Paragliding

[Bizier]

Good on you Jon! I have an old mate who is right into hanggliding, and his eyes always totally light up if it is mentioned. I have always been meaning to do something of the sort as a back of the mind idea, but you bring it to the fore, which is way cool.

 

[Phoney]

I did it over Lake Atitlan, Guatemala a couple of years ago. Bloody awesome fun and amazing scenery to boot!

I think if I was going to take it up though, i'd go one step further and get into para-motoring. It's about 100 times safer than paragliding as you dont need to take off from a hill or rely on thermals etc. Much more versatile. Once you get your paragliding license it's another 5 hours to step up to para-motor.

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

I kinda like the silence and 'naturalness' of free fight - and I'm not convinced paramotoring is all that safer - saw someone fall and desroy their prop a few weeks ago....

But i totally agree that it'd be nice to be able to fly from flat ground, and be more independant of wether...

Atitlan looks amazing....

 

[white.grant]

Finished my course yesterday, so I'm officially a novice pilot now. The course was great plus there was a great bunch of people doing it! I had a great time.

I understand what you mean now about ground handling, it was hard work. Though being able to launch confidently makes it worth it. Between that and the Basher rides up from the west bomb out, its fair to say I have a bruise or two!

cheers

grant

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

Finished my course yesterday, so I'm officially a novice pilot now. The course was great plus there was a great bunch of people doing it! I had a great time.

I understand what you mean now about ground handling, it was hard work. Though being able to launch confidently makes it worth it. Between that and the Basher rides up from the west bomb out, its fair to say I have a bruise or two!

cheers

grant

Awesome grant! get any good flights in? I'm in bright now, and plan on going for a quick sleddie tomorrow. No real good flyng until spring here. You get some gear from Godfrey?

 

[Moray]

I mostly fly coastal sites. The main sites down here are flinders, cairns bay, portsea back beach. On the west coast there's bells beach, red rock, fairhaven, Apollo bay.

Check out the site guide on the vhpa site.
http://www.vhpa.org.au/

Nothing better on a nice sunny afternoon, flying above the beach.
It makes it easy to sell to the family, they get to play on the beach While dad flies above them.

 

[white.grant]

Awesome grant! get any good flights in? I'm in bright now, and plan on going for a quick sleddie tomorrow. No real good flyng until spring here. You get some gear from Godfrey?

Got a few longer flights while i was there. The longest was a great 2 hour soaring flight off the west launch. Really loved it. Apart from a pair of Hanwag boots I haven't got any gear just yet, I plan to save up a bit and go back in spring to get a wing and harness and fly it a bit before joining in the fun at Stanwell and hill 60 down here.

Cheers

Grant

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

Got a few longer flights while i was there. The longest was a great 2 hour soaring flight off the west launch. Really loved it. Apart from a pair of Hanwag boots I haven't got any gear just yet, I plan to save up a bit and go back in spring to get a wing and harness and fly it a bit before joining in the fun at Stanwell and hill 60 down here.

Cheers

Grant

Get aqquainted with the charismatic Mr Hollywood?

 

[white.grant]

Get aqquainted with the charismatic Mr Hollywood?

He instructed some of the course. Quite and experience!

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

spent three hours parawaiting today on Mystic. fingers crossed for a northerly tomorrow....

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

nice sleddie yesterday - 10 minutes or so scratching around for some lift. Got aqquainted with the LZ and was privvy to some amazing views over the mountains. bring on sprng already!

 

[komodo]

... and Bright (I'm actually moving to Bright for good later this month). See you at cloudbase!

I am massively jealous.
I've wanted to move up that region for years. Somewhere like Whitfield, Buffalo river, King Valley, Bright, Myrtleford etc. A 100ish acre play ground would be nice.
As TB said theres some great food and wine up that way (and beer & hops also!)

Ahh the down side of working in a family business... One day, one day...

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

yep - pretty much living the dream, and thanking my lucky stars!

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

Flew my first proper long XC yesterday - 51kms from Bright to Mt Feathertop and back in 3 hours and 15 minutes - truly epic, especially for a beginner like me. Wish I had my camera with me, but at least I got the GPS tracklog: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/510746

Grant - when you coming down for a visit/fly?

 

[thelastspud]

How does that work? How do you fly in a circle ? Do the winds push you in different ways at different heights? Or do you lose altitude to go against the wind?

 

[white.grant]

Flew my first proper long XC yesterday - 51kms from Bright to Mt Feathertop and back in 3 hours and 15 minutes - truly epic, especially for a beginner like me. Wish I had my camera with me, but at least I got the GPS tracklog: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/510746

Grant - when you coming down for a visit/fly?

Nice one Jon, looks like you had a great flight! The track says it all - you found a nice thermal right after you launched and you cracked 50kph at one point, that must have been awesome! Very envious.

I'm still saving for my wing (slowly, but surely) so could be a little while yet before I'm down for a visit.

cheers

grant

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

How does that work? How do you fly in a circle ? Do the winds push you in different ways at different heights? Or do you lose altitude to go against the wind?

a paraglider is basically a big soft wing which flies at a fairly constant airspeed - usually somewhere artound 35-45km/h. You can steer it in any direction, and gain altitude by circling in rising columns of hot air (thermals). Cross country flights are usually made by flying from thermal to thermal - you can cover a great distance like this (the aussie record is something like 340Km).

As long as the prevailing wind is less than the maximum speed of your wing, you can fly directly into the wind and make headway relative to the ground. Sunday, when I did my big flight to feathertop, the wind was very light (around 2-10 knots) - when I flew with it at my back I'd cover more distance for every meter altitude lost, when I flew into it I'd fly slower relative to the ground.

basically it's a ******* awesome sport that everyone should try. There's an interesting phenominon relating to brewers as well, called Pub Suck - when you fly over a good pub your seem to be mysteriously sucked towards it and compelled to land ang have a beer.

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

I'm still saving for my wing (slowly, but surely) so could be a little while yet before I'm down for a visit.

Selling mine in the next few months - its a large Alpha 4 which has between 30-40 hours (need to check my logbook). Upgrading to a 1-2.

 

[thelastspud]

How do you know that you're going to find another thermal are they really common?

 

[white.grant]

Selling mine in the next few months - its a large Alpha 4 which has between 30-40 hours (need to check my logbook). Upgrading to a 1-2.

A large is a bit too big for me, unfortunately.

How do you know that you're going to find another thermal are they really common?

That's the art of the cross country pilot. You can't see a thermal, but you can see signs of them - fluffy clouds with a pointy top typically form above them. Some days there are more thermals available than on others depending on the conditions, so you can fly further and higher.