Tuesday, October 31, 2006
A great collection of links
http://www.circlinghawk.com/links.html - links to all things paragliding/flying.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Heading home...
So, today was the last day of fun and flying for us in Oludeniz. Forecast was not promising but proved to be completely wrong and at 10 am the acro truck was heading up the hill again! The flight today was probably one of my favorites - was able not only start and hold a respectable heli but stopped and reversed direction, then did some REAL wingovers. Wow. Nothing like seeing your own shadow on the bottom of your glider with the sun just past noon. I was WELL over the glider riding and finally well controlling any wingtip collapses with no problem.
Got a little low over the water, though which made me a bit extra cautious for the second flight - so I decided to just enjoy the view, watch Mike Kung and Mendo take a turn at "combat kiting" on top of Babadag in quite strong winds and take some really nice pictures (to come when I am back in New York).
After saying out good byes at the hotel to the Vertigo crew headed back to Istanbul. Ramadhan is over so the city greeted us relatively coldly, with empty streets and a 70 lira kebab... that should teach us to as for the prices ahead of time! Back to New York at 7 am... Till next time.
Got a little low over the water, though which made me a bit extra cautious for the second flight - so I decided to just enjoy the view, watch Mike Kung and Mendo take a turn at "combat kiting" on top of Babadag in quite strong winds and take some really nice pictures (to come when I am back in New York).
After saying out good byes at the hotel to the Vertigo crew headed back to Istanbul. Ramadhan is over so the city greeted us relatively coldly, with empty streets and a 70 lira kebab... that should teach us to as for the prices ahead of time! Back to New York at 7 am... Till next time.
Friday, October 27, 2006
...blown out today...
Oh, well. Can't have it all all the time... Strong winds (up to 90 km/h) on Babadag today stopped essentially all the flying outside of a few stragglers. Did take one ride to the lower launch with Mendo, Maria and a few other pilots but to no avail. Winds switched soon after out take off and Mike Kung radioed to us from the landing that winds are way too strong to maintain safe flight and landing. We packed up after a bit of a wait and on the way back started to have real fun. One of the Romanian pilots found a pomegranate tree and we robbed it silly. Then we spent the ride down getting sprayed by the brilliantly red juice and making the truck a sticky mess. Just as we got to the beach another announcement over the PA requested the acro pilots to go back up... SO, the hardest decision in flying is when NOT to fly. This was definitely one of those times.
I decided to stay back when about a half of the acro show contingent headed up. After an hour long wait at the beach while sipping out beer and taking pictures they finally announced that the conditions on top were not safe and no one was able to launch... Just one more day left but the forecast may not prove friendly enough. No worries, this has been quite an adventure already. Flying tomorrow would be a bonus.
I decided to stay back when about a half of the acro show contingent headed up. After an hour long wait at the beach while sipping out beer and taking pictures they finally announced that the conditions on top were not safe and no one was able to launch... Just one more day left but the forecast may not prove friendly enough. No worries, this has been quite an adventure already. Flying tomorrow would be a bonus.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Having fun and doing acro!
Incredible (as a good friend puts it)... CB, wish you were here! Anyhow, the party is just getting started. After a day of acro maneuvers the small contingent of acro pilots voted to move on to free style acro show. I am still getting amazing amount of feedback on my flying from all - pilots in the group include Pál and Gabor<>www.justacro.com, Mahony of Turkey and a few others whos full names I am still to get.
Tonight we had a fun communal dinner with all the Acro pilots (some of the best in the world!) and Vertigo International contingent.
Today was also quite memorable for two things - my continued efforts to learn the Helico from oral instruction initially resulted in an iinadvertentpractice of severe cravat recovery but on my third run after additional feedback from Mendo I finally got it! A controlled Helicopter! Will keep practicing to make it consistent... Then there was a brief opening ceremony with the acro pilots standing in for pictures - will do my best to get that picture to post.
Anyhow, must sleep and get ready for the free style acro tomorrow!
