Halloween Flying

Every October there is a paragliding "fly-in" where pilots gather for a weekend of flying and socializing. There is a costume party on Saturday night, and depending on what they're wearing, some pilots even wear their costumes while paragliding. It's cold this time of year, and some of the costumes are rather...skimpy...so not too many end up in the air with their creations.

A group of us go every year and dress in a theme, this year was "Road Kill". I was a dead frog. My costume was covered in blood, guts and tire tracks so I didn't wear it flying, but the next day I put on my frog head (complete with brain squishing out if you look closely) and had a little flight.

It always seems to be more about seeing your friends again than the actual flying, which is just fine by me. Friends are what makes life so amazing, and the more excuses to hang out with them the better!

Winter Getaway

It's been an amazing summer.

120+ tandems in 3 months, making fantastic new friends and a big move have all made this a summer to remember. It's time to look ahead to the future and right now, that means deciding where and how to travel this winter. My non-flying friends (I do have a few!) are starting to talk about getting away to Vegas, and the paraglider pilots are beginning to book their flights to Valle de Bravo, Mexico which collects pilots from around the world from November through January.

As someone who loves travel, my biggest dilemma is having to choose if I should go back to somewhere I've been and know I love (Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil?) or somewhere new (Columbia, Chile, Hawaii?). Or do I face reality and put my nose to the grindstone, find a full-time job near home and work straight through til the spring? My hope was to go south and fly tandems through the winter, but generally the money you make when living that kind of life is enough to get by while traveling, but not enough keep paying rent back home.

Debt vs Sanity...which will win this year???


Mexico?


Ecuador?


Get a "real" job?

Fame

If you were reading this blog when I was competing at the Rat Race you may remember the post about the TV crew that was around filming us. Well here's the finished product!:



It's cool to see a video that explains a paragliding competition so accurately. Well mostly. There are not many of us who look or act like the long-haired guy they interview but they got most of the other stuff right. I'm beyond excited to have gotten my first time into goal on video...and LOVE the fact that they refer to me as a "young pilot". And they say Hollywood is cruel...ha ha.

Rain days

Since I only usually post about stuff that happens on sunny days, I thought I'd switch it up and show you how I spend some rainy ones.

Today started rainy, then it was sunny for 2 hours, then it rained again. So I actually took 2 tandems in the break but my wing still got wet from folding it in the damp grass. Gliders are like tents, you can't pack them up wet. So I'm drying my paraglider at home right now and decided, well, what better way to dry it out than to build a fort?



There was rain forecast a couple of days ago but the morning started off dry, so I decided to go for a hike up a small, nearby mountain. This hike had the craziest switchbacks I'd ever seen, with steep inclines, steep declines, and lots of stairs.


Stairs


And more stairs


Who needs a bike? "Single track" for people


Rain started when I got back to the trailhead

The other thing I'm doing which I'm not going to show you because it's far too messy is unpacking. I recently moved into my own place as my boyfriend and I have split up. This happened a couple of months ago and things are still good between us which is great, because he's a paraglider pilot too and this is such a small community. So with the end of the relationship as well as the approaching end of tandem season there are a lot of changes going on in my little world. Thanks to all of you for sticking with me through this journey so far...who knows where I'll end up next!

Weekend Getaway

It's been like the movie "Groundhog Day" over here - wake up...go to the landing zone...fly tandems....eat dinner...go to sleep. I'm not complaining at all, getting paid to do something you love anyway is one of the best things you can hope for. Therefore, I'm living the Good Life.

But every once in a while you need a little change. So over the long weekend a group of us went on a little paragliding road trip to a beautiful spot that overlooks the water and has a launch 2000 meters over it. The plan, for those who don't know what SIV is, is to fly over the water and then try to collapse your wing in many different ways, and do tricks, and above all have fun! You wear a life vest in case one of those collapses doesn't fix properly and you have to throw your back-up parachute. We have an instructor in a boat guiding you through all sorts of scenarios and ready to rescue anyone who goes swimming.

