Munich-Slo-Austria

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.

Europe 2011 so far...

My boyfriend and I are in Europe right now, finishing up week 2 of our 6-week paragliding adventure. It's been fantastic so far, especially since every time we check on the weather back home the forecast is for rain. Over here we're already getting sunburnt!

So far we've had about 5 flights this week, which were much needed after the first 10 days of visiting with friends & family. Actually...it was kind of nice being on a 'normal' vacation for a bit, the kind where you don't base your day (and mood!) on what the winds are doing but instead go sight-seeing and eat way too much local food.

I'll post some flight reports & pictures soon, right now it's time to go flying again!

Good Friday...and then some!

The view from my paraglider today (or...another reason I'm addicted to this sport).

It was a great Friday, and Saturday was fabulous too! Having gone to a Catholic elementary school, Good Friday was always a solemn occasion. We would go to church, talk about Jesus dying and the worst part was we had to eat fish for dinner! Of course that would make Easter Sunday all the better as I got to wear a pretty dress and eat lots of chocolate.

But this year my "Easter" was on Good Friday, with the celebration continuing through the weekend. Friday's flight started out pretty rough but I kept repeating my mantra, "relax", and soon beefed up my bump tolerance. I followed some pilots until they started sinking and then found enough lift to get back over launch. After gliding around the valley a bit I found a beautiful thermal over a little hill and tried to make it back to launch again. It didn't look like I'd clear the ridge so I touched down in a farmer's field just ahead of a "poop" truck. I packed up quickly to keep from getting sprayed and soon a wonderful man asked if I needed a ride back to my car. He had his own little fixed-wing airplane & wanted to know all about what I was doing, so by the end of it I'd offered him a tandem and hope he'll take me up on it.



The "poop" truck coming to get me!

Today looked like it would be too stable to fly, but after waiting on launch for 2 hours we finally got airborne. My friend Karin was out after a long hiatus so we decided to try a small xc flight together over to my house. Everything worked out perfectly and we had a really fun flight, landing on a small road between the fields and then hopping a barbed wire fence to get out. We felt pretty adventurous! While walking the 2 blocks to my house we passed some kids selling lemonade so of course shelled out the 25 cents each for a drink. So refreshing, and such a civilized ending to a great flight.



Karin coming in to land

Tomorrow morning Derek & I hop on a plane to Europe for 6 weeks of adventure. I'm pretty sure this is my favourite Easter ever!

Flying Dreams

One of the first things people tell me when I talk to them about paragliding is that they have flying dreams, and want to know if paragliding is anything like that. Usually it isn't. In dreams, most people don't run off cliffs and spend their time either frantically looking for lift or holding their breath as they pass through turbulent air. But yesterday was different.

It was cold. Really cold. In fact after about 15 minutes I was ready to call on the radio and see if anyone wanted to go land and get some hot chocolate. But no one else seemed to mind their frozen fingertips, so I gave myself the challenge of trying to stay airborne while flying around closer to the ground where the couple degrees of temperature increase would make all the difference. And then the magic happened.

At around 250 metres over the ground I saw a bird in front of me, going up slowly but still going up. I flew over and sure enough there was a thermal...although it was a very stinky one. A pooh thermal to be exact. A tractor was fertilizing the fields below and with each pass of the field would release the tiny, smelly thermals. For 30 whole minutes I spent my time between 250-350 metres over the ground happily drifting all around the valley floor, while everyone else was shivering while flying up high over the mountain. Any time my thermal vanished I would just head for my trusty tractor & literally sniff around til I found the lift again. It was exactly like a flying dream...quiet, smooth air and the feeling of just being able to float around above the ground forever.

I've been flying for over 10 years now, and it never gets boring. Just when you think you have the day figured out a little gift like this flight pops up, and the sport is brand new again. I think I may just be the luckiest girl in the world.

Air Therapy

happy girl after landing

Something about a good flight makes everything else in life better. That's probably yet another sign that I'm hopelessly addicted to this sport, but I'm a happy addict so it's fine by me.

