Skydiving day...not for me, but Alex and Tim, and Gans was to lose his jumping virginity going on a tandem jump. We lucked out with the medical check-up aspect as there turned out to be a doctor who was a skydiving student on course that day. Alex went up in one plane and just as he landed, Tim and Gans were off in another. It was quite a bust little airport wit all sorts of flying vessels taking off, even a gyrocopter! Harry and I watched them come down and filmed their experience. Gans was giddy like a little school girl. I could so remember that feeling I had when I did my one and only tandem skydive with my friend Colin, a couple of weeks before he got married. As he had claimed before his jump, Gans was already talking about when he would start taking a skydiving course as he was hooked! Alex went for another jump just as Kes showed up with his fixed SUV, but 300 Euros poorer.
Gans not too pleased with how tight the harness has to be cinched in some areas:
Tim getting his final inspection:
Alex returning from his first jump:
Gans landing:
His post jump reaction:
The rest of us, apart from Tim, decided to press on and try and locate a flying site called St. Vincent les Forts just east of the city of Gap. Although we possessed various high tech GPS equipment, for some reason we opted not to use them and somewhat blindly drove up one mountain, found a map board on the side of the road, realized we had gone the wrong way, backtracked down the mountain and back up the proper road. Harry was with me while Gans rode with Kes in the Toyota Hilux. Poor Betty had a bit of trouble getting up the steep dirt road with periodic draining trenches running diagonally across it. The trenches got bigger as we climbed higher so I had to slow right down to make sure that I didn’t pull part of Betty’s underbelly off. We finally reached what looked like a potential paraglider takeoff or at least a top landing field. I stopped the vehicle for a minute as we radioed Kes and he was about a kilometer ahead of us. We decided to continue on, but Betty didn’t. I didn’t get her revs up enough to get moving on the steep slope and stalled her. Uh oh....will she restart? I turned the key....and no, she wouldn’t. Okay, no biggie, just have to roll backwards down a sloped dirt road, with a curve 30 meters back and a precipitous drop on one side, pop the clutch, hope she starts and then brake aggressively. Harry looked at me with a slightly worried face as I was relatively new to this clutch popping technique. We both agreed that he should get out to help guide me from the back but I think it was just as much to minimize the risk of both of us plummeting down the hillside in Betty. I began to roll back, let out the clutch and good ol’ Betty began to purr (as best as she can purr). Harry hopped back in but then I still couldn’t really get her heading up the hill although at least I hadn’t stalled her. Harry had a go and he had more success by higher revving the engine before attempting to put it in gear. I guess I just hadn’t wanted to be so forceful with my lady traveling companion.
We met up with Kes and Gans at the launch spot and what a view! Behind us was a beautiful mountain ridge with a few craggy rock faces. Off to the left was the man-made lake of Lac de Serre Ponçon, to the right the valley headed off to Gap and in front of us was a tree covered, lower mountain. Unfortunately it was quite windy and there were some grey clouds forming above the mountain. We decided to have what little lunch we had with us and enjoy the view. We finally made radio contact with Alex and Tim who we later found out did use their GPS and did go to the actual site we had talked about...whoops. When they asked where we were, I wanted to reply “Look for the darkest cloud in the sky...and we’re directly under it!” And that cloud proceeded to open up, beginning with seriously large rain drops that turned into hail. We hopped back in our vehicles and began to descend the mountain. We met up with the other boys in their slow moving LDV Convoy truck and started off for St. Hillaire, about an hour and a half away (at least the way we travelled with the LDV crawling even slower than Betty on hills and with a top speed of 90 km/hr on the highways...it lives up to its name as we would always get a big convoy of cars behind us!).
The view from the blown out launch:
There was a serious descent into the south end of Grenoble and this took its toll on the LDV with the brakes overheating and blowing off the caps on both from wheels and spraying brake fluid all over. Awesome, now all three vehicles have had issues. We limped on to St. Hillaire and stopped in at the landing zone area. St. Hillaire is the home to an annual festival called Coupe Icare (The Icarus Cup) which is held in September. It first came to my attention through the movie “Neverending Thermal” that a friend of mine from Victoria, Sean White, created (I recommend you at least check out the trailer!). Thousands of people descend on the sleepy hillside town and some fly off the mountain dressed in ridiculous costumes. I plan on attending it this September.
Tim chatted with a guy in a paragliding shop and he recommended that we try a site to the northeast called Malatrait (as St. Hillaire is more of a morning/afternoon site). We drove 45 minutes and eventually found the launch after driving through a beautiful town by a drained out lake (yes, that detracted from the beauty a bit). We hadn’t planned our logistics too well as we had 6 guys and 3 vehicles up on launch. It was around 8pm so it was just going to be a top to bottom flight so Kes, Alex and I offered to drive while Gans, Harry and Tim all had nice gentle flights. The drivers, figuring they deserved something for their sacrifice, had a sunset beer up on the mountain before we returned down to the town. The flyers had already walked to a cafe by the time we descended and we went for a bite to eat. After getting frustrated by a creperie with shitty service (by now, why do I expect anything different in France?!?), we got some pizzas from another joint and then headed off to camp for the night. By this time it was past eleven and the campsite we intended staying at had locked its gates. Not to worry, we free camped across the road in a large parking lot although somehow Alex and Tim got into the campsite...but I was happier where I was, less congested and free! Tomorrow, we fly St. Hillaire...
Harry preparing for a gentle evening soar:
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