Potato hill launch

Paragliding Potato Hill 07/03/06 This was shot by Mihir, and is the only known video of me launching. Not a very good launch as I get picked up by a gust and veer to the left, but enough to get airborne! If the above doesn't work, try this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4564158057249435371&hl=en

Hot potatoes

July 5, 2006

I had a very productive flying weekend. On Saturday, I flew off the top at Ed Levin (2300 ft MSL), and while this type of altitude is not new to me, this state park has a ton of regulations that you need to complete before they allow you at the top, including the "P3 spots", where you are required to demonstrate an ability to land within a 10 foot circle five times. I finished these requirements last weekend, and this time I had two flights from the top, each about 15-20 minutes long with some thermalling.

Then on monday I went off to Potato hill with a bunch of others and had three great flights reaching altitudes of 3900 ft, 4900 ft, and a whopping 7300ft on the last flight. The launch here is at 3400 ft, so I got above launch on all three flights. On that last one, I stayed up for more than an hour, after climbing from almost 2800 feet or so. It was a zen moment to be in the cold air at 7300 feet, with a rising moon to the left, a setting sun to the right, blue mountains all around, the meandering creek in the valley below, and Letts lake in all its glory to the far left. While cloudbase was probably still another 1000 feet up, there was enough moisture condensing all around that there was a watery haze on my glasses, and had I gained more altitiude I could have played catch with some of the small clouds nearby. Unfortunately, I ran out of lift. Beyond 6000 feet, the air got noticably colder, and was blowing harder too I thought, meaning that I had probably gone through a shear layer.

Self portrait at 7000 ft.

On this trip, I had the longest time, and the highest altitude on each of the three. Nothing like being at 7k feet knowing that you were the first to launch and that all of your buddies have already sunk out and are on the ground looking at the little sky'd out speck that you are enviously, HEH HEH! All of the flights were challenging, and the lift was punchy and turbulent. The landings were all quite tricky, in turbulent conditions, and even the last evening launch was a challenging one, as was the landing that I would have completely blown were it not for Mihir and Wally's timely intervention. Basically, I had neglected to notice that the wind had shifted direction, and I was setting up my approach all wrong. Luckily Wally managed to get me to course correct and I managed a landing into the wind instead of downwind at 10-15MPH.

Some of the thermals I rode this time had maximum climb rates of 1000-1200 feet per minute; this is strong stuff that I have not previously experienced. When I fell out of the 1000 feet per minute one, the sink was > 800 feet per minute, causing the glider to surge forward, and the vario to make a deep groaning sound not unlike what Jo does to scare Chinmay. However, after listening to the vario beep continuously for 5-10 minutes at a time during these climbs, the silence and sound of the wind afterwards was particularly sublime. Wally said that from 7300 I could have gone cross country and left the valley. Potato is a great place, and thanks again to Jo for letting me do this.

Ginnie Farnsforth took this shot of me coming to land.

L-R: Som, Echo, Ron, Wally, Praveen, Mihir