Looking right down on some castle ruins while paragliding - Tolmin, Slovenia
I'm taking an afternoon off from flying. Those who know me may question my sanity, but those who know me best understand that this only child needs alone time to recharge. So I sent Derek up the mountain and am hoarding the laptop all to myself to finally write a blog update (despite the crackly internet service) and to meditate on my trip so far.
Flying has, once again, been a learning experience. Our first flight was at a site we'd been to before in Slovenia so we weren't too concerned about any paragliding surprises. What we forgot to consider was that in the past we'd flown there in the mellow fall air, and we were now standing on launch looking at full-on spring conditions. After our first few flights we realized that waiting until midday to launch with everyone else was just silly. Both of us had flown some early spring currents at home, but neither of us were ready to jump right into butt-kicking, roller-coaster thermals. So we started launching earlier which helped ease us into midday, and went for soul-restoring flights at the end of the day to end everything on a good note.
Which leads us to right now. Today we're at a new site in Austria we've never flown before, and once again we found ourselves taking off in prime thermal production time and kept our flights shorter than usual. Derek went up to try a late afternoon tour of the valley, but I'm content to wait until morning, when you can be sure I'll be one of the first ones on the bus. One thing for sure is that we're having a fantastic time - we're both suntanned and learning more each day. We still have a month left with nothing to do but fly, so hopefully I'll be posting some great flight reports here soon.
1 comment:
Glad you updated your blog!
I remember flying over castles in France - isn't it sooooo cool to do so?
I hear ya when it comes to ass-kicking thermals during the first flights of the year. I had that a couple weeks ago when I flew to Harrison - one 50% collapse during my second flight of the year made me want to go home. Later in the season it's easier to handle, but then again the best conditions are in the spring! Too bad spring and fall conditions aren't reversed.
Hope you have plenty more flights in Europe and don't feel bad for taking a day off - too much flying and you risk contracting "meh syndrome" and not being excited much about it anyway. Though after so many years, maybe you aren't at risk! :)
Many more happy flights to you and Derek.
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