SIBUK's Diary

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I have been considering starting a diary for a while now but after today I had a particularly exciting day and so this will be a good start I think :slight_smile:

I have been learning to paraglide and yesterday I completed my final tasks and I am now officially a qualified Club Pilot. In order to qualify I had to pass 2 exams in theory of flight, air law, meteorology and airmanship. But, more importantly, I had to learn and perform many different tasks in my glider to a level where my instructor felt I was capable of flying unsupervised. Well, yesterday morning I performed my final task (asymetric tuck recovery) under the watchful eye of my instructor and then he sat me down and signed me off to say that I had passed. Excited I was :smiley: btw, an asymetric tuck is where half of the wing is blown underneath the other half and the recovery is that u gotta maintain directional control of the glider and then flick the tuck out. A video is here. I had to deliberatly flick the tip of my wing underneath to cause the tuck then free it up. It is actually easier than it sounds and looks fortunatly :slight_smile:

Well, a couple hours later the day got cancelled because it got hella windy. But I didnt mind, I had passed. Later in the evening I returned to the site to have my first flight outside of school, but there was noone else there and it was still very windy. I remembered a saying I was taught; “Its better to be down here and wishing you are up there, then to be up there wishing you were down here”. But I had driven all that way and it was a nice evening so I sat on the side of the hill for a couple of hours and watched the sun go down. But I didnt really enjoy it. Many sad thoughts were going through my head and as the sun dissapeared behind the horizon and the wind died down, felt quite depressed. A bad end to what was supposed to be a exciting day I thought.

As I set off walking back down the hill I could see part of a glider in a nearby field ahead. He was quite near to where my car was parked and as I got closer I could see a guy stood by my car looking a bit helpless. I walked over to him and when he saw me he came over and told me his story. He had been out hang gliding with 2 of his friends when the wind had suddenly died. He had not been able to keep his altitude and was forced down into the field, narrowly missing some power lines. He had then disassembled his glider and walked back up the hill to get his car and then driven down to the field to collect the glider, but he had accidentally driven one of his front wheels into a ditch and was hopelessly stuck. He was more concerned about one of his friends though as he hadnt heard anything from him on the radio for some time. Well, I didnt know where his friend was but I did have a nice tow rope in my car and I soon had him free from that ditch. He was very thankful. It was really starting to get dark now and if I hadnt been there he would have had a very long walk in pitch blackness. I set off home with the stench of lightly burnt clutch lingering in my nostrils, and feeling somewhat happier after helping that poor guy out. As I drove down the motorway I spared a thought for his friend. I hope he was ok.

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Day 1

Today I woke up slightly later than I normaly would on a flying day. Hey, I do not need to be at flying school at 10:30am sharp any more, I can go fly whenever I want! :smiley: I crawled out of bed and switched on my pc. As I did, I started to feel the first feelings of anxiousness at what I was about to do. As it was booting up, I peeked through my curtains and was greeted by a beautiful blue sky, with fluffy white cumulous clouds dotted around. Ohhh today is going to be a good day I thought. I ran downstairs and grabbed my breakfast; 3 egg whites, a banana, and a tablespoon of udo’s choice oil. My diet sux so much, but it works. I went back upstairs and joined the chat room and trout slapped a few random people, nothing new there =) I munched my breakfast as I checked out the weather forcast on various sites. The wind was still looking strong :confused: it made me a little concerned but I didnt worry too much. Today was going to be good, I had a feeling.

I arrived at the site at about 11:30 am and was shocked by the number of cars that were there. The place was packed!!! I knew that 90% of them would be fellow pilots because pretty much the only reason to go there is to fly. I reckognised a few cars. Mathew was there, he has qualified yesterday morning as I did. I put on my boots, and with my glider slung over my back I set off on the walk to the top of the hill. Half way up I saw a group of people at the bottom of the hill. I was my flying school! I decided I would go say hello and see if there was anyone there that I knew. There were several new faces but Robin and John were there. I spoke to Tony, one of the instructors, and asked him if he would mind if I lurked around for the day and he agreeded that it was a good idea. Two minutes later Mathew turned up with the same idea :smiley: we both grabbed a radio and set off back up the hill together, discussing where we were going to fly from first. We decided on the first ridge up the hill.

It was quite windy and it was gusty. A bad thing! At the top of the hill there was about 10 pilots all sat around waiting for the wind to die down. Well, if the experienced guys arnt flying yet then we sure as hell wernt going to risk it. We sat on the ridge but then to our surprise Tony sent up several of the beginners and told them it was ok to fly. Fair enough, I thought. I did a radio test and discovered that I had been given the biggest POS crappy radio out of the lot. The damn thing would not transmit or receive more than 5 meters and I didnt have a clue what anyone was saying. Nothing but static. I heard Mathew radio in to launch and he was given the go ahead. I watched as he did a near perfect launch and sailed eastward along the ridge towards the gulley. I radioed in to go next. No reply. I heard static as the guy next to me radioed in to launch, and was given the go ahead. Great. My radio really was totally fubar. I considered just launching at a free moment but quickly dismissed the idea as it was too busy. I watched as each person tryed to launch. It was very windy and many of the launches went wrong and had to be aborted. Then mathew went for his 2nd flight of the day. I stood there feeling like a complete dick, but watched Mathew with awe. He was gaining some real height and he seemed very natural at the ridge soaring. I shouted to Tony to get his attention and he came over. I told him about the radio and he admitted that the aerial was faulty but that there wasnt another radio that I could have, so while he was there I asked him about launching and he gave me the all clear. Feeling a bit nervous I glanced around to check that there were no other gliders near and I pulled at my front risers. My wing shot up in to the air, but at that moment there was a big gust of wind. It pulled me forward with force and I almost lost my balance. I decided to abort and collapsed my wing to the ground. Normally this is no big deal but after the radio thing and having stood around waiting I felt a bit miffed :confused: The next person took my slot. Bahhh I thought. I would have to wait again, but then as the time came, the direction of the wing had changed by about 45 degrees and my launch point was now no good =( 2 hours had gone by and I still hadnt flown. I felt quite glum now, but I gathered up my wing and started walking to a different ridge (one where I could launch directly into the wind).