Today was amazing. It's been raining for the last 3 days & the forecast was for rain straight through the weekend so nobody was planning to fly at all. But magically the sun appeared and by the time our group reached launch at 4pm there were already a couple of pilots twice the height of launch. Some hazy cloud had moved in by the time I took off so I wasn't expecting much, but there was still lift to be found and soon we joined our friends and started exploring the sky.

Most of us had decided to go over the back so I went that way after getting high enough, although I was on my own for the first bit as I had launched last. At Agassiz mountain the group had split up, but 3 of us chatted on the radio & decided to try & fly back to the launch (especially since all of our trucks were parked there at the bottom). It had clouded over some, so eventually the other pilots bailed and flew out to the alternate landing. That left me in charge of getting back to the truck and going to get everyone else! I was pretty low and turned to go land with the group a couple of times, but kept the faith & eventually skulked around the south knoll and had the landing in sight.

Of course as soon as the hard part was over I caught my best thermal of the day. I got back up high over launch and extended my flight a bit before heading out to land and pick up my buddies. Today was a sweet surprise and a great enabling for my addiction.

Bye-bye cough & cold

Here it is, almost the end of March and I've been putting off writing until I had that first great spring flight. Well spring had it's own plan this year! I've been practically immobilized for a week with an awful cold/cough that shows up in a different spot every day. Before that I had almost 2 weeks with intense back pain...it was almost as if a neon billboard was posted in the sky saying "Stay Home & Rest". Weird, because it's not like I was stressed or insanely busy or anything and I like to find meaning in events and can't figure out why my body shut me down.

On the bright side, when I woke up this morning my cough was gone & it seems to have turned back into a cold where it all started. I'm POSITIVE this means it's finishing up today and I can put Outside Clothes on again (not that I've minded lazing about on the couch in comfy sweat pants...). Yesterday was one of the first great days of flying and even though I couldn't be in the air I made a deposit in my karma account and picked up some pilots who landed near my house & drove them back to their cars. That seems like a nice way to start of the flying year, doesn't it?

Pets

I never had a pet growing up. My dad said he was allergic to cats but really he just hated them. And the feeling was mutual...cats would seriously hiss when he walked in the room. But I wasn't a huge animal lover anyway and was probably the only little girl who didn't want a pony (although a flying unicorn would have been most welcome.)

As an adult the closest I've come to a living organism under my care has been some hardy plants that refuse to die, even when I go away for a month at a time & neglect them (may I recommend ferns & rubber trees for those looking for some independent greenery?). So I've surprised myself by a fierce attachment to Bob, the landing zone cat.

Bob showed up one day at the paragliding school owned by my friends Jim & Colleen. Jim is about as much as a cat person as my dad was (one of Jim's favourite sayings was "the only good cat is a stuffed cat"), so noone knew where this super-friendly calico came from. Soon one of the pilots named her Bob (before finding out Bob was a she, of course) and soon Colleen & even Jim appreciated her ability to take care of the mice hanging out in the barn (aka paragliding school room).

Flash forward a year later. Bob has become every pilot's pet, more dog than cat as she comes running out to the field to meet you when you land and jumps on your lap for some love if you happen to sit down. So when yesterday looked flyable we decided to land at "Bob's" & check how she was dealing with the snow, figuring she was mooching off some other family who would let her inside.

As I was on final approach to land I saw some tiny paw prints in the snow, and as I touched down there was Bob sitting in a grassy patch in the field, meowing away demanding to know where I've been. It's embarrassing how happy that made me. She walked over to visit as I packed up, talking away the whole time. Part of me wanted to kidnap her & bring her home, but Bob belongs to everyone and as a person who travels so much I've arranged my life to be easy to get away from on a moment's notice. Sometimes I wonder about things I miss with this type of life - pets, children, a garden without weeds & slugs- but in the end being able to pull off a Great Escape at the last minute appeals to me over everything else and I'm so lucky to have a boyfriend who feels the same.

I'm also lucky to have a part-time pet in Bob and am happy to share her. A cat that awesome should be available to everyone.



Pawprints in the snow....aw!