I was really excited to go this year to help my friend perform a d-bag launch. The d-bag (deployment bag) hangs off my tandem with the passenger's paraglider all packed up inside it, then with a tug on the quick release buckles...well...why don't you watch my video instead.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDpM9bzuuqw


Hope you all have a great weekend!
xx Martina

Flying Fit

In my past life (i.e. before getting my tandem certification) I was a personal fitness trainer. It seemed like a good job choice since I could work for myself and schedule my work hours around paragliding. However flying took over & I rarely train clients at the gym anymore. This means I rarely train myself anymore, unless of course it's raining.

My perspective on what "fitness" means has changed too, as I continue to feed my flying addiction. There is the literal flying fitness level - being able to do the little things effortlessly like carry your glider to launch or back to your car and running off launch without pulling a muscle (hey - I've seen it happen!). Personally I'm failing at this right now...my back started protesting Thursday morning from abusing it too much. Like getting dehydrated (my chiropractor said this also depletes the fluid in your spinal column which leaves you prone to back injuries...makes sense), and then throwing my tandem gear around without using the proper "bend your knees and lift" technique. I also went on a hike and fly with some friends...they hiked all the way up and I joined them until the halfway point since I volunteered to be the driver this time. It's sad to think that fun little hike could be the reason my back went out, but a good reminder to take care of yourself every day so you can prevent stuff like this happening.

The other side of being "flying fit" involves more of what I've mentioned as personal goals in the past...having a high physical & mental level of 'fitness' to be focused and stay in the air for a longer time. I think this side has really taken a back seat with all the tandems I've been flying this summer, but that's ok. It just means I'm going to have to "train harder" next time I go for a solo flight and want to fly XC again.

On a personal note, I'm moving at the end of this month to a new place. It's a little farther from my local flying site, but up on a small hill of it's own so I'll be able to practice the "fit" part of my goal and go for little hikes around my new neighbourhood. With a constant training schedule during the fall I should be able to go hiking soon without always being at the back of the line!




Halfway up the hike with my friends who flew off while I drove the car back around to the landing zone (on the other side of this mountain). Launch is still at the top of this peak (the trail zig zags up the face).

Tandem-itis

People warned me about this. When I started flying tandems, pilots started telling stories about "someone" they knew who ended up never flying solo any more, or getting sick of flying, or...or....or a bunch of other worst-case scenarios because they were jealous that I was going to get paid to go play in the sky (at least that's my theory, ha ha).

My case of tandem-itis isn't too bad and is easily curable. It has to do with switching gears...let me explain for the non-pilots.

Paragliding wings are rated from beginner (big, fat stable wings that rarely collapse and practically fly themselves) to competition (skinny twitchy wings that have great performance but need constant attention in the air). Wings are now rated from A (beginner) through D (performance). Most tandem gliders, including mine, are rated "B", which means it's pretty stable but has good performance. My solo wing is a "C", which although is only one level higher is a noticeable difference. Also, the heavier you are on your wing the less it moves around, so on a tandem you tend to cut through most of the bumps in the air.

What this all means is that I'm so used to flying around on my stable tandem wing, heavily loaded and really only spending 10-30 minutes in the air, that yesterday when I went flying in slightly turbulent conditions on my lightly loaded intermediate wing...I got spooked. Not a lot, but more than I needed to be. Every little twitch & rustle concerned me and I couldn't figure out why. With over 100 flights this year you'd think I could just cruise through any conditions the weather gods threw at me, yet here I was whimpering at the smallest bumps.

After an hour of airtime I landed and contemplated on what just happened. My conclusion is that since I try to adapt to change fairly quickly I also tend to move on or 'forget' my actions in the past. For instance, after a day or 2 at the competition in Oregon, I got into cross-country flying mode & was staying up in rougher conditions than I would normally. When I came back & started flying tandems, I switched it off & went back into boating around looking for smooth air to keep my passengers from puking. But when trying to fly back in thermic conditions yesterday I was stuck in a tandem headspace and had lost that confidence so recently gained from flying in rougher air.

Knowledge is the first step I suppose. My goal is to be a well-rounded pilot, which means being able to glide effortlessly between tandems, solo, acro, cross-country...whatever the case may be. My transitions definitely need work, but at least now I know what I need to focus on. Today looks like a good opportunity - my friend may have a tandem for me and then after I can free-fly and as the wind is forecast to pick up later there may be a chance to practice some acro. Nothing like trying to fix everything at once!