Gabriel high in Vancouver
One of the great things about having a business partner that paraglides is that you can plan business trips to places you'd like to fly, and call it work. We scheduled a meeting with a major investment partner in Vancouver, British Columbia for a Monday and as luck would have it the only good flights came in on Saturday.
Saturday night we caroused the Granville and Yaletown sections of Vancouver. In the summertime Vancouverites really like to get out. It stays light until 10PM. That helps. Canadians in general look very wholesome and well-intended. That's not to stereo type, although it is. I don't know what to say, they just are very rosy-cheeked. That's why we were shocked to see swat teams coming into the swank nightclubs of Yaletown looking for gangs. Where I'm from they are generally known by their colors. In Vancouver it's Prada vs. Armani.
We stumbled by an old, bearded panhandler on the way back to our hotel. He started offering free tourism advice. We asked him if he knew where the best paragliding was in BC. Without hesitation he said, "Chilliwack, Bridal Falls". OK. That took us a bit aback. I offered him the loonies I had in my pocket and we looked it up as soon as we got back to our room. It looked pretty good.
In the morning we made a few more calls and found the LZ. An hour later we met Tom of Deimos Paragliding http://www.deimospg.com offering a trip up the the launch point. There were some really good people with him. Great folks all.
The first was a sled ride. I don't have a lot of mountain experience so that was just fine with me. There weren't many bumps on the way down. It was an uneventful ride in some gorgeous scenery. The LZ was a little tricky. It's at the end of a golf course where some trees offer a huge wind shadow.
The second flight had much more promise. As we brought our gear up to the launch the sun was starting to break out in patches. Gabriel turned on his vario as it beeps as the pressure drops, even when you're waiting to launch. That's good to know.
Finally with the sun breaking out it looked good to go and I wanted to be first. I got a ton of big air on this flight. There were a few genuine thermals but it was mostly the house ridge lift that kept pushing me up. My wing was pretty stable. I'm used to flying Torrey where there are very few surprises. This was actually the first time I flew over tree tops. It was fun. I played it safe.
1 by 1 I watched everyone launch. It was fun to be out there generally above the rest. The best altitude I got was 3K. I got a call from Tom that it was getting gusty. Better come down. I called in to verify that he wanted us down. He did. Who am I to argue.
I did some wingovers and asymmetrics to lose some altitude, but when I looked at my vario I was still where I started. I was thinking there might be a late afternoon glass off going on. I pulled my As and did some big ears and some nice gentle turns. It was a nice slow ride down.
Gabriel with Vancouver haught cuisine
When I hit the LZ I let off on my big ears and actually everything felt quite calm. However, the trees off to the side were really waving. I didn't trust what I was feeling so rather than try to hit the LZ dead on I drifted into the golf course. When I hit the ground there was nothing. I was right in that wind shadow. I should have stuck with what I felt and saw. I could have landed in the LZ. I wasn't thinking straight. I learned there to just trust my pilot instincts and accept other input as guidance.
