My first flight over 100km! First time all the way to Spindrift and the Meager Valley. Almost all of it I flew alone. Air was a bit rough in spots and I never got over 3000 meter. It took me 5 hours (4:58) of flying and seemed a lot of work!
Showing posts with label XC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label XC. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
100 Kilometer! (June 21)
My first flight over 100km! First time all the way to Spindrift and the Meager Valley. Almost all of it I flew alone. Air was a bit rough in spots and I never got over 3000 meter. It took me 5 hours (4:58) of flying and seemed a lot of work!
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Pemby (Personal) Record Weekend: July 7/8
What a great weekend! Flew my two longest distance flights. When I got out to Copper Mound on Saturday, Pete was on his run back from across the Hurley Road and he turned around to join me for a thermaling session over Goat Mt. I had never been that far up the Pemberton Valley.
On Sunday I went even further (70 km) with my first flight across the Hurley Pass Road. Very cool to see the road far below winding its way up to the pass, glide across it with Miguel and Mags, soar the snow fields under Locomotive Mt (which we scrambled up a few years ago) and finally find a thermal that took me high enough for the glide back to where I knew to find lift on Goat Mt. Made it all the way back to the LZ in Pemberton to close the out-and-return flight.
Log of the 70 km flight here.
On Sunday I went even further (70 km) with my first flight across the Hurley Pass Road. Very cool to see the road far below winding its way up to the pass, glide across it with Miguel and Mags, soar the snow fields under Locomotive Mt (which we scrambled up a few years ago) and finally find a thermal that took me high enough for the glide back to where I knew to find lift on Goat Mt. Made it all the way back to the LZ in Pemberton to close the out-and-return flight.
Log of the 70 km flight here.
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| Miguel's picture of me on my Artik2 somewhere over the Coastmountains |
Monday, May 21, 2012
Pemberton – Victoria Day
Well, here comes the rain again… But the first day of the long weekend promised nice weather. So back we went to Pemberton where we spent last weekend since there was some concern about too much wind and stable air issues in the Fraser Valley.
There were definitely no problems with stable air in Pemby – lift was plenty and strong (>+6 m/s, strongest my vario has recorded in the area). Strong enough that pilots were seen spiraling and big-ear-ing to get away from clouds.
Strangely enough it took me two tries to go cross country. While the first wave of flyers got up and away, many of those who launched a little later sank out. I had scratched my way slowly down the mountain when there was talk on the radio of a shuttle going up soon. I decided to hit the reset button, wing-overed and spiraled to the LZ and was back on launch within half an hour.
Back up on launch cycles were coming in very strong causing concerning collapses near launch. A week ago I had a rather exciting launch that was still fresh in my mind, so I waited for the end of a strong cycle and got in the air without any problems. I took the very first thermal to 2400 meter and went on my way along Owl Ridge. I had never gotten away that fast from lower Mackenzie launch. At Owl I climbed to just under 3000 meter. That is higher than Mt Matier – the highest mountain in the vicinity! Snow-covered peaks, glaciers and icefields as far as the eye could see - what an amazing sight.
In front of Copper Mound I saw a pilot going up on big ears, so I turned around just short if the peak. On the way back I got my share of cloud-sucking lift and a rather dynamic side-dive. Seeing my wing (partially) below me was a new experience. A couple of weeks ago I chatted with a fellow flyer about SIVs and he mentioned that he had had his wing below him on several occasions on regular cross country flights. I never had this experience unintentionally and my intentional wingovers are rather undersized, so I’m really only ‘over’ a small part of my wing. Well, I guess there is always something new and exciting in paragliding!
Although I got back to Owl with good height, getting around it was a slow slog fighting south winds and strong thermals. Nice lift over the swampy flats east of launch got me back over lower launch. There it was still lifty, but after 2 hours in the strong air, the exciting dive and couple of big asymmetric collapses, I decided to call it quits and landed.
Although just small improvements I was quite happy with the day: First time for me to make it all the way back to the LZ from Copper Mound and even a small improvement of my longest distance flown (by 1 km). Meanwhile the boys did big flights; Pete got his first 100 km, Andrew finished a 100 km triangle and Igor was still in the air when we sat down for beer and dinner.
There were definitely no problems with stable air in Pemby – lift was plenty and strong (>+6 m/s, strongest my vario has recorded in the area). Strong enough that pilots were seen spiraling and big-ear-ing to get away from clouds.
