Revelstoke SIV: July 27 - 29

My first real SIV. For the non-flyers: SIV stands for Simulation d'Incident en Vol, practicing 'non-standard' flying configurations in a (relatively) save environment, over water with a boat on stand-by to fish out watered flyers. I had done a couple of SIV flights over the years and felt happy with all kind of induced collapses and short spins on my Sport 4, but hadn't really tried anything on my new wing and no full stalls at all. Pete had done some full stalls but didn't seem to overly enjoy them.

So I signed up for Pal Takats' SIV course in Revelstoke, together with 10 or 12 other flyers, half of them friends from the Lower Mainland. I had my first flights in Revelstoke just a couple of months ago on skis, now with the snow gone everything looked different. We were also using a different LZ on the lake shore and since the lake was still very high landing was a little tricky.

On the first flight I put my Artik 2 through various collapses. The fully accelerated assymmatricals went rather dynamic, but nothing too exciting. Since I had never tried full stalls I thought it would be best to start on my trusted Sport 4. Pal's advice was to stall relatively fast, then evenly release the brakes to a point where the wing partially re-inflates and stops thrashing around. That's the sweet spot. Once the wing is (relatively) stable overhead it can be fully released. If it surges too much it needs to be stopped, but it must be allowed to start flying again and must not be braked too long as another stall will result. The first round of stalls was rather exciting! Did 2 stalls but just couldn't release the brakes evenly which resulted in some serious thrashing around. Back on the ground, Pal's buddy recommended to slide my hands up along the harness straps or even grab something for even release. With this method the next set of 3 stalls went much smoother. On the third day I gave the Artik2 a try, with similarly 'smooth' results. But I definitely need to be more gentle (or less controlling? ;-) on the brakes when checking the surges. I stalled the wing again on 2 of 7 stalls. Nothing dramatic happened as I was watching my wing, immediately realized what I had done and went back to the sweet spot. Video of stalls will be put up shortly.

Great SIV. Excellent instruction before and during the maneuvers and thorough video debrief in the evening.

As I had already driven so far, I added two days in Golden to my trip. The place is know for great XC flying, but also for scary conditions with thunderstorms and far reaching gust fronts. Had a couple of sled rides from Mt Seven, hiked up Swansee twice, the second time with a group of Oregonians. After one of them flew and had an exciting flight, and one tried to launch and had an exciting abort we walked down again. Also met a couple of old friends and got to see the famous Golden overdevelopment, complete with thunder and lightening and a couple gust front, from the ground. Apparently for the good XC flights one needs either luck with the weather or some serious time put in at this place. But how nice to visit Golden, Radium Hotsprings and Invermere again. Must have been 10 years or so since we were last here. Great memories of climbing in the Bugaboos (Bugaboo and Pigeon Spires) and paddling the Kickinghorse, White, Elk, Bull, and Skookumchuck Creek. Have to do a Rockies trip again!

Over Lillooet Lake - Sept 6

I had given up hope of airtime on the long weekend, but after hiking to Tenquille Lake we dropped by Ted’s towing camp at Lillooet Lake. Although I had tow-launched before, it’s a very strange feeling being pulled up by the harness while the wing hangs back. But pretty cool to climb higher and higher, above the sub peaks and the lowest cloud layers near them. The angle of the tow line increased so much that at the downwind leg I was looking down at a very small tow boat almost directly below me. My tow to about 1000 m AGL was apparently the highest of the day.


No, that's not us, its one of the Pemby acro guys

I made good use of the altitude with SIV maneuvers I had been too chicken to try over land, including accelerated collapses, 180 degree spins, B-line stalls and a long, deep spiral. My spiral gave Pete a bit of a scare since I didn’t pull out when prompted over the radio. I had a good time cranking it and just didn’t hear it – hope it was due to the wind noise and not to a G-force induced slowed reaction. New things learned: it’s best to induce spins with a fast, hard pull (instead of slow and gradual) and to constantly monitor altitude even when having lots of fun.

SIV - April 25/26

Paragliding SIV at Harrison Lake. Saturday was blown out, Sunday we got some flights in, including a very exciting one for Solaris - a full stall gone wrong. No injury to the pilot, but some lines melted. Quite the excitement for everybody.


Big Ears



Waiting for the winds to calm


Not looking good



Calm the next morning






Here is a 'good' Full Stall:


Full stall gone awry:

SIV Clinic – October 19

Harrison Lake

SIV is the abbreviation of “Simulation d’Incident en Vol” – French for “Simulation of Incidence in Flight” (an indication that much of paragliding was developed in France). A SIV course is about learning how to deal with problematic situations and is conducted over water (much safer than over ground) and under the supervision of an instructor.


Random Flying Picture

Our course with Tom took place at Harrison Lake, using a boat tow to get up to altitude. I found the towing experience quite exciting. One minute you stand on the beach of a beautiful lake surrounded by high wooded mountain ridges. Less than 10 minutes later you are 1000 meters up in the air; see the snow-covered peaks all around and the tow boat and landing beach are very tiny far below.

I was almost sorry that I couldn’t take in the stunning scenery any longer, but this was the point when the real adventure started! Tom came in over the radio and gave commands for the maneuvers. Starting of with a few wing-overs, then a nice spiral and on the second flight search for stall and spin, another baby spiral and a few other tricks. Even with one less flight than originally planned and a tow in the dark back to Harrison Hotsprings (we ran out of gas in the middle of the lake) - this was an excellent day!


Alex executing a Full Stall