there and came back to the north ridge for altitude. Then I pulled big ears and did some spirals.

The bottom line is everything about the wing is more dynamic. I am glad I waited before buying the wing. I don’t think I would even know what I was getting before. I came in for a few landings. This is still the tricky part. On those last landings I noticed that not only was the wing faster, but it was slower as well. It reacts much differently than the Merlin. I’m in love with this thing.

On my drive home I had to call Gabe. Somewhere in Encinitas on the 5 I noticed I was coming down from a high.

Paragliding is Better for Business than Golf

I've never really cared for golf.

I can do it, walk through the 18 holes with only a few snowmen. But, I've never experienced what people always say about golf: that it's good for business.



The people you'll meet paragliding.

I've never met anyone golfing who didn't want to sell me something, usually real estate or some kind of investment. On the contrary, paragliding has introduced me to dozens of entrepreneurs, people with money to invest or people who are just plain doing something interesting in business.

The woman you see above here was a buffet decoration at a party I attended last night in Ranch Sante Fe. The owner of the mansion is a biotech entrepreneur who works with plasma DNA. When we met I told him about my new arc-plasma business and we shared polite nods. When I asked him if he'd like a tandem flight suddenly he took an interest.

I'm am nearly 100% certain that if I had asked him if he wanted to golf that would have been the end of the conversation. Instead, I've got access now to his personal secretary.

That's been my consistent response when I talk paragliding with people in business. It's intriguing. It's access to another world. You know the person you're talking to is seriously engaged with life.

In short: paragliding is better for business than golf.

Who's that guy on the radio?

The #1 question I've gotten since posting these SIV videos is who's that guy talking? Also: How is he talking to you?

That guy is Gabriel Jebb and he's easily the best paragliding instructor I've ever met, especially at SIV and acro. If you've seen Performance Flying, Instability or Broken Toe you've seen some good video, but the instructors are average communicators at best. Gabe really teaches. He describes how it feels when you're gaining momentum, when to pull, weight shift and all the other little things that happen when you're really up there.


Click to watch the video.

You can tell he's Swiss: he's methodical, patient and follows a clear unbroken line of thinking. But he's Californian too. He know's that not just getting it but making it cool is what we're trying to do. Sometimes cool's enough too. He gets those in as well.

With all due respect to those other guys, Gabe's simply the best. If you watch Instability 2 when they show how to get out of a spin it's clear they're practicing strong pitch control and laying off of the brakes when the wing's in front. But, all they actually say is "Lay off of the brakes". I remember watching that video for the first time thinking, "This video should be called 'Lay Off of the Brakes'! There must be more to active piloting than that."

That's what Gabe gets into. Everything else that you know is there that no one's talking about.

I love the video on Broken Toe. Owning that video's a must. But, the instruction is almost hard to listen to. He doesn't so much teach as do a free-association rambling about what to expect. There are no details, no finesse.

I don't want to take anything away from these other guys. I'm thankful they're there and have put out videos. All I'm saying is if you're a paraglider you need to take a clinic with Gabe while he's still teaching.

Robin too.

This guy manning the boat is exactly the guy you want to see after you end up in the drink. He's driving a half-empty man-made lake with 40-year-old tree trunks popping up everywhere as if he could see from our 1000+ foot perspective. He arrived when I threw my reserve within seconds and pulled my 210 lb. ass out of the water like I was a wet nurf ball. Amazing. Robin is reason enough to go to these clinics.

He knows his shit too. He's the king of "outside brake". Everytime I've messed up a move in the sky he's right there saying, "You need more outside brake." He's said it so many times now that it's become a reflex for me. And, when I mess up a move one of the first things I think is "Did I forget about the outside brake?"

Paraddicted!

The Costa Ricans from paraddicted.com kick ass!



The paraddicted.com guys: Paul and Mike.

I could write volumes here, but the videos say it all: click.

More SIV: Ivan Performs

Under the openly hostile oppression of the Golden Trout management we managed to have a pretty good time eating, drinking and singing the night away. Here's a clip from Ivan who performed so well I was reluctant to even pick up the guitar at the risk of being compared.


Click to watch the video.

This is what it's like to be at a Torrey SIV clinic: wet wings, cool people.

When I showed these videos to my wife she said, "Californian's are so sterile." It's immediately obvious how much heart and soul this Montenegrin has. We are sterile here in CA. We keep our personal distance. But, we love extreme sports, and thankfully that connects us with a lot of guys like Yvonne.


Radical maneuvers, wet wings, cool people.

SIV 2007 Part 2

Flight 125 - 7

Day 3 here was different. We had all had at least 1 tow and all wanted to go big.

