Not sure we can say that this storm can from nowhere. It came from the big black clouds. I see this happening every year. People take off just as or before they pop…. Then they realise that their decent technique is nothing more than an nefficient thermal turn.
I hope you learned your lesson. You should make a list of all misstakes you made. Could be helpfull for the futer to avoid them. You didn't fly there your were flown. Good you made it to the ground securely!!!
Maybe a good idea to have a form of paragliding risk management like airline pilots and discuss before flight, threats of the day. Nevertheless great calm attitude displayed by all.
Daammnnnn... so many years have passed, you've entered a few competitions and you still haven't learned how to attach the gider properly? 😱 scary sh^t..
The biggest terror here is the fact that person who's unable to properly attach the glider to the harnes is in the air (18:19 both risers are twisted and the speed connected other way around). Also I hope that the guy on the radio was a friend not the instructor who allowed those guys to take off in such a conditions. So after watching this recording I have to say that the wather here is not my biggest concern. If you continue to make so many mistakes it's going to end very badly.
Folks, this is not a storm. It is only a strong thermal or ridge lift day. I am a 30 year glider pilot and what I see is a pilot who keeps staying in the updrafts rather than pushing on into the sinking air.
You are the perfect example of a "pilot" on holiday that compromise the possibilities to fly for all the other real pilots .... you forgot, in your description, to mention the "lack of preparation" you have (and I don't say something else just to be polite). Mountain flying is not for fools, but every year there are tons of fools that come to fly without any kind of preparation, about weather and micro meteorology that any alp region and any valley have. They simply go to fly if they see sun and nice wind on take off.... no weather forecast analysis, nor asking to local experts, etc. As a consequence, there are tons of accidents. Ok, it's your life and if you hurt or die it's your choice and we don't care, but there are also tons of expensive SAR rescues and accidents that involve other pilots in areas overcrowded by fools. This is a big problem for local administrations and create restrictions to other pilots that usually fly using the brain. And, last but not least, when people like you cause accidents or problems, ruin the image and message that free flight should give to others.
Knowing the direction out is important... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NOaKCR6PhPk.html Every good pilot touch the cloudbase. Clouds can be fun... Use GPS compass and stay cool. (Big ears and accellerater) Ok, for you it was the first time in the mountains with a big weather change. Can be scary. If it gets dangerous, you made the mistake long time before. Flying means observing the weather. Fly high and save 🤙
Gerry, for crying out loud, get your spiral dives sorted if you wanna fly mountains. What you tried, those gentle 360s, were nowhere even near a spiral dive. How do you want to run down to safety? Big ears are useless when you're in a proper cloud suck. You were lucky that you were not, otherwise your escape plan would get you nowhere. I mean, it would get you up. For an emergency spiral dive, you need to: sit up in your harness seat, twist couple of loops of your brake line around palm, and go for it hard, pulling all you can. The glider will then, within a turn or two, go horizontal, the wind noise will turn into a howl, and the horizon will switch into a blur mode. You will feel the full force of those 4g squashing you into your harness seat, and your vario should record over -20m/s. I know, cos I was once I flew too close to a cloud base that suddenly turned dark. Was caught in a cloud suck of 20m/s, and growing by the second. It went from great lift of 8m/s to a drama of 20+m/s within, I kid you not, around 10 seconds. Only the fact that I executed the steepest spiral dive I ever recorded right there, on the spot with no delay, saved my ass I am sure. Even then I was beginning to fear I was too late. Being in deep spiral dive for about 15 seconds my vario read-out was about +-0m/s. I was hovering in one spot in a full spiral dive. Only after another few precious seconds, and last drop of strength left to tighten the brake line even more, did I hear she sweetest sound ever, my vario telling me I am slowly dropping. Very slowly. Countless turns later, and after what felt like eternity, I suddenly felt I am leaving the the area of that cloud suck. My vario recorded -25m/s that day
Few too many flights wishing I was on the ground instead of in the air and I basically just stopped flying. Felt my skills weren't up to what I wanted them to be to feel safe in even fairly usual turbulent conditions. Would've hated this ride. 😢
Wow! Speedboat tow and landing on floats opens up a whole heap of launch and landing sites and a whole new aspect of hang gliding. Wish I tried this when I was into hang gliding!
Not a hope in hell that level of coverage appeared out of the blue. Total lack of awareness and clearly his group are new to paragliding if they don’t know how to do big ears if they’re having to be told how to do it. I certainly would be looking at the Mickey Mouse instructors here as to why they thought it was a good idea to fly with these guys on this day. Lucky this time next time might not be so lucky. Folks if you’re looking to learn to fly and in this region please contact Dennis Trott at the Alpine flying centre he’s a great instructor with a shit load of experience.
Hey Bro…. I live and fly in this place and please some things….. your mistake began an 1 minute where you started turning …… then what you are calling a spiral is thermaling ….. in this conditions please always use 100% of your speedbar and not only half of it…… big ears with full speedbar and keeping the direction where you can see the blue sky is the only option….. there is no other possibility…. Stay safe ❤
These guys get points for staying calm. I dont think that I would have done anything dumb, but that level of anxiety and adrenalin for 30 mins would have me EXHAUSTED. "Anyone want to buy a paraglider?" LOL
Hey, shoudn't you put brakes only when the glider is above (or slightly after) your head to catch the pitch? it looks like you already have quite heavy brakes when the glider is still way back with no energy.
It looks to me that the first 360 about 1 minute into the video should have been replaced with big ears and full speed out from the cloud. Now the pilot just is turning around without much sink under the cloud, in the lift area. If you are trying to get down under the cloud, you must go front down (=sprial, not 360s). If you are not skilled enough to do that, pull big ears and push full speed and try to get away from the cloud as fast as you can. Making real spirals in strong, turbulent conditions is NOT as easy as many sofa-pilots think it is. I can't do it. I also try to avoid flying in to strong conditions. But sometimes, the conditions changes must faster than expected and one can get cought. Good that the pilot posted! I guess we can learn something from it and fly safer.
I'm conflicted... That awesome video kinda makes me want to paraglide and kina makes me never to be near one... Thanks for sharing and glad you all walked away!
storms do not come out of nowhere, dude! Instead they are pretty much predictable. Thank you for sharing this video. It might teach to prepare any flights properly.
this piloting makes me sick. first of all you se storms like this coming. and then.... what kind of spiral is this? thats steep turns in the thermal. and next what kind of ears with half bar? go full bar or nothing if you really want to go down. what about the no glove situation? who thougt that would be a great idea? and the less you say about the inverted risers the better. Fu*king amateurs. thats not a sport for amateurs or you're going to get yourselves killed sooner or later.
Hey, when I see your flying skills, please don't come to the Swiss alps for flying. You were very lucky! I've seen pilots actually spiral and still climbing. You are not doing a spiral normare you doing big ears. You should do a proper training before trying to fly in our conditions!
