A Wing and a Prayer

Today was a good day in Vancouver.

Yesterday was a lovely warm blue sky day here in Vancouver and I really enjoyed being in the garden. Today was going to be another beautiful day, and I decided that I would ride my motorbike out along the freeway for an hour and go to one of the main local sites for paragliding – and fly my paraglider.

The ride out was fine, and it then took me about an hour to get a ride up the 4wd trail to the launch site (about 600m above the landing field). There were about a dozen other pilots there and most of them were new to me but I recognized a couple. The air was not yet warm enough and the thermals (rising pockets of air) were not yet strong enough or frequent enough to keep a paraglider up. This means that everybody stands around at the launch site and talks. This is known in the sport as “para-waiting” and can take up the better part of your life if you are not careful :)… Im sure that there are plenty of pilots who have spent more time flapping their jaws on the ground at the take-off site than actually flying! – Youd think that this behavior would create enough hot air to keep a brick aloft! - lots of talking :)

Anyway, eventually one of the pilots decides it might be worth trying to fly and he sets up and prepares to launch. The very chatty crowd has now become deathly silent and all eyes are on the intrepid pilot preparing to launch. This first pilot of the day is referred to in the sport as a “wind dummy” since they are the only way the other pilots can really tell if conditions are flyable. If the poor wind dummy has read the conditions incorrectly then there will not be enough rising air for them to stay aloft and they will “sink out” and have a very short flight before they land at the base (referred to as a “sled ride”) and have to wait for another ride to the top.

So, todays wind dummy was indeed unlucky and didn’t stay up.
But, after about another half hour, I decided that I thought conditions were better and that I could stay up. So, I decided that I would be the second wind dummy and give it a go. I managed a clean take-off under the massed eyes of all the other pilots – pheww!
And then started to fly around and try to find some lift to stay up. It was there but was light and in short bursts so I had to work quite hard to try to not loose too much height. I lost about 100m over a period of about 15 minutes before things started to get better. It then took another 15minutes to climb back up to the height of the launch field. Then once the other pilots saw that I was still up, they all started to launch as well - They often seem to have the behavior of sheep to me :)
The lift was still not strong and was very localized so we had about five pilots flying in the same small bit of airspace. I hung around for about an hour and then decided Id had enough for the day so I headed away from the lift and glided down to the landing field.
Landing was OK but a little further from the target than Id like but hey, it was a good launch, a good flight, and a safe landing – Good enough.
I packed up my wing and then wrote in my log book – and realized that its been about two years since I last flew!! – So, now Im very pleased with the good flight :)

Then it was back to the city on the freeway. But it’s the Monday afternoon of a long weekend here in Vancouver, so the freeway is very crowded and slow moving in places…. Not to worry, I just break out some of my “tropical driving techniques” and find my way forward by whatever means are available (lanes, what lanes?) and pretty soon Im back home.
A quick stop for some supplies before home, and half an hour later Ive got a steak on the BBQ and a red wine in my hand as I watch the sun setting over the bay and the mountains from my back deck…

Ahhh the life that I lead!