First tow up was a bit cold. I did some wingovers, asymmetric spirals and landed right were I need to be for the next tow.

All I really wanted to do was wingovers. I just want to get that feeling, the timing. I was still beating myself up from not going bigger the day before. I wanted to get up high and go big. Just before launch Gabe came up to me and said he wanted to see a full stall and spin in order to prepare to do a SAT. OK, I’m cool with that. Gabe knows where I’m at and what I need.

On each tow up I ask for a blessing. It’s beautiful at Lake Isabella. The tow up is a great time to just enjoy the natural beauty. I had no idea what I had coming.


Click to watch the video.

Once off the tow I pulled a full stall. I’m not sure why but I let off early. Strange. Full stalls are hard to hold. You really need to lock your arms.

Then Gabe asked for the spin. He said to let off when the wing was in front of me. Part of holding a spin is that the wing will oscillate in front and behind you. I for some reason heard him say to let off as the wing was coming to the front, which is in fact the absolute worst time to let off. The result was a fall that resulted in a cravat. As if that was not enough, Gabe’s radio went out after I fell into the cravat.

I have seen enough cravats to know that you can get out. I decided to pull a full stall, but to no effect. The brakes were stuck or they were all the way out already. My vision got very narrow at this point. I was focused nearly exclusively on the part of the wing that had power. I’m not sure why but I wasn’t looking around.

The biggest lesson I’m taking away from this fall is when things go wrong look around, see what’s available to make your recovery.

I knew I had already spiraled more than 3 times. Gabe always says to throw the reserve after the 3rd spiral. I reached around for the reserve. The handle was not immediately where I expected it. I rarely check for the reserve. I’m going to start doing that.

When I threw the reserve it didn’t open immediately. I notice the little bag it sits in just resting on my lines. This wasn’t good. I started drawing in the paraglider wing to get it out of the way. In retrospect this too was a mistake. I should tugged on the line to the reserve. It just didn’t occur to me. I just figured if I got the big wing out of the way the little one would open. It turns out I was right, but that was the wrong way to approach it.

With both wings open now I was safely descending to the water. I looked down and saw that the only tree in the whole area where we were practicing was just off to the side below me. I continued to pull in the big wing because if I could go straight down I knew I would miss it.

When I hit the water I struggled to get out of my harness. The foam from the harness makes it hard to keep your head up out of water. Robin was there in seconds. He picked me straight up into the boat. Amazing considering I weight 210 dry, and I was very wet and wearing huge boots.

I never panicked throughout this whole experience. I wasn’t always sure what to do, but I calmly performed my training. That’s awesome as well. Gabe has me well trained, and it all paid off.

On land the whole crew gave me a big cheer and a hero’s welcome. That’s really great when you’re coming in from a disaster. Danielle said, “I told you to go big and you really went big!” Arman told me later the cravat spiral I was in is the number one reason paragliders die. What a great experience! This is exactly what I took the SIV for. This was a chance to safely get out of the number 1 disaster I could get into. Awesome.

Dan offered his gear for another flight. I have to admit this one was difficult. On the one hand I wanted to get back on the horse. But, on the other my mind was clearly not on my abilities. I was scared. Was it real of fake fear?

Dan and I laid his wing out. I got in the harness and needed to make some big adjustments. I got it back on, looked at him and said, “I don’t want to go.” I took everything off. By the time Robin had come back to get me I changed my mind. That wasn’t real fear. It was natural to be reluctant to get back up there after taking a big fall. But, a great flight would be very healing.

As I went back up I asked for my blessing. As I released the tow Gabriel walked me through 2 awesome SATs, then some wingovers. I didn’t feel the joy until I hit the ground. What a rebound! Perfect. Just what I needed.

I’m still burning off the adrenaline days later as I write this. All I have to say is if you paraglide you need to take a safety clinic at least once a year. And at the clinic you need to push it. You need to get where you’ll be in trouble with the way you fly.

I’m 2 for 2 as far as going into the drink on these clinics. The last time I couldn’t make it back to shore. This time I lost my virginity: I threw my reserve for the first time. Thank God I did this over water rather than land, and under Gabe’s eye.


Click to watch my third tow with SATs.

SIV 2007 Part 1

Flight 124

Dan and I drove up to Lake Isabella on Thursday, the first day of the clinic which pretty much locked in the fact that we wouldn’t get a tow. But, there was a chance and I was hoping for the best. We left San Diego at 9AM and arrived at the tow zone (LZ?) at 2PM. That’s not bad time.

When we arrived the wind had come on. The guys got a few tows but not much. We headed to a local bar to talk. We had a chance to meet the other guys at the clinic (yes, it was all men).


