well goal is to do it internationally so not too much i can really do with that but yeah any hike i do i let someone know in paper where when etc etc with all the tech these days you can just quickly press a couple buttons on your phone it takes a front and back photo with a gps coordinate and sends it to an email while makeing a call to a pre configured number be it family friends npws cops whatever. so its not as harrowing as old days given solar panels that charge your phone that are basicly a bit of paper you can clip on.
theres alot of you older pilots on here so may aswell ask, why is it all so secretive ? in australia at least. we never publicly advertise the flying sites and when we do its allmost a secret handshake and join the club for $50 with kiteing and other things you just jump on a location database like splocs and hit the forums. i can see the benefits you dont get strangers getting themselves into trouble and looseing the site but is that all there is to it? what would happen if someone were to publish the sites with just a contact link to the club reps and say that they must be contacted first before flying? really looking forward to putting the kiteing on the backburner for a bit and get back in the air.
@ Toph, Kozzie
I've been back a couple of times since the accident... the last time while taking off in strong winds I saw my glider's right wing tip touch the grass.
I needed an anchor person to hold me while I brought it up... he lost his grip with one hand which caused me to rotate; since the wind was strong I popped straight up 3m but the wing was all the way on the right... I crapped myself and thought I was going to fall on my side from 3m and the get dragged over the cliff... But the wing sorted itself out the some strong left break.
That last take off really shook me up... I'm fine in the air and ~landing, but taking off really gets my heart racing.
So physically although I have a lot of injury related issues, I'm fine to fly... it's not very demanding.
I also used to get a lot of pressure from the Mrs... Kiting, PG, Skydiving, Sailplanes, Motorcycles, BJJ, MMA... she just thought I was an a-hole with a death wish and that knocks your confidence. So the times I went back pg'ing I didn't tell her.
The accident really made me aware of my fragility and it's definitely slowed me down, and also made me think about limiting my risks.
I had about 60hrs PG, both inland thermals and ridge soaring.
Flying's awesome... specially inland thermals; the bipbipbip of your vario as core a nice big fat thermal to cloud base, is probably the best experience you can have.
The weird thing is I had all the little broken back indicators that just didn't register with me:
- Friend landed in a tree, fell> broken vertebrae
- Friend on vacation got hit by a dust devil on land > flung around > broken back
- Other stories
Another PG pilot gave me a "trigger grip" 
Here you'll need this... I thought sure mate I'll be fine next month.
Don't fly solo, you'll be scared all the time... I know. And if anything goes wrong being alone and injured will be the worst experience of your life.
I wanted to start doing acro... my next wing was going to be an acro one.
Select to expand quoteKozzie said..
Gorgo sorry i only got a couple minutes into your first video before i had to ask what the devil is going on with your vario?!?! that is your vario right the droneing mosquito tone my god i thought beeps were bad enough youve got 20 odd years on me so im all ears also im thinking useing gaggle app on a galaxys4 as a replacement ive heard there upto scratch now with the stand alone varios do you know much about it?
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That's the sink alarm. We're going on a long glide and I have the sink alarm set at 2 m/s. Some people have them set at zero so you always get sound whether going up or down. I find the sink alarm a bit depressing so I usually set it so it t a higher figure.
A lot of people are dicking around with smart phones or tablets and XCSoar. They have to run external batteries to get decent battery life and sun shades so the screen is visible in bright sunlight, and sew conductive thread into their gloves so the touch screens work. It all sounds like a pain in the bum to me. I only know a couple of good pilots who do that. It's mostly newbies or the somewhat incompetent who waste time with technology when they would be better off getting better at flying.
The state of the art in dedicated devices is a thing called the Oudie 3 from Naviter. It looks pretty good and most of the problems have been addressed (15 hour battery life, works with gloves, mostly visible in sunlight).
I use a Aircotec XCTrainer, which is fantastic, with a solar powered audio only backup vario and a little Garmin as backup GPS. It's all really good and really reliable.
Select to expand quoteKozzie said..