As I set up ready to launch again, Tony shouted over to me that he was going to his lunch and that I could fly at my own will. About time :silly2: The rest of the school followed him and I was suddenly left with the whole ridge all to myself. I ditched the POS radio since I didnt need it now anyway and I set myself up for launch. I glanced around to check it was safe and pulled hard on my front risers. The canopy shot up and above me and I quickly turned to face where I was going and ran off the edge of the ridge. A reassuring gust of wind caught me as I left the ridge and immediatly took me up about 5 meters higher than my launch point. I wriggled back in to my harness to get comfy, feeling confident of a long flight, then I took a right and began to soar along the ridge. To my dissapointment though I began to lose height. I had to turn left and fly out away from the ridge but was still hopeful of finding some lift. It didnt arrive, (actually, I sucked and I didnt fly in the right place) and a minute later I was at the bottom of the hill :frowning: I looked back up the hill and Mathew was still soaring high. Damn him :stuck_out_tongue:

I had a couple more trys and then my friend Ste turned up with his camcorder. He has never seen paragliding before and he was totally amazed. I remember when I first saw it close up and I was like WOW!!! it is very awesome to see people just floating around in the sky. Well I told him about my shitty day so far and he said some reassuring words before I went for another launch. I did a reasonably good launch and then I did my best flight yet =) I soared up quite high and managed to have a 15 minute flight before I got a bit too adventurous and drifted into some sink and was forced to land before I wanted to. But its all good experience. I wont hit that sink again now I know its there =P There is a video here of first part of the flight it takes a while to load though, 22 meg.

Well things just got better after that. Ste went home and I had my best flight ever. I was congratulated off a few of the other pilots on the hill which gave me quite a warm feeling =) But then on my last flight I had a big big scare! I flew up this gulley (you can see it in the background on the video) and I hit some rotor. This is like one of the worst things that can happen. Its hard to explain in words but the wind hits an obstacle and is force up and over it, as it goes over the air all churns up, like the wake of a ship. Well, I got caught in the wake of a bigass hill and it almost collapsed my canopy. I dropped sharpy down into the gulley and I made a swift left turn to get myself out of it. And holy shit, I hope I never go down into that gulley again. I was getting thrown about like on a rollercoaster and I was swinging about under the canopy almost uncontrollably. I kept over-compensating and it was making me swing more and more and I feared I would go up over my wing. I would go down and think I was about to land and then the wind would throw me up into the air again. It was violent. The wind gets channeled along the gulley like a funnel and it get extremely strong and turbulent. At the bottom of the gulley is a stream and lots of rocks and I can honestly say that I was royally shiting myself. But I got control of it and I did learn a LOT from that. Now I know what to do if it happens again. I also know what not to do. These things you cant really get taught in a lesson. You just gotta learn from experience. In the end I did an almost perfect landing right at the bottom next to the stream and began my climb back up the hill.

When I got to the top the school students were making their final flights down the the bottom. I gave the shitty POS radio back to the instructor and told him that I was going to stay behind and fly some more (there was still many other pilots around) but he said that I cannot because I dont have insurance and therfor I am on his insurance. He didnt want me flying around on his insurance when he wasnt there. Understandable. Well I packed up and came home and I took out insurance for a website that was reccomended to me http://www.sportscoverdirect.com/sportsguard/info/benefits.html so now I am insured for £2 million personal liability :smiley: and I am insured to fly abroad which I am very much hoping to do at the end of september. Exciting times are ahead! =)

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Day 2

I justgot back from anotehr days paragliding and wow what a day. I turned up and there was a guy leaving but the place looked empty. This is bad news I though, but I went over to speak to him. He said he had flown but he didnt enjoy it because it was too bumpy so he was leaving for the day. He pointed out another guy who was sat on the hill waiting to see if the wind settled down so I decided to go over and say hello. He was a friendly chap and he told me that he was moving out of the country to go live in Turkey next week. He says since he started doing paragliding 2 years ago it has changed his life completely. I can belive it to. He is going to live in Turkey because it is apparently one of the best places in the world to go fly. This is how much it has changed his life. I can imagine that when I move house myself I will go somewhere where there is good flying.

I asked him if he was going to fly yet and he said “Well, with me leaving my house and moving to Turkey next week, I dunno if I should fly or not between now and then in case I get injured. It would be a disaster if anything happened now”. I thought it was a bit of a odd thing to say but I nodded in agreement and asked him what he thought of the flying conditions. He said that normally he would be flying now so I decided to go give it a try. I set off walking up the hill and decided to take off from the 2nd ridge down from the top. The ridge was facing into the wind perfectly. I did a perfect launch and immediatly gained some height. I was in the air for about 10 minutes before I made a wrong move and lost my lift. I landed and carried my glider back up to the top again for a second try. Well this time, all I can say is WOW!!! what a flight. I was airborne for almost 2 hours and I flew up so high I could see right over the hilltops and there was lakes and forests in the distance that couldnt be seen from the ground. I have a badly broken heart at the moment and I am sad all day long every day, but when I am flying all my troubles really do drift away. I hope my heart will heal soon, but I think it will be many more months before I feel happy again. Another thing that amazed me though was the birds! There were flying under me! I realised I had never seen the top of a bird while they were flying before. It sounds weird but it was very noticable. There were a few kestrels around and they were hovering beneath me. They didnt seem to be scared of me while I was above them and I was within meters of them. Maybe because they were too busy watching mice on the ground to notice me. I wish i’d had a camera with me. Next time I might take one.

