Paragliding飞行日记--独立自制(关于paragliding心理的)纪录片公影(details 118楼)

nngn

这周把试考完了，终于能坐下来写写这个东西，旨在分享 （敬告：这项运动存在危险性，请大家不要在无专业指导的条件下尝试，谢谢！）

* 笔者语：很久前就打算写这个帖了，目的是让更多的华人朋友了解这个运动在澳洲的情况（其实国内已经发展10多年了，只是两边情况比较不同）。paragliding是从法国起源的，而Hang Gliding则是originated from Australia，相信不少TX也曾看到过甚至尝试过玩这个运动，也相信大家或许有各种各样的疑问（这个东西和降落伞有啥不同？好玩吗？怎么才能这里玩啊？费用高吗？危险吗？...）。希望大家能从这个帖里找到你们期待的答案（我会定期回答一些问题）。这个帖是一个关于personal experience的帖（不是技术探讨），我只是新手novice一个，或许当中会有一些technical的terms，请谅解，主要介绍这项运动在Melbourne的情况，我会当作写飞行日记一样的定期更新，感兴趣的朋友可以follow me,keep updating，不感兴趣的TX们就请见谅，当作路过罢了，当然，给我加点分是无限欢迎啦哈哈

-----------------梦想篇----------------------
曾经有人说过：人类从来就有在天上飞的梦想，从数十年前的飞机发明，到现今的航天科技都一一印证了人类对征服天空的追求。。。说大话了。
只是引用一个圈子里有名DVD的片头对白。
不过回想童年时候确也经常梦想自己能像小鸟一样的在天上飞翔，无数次听到飞机的声音都会抬头追往直至飞机消失在云雾里，心里总有一个问号：到底在天上飞会是怎样的呢？会看到孙悟空吗？当然，长大后第一次的飞机旅程就告诉自己：孙悟空不在天上，而在电视机里。不过也萌生了另外一个问号：如果不坐飞机，能在天上飞吗？那又会是怎样的呢？
这个问号一直埋藏在心底里好久好久。。。一直到第一次尝试paragliding滑翔伞才找到答案。

-----------------追寻篇-----------------------
自从那一次偶然在discover channel发现这个运动时，心里就产生了冲动要去尝试，要去学，要去实现这个多年的梦想
居然，第一次让我接触这个运动是在国内，可惜课程还没完成，PR就下来了，我们也就奔上了赴澳的big adventure了。

-----------------License课程篇---------------
在melbourne settled down后的第一个Xmas,其实就是去年圣诞，我和LP就驾着我们的小小Nissan Pulsar沿着海边，从Melbourne一直head north，途径Sydney，然后到达这个paragliding school的所在地--North Haven,wow!such a good name!是一个30mins drive to Port Macquarie 的度假小镇（沿途的风光驾车旅程实在让人难忘）
废话少说，开始说我的paragliding course吧*
* 在Australia,take a full paragliding course and get a license is a legal requirement before you could fly solo，这个跟国内也一样，必须学课拿执照，和驾驶一样，不过当时还没想像得到这个运动在这里是如此的well regulated
-----[课程的第一天]Day1------
Tandem & Ground Handling
Tandem:就是一个有经验的pilot（教练）带着你一起飞，简单说就是两个人飞，作为passeger的当然是相对要轻松一点，可作为student，我是十分的紧张。
话说回来，虽然在天上飞翔是多年的梦想，但在起飞场等候准备的时候确实scared啊

起飞场的风景是非常的漂亮
这个起飞场是一个风景了望台look out，所以有好些游人，当然我们是最大看点了。

起飞前的准备

你看多热闹

这张是前一天拍的，当天LP拍了VIDEO，来不及拍照了
这是我第一尝试tandem，也是第一真正的尝试飞paraglider，当我双脚离地，腾空飞翔的一刻，那种刺激、兴奋、喜悦又害怕的感觉实在太难以形容了，totally beyond description! 而在空中翱翔的感觉也实在是令人毕生难忘！（当然，随着自己飞行的次数多了，这样的兴奋会减弱了）。当天我们飞行了大概有30分钟，教练带着我thermal的好几回，还记得this moment the instructor said 'look at that cloud,we are approaching it', the next moment, I was already touching it! 降落下来后我跟自己说：This is definitely what I want! 我要飞翔！！！
于是艰苦的学习旅途就这样开始了

