Here's How My Summer Vacation Started

I already told you about the middle part of my vacation, where I spent a lot of time freezing my butt off on top of a mountain, watching people paraglide.  For the first few days of our vacation, I spent a lot of time sweltering in the sun, watching people paraglide.  Are you seeing a theme here yet?

Since Hubby's been spending all this time flying and will continue to do so, he thought it would be a good idea to take an SIV course.  This is a course that teaches you how to recover if your wing does something funky like collapse mid-flight, lets you practice things like spirals, and gives you an opportunity to throw your reserve 'chute*.  Of course, you hope that you never have to throw your reserve 'chute in real life, but if you do, it's  nice to have some idea of what's going to happen when you do.  All of this is done over a lake with a boat crew standing by for retrievals.

To start things off, the boat would tow the pilots around the lake until they gained about 4,000 feet in altitude, then the pilot would unhook the tow rope and instruction would begin.

The particular lake that we were at is Lake Berryessa, about two hours outside of Sacramento.  I had never heard of this before, but I really liked it.  Even though we were there over a weekend in June, it felt like we had the whole lake to ourselves.  It was really hot on the lake shore, but we did have a nice big oak tree that we were able to park ourselves under while everyone in the class took turns going through their maneuvers.

As a general rule, and for various reasons, I think spouses/significant others are generally not encouraged to attend; but I was curious to see what was going on, and I think I managed to stay out of the way and not be too big of a distraction.  When other people heard that I sat and watched, they inevitably asked, "Weren't you nervous, watching him do all that??"  The answer is no.  In fact, I think I am probably more comfortable now, having seen just how recoverable the wings really are and how well you can actually fly, even with half a wing collapsed.  The other thing that made me not worry was that I was on the ground with the instructor who was in radio contact with the pilots at all times, so I could hear everything that he was telling them to do; and, I have to say, he is probably one of the coolest, calmest, most collected people I have ever met-very confidence-inspiring.  Seeing somebody's wing collapse mid-flight is one thing-that'll make your heart stop for a second; but watching somebody's wing collapse as the instructor is next to you, calmly talking him through an induced collapse makes it more interesting than heart-stopping.  

More interesting, less heart-stopping, because I know this was a planned event.  

All in all, an interesting, if unconventional, start to my summer vacation.  We met some really great people, and I think it's safe to say that everyone walked away feeling a lot more confident and, hopefully, a lot safer.  

Up next:  Camping in the red woods!     

*7/7/11-I would just like to admit here and now that it took me this long to realize I had spelled 'chute (as in parachute) "shoot".  Stuff like that would have never slipped by me 10 years ago.  What's going on??

Hey, Slacker, Whatcha Been Up To?

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Oh, you mean me?  Yeah, okay, that's fair.  I've published a whopping eleven posts over the last four months, which, let's face it, is slacker-rate at best.

So, let me tell you about my summer!

Some of you may remember this picture from a previous post:

Good heavens!  Where was I?  Siberia?  The South Pole?  Running from the law?  No.  I was in Oregon.  Granted, I was on top of a mountain in this particular picture, but still.  It wasn't a big mountain, just windy as all get out and freakin' cold.  

Why was I on top of a mountain?  Because my husband is a paraglider and our mainland vacation happened to coincide with Rat Race, the paragliding competition which is held annually at Woodrat Mountain.  Hubby didn't compete, but he wanted to check it out and see what flying on the mainland is like and how competition flying works.  Turns out, it's freakin' crazy!  At least, from my point of view.  There were over 100 registered competitors, and they all had to be off the mountain by a specified time each day.  The day that I sat and watched everyone launch, it took about an hour; I'm told they did it all in about 20 minutes one day!  To give you an idea how this works, here is a series of pictures I took of one pilot launching.

First, the pilots lay out their wings and make sure all their lines are straight and not all tangled in knots or wrapped around twigs or anything.  Once they are ready, they wait for a good cycle of wind.  Don't ask me to define "good", but you can look at the windsock in the background to see what's going on in this particular scenario.  (Click on any of the photos to enlarge.)

As the wind catches the wing it lifts it up in the air and over the pilot's head.

If everything still looks good (no twisted lines, no folded up wing tips, etc.) the pilot, in a slight fit of insanity, runs off the side of the mountain...

...as the wind lifts him gently into the air.

Now imagine that happening 100 times in 20 minutes, or even 60 minutes.  Crazy, I tell ya!  But a pretty cool sight, none the less.

  

Did you notice how the pilot started off facing his wing and then had to turn around to run off the hill?  That's called a reverse launch, and that's how they do it in higher winds.  Basically, there's enough wind that by the time they have turned around and started running toward the side of the mountain, they are already starting to lift off the ground.  On days when the wind is not blowing as hard, they do forward launches.  This means they face away from their wings and have to start running in order to catch the wind to bring their wing up.  This is more nerve-wracking to watch because they essentially just keep running until they are off the hill.  Eeee!    

Anyway, it was mostly reverse launches this day because of the high winds, hence my bundled appearance in the middle of June. 

So, that was the middle part of our mainland vacation.  I'll tell you more about the beginning, the rest of the middle, and the end later!   

 

What is this "Wind Lines" of which you speak?

If you click on my profile, you might notice that I appear to have two blogs, this one and one called Wind Lines.  If you click over there, you may even notice some posts that look like they were posted by me.  This isn't exactly the case.

Wind Lines is a resource for the local paragliding community where you can find information about flying in Hawaii, whether you are a seasoned pilot or are looking for someone to take you on a tandem flight.  Pilots regularly post about their flying adventures, and they usually include photos.  These posts are great for visiting pilots who might be interested in coming to Hawaii to fly as well as for local pilots.  Not only do you get a feel for where to go to fly, but there is often something to learn from someone else's flying experience.  Even if you have no interest in paragliding, I would encourage you to click over and take a look at some of their photos-there have been some really amazing shots, stuff you don't normally see in your everyday "Come to Hawaii!" advertising.

So, how am I involved in this again?  Well, I'm not, but my husband is a new pilot, and he wanted to be able to contribute stories, and since I already have this whole blog thing set up, we figured he could just use my profile.  So, if you want to read about some of his adventures, you can go over to Wind Lines and look for postings that appear to be by me, Dreamybee, or you can also look for posts signed by Duck.  It's a good thing he's loving this flying thing because, believe me, he has taken a lot of ribbing for posting under the name Dreamybee!  Poor guy-maybe we'll get him his own blog set up one of these days...or not-that would take away from his flying time!

If you're looking for something to do on your next Hawaiian vacation, and you are looking for a new adventure or just want to see the island in a way that most people never do, I would definitely recommend contacting one of the tandem instructors to inquire about a flight.  I've gone on a short ride-conditions weren't quite right for a longer flight-and even though we weren't in the air for long, it was still really cool.  If you are thinking about becoming a pilot, are already a pilot, or know someone who is a pilot and wants to fly in Hawaii, direct them to Wind Lines-the folks here are all really friendly and very welcoming to visiting pilots.