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To: Razorbak who wrote (2784)	5/16/1999 3:10:00 PM
From: Arktic	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3156

More off-topic jibberish for those wishing to read tales of fright... I mean flight!!! Move along unless you are interested in irrelevant but uplifting (pun intended) tales: ********************** I'm sending this message to a very lengthy and diverse group of family, friends, acquaintances, and even a few people who may not remember ever meeting me... oh... and there's even two cowboys, several comedians, and a reptile on the list of recipients! I'll defer to you to determine the category most appropriate to describe your role in all of this!!! In any case... the following is sent based upon my unabashed willingness to brag, exaggerate, and to use the truth as a jumping off place (actually I used a mountain as a jumping off place but that part of the story comes later). At an Easter Brunch, I was commenting to a group of people who were discussing golf that I didn't really have a hobby of that nature in my life. One of my 15 year old twin daughters, Heather, chimed in by saying "Dad... you could always take paragliding lessons with Hanna and me." I said, "Why not?" So... I sought out the best paragliding instructor in the State. His answering machine starts with "Greetings Earth Bound..." and ends with an emphatic "Blue Skies!!!!" He has taught for a decade and has never had a student get seriously injured (I still ask myself on occasion what constitutes a "serious" injury????) either during training or during their subsequent flying careers. Heather, Hanna, and I signed up and took the classroom training followed by "ground school" which amounted to trying to raise our paragliding wings overhead in a park just to get a feel for the equipment. H&H are tall and slender and the smallest wing is almost too big for them. Gusts of wind were coming up during ground school and once I watched Heather pop about five feet off the ground while the instructor grabbed at her heels hoping she wouldn't end up in Valdez!!! Greetings Airborn!!! <ggg> During ground school a gust of wind came along right when I was bringing my canopy down. The counterintuitive but proper way to respond is to run toward the wing and grab a piece of the fabric. Given my extensive conversations with the two cowboys on this list, I did what any self-respecting saddle rider would do... I fought that bucking wing with all my strength which only accentuated the effects of the wind. Next thing I knew, I was pulled to the top of a steep 10 foot hill, across a plateau, and down the other side (very steep)... I gained a lot of respect for the strength of the wing and the wind and realized this was no pony I was clipped into!!! So much for taking advice from a cowboy named "Too Slim" and his sidekick... (at least I think his horse kicked Too Slim in the side...but it might have been the back). The next big step was to climb to a mountaintop near Flattop Mountain and to prepare for my first flight. There was a light breeze that was building. A guy named Dan who is about my age went first. This was not his first flight. He did an amazing job of lifting into the breeze and followed his flight plan precisely landing near the windsock in the landing zone (LZ). I was next. I clipped in and was ready to "fly". I "built my wall" and raised the wing two times just to develop confidence and to demonstrate to the instructor that I was in charge of the equipment. Then he moved down the hill to give me instructions for launch. I lowered my head and said a brief prayer which could be paraphrased as follows: "Lord... save my butt!" Some prayers are answered!!! A gust of wind came up the hill and the instructor yelled "Abort". The winds didn't die down so I was saved from my first fright... I mean flight. Yesterday... the weather was BEAUTIFUL and the instructor took me to Hatcher Pass. H&H couldn't make it due to prepotent commitments but their day will come <ggg>!!! We parked in a large gravel parking lot at the base of a mountain and reviewed the characteristics of the LZ. We put the windsock in place and climbed the mountain with our gear strapped to our backs. I put on my harness, laid out the wing, and prepared for launch. Bear in mind that the first flight involves being airborn with absolutely no sense of glide ratios, speed of turns, etc. This is worse than the seriously myopic leading the blind... This is akin to Wilbur and Orville getting airborn and saying "What do we do now?" Or as Michelle Shocked sings on her Arkansas Traveler CD, "It's not the falling, it's the landing..." Anyway... I ran as if a grizzly bear was going to take a bite out of what the Lord