模拟训练
模拟训练后马上开始了最艰苦的一part--ground handling了，中文叫“抖伞”或者“逗伞”，就是训练地面控伞，在这阶段，主要是为了起飞动作而训练的

刚开始，教练会边解说边从旁协助

大伙多卖力啊，要知道那是大热天，中午2、3点，气温高达38-40度啊

因为之前在国内训练过斗伞，所以当天进步得相对要快一点，曾经airborn了，感觉又是又害怕又爽啊

经过一个下午的训练，略有成效了
*Ground handling不仅是学习时需要训练的，每一个pilot都应该定期训练的。

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-18 20:05 编辑 ]

charlie-qi

墨尔本滑翔的华人越来越多了，从楼主从前的一个人到两年前三个华人到现在的十几个????。
上两张楼主的飞行英姿和一个初学者的练习照

Ubunbtu

You're brave!

charlie-qi

https://youtu.be/nLOnM4cp7W0
四月的视频

nngn

这项运动让我感受到生命的多种奇特.

不但可以奢侈地跟随小鸟翱翔天空, 更特别的是认识志趣相投的朋友,一起分享这份探索的喜悦.

万没想到能在十多年后继续飞翔
更没想到能和Charlie从这里线上认识到现实一同飞翔和分享, 奇妙! 感恩!

Wishing us lots of happy flights and safe landings.

lll2008

路过stanwell tops常看到，这里有了这个运动的细节。

charlie-qi

顶一下楼主的旧贴。十几年过去了，楼主对飞翔的热情依然不变。
前两天有幸和楼主一齐翱翔，向楼主学习。

innerwarrior

mark mark~

nngn

nngn 发表于 2012-2-18 19:04 [url=http:/oursteps.co/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&pid=8543923&ptid=124458" target="_blank">
Our 2 weeks holiday in Bright is coming to an end soon, we will be heading home tomorrow, time just  ...

很久很久没有更新次帖了.

确实对上上一次飞行已经差不多有一年了.

忙了什么?很多很多...其中包括以下:


http://youtu.be/tjGofcGu0hc

历经一年多的筹备,
跨越19个拍摄地点,
超过100小时的拍摄,
和经过无数小时的编辑制作,
我们首个独立制作(关于paragliding心理的) 纪录片终于将和大家见面.

时间: 07/04/13 星期天下午 3:30pm
地点: Watsonia Library Community Room (library对面多功能室)
请支持本土制作.

诚邀您和您的朋友一同齐来分享!
(场地座位有限,敬请TX们确认人数,十分感谢!)

请欣赏简短预告片.

nngn

Our 2 weeks holiday in Bright is coming to an end soon, we will be heading home tomorrow, time just flies!
If today's weather is good then I'll have another flight, if it's not, the bombed out flight the other day was the last flight, which would not be very good.

Woke up with a cloudy sky,hmm......not looking so good, but since there's some patchy sun light coming through the tree leaves in the garden, mummy urged me the get ready and so I did.
Before we went out, last check of the webcam showed a mixed picture. The cloud are still everywhere while there's a blue in the background. Will I get a flight out of this?


Went out to the LP, only one car with one pilot was waiting, nobody on launch or in the air yet, hmm...
Today there's some cow running at the bigger LP, which means it will close for most of the section.


Waited until 12:00pm to get a ride up the hill, a few tandem ride went up and 2 had landed, eventually someone decided to drive up thank god! On the way up, we picked a Switzerland pilot who mentioned the easy access of their launch sites in their countries, well, I had always wished that we could have some easy access in Bright here like those in Europ such as cable car, shuttle bus/truck, that would make the site much more user friendly, well, it's only a wish.

Not long after I finished the pre-flight check, three hangliders came up and started to set up. The sky had cleared more and more and looked to be a beautiful sunny day! The weather up in alpine area changes so dramatic and so quick!


