Steve and Carol surprise themselves!

Joka and me gliding to the next thermal.
Joka and me realizing that there is no next thermal and the only thing ahead is the big blue hole...

Steve and Carol surprise themselves! Yes, really. They flew 20 k today - a first real cross country flight for both of them! (Carol may correct me on it later...) Well, anyway, they did incredibly well on this difficult day. Too bad that I watched a good chunk of their flight... from the ground as they flew overhead!!! Ok, so the stats - Marko - 40 k, same spot where he landed yesterday. Joka - still don´t know as he was not back when I left to the computer place, but the estimate of 35 k has been floated around by witnesses of his landing out in the bush... Steve and Carol - 20 k, and me... well, I suck.

Sunk out at the same place as 2 days ago, just about 15 k from take off. Avoided mud this time and fought to the last minute. As a matter of fact spent full 20 minutes scraping by at the altitude of 99-120 meters! At some point of extreme desperation I was trying to figure out if there is anything in my load I don´t absolutely need and a thought of ¨do I really need that flight deck?¨crossed my mind. For those who don´t know - that would have amounted of dropping about a 2 pound bag!... with about $1000 worth of electronics in it... Reason, and gravity, prevailed and I finally landed... to once again witness Marko come to the same spot, same altitude and sky out! Unbelievable. Well, somewhat believable as it is happening with incredible consistency but also - Marko is much lighter on his glider, where as I am flying with some extra weight (comparatively to the weight range of the glider.) Now, in most conditions this difference would be negligible but with the consistently light conditions of Valadares it does add up to some incredible saves.

So the first thing I did once getting back to the hotel was get rid of every single non-essential item in my kit - here and there it added up to about 3-4 lb/2 kg - will see what will happen tomorrow!

Now, to the beginning of our day - this will have to be a photo journal kinda thing...

The day started normally enough, with our usual gathering spot near the landing zone. Except, today was a Saturday, so the local pilots were out in force...

The day in pictures...

The usual gathering spot - just as the bus arrives. Howard presiding.


Look carefully at this gas station. Now look carefully at the cars.


NOW, look really carefully! Only in Brazil...


Pal says - ¨don´t touch those breaks!!!¨ Good thing we are going UP the mountain...


The prayer to the wind gods - ¨please, or please, make me... normal.¨ Sorry Carol, no such luck!



Yep, that´s a Brazilian TV cameraman. Instant notoriety.



Joka and Carol in their full, symbiotic glory!

Another excellent day!

Stats so far - Joka 3h45min triangulation flight (go and come back) of about 20 km, Steve nice thermalling flight in the earlier part of this slow starting day. Carol managed to squeeze out 2 flights doing about 5 km on the first and 10 km on the second flight - ALL on her own! No one pestering her on the radio (which probably helped!). I did better today too - did essentially twice the distance of yesterday, about 30km, 26km on a straight line from take off. Slow going though - good thing Marko was just slightly ahead of me making me slow down just enough to keep going for over 2 hours! Well, and as to Marko - he kept flying!!! We both came in within about 100 m off the ground, he was at most 10-20 meters above... and then, next thing I know - I am landing and he is scraping back up to the cloudbase! All in a ¨blue¨thermal - no cloud overhead to guide his path, always quite unnerving. I had one of those today too - you feel kinda naked with no puffy white thing overhead! Be back with pictures after dinner - we are heading to get some ¨mukeka¨ a very tasty soup concoction - great for after flying rehydration/resaltification of weary paraglider pilots! Oh, and I have to tell you about the Vertigo communication - but once again - gotta run!

Ok, so the update - Marko went nearly 60 km!!! Wow. I am so jealous. Oh, well, had to make up for that by going and eating lots of tasty soup while Marko was half dead asleep from exhaustion. Tomorrow is another day - let´s hope that I´ll stick to doubling my distance!

First XC (Cross Country) flights!

Finally, the real GV day that we have been waiting for! Approximate tally - Marko 45km, Joka 35km, myself - measly 15km. I suck. But there is always another day, hopefully I´d do better next time.

Not to say that 15k was not well earned and fun today either. The day was very light and one had to really work it to stay up and out. The key on a day like today is to stay high and move cautiously. NOT what I did. I have forgotten some of the XC skills given my recent fascination with acro.

