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Throwback to Taiwan. 

Me right after #takeoff. Getting ready to fly and have some serious fun in Taiwan. 

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Throwback to my very first full frontal. I loved it. 

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My latest picture flying high in #Organya

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This legendary photo is of famous French acro pilot, Tim Alongi, whose development I’ve tried to follow as much as possible via media. I have been fascinated by his flying, his young age and energy since I started thinking of acro. Naturally, the other French acro pilot (even younger!) Theo de Blic impresses me just as much - if not more - from the moment I learnt of him. In a conversation today with another pilot I stated how I want to be like them (fly like them) and that made me dig even more (ha - like that’s possible) into their approach to flying, living and most importantly their learning process. 

Early into my research I found “Seven steps to success: an acrobatic paragliding masterclass with FAI World Air Games winner Tim Alongi”. Below is my copy paste edition of Alongi’s tips:

It's important to fly well on the ground. So learn to play with your glider on the ground first.

Don't try to progress too fast. You have to take the time to go through all the steps and get to know your glider really well.

Get the right equipment. It's all about being in the right place at the right time, with the best possible equipment.

Fly, fly, fly. Get up in the air as much as you can, and keep trying out new manoeuvres all the time.

Stay motivated. It's important to keep focused on your training, and to concentrate on your style in the air.

Be true to yourself. All pilots are different, so stay an individual and play to your strenghts.

The most important thing? Don't take it too seriously, and always have a laugh!

When I learn enough to have an opinions about these tips I will share it. Until then I will keep my mouth shut and try to integrate this as much as I possibly can in my training. During my short time in the beautiful world of flying I have learnt, however, how important it is to be true to yourself and appreciate the diverse approaches to safety, manoeuvres etc. that exist in this specific branch of paragliding. Knowing your own personal boundary, when to push it, when not to, is crucial to your safety and makes statement 7 possible - to close your eyes in the end of the day with a laugh and smile on your face.

When looking into Theo de Blic I went on YouTube and found video tutorials of him doing different manoeuvres - helico, misty flip, SAT/helico. I like his MISTY tutorial (link below) and combined with Horacio Llorens misty flip tutorial consisting only of video material and no audio instructions I considered myself pretty well informed and inspired. I will attach a link down below for both videos of how to perform the misty flip. 

Theo de Blic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD4XdTjcBQg

Horacio Llorens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80KguolDEyg

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I'm not sure when to begin this story nor am I certain what to write. This photo was taken in December 2015 in Puli, central Taiwan. It was late in the day and with a strong inversion layer at around 1700m. It's been days, weeks and even a month since we've been flying like we used to - everyday and every minute of every flyable hour. We had rented a small apartment that never saw daylight (so we decided to call it "the cave", very fittingly) and when we signed the contract we never expected to spend that much dead-silent, horrifying and anti-climatic time in there. We very much expected to be flying every day - me doing my "acro" runs with adjusting and fine tuning my wingovers, spiral dives and induced full frontals. Karlis, my flying partner and boyfriend, was pursuing "greater" XC goals - doing a 100k triangle in Puli vicinity. Unfortunately, I ended up having only 8 rather short flights in December. 

After around one and a half month of unstable weather in Puli we decided to move ourselves (and our 5 gliders (two of them tandems), 6 harnesses, 6 rescues and diverse instruments) to the East coast of Taiwan in a small crack called Ruyian. In Ruyian we know a skydiving buddy called Scott, whose hospitality cannot be overstated. When we fly on the East coast, we live in Scott's three stories house. Our livehood got upgraded but the weather not. With every passing day of waiting around for the rain to stop, the wind to calm down or the cloud to move away our motivation and mood deterioated with the same rate as the weather.

Flying my glider is the ultimate source of happiness as it is for me in my life right now and not being able to do just that does not just make me sad but very depressed.

