Last flying day in Annecy

Today was my last day of flying in the Annecy area. And what a day! The weather was perfect with lots of sun and weak winds, which gave me the chance to explore the region a bit more.
In the end I flew a 46 kilometer triangle, turning at Parmelan, La Tournette and Roc de Boeufs (on the other side of the lake). After three hour pure joy I landed and had a landing beer with Pål and Martin.
In the evening i checked in to a hotel in Annecy and had a simple dinner on a terrace. The coming three days I will spend here for a travel story.

Great Cross Country flying around the lake of Annecy today

Today was a rather eventful day I must say. Yesterday we finished the SIV safety course for paragliding. But we still had this day left, with safety boat and instructors at hand. So we could practise whichever safety manoeuvre we wanted, or try some acrobatics.

I opted for the latter and took off to try a manoeuvre called SAT. Not that I expected any success, but why not try when you can do so in a safe way?

Of course, I did not succeed. Instead I ended up in a spin, got my lines thoroughly twisted and in the end I had to throw my emergency parachute and land in the water. The safety boat was there within seconds. So I did not learn to do a SAT but I did get to practise throwing the emergency chute, a very valuable experience.

By now, me, my glider and my emergency chute were soaked with water. But the sun was warm and the breeze good so soon everything was dry and we could pack it all and go flying again!

The conditions looked really good so several of us launched and went cross-country flying. Wow! Good (if somewhat turbulent) thermals took me to cloud base at almost 2500 meters of altitude, more than 1200 meter above take off. Here, I cruised from mountain to mountain and ended up over the massive and snow clad La Tournette. Here I thermalled with an eagle above me and three sailplanes below me.

 It is hard to describe the beauty and feeling of freedom, you just have to be there. Maybe the photos give a small idea.

A very small cross country flight, and an exciting return

This is where I started


this is where I landed. with the welcoming committee :-)


Kukaram gave me the first lift

This is my second lift. Great guy!

Two days ago, I did a small cross country flight. I took off from Tower Hill, where we fly everyday when in the Kamsheet area. After gaining some good height (close to 900 meter above take off) I turned north and headed for Fly Nirvana, the paragliding center where we stayed. It is approx eleven kilometers between the take off and the center.

At first, I did really well, and reached another mountain, where I could join a thermal and top up with some more height. But after that, I hit some really heavy sink and lost most of my height very fast. Soon, I realized that I would not be able to make it all the way to the center, and started to look for a place to land. A field nect to a little hamlet seemed a good choice.

While circling down, preparing for landing, the field turned into a hill. Still not to steep, so I should be able to use it anyway. Kids where running in from all directions - a sight that reminded me of the final scene in the film "Platoon".

I survived the landing and started to pack up my glider. The kids stared with big eyes. We did not have a common language, but smiles and sign language can take you far enough.
The children's eyes grew even bigger when my huge glider (it is 29 m2 big) disappeared into my backpack. 15 minutes after landing with some kind of airship, I had it packed away and on my back, strolling away. No wonder they were amazed. It reminds me of a cocoon, slowly transforming to a butterfly, but this is in reverse and a lot quicker.

It was still before lunch, so I decided to try to hitchhike back to the take off and have some more flying. First I walked through the sugar cane fields on small paths. Here and there, I met people that were all surprised to see me there - a foreigner with a huge backpack in the middle of nowhere.

Reaching the river, I turned left and soon found a bridge. Below, women were doing the laundry on the rocks. On the other side, I found the main road. It was well over 30°C and I was starting to get warm, but continued walking. Just a minute before, the only bus passed, so I was a bit unlucky. Being Sunday, not much was happening.

but then my luck changed. A motorbike showed up, and stopped to pick me up. We managed to balance both me, my glider and the driver on the little bike, and off we went on the pot hole-ridden road. Unfortunately, Kukaram, the driver, had to turn off after less than halft the distance, so I was walking again. But I probably saved an hours hike in the heat.
Maybe 30 minutes later, I was warm but determined to keep walking. But luck smiled to me again, and an enormous truck loaded with firewood stopped and picked me up. It was not much faster than myself, but somewhat more comfortable.

Reaching the village, i thanked and jumped off and
found myself a group of tandem pilots that took me up to the mountain. Three bananas later, i had had my lunch and was up in the air again!