Without further ado I launched, and right into a nice lift where I rode to Marcus and connected to a couple of narrow lift then onto a wider one, it's this lift that took me straight up to 1700m+, nice and gentle, and I was nearly in the cloud with that height already, which telling me the early base sits at 1700-1800m as predicted.

Didn't muck around for long as other gliders either sank down or struggling down low, I headed towards Goldmine, as usual I lost 300-400m of height when I got there, searched around for a bit and climbed back up to 1700m, well, with the main NW wind, even there's other on the radio or flying nearby, I should try to go further down the ridge then, so I did, back and forth a bit until I got another top up to 1700m so I pushed on speedbar and kept going...At some stage, I saw my 'GIN buddy'-the European lady who also flies a GIN glider flying around me, up and down, it seems she got quite good confidence and had some nice speed and climb...no good, sank too fast this time, only half way to Smoko I was sinking below 1400m already, I need to turn back and top up, turned, headwind! pushed my speedbar, hoping to pick up a good climb...nothing, nothing, nothing...I was below the Goldmine peak before I could reach it, so I had turned on the 'ready-to-land' mode and aim for Wandi while still keeping the hope to sustain my flight...hmm...nothing on the way down until I was below the peak of that little hill at the back of the Wandi LP, I kept searching, kept turning, utilizing every single bit of uplift even though they are really short and narrow, at the same time closing mornitoring my height and made up my mind that once hit 500m I should go land...after quite a few attempts I finally hit that benchmark 500m so I immediately switched to landing mode. Well that will end the flight. The landing was ok although I landed cross wind, the harness had saved my bud the pain when it slided on the paddock a bit, in hindsight I should leave more margin so that I could have enough time to figure out the wind direction down low.

Nice to be back in my first XC spot - Wandi Pub
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/556103



45mins later, here came my retrieve! thanks mummy and Gabby


It was just 3:00pm when we got back to the main LP, the sky looked better and better, it's one of those days when you could stay up for a long time without too much of rough air struggle, so we waited at the LP hoping to get a lift back up the hill. Geez...it's so hard to get a lift up the hill, back to our discussion topic all the time - easy access is really something needed for this great site!

1 and half hour later, we decided we had waited long enough and I called it a day, or a flying holiday! It was the last flight of this 2 weeks holiday.

I will come back soon! Thanks for reading my post.


[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-23 14:29 编辑 ]

nngn

We will be heading back to Melbourne on Sunday, so today and tomorrow are the last chance to get a flight. Since the forecast for today was showers and thunderstorm, I didn't have much hope of it and it rained when I woke up so it reassured that it's not a flying day. While after that rain, the sun came out, shedding some nice sun light. So mummy urged me to get ready to fly.

So I did, checked latest forecast, still the same, looked at the sky, got the gear ready then re-checked the webcam before heading out, it looked alright, with some blue area and without too much dark cloud surrounding, but it's already 10:40am when we got to the LP.


One sedan went up with full gear and passengers, so I waited, then more sun light came out and followed by 1 glider launching, then another, and then the 3rd. By then I knew I missed the ride or the window. They were soaring then climbing then crossing towards the LP.

One glider on its landing approach, later on found out they the NZ group that doing the spot landing.


Not long after, more gliders launched and climbed.


It's 11:45am already, I knew I would not get a ride up the hill very soon so I called it a day, headed back with mummy and Gabby.

Family Holiday vs Paragliding Trip Dilemma
If you asked if I'm happy? I'm not, I should have gone out earlier to catch the ride up the hill, or I should have kept waiting at the LP until there's another ride up then I could have a late flight? I think I could have done that if I did this trip on my own. But since I came up here with a family, it's a flying&family holiday for us, with this in mind I was reluctant to urge myself to get out and go up the hill all the time, although I fully understand that they had compromised a lot when I was out flying, they could not enjoy a real family fun time when I was not around, which had made me feel guilty everytime I was out, and on the other hand I feel to some extend I compromised a bit too, like what happened today.

It's kind of a dilemma, this sport takes up so much time, it's real hard to combine a perfect family holiday with a perfect paragliding trip, it has to be some sort of compromise when trying to combine them, I think they have to stand alone on their own.

