Flying again - July 2006

I got married in 2006 and spent two weeks in the Alps on honeymoon to do some walking and via ferrata. A few days after arriving I spotted a few paragliders flying from the mountains above the village we were staying in. I was immediately drawn to thoughts of flying again but the idea of me ever getting up there seemed so remote. A few days later, quite by chance, we came across someone giving tandem flights and he was covering some pretty good distances. We sat in the sun on top of the mountain watching him make a number of flights into the distance and back again - conditions looked good! That evening we happened to see him in the village and I spoke to him about having a tandem flight another day and so got his phone number and arranged to call him a few days later when he was free. I was thinking that maybe this was the closest I would get to flying.

The day we met with Christophe was clear blue - but with a nice breeze blowing onto take-off. As we left the ground I was immediately reminded of the feelings I had when flying in the mountains in India - sort of excitement mixed with anxiety. I was very aware of how vunerable it would feel if onditions were a bit rough. Unfortunately the flight didn't last long. There were no decent thermals and while Christophe worked hard, we were forced to return to the valley floor. He landed the glider in an amazingly small spot, and while I was disappointed with the short time we had been able to fly for, it had me thinking...

First flight in control of the tandem

My first flight was as a tandem passenger - but this time being given the controls to learn to pilot the glider. It was pretty reassuring to have Steve right there - ready to take the controls should he need to. I gradually gained confidence in making turns and flying ridge soaring beats up and down the cliff face. We even flew out over the sea for a while then back to the ridge to get more lift again. What a beautiful place to learn.

At this point I still wasn't sure how I was going to manage take-off's or landings, having barely been able to launch the glider when groundhandling. Steve was merciless and insisted on making me practice groundhandling at every opportunity - also constantly telling me how important it was to practice pactice practice. I could see the sense in this but was getting a bit fed up with being dragged around by an un-cooperative glider. For the most part it seemed a pretty hopless cause as even when I did get the wing up, it would inevitable drift off to one side and collapse. But despite the groundhandling hassles, being able to control the tandem was pretty cool and I at least felt that at some point I would be able to fly.

Plans made

Planning a 6 month trip to India back in 2005 I contemplated what I might do on my return (hoping that I would have enough money to avoid working for a few months during the summer of 2006). I started looking into the costs (including equipment - it was around the 3 grand mark!) and logistics of learning to paraglide and mentally made plans to learn on my return.

During my time in India I was in Goa and happened upon people paragliding. It only took me a few days to ascertain that tandem rides and tuition was avilable, and that this was a much cheaper and better place to learn than the UK. A tandem ride with Steve Reed (who was later to become my instructor) followed partly for fun, but partly to be sure I wanted to learn. From what I had read it was clear it wasn't the safest sport around, but I felt confident in Steves instruction, but also the thought of flying was hard to resist - it all looked so easy!