The above statement makes me think of a comp. pilot I had met in Puli not long before I left who asked me if I also had "caught the bug"? Indeed I have and I could feel it in every cell of my body when I was not flying. Last time I had felt something this intensely in my life was when I did an academic diploma programme. In many ways I see a connection between my "old" me and the person I am today with my paragliding.

My dedication and devotion to becoming an acro pilot is just as fierce (and even more so) as learning e.g. linear algebra or complex numbers in my maths programme. I've taken my tools from the same kind of tool box I used when I learnt new concepts in subjects that I had difficulties understanding. Forcing myself to do a full frontal weeks after I had my first "naturally occuring" full frontal in XC. I guess it all comes down to discipline and the art of not only practising but also pracitising effectively. Sometimes I "only" practise my wingovers because I'm pussying out on my spiral dive (that is the g-forces in the maneuver) but once I do my first spiral (dive) of the day I feel much better and more encoraged and motivated to do more. 

After a little under a week on the East coast I booked a new flight ticket to Denmark to visit my family. Instead of two weeks I have decided to stay for an entire month to the delight of my friends and family. I've been gone for around 5 months and a lot has happened since I've been gone. Friends have started university, my parents have both reached retirement, my cats have grown fatter (who thought that was even possible?) and slowly it seems that we grow apart. I look at the sky with fascination, bad weather is not just bad weather anymore, forecasts are more important than ever, never so frequently have I visited YouTube to get my pg fix from Tim Alongi and Theo de Blic's beautiful flying and I get up 6 in the morning just to be alone and to get the silence I need to think clearly about my future in PG. When my friends talk about assembling IKEA furniture and how difficult it was for them, all I can think of is what I did wrong when I bommed out and when we talk about when to meet up next time, I need to cancel because, according to the forecast, that is the only day I can potentially have a window to get my glider out. I don't know how to express it clearly - not just to this blog (that only I am reading :P) but also to myself.

I think I am close to realising that paragliding is what assembles what I want from life - freedom, fun, thrill, brains and nature.

That the people surrounding the sport are just brilliant and exciting people is just a huge bonus but even if I was the only person on the planet flying around, I'd be happy as hell. Now I'm just waiting for the ground to dry up and the wind to calm itself. At the very moment it is gusting outside with 50 km/h. I used to think that Denmark is windy but now the wind has a completely different sound to its name. It's fascinating and annoying at the same time because it decides when (and even IF) I can take my glider out to handle on the ground. The chances for me to be able to coastal fly during a storym Winter month in DK within the span of one month are very slim but I still hope. Until then more vimeo and YouTube clips and planning of the Europe Acro Trip that I'm about to undertake!

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At the moment there is no flying due to crap weather. I guess it's part of being a PG pilot but it's my first dry period and it's really hard. 1.5 month without any good flying. Today I just took my glider out to let the air fill its cells and let it breathe a bit on the field. I love any kind of handling with it. #paragliding #groundhandling

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Ground handling with this beauty of a glider today. I love it. Plan is to get it by the end of January! #airG #Emilie #paragliding #acro

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Tandem acro today with my boyfriend. Best activity to do together as a couple if you ask me. 4 helicos and a couple of SATs. Booyah!

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I’ts not bad, it’s different

I will tell you right from the beginning that this entry is not solely going to be on paragliding. In this very moment I feel a strong urge to write down my thoughts, feelings and stream of consciousness. Yesterday I had two beautiful conversations with my flying partner and a “random” regular exerciser on the mountain from which we fly. It reminded me of how important and healthy it is to share one’s thoughts with others and how important it is to feel that somebody is listening. In that respect I can perhaps justify why this post is on my paragliding blog because sharing experiences, thoughts and your own personal rules or reminders when it comes to becoming a better pilot. Sometimes I wish I could be a better listener when I’m being told how I can improve certain skills in paragliding but I’m really trying to hide away my ego and whatever is in the way of my learning process. 

