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| Sunday 14th November 2004 - Sunday 14th November 2004 - View the entire paragliding news archive |
| Yesterday Andre and I hooked up in the afternoon for some kite bugying and a flight. It was the afternoon following a pretty late night, which had seen Andre showing St Catharines how they dance in Czech republic. We were both well wrapped up since the temperature was hovering around freezing. The wind was fairly strong so we got the kite and buggy out first. With a bit of experience this is going to be a lot of fun. The conditions needed to get the buggy moving fast, are basically those that would prevent us flying. 20 km/h upwards is ideal. We managed to get it moving in the 12-15km/h that we had, but the power just wasn't quite there so after about an hour we decided to go for a flight.
It was the ideal conditions (apart from the cold) to go for a tandem flight over the falls. This would allow one of us to concentrate on filming whilst the other concentrated on the flying. The first attempt at taking off did not go well. The wing lifted up fine but as we were running to launch I was getting hoisted off of the ground too soon. In addition to this I was swinging off to one side which was putting the balance out. We made it right to where the car was before we piled in to the ground. The prop made contact with either the ground or the cage and made the, by now familiar, sound...Thwack! With all the extra layers we were wearing neither of us was even bruised, so we decided to have another go. The propellor was replaced and we set up for the second attempt. Still, things did not feel right. As the passenger it is very difficult to know what is going on. Your role is simply to leg it when power is applied and try to move in the right direction.
Again we attempted to launch. The wing came up cleanly and we turned to make our run. Andre applied power and again I was hanging to the side of Andre instead of to the front. Something was not quite right and again we piled in just short of the car. The propellor survived this one. No bruises, but we must have looked a bit silly. We checked over the equipment and Andre realised that the straps that were cross bracing the harness connection were asymmetrical. This had affected the distribution of weight of the passenger, causing me to swing to the right and turn the glider.
Rather than push our luch ant further we decided to take two machines up. I got the 14 horse power machine with the wooden propellor and Andre had the tandem unit (much heavier). I set up the machine as far from the car as possible since we would be running towards it for take off. The machine is a little low on power so I knew that the take off would be gradual and I wanted to give myself room. I forward launched and was airborn sooner than I had expected. It didn't seem as under powered as I had expected. I should add that the time was now 4:50 pm and the sun was just about to set!
The exertion of the attempted tandem launches must have knackered Andre out, because I could see from the air that he was rushing his busting his take offs and not having anyone to lay out his wing was getting a bit frustrated having to keep unclipping. This seemed to have the effect of making my flight that little bit more enjoyable, a beautiful red sunset on the horizon and Andre busting at least three launches below me. When he did eventually join me in the air it was very cold. With a constant forward airspeed of 35km/h and an air temperature below zero we were soon both ready to land again.
Back on the ground we packed up quickly and made for home. The previous night's activities were catching up with both of us and I was ready for a nap. Soon it will be too cold to fly, we were glad to have managed to get one more in before the temperature really drops.
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The content of this site is � Mark Andrews 2005-12, mandrews1973@gmail.com
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