Honey and I had that chat the other night and put up options like in the future I go on flying trip by myself regularly and we do our family holiday together, without flying, we separat these two. I had been reluctant to do that as I always try to combine them, thinking that may make all of us happy, but it seems more evidence started to prove that's not possible and separating them could be a better option at this stage.

I still haven't forgotten my very first dream when I started this sport a few years back 'To fly around the world with my loved ones'--I still have that in mind and hope we could do that one day.

nngn

原帖由 136mydream 于 2012-2-15 21:24 发表

看起来好惊险啊
安全回来就好:)

Thanks 136mydream.
It's quite an experience for me.

Today is a no-flying day.
Rain, thunderstorm, and not looking good for tomorrow either.
So went out for a drive this morning and just chill out.

136mydream

原帖由 nngn 于 2012-2-14 20:33 发表
It's Valentine's Day today.
And it's today that I had my scariest flying moments since I started this sport.

The day started with a nice morning.
As usual, last check of the webcam to confirm if it' ...

看起来好惊险啊
安全回来就好:)

nngn

The sky looks blue but very hazy today, it's obvious that there is an inversion layer sitting there, preventing some early instabilities. While at the same time, forecast for the wind is strong today and will get stronger tomorrow, so chances are it could blow out later today.


As usual I did the pre-flight check, buddled up in the shade and ate my snack and drink, that's before 11:00am, and I felt that the wind is really picking up. So without too much waiting I went out and ready to launch.
Waited until a breeze come through, I pulled the wing up, quickly checked it, turned then ran, I was airborn straight away, all the sudden I heard someone yell loudly on launch, shit, must be something wrong with my wing, I immediatly killed the wing before I was too far out the hill, I was ok, did a sort of slope landing. Then I looked up at the guy who just walked away after giving that loud shout out I realized that he wasn't yelling at me, he was yelling at his buddy who is on the other side of the launch site! What the F@&%$! What the hell was he thinking?!!! he could have got me injured! And I had to abort a perfect launch because of that idiot! I was so annoyed and so angry. But I had to drag the wing up by myself as everyone was busy preparing for their launch. Layed the wing out and relaunched again, with an angry mind...
Didn't get any lift from Marcus, I told myself I should have checked more carefully and confirmed it's on before the 2nd launch, well, I'm in the air already, what can I do?! Headed to the Emily, found some weak lift and got above launch, trying to head back to Marcus, it was too crowdy, so stayed on the Emily bubble, but the bubble didn't last for long, I turned, searched and turned and searched, sinking and sinking, I was so annoyed that I missed the 1st launch that I believed could be in perfect timing rather than the 2nd launch in this rush and ended up in this sinky air. Struggled at the end of Emily for a bit but eventually couldn't sustain the flight and landed soon after.
Geez.....I was so angry, really wanna kill that guy who yeild like an idiot! I bombed out, while watching many others climbing high and went far...

With strong eager to have another flight in mind, I got a ride up the hill with one of the instructor, by the time we got up there, it was blow quite strong and gusty. He managed a flight with his tandem passenger while it didn't last for long.


Oh well, if Fred can't stay up, that can't be good as he is the multiple times champion he is way better than my flying skills. So we waited and waited, but the wind didn't seem to die off.
Looking at the streamer here, you can tell how strong the wind was. I didn't bother pre-check my wing.


By the deadline I pre-set, which is 3 o'clock, the wind didn't seem to die off, still really gusty, so I made the decision to drive down the hill.


That's it, that's it for today. The wind continued on the strong side as forecasted and I had an early bombed out flight thanks to that idiot and my angry mind caused by that.

Well, nice company with that pilot who came back up with me and drove me back. His name is Ron, who lives about 70km from Bright, a non-regular flyer whos lives in his ute when is out flying, no families, does a bit of 'birds watching'--I always meet interesting people in this sport.

nngn

It's Valentine's Day today.
And it's today that I had my scariest flying moments since I started this sport.

The day started with a nice morning.
As usual, last check of the webcam to confirm if it's a 'Go' day or not, and it is.


Got a ride up the hill with Mark, a pilot from NSW who put all the gear in his 'truck', including a bed, a fridge, telephone, GPS, radio etc, it's his flying truck.