The guy who I spoke to saw me flying about and I watching him begin to unpack his canopy. A few mins later he joined me in the air but he didnt hang around long. As soon as he gained height he flew off to the next hill. I was very tempted to follow him but I decided not to. I am still a noob and I got much to learn before I start doing shit like that. Well, I think that next time I might give it a try, but first I will speak to someone about it and get advice. I was flying for so long though, drifting along the ridges of the hill and learning where the lift was. What an experience. After I had been in the air for about an hour, a few more pilots turned up and launched. For a while I was sharing airspace with them, which used to be my biggest worry, but really it was so easy! My worry has gone now. Then, a few minutes later they all flew off to the other hill. This time I almost followed them, but I bottled it :smiley: I watched what they did though and they gave me an idea of what flight plan to take if I ever do fly over there. The problem is, as soon as you leave your hillside to fly to another, you start to lose height so you gotta get over to the next hill before you lose too much height and have to land.

After I had been flying for about 2 hours I was getting quite cold and hungry so I decided to land. This was the first time I landed because I actually wanted to. I managed to land right next to my sandwiches, which I had left in a bag on the hillside :silly2: My heartache returned and I decided to call it a day and packed away my glider. As I did, the wind died down to almost nothing and I watched as the other gliders on the other hill slowly dropped out of the sky. Good timing I thought. On the way down the hillside, several other people were arriving. I dont think they would have had much luck.

Oh how I wish there was a cure for a broken heart.

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Busy times

Ahh I have been so busy since last posting a journal. This has been my only chance. Ih appart from I did write a shitload on here on wednesday but then like a fool I didnt click Submit Reply and then I forgot and then closed all my browser windows and it got lost :confused: But, to sum those days up:

Tuesday sucked. There was hardly any wind and I just couldnt keep any altitude and kept going down.

Wednesday was so windy that we were just sat there on the hill talking for hours. I am getting to know many many new people and a lot of them are a little crazy imho :S but I like crazyness; in moderation :smiley:

Then on thursday OMG what a day. My friend Mark came along with me again. He liked it so much last time that he came along again just to watch. Well I left him sat happily on the hillside and went for a fly around, and I am really starting to get the hang of the ridge soaring now! I was way up there. Then as I watched, this guy landed right next to Mark and they spoke for a moment, then he took off again, and I heard him shout “How much do you weigh?”, he had invited Mark to go for a tandem flight =) I laughed because he is terrified of heights but I went down to talk to him about it and reassure him. Then I flew around some more as we waited for this guy to return with his tandem glider. When he returned I was watching them both from above unpack the glider and I took some photos:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simonbailey.uk/11_08_05/

They are some damn good photos even if I do say so myself =D That is my friend Mark at the front. Well he certainly got more than he bargained for that day, including 2 bad landings!!! After they launched for the first time they were trying to get soem lift off the same ridge that I had just been using but they were slowly losing height and then suddenly they hit the floor quite unexpectedly. I ran over to see if they were ok, and I saw them moving around so they wernt dead which in my view means they are ok. So I launched and went for another fly while they sorted themselves out and I watcehd them carry the glider right up to the very top of the hill. I personally dont like launched from right at the top because its can be extremely windy and there are rocks up there so if something goes wrong and you get dragged along the floor then rocks hurt much more than grass and bushes. I watched them launch from the top and they soon gained height then they flew out way over the gulley and over the the main hill.

Now, so far I have stuck to the training hill, but I have been tempted to fly over to the main hill many times. I think I did mention in a earlier post about my temptation to fly over to the main hill. What people do is this; they climb up to the top of the training hill because it is much easier to climb than the main hill, then they use the training hill to gain some altitude before flying out over the gulley and trying to land as high up as possible so they dont have to climb up so much. The pro’s sometimes manage to fly all the way around the side of the hill and then catch the lift, and they never even need to set foot on the hill. Well, yet again I didnt follow them but I watched very closely what they did and where they flew. Next time I am going to do it :slight_smile: this is 99% certain. I watched them fly over and head towards the, and whack, they landed quite hard and I saw mark and the pilot go sprawling. I couldnt help but laugh because this was Marks first experience of paragliding and the first 2 landing were bad. As it turns out he did hurt 3 of his knuckles quite badly. They are all swollen now, like raddishes. I think that I might call him raddish knuckles from now on :smiley: Ahhh I am getting off the point here. The point is that they went up hella high, almost to cloudbase and I was stuck there flying around the training slope thinking damn, I want to be up there!!! Well next time I will be. Oh another thing I was jelous of, when they came down the lift was so strong the pilot had to use a rapid decent tecnique to make the glider lose altitude. There is many ways of doing this, but the one he chose to do was a Spiral Dive. I found a video here:

http://www.bigairparagliding.com/jdaoust/PG/Video/1995_US_FlyHard_Spiral.avi

To give you an idea of what it feels like to do a spiral dive, I rollercoaster is like a walk in the park. The g-force you experience is much much greater than a rollercoaster and it is possible to black out as the blood rushes from your head to your legs. I have heard people describe it and they say that it is as if the whole planet is spinning around and coming hurtling towards you. And there is my friend on his first experience of paragliding being taken almost to cloudbase and then being taken for a spiral dive down to earth!!! Well I was a bit jelous :stuck_out_tongue: but soon I will be doing that shit myself. One step at a time though. Mark loved it btw. He keeps talking about it. I would like to learn to give tandem flights in the future, but I will have to wait until I can afford to buy a tandem glider. Hang gliding first!! =D

