Coming Together Nicely

Well well well, Tuesday the 12th of July was my last flight and what a beauti! Firstly i met Keith at the Tambo bomb out, parked my car and headed up the hill in the little red Toyota van. On arriving we were greated by fresh winds coming straight up the face. There were a couple of Paragliders on launch and were readying to fly out to the open blue before conditions got to strong.

The first paraglider pilot who was obviosly the more advanced pilot had all sorts of problems getting off. At one stage lifting off to a few meters above launch before geting pounded back into the face. After a couple more dicey attempts he finally got away.

The next young fella who mentioned he doesnt really fly as offen as he should inflated his wing and fought desperately to get off the hill. You could see he was definitely having troubles and at one stage even seemed to stop going forward all together, instead taking a step backwards. After fighting it he ended up going forwards slowly but by this stage was going sideways towards the bushes. It was at this stage i sprinted down and gave him a helping hand and was able to give him the extra strength in a push to get him away.

Afterwards i began wondering if i had done the correct thing, but was sure id seen this practice done before. Later that day i dropped into Phil Hystek to let him know and was given the all clear, that if it looked like he was going into the bushes that it was probably a good thing. I also caledl the pilot later to appologise if i had startled him. He didnt even know i had helped him. He then thanked me for all i had done.

Anyway after setting up I jumped into my harness and was walked out to launch. This prooved to be my most difficult launch ever. The wind sock was blowing in every direction and at one stage i almost gave up. It eventually came good for a few seconds and i took advantage of my small window. I ran real hard and got away nice and clean.

Conditions infront of launch were shithouse and i got belted big time. There seemed to be alot of turbulance out front that after fighting it for ten minutes almost made me give up and land. Just before i did i cored a pretty sweet thermal that took me to about 3200 feet before i flew out of it, It was taking me too far behind launch for my comfort zone.

Keith by now was getting ready and after a few words of adice from myself on conditions launched as well. He flew quite well but on a few occasions got extreely low to the second shelf. So much so that i felt a little sick watching him. Before launching we both promised each other not to take any unneccessary risks so i felt confident he knew what he was doing. Unfortunately he made a wrong turn somewhere along the way and ended up flying to the bomb out after 15 to 20 minutes. You should have seen his landing! I watched from 3 grand above launch as he glided in on final for a smooth landing ritght in front of the wind sock, touching down perfectly on his feet.

After congradulating him i told him id like to get at least an hour in the air before joining him. Gliding above the ridge after breaking through and getting above the crap air was nice and smooth. I watched as an advanced paraglider launched and got messed around by the unforgiving conditions. I then heard him later say to a few of the other inexperienced para pilots that it probably would be better to stay on the ground. They were happy at the call and were content in watching us fly around.

After my hour was up i headed to the bombout where i made it with 1500 feet to spare. I flew around a bit longer before starting an aircraft style approach. I judged it perfectly and flew in for a perfect landing. Im not sure what im doing with my landings these days but its deinitely working in my favour (touch wood). After bleeding of speed i was joined by Keith who automatically congradulated me on a sweet flight, and that the landing was basically iceing on the cake.

We both sat and had bit of a picnic under my sting before i packed up and got out of there. We were both on huge highs from that point. After driving back up top i thanked Keith for another memorable day and started back home.

All up 1 hour