Confrontation is one of the things that my conversation yesterday reminded me that I’m pretty horrible at. It’s not only being confronted about mistakes that I make as a pilot (e.g. a poor take-off, bad decision-making) but also in life in general. Anger and aggression are two personality traits and tendencies that I’d hate to put myself in relation to but truth is that I can have a lot of that. In my private life it has made me regret a lot of reactions, decisions and in general created a lot of situations that I, in a calmer mind, would never have entered. In my life as a PG pilot, it’s even more horrible to succumb (because that’s in reality what you really do) to anger because it blurs your vision and ultimately your judgement. Here’s a milder example of this from yesterday: 

1. Flying in a crowded airspace. Right of way is a concept that some pilots just don’t get or will obey. That is annoying but if it doesn’t or can’t change for a reason, you have to make the best out of it. I get angry. I get aggressive in my flying. Shameful to admit but good to be confronted with because I need to be aware of it. It makes me feel edgy and very uncomfortable when I’m flying in an airspace with many tandems (who will do anything to stay aloft so on a day with less thermal activity they will do anything (anything) to own the ridge. That was the case yesterday, a Saturday, where the air was dominated by weekend-piltos and tandem paragliders. A Belgian pilot who started flying 10 years ago but had several years of no or very little airtime, which in reality makes him a weekend-pilot, was at the flying site. After 1h 15m he landed right after me and while packing we had a chat. I asked him about his flight and he was really pleased with it. I, on the contrary, was still a little agitated about pilots flying so close and causing me to yank it a few times on my brakes. He said: “But you know that they fly close, and knowing that means that you can adapt so you’re flying will still be enjoyable.” In that moment I, admittedly, felt a little silly because the guy is right. It is what you make it (unless they consciously target you with full trimmers open ;-D) and the aggitation and anger with which I fly are more likely to cause damage than the issue in the first place. I must remember this although it’s not easy for me to control myself when I’m almost furious. 

Being confronted in one way or the other is necessary. Being able to be confronted with something is even more so. My stream of consciousness is taking me to a new place now - maybe a way for me to work with my handling of being confronted with something less flattering is to compare it with one of the things that I’m recently working very hard to get right in PG: wingovers. Performing the first wingover poorly will result in weird, anti-rhythmic and badly timed wingovers until you get it right again and in general it’s just nice to get the entrance of a maneuver straight. Having said this, it doesn’t mean it’s not fixable - it will just take you longer to get it right. I guess that you can apply the same kind of thinking when it comes to confrontations. Given that there actually is something to do better, perform better or simply adjust a little to get it just right, confrontation is the first step in the problem-solving itself. Realizing that there is something wrong with the way you do things can be a painful but at the same time a very relieving experience. As with wingovers, it’s not too late to make it up to yourself (I think that this blog entry is really me trying to comprehend and digest my personal thoughts) and it’s important not to give up on that. Sometimes it can appear to other people that you are not working on yourself, your problems and things you can improve to become a better person, a better pilot, but in the end it’s all about how you feel. 

Although I may not appear to be doing so, I have a strong internal battle with myself most of the time and paragliding has helped me a lot. Not only do I feel free when I fly but I also can draw a lot of parallels between my flying and my own personal universe and that is part of the reason why I love this sport. It forces you to take a stand on many things. Just as in life in general. Sometimes things are not bad, they are just different. A newly discovered friend (this is the random, regular exerciser I mentioned in the intro) told me this saying not long ago and it applies to a lot of situations where I tend to be judgemental. Living in a different country with enormous cultural differences compared to Denmark where I am from, it can be very easy to point fingers and hate everything. This is the wrong approach. I am here because I love the diversity (although some things I really wish would be different), I love the freedom I have here and of course I love the flying. Adapt and achieve. In paragliding it would probably also be boring if everybody would be thinking and approaching the sport in the same way as me. In the end of the day I don’t and won’t learn from the people who are just like me. I learn from those who are different. 

Things just got very personal. This one was #rightinthefeels. 

/Signe 

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First fly-worthy day in more than a week! Lovely. I'm so in love with this sport. Fills me with so much joy.

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Ground handling. Yeah, about that.

