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Paragliding...

When I fly solo, complete setup varies depending on conditions and how hard I want to work while hiking. The light kit weighs in at 22lbs. I can shave 2-3 lbs off if I fly without a reserve. When I fly the more confortable or my acro setup, its closer to 32 lbs.
 
How much of that do you end up supporting on your back during a ground run? Meaning once the wing is up and you just support the weight of the harness, helmet, electronics, reserve, helmet etc?
 
Yep, once the wing is over head, it is providing lift. It supports everything attached to it, and when the pilot moves forward there is very little supported weight. When we are kiting out at the coast or the beach, a good drill is to try and touch the ground with only your toes. Another one is to sit down or lay down and then let the wing pick you back up.

Kiting/practicing is as much fun as flying.
 
Lovely evening at Blue Rock today, nothing huge but an hour of easy soaring and playing around with some good friends.

This Thursday may be shaping up to be a good day, it's the time of year for big flights in the bay area. Last year about this time a few of us launched Diablo and I made it to Patterson while another one of the guys made it about 20 miles past Fresno (240K flight!). The retrieve was long that day, made it back to the cars about midnight.

My goals for this year are 100 kilometers and 18,000 feet. I made 86k last year and had a day where I went to 16,000' but had to stop climbing since I was flying without oxygen. Bought myself an O2 setup for this year and hoping for some big days in the Eastern Sierra.

If anyone is interested, most of us fly with trackers when going XC and you can watch peoples flights at xcfind.us

On top of Diablo couple weeks ago with the glider strapped on the moto, did all the fun things that day.
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Blue Rock
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Landing in the Park.

 
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Having some fun at the lake learning SAT on my new freestyle glider, first one was decent until I stalled the exit, spun the entry on the second two. Few wing-overs at the end for fun.

 
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Freestyle 2 24m at about 108kg all up.

I love it, super fun wing and pretty much all I ever fly when ridge soaring at the coast or blue rock. Actually flies really well and feels like it will out glide most low-B wings. Super fast, and it has trimmers and speed bar for when you need more. It is pretty damn bitey when coming out of stalls or manuevers. I tossed my reserve at at the lake last week after failing to check a stall exit hard enough. Probably not a good wing to start training acro on without already having stalls etc pretty dialed. I have done over a 100 stalls on my EN B and the Freestyle still caught me out a few times before I got used to it. It does have a wonderful, stable backfly though.

I have heard the Freestyle 3 is a bit more aggressive, but have never flown one. The X-style looks cool, but I wanted a bigger size since I also use it for local flying. My GF is thinking of getting a 19m E-gravity or an Xstyle, so I will have a small wing to play with.
 
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I went with the u-turn redout in 19m. I end up around 70 kg all up. Stalls are a lot more fun than my xc wing. I fly it almost exclusively at the coast or soaring, but i have thermaled it a couple times. Dunes and low flying, it is so much fun. I did convert to free brakes. With my weight, I can fly on pretty light days and have no problem going up. If you ever want to test fly it, let me know.
 
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James said:
I went with the u-turn redout in 19m. I end up around 70 kg all up. Stalls are a lot more fun than my xc wing. I fly it almost exclusively at the coast or soaring, but i have thermaled it a couple times. Dunes and low flying, it is so much fun. I did convert to free brakes. With my weight, I can fly on pretty light days and have no problem going up. If you ever want to test fly it, let me know.
Click to expand...

Me on a 19m would be.....exciting. But would be fun to blast around on the coast if I see you out there one day. I am hoping my GF gets a freestyle type wing since I just traded my 18m Little Cloud for a Zeno and I don't have a little glider anymore.

Welcome to try my freestyle, but I suspect it would feel like driving a bus at your weight.
 
Spent all last weekend working on the ole 38m. Knocked out 10 tandems Sat and Sun.

Flying with a friend in the air is a completely different experience. I had so much fun sharing the air.

I flew with mostly P1 pilots. I had a chance to find out what they wanted to experience. Its as exciting as when i first started flying solo.

Looking to fly more this Sunday!

James
 
A vintage moto and a modern lightweight paragliding kit makes a lovely combination.
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Just locked up my Tandem rating. Its official, I have reached my last rating that i am going to pursue. Now I can focus on flying :).

Passengers change the flight quite a bit, and i love it!

James
 
Sitting still, and losing my mind. This SIP sucks and needs to end sooner rather than later. Here are a couple video clips I have handy and will share. I imagine you are as bored as I am....

The first is a clip from a coastal session. I had a great couple hours in the sky, this was the only exciting moment. It was a few years ago and I was working on perception to the ground. When I exited, I didn't have enough energy and I got whacked by my own wake.

[youtube]VMJf0XA2HQg[/youtube]

This was one of my first tandem launches off the top of Ed Levin. It was a beautiful day and we had a great flight. As soon as this SIP is lifted, I am going to start offering flights.

[youtube]wKtkud7P_n4[/youtube]

James
 
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