The Hut in Kernville.

There where 2 folks from Costa Rica, Mike and Paul who run paraddicted.com. Great acro pilots I was soon to discover. Yvonne from Montenegro who turns out to be an awesome musician. Andrew, Henry, Had and Michael.

I love hanging out with paragliders. Even before anyone says a word you know you’re with a group of people none of whom’s lives are shaped by fear. These are my kind of people. The experiences they share are among the best stories I’ll ever hear.

We were all staying at the Golden Trout in Kernville, a fine place if the owners were friendlier. They had a bbq area with picnic tables out front and seemed to mind quite a bit that we were using it. We were loud, laughing and drinking, but what the hell! We were the only ones staying at the hotel and we’re in the middle of nowhere.

After dinner Gabe gave a talk on what to expect. There’s no way to describe how well Gabriel trains and talks about paragliding. His descriptions are simply the best. He tells where to look, what to do and what you’ll feel. His style is a bit Swiss, accurate, precise, but with the casual feel of a native Californian.

About wingovers he said you need to do at least 2 outs for every up. That is, when you’re doing your wingover your direction is controlled by when you apply brake in the down swing. The later you apply, the more up you get. You can’t get up on every turn. It’s not physically possible. In the beginning he instructed us with left, right, left right. As we get better he’ll say, out, out, out, up.

We all added what we want to get out of the course. I wanted to focus on descent techniques. He asked if I’d ever done super big ears.

Super big ears are just really big big ears. You pull the As on both sides really deep. The advantage of this technique is horizontal movement in addition to vertical descent. When you need to get low you’re typically in suck. If you do a vertical descent with a b-line stall, asymmetric spiral or even full stall you’ll get low but you’ll still be in the strong lift. Super big ears are a way to get out.

I wish I had videotaped that session. Even after partying Gabe gave a clear a lesson as ever and far more informative than any SIV video I’ve ever seen.


Early start, wings laid out.

Friday morning out wings were laid out at 8AM waiting for Robin to tow. I was 4th or 5th up. As promised I did my super big ears. They’re unstable. You keep feeling like you’re going to get a frontal collapse, but I got the feel if I ever need them. Then I just did wingovers. My timing was lousy and I was still chicken to lay into the brakes. I wanted to build up, but without getting any real turn I was just swinging from side to side. This was clear when I watched the video later.


Conditions were developing all day but we had plenty of time to fly. When this cloud imploded things changed dramatically.

Around noon conditions got rough quickly. A gust front came in at shut down the clinic immediately.


This shows a bit more clearly what was going on.

5+ miles with tweaking

Flights: 120-3

I got 3 flights in on Wednesday. We’ve been working in the mornings and evenings and taking a break when the conditions are great for flying.

The air was big early on. I made it a point to fly to the Scripps Pier and then all the way to bathtub rock. That’s the extent of the easy flying at Torrey, nearly 5 miles.

I wanted to try a few wingovers to see where my abilities were before the SIV clinic, but I didn’t have enough altitude for any comfort. I was pretty pussy about that. That’s why I need that clinic. It doesn’t hurt that all these clinics are now business trips for me.

2 more flights without much to add. I’m landing deeper now at Torrey and looking to get out of my gear just before I land.

The Point

Flights 118-9

I’m flying a lot more at Torrey now that Gabriel and I have partnered on a new business. It’s a bit dangerous to form a company with a fellow paraglider. Only bad weather will help us survive.

The company is called Adaptive Energy and Waste. We’re commercializing a green technology called arc-plasma gasification. Our intention is to clean-up the landfills of the world and create cleaner electricity. Stay tuned.

I took 2 flights Tuesday. I’ve been looking to get up from lower at Torrey, that is, I’m not afraid to land on the beach for the sake of scraping back up. It was big early on in the day. Dan Danielle and I got our radios on a non-teaching frequency and headed out. Danielle wanted to go to the point. By the point I thought she meant bathtub rock which comes to a point. We were talking about 2 different areas about a half mile apart.


Danielle and I were talking about places that were a half mile apart.

It’s great to fly around with friends on the radio. It’s required in cross-country. At Torrey it's just fun. On our first run out to bathtub rock I had a lot of altitude, about 450 MSL. I flew over bathtub rock for the first time ever which was a thrill. I was losing a lot of altitude. I looked at my vario and saw 250 and falling. I was over some deep crevasses and feeling very uncomfortable about landing on the beach. It’s illegal to land on the beach at Torrey Pines State Park and I understand they’re eager to get right out there and give you a ticket. I looked back at the rock and estimated I could make it back with glide ratio, so I turned.

