Jodi and I did a repeat of yesterday with an early morning flight. Again she had a great flight and even practiced her big ears (a paragliding manoeuvre to descend a bit faster by pulling in the outer sides of the paraglider). It was the first time that I was going to fly with my HD video camera on my helmet and I wanted to be relatively close to Jodi so I rushed my forward launch. I didn’t correct the launch by running to the right, under the glider, and then suddenly I was picked up a bit and slammed down onto some rocks on the hillside...damn, didn’t expect that. I ended up with a bit of a charly horse. I set back up and then launched properly. I decided to practice my big ears too and also did a spiral over the LZ. I was especially happy that I landed on the spot I had chosen while higher up, it was a 5 foot circle of darker weeds, and unfortunately they turned out to be prickly weeds so my prize for actually making my spot landing was a few jabs in the shins!
Jodi's dog Satah supervising launch:
The view from launch:
I went up to launch an hour or so later with the Brits and a few others in a different mini-bus and befriended an older guy, Jean-Claude, who had started paragliding in 1987...a pioneer. He had had two different accidents, breaking his femur, wrist and fracturing a few vertebrae. Back in the early days, there was hardly any safety equipment so it wasn’t too surprising. He got off at the first launch but the rest of us went to the further one. Perhaps it was the wrong call as the wind hadn’t shifted around yet. We parawaited for about an hour and then slowly, one by one, we got off. Kes and I decided to go from the hang glider launch which was smaller, but closer to the corner of the mountain to get to St. Andre and probably the face that might have lift working. Alex, Harry and Ian bombed out in front but a bit off to the left of launch. Kes did okay and made it back to the LZ while I had a hell of a time trying to launch. I was on launch for 3 hours before I finally took to the skies. I was rewarded. The flight was only 35 minutes but I made it to the same ridge with the antennas on from yesterday and made it further over the river towards the massive ridge but I still ended up bombing out, even further north from town. I was pleased however with how fast I had covered the ground, at least twice as fast as the day before. As I was approaching to land, I contemplated a sandbank on the east side of the river. I could easily back track 50 meters to the railroad tracks and there was a bridge right nearby that I could cross to get back to the main road to St. Andre. I decided to go for it and I crossed the river by the railroad bridge and landed in a field beside it. Just after I finished packing up my glider it started to rain and I looked south towards the campsite and it was downpouring over there. I followed a trail to the main road and prepared myself to get soaked. The second car that passed me stopped without me even sticking out my thumb. It turned out to be an ex-hang glider pilot and his son. I’m quite lucky that they did pick me up as it was a torrential rain. They took me right to my campervan and getting out of their car the water on the road was already pooled up enough to go over the laces of my hiking boots!
The railroad bridge near where I landed:
That evening I dined out at a restaurant with the five Brits. Before going into town, we went to a palatial house of another British guy which was actually set up to be a place to stay for pilots, cyclists or anyone else wishing to enjoy the area. Mark Taggart, the owner, was a super friendly guy and accomplished hang glider pilot. He served us a beer as we sat and chatted in a massive living room with 20 foot high glass windows and a couch that could probably fit 20 people. After about an hour we headed into towm and had a good meal and lots of laughs. Ian especially cracked me and the other lads up...funny guy. Another great day in St. Andre!
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