After the pre-flight check, I do what I usually do, eat, drink, watch and hang around the launch.
This camera is really huge!


Waited until I confirmed that there would be enough lift and then launched, after some effort I climbed to over 1800m+, with some dark stormy cloud around, I headed to the blue towards the Porepunkah, lost a bit of height passing the end of Marcus ridge, so come back, trying to top up.

It's strong W-NW on launch while it didn't feel so rough as it normally would. I kept pushing back, with speedbar, then I hit a lift, so released the bar ready to thermal. I was at about 1500m+ above Emily ridge, a few gliders were thermalling at the dark cloud base above Mystic, I was going to join them.

The following 60-90 seconds were something really nasty.
I had some big rough air and a freefall before, but compared to what happened next, they were a piece of cake.
I can't exactly recall what happened to my wing as I was totally shocked and extremely scared and busy, all I felt was that the wing was in continually collapese, big collapese, pendulum, frontal, stall...doing all sorts of things I never expreienced before. And all I felt was big swing, from left to right, back and forth and weightless, followed by one and another. For a few moments I lost orientation while I still managed to do a quick glance at the hill below trying to judge my height to the ground. Initially I thought the wing would settle quickly like it normally would, but it didn't, it had well passed the automatically recover expected timeframe and I felt I lost control, even though I desparately tried to use weight shift and used some light brake input to stablize it, but all effort failed, the wing continued in its nasty form of manoeuvre. For a few seconds I felt the need to throw my reserve! That's the very first time I had that feeling, even though we had talked this thing to death, but I never felt that need in real life, it's really scary...the lost of control, the weightless, before I started to hate myself, the wing started to calm down a bit, it's this moment I actively put in all my concentration and steer the wing out of that zone, that I believed to be a super-crazy-washing-machine-like rotor zone, with some nasty cloud suck above. Once I felt I was in control, the first thing I told myself was 'I'm going to land, I'm going to land...' I was nearly in tears...

I headed out to the blue above the valley, and my vario showed that I was at about 1200-1300m. I lost about 200-300ms height in the last 60-90 seconds.

Did I actually land straight away? Any other incident on landing?
I did not go landing right away, as I'm well aware that if I landed straight away, this incident would in no doubt put on a huge pyschologic burden in my mind and will build up a big barrier for me to overcome in the future, I may not be able to fly thermic condition for a long long time.
So I decided to stay on, to calm myself down and focus on the postive thing in the air, I need to leave a good memory out of this flight, so I did.

With lots of effort, I flew to Little Mystic once I got enough height to cross over and hang around there for over an hour, scratching between 800m-1100m for a long long time, concentrating on thermalling the narrow lift, observed and focused...in the end I climbed out after circling from the narrow end of the thermal to its wide end to above 1900m and crossed to Little Pyramid. Half way through, I was just above 1600m and in sink. It's over 2 hrs in the air already. I felt that after these few times of low saves, concentrations, I had built up a positive momentum in my mind, recovered back some confidence and partially overcomed the scary memeory that I had not long ago.

Landed on the ground not long after, looked that this relative long flight, I felt I had reached the edge of something and came back, like a reborn.
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/556102



Happy Valentine's Day.

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-23 14:30 编辑 ]

nngn

Today's flying started with a high hope after looking at the super blue sky from the window. 'hmm, will I have another great XC adventure today?' Packed up and headed to the LP. the NZ group van was about to go, so there we go I got a ride up the hill straight away.

Arrived to the top, after unloading the gear, we heard some 'shu shu...' sound coming out from the back of the van, initially thought to be the gas leaking, it turned to be a flat tyre. Well, just swap it, no big deal.


As usual, I put down my gear and started to do the pre-flight check, it's this moment that I found that I forgot to bring the most important thing with me - Water! All the food are there, but water.


Without water, I can fly for long or far as I would be dehydraded. How stupid I am! I'm so angry at myself, although I know anger doesn't help, so I rang up mummy and told her what's going on, had to stop their fun time at the park and got her to drive back to the lodge and bring the water to the LP, hoping someone could bring it up to me...I'm so guilty that I had to interrupted their fun time,I'm bad...

