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.