At some point I got as low as 200 meters off the ground, radioed to Marko and Joka that I am about to land... only to manage to climb out to the cloudbase of approximately 1,000 meters up. Too bad that I spent so much energy and patience for this safe I did not seem to have much of it left and squandered all that altitude on an impossible glide down to 100m, then back to 450m (after once again announcing that I am landing!) and finally landed in a bog!!! Well, it did not LOOK like a bog, it looked nice and welcoming except when my feet touched the... not so solid ground and sunk to my ankles in mud. You see the picture here - well, the mountain far in the background is where we take off... 15 km away!

Carol had two great flights today, one a bit longer than other but on the second she was all on her own and did great! I am very proud of her. Steve was a bit of a sacrificial lamb today and did not fly - his ankle got a bit bruised yesterday and he stayed on the ground today. He is doing much better already and I am sure he will be happily airborne tomorrow! Will be back after dinner to post some pictures!

Ok, I am back, but the picture is more fun than I expected... it has been some years since I´ve done any Capoeira, but today was the day to remember the old tricks! Marko went to photograph the performance and I was translating - and just ¨happened¨ to mention that I used to do Capoeira - well, picture speaks for itself!

Weather improving...

Well, we are continuing with a warm up program of sorts. Today was the first day in a while the club was able to fill up and send a bus about two thirds full up the mountain. This, of course means that the weather is improving and a bunch of us are dreaming of long distance flights. Too bad these hopes went unrealized... Strong winds at the top kept the thermals from properly building up and flying was either into strong head winds to the foot of the mountain or a few thermal hops and then, the lucky ones, would make it to the city and land close enough to their hotel to grab a beer and hope the better day tomorrow! None-the-less, Pal and Gabor of justacro.com showed off with some ridge soaring tricks and all flew.



As a matter of fact, some flew more than once and Steve and Carol got to fly in pretty strong conditions successfully demonstrating what they are made of! (we are still not quite sure, but it was something squishy). Joka and me, both made it to the city LZ with some room to spare, Marko was trying to milk the uncertain thermals and ended up across the river. No worries, still got a decent flight and was in time to meet us for late lunch in town!

After a shower and a little while reading the book I headed to my usual evening digs at the computer library where Carol and Steve joined me for a little while, to work on the blog and doing what I can from here to help the wedding preparations along. Just wish Yulka could take time off and hang out here with me... Next trip!

First day of flying - Valadares, Brazil trip.

So, today we are finally airborne. Not that this was the most spectacular flying any of us have ever done but given the simple fact that we are flying in our shorts... well, can´t beat that, can you? My last flight in New York a month ago the cold was so bad that each appendage required at least a mitten and a heating pack!

Marko and Carol flew. Marcus also joined us in the air. My flight was one of the longer ones today but only added up to 35 minutes - for those of you who know Valadares it is not a whole lot - and still - whole lot better than sitting on the ground!

And what good flying day could pass without some friendly local contact - after landing we got treated for some coffee and was followed up by some EXTRA fresh milk - i.e. still warm after milking. Marko passed on that but I simply HAD to indulge. Last time I tried that I was about ten years old in the Carpathian mountains in Russia, hanging out with my grandfather! Funny, what a vivid memory that was - I even remember going for a hike and trying to figure out bird calls with him...

The forecast for tomorrow is promising - so still hope to brag about the great distances not just time in the air. Having some computer problems, so hope to add more images to this post later...

Rio De Janeiro

So, after the usually painful 9 hour flight we have arrived. The transfer in Sao Paulo was shockingly easy... and that had it´s very expected consequences. Our luggage has fallen behind. Initial dismay was substituted by a general comatose state and before we knew it (just an hour and a half!) our luggage decided to join us for the rest of the trip! Unfortunately the damage was done and that resulted in us thinking that it is a good idea to ¨pump¨ some music through intricately connected portable speakers... Don´t ask.

Anyhow, after getting some coffee and cheese bread (¨pão de queijo¨) we were off to the bus station. After handing in our giant paragliding bags and getting ticket for that same evening´s overnight bus to Governador Valadares, in the state of Minas Gerais it was time to explore Rio!

Absolutely exhausted we hopped onto a city bus and headed to the place that no self-respecting tourist can stay away from - Copacabana beach! (¨Praia de Copacabana¨). The cool part was seeing the less than spectacular parts of the city, hanging out with the locals and all that for about a $1 a piece! The only problem - no where to change (see Carol´s heroic efforts at changing her swim suit she bought right on the beach - the rest of us... well, we improvised!)

