My life wish

I told my wife that I wanted to do this SIV clinic because I don’t want to die paragliding. She has taken a lot of heat on my behalf from people who think she’s crazy to let me do this.

My point of view on this is that I have a life wish: I want to live before I die. So many people live their lives cowering in fear. Fear dominates their every move, it clearly dominates politics, some would even say it’s the primary motivation for religion.

I can’t live like that.

Bryan rigging up Danielle

I admit that when I started paragliding it was for a kick, just to get a thrill. But there’s something about this sport that reveals your character. I’ve heard it said that football doesn’t build character, it reveals it. I think that’s very much true for paragliding. Somehow with each flight another layer of the onion is peeled off.

My life wish is to love every moment of my life connected to everyone and everything around me. I want to embrace each incident of my life, each loss, pain, pleasure or gain, equally without judgment. I want to express the creative powers of the universe without any limitation and yoke it out of those whom I meet however I meet them.

There’s something very private about paragliding: it’s just you, God and His creation. You need to be in the moment with His forces. I have no idea what God is, but I feel Him in my heart and hear Him in my body and mind. He’s not in outer space and He’s never far. He’s in me. The only way to reach Him is to reach inside. The only way to reach inside is to shut myself the fuck up, stop the noise, the chatter that we all have, the insane cravings. Hanging by a handful of threads 4,000 feet in the sky has a way of bringing that focus and awareness.

I have no need to test God or prove anything to anyone. This experience is just for me. At the end of the week, after I’ve payed my bills and taxes, provided for my family, offered my ear to those I love and opened to those I don’t understand, after these things I need to look back and have something for myself. I’ve had the best food and wine the world has to offer, the best things: homes, cars, gizmos, whatever. Having things is empty. At the end of my week I need to know that I did something for my mind that touched who I really am, where I truly lived. That’s my life wish.

Flight 28 : As I towed up for the 2nd time I asked for God’s blessing and heard nothing, which took as a “Go for it!” God and Gabriel only were in my ear. This time I needed to really pull those lines, throw my weight, see what I could do.

The wind was starting to pick up and there were visible wind lines on the surface of Isabella. I committed to making this flight work. As Gabe ran me through the routines and gave it my all, but my timing was a bit off. I ran through the first set of wing-overs and nailed it. All right!

Then Gabe walked me through an asymmetric spiral. These things are really cool. You do a right, go back to neutral and then hit it hard right again and keep it on. You get some g’s on this, apparently enough to knock you out. Gabe said 4 or 5 pilots die each year because they get into these spirals and hold them too long. There’s no way to exit the spiral other than pilot action. These 4 or 5 guys just spiral unconsciously to their death.

I still had enough air after my asymmetric spiral for one more set of wing-overs. This time I went a bit weak. I think my head was light from the spiral. My timing was way off; too early with my weight shifts. Gabe saw that I let me bag it. I came to the LZ and chilled out.

Of all things a flying boat came into the lake and started doing touch and runs. Of course we had to stop everything. Gabe called the local airports and military bases to see what was up. It was the kind of plane that scoops up water and takes back off to drop it on a fire. If I weren’t so impressed I’d have been pissed off at the interruption.

After an hour or so the plane left. We never found out who it was.

Flight 29: I got one more tow in and again gave it my all. This time the challenge was getting high. The wind increased to about 12 MPH steady with infrequent gusts. I had a great run, with minor improvements from the 1st 2. Fear had turned to confidence. The issues now were the actual maneuvers: feeling the wing, turning and shifting with accuracy.

When we got back to the home we watched our amazing HD videos. The details as I mentioned earlier were very rewarding, but the general picture of progress was the biggest reward.