Our first full day in Annecy...it was a little slow for the group to get moving but eventually we drove the LDV up the mountain. If you’re not on one of the shuttles, there is a bit of a walk from where you can park up to the launch. Yet again it was a lovely astro-turfed launch area. There were quite a few pilots, some launching, some preparing to launch and we joined the third group for a while, the spectators. They actually had one guy organizing and watching out for safety considerations which is a good idea. The wind was coming in a bit cross to launch so there were a few “interesting” launches but most people were getting off the hill.
The view from launch:
The launch:
Kes and Tim were the first to take off from our group and they made the best decision. In the end they were both able to cross the lake and Tim’s flight was 4 hours long! The rest of us boated around near launch and there were some strong, punchy thermals but it was tough to stay in them for long. I witnessed one thermal that Alex, another pilot and a bird rocketed up in and all three of them looked a little surprised and concerned by its strength! Soon we were all headed over to the landing zones and Alex planned to do a full stall over the lake. A full stall is a safety skill to have when a cravat occurs to your wing. A cravat is when one (or more) of your lines goes over the top of your paraglider when it’s not under tension and then weight is put on it and it is stuck there, deforming the airfoil shape of your wing...read: not good. The only way to get it off is to do a full stall, where you bury the brakes until your wing can no longer fly due to the steep angle of attack and then you begin to fall towards the earth. The lines are no longer loaded so then the cravat can work its way out. The danger of a full stall is that when you let the brakes up, if you do it improperly the wing can shoot in front of you so far and fast that it ends up below you and you fall into it (known as being “gift wrapped”), which is obviously far from ideal. Alex’s full stall was excellent and he was pleased with it. He and I landed in the field by the lake and the campsite in some strong wind while the others went to the main LZ.
Taking to the skies:
Tim was still not down at this point and the rest of us drove along the lake to another flying area called Planfait. I almost ran Betty into a car in front of me due to the beautiful scenery...good thing the brakes work at least! It didn’t look too great there so we drove back up to the first launch site (Montmin). I wasn’t too bothered to do a top to bottom flight and have two vehicles to retrieve and then organize dinner so the others flew while I drove Betty down to pick up a steak dinner for everyone. We had a great meal and some good laughs...hello Annecy.
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