![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm a parrot (for a weekend or two)
Sep. 12th, 2010 08:54 pmA paraglider parrot: Has wings and talks a lot, but doesn't actually fly.
It has been a crazy month and a half of paragliding adventures that cannot be adequately summarized in one post. I'm going to just skip most of it for now and move straight to this weekend's events.
Since I am a bit behind on flights and my landings aren't accurate enough, I was just along to observe. It was an odd position: I was neither a pilot nor a pilot's non-flying partner, and everyone else in the group was one of the two. But I got to hang out with my fellow paragliding students and watch Russ do some crazy stuff.
This weekend was the SIV clinic: a chance to get towed up over 2000 feet above a lake, then try all the dangerous things that can happen to a paragliding wing and how to recover from them. Unfortunately, bad weather meant that they only got a half-day of the two-day clinic done, and it remains to be seen when they'll get to do the other 3/4. Each student did get in one flight and got to try several things. Here's Russ doing his first real wingovers, the last thing he did on his flight:
On the radio is Dion, our instructor from iparaglide, coaching Russ on when to throw his weight from one side to the other in the harness to make the wing swing. After the video ends, Russ did have a near-textbook landing on the beach, as per Dion's request.
We also got to watch an acro pilot do his stuff: spins and tumbles in all kinds of directions as he descends towards the lake*. The funniest part of the day was when the acro pilot did a few too many big sweeping turns on his way to the beach and then ran into the wind that caused his wing to stop all forward momentum about 10 meters from dry land. He was still descending, but rather than coming down at an angle towards us, he was going down like an elevator. A slow elevator: he had time to swear at great length, undo his harness, shrug philosophically, then splash down into the water. The boat retrieved him and he probably spent the rest of the day drying out his wing, clothing, boots, harness, reserve parachutes... He apparently ended up in the lake twice last year while doing demonstrations, so our class has taken to calling him "Sir Splashdown".
Before and after beach-based flying, we all hung out together at a lovely bed and breakfast: soaking in the hot tub and talking about future paragliding travels; gathering around the dining table and discussing the finer points of paragliding theory; lounging in the living room and watching paragliding movies; barbequing on the deck and making paragliding jokes. Our fellow students are really good people, and it was a nice weekend away, despite the minimum of flying.
I hope to be able to do the SIV clinic next year, but to do that, I've got to get back in the air and practice my launches and landings. I've got to become a flying parrot instead of a caged one... or, having seen my rather awkward launches and landings, I've got to at least become a goose again.**
* A video example of acro paragliding.
** Once my harness - with its pockets and air bag protection - is on, I am sort of goose-shaped, and I seem to waddle a bit awkwardly while launching and landing. Luckily, like a goose, I look pretty smooth and graceful once I'm actually in the air.
It has been a crazy month and a half of paragliding adventures that cannot be adequately summarized in one post. I'm going to just skip most of it for now and move straight to this weekend's events.
Since I am a bit behind on flights and my landings aren't accurate enough, I was just along to observe. It was an odd position: I was neither a pilot nor a pilot's non-flying partner, and everyone else in the group was one of the two. But I got to hang out with my fellow paragliding students and watch Russ do some crazy stuff.
This weekend was the SIV clinic: a chance to get towed up over 2000 feet above a lake, then try all the dangerous things that can happen to a paragliding wing and how to recover from them. Unfortunately, bad weather meant that they only got a half-day of the two-day clinic done, and it remains to be seen when they'll get to do the other 3/4. Each student did get in one flight and got to try several things. Here's Russ doing his first real wingovers, the last thing he did on his flight:
On the radio is Dion, our instructor from iparaglide, coaching Russ on when to throw his weight from one side to the other in the harness to make the wing swing. After the video ends, Russ did have a near-textbook landing on the beach, as per Dion's request.
We also got to watch an acro pilot do his stuff: spins and tumbles in all kinds of directions as he descends towards the lake*. The funniest part of the day was when the acro pilot did a few too many big sweeping turns on his way to the beach and then ran into the wind that caused his wing to stop all forward momentum about 10 meters from dry land. He was still descending, but rather than coming down at an angle towards us, he was going down like an elevator. A slow elevator: he had time to swear at great length, undo his harness, shrug philosophically, then splash down into the water. The boat retrieved him and he probably spent the rest of the day drying out his wing, clothing, boots, harness, reserve parachutes... He apparently ended up in the lake twice last year while doing demonstrations, so our class has taken to calling him "Sir Splashdown".
Before and after beach-based flying, we all hung out together at a lovely bed and breakfast: soaking in the hot tub and talking about future paragliding travels; gathering around the dining table and discussing the finer points of paragliding theory; lounging in the living room and watching paragliding movies; barbequing on the deck and making paragliding jokes. Our fellow students are really good people, and it was a nice weekend away, despite the minimum of flying.
I hope to be able to do the SIV clinic next year, but to do that, I've got to get back in the air and practice my launches and landings. I've got to become a flying parrot instead of a caged one... or, having seen my rather awkward launches and landings, I've got to at least become a goose again.**
* A video example of acro paragliding.
** Once my harness - with its pockets and air bag protection - is on, I am sort of goose-shaped, and I seem to waddle a bit awkwardly while launching and landing. Luckily, like a goose, I look pretty smooth and graceful once I'm actually in the air.