Strangely enough it took me two tries to go cross country. While the first wave of flyers got up and away, many of those who launched a little later sank out. I had scratched my way slowly down the mountain when there was talk on the radio of a shuttle going up soon. I decided to hit the reset button, wing-overed and spiraled to the LZ and was back on launch within half an hour.
Back up on launch cycles were coming in very strong causing concerning collapses near launch. A week ago I had a rather exciting launch that was still fresh in my mind, so I waited for the end of a strong cycle and got in the air without any problems. I took the very first thermal to 2400 meter and went on my way along Owl Ridge. I had never gotten away that fast from lower Mackenzie launch. At Owl I climbed to just under 3000 meter. That is higher than Mt Matier – the highest mountain in the vicinity! Snow-covered peaks, glaciers and icefields as far as the eye could see - what an amazing sight.
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| Climb from 750 m to 2400 m right off the lower launch, looking up Pemby Valley. |
In front of Copper Mound I saw a pilot going up on big ears, so I turned around just short if the peak. On the way back I got my share of cloud-sucking lift and a rather dynamic side-dive. Seeing my wing (partially) below me was a new experience. A couple of weeks ago I chatted with a fellow flyer about SIVs and he mentioned that he had had his wing below him on several occasions on regular cross country flights. I never had this experience unintentionally and my intentional wingovers are rather undersized, so I’m really only ‘over’ a small part of my wing. Well, I guess there is always something new and exciting in paragliding!
Although I got back to Owl with good height, getting around it was a slow slog fighting south winds and strong thermals. Nice lift over the swampy flats east of launch got me back over lower launch. There it was still lifty, but after 2 hours in the strong air, the exciting dive and couple of big asymmetric collapses, I decided to call it quits and landed.
Although just small improvements I was quite happy with the day: First time for me to make it all the way back to the LZ from Copper Mound and even a small improvement of my longest distance flown (by 1 km). Meanwhile the boys did big flights; Pete got his first 100 km, Andrew finished a 100 km triangle and Igor was still in the air when we sat down for beer and dinner.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
November Thermals – Nov 5
Although I’m by no means an expert of thermal-powered flight, I’m pretty sure that it is a rare occasion to have cross country flying conditions in November in our part of Canada. There have been quite a few nice flying days lately, but unfortunately only during the week. Well, last Saturday we hit the jack-pot, mother lode, bonanza of early winter-flying.
We met a couple of friends early for a hike&fly from Elk Mountain, the 1400 meter-high first bump on the ridge between Fraser and Chilliwack Valley. A dusting of snow started where the trail got steep. Combined with sub-zero temperatures this made the approach rather treacherous, but my newly acquired mini-crampons made short work of it. Although the 1 h 50 min hike had warmed me up nicely, only minutes after launching my fingers were frozen and in pain. Not very motivated to spend much time up high, I searched for lift lower down, but had no luck and I soon was on the ground. The rest of the crew kept soaring at and above launch height until the cold got to them too and everyone landed, trying to warm up painfully cold hands and fingers (aptly named ‘screaming barfies’). After this for me somewhat disappointing flight we moved over to Woodside for afternoon air time.
We were much intrigued by the interesting cloud shapes over Mt Woodside, Agassiz Mt and Bear Mt. Looks like some thermaling potential! After launch I sank out again, but patiently worked the lift until I joined a fellow flyer and many eagles floating around at 1200 meters. The first thermal flight on my new wing, an Artik 2! Although it had felt pretty sensitive on the sled-rides I had done so far and surprised me with a somewhat dynamic exit from a spiral, it felt just fine in the thermals. Pete had already taken off to Agassiz Mt, and after some wisp-surfing and close and personal views of several eagles I headed for Agassiz Mt too. There I arrived low at 500 meter (probably the lowest ever) and worked my way up to almost 800 meter a couple of times. Alas, November sun doesn’t stick around long and so I left to fly back and land at Harvest Dykes to shorten the walk back. But there I lucked out again. As soon as I had packed up and got to the road, a PG pilot on his way home picked me up, turned around and delivered me to the Coffee Kettle where our car was parked.