Friday, wtf did I do on Friday??? I dont even remember! Oh I was at James’s house playing on some crazy beat-em-up game on his ps2 and we got a curry in =P hmmm that was in the evening though. Well I dont remember what I did on friday but maybe that is because of what I did on Saturday! We all went out around town and I drank for the first time in about 14 weeks. Oh man, I got so drunk. Me and Vickey were up on the stage dancing for about a hour and then I stumbled off the edge (landed on my feet fortunatly!) and I got back up and started dancing with Vick again xD she rox! Vickey is a good friend of mine. We got back home at about 6:30 am and I have the weirdest feeling of being in the back of a taxi and seeing the time and thinking WTF?? ITS 6PM??? WHERE THE F@&* HAVE I BEEN??? and then after I woke up later I was so ill it was untrue. I spent most of the day in bed and hardly ate anything. I did not go to the gym as you can imagine. Well I dont feel like drinking again any time soon after that. Ohhh I have just remembered a big chuck of the night that I forgot, black sambucas!! (I think thats how you spell it) I suddenly got this shot of some black liquid thrust into my hand by Rick, then he proceeds to get a empty pint glass and anotehr empty shot glass and then he gets a lighter and he sets this black liquid on fire and starts to pour it into the 2nd shot glass, the he deliberatly spills the last part onto the bar and a puddle of blue fire begins to spread out. By this time there is a small audience gathering thinking WTF?? like I was doing, but then he gets the empty pint glass and turns it upside down on the pool of burning liquid and starts moving it around in a circular motion on the table, and I can see all these white fumes building up inside the glass, then he blows out the fire, necks the shot, grabs a straw and breathes in all the fumes from under the pint glass with it, and everyone kind of says Ohhhh I see!

Ahhh out of time. g2g :stuck_out_tongue:

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I just got back from James house and I cannot belive what I heard. Apparently on Saturday night before we set off from town, Ste had got into a fight in the toilets over and ex girlfriend and, unknown to him at the time, had suffered a fractured jawbone. I remember him arguing with Vickey while we were in the taxi but I didnt know about what had happened. When we got back to James house I apparently went upstairs and immediatly fell asleep on his bed and so I missed all of what happened next. Ste and Vickey were arguing about what had happened and then Vickey decided she had to get away from Ste but had no way to get home. She had driven us all to James house earlier and her car was outside but she was drunk. Well, my brother Jonny, Mark and James all chipped in some money and ordered her a taxi and then she proceeded to take their money, walked outside and then got into her car lol. Ste followed her outside and ran out in front of her car and stood there blocking her way so she couldnt drive off, so she ran over him and drove off down the road with Ste spread over the bonnet clinging to the windscreen wipers. My brother said they were all ROFL and then 2 mins later she comes driving back down the road and pulls up where she set off with Ste still on the bonnet. And all this I missed!!! Well since then Ste got admitted to hospital and needs to have an operation on his jaw, and he and Vickey have made up and are back together. Well they never split up actually :smiley: I guess tommorow I will go visit him and give him a big slap with a trout.

Also, in the news here today:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15857654&method=full&siteid=89488&headline=i-was-left-with-mush-for-bones--name_page.html
Some food for thought.

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What a day!!!

I looked out of the window today to see nice blue sky with big fluffy cumulous clouds dotted around and a light breeze. I could tell it was going to be a perfect flying day. A quick check on the internet confirmed that the wind was north-westerly so I decided to drive to pendle hill. Today was the day I was going to venture off the training hill over to the main hill. But first I went to gym. I have changed my routine a bit recently and now I do the rowing machine on my cardio days and omg its a killer. 45 mins and 10400 meters later I was sweating like a paedophile in a mothercare store and I floated out of the gym feeling quite high and slightly nauseated, having difficulty walking in a straight line. Time to fly!!! I got home and made some tuna sandwiches, filled up my water bottle and threw all my gear in the back of the car. Off I went to pendle, and as soon as I got there I could tell it was going to be a awesome day, as I drove up towards the carpark I saw many paragliders in the sky and when I got to the car park it was just packed full of cars so I parked off the road on the grass.

I started off walking and the first thing I noticed was this black thing spining around in the sky at an incredible speed. WTF is that??? I was thinking. I swear it looked like the flying batmobile. As I got closer I could see that it was some fancy kite. It wasnt like a normal kite, it have quite a rigid frame and it wasnt flat, it did look very similar the the flying batman plane but it you looked at it from the edge the frame was in a W shape and omg it moved so fast!!! there was 2 guys and a woman there one of them was obvious very experience at flying it cause he flinging it around at incredible speeds doing loop the loops but then he was trying to teach the girl how to fly it but it just moved so fast she would launch it and then steer it in one direction and it would just go ziiippp and do 180 degree turn and hurtle back down into the ground. Each time it would slam into the ground at full speed I could see the third guy cringe and run over to it to make sure it wasnt broken so opbviously it was his kite lol. It was so so fast and strong though it didnt break. I saw the whole chassis flex as it impacted the ground and then it sprag back into shape. I would not like to get hit by it, I reckon it would do serious injury. I left them to it and headed upwards =D