It's after I told one of the pilots Bill that I don't have water, he kindly offered me his spare bottle, which is half of it. I'm lucky and thankful, although I know this water can not last me for too long.


Oh well, at least I've got what's essentially required to fly, so I clip in and waited.
With the S-SE wind, there has been 0 or even over the back wind on launch, at least lasting for half an hour. Quite a few managed a forward launch and climbed out.
While there were two incidents on take off, one NZ visiting pilots turned the wrong way, got picked up by a gust and twisted away from the slope, crashed on the right hand side of the bush; the other European visiting pilot forward launch, but the wing overshot him and he crashed and slipped down to the slope. No injured for both pilots, but it had brought in more negative sensation on me, together with the not enough water effect.

The crowd was impatiently waiting...and waiting...


I became a bit impatient since there were a few others laying out waiting next to me and others that launched well earlier had climbed out and went far, so when there was a breeze came up, I pull up and went away, it's until then that I found the bowl was almost covered in shade from the big cloud above, I found not enough lift and even not successful on scratching above Emily as I normally do and landed soon after. The landing was not nice as the wind died down and switched 180 degree right before I touched down.

That's it, that's the flight, with nice weather and high hope, ending up a bomb out flight.
I felt I'm going to be a 'rock star' after yesterday's good flight, today I felt I'm just a rock, grounded.

Pakced up and looked up, stormy cloud already closing in and didn't leave too much window in the sky.
So I walked, walked back to our place.

Half way through, sat down and had a snack under the shade


When I got back, Gabby was still sleeping, there's a bird playing in the garden, I've seen birds with yellow heads often, not red ones like this, interesting...


[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-13 16:06 编辑 ]

nngn

The flying

I haven't actually teamed up with anyone before any of my flights. Today I did and it worked quite well. Dave flies more often so is flying better than me while his wing is techniqually slower than mine so we should be able to fly in a gaggle, better is that we both aim for the same direction.

So there we went.
It took me a long time to get enough height above Mystic before crossing to Clearspot, over there we met up and flew together, exchanged our plan and headed towards the valley. He sank down quite fast above the township and landed a few kms outskirt while I top up to 1900m+ before the crossing, having hope of pushing further up the Great Apline Road, but with strong headwind and average sink at 3-4m/s, I was below 900m when I reached the Little Buffalo, a few attempts proved that I would not make it back up, so landed at the airfield nearby soon after.
It was a good flight, good to fly before the dark stormy cloud closed in, good to fly in a gaggle with someone teamed up on launch already and exchanged info during the flight.
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/556101
Had a few shots.

The European group is launching and the cameraman was doing his shots.




Looking back at the Blackfella ridge from the airfield I landed in. Nice to be back here and nice to outlanded after flying with someone.


Walking out of the airfield, I saw this small plan parked there. This might be another option when I reached retirement age, never know.




The walking

Everytime when I outlanded somewhere I always got easy retrieve, not this time.
Since Gabby just started her nap when I landed, so it might take a while if I sat there waiting for them to come. I decided to walk out and hoping to hitch a hike on the road...it turned out I walked all the way out...

The airfield is in the middle right of this picture, I walked from its far back and all the way to the main road. It took me nearly 30mins, that's with 20kg on the bag at 2:00pm


Raised my thumb trying to hitch a ride, numerous cars passed by, nobody stopped...$%#@!
So I kept walking, kept walking...and kept walking...
That's only part of the road I walked through.


Finally, after over 1 hr walk, I passed the Porepunkah roundabout where two nice ladies (tourists from Sydney) gave a ride back to the town, from where I walked back to our place. It's very nice of Joans and Christine.

Paragliding XC is always full of fun and adventure, fascinating!

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-23 14:31 编辑 ]

mk82

想当年我也打算学这个，后来改学飞机了

nngn

Thanks hohoho.
I'm really enjoying this flying-family holiday.

Forecast for today was again thunderstorm, so when I woke up and saw the cloudy sky through the curtain I wasn't having any hope of flying. Oh well, I had flown 4 days out of 6 days, it's quite good already, don't be so greedy, I tell myself. So I took it slow, had breakfast and had some good time with honey and our little girl. We even went out to check out some heritage track nearby. But when we drove out I found the sky had cleared out unexpectedly, so change of plan, we went back and I grabed my gear and waited at the LP.