Not my strong side but nothing that can’t (and shouldn’t) be fixed. Learning paragliding starts with this basic thing. If I ever get to become an instructor in paragliding (very probable as it, if done correctly, can be very profitable and it could potentially pay all shiny, new gear) I will stress the importance of ground handling to all my students. I will never explain to my students that “we learn ground handling because that’s basically how we are able to take off and land”. That is true, of course, but let’s add the word, safely, to the sentence and the equation becomes a lot more doable. It doesn’t only enable us to take off and land but also to improve on our active flying. If you know me and spend the day with me (okay, so technically if you are Kārlis) you’d know that this doesn’t really sound like me and that is correct. Imagine all pilots have got a ground handling history then mine would start with a record-hot day on the East Coast of Taiwan with a humidity too high to be mentioned here and a pilot who’s waaaay too impatient and even aggresive to make any further progress in handling the glider on the ground. Well, to be fair, I cannot think of anything more uncomfortable to be doing on a frying-hot day. But I have to. Because I suck at it and I want to optimize the safety of my take-offs and my glider control in the sky. I am sure than once I really nail it, it will not be as ill-fated of a subject to me as it is at the very moment. Until then I will have to be smart about it and make some kind of game plan - in other words I need to be disciplined to become a better, safer and thus more skillful paragliding pilot. So here’s what I did today:

Although the last couple of days have been rather mentally tough for me and as a result I suspect I am getting a cold, I still decided to go to “my” kiting field and try my best. On my way back from eating chocolate cake and drinking kiwi smoothie (and trying to convince one of the staff members at the cafe to be victim of my English tutuoring :p) I felt the breeze was stronger than usual. I looked at my watch and it was 15.56. That’d mean 5 min to get back to the house, 5 min spent on the toilet, getting my gear on the back and 7 min drive on scooter to the kiting field (well, it took me 12 min today - nothing stops traffic more than a police car) I’d have approximately 30 min to kite and 10 min to pack before sun would go down. I was thinking “It’s not worth it, Signe.. Come on. 30 min. Not worth it.” Not long ago I had a conversation on Whatsapp with a Slovenian pilot, young as well, who has an interesting “flashing light”-theory in terms of accidents. I will get into that in another entry but basically it’s about receiving signs. Maybe the stronger wind in my face on the way back from eating cake in a cafe was a sign that I should go ground handle and face what I don’t like. Silly or not, I decided to go and I had a great time by myself.  

My ground handling was by far not great today, but I’m getting there. If my progress did not lay in ground handling itself, it definitely lied in actually going and deciding to give it a shot. My purpose of this blog is to share thoughts and experiences between pilots - all in the hope of improving and becoming wiser pilots. Well, sometimes you’ve got to do the stuff you don’t like and I do think that once I’m good at keeping the glider over my head, I’ll enjoy it a lot more. I just need to work with myself to get there. Luckily I have a pilot as a partner and he is great at it and won’t rest my case if I don’t get to his level. Good for me that if I fail to remind myself that this is something I need to work on, I have someone in my life who will not stop nagging and bothering me (all good intentions, that is) until I reach my goal.

I’m thinking of quantifying my ground handling goal. In my Business and Management study I learnt that companies (and in specific sales divisions) are quantifying their goals and objectives. If I translate that to PG-language and particularly ground handling, I could e.g. have a goal stating that: “I want to have 20 ground handling hours by the end of this month” To make it even easier for myself, I am thinking of making a calender on an A4 paper and drawing a column for every day in the next month and state how many minutes/hours I want to accomplish during that specific day. By the end of the day I can tick off whether or not I have achieved what I wanted. Just a thought. A local pilot here in Taiwan once told me that “paragliding, of all sports, is the most individual sport and everyone learns, develops and comes through in their own way.” I really like how he perceives paragliding because it expresses the ultimate freedom that this sports represents - at least that’s how I interpret his clever words. It is what you make it. Ultimately, it is the pilot him- (or her) self who makes the decisions that will decide what will happen next. The pilot will suffer or enjoy the consequences and that is a very valuable thought to me.