Now, here is the weird thing about Brazil - anyone can find the place they feel at home at. Just check out what Marko and Joka found 5 minutes into being in the city...

Then, a few coconuts later, a cold Skol and a quick swim in the Atlantic ocean - we felt a whole lot better! Almost ready for an even more painful then the 9 hour flight, 8 hour bus ride to Valadares! But before that we managed a walk from Copacabana to Lagoa, enjoying spectacular cityscape and getting ourselves properly tired to sleep thru the ride!

But before, as usual, the first contact to make in Rio was getting in touch with my cousins - the Unikowsky family - Debbie, Zilmar and Jessica were in Rio, and Liz, as per usual was exploring the world. The view of the city from their window was just the icing on the cake of a spectacular day!

Brazil, Brazil...

We are on our way!!! Despite our best efforts we all managed to make it to the airport on time. Steve and Carol gave it a go by train, Marko and myself settled for the old fashioned car and cab hopping. In all fairness, Carol´s and Steve´s trip was faster and $8 cheaper but our trip included a meal cooked by Yuliya and then followed by my mom´s borsch and a shot of Rakija. SO, we win!

For those of you that have not met my honey yet :-), her name is Yuliya and she is a cardiologist in NJ. We are taking our first trip together - heading to Puerto Rico for a week. She refuses to fly a tandem Hang Glider so far - says that she is happy to see me enjoying high altitudes. But she is happier from the ground... Oh, well, one day we'll get her properly drunk or something...

Acro Course in Brazil!

http://apco.ru/brazil - check this out. The post is in Russian, let me know if you need a translation. You can also use an automated service like http://babelfish.altavista.com/ - but the gist is - ACRO clinic in Brasil, last week of february, all inclusive for 800 euros (towing, instruction, food, stay.) I will be translating from English to Russian. Main instruction will be in English.

Marko in Ellenville

Ahh, just look at this sky... Who could have thought that we'd stay there for hours! Freezing random parts off :-)

Ellenville worked!

Flying Ellenville November 2006

To everyone's surprise Ellenville worked extremely well this sunless weekend! The sky was nearly constantly clogged with grey clouds, patches of sun would quickly come and go and despite all this everyone enjoyed hours of soaring, thermalling(!) and bits of acro - sporadically performed by yours truly. Now, let me explain the acro bit - all was done with at least 500 meters of ground clearance and was limited to wingovers, SATs and asymetric spirals. The latter two maneuvers were used, by in large for the sake of rapid and safe descent in occasionally trashy air. And wingovers... well, they are wingovers! How can you NOT want to do them! I am still quite convinced that acro over ground is a bad idea but when given plenty of altitude and limited to maneuvers one has had a chance to practice over water dozens of times... Anyhow, I felt comfortable with my limited selection and did everything far from other aircraft to ensure the largest margin of safety.

All that said - 5 flights, 6 hours, 2 mini XC - one over the crest of the hill (finally!) landing just past Pine Bush - a mere 11.5 km SE from launch and the other about 8 km NW of launch. Though these distance ANYWHERE ELSE sound minuscule for Ellenville paragliding this ain't bad. Mind you, we are taking off into a narrow valley without usable landing zones for 1-2 kilometer stretches in some directions off a 400 meter hill so - don't complain :-) The funny part of the little XC - destination - Federal Prison. While flying over the main prison building saw a large baseball field just next to the prison. Luckily on the second pass I noticed the prison guard towers and the wall that was not visible from the particular vantage point off the top of the ridge. Smart application of a speed bar and a quick run back to the mountain saved me MUCH of explaining I would have had to do! Landed in a small airport nearby, waited for a HG pilot Stan to land and with his wife's rapid retrieval made it back to the mountain for another hour of flying. Great, though unexpected flying weekend!

Flying Planet Parapente, acrobatico

another nice acro video!

Spin (Double Edge Films)

Just love this one. I guess the moral of the story is... don't meddle? :-)

paraglider free style

Incredible dune flying... Check out http://wagas-festival.com/index_eng.html for more information.

A great collection of links

http://www.circlinghawk.com/links.html - links to all things paragliding/flying.