When I got to the top I was concerned to find that there was no more paragliders in the sky and lots of people were sat around. It wasnt long before I realised why as the wind would suddenly blow a gale and then suddenly stop. Very blustery, so I just threw my gear on the floor and then walked off to find a nice spot to just chill out and sunbathe while eating some sandwiches. After about 45 mins 3 guys got up and I heard them say they were going to give up on this hill (the training hill) and fly accross to the main site. hmmm I thought. should I follow them? no, I will watch where they fly first then copy what they do, so I sat back and watched. There choice of flight was different to what I would have thought so I am glad I had watch. I was planning to fly accross and land on the west face, then walk up to the top, but what they did is to fly along the west face and around the side of the hill to the north face then try to get lift up to the top instead of walking. Well I watched them dissapear around the side oft he hill and then they didnt appear at the top a few mins later so I guess they failed.

I decieded to fly around the training slope as a warm-up. Well, what can I say. It was so crap to fly in blustery wind. One minute I was getting blown so hard that I was moving backwards (not a nice thing) and then they next minute the wind dies and I start dropping down. So crap. No fun at all and getting bounced around making no progress. I tryed 2 flights and then I looked up to the top of the main hill and I could see 5 gliders right up in the sky way high up. Of thats it.I decided to fly accoss. I told the guy I had been chatting to what my flight plan was (to do what the other 3 guys did basically =P ) and he said yeah sounds good to me so off I went. I launched and flew out over the gulley between the 2 hills, making sure to stay out of the rotor coming off the south face, I kept well west. I was feeling slightly anxious as I didnt know what was around the other side of the hill so I had no idea what-so-ever where I was going to land which is not a good thing ( imagine flying and not knowing where to land :S ) as I flew around the west face I started to get a glimse of what was around the other side; ferns and bracken! no big deal I guess but it was quite thick and tall and it would probably be a bitch to walk through while carrying a glider. I carried on flying and tryed to get more around the north side and into some lift but I was fast running out of height but I realised I was going to clear the bracken. As I came around to the north west I moved slightly closer to the hill to try and find some lift but the air was quite bumpy and I did a shit job of it things to so I decided to land and carry the glider up the hill. So I did. Man, I hate carrying my glider up hills. It pisses me off so much. I bunch it all up and sling it over my shoulder but the wind catches it and inflates it like a huge balloon and rips it out of my hands or just generally blows it off my shoulder, and then I have to gather it all up again. Seriously, u got no idea how much it pisses me off sometimes. It is by far the worst part of the sport. The hill climbs I love compared to having to carry the glider. As I climbed up the hill I realised I had no idea where the hell people launch from. The hill was just so big. I decided to just climb up the easiest way and then figure it out when I got to the top. As soon as I got near the top though I could see other people lurking around so I headed over to them a steaked myself out a place to launch from. As I looked around the floor I was quite concered to see random rocks all over the place. I do not want to ever ever get dragged on this hill! man, those rocks will f$@% me up baaaad if I lose my balance and get dragged alond the floor I thought. The wind was also very strong but it was constant. No stopping and starting. this is a very good thing.

I stood there and looked at the guy to the right of me. From here on I will call him guy A. He looked 1337 with all the top notch kit. He was also stood there with his glider half inflated on the floor ready to launch so I waited. And I waited. He just stood there. A 3rd guy turned up (I will call him guy B) and started to unpack his glider. Before he got in his harness he went over and started to chat to the guy who I was watching (and hoping to learn from) so I thought bahh and I unbuckled myself from the harness and walked over to the both of them. I introduced myself to them and told them I was a noob and this was my first time flying from this hill. Guy A just kind of looked at me not knowing what to say, then guy B said ohhh ok what do you want to know about the hill? This stumped me for a minute and I didnt know what to say. I stuttered out ‘errm, ermm, well anything really :S’ and felt like a complete noob. He then told me a few things about the current weather conditions and about how the wind was quite strong and how it was making him think twice about flying. This made me feel better because everything he told me I had figured out already so I guess I was doing ok :slight_smile: I tryed to start conversation with guy A, and it wasnt long before I realised that this guy was 2 cards short of a full deck. I serious think he hasnt had much contact with other humans during his lifetime. Guy B then realised he had lots more to say and omg once he got going he was tellling me everything and anything, he was even pointing out areas of land and telling me who owned them and which places to avoid landing in. I did NOT intend to land anywhere but back on the top of the hill though. There was no way in hell I was going to carry my glider back up this hill again if I ended up at the bottom. Bollocks to that. After about 15 mins I noticed that guy a was STILL stood there ready to launch but wasnt doing anything. Up in the sky there were many other people circling around so I knew it was good to fly. I thanked guy B for his help and told him I was going to attempt a launch. So I buckled myself up and built a nice wall (building a wall = inflating the glider along the floor in a nice wall shape ready to launch). Again I looked over at guy A, he was still stood there! I really wanted him to go first but I thought bahhhh and then I decided to launch. Now it was guy A and B watching me. I did my SHOWER check (Sail; Suspension lines; Straps, Harness; Helmet, Observations, Wind, Electronics, Radio) well I guess I did a SHOW check since I dont have any of the 1337 electronics gear yet. Then I pulled hard at my A riser and my glider shot up into the air, but before it got over my head it twisted and pulled me to one side and I had to abort. A failed launch. I gathered it up and carried it right back to the edge where I could get a stronger foothold. Guy A must have thought this was a good idea because he did the same, but still he stood there, and this time he was looking at me waiting for me to launch :confused: I built my launch and glanced around to make sure the coast was clear, and I launched. My sail went up but yet again I was pulled forward and slightly to one side andI had to abort the launch. I hurred back and tryed again. 3rd time I failed again. The wind was just so strong as soon as my glider came up off the floor and wind caught it the force was just too strong for me to handle. Well, 4th time I decided to wait for a slight drop in the wind. All eyes was still on me but I didnt care. Noone ever EVER laughs or makes fun when things go wrong, unless you really do something hilarious and unexpected. The wind dropped and I quickly pulled on my risers, up shot my canopy and it went right up over my head, I turned to face the wind (you launch backwards btw then turn to face where you are going) I was ready to run but maaannnn I did not need to! the wind came back strong and because of the aerofoil shape of the canopy the wind went over the wing and gave me so much lift that I did a vertical launch. I went straight up vertical. A harrier jumpjet could not have done better :smiley: I let right up on the brakes so as to go full speed. I was barly moving forwards but slowly I edged my way out over the ridge and then as soon as I hit the lift band the wind that was being pushed up and over the hill caught the underside of my canopy and I just went way up it was scandalous how fast I gained height. I looked back over my shoulder at the 2 guys on the ground and to my surprise guy A was packing up! he had chickened out. He was not so 1337 after all.