Keep thinking and keep learning,

/Signe

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My first forward inflation.

This picture was taken April this year in Pokhara, Nepal. Funny how things have turned out. Running around like a chicken (really, yeah) with this old piece of fabric was a rather frustrating experience and I didn’t give much credit to paragliding. Today I look slightly better (not too much better, though, haha) when I do my forwards but I will always prefer the reverse method because of the advantages of being able to actually visiually check the glider.

Well, where to begin… I can start with my attitude. As you can probably see in this picture, my face is one big wrinkle. I have been frustrated with myself ever since I started training and trying to improve in PG. Whenever things don’t go my way, I hate myself and immediately think I’m a bad PG pilot. That not only makes me a bad pilot but also a bad learner in general. When studying I also gave myself a hard time everytime I failed - even when I started Further Mathetmatics and more advanced calculus (that’s a tough bitch to put it mildly :p) I didn’t cut myself some slack when I did bad. On the contrary I pushed myself until I excelled. It sounds all heroic and really.. it wasn’t. I did, however, never give up and nor will I do in paragliding.

 A difference is to be drawn between learning mathematics and paragliding and that is the physical aspect. Worst case when practicing e.g. calculus for too long, your head will start hurting and you will automatically stop to practice and that’s the hurdle. With paragliding and when practicing inflations or ground handling, the physical exhaustion can be a real thing. When I practiced ground handling a lot (I peaked one month ago, wups) it was 35 degrees and the sweat was real. I got very annoyed by the sweat in my eyes, dehydration and also not being able to keep my glider up. Once it clicked for me what ground handling’s all about, it helped a lot (and I stopped - shame on me) but I do believe that that point could have been reached a lot earlier if it wasn’t for my bad attitude and frustration. Frustration and ground handling do not go hand in hand. Especially for me.

I still have that look on my face whenever things don’t go my way. Today I tried to ground handle on take off (which is basically a cliff launch, where the wind is stronger higher up) and I did the exact same mistake as yesterday where I sprained my wrist. The moment the glider was up, the wind got stronger (because of the cliff-like characteristics of the take-off) and I even suspect that I got a little gust, and I braked too much and the glider (in collaboration with the wind) picked me up. Up I go, down I look and eventually -- down I slam. Writing this I remind myself how my instructor in Spain told me “wherever you look, you’ll fly”. Well:

Was I flying? Yes, I was flying because I got picked up and hence airborne.

Was I looking down? Yes, according to my partner.

Was it, then, weird that things went wrong? NO.

I reflect upon whether or not I should keep having this kind of thinking. It’s a nice little deduction and when I put it this way to myself, it’s super simple. The rest of my ground handling that afternoon was pretty bad because I started off badly and continue with a bad attitude the moment things don’t go the way I want. Obvious lesson I need to learn.

Keep thinking and keep learning,

/SIgne

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For the better and for the worse, this statement becomes true. 

Yesterday I witnessed a tragic, bot not fatal, accident on take-off at my regular flying site. Sitting with what I believed (and feared) to be a broken wrist, I watched the pilot come in attempting a top-landing on a day where I had just gotten raped by the wind (because my ground handling falls short and I did opposite of what I should when the glider picks you up). Forgetting everything about my wrist I stood up from the chair before the accident happened and yelled at my buddy, who hadn’t seen what was about to happen. Half a second later, you could hear the whip the glider received and I saw the pilot crashing from 10m. I didn’t understand the severity of the incident before I came closer and saw that the pilot was not moving. For one second I feared to find a dead pilot (in which case I would not have known how to react) but instead I found an extremely brave and calm (but scared) pilot with what later turned out to be a burst vertebra and heel. I had met the guy the day before - friendly, talkative and aeroplane pilot as profession. A lot can happen in a second.  