Home.

Enough said.

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.

Blue Gorilla Tour, October 28

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).

Back in Istanbul, Blue Gorilla Tour, October 29 2006

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.

...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.

Blue Gorilla Tour, October 27

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.

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.

Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey, October 26

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!

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!"

Blue Gorilla Tour, 25th of October

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

The better the flying, the less energy left to write...

Blue Gorilla Tour, October 24

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!

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...

Blue Gorrila Tour, Turkey, October 23

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!

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.

Blue Gorrila Tour, Turkey, October 22

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!

Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey 2006

Well, let’s see. Started our trip to Oludeniz, Turkey on the Friday night from NY. Remarkably, we were on schedule for this first leg of our trip. After the long and annoying 9 hours on the plane we arrived to the city of Istanbul. Heading right to the city from the airport during a 7 hour layover got to wonder the streets, drink tea and take in some sights… but most of all fought incredible desire to fall asleep. The good news – the trip has acquired the official mascot – and is now known (or at least I change my mind) as the Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey 2006.

Blue Gorilla Tour, Turkey 2006

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.

Pictures from Macedonia

Best of MCD

Check out some pictures from Macedonia trip.

duty

Duty is knowing right from wrong with absolute certainty.

Just finished watching "Serenity" http://www.fireflyfans.net/
It is just a sci-fi flick about many things but most of all about the sense of duty. Which is a strange word in our turbulent times. Duty and faith - which are so interwoven. Who knows, there might be a time any one of us may be called upon to have faith... I am a bit frightened of that moment.

just a thought

Looking back at all the foolish things I have done and am still to do I would always rather be called a fool than a cynic.

Smokers - beware!

So, I am at a loss. What and how do you get your friends to quit smoking. I know they are not idiots - I mean, they can be, but by in large... they ain't stupid. Yet, I am utterly unsuccessful at getting my closest friends to kick the habit. Here is another tidbit that should freak any reasonable person out - according to MSNBC website - "The level of nicotine found in U.S. cigarettes has risen about 10 percent in the past six years, making it harder to quit and easier to get hooked, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Massachusetts Department of Health." Would this not scare and give you a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach? Basically, you are allowing yourself be manipulated by someone whose only interest is to get you even more addicted... and you are paying into this??? May be I should become a smokes peddler - sounds like a good business model to me...

One of gazilion pictures from Macedonia I am sorting thru right now. Many more to come. 

dreaming of flying - as always

Somehow this is one of my favorite pictures of paragliding, or rather, parawaiting. Scott is in the middle. There is something of restless longing that all pilots feel when their feet are firmly on the ground and their dreams are firmly aloft.

Scott Jewell passing.

Scott passed away in his sleep on Monday the 24th of July. He was a great person and an amazing pilot. He will be missed.

The SIV Clinic

Well, well, well. Honestly did not realize just how little energy I would have left after getting fried in 108 degree heat, while drinking at least a gallon and a bit of water, chasing that down with with a half a gallon of gatorade all the while paying attention to my own and other people's flights as Enlau's voice would be constantly in my ear - because it is just too much trouble to get the duct tape out of my ear that is holding the headset in - whilst it detouches in a particularly spectacularly scary flight. Not much. Hence, no daily blog entries. Hope to catch up however.

After a thirteen hours of driving that netted my buddy David and resulted in exchange of the convertible - we were finally touching down at the town of Coulterville. Coulterville is some two and a half hours away from San Francisco on the way to Yosemety. Anyhow, after just four hours of sleep we were up and ready to go. We met our little crew by the famous Boat House store - Enlau, Ann, Camrine O'Connors and Anna Kay, Jurgan and Jack. Nova joined us a day later.

First day promised to be relatively uneventful, with everyone just getting into the swing of things until my big crazy flight. Let's just say the leather gloves don't stand a chance against cevlar lines... and the strange scars around my wrist will be fun to explain for a while.

Route 46 between 101 and 1.