I banked right and went for an explore along the ridge. The view was incredible. I gained more and more height without even trying. I turned left and doubled back flying the other way along the ridge and staying in the lift band then when I got to the end, I was so high, and then I entered a thermal and it just started taking me up even higher. And this is where I experienced something that I had never felt before. When I came out of the thermal and I suddenly stopped gaining height I was weightless for a second and I got that that feeling like when you are kid and you drive over a hump in the road and as you come the hump your stomach goes all funny as you feel slightly weightless, and for the first time I realised how dangerous it would be to fall and I got that sinking feeling in my stomach. I suddenly realised the magnitude of the situation. I had not felt that feeling for many years. I reminded myself of the fact that I didnt have a reserve parachute and so if anything went wrong I was screwed. I felt exhilerated! I felt alive! Honestly, it made me realise I was alive and I felt quite fragile. I looked around in awe and amazement and I just started laughing! There I was hundereds of meters in the air and laughing my ass off in excitement. And the view I cannot imagine in words. I was higher than the highest hilltop. I could see right out over every hill in the country. To the west I could see so far that I could see the sun reflecting off the atlantic ocean. The tide was far out and I could see Southport beach. Blackpool tower I could see to the west also. To the North there was a huge quary and a motorway, also the town of Clitheroe. To the south west there was the welsh mountains, to the south there was a big reservoir and to the east there was rows of hills and valleys. I reckon if I could get up another 500 meters I would be able to see the north sea off the east coast, then I would be able to see from one side of England to the other. Time for some photos!!! I let go of the controls and grabbed my camera. The glider just flys itself in a straight line if you let go. I turned the camera on a took a few photos but then the damn battery went flat :mad: I had not charged it since last time. Bah. Well at least I got a few good photos. Here they are:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simonbailey.uk/20_08_05/

On the first pic u can see that batman kite! Near the middle and to the right a bit. It was ownage XD The other pics just speak for themselves. I wanted top get up to where that guy in the yellow glider was in pic 1004 but I didnt manage it =( I did fly right out and leave the hillside though. And then, I managed to turn back and regain my height. It was complete ownage. Best day yet and I guess it will only keep getting better. My main goal now is to reach the clouds. Well, this always was my goal but now it is one step closer. Well, it is the next step!!! yes yes yes! =D

Ohhh and there was more!!! I stayed up there for a long long time. No need to land it was just so easy to gain lift I could have stayed up there until the sun went down if I wanted. Oh and lol to my surprise while I was up there I heard someone should ‘Alright Simon!!!’ seemingly coming for just meters away from me and I was like WTF?? I looked round and it was Tony my flying instructor right beside me out for a fly around. I laughed and shouted back ‘Alright!!’. It feels quite strange to talk mouth to mouth with other pilots while up in the sky flying around.