 Two days before witnessing the accident, I had read an article by an American columnist called David Brooks. The article was an outtake from his non-fictional book, “The Road To Character”, and is by far the most inspirational article I’ve ever read. In my own personal notebook, I scribbled down a quote, which reads: “The good person lets the sufferer define the meaning of what is going on. Always have an out-stretched arm - ready to receive and offer assistance.” Karlis, my partner, was with the fallen pilot and me and as he inspected the pilot, I just held his hand and squeezed it occasionally. I cannot really offer any valuable medical attention in a situation like this but mental support and just being there and breathing with the person suffering, seemed to have a positive effect. Of course the content of this blog is supposed to surround paragliding and being a PG pilot but realizing that accidents are part of this sport and sharing thoughts on how to deal with them can perhaps justify why I go off on a different node. I am no expert (and hopefully never will be) in how to handle a real life-threatning situation but I do believe that reflecting upon what is happening around you is very important. 

  For that pilot, a lot happened in a second. Tomorrow, who knows, I will maybe experience an accident. Having been exposed to the paragliding world for only two and a half month, I believe that witnessing accidents of this caliber is somehwat healthy. Please do not get me wrong. I do not wish accidents for fellow pilots but when they do happen, let’s learn from them and let them leave such a shock in our bodies that we will not let the same thing happen to us.  My partner in private and in paragliding says that I’m a bold type and I am a cocky pilot. Two labels that I hate to identify myself with as a PG pilot, however, I can see where he comes from when he tells me that. Here’s two reasons why:

Once it clicked for me in ground handling (that is when I felt the magic of e.g. moving under the glider, the whole hips-game when inflating and even braking the right side) I stopped doing it. I suck at ground handling but my take offs are not marginal. I wait for the right wind (straight and not too strong) and never takes off in a gust - unless the gust is not too strong - and don’t take off if the wind is completely crossed. This is not the right attitude and I have a hard time facing that because I can perfectly fine take off now (until that one second where everything can change for me and I have an accident) and fly for hours and have fun. Why should I ground handle when I can take off as it is now? Well, to be honest I hate to confront myself with this, but the better pilot would keep working on his skill, his craft, until he masters it in any conditions worth taking off in. Instead of me being smart about when taking off (waiting for the right wind etc.) and counting on nature doing as it used to (which everyone knows is not the case), I should master the handling of my glider so that my wrist will remain safe and sound and likewise for the rest of my body.   

I am a cocky pilot because I keep decreasing the minimum altitude I have set under which I will not perform any wingovers. Since I came to Puli (where I fly now) I have worked on full frontals, assymetrics and wingovers. I have built up some nice wingovers and now I work on making a dynamic exit where I go from wingovers to an entrance to a spiral and of course exiting the spiral. As I increasingly get my wingovers bigger I, for some strange (read: impatient) reason compromise with my safety by accepting lower and lower min. altitudes for when I should start my manuevers. Why? Because I’m impatient and overrestimate my luck and skill. If things decide to go wrong and I get an assymetric collapse, which goes into an uncontrolled spin (not likely to happen on my En-A, Adam) I have very little tolerance for my rescue. Will it deploy in time and will I throw it correctly? What if it doesn’t? Will it be worth it? No. I will have to be aware of my boldness and bad risk management. What’s the rush? 

What I’m really trying to express is how scared I am of how real it can all become in one second. Something to chew on, think about, digest and consider. If a serious accident like this pilot’s were to happen to me I will focus on remaining as calm, strong and patient as him. Top landing can be dangerous and atm I only make my attempts, when the wind is subtle and laminar, which is around the time where the whole system shuts down. 

It only takes one time. 

