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.

Manoeuvring over lake of Annecy

Yesterday we started the manoeuvres for our safety course. This is all about learning how to control your paraglider if something unexpected happens with it in the air.
So we fly out over the water and create problems, then try to solve them. Yesterday I did asymmetrical collapses, spin stops, B-stall and deep spiral. The latter is a way to quickly loose altitude. I tell you, when you fly almost straight downwards in more than 15 meters per seconds and the G-forces are pulling, it tickles in your belly :-)
Today it was time for full spins and full stalls. A full stall is kind of like a reset manoeuvre – almost all problems with a glider can be solved with a full stall if you have height enough. The photo of me where my glider is all balled up behind me in the air is taken while doing a full stall.