Tonight we had a fun communal dinner with all the Acro pilots (some of the best in the world!) and Vertigo International contingent.
Today was also quite memorable for two things - my continued efforts to learn the Helico from oral instruction initially resulted in an iinadvertentpractice of severe cravat recovery but on my third run after additional feedback from Mendo I finally got it! A controlled Helicopter! Will keep practicing to make it consistent... Then there was a brief opening ceremony with the acro pilots standing in for pictures - will do my best to get that picture to post.
Anyhow, must sleep and get ready for the free style acro tomorrow!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Festival is on!
Wow, things are getting really fun. 7th Babadag International Airgames are on! As per usual, the better the flying, the fewer the pictures but this time for a different (good) reason. Last night as I was registering for the festival I decided to check the "competing"/acro box. As one of the clerks put it - "do you best, have fun and if not... well we got the rescue boats!"
Started the morning by joining the acro pilot briefing and ended up sitting around a very small table with Felix Rodriguez of the famous SAT team, Mendo Veljanovski of Macedonia and a few others that I will add once I get the correct spellings/countries etc. To my utter surprise the number of acro competitors was under 10 - all I have to do is qualify! Now, that might be easier said then done...
The compulsory program by consensus of all present - as the number of competitors was low the decision was made to let the pilots make the flying as fun, safe and exciting to watch as possible. Felix assisted the judges with finer points of judging by going first and pointing the intricacies of newer maneuvers and transitions to the judges. SO, the compulsory program included the following in that order:
Helicopter
Wingovers
Asymmetric Spiral
Asymmetric SAT
Dynamic Stall
Tailslide
On the ride up one of the Turkish pilots noticed a cheat-sheet pasted to my flight suit and asked to consult with it. I had to point out to him that I have excluded Helicopter because I don't know how to perform that maneuver. At which point Felix said that I should try anyway, especially if I know all the other elements - i.e. tailslide, full stall etc. that can make the entry and recovery safe. So, there I am on a truck up to Babadag with Felix and Mendo teaching me how to do a heli! Does not come any funner than this! (for those not quite as excited - compare this experience with getting pointers from Andre Agassi on your serve :-))
Oh, I did forgot to mention, earlier in the day we had a practice run during which I got uncomfortably close to seriously messing up my full stall entry. Nothing like seeing ALL the lines of your glider go slack and violently falling under the glider, with no way to control the surge. Ouch.
SO. I also mentioned to the competitors that I have recently acquired http://www.psychiatry.aero and would really like to hear their opinions and ways of handling risk. This developed into several very interesting conversations. Needless to say, as I have suspected before - only one out of ten was joking around when conversation turn to the subject of risk and safety. Mendo probably put it best - "I am not brave. I fear death. That fear keeps me safe... ...if fear is not working something is wrong with that pilot... ...familiarity with the real risks and continuous practicing of the maneuvers prepares you to handle emergencies and decreases fear. Once familiarity is gone fear should and does return." Though a few pilots in the group have done other risky/adventurous sports not all have pushed themselves to the same limits in those endeavours... nonetheless most handle the issue in a similar way - practice, watch others and learn from each maneuver - good or bad to learn how to push the envelope in minuscule incremental and safe steps to get better as a group.
My qualifying run was fun. I did not get to do a heli - did manage to get about 3/4 of a turn with simple and clean exit - which will hopefully give me confidence to keep practicing and get this down. The rest of the maneuvers went smoothly with wingovers getting over the 90 degree angle with no collapses... and landing to a sizable crowd with Vertigo International cheering at the top of their lungs was definitely fun! I will know if I qualified by tomorrow noon - and will keep you posted!
Meanwhile, Othmar, Steve and Marko are doing 2 hours thermalling flights above the stunning scenery - but I am sure they will tell you all about it themselves! Another thing - great set of useful/interesting paragliding links http://www.circlinghawk.com/links.html
Started the morning by joining the acro pilot briefing and ended up sitting around a very small table with Felix Rodriguez of the famous SAT team, Mendo Veljanovski of Macedonia and a few others that I will add once I get the correct spellings/countries etc. To my utter surprise the number of acro competitors was under 10 - all I have to do is qualify! Now, that might be easier said then done...