We met a couple of friends early for a hike&fly from Elk Mountain, the 1400 meter-high first bump on the ridge between Fraser and Chilliwack Valley. A dusting of snow started where the trail got steep. Combined with sub-zero temperatures this made the approach rather treacherous, but my newly acquired mini-crampons made short work of it. Although the 1 h 50 min hike had warmed me up nicely, only minutes after launching my fingers were frozen and in pain. Not very motivated to spend much time up high, I searched for lift lower down, but had no luck and I soon was on the ground. The rest of the crew kept soaring at and above launch height until the cold got to them too and everyone landed, trying to warm up painfully cold hands and fingers (aptly named ‘screaming barfies’). After this for me somewhat disappointing flight we moved over to Woodside for afternoon air time.
We were much intrigued by the interesting cloud shapes over Mt Woodside, Agassiz Mt and Bear Mt. Looks like some thermaling potential! After launch I sank out again, but patiently worked the lift until I joined a fellow flyer and many eagles floating around at 1200 meters. The first thermal flight on my new wing, an Artik 2! Although it had felt pretty sensitive on the sled-rides I had done so far and surprised me with a somewhat dynamic exit from a spiral, it felt just fine in the thermals. Pete had already taken off to Agassiz Mt, and after some wisp-surfing and close and personal views of several eagles I headed for Agassiz Mt too. There I arrived low at 500 meter (probably the lowest ever) and worked my way up to almost 800 meter a couple of times. Alas, November sun doesn’t stick around long and so I left to fly back and land at Harvest Dykes to shorten the walk back. But there I lucked out again. As soon as I had packed up and got to the road, a PG pilot on his way home picked me up, turned around and delivered me to the Coffee Kettle where our car was parked.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Pemberton XC, Aug 6/7
Pemby flying was so good last weekend that we had to come back! I managed to do the run to Copper Mound for a second time, for another 40 km out and return XC flight.
This time I spent quite some time low at the end of Owl ridge to gain enough height for the hop over to the next ridge. While I was groveling around Pete joined me after an aborted attempt to get over the flat section. As we searched patiently for lift, another pilot arrived above us and soon hooked into a thermal. I noticed that his harness looked rather weird and on closer inspection realized that he was in a wheelchair! Whoever it was, thanks for showing us the thermal to get out of there!
As usually Pete moved on at a faster pace and carried on across Hurley Pass Road, while I turned around at Copper Mound. Guess I need to do this a few more times to figure out the next step (crossing the Hurley).
In the picture above, Pemberton Valley is on the right. Mackenzie launch is on the backside of the ridge in the middle (above the small lake in the centre), Owl Peak is just right of centre. The flat section (a bit more challenging to cross this time) is between Owl Peak and the foreground ridge (just below centre of picture). I'm on the return leg of my flight and Copper Mound behind me. Pemberton, hidden by Owl ridge, is about 20 km away and past the green meadows on the very right.
This time I spent quite some time low at the end of Owl ridge to gain enough height for the hop over to the next ridge. While I was groveling around Pete joined me after an aborted attempt to get over the flat section. As we searched patiently for lift, another pilot arrived above us and soon hooked into a thermal. I noticed that his harness looked rather weird and on closer inspection realized that he was in a wheelchair! Whoever it was, thanks for showing us the thermal to get out of there!
As usually Pete moved on at a faster pace and carried on across Hurley Pass Road, while I turned around at Copper Mound. Guess I need to do this a few more times to figure out the next step (crossing the Hurley).
In the picture above, Pemberton Valley is on the right. Mackenzie launch is on the backside of the ridge in the middle (above the small lake in the centre), Owl Peak is just right of centre. The flat section (a bit more challenging to cross this time) is between Owl Peak and the foreground ridge (just below centre of picture). I'm on the return leg of my flight and Copper Mound behind me. Pemberton, hidden by Owl ridge, is about 20 km away and past the green meadows on the very right.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Bridal Crosscountry: Elk - Butterfly and back, May 18
After exploring the back and beyond of Woodside for the last couple of months, we are back at Bridal! The weather hasn’t been great lately with week-long forecasts of rain. Just like the carrot on a stick, “Wunderground” always dangles a forecast of nice weather at the end of their 7-day predictions. But as the promised nice days come closer, the good weather gets postponed and slides off into the future. This repetitive pattern and lack of good conditions on weekends necessitated desperate measures (like taking an afternoon off).
Desperate conditions call for desperate measures!
