It seemss the worst day paragliding is x times better than the best day modeling on the cirque goleis runway im here to say. Seriously mate that didnt look half bad even if you did climb a lot of hills. Hands look much warmer!
Yeah it was a good day in the end. I really thought I was going to be on the hill looking up at paragliders all day long. The guy from The Loft workshop pointed out a lifty line, I can't remember his name, but I shall thank him next time I see him. This really helped me get up. The more I do this, the more I learn about the nuance. I found a good thermal that took me up higher. I could have stayed in neutral lift, circling and looking for other gliders gaining height. This would have kept me up and in the game. Finding little runs of lift as you go into the wind is also a technique I need to learn more about. I feel like I do it, but could I be better. Chasing turing points was always going to happen though. The problem is that it can put you in sinking air. Next I should figure out how to get back into the lift from turning points. This way I could hit more in one flight. I'm seriously considering a pod harness. I'd like to have my instruments up front. I also want to have the comfort that a pod supposedly affords, especially when it gets colder in winter. My hands were toasty. It was hot on the hill and I was only flying in shirt, jumper and down jacket. A really nice day actually.
It was a good day.. Especially after failing multiple times to get off the hill, to finally get some height and snag a turn point. It was also fun to get some distance from the hill.
@@jacquecilliers Yes, but I learnt the hard way by flying by my balls in Spain as I could not get into it. I should have watched Greg Hamerton's video first.
Thanks... It wasn't much of a video... But I achieved something so I thought I'd share. I'm working on finding lift lines and flying straight down thermals I've just gone up on. I'm funding it a challenge to fly back through thermal lines. Turning constantly, it can be difficult to find the lines to get back into lift and find stronger thermals further out. Having my phone on my leg isn't very practical.
I think blue is one of the doddery pilots who fly the southern sites and who aren’t really aware of what is going on around them. I’d fly tighter 360s if he/ she/ they is flying indecisively!
Thanks for taking us along. GREAT RIDE! And excellent narrative, you Sprung off the Cats back so high you were shitting yourself. Love it! And adding the detail about the frozen hands makes it real. Waiting for the next one! Hopefully you upgrade your storage .
I should have been switching the GoPro on for specific events... I ran out of battery, not storage. I mistakingly said storage but didn't correct it. Yeah I still get a bit nervous at certain heights. It's a little rush of fear and it can make me uncomfortable. I'm working on it. I guess I didn't expect to top out on that day and so wasn't expecting to get so high.
Anyone who bothered to read the manual of the Phantom would know this glider comes to its own in turbulence: Just press bar / Release the brake-toggles and peel a banana, or Press Full bar / grab the C's and aim for the next cloud with one eye shut.
It is always better to do a smaller circle in the stronger lift than a wider in weaker lift. If people are going ultra wide u can close more your circle for better climb You are doing great, but i think you can improve your weight shift moving your head and body to the other side o risers, not just only the leg
Yeah it can be a bit nerve wrecking. There wasn't much in the way of thermals, so I thought I would do some top landing practice. Come up and say hi next time you are on the hill... what paraglider do you fly?
id suggest you doing fine Jaque. Its a learning curve and every day can be different as can every thermal. When you are with others then you need to focus on the others so that you obviously avoid them, but also to closely watch if they are going up faster than you or slower and this again will vary on their 360 circle. From watching, you can better identify the core sometimes, or at least the stronger parts and edges of thermals. Once on your own, then it can be easier as you can wander wherever you want and lock in the centre arm, varying the 360 with your outer arm with no concerns. if everyone can core the thermal precisely, then you wont have the conflict you found, but this is rare when there is such a mix of experience and you dont know who is who. Keep practicing with groups and you'll have more confidence, and you'll also piss off the occasional pilot as he thinks you are in his way and had to alter course. You will probably have to do the same as him and just as frequent. So keep it polite and apologise if needed. Shouting abuse rarely is effective at making the thermalling better.
Thanks Neil. It's good to know that I'm doing ok. It's always intimidating when flying with better pilots in a thermalling situation. Where do you fly?
Hey Jacque. Great video and commentary. I love the way you are open and honest about your flying, wanting to improve and have more fun. As you know I’m at a similar level to you and relatively new to thermalling with others. Overall really good considerate flying. My only observation would be when you were initially 360ing with the light blue (Gin Bonanza 3 I think). I would have continued following him in the 360 as he appeared to be in the stronger portion of the thermal and drifting back towards Mount Caburn. It’s always a tough balancing act in situations like that and you can’t always please everyone in the sky. Looking forward to seeing you on the hill again soon and getting on some XC adventures together. 👍
Yeah I see what you're saying. We all try our best and sometimes we get in other peoples way a little... as long as we are safe and looking around, we should be fine. Thanks for the observations... I'll be applying these lessons on the next visit to the hills. Good to see you on Saturday... can you do something about the weather now?