I have travelled this cross over route some years back, that time not
alone. It is puzzling and comforting to see the same spots that
cought my eye before - and have not changed a day since. Same ground
squirrels grace the peisage as they did before. Funny, saw a
hitchhiker flagging a ride and passed him by due to a generally
scragly appearance... then felt bad and turned back only to realize
the guy has just as scragly of a dog in tow... so I decided to leave
him behing again. Is that "double jeopardy" on some existencial
plain? The turn back brought me to the same overlook as I have
visited with someone else. Twice. all those years back. I don't
know, may be my good deed for the day was helping these two guys
change a tire and I am done? Must be. Actually, kinda interracted
with a surprising many people for a lonely drive! Even raced a couple
with the jet skies in tow in a most friendly way - California is odd,
may be I should move here for a while?

California, here I come!

in my own way I am "one step closer to hitting buttom" (obviously a "Fight Club" quote) and, at least in my mind, becoming a paragliding bum. I am heading to California, straight from work. Will drive around for a day, seeing friends and family and then three days of maneuvers training with Enlau and Ann O'Connors. Will try to post daily updates of this trip.

so, I rented a kick ass, drop dead gorgeous red Sebring convertible and after also procuring a decent dashboard mounted GPS system headed down the highway to Alan's and Roya's house. I never suspected just how much fun driving a convertible could be!!! Definetly up there among the most liberating experiences... and this is coming from a guy who is in Cali to practice aerobatic maneuvers! Incredible fun. Got to spend a bit of time with Alan and Roya and planning to connect with some more folks before heading down the coast tomorrow.

Moonrise, the full moon of June.

Just witnessed the most spectacular moonrise I have ever seen. The red slither on the right of the Whitestone Bridge grew dangerously pregnant at an incredible rate until it burst into the sly smile of the red moon bearing down on the outline of the city with all it's lights, and planes and cars... It grew and grew until the precarious moment of hanging right in the middle of the span of the bridge, just long enough for the brain to register the happenstance of the moment... and unceremoniously moved on. It is traveling along the sky getting brighter and rounder with each passing moment.

...I just settled down to have a meal of stir fried string beans and chicken sausage when I stared out to see this spectacle of a gracious circle of the full moon. The whole thing took no longer than for me to woof down the plate-full of my dinner. All I had time to realize that my expensive SLR camera is happily resting in the downstairs garage and running to get it would simply deprive me of the sight and frustrate me even more. I took a picture with my camera phone instead.



...I am moving from my apartment in the Bronx. The apartment I have raved about to everyone for the incredible view of the city. The view that got me to sign the lease before being quite certain of the number of rooms or the price of the rent. The view that starts from the George Washington Bridge, skims along the entire city below and gets lost somewhere upstate. The view that I so rarely had a chance to enjoy with someone else.

I know it is time to move but I will miss this apartment, this view and these two years - two years right after residency, two years of growing up

Muddied experiences

This is an odd observation. Keeps trickling into my consciousness every now and then. It seems that the longer one lives and the richer the pallet of experience becomes - more difficult it is to get the pure, original experience. Let me explain - if I have never seen a waterfall - the first waterfall is the first "original" experience - nothing to fall back onto. The second, third, fourth - human nature is to say - aha, "this is just like..." Same goes for human experiences - the relationships, losses, arguments - one trickles into another. Yes, this is teaching us lessons, the whole "psychic determinism" concept rests on this in a bit roundabout way... but there is more to what I am trying to say. Life, inevitably becomes dull rehashing of things past. The new experience to matter needs to be so unique and powerful that chances of having the child's wonder drops off and the days get shorter... A little sad.

Fight the power of lots of cash...

"If there was ever a moment for a ruckus to be raised..."

...now is the moment.

Hmm, seems like a good time for an awareness campaign.

Nice. Just re-read the previous post...

Just re-read the previous post and amazingly enough I still stand by my statement. I think is going to be my new declaration.

Secondly, this is a great video blog - incredibly relatable stories by any immigrant, especially from the Soviet Block - http://mylifewithbadenglish.blogspot.com/ a blog by Andrei Litvinov, "My Life With Bad English".

Small comments on personal happiness...

What are we but miniscule specs in the face of even a city of millions like New York. What does our personal happiness - or dissatisfaction - matter on a grand scheme of things for all the millions of other insignificant specs? In reality - not much. So, once again, on the grand scheme of things, the only person who would even notice what you do - outside of your mother - is yourself. This is the only court you have to hope to ever satisfy. Committing acts of forged happiness will never bother any other soul - other than yourself. So, no reason not to be honestly feeling whatever you are feeling - fess up, speak up and die honest. And then, if you are lucky you might even die happy.