In the afternoon Woodside is often blown out, so we headed to Bridal. It took me two tries to get away from the launch area and by the time I got up to Upper Launch Pete was long gone. There was another pilot on his way west below me, installing confidence to go over to Gloria – where Pete zoomed by returning from his Elk run already. Found a good climb at Gloria. On Elk waves were exchanged with hikers plus some fumbling around looking for lift (which I found a little further east than expected). Wind was pushing into the gap between Elk and Gloria. At Gloria I thermaled shortly with Alex who was on triangle mission. Lift was pretty skookum at Gloria and I had to pull in a bit of wing to stay out off the fluffies. Got back to launch with nice altitude, then high along Mt Cheam, over to Laura’s Ridge (aka The Lakes). Here I met Pete again, now coming back from Butterfly. Still big lift in lots of places so I pushed further east to the flat spot and on to Butterfly. Pete came along for company.
Pete hit an elevator ride up near the rocky chute on Butterfly and I headed over to hop on it too. Not sure what exactly hit me, but I suddenly dropped and got a good look at my wing folded up like I had never seen it before, at least not while being suspended from it. A big fat frontal? The few frontals I have had usually had already popped out by the time I look up. But it also didn’t take long this time and within less than a second my wing opened with a reassuring popping sound. No surge, no other funny business. I like my Sport 4 (forget the Mentor 2!). Soon I found another more friendly thermal to top up for the flight back to Laura’s Lakes. The wind in the valley had gotten stronger so I skirted the gullies on Mt Cheam with extra safety distance. By the time I got back to Bridal Launch I was somewhat tired and didn’t follow Pete who sailed off on his second Elk lap. One last climb over Bridal Launch and then I flew out high over Rosedale to enjoy a few minutes of smooth air before landing. Nice cross-country flight (just a touch shy of 40 km) and my second Elk – Butterfly “Sammy”. The first one was a little less than a year ago – and my very first real cross-country flight.
Flight on Leonardo
On my way back from Butterfly. Mt Cheam in the clouds and Lady Peak to the left. On close inspection Pete's wing is visible as small white speck just a touch right and below the center of the picture (above the ridge of dark green trees).
Desperate conditions call for desperate measures!
In the afternoon Woodside is often blown out, so we headed to Bridal. It took me two tries to get away from the launch area and by the time I got up to Upper Launch Pete was long gone. There was another pilot on his way west below me, installing confidence to go over to Gloria – where Pete zoomed by returning from his Elk run already. Found a good climb at Gloria. On Elk waves were exchanged with hikers plus some fumbling around looking for lift (which I found a little further east than expected). Wind was pushing into the gap between Elk and Gloria. At Gloria I thermaled shortly with Alex who was on triangle mission. Lift was pretty skookum at Gloria and I had to pull in a bit of wing to stay out off the fluffies. Got back to launch with nice altitude, then high along Mt Cheam, over to Laura’s Ridge (aka The Lakes). Here I met Pete again, now coming back from Butterfly. Still big lift in lots of places so I pushed further east to the flat spot and on to Butterfly. Pete came along for company.
Pete hit an elevator ride up near the rocky chute on Butterfly and I headed over to hop on it too. Not sure what exactly hit me, but I suddenly dropped and got a good look at my wing folded up like I had never seen it before, at least not while being suspended from it. A big fat frontal? The few frontals I have had usually had already popped out by the time I look up. But it also didn’t take long this time and within less than a second my wing opened with a reassuring popping sound. No surge, no other funny business. I like my Sport 4 (forget the Mentor 2!). Soon I found another more friendly thermal to top up for the flight back to Laura’s Lakes. The wind in the valley had gotten stronger so I skirted the gullies on Mt Cheam with extra safety distance. By the time I got back to Bridal Launch I was somewhat tired and didn’t follow Pete who sailed off on his second Elk lap. One last climb over Bridal Launch and then I flew out high over Rosedale to enjoy a few minutes of smooth air before landing. Nice cross-country flight (just a touch shy of 40 km) and my second Elk – Butterfly “Sammy”. The first one was a little less than a year ago – and my very first real cross-country flight.
Flight on Leonardo
On my way back from Butterfly. Mt Cheam in the clouds and Lady Peak to the left. On close inspection Pete's wing is visible as small white speck just a touch right and below the center of the picture (above the ridge of dark green trees).
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Woodside Flying, April 8
Although we missed the real epic flights and valley crossings by one day, conditions were still pretty nice after the high cirrus clouds cleared.