The compulsory program by consensus of all present - as the number of competitors was low the decision was made to let the pilots make the flying as fun, safe and exciting to watch as possible. Felix assisted the judges with finer points of judging by going first and pointing the intricacies of newer maneuvers and transitions to the judges. SO, the compulsory program included the following in that order:
Helicopter
Wingovers
Asymmetric Spiral
Asymmetric SAT
Dynamic Stall
Tailslide
On the ride up one of the Turkish pilots noticed a cheat-sheet pasted to my flight suit and asked to consult with it. I had to point out to him that I have excluded Helicopter because I don't know how to perform that maneuver. At which point Felix said that I should try anyway, especially if I know all the other elements - i.e. tailslide, full stall etc. that can make the entry and recovery safe. So, there I am on a truck up to Babadag with Felix and Mendo teaching me how to do a heli! Does not come any funner than this! (for those not quite as excited - compare this experience with getting pointers from Andre Agassi on your serve :-))
Oh, I did forgot to mention, earlier in the day we had a practice run during which I got uncomfortably close to seriously messing up my full stall entry. Nothing like seeing ALL the lines of your glider go slack and violently falling under the glider, with no way to control the surge. Ouch.
SO. I also mentioned to the competitors that I have recently acquired http://www.psychiatry.aero and would really like to hear their opinions and ways of handling risk. This developed into several very interesting conversations. Needless to say, as I have suspected before - only one out of ten was joking around when conversation turn to the subject of risk and safety. Mendo probably put it best - "I am not brave. I fear death. That fear keeps me safe... ...if fear is not working something is wrong with that pilot... ...familiarity with the real risks and continuous practicing of the maneuvers prepares you to handle emergencies and decreases fear. Once familiarity is gone fear should and does return." Though a few pilots in the group have done other risky/adventurous sports not all have pushed themselves to the same limits in those endeavours... nonetheless most handle the issue in a similar way - practice, watch others and learn from each maneuver - good or bad to learn how to push the envelope in minuscule incremental and safe steps to get better as a group.
My qualifying run was fun. I did not get to do a heli - did manage to get about 3/4 of a turn with simple and clean exit - which will hopefully give me confidence to keep practicing and get this down. The rest of the maneuvers went smoothly with wingovers getting over the 90 degree angle with no collapses... and landing to a sizable crowd with Vertigo International cheering at the top of their lungs was definitely fun! I will know if I qualified by tomorrow noon - and will keep you posted!
Meanwhile, Othmar, Steve and Marko are doing 2 hours thermalling flights above the stunning scenery - but I am sure they will tell you all about it themselves! Another thing - great set of useful/interesting paragliding links http://www.circlinghawk.com/links.html
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The better the flying, the less energy left to write...
Great day today, got another 3 flights off Babadag, finally getting the hang of wingovers and working them into my little bit of an acro routine. SO, today's programme went as follows - started with a negative spin, (oh, and for explanation of all the terminology below go to Acromania website) then to full stall to tail slide to left SAT with a coconut spin (Gorilla was happy) to right SAT to aggressive wingovers to asymetric spiral to spiral to wingovers to spot landing! Very respectable for an amateur.
As you can see clouds still rolled in with force but we were able to sneak right around them getting to launch just in time, waiting out a bit of a shower with some Turkish tea and olives and going up again and again. The competition is starting tomorrow, so let the fun begin! ...off to get the early registration done.
Oh, and to our pregnant friends - we love you and thinking of you and everybody wishes you were here! And Carol - yes they are! and that's why we love them!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Finally!!!
Ok, lack of lengthy and numerous posts can mean only one thing - we finally started flying like we were supposed to! 3 flıghts today, new frıends and new pıctures. Wıll have to keep thıs message somewhat short because I am usıng a Turkısh keyboard and some letters and punctuatıon are dıfferent - ever so slıghtly but enough to really screw wıth my touch typıng...
