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Powered Paragliding Ontario - Paramotoring PPG course - May 16 and 19/03May 16, 2003. Ground paraglider handling with Paul:When we hooked up with Paul, the field was soaked. Luckily the glider was always resting on top of the grass so the only thing that was getting wet were our feet. After helping Paul inflate and strolling through pool of water 6 inches deep I have decided to hang my socks to dry therefore creating new Guinness book world record for the most expensive sock dryer...
I have put my big boots on, sun was out and life was good. We have worked hard - winds were light and variable. Forward inflations, reverse inflations, glider collapsing, glider not collapsing, left brake, A's, wrong brake, brakes up, too much brakes, stop running, go with the feel, do not look up - go with the feel, eyes on the horizon, too much A's, less A's, more body tension, run, run, stop and collapse, turn, turn....
Paul, mentally preparing for reverse inflation....
Good few hours - lots accomplished. Paul is realy getting hang of it.... May 19, 2003. Powered training + XC flight with Jim: After spending great weekend with bunch of PPG pilots me and Jim had planed to meet on Monday and finish of the required time for his license. We have arrived at the field around 3 pm and wind and weather conditions were excellent. Jim did not hesitate and quickly completed 4 flights. His landings were perfect and he no longer needed my verbal guidance.
Perfect take off. One of many that day.
Low pas - up wind of course.
We have also have practiced some more radical and emergency maneuvers such as....
.....steep bank turns. Left at full power, right at less power......
.....small big ears and big ears + spiral dive. I must say Jim is now very competent pilot - he has completed all maneuvers without hesitation.
Landing approach - perfect landing again.
After Jim finished these 4 flights all we had to do was to complete XC flight. I said "Jim how about we fly by the Niagara Falls?" Jim goes "Sure that would be nice." Refuel Jim's Spider and my XC plus, grab cell phone, money, make sure our radios are working and off we go. Jim has forward launched and was flying around waiting for me to take off. There was absolutely no wind!
I took couple more pics. Get ready, surge, glider goes up straight, apply brakes, apply power, run, run, few quick steps and I am in the air as well.....
I have my camera with me ready to document our XC flight so here is few pics...
Sun setting over Welland river. Our heading - Niagara Falls. Jim, I did not know you were this photogenic.... ;-) We have ascended to 3000 ft as anyone flying under this height has to talk to the Niagara One helicopters. OK, we are high enough, let go by the Falls. I am staying on the left hand side and from my perspective, it looks like Jim is right over the Falls!!! This makes me a little nervous so I get on the radio and say "Jim, do not go right over the falls, stay on the left shore! Give me a left turn!" For few seconds nothing happens and the finally Jim's glider starts to turn. Uffff, I feel better. Ok Jim, do not do this to me....
All of the sudden, it is getting dark very quickly since sun is already down. I radio Jim to tell him that we are going to turn and head back to our field. I turn immediately and assume that we will penetrate just as well as on our way here since there was NO wind when we took off. I look down and observe my ground speed. No way!!!... I am not penetrating at all!!! This is no good. This is a second time I am caught right by the Niagara Falls not being able to move.... I am stuck right over the city this time though I have student with me.....
OK keep cool. Do not let your voice show that our XC is not quite going as planned. I say "Jim, it got bit windy, I want you to release your speed bar and apply it fully. Also we are going to descend to 1500 ft ASL. Hopefully the wind will not be as strong." I wait for Jim to copy back, but there is no answer...."Jim, I want you to talk to me! Jim where are you? Talk to me! Jim, can you see me? I can not see you!" OK this is scary. I look around for Jim, but I can not see him anywhere.... "Andre" says Jim, "I could not talk back, I was getting my speed bar ready. What are we going to do?" Good question. I did not say this out loud of course as not to scary Jim. I said we are going to descend and see if the wind is any weaker down below. So we did. Same velocity of wind! But since we were closer to the ground I can see that we are penetrating but only at about 5 km/h. It was clear to me that we are not going to make it back to the field. Ok, lets see what are our options: We can turn down wind and fly past city of Niagara Falls and land at golf course by Niagara Gorge. I know the area there and it would work just fine. We can pick an emergency landing zone within city limits and land. I did not like this plan as it was getting real dark and often there is power lines and other things on fields in the city + I did not want to create too much commotion by landing our powered paragliders downtown Niagara Falls. I like the third option best. Instead of trying to fly back to the field lets fly west to the outskirts where I saw large farm fields - perfect for a precautionary landing. I told this to Jim and he copied. We have also decided to fly close together as not to lose sight of each other. 20 min later we are out of NF and circling over a large farm field right next to a new subdivision. I have descended to 20 ft AGL, and looked around to see if there is anything we should be afraid of such as ditches, hidden wires, swampy areas etc. It was very weird as at around 300 ft AGL the temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees. It felt like flying into a freezer. Also there was no wind below 300 ft AGL. Ok, it all looks good "Jim I am going to land!" I said and shut the motor off. Easy landing in no wind conditions. I told Jim the field is OK and Jim executed perfect landing as well. We could see a few cars stopping not believing their eyes. Did these two guys just dropped from skies??!!! We have gathered our gliders and walked 300 ft to a side road. I have called for taxi and we waited for it to show up.
We were both pretty adrenaline pumped. Jim because this was totally new experience for him and me from worrying whether Jim will be able to handle him self in such situation. Well I did not have to worry as Jim handled him self like a real pro. Good work Jim. The taxi showed up and rest of the evening was rather uneventful. I picked up my car and trailer, drove back to pick up Jim. Back to the field, transfer Jim's gear from my trailer to his car and that was it. We just keep chuckling and repeating, what an adventure, what an adventure..... A few things that I have learned from this student - instructor cross country (XC) flight experience:
Take care and watch your ground speed. Andre _________________________________________________________________________ |