had so recently saved and launched off the side of the mountain... recall those dreams of flying... this was the same but so wide awake and totally 3D... Running off the side of a mountain is a bit counterintuitive... I think I spoke to the cowboys about how to behave close to cliffs and never once was I advised to jump into thin air! My flight plan was to head up the canyon to catch some wind and get away from the side of the mountain... then I was to pull on the left brake line to swing the wing around to the left, heading down the canyon toward the LZ. Then I was to turn right and come in high over the LZ landing into the wind while avoiding all hazards. When you land, you're suppose to be running like a cartoon character a few feet above the ground. You also need to brake fully with both hands to collapse the wing behind you. Of course, if you collapse the wing too soon, you'll be swung forward in the air and smack down on your back on the ground and possibly kill yourself or worse!!! Timing is everything in paragliding. Of course, I flunked my dance class in college... rhythm and timing are not my forte. So you can imagine what was going through my mind!!! In any case, I flew up the canyon, executed the turn and headed down the canyon per plan. I felt I had lots of altitude but that was due to my inexperience as a paraglider. I was coming in far too low to make the LZ... Landing in the parking lot is illegal except under emergency circumstances. I assessed my options and decided, "I'm an emergency" and brought the glider down smoothly in the gravel lot. Two rangers were standing there watching me as I stood up. I hooted and gave the big "O" sign with my arms to signal the instructor that I may be crazy but otherwise, I'm "OK". I unclipped and turned to the rangers and said, "That was the very first flight of my life!!!" They grinned at me and I realized that I wasn't under arrest for that crime nor any of the other transgressions that have occurred throughout my lifetime. I packed up the glider and slogged my way back up the mountain. I reviewed the flight with my instructor and set up for flight number two. This time, the breeze had waned and I didn't get as much lift upon launch. My legs dragged across a field of snow... I was sledding down the hill. As I built speed I was lifted into the air with the greatest of dis-ease... and I proceeded to enter dream number two!!! This time, I understood the flight characteristics of the wing and executed my turns in a more timely manner. I was flying a couple hundred feet right above the LZ. On my first flight, if I would have positioned myself for landing at such an altitude over the LZ, I would have been fearful of overflying the LZ by a quarter of a mile. This time I knew that the headwind would keep me aloft and that I would simply glide down toward the LZ like a feather. In fact I did. It was a smooth and safe landing per the flight plan. I decided to leave well enough alone and to stop flying for the day.... As it turned out the conditions began deteriorating and nobody else flew again. The instructor uses VERY conservative parameters to decide when people can fly. That's a good thing. In his words, "It's never a wrong decision not to fly." The paraglider is a hybrid between one of those rectangular parachutes and a hangglider. Many hanggliders have switched over to paragliding due to the safety features of the equipment. Basically, the wing is made of "air-opaque" material that can trap air inside the wing as it moves forward. The leading edge of the wing is open and air rams into the wing to give it shape. There are kevlar/spectra lines coming off the wing to the harness. There is no "give" in the lines. The lines combined with the rammed air create the shape of the wing. The trailing edge has the brake lines attached that allow the pilot to alter the shape of the wing for turns and landings. Otherwise, the pilot depends upon ridge air, thermals, and wind direction to determine the flight plan. There are lots of variables to attend to and a person begins understanding the nuances of "micrometeorology" during training. Knowing the fluid dynamics of the air accounts for a huge portion of the variance during paragliding flight! In closing... running off the edge of a mountain with a thin piece of fabric behind you is harrowing on the face of it. But the experience allows your body and spirit to soar! I look forward to developing my skills... After climbing the mountain three times yesterday and soaring twice, I realized that this sport can keep a person young in more ways than one!!!! Reminds me of the saying, "Person who chops his own wood gets warm twice!" Yes... I soared... and today I'm a bit sore <ggg>!!! Blue Skies, Paul