Were up at 8 and on the shuttle headıng up the mountain at 9. Took the first nıce flıght of the day from the stunnıng 6500 ft takeoff on top of the famed Babadag mountaın. After chattıng Steve up on the radıo to get hım to do some nıce spırals proceeded to warm up wıth seriously big wingovers. ; After gettıng a few collapses and apprecıatıng fınally realizing what a real wingover is supposed to look like started gaining a wee bit of conrol, winding up some nice spirals and generally feeling out the wing after the 2 months in New York with nearly no flying at all.
After a landing right near the camera man and ending up with my mug on the usual evening screening at the Cloud 9 was ready to head back up the hill... only to realize that my wing had a weard rip on it! The rip looked like someone stepped on it. With three sharp toenails. After a bit of investigative reasoning we figured it out - Clifford! Yes, the last time the wing saw any real action was at Fred's and Daniel's wedding in New York some month and a half ago when their dog Clifford ran into my wing and apparently left quite a mark! SO, now a bit of patch work and 10 Turkish lira later I was ready to go again.
This time the top was getting clouded in and we decided to take the shuttle to the lower launch, only (!) 3000 ft. ...and even that came with it's share of clouds... but after a short wait and hanging out with some visiting Russian pilots we were in business again. One of the pilots was a girl by the name of Yulia - when I add pictures you'd be able to appreciate this to the fullest extent. In short - she is an amputee with her left arm going just past her elbow. She uses a custom made prosthesis with a carabiner on the end of it to hold on to the steering toggle. Incredible. Watching her make a perfect take off and landing in pretty difficult conditions is quite a treat. She quickly made friends with our Blue Gorrila (once again, will add pictures soon!)
Some of the old faces Seçıl - the photographer from the last year's AirGames, Mendo - the Macedonian acro guru and a few others made their appearences.
Third flight was probably the funnest of the bunch - we drove up the mountain on the last truck going up, nearly the full complement of club Vertigo - driving thru massive clouds at 2000 ft and finally coming above the cloud base just a few hundred feet below launch. But that's where the situation was a bit more challenging. At any given moment, for nearly an hour and a half we could either see where we are going thru the clouds below... or have the right wind to go. Finally after the wait and running from one side of the hill to the other in the first window off I go! Incredible to fly out in the day... and be over the town in the night. The usual 30-40 minute flight lasted just enough to enjoy a beautiful sunset from the sky and land... only to realize that nearly everyone else was able to launch after me... So, now things got really interesting as the sky progressed to be darker and darker and several of the students finally made it to the dark beach with lights of the beach restaurants serving as the landing strip. Bobo and Joka were last. Well, Bobo had a bit of an interesting landing - with his feet touching ground just about 10 ft into the surf. His wing, reserve and him got soaked but he was quickly out of the water.
Joka on the other hand seemed in no hurry to land. His yellow and white glider was lit up by the town lights and cruised thru the starry sky - incredible. Finally all on the ground we had to go wash Bobo's glider and after a few false starts we finally accomplished the task... stuffing the wing in Marko's bathtub!
Ok, it's time to go sleep - the truck up is at 8 am tomorrow!
Were up at 8 and on the shuttle headıng up the mountain at 9. Took the first nıce flıght of the day from the stunnıng 6500 ft takeoff on top of the famed Babadag mountaın. After chattıng Steve up on the radıo to get hım to do some nıce spırals proceeded to warm up wıth seriously big wingovers. ; After gettıng a few collapses and apprecıatıng fınally realizing what a real wingover is supposed to look like started gaining a wee bit of conrol, winding up some nice spirals and generally feeling out the wing after the 2 months in New York with nearly no flying at all.
