Thankfully the weather was a bit better today so all the events that were scheduled for Saturday would have to be jam packed into today. Kes and I headed over to the main launch as one of the main events, the costume flying, should be happening and thankfully it did. The costumes were amazing. The best group were dressed up as characters from the movie Avatar. They had both the humans and the blue aliens. Some of the aliens were on stilts while others were sitting on the flying beasts from the film. A few of the humans had large flying machines built around them...all of it spectacular. Other costumes ranged from a stork that took a 3 year old tandem (dressed as a baby of course) to Merlin, wine bottles, cigarette packs and even a pack of elephants. The funniest however was a guy dressed up as “Hello Kitty”. Not due to his costume, but the fact that he had 8 or 9 botched attempts at launching. He tried about 4 times near the start of the event and then took a break. He then tried another 4-5 times near the end, over 3 hours later. By the end the crowd was cheering on each attempt and when he finally took to the air there was an enormous cheer and applause. Good on ya Hello Kitty.
The last costume was a massive flying ship. It was made up of some ladders and sails and wheels. This guy had to be brave as once he started rolling down the astro-turf, he was pretty much committed...if the wing didn’t come up right, he’d be in the trees below. Well, he ended up in the trees below! Thankfully he wasn’t injured and only lost a wheel so he reset up and launched on the second attempt...as the old, very French, emcee yelled out “Spectaculaire!”.
Flying off into the clouds:
The Avatar group:
A "Na'vi" on the terrifying "ikran":
The Avatar helicopter in flight (and the propellors actually rotated):
The ikran in flight:
"Hello Kitty!"
The scene on launch:
An atom bomb that realized doves once in flight:
The wine giveaway:
The warning label says that quitting paragliding is hazardous to your health!
Some kind of ogres:
The funny emcee under attack:
A stork with a real baby:
One of the Avatar costumes along with wine bottles who generously handed out wine!
A bug hunter with his specimens:
The monolithic flying machine about to take off:
"Hello Kitty" finally takes off!
The biggest costume/craft takes off:
After the costumes, a helicopter was taking some acrobatic paraglider pilots up in front of launch and they were performing a whole bunch of manoeuvres including the “Infinite Tumble” which is where a paraglider pilot completes full end over end revolutions around his glider...quite impressive. Following this there was a whole cavalcade of demonstrations of various flying machines from a guy using small jets to power him under his paraglider to wingsuits skydivers, acrobatic sailplanes and planes, an electric paramotor and an ultralight (he shouldn’t have been last, after the acrobatic plane as it was a bit of a denouement). It was a fun afternoon checking out all these events although I have to admit I was a bit tired from standing so long (especially on a sloped hill). I’m so glad that the Coupe Icare wasn’t a complete bust.
A jet powered paraglider rig (a wee bit noisy!):
Synchronized acro spiral:
"D-bag" exit from a helicopter:
An "infinity tumble" (yes, he does a full loop over and over):
A high powered acro plane:
Hopefully the way of the future...a quiet electric paramotor:
The synchronized sailplanes (not sure which one broke apart):
I didn’t find out until a few days later that one of the sailplanes had a complete structural failure, below where we could see it. One of the wings broke off causing it to begin to tumble to the ground followed by the second wing failure. The pilot pulled his reserve chute and landed, uninjured, into some trees...yikes. You can see it here.
Many people packed up and left as I imagine many of them had to work in the morning. I noticed a smouldering fire close to our camp where a family used to be so we decided to commandeer and revive it. Victor decided he was going to attempt a paramotoring flight and launch right from where we were camping. There were three other Germans getting their gear ready but they walked off to the sanctioned paramotoring launch which was about 500 meters away (a long way to walk when you have 45 kilos on your back!). I reassured Victor that I thought he’d be okay launching from where we were. Deano and Phil had before the festival and technically the event was over.
Just as he was gearing up, I noticed a woman trying to locate the Germans who had just left. She was peering into one white van that had the big words “Mad Max” on the side. I told her where they had gone and she came over and we began to chat a bit. She asked if I’d be interested in taking part in a research survey she was working on for her bachelor’s degree in recreation. “Sure, why not?” She, Nadja, gave me the form but I paused for a moment as I wanted to watch Victor take off as did she. Vic had a few aborted attempts with the wing just not coming up. Phil showed up and gave him a few bits of advice. Phil’s only been flying for a year and a half but already placed third in the British Nationals. On the third attempt the wing came up well and Victor began his run while powering up the engine. He began to descend down the slope out of view when we heard an awful “crack”. We raced down to see what had happened and it was pretty obvious by the shattered wooden propeller with bits strewn about across the grass. Thankfully Victor was okay but his propeller definitely wasn’t nor was his gas tank. Phil figured that he had jumped into his harness a bit early and bottomed out causing the bottom of the paramotor to hit the ground. I was amazed to find one wooden shard of his prop stuck upright in the grass about 30 feet from where he was...wow, thankfully none of us were nearby when it happened! So poor Victor didn’t get his flight and he’s about 400 dollars poorer...but I guess breaking props and other equipment is just part of that sport.
Victor's take off (you can hear the crack at the end):
The calm campsite after the festival:
I finished Nadja’s survey and joined her and her friend, Johanna, for a drink looking out over the valley. We later returned to the fire and later the other Germans, Max (as in Mad Max), his girlfriend (I didn’t get her name) and a fellow named Tell sat around the fire. I made a few forays down the steep hill to retrieve some dead wood to burn while Victor had a different tactic, use some tools to chop down small branches off of live trees. Johanna was not impressed when he returned with some oak branches! Great people and some great discussions. It turned into a late night but a great way to finish the festival!
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