/Signe 

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Golden tips from Ozone

Not long ago I was going through some of Ozone’s articles on their webpage, www.flyozone.com. Frankly I didn’t expect to have that good of a read but casually scrolling around their site wouldn’t hurt anyone. As a beginner you’ll come across Ozone’s gliders endlessly - a lot of praise is given by the general PG community all over the globe and their Shark Nose Technology has come pretty far in terms of innovation. In many aspects it is my impression that Ozone is a legit company. Airg just has my attention a lot more though since they produce the Emily glider, which I can easily see myself buy when I really get into acro. I’m super excited about where I’ll be in terms of flying in a year - with the amount of hours I do atm and with my dedication and commitment I imagine myself engaging in acro. I dream about competing in competitions but first and foremost I must get my flying hours and get top-fit for regular flying in general. 

Off-point that was! 

What I actually intended with my entry was this interesting article written by Rob from the Ozone team. Here is a link: 

http://www.flyozone.com/paragliders/en/infozone/tips-and-advice/dealing-with-deflations/

The title suggests that the article only deals with how to deal with deflations but as I read it, it turns out that it touches upon so much more than that. Below is some sections (even just short sentences) that appealed to me a lot and made me think. They would make more sence if you actually read the article yourself, however, for me these sentences make a lot of sence: 

“Check the weather”

Well, for the better half of my flying adventure I’ve relied on my own shitty (wups) predictions, which most of the time turn out to be pretty Goddamn wrong. I’ve also relied on my PG buddy’s (who’s a very experienced pilot) predictions, which were better but still not as precise as a weather chart or governmental (or whatever source you use) will be. Especially if planning for longer XC, it makes sense to check the weather from as many different sources as possible. Obviously. 

“Your ego and desires are your worse enemies” 

Couldn’t be more precise if you ask me. My first XC attempt (which ended with an 18.2km flat triangle) was a culmination of ignorance (I had no idea of what stronger conditions feel like) and a need to prove myself to the new site I was flying at. I believe that me going to Goundau, the mountain I went to to get high for my XC, was an expression for my need to get out of my regular flying around take-off but unfortunately also because I felt I needed to prove that I am a fast-progressing beginner pilot who dares to go to the strong mountain. All ended good but I am really working on not getting into dangerous situations that I cannot handle because of my ego and desires. Nowadays it’s more expressed when I’m flying with my flying buddy who is four years more experienced than me and flies big XC here in Taiwan. When we’re flying in the same area I am so focused on getting closer to that thermal core than him, which, obviously, also is a good thing because we help to push each other to become better. I am just trying to be aware of the fact that pushing myself more in XC because of a stupid invisble line of rivalry can potentially become very dangerous. Also there is no doubt that I’m not the better pilot. 

“All the warning signs but you still continue”

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. As a beginner with less than 10 hours of experience I reminisce back to when I let other people decide whether or not it was possible for me to take off. Not gonna happen anymore. I have taken off with two riser twists due to complete confusion and rush on take-off and I learnt my lesson the nice way and not the way that people break their back and cannot fly for ages. Here in Puli where I fly now, a lot of pilots have difficulties taking off (it’s a completely other story, though) and the least thing you would want is the other pilots getting impatient with you because your take-off is not happening. Follow your gut. Don’t take-off if you don’t feel like it. Don’t let anyone tell you where to go, where to take off, where to land, where to thermal etc. Take it in and base your decision upon the advice you’ve been given but most importantly listen to your gut. I have failed to do that a couple of times and ignoring the feeling in my stomach only makes me a worse pilot sitting on the edge of the seatboard.  

“Only react if you understand the situation so you can be sure that your reaction is the correct one”

Not long ago I had my first non-simulated full frontal that happened to me in a 5.5 m/s thermal bubble on my second XC attempt. First off, I ignored all the warning signs that I shouldn’t go that day because conditions were considerably stronger than usual and the pocket of the mountain I went to also happened to be a nice convergence zone of two ridges, which means that both thermic and dynamic activity would converge right there where I was. I was lucky to have tried to pull my own full frontals in training so I knew what sensations to expect but it was still a very bad experience for me. I felt the glider surge and I was ready to catch it (as in normal pitch) but did it too late. I looked up (another mistake) and the glider had a nice, strong whip pretty close to the trailing edge. In that moment I knew that the frontal wasn’t small scale but luckily my glider is. My EN-A recovers from deflations almost faster than I can react, which makes it a super nice beginner glider for the bold types. On a higher-end glider this would not have been the case without the correct pilot inputs so although I have a glider, which is very forgiving I will have to consider this point in the future. 