I just made it over the rock and looked for ridge lift. All was fine until I crossed over a small plateau in front of the ridge. For a moment I thought I’d get more lift on the front of the plateau but then figured that couldn’t be right and turned inside towards the larger ridge. I immediately hit sink. Apparently the first ridge creates at least enough ridge to cause sink on the other side. I landed safely and started packing up my ridge. I was so far from the LZ that for a moment I considered climbing up to the top of the ridge and relaunching.

Just then Danielle flew over me. I radioed up, “You’re ass looks fine from 200 feet!” Then I asked, “Do you see a trail up to the top here? I want to relaunch.” Gabriel, my instructor and Danielle’s man radioed in, “Stop getting fresh with my girl!” Before I had a chance to make a snappy comeback Danielle radioed, “There’s a trail in this south crevasse, but you’ll have to walk a bit for a launchable spot.”

Well that’s about the worst thing Gabriel could possibly hear: a student getting fresh with his girlfriend and her finding a place in the golf course from him to relaunch!

I had to laugh.

It was a long ass walk back, about a mile not to mention the 350 foot climb, and the wind was howling. I forgot how many naked men there were on that beach. A few asked me how I got beached with all that wind. It was only mildly humiliating.

I had some lunch courtesy of Dan and went out for a second flight. The wind died down quite a bit but I got a lot of lift on a small ravine by the golf course. I did s-turns over that ravine for a half hour. It was a lot of fun to find the lift and try to just keep in it.

ki2fly doggy-style

I caught Ki walking around with this the other day.


I'm not sure if this is a real product.

2 Quick Flights

Flights 116-7

My parent-in-laws are visiting from NYC and I asked if they'd like to have lunch at the gliderport. My real intention was to sign them up for a tandem flight and offer it as a surprise gift. They both declined but for a reason I didn't expect: they just ate lunch. So next time I'm taking them out before they eat.


Ma Belle-mère.

I usually like to fly when I'm not hungry so this caught me by surprise. I never think of things like motion sickness.

I got to the gliderport about a half hour before they did, got out my wing and started kiting. The conditions were perfect: wind due west at 10-12. I didn't think I'd have time for a flight but there weren't many people there so I thought I'd fly right at the edge of the window over the parking lot and look for their car.

I feel very much in control at Torrey. It almost doesn't feel like flying if that makes any sense. The place is very familiar and consistent. I'm not sure if this confidence is a good or bad thing. It would be bad if I were growing nonchalant. I don't paraglide because I'm an adrenaline junkie. I do it because I have a need to experience beauty. There's plenty of beauty at Torrey. But I do miss the thrill of a new site. I don't want to grow dissatisfied with Torrey just because I know it so well.

I got 1 more flight it as conditions were getting a bit weak. I was showing off a bit for the inlaws staying within sight of the restaurant and doing some basic maneuvers. I'm going to try to sneak in 1 more surprise visit before they leave next week just to see if it was really the food. ;)

Lenticular Clouds

Found these on flickr:





Lenticular clouds mean severe turbulence and strong lift. Paragliders avoid them and the sky when they're present.

Power pilots tend to avoid flying near lenticular clouds because of the turbulence of the rotor systems that accompany them, but sailplane pilots actively seek them out. Although the clouds can produce heavy turbulence they also show a sign of precipitation. This is because the systems of atmospheric standing waves that cause "lennies" (as they are sometimes familiarly called) also involve large vertical air movements, and the precise location of the rising air mass is fairly easy to predict from the orientation of the clouds. "Wave lift" of this kind is often very smooth and strong, and enables gliders to soar to remarkable altitudes and great distances. The current gliding world records for both distance (over 3,000km) and altitude (14,938m) were set using such lift.

Relationships

I attended a summer solstice party with the "Band of Angels" at a lavish estate in the Los Altos Hills last night. I flew up to SF just for the party and knew I was coming back early so I threw my wing in the back of the SUV so I could fly today.

When I arrived at Torrey the wind was weak and south. I had a BLT before launching and considered not flying at all. I just didn't want to do a sled ride. But, as I was eating, I noticed there was one pesky little blue wing that just kept getting big air as everyone else was bombing out. That was my goal, to get up there with him, or as it turned out her.

I geared up and launched. It was even lighter and more south away from the LZ than at it. I looked down at the wind socks and couldn't believe the direction. I didn't go very far but I stayed up for about 45 minutes. I did a lot of figure-8s wherever I found lift. After a while it was starting to feel like a lot of work. My arms were getting sore for some reason. I came in and landed. This is where the fun began.

