With both Mia and I passionate rigid wing pilots we often get asked by my hang gliding buddies “Why do you Paraglide”? (or sometimes…. why the “F” do you fly a bag ?)
True, I’m not a huge fan of paragliding, I’ve got an immense distrust of any aircraft that requires “re-assembly” during flight. Don’t get me wrong, I without question have massive respect for what good dedicated pilots can do with these aircraft…At the same time I fully admit that because my first choice is my Atos VR and not my Ozone Buzz I simply do not have the time it takes to achieve that level of skill on a paraglider. With that I have learned to be extremely selective of when and why I fly my paraglider. I do my best to pick those days that equal the safe skill sets that I have worked on over the last few years, trying never to get in too deep.
November 8th a Woodside this year was just one of those reasons the “Bag” got dragged out and not the rigid wing.
Nothing spectacular about the day. Just a break in the Fall’s rain fronts on the West coast and the need to get out for some fresh air and catch a few rare rays of sun. (Mia standing at Woodside launch)
As much as I love flying my rigid wing, there is no way a day like this would inspire dragging out the 100 pounds of carbon. Today was a sack of fabric day!
Both Mia and I managed a couple nice launches. Scratched for a few extra minutes with some of the local experts (the feathered ones) and sunk out to the Riverside LZ.
(Video of Mia landing slight tail wind in the “switchy” Riverside LZ)
From there with full gear we did the trek back up to launch (2200ft vertical) to retrieve our truck. Sweating big time as we reached the top it was blowing down… big deal the reward was in the cooler! Two Becks and two cold slices of homemade pizza… Life is good.
And that was why… for Nov 8th 2015…. I decided to fly my Paraglider… only 5 more months and we kick open the doors of our shack and chase out the mice and start all over again at L+13…. on a rigid wing 
No comments:
Post a Comment