Well after a few hours the sun was starting to go down and I was having difficulty getting high up. I was just kind of scratching round about 30 meters up above the hilltop and then 4 other pilots launched and the place was getting crowded so I decided to call it a day and I flew back over to the training slope. As I flew over there I could see 3 other people with their gliders ready to launch, and guess who one of them was?? yes, it was mister 1337 guy A and yet again he was stood there in the launch position, and unfortunatly he was right near where I wanted to land. Well I flew over towards them and I was about to shout ‘DON’T FLARE!!!’ as I got near but he decides to launch doesnt he, and what a dumbass he is, without even bothering to look around if anyone was flying near (like me ffs) he just pulled his risers and up went his canopy into the air and within a few meters of my feet. If my feet had got tangled in it then I dunno what would happen but it would be me who would come of worse, not him thats for sure. I felt like shouting down ‘your a nob!!!’ but in a remarkable feat of restraint I didnt, and besides I had a landing to plan. I wanted to land near my bag that I had left behind but I had to change my plan because of this guy and it meant that if I had headed towards my bag then the wind would have been right behind me so I would be going hella fast so I just landed a bit further down the hill facing into the wind and had a short walk back up to my bag. I grabed my bag and fastened it to my front. I sure as hell wasnt going to walk down the hill :smiley: the I heard a sound, and I looked around and this hang glider flew right by me. OMG they look so awesome. What incredible machines they are. They also make a very cool noise as they cut throughthe air. This is what I really want to do and next year I will do this!!! This will mean selling my mod fap for sure though :frowning: but its a worthy sacrifice. I watched as he flew off along the west side of the main hill and I wondered if he had hanaged to catch the lift on the north side. Then seconds later another hang glider went past, he shouted something down to me that sounded something like ‘Hi down there I am air-born yeeehaaaaa!!!’ and then I felt the wind die down, and I watched as he went down lol. Well, I decided to fly down to the bottom of the hill so I launched and on my way down I saw this the poor hang glider guy on the ground after only a few seconds flying :frowning: poor guy. Well I landed and this guy came over to talk to me because he recognised me from the school. I had forgotten his name but I remembered him. We chatted while I packed my glider away. I set off back down the hill and on the way I started a conversation with the hang glider pilot. Well, it was so hard talking to him because he didnt understand a word I was saying. My accent is quite strong and I talk fast so even other English people sometimes struggle with what I say. I asked him 6 or 7 times how much do the hang gliders weight?, and he kept saying sorry I dont understand you! so then I paused, and said, ok, how heavy is your glider? and the guy who was behind me burst out laughing. He said he would let me carry it but I said ok but when we get down to the bottom :stuck_out_tongue: we got down to the car park and I dumped my stuff on the floor and started chatting with this guy. I told him I was interested in doing the hang gliding and that was it, he just started talking. Then he said ok! pick up the glider. I looked at the glider on the floor. It is a big honour for someone to let you carry their hang glider, I think I mentioned this previously in another post. I nrevously went over trying to decide if I should pick it up on hte left side or my right side. I decided on my right side, and man they are quite heavy. I would NOT like to carry one of these up to the top of a hill. I felt quite nevous in case I dropped it or something so I put it down but it was very cool of him to let me do that. He started talking and telling me all about his flying. Man this guy is lucky! He used to be a pilot and for 2 years he did the Eye in the Sky!! you know the one, where they fly around looking for traffic jams and car accidents and reporting it on the radio. Lucky lucky guy. This is my dream job. Well I remember his name, it was Jeff Stopes, he was a very nice guy and we stood there talking for about 30 mins. Then he tells me he has left his car up the road because the carpark was full so I gave him a rid over to his car and returned the favour =) then he was grateful.

A good end to a awesome day! I drove home with my choonz on loud and got myself a XL bacon double cheeseburger on the way. What a cool day today was =) cant wait for what tommorow brings.

3 Likes
7

Paragliding Holiday!!!

I decide its about time I added a new entry =)

I am still doing my gliding and have been out quite a few times. I especially remember one particular day in winter when I drove up winter hill at 6 am and watched the sun rise while freezing my ass off. I stood there and waited as the wind was coming from the east but the weather sites had promised it would swing around to the north. It was awesome to just admire the view out over the village of Belmont. The frost had been building up for several days and there were big crystals on every blade of grass, and a very light dusting of snow reflected the colours of the pink sunrise. Even though it was so cold I I just couldnt bring myself to sit in the car. I was well wrapped up and it was so peaceful being the only person on top of this big hill with a crystal clear view for miles around. I looked over at the houses in the village and imaged people cosy and warm in bed. It had a bit of a magical feel to it like when you are a child and someone reads you a christmas story book =)

At about 8am another guy turned up. We chatted and he confirmed that he had also reckoned the wind was going to change to more northerly, which was reassuring. By about 11am we were still stood there waiting for the wind to change and other people started turning up. We had been sood there many hours, and they had a good laugh at me having been there since 6am. I didnt tell them I had fallen asleep at 6pm and woken up at about 2 am. Curse you stinking reverse sleeping pattern :mad:. Well thing were getting slowly better, the wind was changing direction but the speed was increasing as the warmth of the sun caused thermal activity. I was ready to fly but one of the guys was measuring the speed with a gauge and he said nooo its a bit too strong. I thought to myself ‘bahhh ive only been flying half a year and ive flown in stronger than this’ but I didnt argue, I am still a beginner and its better to be on the safe side. Oh and I didnt mention the massive TV and other transmission towers with craploads of stabalising wires coming off them directly behind the ridge which are in a prime location to be blown back into :smiley: I didnt argue.

Then, at about 12:30, we see someone else come wandering over. He walks straight over to the edge and starts unpacking his glider. someone says ohhh thats Graham! (you can identify people by their glider. There are various types of glider, all different makes and models, and you an choose your own colours, so the chances of 2 people have the exact same glider and very slim since there are so few people who do it) I look and see this purple and orange glider (an odd colour combination in itself) and I realise its one of my instructors! I see this guy everywhere, I reckon every singe flyable days hes out there. Hes like some kind of sky god I swear. Very cool person to talk to also, he literally lives to fly. He doesnt care about how much money he earns as long as hes got enough to live and glide. He teaches, then when hes got enough he just buggers off and flys until hes skint again. Well, a few minutes later and hes off, last to arrive first to take off :confused: Naturally, everyone else sees him and starts unpacking their gliders including myself. Man, I fucked up my launch not one time, but about 9 times in a row. Everyone else was up there excpet me and I had been there since 6 am I was so pissed. The wind had really got quite strong and the ground was like a solid block of ice and whenever I inflated my wing it would just drag me along the floor and I couldnt dig my heels in to pull the wing up over my head. Then someone must have been watching me and the shouted ‘bring it half way down the hill’ so I bundled it up and carted it off half way down the hill. Not only was the wind weaker down here but there was the angle of the hill slope that was in my favour.