Danielle was gearing up and noticed me. She put down what she was doing and gave me a big hug. A few paragliders were lounging around the pavilion talking shit about the nudie beach below. I knew all the faces but few of the names. It was a good time, just a relaxing conversation that lasted as long as my flight.

As I was packing my wing the blue wing pilot came over to talk with me. She was a visitor from Russia. She asked why no one was flying. I said, "We're all spoiled." Usually conditions here are absolutely perfect. When the wind's off just a little bit we come down. No one wants to end up on the beach." She asked what dangers were there. I had to laugh. "No, we're really spoiled. The beach is gorgeous, we just don't want to walk up the hill." How long does it take? "20 minutes at the most. Danielle can do it in 2 songs on her iPod."

I encouraged her to launch and enjoy herself. I simply knew I would be back on another perfect day. Not merely excellent... perfect.

Father's Day Flight

Flight: 115

What do you get for the father who has everything? Time to go flying!

Besides being treated to breakfast in bed and getting a full body massage by the 3 most beautiful girls I know I was treated to the afternoon off to go flying. I strapped an HD video camera on my helmet for this nearly hour-long flight. When I get a chance I'll post some of that. It was a perfect day.

Terms Related to Paragliding

I work with computers, a lot of them, and they need names. Most of the time these days I name fileservers, databases, even routers and disks terms that are related to paragliding. I'm posting this list here for reference next time I need a name. I'll keep updating this list over time.

aerodynamic, aenometer, AGL, air, airbourne, airfield, airfoil, Alps, altitude, angle-of-attack, Annecy, approach, ascent, aspect-ratio, aviation, aviatrix, axis, best-glide, big-ears, bird, blow, bomb-out, brake, breeze, canopy, cell, check-list, chord, chute, cirrus, climb, cloudbase, cockpit, collapes, core, crabbing, crest, cross-country, cumulous, descend, DHV, dive, dive, downward, drag, drift, drop, dust-devil, dvh, flight, float, foil, full-stall, gaggle, gear, glide, glide path, glide ratio, glide-angle, gloves, gps, gust-front, hang-gliding, hangy, harness, headwind, hook-knife, hover, howling, hypothermia, hypoxia, inflation, inversion, kiting, landing zone, lapse-rate, launch-point, lift, lift, liftband, lines, loop, LZ, min-sink, MSL, Oludeniz, outlanding, Owens, para-waiting, pilot, pilot-in-charge, pitch, plf, polar-curve, ppg, prayer-flag (lungta), pwaitt, reserve, retrieve, ridge, rig, rise, rise, risers, rocket, roll, rotor, Salève, SAT, scrape, screamer, shoot-up, Sierras, sink, sink-rate, siv, soaring, span, spin, spine, spiral, stall, sundog, surge, tailwind, take-a-wrap, takeoff, tandem, task, thermal, Torrey, trigger, trim-speed, tumble, upward, vario, venturi, virga, vortex, wall, waypoint, weather, wind, wind-sock, wing, wingover, XC, yaw

Paragliding on Mars

I was doing a little research on dust devils and came across this image:



Apparently there are thermals on Mars. Who knew!

This image was photographed by the Mars rover Spirit. The counter in the bottom-left corner indicates time in seconds after the 1st photo was taken in the sequence. Three other dust devils appear in the background.

When I take my trip to Mars I'm definitely bringing my wing.

What it's like to live in paradise

Flights 113 and 114.

I've been watching the weather reports all week looking for the best day to go to Torrey. After the XC clinic I've been eager to get the feel of the air again. It's been south all week, then finally, yesterday, it was coming in a bit light but due west.


How do you measure a timeless time?

I arrived at Torrey around 11:30. I spent a bit of time showing Gabe my new gizmo, a Kestrel 4000, and then got geared up.

It was blowing 8-10 MPH. I've seen better conditions, but there was enough to get the full range of Torrey. I was hoping to get high and practice some wingovers. Instead it turned into a study of ridge lift. I was surprised to find a lot of guys bombing out on the beach. I seemed to be finding lift.

I'm more sensitive to lift now. I know a lot more than I used to. I know you don't have to be 2 feet from the ridge to find it. I also know that it shows up in places where you can't account for it. I was just listening to my wing. I found a lot of lift out by the mansions, south of the LZ. But, I never got above 500 ft. I felt the wind change, moving south. I decided to head to the north ridge. I was getting lift there but it was crowded. Then I head to the golf course. This is where the fun started.

Some of the spines and canyons on the golf course ridge were really blowing. They were getting perfect venturis. I saw some crows circling over one and went to join them. I was going from 250 to 450 on each cycle. It was interesting that in such light winds there was a little blowhole going off there: a microcosm.

