Day 3 was intense – I had six flights, with total airtime of 2 hours today. We went back to Blossom Valley since we had an awesome time there yesterday late afternoon. I don’t remember them all…they blended together at the end. I’ll try to enumerate them all, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to.
We para-waited for a while, as you can see from an earlier post. Eventually the wind picked up enough that we could do a decent launch. 3 of us took off, but there was only enough lift for roughly 2 passes of the ridge before we sunk out and had to head to the landing zone.
Then we had a ride back up! Blossom has a crappy trail to the top, and it’s not that high so we were hiking it before. Bob decided he’d had enough of that and drive his truck up. There were a few hairy moments, but we made it. Second flight was 28 minutes before I flew back over the ridge and got some sinky air and did an unintentional top-landing. I tried to land on the road, but ended up in the bush slightly. As I walk back, some local says “Why did you land over there?” …gaah.
Third flight was a 49 minute flight of awesome! I got up to 550m, about 150 above launch. Not as high as others in the group, but I was pretty excited! However, once again did an unintentional top-landing. Skidded along the road a bit. Bleh. Also broke my flight deck. Double bleh. The stitching on one side is almost completely out so it doesn’t stay up.
Fourth flight was about 14 minutes. I decided that if I was going to top-land, I may as well try to do it. It wasn’t good, more ass skidding.
Fifth flight was 3 minutes. Enough to take off, and try the top-landing thing again after getting some advice from Bob. It wasn’t great, but I did land on the road with grace and style.
Sixth and last flight was late and only 11 minutes. 7-10 passes of the ridge before I lost all my lift and decided to head down.
I didn’t mention it, but every single launch I did today I was happy with. It really is great to iterate on a problem until it goes away. 🙂
I’m very burnt, all of the guys are making fun of m. 😛 I’ve received new nicknames like “Bush”, “Basil” and “Strawberry Shortcake”. And I may have minor heatstroke, since I feel a little spacey. wooooo. Apparently Jeff puked out of his wing. He had a 3 hour flight, with about 4 hours of flight time total. Apparently he felt a little bad at one point. >.>
I’m just going to post links to the album and Latest Submissions for the flights since I’m getting lazy. 😛
Heatstroke? Puking? Ass skidding? Good times?
Congratulations on the good launches and on your first top landings! The top landings may not be perfect yet, but it sounds like you are learning a ton.
It’s hot here and we’re out all day for several days. Feeling a little spacey. 😛
None of us can believe Jeff puked. It’s been the talk of the house since he admitted it. Apparently he was getting sea-sick from flying. He puked…and just kept flying. Apparently he looked over his left shoulder, saw a dude and decided not to.
I’m learning SO MUCH that I’m feeling like I’m ridiculously far behind. I’m like the remedial student. Guy says I’m doing ok for a P2, since we’re flying P3 sites and all. Also, something I’ve definitely learned that having info on the sites is key. We should look up/find out what we want to fly in Halifax and look it up on paraglidingearth.com – a brilliant wiki-like website of paragliding sites. Knowing that you need to watch that particular windsock to go to the right otherwise you’ll hit major rotor off of the rocks on the other side…important information.
Poor Jeff!
Being the remedial student’s not so bad. I feel like I’m still behind, but I’m OK with that. 🙂
Research has already started. In addition to paraglideearth.com, I’m also using the Maritime’s flying club’s and the local school’s websites. I’m so excited!
It’s harder when you feel behind and you end up endangering others. I almost flew into Guy yesterday. 🙁 Bad mojo. (due to physics, I wouldn’t have actually hit him anyway, it just came close).
Yeah, with some of these P3 rated sites, there’s a reason why. “Something” is invariably wrong with it. Talking with Guy tonight – one location was easy to note with the windsock sitting on a rock over there. Our site today looked pretty easy – easy launch, easy landing and a straight flight between the two. But he pointed out that there is residential areas nearby, a treatment plant, power lines, tons of traffic, all things which you wouldn’t necessarily think of and/or see just by standing on launch looking at a windsock.