Got a ride up the hill with the Europan group, chatting with them on the way up, I found that the driver/guide/camera man is actually doing this for business, he has a semi-professional cam recorder and 3 gopros, quite well equiped. This had reminded me the script I have been writing (I'm writing a short film script about something in our sport)


The flight was actually quite nice, I got a good climb shortly after launch and it took me straight to 1900m+, I had never climbed up that high so easily in Mystic, everytime I had fight, searching, fighting before I got to that height, so I was quite surprised that the condition was so smooth and gentle. Well, with this height and so many stormy cloud in distance, I don't think I should hang around for too long, time to go somewhere before it gets too late. So Goldmine I went, as usual, lost a fair bit of height when I reached the peak, even with speedbar. Then aiming for one cloud where a few other gliders were climbing under, I reached there just in time to top up back from below 1500m up to 1955m, and with the strong NW wind I easily picked the direction to head down to the ridge. Not long after Big Shed was in easy glide and I was still at 1700m+, should I try Harrietville? which could be my very first. Looked around, I was all alone, stormy cloud were gathering over that side and nobody was on radio, well, I wouldn't risk a definite long retrieve by honey with a maybe Harrietville. I think a return trip from Big Shed would be a good flight too. So I headed back, on full speedbar so that I could maintain 30km+/hr speed as to pass through the GM peak safely, I did after picked up some bubbles on the way. LP is always in easy glide distance, I kept flying above the ridge until I reached Little Mystic, I was below 1000m already, how about try something else, to see if I would pick up something above the valley, I did, but the lifts were not enough to sustain my flight, I was on the ground shortly after. Total flight was 45mins, not bad for a day like this.
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/556100http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/556100

It's a shame that Alex couldn't stay longer, otherwise he could have some good flying too, oh well, weather in VIC is so unpredictable, we will have to be there to see what it actually brings. The forecast is sometimes a friend, but it can fool you here.

So I flew 5 days out of 7, pretty good ah, yeah!!!

In the avo, we went out to check out the Chinese Bridge where locates just a few mins drive from the LP.
On the way there, the stormy cloud had shut down any flying possibilities.

Looking back to where I flew and came back, the darkish stormy cloud had shown its power


Mystic Hill is shut down too. It's amazing how quickly the weather can change in the high country.


No need to explain, the Chinese Bridge sign in Wandiligong.


We followed the sign to look for the 'famous' bridge our ancester had ever left in the gold rush many many years ago.


Then we found it after a short walk along the track. It's a nicely built Chinese style swing bridge. Come and check it out some day, there are lots of place in this area where you could find interesting things like these.


[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-23 14:25 编辑 ]

hohoho

感谢楼主精彩分享:)

nngn

Thursday the 9th, it was thunderstorm, I didn't fly, instead, we went for a drive to Mt Beauty and a round trip via Kiewa Valley and Happy Valley, nice drive, and nice to check out the potential landing option for my future adventure.

Friday the 10th, I woke up with blue sky, was quite surprised as thunderstorm was forecasted. Without further ado, I got to the LP after checking the latest webcam picture, quite nice, could the forecast go completely wrong?


I got a ride up the hill, it was 11:15am already, and the sky had been full of scray looking thunder cloud, while there was still some sunny window heating up the bowl. After I did the preflight, I found the huge stormy cloud over the east had got much closer and felt some gusty front approaching. I realized 'either have a quick flight, either pack up'.


Of coz I picked the first one and launched fairly quickly. Got nothing above Marcus, so Emily I went, no thermal but weak bubble, with big dark cloud above, everywhere. And some gliders were doing spiral to get down from the other side even though they were not that high. Wow, it was an easy decision to get down.

Before that I had a few mins play with another GIN Sprint wing above Emily, we waved to each other and I shouted 'GIN' to say hello, it was nice. She was one of the visiting pilots from Europ.
btw: there had been a lot visiting pilots around Bright (including some from Europ)since the weather up in NSW got crap, they came down from Manilla, got away from the flood area. Those European pilots had brought their friends with them, and they brought with them some nice filming equipment and did some shooting on launch, hehe, European are well known that play well with their paragliding travelling, they make the most out of it. I gotta do this one day with my families.