“Throw your reserve if you are low and out of control”

This one I have in the back of my mind whenever I fly. Whenever a bad situation happens (they haven’t really occured to me that much unless I do my wingovers too big without outside brake) I need to mentally prepare myself that the moment I am low and the situation and glider are out of control, I need to pull that handle. I suspect that there is some heroic influence on why this point is mentioned in the original article written by Ozone. I suspect that some pilots find it heroic not to pull that handle unless they’re in total deep shit in which case the reserve may be too late. I hope that’s not the case but at the minimum this point reminded me that I have a reserve I can use (and SHOULD) in case I cannot fix it myself. I highly doubt this will be the case with my EN-A. 

What I like about most of Rob’s points of view is that he is a humble pilot. He does not seem to need to proof anything to anyone. He admits his mistakes, shares them and try to become a better pilot. As a test pilot he has been in some alarming situations, which I have not, and his thoughts are very interesting for anyone interested in reading about not only how to deal with deflations but also how to avoid having them in the first place. 

Oh, and here is a link again: 

http://www.flyozone.com/paragliders/en/infozone/tips-and-advice/dealing-with-deflations/

/Signe 

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Me with my Adam. 

This is the first glider I ever bought. Brand new and with Bruce Goldsmith’s SNUG harness and Oops rescue, too. Super stoked about my new gear and the joy got even bigger once I learnt how to fly and handle him. I received him around August 2015. Not really in the colour that I wanted the most (this is the Apple colour and I would rather have had the Sunflower, however it wasn’t in stock) but that is secondary. Super smooth and easy to control. Not easy to get in trouble with this EN-A glider. 

Recovers well from everything that I’ve ever tried on it - simulated full frontals, one full frontal which WAS NOT initiated by me (I got it on my second XC attempt on it) and plenty of assymetrics. Another pilot tried to stall it, which required hands down to an unreasonable length. All in all the perfect match for a beginner pilot.  

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A paragliding pilot

My very first entry. Welcome to my blog, High For this.

I believe that a brief introduction of myself is in its right place. My full name is Signe Lillienskjold Knudsen and if I am to define myself using only a few words, it’d be a paragliding pilot. To me that word means so much more than launching a fairly light aircraft into the sky and landing satisfied after whatever the length of the flight. It first and foremost means commitment, discipline and having respect for the air in which you fly.

When I first entered the world of paragliding (around April 2015) I thought the sport mostly consisted of a bunch of crazy-heads hanging in a seat some fair amount of meters above ground level. I was, however, aware of the fact that without the existence of a motor, the pilots should know something about what surrounds them - the laws of aerodynamics, general physics and the weather. That I later in this story would become as addicted and fascinated as I am at present time, I would never have guessed. Looking back it does not surprise me that I have ended up this way. I have always loved the idea of discipline and the concept of advancing oneself and it seems that paragliding just summons all that - the physics, the brains and a fair share of luck.

With my 40 hours and 5 minutes of flying in the sky I have come to the conclusion that pride and a certain reluctance to face that one can always become a better pilot are very toxic thoughts, which will never do you any good. On the contrary my observation is that the pilots, who acknowledge that there is always room for improvement and learning from ones own and, even more effectively, other pilots’ mistakes are the ones that excel and stay safe in the sky, which ultimately is every person’s goal. I have seen what it can indirectly do to pilots who don’t keep their learning perspective and periphery as wide as possible and by this blog I hope that I can encourage the pilots who will read my entries to at least include another experience the next time they make a decision when flying. At the minimum it will force me to consider what kind of paragliding pilot I am when I fly (I’ll be satisfied with that) because the pilot that I would be the least happy to share the sky with is an inconsiderate one.

/Signe