A thermal took me straight up to 1650 meter above launch, climbing 900 meters in less than 12 minutes. I don’t think I have ever been that high over Woodside, pretty cool view! Pretty impressive too for elevation gain without engine power! This is almost two thirds of our average 1500 meters we hike up on a backcountry ski day. And about the same as the Grouse Grind, which takes most people around one hour.
Sharing the thermal with Nicole, Alex and Al, I squeezed in a few more turns while they turned back towards launch. Strong west winds were pushing the thermal over. When I topped out I was almost all the way “over the back”, but that wasn’t a problem that high up. Being on a slower wing than the others, I decided not to fight into the wind.
Instead I headed east, arriving well above Agassiz Mt. Great views north to Harrison Lake and the snow covered mountains surrounding it. The beach at Harrison Hotsprings looked well within reach, but today was not the day to go there with the strong west wind. I landed at the foot of Green Hill and popped out on the highway at the Harrison Hotsprings sign.
The lesson of the day was to remove the toe warmers before hiking – I ended up with good sized blisters which made the hike back to the Agassiz gas station rather unpleasant. Fortunately Pete picked me up there. Lesson #2: get my push-to-talk working again for easier communication so Pete and I can fly together for a change.
Fresh snow on Mt Cheam
Big crowds the day after the epic day
A thermal took me straight up to 1650 meter above launch, climbing 900 meters in less than 12 minutes. I don’t think I have ever been that high over Woodside, pretty cool view! Pretty impressive too for elevation gain without engine power! This is almost two thirds of our average 1500 meters we hike up on a backcountry ski day. And about the same as the Grouse Grind, which takes most people around one hour.
Sharing the thermal with Nicole, Alex and Al, I squeezed in a few more turns while they turned back towards launch. Strong west winds were pushing the thermal over. When I topped out I was almost all the way “over the back”, but that wasn’t a problem that high up. Being on a slower wing than the others, I decided not to fight into the wind.
Instead I headed east, arriving well above Agassiz Mt. Great views north to Harrison Lake and the snow covered mountains surrounding it. The beach at Harrison Hotsprings looked well within reach, but today was not the day to go there with the strong west wind. I landed at the foot of Green Hill and popped out on the highway at the Harrison Hotsprings sign.
The lesson of the day was to remove the toe warmers before hiking – I ended up with good sized blisters which made the hike back to the Agassiz gas station rather unpleasant. Fortunately Pete picked me up there. Lesson #2: get my push-to-talk working again for easier communication so Pete and I can fly together for a change.
Fresh snow on Mt Cheam
Big crowds the day after the epic day
Monday, March 28, 2011
Woodside Cross-Country
Almost mid-air with an eagle
Although the weekend weather forecast looked rather depressing all week, in the end both Saturday and Sunday were not only fly-able, but also provided good spring conditions. We arrived early on Saturday to strong wind over the back – but had planned to work on the launch carpet anyway. After almost everything was pinned down, the thermals started coming up. Paddy and I went for two sled rides, Pete drove the second time. I enjoyed the warm spring air at the Riverside LZ and wasn’t too keen on driving up for a third sleddie, but in the end we did go up and scored a sweet 1.5h ridge soaring flight to 1000 meters. I went all the way back over the North Towers and got a good look over the ridge up Harrison Lake. Lots of traffic in the air: eagles and human flyers, including Andrei, Ryan and Amin. To finish off the nice flight I followed Pete for a little cross country to Harvest Market.
Agassiz Mt (left), Harrison Lake, Bear Mt (centre), Fraser Valley (right) and Green Hill (bottom right)
Sunday’s flying conditions were even better. Pete took off to Sasquatch before I got high enough to join him. Good thing I wasn’t ready, because he sunk out, while I ventured east along the ridge to Agassiz Mt, following some other pilots. They were more comfortable getting up and close to the clouds – which meant I was below, behind and pretty much on my own. Being still pretty new to the cross country thing I focus a lot on possible landing zones, especially when I’m flying alone (well, I wasn’t not really alone, there were plenty of other pilots in radio-reach, just nobody nearby who's “line” I could follow). Things are somewhat complicated by the prison below the ridge between Woodside and Agassiz Mt; a no-fly and no-landing zone. But just like the first time when I flew here with Pete and Andrew last year, whenever I thought about turning out and heading for a nice green field to land in, my vario started beeping reassuringly. I found a couple of nice thermals up to ridge height (and one somewhat rougher thermal which I left alone after an uneventful frontal collapse). After some scratching I got just a bit above Aggasiz Mt, but not high enough to follow the others to Bear. I flew out to Green Hill, played in some mild thermals and landed at Green Hill’s southeast end after almost 14 km xc.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Back to Pemby - July 17
Another nice flight in Pemberton. I pushed on a bit further than last week and went all the way to Owl Mt. Along the way I watched another pilot hit some exciting air causing him to spin/spiral low above the ridge (but he got away with a scare) so I opted to fly out into the smooth air over the valley. I had already picked an LZ when my vario started chirping. Sweet 500 meter climb in one thermal in the middle of the valley!