Re the comment (while you're circling right so ROLLED / banked right) "I can feel the core is on my left".... sometimes (may/may not be the case that time) a pilot will FEEL 'lift on opposite side of the turn direction' due to their wing being rolled... so (in this case) the LEFT 'wing' is level(ish) while the RIGHT 'wing' is angled at closer to 45° to any vertical ('thermal') upwards moving air.... hence it FEELS like more lift on the left side than right... NB this was a subject we (David & Gabe with myself) covered on The Paragliding Show (on World talk Radio) 😀
Oh this is interesting!! I'll have to keep an eye out for this next time it happens. Thanks for that. This strengthens the case for remaining in a steady circle and only making small adjustments when flying... right?
@@jacquecilliers in Aviation ('proper aircraft' especially) students are taught to 'trust the instruments' rather than relying on human senses which evolved for a '2D' life (predominantly a ground based existence).... in teaching paragliding one aspect of HP&L training I emphasize is the danger of using (mainly inner ear information) your sense of 'movement' as a base of PG control inputs. Example: "student imagine your in a high speed lift, you got on at the ground floor and are now halfway up to the 100th floor (so been going UP for quite a few seconds) when someone (waiting for the lift) presses the 'call button' on floor 53.... what sensation will YOU feel?' The answer is YOU will (as the STILL RISING lift starts to slow 'down'...) WILL FEEL YOU ARE FALLING.... Hence in paragliding, unless VERY close to the ground AND paying full attention, any time the wing/pilot enters WEAKER LIFT... they WILL (inner ear etc) be subject to the sensation of "sink"... this, coupled with 'normal training', tends to result in control inputs which are the opposite of what the pilot generally SHOULD undertake... NB (for very good reasons) PG varios audio alerts are NOT set to indicate small variations in altitude (no bleep in short minor lift... no burp in decreases of altitude lower than 200ft/min..) So as humans (inner ear etc again) have extremely limited sensitivity to the VALUE of speed in comparison to sensitivity to ACCELERATION (CHANGES in velocity) it takes a lot of HP&L training to make SAFE pilots 😎 FYI HP&L Human Performance & Limitations (one of the six main parts of Aviation Training and Examinations
Airspace Checks requires finding a ballance between playing multi opponents chess in your head (predicting PROBABLE moves of the other 'players') where you GREATLY improves 'target acquisition' (time it takes to spot each glider) which SHOULD be where/near your prediction estimates it will be in (say) 30 sec time... on every 'spotting' you update BOTH current position AND that pilots 'flying pattern'... The other bit of 'balance' is looking at the take off (prioritize) and landing areas to update current (and near future) number of aircraft flying. Additional Airspace (rules) factors: Example- flying a ridge site with a road (or other ground feature) running in/out from/to the ridge... In this case pilots punching 'out away from the ridge' SHOULD be keep the ground feature to their LEFT.... and any returning (flying back to the ridge lift) pilots SHOULD (from THEIR perspective) also keep the feature on the LEFT... Note! from almost 30years of RE-training UK pilots very few know/correctly apply Air Rules, but remember EVERY PG pilot can work to improve flight safety by promoting PRACTICAL use of Air Rules 👍
@@jacquecilliers Hi, first I have a background in science, when I got my first PG (mid 90's, it was already 10+years old) I'd already started flying (what is now known as 'speedflying' using a wing I'd had custom made for me) the old wing (two riser design) I then got heavily Modified regarding the rigging/risers, this was then the first test-bed (next was a comp wing) wing I used to confirm the ACTUAL Physics involved in PG flight. Ok back to your question (RE-training) the core is me asking students "were you taught x,y&z? Also are you happy that x,y&z ARE correct?" Once established they DO believe & trust what their instructor told them ... I ask them a series of simple 'kitchen sink' (basic) level Physics questions... following discussion of their OWN answers... WE quickly establish that almost everything they were basing THEIR personal flight safety on... MUST be incorrect/false! Finally using PRACTICAL demonstrations coupled with the discussed Physics WE (together) work to reverse their first 'training'
Main point I'd make is MORE observation, 20sec to 60sec constantly looking forward & right, in each of the clips you tend to remain looking in the turn direction. I've flown a lot with mixed aircraft (hang gliders and sailplanes) where there is a large variation in airspeeds... and climb rates... hence I spend a LOT of time with retraining pilots working to get them into the habit of full 360° (horizontal AND vertical) Airspace Checks every 20-30seconds 👍 NB when flying on my own as a minimum I do a 360° check every 60 sec, PS I'll often ***comment*** (aloud) on camera when filming about 'Airspace Checks' while not turning my head for better (steady) video.
Got it... It is more difficult than I thought flying with others in gaggles. I'll certainly make an effort to look around a lot more now. Thanks for the advice.
Don't try to be funny when going through immigration in the US. They officer asked me if I ever committed genocide and I answered "I once stepped in an anthill". That is not funny!!!
