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Usually, both brake toggles in one had or full hands off flying if conditions are smooth. Amazingly, gliders do a great job and just flying themselves. I will PM you if I'm going your way, alternately if you want to come north we could probably figure something out on the weekends. There is a commonly flown site, Otto's, out by Fruita so if you go bike riding, you could check that out. Bellyache is getting flown most mornings.Quote:
Originally Posted by shredgnar
I got my first 3 solo flights at north boulder today. Shit, I think I'm hooked already.
Sick! Who is your instructor? Talk to them about getting out to The Point or Otto's as much as possible. Where do you live?Quote:
Originally Posted by zartagen
I live in Vail and Greg Kelley is teaching me. He does trips to Otto's fairly regularly. I thought about doing a few 3 day weekend trips to the point and learning with super fly, but opted for the slower local approach.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
Cool. Greg is awesome. Kite as much as possible and dial in those forward launches for Bellyache. If you haven't already, you should join RMHPA and get on the WhatsApp Chat to see all the goings on in the world on Colorado free flight such as great glass offs at Williams the last three days and big XC flights going down in the front range.
Bump for MD9 getting his P2!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USfVb2Q6-TY
This one has i bit of everything XC, acro, speedflying
Got my P2! I also got the Ozone Buzz Z5 for my first wing. Been flying at bellyache ridge a lot and am gonna head down to valle in December. Loving this sport so far.
Let me know if you are flying Bellyache on the weekends. I didn't know if that worked in the winter being a classic AM lee site. All the Kremmling sites are still good to go. There are P2s in Summit. Make sure you get on the RMHPA WhatsApp as that is were most people make there flying plans and post videos and such. If you need help doing that, PM me.
Bellyache can work year round with a combination of catabatic flow coming down the valley and heating of the east facing slopes below launch. Even with snow, I've found it doesn't take much sun to turn on.
Yeah, I've been on the RMHPA whatsapp chats, they're really useful.
Good to know. Many katabatic sites don't work in the winter as the prevailing W and NW flow overpowers the drainage effect. I will try to get over there sooner rather than later. Got to take advance of the drive up winter sites in the mountains.
Greetings from Valle de Bravo! https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...cc17728938.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...873c57ce55.jpg
A few more from Valle. Holy shit, thermalling is full on. Love it! Flew one flight 23km xc back to the lake.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...56a8433b9b.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2628791a92.jpg
Few things look as fun to me as paragliding, I have a few friends who do it (or HG which actually looks like more fun but a bigger PITA). If it didn't seem like such a giant commitment going out to POTM over and over again, I probably would have tried by now. I hope Vail continues to let people take off from CB, it would be a shame if their corporate liability lawyer types kill it off.
Went for a quick trip out to Marshall to fly with some friends. Did a little 24 km xc flight to a brewery for my last day, one of the local traditions. My buddy snapped these of me on the way.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f1d15563dd.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6c9702a70e.jpg
Brett Hazlett never disappoints with his videos. I could just cycle through his collection on no-fly days for hours on end. Here's his latest:
https://vimeo.com/330260958
https://vimeo.com/330260958
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=133&v=t6CAOM3XtpA
This is just nuts. Over 200 pilots top landed Mont Blanc yesterday. Of course, in true French fashion, somebody died and the government has now banned landing there. There is some debate about whether it is safe, whenever you top land you should be prepared to hike down in case launch conditions are not favorable.
We will talk about the X Alps once the good videos are produced.
Zartagen, looks like you have had some great flights. As usual, the spring conditions have been pretty fickle but I have had a few great flights specially at Wolcott. Hopefully the forecast holds up for this weekend.
Next time you jump in Wolcott, I'd love to observe. Always wanted to see someone jump live. Be good to see you again as well. It's been 10 years.
We actually pay drivers at Wolcott. You could probably make a few $s. It is kinda weird deal and I only know half the story. It is private land owned by some old school Eagle County family. They just paid most of the cost to grading the road so you can drive all the way to launch. It gets flown a lot on southwest evenings. I'll PM you when it looks like it might happen. I soared for 2 hrs. there on Tuesday.
Please do. Happy to do shuttle. I have some friends who live on Bellyache and often go up there for a peaceful sunset.
Foggy, nice meeting you Tuesday!Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
And wtf, they banned top landing mont blanc!? How many people have died climbing it? I'm sure more than one.
Edit: After looking into it some more, it appears to have already been illegal to fly over/top land there (maybe only in July and August?), but nobody cared since base was at 6000m+ and, well, fuck it, YOLO.
Ha...funnyQuote:
Originally Posted by zartagen
It is Friday. How about some cutaways? So French.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC69htLerWs
Can't wait for them to post a gendarme up there to ticket those illegal top landings.Quote:
Originally Posted by zartagen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmZ9x5KopO4
Not to be a downer, but until I saw this video I thought paragliding, etc. seemed extremely cool. Now I don't know if I'd have the risk appetite for it. I'm guessing this is wildly unlikely to occur, but is there anything that could be done in the event that wind shear/a near-instantaneous reduction in airspeed causes the chute to collapse?