In the evening there was talk of glass-off flights and we went up to Lower Launch. It was pretty windy, but launch went very smooth. The first half of the flight was nice, but later the air turned a bit rowdy. I used the lift to get up to microwave tower height, but should have stayed with the rest of the local gang who hang out near lower launch (as I heard later the valley can go off with a big boom on evenings like this - better to stay low). We landed east and away from the venturi and rough air and turbulence at the school LZ. Barely a stir in the air where we landed, but myriads of mosquitoes (but hey, I'll take the bugs over a turbulent landing anytime).
In the evening there was talk of glass-off flights and we went up to Lower Launch. It was pretty windy, but launch went very smooth. The first half of the flight was nice, but later the air turned a bit rowdy. I used the lift to get up to microwave tower height, but should have stayed with the rest of the local gang who hang out near lower launch (as I heard later the valley can go off with a big boom on evenings like this - better to stay low). We landed east and away from the venturi and rough air and turbulence at the school LZ. Barely a stir in the air where we landed, but myriads of mosquitoes (but hey, I'll take the bugs over a turbulent landing anytime).
Monday, July 5, 2010
Bridal – Elk – Butterfly and back, June 30
Distance between the end points of the GPS track is about 20 km. Bridal Launch is above the landing spot (where the blue line ends), Elk is on the right and Butterfly on the left. Mt Cheam is in the middle of the image and has snowy patches on its flanks.
The first real XC flight! My goal for the day was to do a XC flight, but I really hadn’t set my hopes that high. But why not go big when the opportunity arises? Go big or go home (not really my motto, Carpe Diem is better...).
So after Pete had guided me on my first Elk flight (I was in front a couple of times too and showed Pete some thermals) where we looked down on the hiking trail we had been on just a couple of weeks ago, I would have been quite happy to bob around launch a bit longer and then call it a day and land. But there was Pete on the radio “Don’t fly out yet”. Since I didn’t feel too tired, but instead rather excited about how well things went so far, curiosity kicked in (wonder what’s around that next ridge?) and I followed. We found some lift along Mt. Cheam, then at Laura’s ridge (a reliable performer, as Pete pointed out), and finally at another bump before gliding over to Butterfly. Cool how after every ridge a new view opened up; the main gulley that leads up to the summit of Mt Cheam – last year a young lad climbed this chute full of snow, rubble and debris; three dark, small lakes behind Laura’s ridge and finally Jones Lake behind Butterfly. I flew a bit past Butterfly, but then turned around – LZs are scarce at this end of the ridge. Pete went on the Ludwig for another kilometer or so.
Interesting how well things worked out on the way back – at first I thought I’d barely make it to the Cloverleaf LZ. Then there was some lift and Bridal LZ was within glide. The next patch of lift got me up and within reach of Bridal Launch. Finally back at Bridal Launch, I wondered if I could make it to Upper Launch again and found nice thermals at Allan’s ridge. I watched Pete ‘riding’ the ridge between Upper Launch and Gloria for a second Elk lap, but I started to feel tired and was just happy to fly out into the buoyant and smooth air – what a difference to the bumpy thermal ride, it felt almost as if I was dreaming… (For the paddlers: just like paddling back on the quiet water after the roar at Skooks). I had to kick my legs a few times to get back to reality and to get the landing gear ready.
What an amazing flight! And personal best of 46 km xc and over 3 hours in the air. Wouldn’t have done it without Pete in front and his encouragement - figuring this out on my own would have taken me many more flights!
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/ 347476
PS: Just realized that it's almost exactly two years since my first high flight (June 28, 2008) and also very close to flight # 200. How is this for a celebration!
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