After a landing right near the camera man and ending up with my mug on the usual evening screening at the Cloud 9 was ready to head back up the hill... only to realize that my wing had a weard rip on it! The rip looked like someone stepped on it. With three sharp toenails. After a bit of investigative reasoning we figured it out - Clifford! Yes, the last time the wing saw any real action was at Fred's and Daniel's wedding in New York some month and a half ago when their dog Clifford ran into my wing and apparently left quite a mark! SO, now a bit of patch work and 10 Turkish lira later I was ready to go again.
This time the top was getting clouded in and we decided to take the shuttle to the lower launch, only (!) 3000 ft. ...and even that came with it's share of clouds... but after a short wait and hanging out with some visiting Russian pilots we were in business again. One of the pilots was a girl by the name of Yulia - when I add pictures you'd be able to appreciate this to the fullest extent. In short - she is an amputee with her left arm going just past her elbow. She uses a custom made prosthesis with a carabiner on the end of it to hold on to the steering toggle. Incredible. Watching her make a perfect take off and landing in pretty difficult conditions is quite a treat. She quickly made friends with our Blue Gorrila (once again, will add pictures soon!)
Some of the old faces Seçıl - the photographer from the last year's AirGames, Mendo - the Macedonian acro guru and a few others made their appearences.
Third flight was probably the funnest of the bunch - we drove up the mountain on the last truck going up, nearly the full complement of club Vertigo - driving thru massive clouds at 2000 ft and finally coming above the cloud base just a few hundred feet below launch. But that's where the situation was a bit more challenging. At any given moment, for nearly an hour and a half we could either see where we are going thru the clouds below... or have the right wind to go. Finally after the wait and running from one side of the hill to the other in the first window off I go! Incredible to fly out in the day... and be over the town in the night. The usual 30-40 minute flight lasted just enough to enjoy a beautiful sunset from the sky and land... only to realize that nearly everyone else was able to launch after me... So, now things got really interesting as the sky progressed to be darker and darker and several of the students finally made it to the dark beach with lights of the beach restaurants serving as the landing strip. Bobo and Joka were last. Well, Bobo had a bit of an interesting landing - with his feet touching ground just about 10 ft into the surf. His wing, reserve and him got soaked but he was quickly out of the water.
Joka on the other hand seemed in no hurry to land. His yellow and white glider was lit up by the town lights and cruised thru the starry sky - incredible. Finally all on the ground we had to go wash Bobo's glider and after a few false starts we finally accomplished the task... stuffing the wing in Marko's bathtub!
Ok, it's time to go sleep - the truck up is at 8 am tomorrow!
Sunday, October 22, 2006
No so good... but getting better!
Today was a strange day. Did not get enough sleep, staying up late, trying to write something for the blog sorting out pictures and waiting to one of our crew to get in - which did not happen till 230 am. ALL that would not have mattered much if not for a really crappy day today. We started off by sitting and having a communal breakfast - which was fun and jolly as always, talking and planning the day of flying ahead.
THEN shit hit the fan. Let's just say - the problem with having really close friends - you really care about them. I may expand on this later...
On top of this, flying did not pan out with a futile $20 ride up and down the mountain... Then we found out that 3 new radios we bought are of the wrong kind and then I managed to burn out the charger to my radio...
The forecast for flying for tomorrow is also much better! Time to go to the beach!
THEN shit hit the fan. Let's just say - the problem with having really close friends - you really care about them. I may expand on this later...
On top of this, flying did not pan out with a futile $20 ride up and down the mountain... Then we found out that 3 new radios we bought are of the wrong kind and then I managed to burn out the charger to my radio...
The forecast for flying for tomorrow is also much better! Time to go to the beach!
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey 2006
Well, let’s see. Started our trip to
But by far the most significant even of the day is the reunion of the Club Vertigo International! Many a drink shared and a bear hugs exchanged. Kadri, the organizer of the Airgames, stopped by to say hello and everyone (other than Graham and Zigi that are both still in transit) went to sleep. Forecast is not stellar for tomorrow but I am sure we will still get to fly.
Monday, October 16, 2006
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