@@jacquecilliers Your best buy would be, for now: '50 ways to fly better' and 'The Art of paragliding', and not any fancy gear. And next time you get some ALT: use your GPS/Vario to work out what the difference is between 'pulling ears, then pressing full bar' ánd 'pressing full bar, then pulling ears'. When I execute the latter (flying an EN-D 777King, but also on my Phantom), the descent rate is higher as there's less wing left, meaning, an xtra few meters of 'what remains flying' is gone. Furthermore, after pressing full bar, then pull ears, the glider reacts better to weight shift. Try flying 6-7seconds circles. And, again, check your vario. Instead of launching and wondering why some others are not, it's better to introduce yourself and ask around. As I see it, this was a cracker 40-90km downwind day. No signs of O.D. or dodgy supercells. Just press full bar and head 40 degr. downwind, off to the next cloud. Goodluck mate! Best, Rob^^
How much did you get it for? I have been trying to get my hands on a cheap paraglider but cant find one. There are no paragliding stores in my country.
one of my early flights on a phantom took me to 10,040ft over Brevent, Chamonix. I was not prepared for that wearing a T shirt and fleece. ie not wind proof ! if was cold cold. Valley temp was 17c and then the warm air hit the snow line and up we went. 1400ft at one stage FFS. I even had gliders circling me with a glide ratio of 60 - 1 and there I was in the middle at 10-1 glide. been on the phantom for 8 years now. done a SIV with it also. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vCkvJFJg8ek.html
I love this post!!! I want to do an SIV very soon!! I was flying devil's Dyke today and was top of the stack for a while... Not a huge achievement, but really nice especially in winter
miss flying at the dyke , nice video , really shows the atmosphere and the crowded skies on what looks like a great day for flying , really nicely done , congratulations on your improving flying skills 👌
@@jacquecilliers no im stiill local but health issues have grounded my dream of continued flying , so now can only watch you guys enjoying a great hobby and experiance . the dream lives on that way :-)
@@jacquecilliers cheers appreciate the thought , gotta add ya have to try to get to annecy du lac in france best flights of my life and i really did live the dream at that flying location. im understating awesome that trip and those flights, they really did mean i ticked a box on my to do list big time keep safe and keep clocking up the airtime 🙂
The site is called high and over and it's located in the south downs in England. It's a small and very technical hill which takes an easterly wind with some north and south variation.
I tried he phantom once at a testival. Not only can this wing fly better than the pilot, it is also telling the pilot about that fact all the time 😊 Before you realize you are in a thermal the wing already initiated the adequate curve.
that's quite a bit of traffic to be practicing... even if there is a lot of space. I also noted that people would not always follow priorities rules that are enforced (or should be) on the continent.
No problem. I'm also a coach for the Southern club. If you ever need any help with this kind of thing, just let me know. Winter is a nice time to practice all these hill based skills like slope landings, ground handling and top landings.
I changed the recording settings on my GoPro - There is a lot more resolution and less noise. The images look amazing and I want to cut together a short clip with views only .... and some music. Let's see what happens.
Electric heated gloves apparently... And even they don't do the job at times. I was shivering and I had a shirt, fleece, down and waterproof jacket. The fleece is a thin one.. Which will need updating.
@@CoIoneIPanic the conditions were really really nice... Smooth, clean thermals... When I broke 600m... The temperature plummeted!!! The first thing will be to address my base layers... My fleece is really thin and needs updating. What do you wear in cold weather?
Just come back from Algodonales its a great place to fly, very turbulent though but you can get good heights to escape most of it. My last trip challenge was to maintain lots of height above terrain avoiding all that washy air. There is a lot of channels where the air flow is disturbed and there can be a lot of sink to. Its a challenging place to fly or it can be very easy where it gives a false sense of security. I love to get as high as possible into the upper airstream and just sit there looking out at the landscape. Enjoying your videos cheers
Its a great place 4 times there, its not for the faint hearted I don't think so. 2135m this time people were a lot higher. I got wacked a few times on the way up from levante. Its an interesting climb out from launch especially the house thermal on the corner and wind is south west a bit. If you were not scared you would not be enjoying it, each time gets better and the fear is less, So they Say lol. I have some vids of Algo and more up soon on my channel if you get a chance to check them out. cheers
Cloud base has eluded me this year, but I have gotten high enough to go cross country. I'm still working on my methods to get high and the theories involved... It's an interesting journey
Yeah ok... it's not "real" just yet.... but a LOT better than the A wing I was flying before this. I guess a nice Gin Explorer, pod harness, full flight deck and access to the alps on a daily basis would be more real!!
I was having fun on this flight.... Gotta love a little bit of wanging the wing around on a cliff face. Plus... Eastbourne cliffs!!! what a site to fly!!
Looks like great XC weather 😎 If you wanna get down quicker, do big ears (or even big big ears) + speedbar. Find some blue sky where there's no lift. There's also sink close to lift, you can even circle in sink to get down quicker. There's also a lot of crowd think in paragliding. When someone says they sit the day out, everyone else starts thinking if they should. When you see someone stay up, everyone suddenly wants to take off. You also need to learn to judge the conditions yourself, and be able to decide if it's ok for you or not.
