Today was my summer vacation.  As grown-ups, I think a lot of us have to make any block of time off be our vacation time, whether it be a weekend, a day or even just an afternoon to go explore.  

My perfect day went like this: stay in bed till 9:30, make my morning coffee last for an hour and then pack up all my flying gear for the great flying day ahead! I had offered to show a few new-to-the-area pilots around, so at 1:30 my boyfriend happily loaded up his pickup with about a dozen eager pilots and up the mountain we went.

The day didn't look entirely promising - if you think in surfing terms it did not seem like a "big wave" kind of day.  More like a day with lots of paddling and a few mediocre waves.  But by the time we launched the day had switched on, and I bet there were 20 pilots in the sky within half an hour.  It was actually kind of aggressive - at times I felt like my paraglider was like a horse trying to get away from me and I had to pull hard on the reins to keep her in place.  And even being a rusty-ass pilot who's barely flown this year, I managed to stay up for over an hour and complete a fun little triangle on Leonardo (an online contest we upload our flights to).

When you have a day with rough spots of lift in the air, there are also lots of areas with sink, and when you watch the numbers on your altimeter drop, you want to find rising air as quickly as possible.  A few years ago I went searching online for a small audio-only vario (altimeter) to stick on my helmet, and after emailing a bunch of companies for information I chose the Nanovario by Flytepark. The customer service I received was outstanding, and personally I loved the uber-sensitivity of the little unit which saved my butt on a few flights!  So I approached the company to be their distributor here in Western Canada and have never regretted it. For me, customer service means as much to me as the actual product, and Flyte Park continually delivers top notch service. Their products are also made close to home in the USA which is a nice touch!  That's why I continue to sell their products and am thrilled to have them as a sponsor.  Thanks Flyte Park!

So at the end of the day when anyone asks me "What did you do on your summer vacation?", I'll definitely tell them tales from this awesome day - including making a bunch of new friends from around the world, having an extra glass of wine with the delicious BBQ my boyfriend cooked for us, and maybe even about the fact that I've been pretending I'm not leaving in 4 days for the Nationals and haven't even started packing yet!   #procrastinator

Flying back to the mountain after snooping around the valley