Yvonne's Tandem Flight!

Click image for more pics!Two year wait for a tandem flight proved more than worthwhile and sweet solo flying all around!

I had a tandem scheduled with a childhood friend of mine today but it was rainy and foggy in the morning so I pushed it back an hour (after already having made the meeting time an hour later than normal because of the forecast). It was going to get better though, I just knew it.

Rick and I drove over the Malahat in the rain and fog and went straight to Charlie's. We couldn't even see the top of Mt Prevost but it did appear to be thinning out so we were hopeful.

We joined Kuno and Shabe at the LZ just after noon and my buddy Chad and tandem passenger Yvonne weren't far behind. Two years ago, Chad had bought Yvonne a tandem gift certificate and we had come out to Mt Prevost on a nice sunny, fall day and stood on the mountain while the wind blew the wrong direction and never got to fly. I was pretty confident that today was our day.

On the mountain top the cloud base had lifted a hundred feet or so and the wind was coming from the west-southwest so Kuno, Shabe, and Charlie headed to West launch while the rest of us made our way slowly to Middle. Nice cycles were coming through there so I began to lay the tandem out. Middle was soon deemed the takeoff site and Yvonne and I were first in the air.

Youtube vid of Yvonne taking to the air (thanks Brett!):

We headed to the southwest corner of the mountain and found a bit of lift there but our first real climb out was over the West launch itself where a little ripper rocketed us up to cloudbase. From there, we glided back over to launch to say hi to Chad and everyone and it wasn't long before the sky was full of paragliders (the Nanaimo crew of Cornell, Brett, and Cal had arrived as well).

Youtube video taken during Yvonne's flight:

Rick had launched shortly after Yvonne and I, test-flying Shabe's Mistral and early on he marked some nice thermals on the lower cuts for everyone that changed the day. What had initially appeared to be more technical, near-the-mountain, lower-level-cloud type flying was now further away from the mountain and wide spread type flying - so everyone could more easily enjoy. And enjoy they did. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I'm pretty confident in saying that everyone flew as long as they wanted. Yvonne and I landed just as Chad was pulling in with the Delica so that I could take my next tandem passenger up. Thanks for driving Chad! And thanks for being such a great passenger Yvonne - I know you've had years of patience!

Did I mention that Charlie eventually flew north and landed somewhere outside Chemainus? Congrats Charlie!