I'm not terribly experienced, but I've seen a reserve chute work in a crazy situation right next to a cliff. The pilot hit some rotor turbulence and had an asymmetric collapse on the terrain side. He got tossed into a riser twist while flying at the wall, threw his reserve, then ended up bouncing his way UP the rock face before he grabbed a tree. Nothing but some scrapes and bruises. Just an anecdote, but I've heard of a number of other successful reserve deployments.
Paragliding is still definitely dangerous. I try to fly as high as possible to give lots of time to sort it out or throw the reserve. I get nervous when I'm as low as that guy in the video. I'm also religious about checking the weather, whether I'm flying or not.
Paragliders are amazing aircraft with a very narrow range of safe operating conditions. If you fly outside of the safe conditions, you are asking for trouble. If you read the comments from that video, you will see that (from the pilots own analysis) the meteorological conditions that lead to the glider collapse (his malfunction) were forecast, verified (weather balloon) and ignored.
The ground is hard and the air is invisible. Altitude is your friend. Powered Paraglider Pilots in the flatlands are notorious for cruising low. You need to be hyper aware when you are so low that your reserve may not help.
And yes, there are things that could be done to both prevent the collapse and recover. I'm not gonna go into the analysis of the pilots technique or the specifics of the recovery only to say that things could have been done differently.
Simply put, that accident was 99% pilot error. Always always check winds at altitude before flying, otherwise the sky shark will get you.
Had an amazing flight up to 18k' from Bellyache today. I was massively underdressed for the freezing temps combined with a 20mph wind chill, but it was absolutely incredible.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4994154efb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...ea12b316e3.jpg
Amazing flight! 18K is big time!
A mentor of mine says, "I was having a great flight, I got cold and then I had to come down, never again." It is hard to put on a puffy and winter gloves when it is 80 out and you have no idea if you are going to get up or not.
I was gonna PM you but no reason it can't be public. RMHPA is gonna have an informal fly-in the weekend of 9/14-9/15. We have the group campsite reserved at Pumphouse. We can fly all the K Town sites plus fishing, rafting, kayaking, swimming etc. It is about the best time of the year to be down there. I suppose I'll throw it out there that if anyone is interested in paragliding, it would be a good opportunity to check it out. Might even get to fly some tandems in exchange for driving shuttle.
Also, the Red Rocks Fly In in Central Utah is the week of 9/23-9/27. If the conditions are good, which is frequent, those sites are about the most fun one can have.
Attachment 293100
I KNEW a paraglider, Johnnie my neighbor
A damn good fly-in/wake last july for a neighbor/paraglider/paddler/skier/climber/fish biologist/all around wildman and a damn good barista
Johnnie from Smithers pretty much lived life on the edge, he probably should have been killed by un-natural cause's but he was just too damn good ... instead he was taken much too young by cancer
the day of the party was Shitty weather so flying off the ski hill and landing at the catholic school was iffy but it came together at the last minute, 7 of 8 local flyers made it to the LZ and right on over to the wake which was 50 ft away
The old timers hockey club donated 2 kegs of craft beer, great food, a live band, probably 100 people, great storyies told ... johnnie always had great partys
I miss him
^^
So sorry for your loss Al. Sounds like a damn good guy. Take care buddy.
Caught at least 10 landing at pumphouse on Sunday. Conditions looked perfect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
If you are bored and enjoy freeflight, this is worth a watch. One of the more French things I've seen in a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeRO-qlsvyk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeRO-qlsvyk
Very cool ! although the speed flying part doesn't appeal to me, I would like to stay airborne longer ,the concept of combining flying and skiing an awesome idea .Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
I've not tried paragliding and would love to try sometime . I'm a fixed wing glider guy since the mid 70's I like the speed and ability to travel long distances . I'm not as aggressive as this guy though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeeluMywUzs
Bumping up this thread with some photos from flying this summer.
Attachment 341936
Kiting at Telluride waiting out some weather
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Flying smoke bombs over Telluride on the 4th.
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17,000' and change over Copper
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Attachment 341941
Sunset over Kremmling
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Looking south from Mt. Princeton (Sorry about the rotation)
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Surfing the flatirons
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Attachment 341943
Enjoying some glass smooth air above and through the clouds off Mt. Victoria.
Attachment 341944
Sunset glide to Vail while Foggy and company were getting boosted to 14k' in the glass off at Wolcott
If you ever get back to Wolcott and want a shuttle or just a beer, I'd love to meet you and see Foggy again.
If you ever get back to Wolcott and want a shuttle or just a beer, I'd love to meet you, and see Foggy again. We changed a tire right there on his truck during the very beginning of an epic mag get together in '09. You should at least have my number if shit goes weird. I'm right there in 20.
There's been a crew of paragliders on Swan Man between Breck and Dillon a few nights this summer on my way home from work. 10 of them one night. Any of yous guys up there?