Torrey Pines

Ridge racing with Kraig Coomber at Torrey Pines, San Diego, California.

As my 777 landed in LA for one last chance to fly Torrey Pines before leaving for Malaysia, things were looking dim, literally. I only had a one-day layover in LA and the night before it poured rain. In fact, it stormed. I didn't even know that it was possible for it to rain like this in LA... ever.

By the next morning things had improved dramatically. Kraig checked the weather and all the Torrey indicators were saying it was a Torrey day. We stuffed down a couple of bagels and rushed over to his warehouse for a last weather check and to load the gliders.

On the long drive out we kept repeating to ourselves... it's going to rain, it's going to rain... just to not jinx ourselves.

We had been talking about the only superstition that I have, which is that if I ever have a thought of satisfaction or contentment before I have actually fully completed a task, my reward will be a single additional challenge between the moment I have the thought and the moment I cross the goal line.

I call it a superstition but I'm not really superstitious. I read a phrase somewhere to the effect: Talking is something that occurs once thinking has ceased. This makes sense. When you are busy congratulating yourself over your excellent work when everything is going well at 90% completion, you instantly stop observing, taking in what is happening around you. Sensing what the big picture looked like was part of the reason that you found yourself at 90% completion and in a good position. If at this point you start to plan your title acceptance speech, perhaps by thinking about who you are going to thank and in what order, you are begging for a surprise. There is no limit to how fast things can change during the last 10% of a task.

This applies to hanggliding, this applies to business, this applies to life.

Anyways, it was soarable but light all day at Torrey and we had a great time. We finally came in to land as the sun was setting and the wind was so light we could barely get over the lip to top land. Hanggliding was good to us this day.

I didn't mention why I was so keen to fly Torrey. Well, I've wanted to fly Torrey for the last 16 years. Ever since I first saw a photograph of a modern hangglider on the cover of Hanggliding and Paragliding Magazine, sometime in 1993. It was John Heiney flying upside-down on an all-carbon airframe black and rainbow UP TRX 140, high over Torrey Pines. That image will remain preserved in my mind in HD, forever.

As we packed up I suddenly realized that John Heiney was breaking down right next to us so I made sure to go over and shake his hand.

Thanks, John.

GV

A dreamy evening flight in Brazil.

Disclaimer: Always wear a EN 966 certified helmet when paragliding

LA

I recently spent a few days in LA to visit Moyes USA and help out with some testflying. We had a beautiful winter thermal flight at Sylmar, which is one of my favourite sites. Generally smooth thermals that were working really low allowed us to race along the range with no fear of landing out. It was a perfect end to the Northern flying season.

The Beginning

After racing hanggliders and paragliders for over 15 years.. I often forget what it was like to fly for the first time. This flight reminded me of what I imagined flying would be like when I was a kid. The real feeling is exactly the same as I would experience in my dreams, long before flying for the first time.

Free flying has been the only fantasy that has not been a disappointment in real life.

2009 Brazilian Paragliding Nationals

Castelo, Espírito Santo, Brasil

http://www.hipoxia.com.br/brasileiro2009/





I drove all night to get to Castelo. The last 100 km were overgrown dirt roads that wound up and through the mountains. The darkness and lack of signage made it a difficult journey, although the moonlight was peaceful.



This is the main task area.



Getting ready to launch.



Waiting for the launch window to open.



A packed sky.



This place has more beauty than you can take in all at once. Vertical rock faces 1000 m high are everywhere you look. The prehistoric ambience would make a pteradactyl feel at home.



New millennium wings fill a prehistoric sky.







This task brought us to within sight of the ocean. The thought of landing at the beach instead of goal was a tempting thought.



At cloudbase and on glide. I love this part of flying.



In goal.



No touchy.



The long ride back from goal is always calming. The satisfaction of having made goal, reliving all the fun things that happened and just thinking about how a good day of flying is always a day well spent, leaves me in a calm, contemplative mood.



The winners. Frank Brown won the open category, climbing from 3rd to 1st on the final leg of the final task!

1 Frank Brown M BRA [open] Sol Tracer 2010
2 Luciano Bender Tcacenco M BRA [open] GIN boom 6
3 Cristiano Ricci da Silva M BRA [open] MACPARA MAGUS
4 Marcelo Prieto M BRA [open] Solparagliders Tracer proto
5 Sergio Sampaio M BRA [open] UP Edge
6 Brett Hazlett M CAN [open] UP Edge
7 Clayton Alvarenga Resende M BRA [open] AIR WAVE FR4
8 Washington Peruchi M BRA [open] Macpara Magus 6
9 Donizete B Lemos M BRA [open] Sol TRACER 2009
10 Leonardo silveira Machado M BRA [open] SOL TRACER



Original gangster Julio AKA CB.



Me.



Vitória at night.



A CB approaches the Vitória coastline. It poured 10 minutes later.

XD63_Rev3

I have a new toy from UP to fly. This thing is fun and it feels like it goes really well; I just haven't had the chance to compare it to the other good gliders. There's a competition coming up soon -stage one of the Brazilian Nationals- where I will get a good feel for the raw performance of this wing. So far, I can say the handling is really good, despite the wing having a higher projected aspect ratio than most other wings.









These images were a courtesy of Doug Wakefield.

Grouse Mountain

Paragliding at Grouse Mountain from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo.

Vancouver, on the West coast of Canada, is a beautiful city; usually rated the second best city to live in, behind Geneva. I used to live here but recently had a chance to visit during a weekend. The weather forecast was good so I brought my glider with me and had a fun fly.

It was fun thermalling low over the Grizzly bear enclosure on top of the mountain, the waterfall, and waving to tourists having lunch on the restaurant patio. The Lions Gate bridge, the Capilano dam, and downtown Vancouver are also beautiful from the air.

Floating above the mountain in the warm summer air, on this lazy Saturday afternoon, was good for the soul.