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allso bir in india right? i hear its an absolute mecca is it worth going all way there? what level ippi do i need before theyll let me solo there without safety officers onsite etc? is there much hike and glideing? and lastly did you get jumped by eagles :P
gradient those movies are awesome. im a bit surprised by how freely your allowed to just fly around where ever you want. are you a safety officer or anything like that? very cool videos.
Bir is in India and it's fairly legendary. I go there for three reasons:
1. you can fly all day every day (mostly). I got 40 hours in 17 days without trying hard.
2. It's part of the Himalayan range, ie. ****-off, big mountains. It's awesome to cruise around at 4500-5000 metres.
3. This is the big one. Himalayan Sky Safaris run guided flying tours with one to one guiding. John Silvester is a flying legend. Eddie Colfox and Jim Mallinson are legends but not as famous. It's a bit like going surfing and having Wayne Lynch or George Greenough or Gerry Lopez with you as your own personal wave caddie. It's much safer because those guys have been going there for 12 years and have flown every route and dealt with most things that can happen.
You can go there as a newbie but I wouldn't. It's a dead easy place to fly but the consequences of screwing up are massive. Even with all the best preparation if you have an accident it is highly unlikely that a chopper will come and pluck you out and take you to a nice hospital. The best results come from when there are local people on the ground with the right contacts who can apply pressure to make stuff happen. See 3. above.
I was attacked by an eagle in NSW once in 1994. In India there's huge gaggles of vultures. They're great for marking lift. The seem mostly curious and kind of friendly. It's a good idea to make some noise when you approach. They're more interested in looking for lunch than numpties flying around under plastic bags.
Select to expand quoteFlySurfer said..
...The weird thing is I had all the little broken back indicators that just didn't register with me:.....
I knew a guy who used to suggest I was being irresponsible doing something as dangerous as flying. He was a bit of an arsehole so I sort of expected him to be rude. He was doing some home handyman work and fell off the garage roof and ended up a partial quadriplegic. To make matters worse, instead of being sympathetic his kids realised he was helpless and could not do anything to them so they taunted him and did lots of bad ****. I guess the kids inherited his arsehole genes.
As for flying alone, if you go cross country you're almost always going to be alone once you get off and find your own little thermal on a little hill somewhere. What is not done is to launch alone. The most dangerous time is during launching and landing so you really want to have somebody about at least when you launch. I focus on out and return flights so I normally end up in a populated landing paddock so that deals with the landing side of things ... to an extent.
We also carry SPOT trackers. At least there's a chance you'll be found while you're still warm.
The other side of the safety argument is a lot of the people nagging about safety are fat bastards that drink too much and don't exercise. I am 57 and possibly the fittest I have ever been in my life. It's much better to have an engrossing interest that keeps you motivated than to sit around being afraid to do stuff. I am ultra-risk averse so I fly with massive safety margins compared to other people. It's not hard to do, but you do have to think your way through and remember to do it.
wonder when seabreeze will get a paragliding forum? i really dont like useing the big international one. and there are many young kiters getting into paragliding....
Kozzie, there are lots of facebook groups that are very active, just depends on where you are. If you want to get good really quick (and thus make yourself a safer pilot) here is my recommendation:
1) Spend as much time as you can for a couple of months flying coastal sites, particularly low dunes because that teaches you more about your glider than any other type of flying. Find somewhere where it's on almost every day at the particular time of year like SW WA in summer.
2) Go somewhere where you can start to learn SIV and acro (lots of height differance and over water), again choose a place where you wont be parawaiting, Oludeniz in Turkey is one such place or Gerlitzen in Austria or Nepal. At the same time you will be in the mountains so you can develop thermaling skills.
3) Go to a kickarse thermaling area, European Alps are hard to beat but there are plenty of places and start flying XC.
By the end of doing that you will be a really well rounded pilot and able to handle yourself in most places with confidence, "that" will take 1-2 years full time.
BTW I've been asked to be a safety officer numerous times but I believe in leading by example so to this day I'm not. I'm actually very safe (for me) but it's taken me 15 years to know exactly where my limits are so I can be safe.