I was loving this. I played with it. I found other spines that were more or less powerful under the conditions. I started sinking to the beach but found a way up each time. Then I looked at the clock, it was 3 o'clock! I had spent 3 hours scraping, playing and exloring my curiousity about these ridges. It was bliss.

This is what living in paradise is like. Torrey is so reliable so often that you don't even think about it. You show up, inflate your wing and fly.

When I landed it was south. I came in and did a button-hook landing, stumbing a bit because I hadn't used my legs in so long. I wasn't satisfied with that so I re-launched and came back in and landed a bit more gracefully.

I can't believe 3 hours passed so beautifully. It was a timeless time actually. When you're in the moment there is no clock. I want to be in that moment all the time.

Bishop XC, Day Three

Flight 112

On the last day of the clinic Kari guided us to the McGee launch, near Mammoth. This launch has a venturi which made for some tumbles and false starts. When I first took off it wasn’t clear that I was going to penetrate to the south side where everyone else had gotten their lift. I did. All was well. Very well in fact.


The McGee launch.

I know what the edges of a thermal feel like now. I know how my glider handles them. I know what to look for as I do my 360s. This is different.

Right off of the launch I got about 500 feet from a thermal right in front. Awesome. I turned with the wind looking for more. I’m such an expert now (tongue firmly in cheek). In fact, it looked like I was going to bomb out right in front of Convict Lake Road (I love that name). I headed for a spine where I thought there might be some lift. There were bubbles. I started looking for a safe place to land. Then I found another bubble. And another. Then I found a screamer. It pulled me straight up well over Convict Lake. I got about 2000 feet out of this one. Awesome.


Up and more up over Lake Crowley.

I continued over the next field where thermals were abounding. I took it up to 12K and starting heading up 395 toward Mammoth. I could swear I could see Mammoth, but I wasn’t quite sure.

I started climbing another thermal that for certain was going to take me over some forest. Here’s where I met my limits. I did not want to land in the forest and I wasn’t sure the lift was going to get me high enough to get over it. In fact it all looked pretty forested to me.

I radioed Gabe and asked him what to do. He said, “Stay out of the forest.” Meagan was about 2 miles ahead of me at that moment. I wished I could see here. I just didn’t feel good about going in there by myself. I bagged it.

I turned back to the open field and started heading for a landing. In fact, everyone had landed except for me and Meagan. As I started losing altitude I just kept on hitting thermal after thermal, some of them huge. I can’t wait until I get back up here at Owens to push this further. If only I had more experience or perhaps Kari within sight I would have kept going.
Finally I landed by choice. I felt great, tingly. I make some real breakthroughs on this trip and this flight was the icing on the cake: pure joy from top to limit to finish.


A satisfying end to an awesome trip.

We collected each other and hand lunch at a small store near Toms Place. I was starting to prepare mentally for the 5 hour drive back. No big deal. It was well worth it for this experience.

Bishop XC, Day Two

Flight 111

The back of the truck was a fart contest to the top on Tuesday morning. It was awful, and very funny. I was second to launch and my attitude was top shape. I was determined to overcome my fears of thermals by focusing on all Gabe had said: Get out over the foothills and keep steady even 360s.


Be thankful you can't smell this.

I found nothing at the top and aimed immediately for the foothills on the other side of the canyon. Here I found pay dirt. I climbed nearly 2000 feet in 3 sets of 360s. I didn’t realize until I looked at my GPS that all 3 thermals were coming from the same source. At the end of the 3rd I was empowered. I had felt the edges of the thermals and managed to stay inside.

There’s no way anyone can explain what that feels like. It is something you have to experience. I was focusing on the lift. I was focused on the positive and that’s what I was receiving. It felt great. I moved on to other ridges expecting to find more lift, but it wasn’t there. I ended up landing just in front of the 2nd step of foothills. The landing was dicey, really rough.
I’ve had thermals explained as bubbles coming up from a pot of boiling water. They rotate at the source which causes dust devils. I aimed for a dirt road on my 1st approach and 20 feet from landing got a huge pop that rotated me to the right and off the road. I landed in the brush. At least it was a safe landing.

I felt great. I had the feeling. That was my goal. I wanted to get out there again and get more. I’ll get my chance.
One more thing. I focused on lift, on the positive. I felt my body tense in the beginning, my legs rising in tension. I breathed and let them relax. I relaxed my posture in the harness, deeply, perhaps for the very first time. I pulled the breaks with my lats, not my biceps. It was a calm deliberate confident feeling. I was going up. I didn’t need to worry about the little strings holding me to the wing or the tiny seat I was sitting in.

