ParaPatience Payoff

Click image for more pictures!Tandems for Cydney and John
First Solo for David
Etc.

In 1999, I moved to Australia to attend the University of Tasmania and ended up learning to paraglide in the process. I also took up surfing at the time but found the 'in-the-water-waiting' to 'on-the-wave' ratio was just too high. With flying, we typically 'parawait' an hour or so tops and then, begrudgingly, head home.

This past Saturday, however, Mt Prevost teased us into one of the longest parawaiting sessions I've ever been a part of. Of all the flying sites I've flown, Mt Prevost can be the most fickle. Physically, it juts out from the main mountain range and the wind can funnel around it like water around an island. My students have often heard me say, "When it's good, go." Rarely does the wind get better.

Winds aloft were good and low clouds out front were drifting towards the mountain but on launch itself, the wind was lightly OTB (Over The Back). So we waited. Local Duncan girl, Cydney (whose mom Cate flew with me last month) was super excited to try paragliding with her boyfriend John and they displayed incredible patience as Cydney and I set up and packed up a few times. Most other pilots (Kuno included) had called it quits, and then, just as we were starting to hike down, the wind switched, and we changed our minds.

Paul took an unexpected straight-in cycle from Main and flew out to the lower cuts where he worked the west-drifting lift. After a few aborts from Middle, Cydney and I finally got into the air and, like her mother before her, she let everyone within earshot know it! :) I learned that Cydney is getting her fixed wing license with hopes of working towards her rotor and she was completely at ease in flight.

Click image for more photos!Charlie wasn't too far behind but then the clouds blocked out the sun and the wind came OTB once again to keep everyone else stuck on launch. Argh.

Cydney was feeling guilty in the LZ at this point as this was meant to be a surprise for John, not a lesson in patience. David, who was all primed for his first solo mountain flight, had layed out his glider and packed it up twice alread and Rick radioed down that it wasn't looking good. More waiting ensued.

"We are driving down," finally came the report.

And then, literally 2 minutes later, the sun burned the clouds away and Pierre called to say they had changed their minds and were laying out once again!

Click image for more pics of DavidCornell was in the air first and, after Rick made sure everything was safe, David launched from Middle! His wife was in the LZ with me and we watched as he glided away from the mountain, arriving with lots of height above us. I eventually guided him in on radio and he executed a great approach and landing, complete with a spin-around kill. Congratulations David!

Rick and Pierre were last off the mountain and John drove retrieve. The sun was still out by the time we were all packed up and we decided to give it another try and see if conditions would allow for John to fly tandem.

To our surprise, there was a steady wind blowing in on Main and John and I had an easy launch together, no run required. He was quite relaxed in the air and enjoyed the descent maneouvres over the Landing Zone.

Rick, Mark, and Pierre all reversed from Main as well to put an end to an ever changing day at Mt Prevost.