I managed to launch ok eventually and as soon as I was up there I wasnt pissed any more =P but holy shit my fingers were cold. The gloves were doing nothing >_< It didnt matter though =) After a few minutes it became apparent that the wind really had moved around quite a bit and I saw Graham go off along the ridge. I decided to follow him and so did everone else and we ended up with this train of gliders going backwards and forwards along the ridge it was really cool =D it was ‘follow the leader’! =)

Ahhh look how much I wrote already >_< well I didnt even mean to write so much about that but I get carried away. The thing I meant to write about is that I am going away on holiday paragliding in the alps!! =DDD The plan is im going to drive from the UK to Slovenia, then I will meet up with a group of people (who Ive never met before, its a organised thing) then the guy who organised it all is going to teach us about alpine flying and each time we land hes going to come meet us in the minivan and drive us back to the top again. But the cool thing about alpine flying is THERMALS!!! I havnt flown in thermals yet its only been along the ridge lift, and this guy reckons people average out 60+ kilometer flights on this holiday, the thermal takes you up, then you look for the next one and fly over to it in the hope of reaching it before you get too low, and that one takes you back up, and you repeat until your luck is out or you make a mistake and have to land. either way, flying 60km flights through the alps sounds so awesome. And also I was talking on a forum and some guy in Slovenia called Sandi sent me a pm saying to e-mail him while I am there and he will meet up with me and take me to the best places =) so ima take him up on that offer. After this I will be meeting up with Alfhild again who has kindly offered to put me up in her appartment for a few days and show me the sights around Slovenia while I am there, then I will be heading up north to Sweden but on the way through Germany im going to be stopping off to visit Venus & McCormmick which will be awesome =) Then in Sweden I’ll be going to Stockholm to visit Xpjode and Steffe who are two of my very good friends that I made in this game. Hopefully I will get some flying in Sweden to =P Ohhh and how could I forget to mention that when I arrive in slovenia the first thing Im going to be doing is collecting my new glider that I ordered from Air Systems!! xD Their factory is in Slovenia right near where I will be staying. Here it is!!! Im gonna ownz0r the skyz0r with it.

I only worry about driving on the other side of the road though =P and also I dunno how the hell im going to read the directions while I am driving :confused: The journey I think is going to suck being on my own =( But still, I think of it as part of the adventure! =) I just hope my car doesnt break down. It let me down 1 time in all these years and even that was for some silly reason, so I feel confident it will be fine, but for breakdown cover they quoted me £277 so I kindly refused since thats probably more than what my cars worth and I would rather have it scrapped and get a plane back if the worst happens rather than pay them so much much ‘just in case’ it breaks down ffs. In fact, the insurance totally takes the piss. I need car insurance, travel insurance, breakdown recovery, and personaly injury insurance (but for exreme sports) and it adds up to about £700 which is way more that what I am paying for my entire fooking holiday, well to put it mildly they can shove it up their thieving fucking asses. The car insurance was cheap and I needed that by law anyway so I got that for £33, travel insurance I will just get normal travel insurance in case something happens and I gotta cancel the holiday etc.. but it only covers single item theft up to a value of £150 so if my glider gets stolen im screwed :confused: Its as soon as I start mentioning paragliding they add a 0 onto the end of the figures. Well, with being in the UK I got a NHS card that covers me for hospital bills automatically even in foreign countries, so this isnt so much of a worry, but its things like loss of limbs or loss of eyesight (inability to work for the rest of my life), death, damage to other peoples property that im not insured for and they want shitloads for cover against it :confused: Bollocks to the breakdown recovery. Why would I want to pay more than my car is worth to have it towed all the way home. I would rather crawl home, blind, with no legs and no car, than pay their stinking fees :cussing:

BTW one last thing! If there is anyone I know who is reading this and wants to meet up, send me a PM and maybe we can sort something out =) cant promise anything (and it will have to be along, or near, my planned route, since my fuel budget is quite tight) but who know =D

8

Tommorow my journey begins.

If you want to see my route it is here

I have to admit to being a bit nervous. It doesnt help that today I was unable to contact the guy im supposed to be meeting when I arrive in Slovenia :confused: But I have noticed in the past that it has been difficult to get through to Slovenian mobile phones. I have an exact time and place to meet though so its all good =)

I wish there was someone coming with me for the journey though; its gonna suck being on my own at times. its 2:30 am now and I gotta be setting off at about 10am. I got my uber navigation system sorted though. My hairdresser of all people told me about it, you just get one of those notepads with suckers on it and you write all your directions on it like 2 or 3 directions in big letters per page then stick it on your car windscreen then as you go past each turning/junction you just tear the page off :smiley: I even put down the location of speed cameras and reminders to buy my vignette tax before I reach Austria.

Well, I am gonna miss my bed more than once I think. And I am also gonna miss chatting to people in the EU chatroom. But I think that once I am flying I will not want to be anywhere else :slight_smile: I will be sure to upload a few photos here if I can as and when I get chance. I will be visiting many PE players which will be cool =D so far it is almost definate that I will be meeting (in this order) Alfhild, McCormick, Venus, Steffe, both the Xplodj brothers and hopefully also Proppen and Geten. I will be passing by many other people that I know and would like to meet but I just dont think its going to be possible to make so many detours =( but who knows =P I didnt buy a return ticket for the ferry back to England so after my week of paragliding is over its not like Im tied down to a schedule.

I had better be going now though, it will be a long day tommorow I think.