My hand naturally came back a bit nearer to my shoulders. It was very comfortable. I was in the moment purely.

It’s a learning experience. None of it is wasted. It’s building. With the other folks on the clinic you learn not only your lesson but theirs. It’s a great way to learn in a sport where some lessons could be your last.


Ryan is 13 years old. He hit 12K on this launch.

That evening the wind was averaging 12 MPH with gusts to 18 at Flynn’s. Robin got knocked over trying to launch. It was blowing 12-18MPH where we were standing. 20 feet up it was 18-21. This was a questionable time to launch.
Robin got off okay, as well as Ryan. When Tom set up he had 2 aborted attempts. We were trying to time the launch between sets, but the lowest the air got was 8. Tom got off well. When it was my turn the wind picked up again and made a launch impossible.

The wind was compressed on the ridge, but down below it was calm. At the LZ it was quiescent. 10 minutes later the wind shifted nearly completely south. Katabatic conditions were moments away.

I thought to myself, “this is a lot of effort for a sled ride. There’s some value in learning a high wind launch. Screw it. I’m gearing up.”

The wind died down for a moment and I looked at Gabe. “Should I launch?” He made a ‘cut’ sign across his throat. I thought to myself “I know I can launch now, but why should I go against what Gabe is saying? When has that ever worked for me?” I bundled up my wing and threw my gear in the truck.

When I was done no one was coming to the truck. Everyone was sitting by the launch talking. The sun was setting. Gabe radioed down to the guys at the LZ to go home, we were going to watch the sun set.

Do you know how long it’s been since I just plain watched the sun set? The valley was beautiful and rays of the sun were beaming out.


It was the magic hour.

I love my family and I embrace the demands of work and parenthood, but they do take these times away from you. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was a perfect time to relax and be.

A half hour passed with great beauty. There was no alcohol, but to me this time was better than the finest French bottle. Gorgeous.

On the ride down I learned a bit more about Kari. She teached in Owens for a living. She competes and has Red Bull as a sponsor but teaching pays the bills.

We headed back down to Bishop and had sushi for dinner.

Bishop XC

Day One - Flights 108 - 110

I arrived in Bishop late Sunday afternoon after a 6-hour drive from San Diego. The 217-mile stretch from Victorville to Bishop is a straight flat desert drive typically driven at 90MPH. I saw only 1 cop on that leg of my journey who had pulled over a guy who was easily doing over 100. I was in no hurry. There would be no flying for me Sunday. Gabe called to check on my progress just as I pulled into town. I joined him and the rest of the crew for dinner at the Whiskey Creek.


The Piute launch in Owens Valley.

Torrey Pines always schedules this clinic on Memorial Day which has 2 huge disadvantages: it’s my daughter’s birthday which I’ll never miss and there’s a festival in town that day called “Mule Days”. I’m sure they do that because it’s a long weekend and that’s the best time of year for workin’ stiffs, but it’s really pointless. None of these pilots have real jobs. We don’t need to cram into town with hotel rates doubled, competing with fisherman and mule drivers. I really wish they’d push this a week out.

After dinner we made our way to the town saloon, a real western saloon. I’m surprised no one in there had a loaded holster. They were blasting country music to the lyrics of the pledge of allegiance. “We’re not in Basle anymore.” I said to Gabe, who’s Swiss in heritage. The women behind the bar were telling us they’re not “trucker suckers” because they still had all their teeth. I told Gabe and Robin that the night was going to be a success as long as we didn’t find ourselves kicking them out of bed. Somehow as the night went on I found myself giving choke-hold strangle demos to some pierced-faced guys hanging out in front of the joint. I don’t remember how that started. I just remember it was a natural progression.

First thing Monday morning we piled all our gear in the back of the TPG truck and climbed to the Piute Launch (N 37˚31.155’, W 118˚17.656’). Getting on the back of that truck with 4 other guys (1 kid only 15 actually) reminded me vividly of one of my favorite quotes by Hellen Keller, “Life is a daring adventure, or nothing at all”. The steep climb up the rocky road was enough of a thrill to count out half of the folks I know, nearly all the folks I know my age. But the promise of free flying perhaps up to 50 miles was luring all of us to the top.

My biggest challenge was that I didn’t know how to handle thermals. I didn’t know what they felt like. I merely feared them because they can collapse your wing.

After launch I caught my first thermal. Gabe instructed me through a series of 360’s, but I wasn’t getting much lift and I was heading toward the canyon which we were instructed to avoid. I bailed on the thermal and started fighting the wind trying to find another. I found a bubble, but I couldn’t really work it. I struggled for a while losing a lot of altitude. Finally I landed right on the road. It was a short flight but I wasn’t disappointed. I got some feel for the thermals. That’s what I wanted.

One of the women there is an XC champion, Kari Castle and a local, from Bishop. She and Meagan, the only other woman, ended up flying over 50 miles that day to near Independence. Girls definitely won the first match of boys against girls. I was nearly certain they’d win every match with Kari on their side.


Kari Castle.

Here are the lessons I learned from that flight:

• Keep the wing flat by not letting up on your outside brake
  
• Keep your turns consistent. This way you’ll float along with the wind and track the thermal as it is moved along by the wind.
  
• Keep mental notes of where you are in the turn when you feel the edges of the thermal, that is 12-o’clock, 3-o’clock, etc. This way you can make minor adjustments to get to the core.
  
• Most morning thermals are bubbles, not columns. When they crap out move on and look for more downwind.
  
• Thermals rise from ridges, spines and pinnacles. If you turned the mountain upside down these are the areas where water would flow down from. (an analogy from Kari)
  

I was eager to get back up, but I had to wait for late afternoon, almost evening. It’s too strong at mid-day.

We spend the day retrieving other pilots with the furthest flights as I mentioned from the girls. It’s a great spirit of camaraderie in the pick-up vehicle. GPSs have made this task much easier, but a lot of the navigating is still done with visual landmarks. Trying to get to the girls was frustrating. There were a lot of fenced off areas. They landed right in the middle of the LA basin’s water supply. Google maps would have helped a lot. I wished I had my laptop in the truck. We passed a nasty old cow carcass. This heap of leather and bones was impressive. I marked the waypoint on my GPS as “Dead Cow”.

Later in the afternoon we went to Flynn’s for another launch. My 1st ride was horrible. I was frustrated and disappointed. I started packing my things as I didn’t expect another ride. To my surprise Robin came to get me and my gear and ran me right back up. It was about 7 when I launched for a 2nd time. This was a much different flight. I was getting lift but there were not distinct thermals. The valley floor was glassing off. Lift was everywhere.

Mentally I wasn’t in a good place. I didn’t like being in the air. I wanted thermals and I wanted to learn. I was just getting a free ride from the glass-off. I started heading to the cars at the bottom of the hill. I decided to at least pull off a pinpoint landing at the cars to accomplish something of skill.

After navigating to a good glide point I started a final approach, but I was unable to go down. In fact was rising at about 20-feet a second. I tried doing some mild wingovers to lose some altitude. I didn’t want to get to aggressive as the wind was rockier than I liked. Nothing. I was still going up.

This was disconcerting. I felt out of control. Finally I relaxed a bit and just waited. I was being pushed back. I put on full speed bar but could not penetrate. I pulled big ears and finally started to sink. With big ears on I could have had a gentle landing but just at the last second I popped them back out and popped up 20 feet. That wasn’t smart. Thankfully I descended gently and started packing my gear.

I was still in a bad place mentally, frustrated, disappointed and not really looking forward to my next flight. At dinner that night Megan who is an excellent pilot shared her experiences with me when she was at my skill level. Her husband Eric regularly would soar for hours at Marshall while she waited at the LZ. That helped. I watched “Performance Flying” that evening where Jockey Sanderson said, “When you find yourself getting scared focus on something positive, Where’s the lift.” I wasn’t as scared as frustrated, but the principal was the same.

Back in the air

Flights: 102 - 107

It took the return of my friend Gal to get me back up in the air. I'm glad he came and I'm glad I did. I was warmly greeted by everyone at the gliderport. I was among friends.

It's been almost 7 months since I've flown. I needed to kite and re-familiarize myself with my kite and the wind. I kited for almost an hour. People kept asking me if I was going to fly. It's funny, kiting is strongly encouraged but if you actually do it people wonder what's wrong with you.

Finally I got my confidence back and launched. It was blowing 13, slightly south. What a joy to be back in the air hanging from those tiny threads. I did a few passes at the souther ridges and came back up for a landing. Landing is what I was most concerned about. It has been a while. The landings, all 5 of them today, couldn't have been smoother.

I got a chance to fly the full length of torrey today, nearly 3 hours in the air. The toughest part for me was keeping fully off the brakes during launch. I still haven't learned to keep my hands full up. Bill showed me a technique where you turn your palms up. He said he asks muscular guys to do that as they often lack the flexibility to get the brakes all the way up.

Gal and I are talking about flying in Columbia next month: click, click, and click. It's just a matter of seeing if I can take that time off of work. I'll let you know.

Manilla Paragliders