Shortly after I landed, the rainy cloud was already above Goldmine ridge. Gotta pack my wing up before it gets wet.


Others were doing the same too.


When I got back to our place and I rechecked the webcam again, wow, what a dramatic change in just about 2 hours.


It rained and thunder later today.
Oh well, at least I had a flight, a safe flight. I'm happy and thankful.

nngn

Alright, back to my story.
I had 3rd flight on the same date 07/02/12.
Got up to the hill with big cloud covering the launch and the bowl, waited for over an hr before launching (was nice chatting and watching others flying by though), lauched into sink, straight below launch height and headed to Emily, worked my way back up above launch height with my usual scratching skills(low save is so good) and got height above Marcus. Enjoyed some flying by with Alex (a pilot from HK), and was amazed by the performance of his light weight wing. On the landing approach, lots of lifts at the back of the LP, I was going up on every figure 8 turn, making me indecisive at some stage, finally got down after nearly 15mins with big ears and turning in sink. Good to call it a day like this. Mummy has been making great dinner, tonight is beef stake with stir fry prawn and mushroom with seefood sause, yummy...I'm spoiled :)

The glider that launched before me, the bowl was shaded a bit. I enjoy afternoon flight, it's because it's usually less traffic in the air, thermal is gentler and I would have more lesure to enjoy the scenery.


And my glider sitting the ususal shaded spot waiting for my call...


Wednesday the 8th, again, the wind was W 10-20km/hr. I had a short and rough flight. With my launch, I was lifted up immediately after I turned, then followed by a surge into big sink, fairly close to the tree on the slope, and a big lift right after the surge! It was a huge swing! That gave me quite a bit of adrenaline and at the back of my mind I told myself 'it's rough!',I countered flaping, swinging above the bowl and decided it's not a good time to hang around so headed to Emily, amazingly, I again used my scratching skills and stayed up and climbed back to above launch and connected a few more broken lifts and got up to nearly 1100m. But I realized the condition is way too rough to enjoy so stayed on the Emily side and hang around for a bit before got flushed down, not a pleasant flight.

Also, on the same date, there was another media(maybe channel 7 or Ten)came to do some feature shooting the day after that tree landing incident and had some interruption on launch though. There were some funny moments when all the pilots found those news crew came up and we all sat down under the tree to watch them.

The reporter had practiced her line for quite few times, it's quite funny to watch hehe because when we heard what they said we know how amature they are and how little they understand this sport of the situation. They just put up whatever they like to tell the audience.


And Peter was just standing not far away from them (they don't know who is Peter that day)


Also, after I landed, I saw the news helicopter was chasing two of the gliders that flying above the Goldmine ridge, the chopper was quite close at some stage, that could have produced big turbulance around that area, putting those gliders in danger. It's really unacceptable, oh well, I gather they don't care that much, the only thing they care is if they could get a good shot hehe.

nngn

As I said earlier that whenever there was an incident in our sport, the media would quickly jump over it and put up some appealing story, oh well, that's the reality, good news don't sell hehe. There had been over a couple of hundreds flight in this season and this is the only one reserve throwing, statistically speaking, it's pretty rare, for sure it's much rarer than car incident/accident.

The pilot (Peter) had written a full detailed report with the following two pics on our forum.
I'll just share the pics with you.

Peter throwing his reserve landing onto the tree, a pilot flying nearby took this shot when he saw that.


Koala Award winner Peter


Media(ABC) Link

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-10 23:14 编辑 ]

nngn

The Planning and Accommodation
We had planned this holiday well before Christmas. And this is my first real flying holiday that is out side of the normal public holiday period, I'm so thankful that honey support me. Since Feburary is typically hot, we decided to stay in a different place other than the usual Camp Krusty, so that honey and our little girl would have a comfortable place to hang around when I'm out flying.
I did a bit of research and found this lodge just a few hundreds meters from the Camp Krusty, which means not far from the LZ either and it has all that we need, 1-2 bedroom unit with air con, TV, separate bathroom and kitchen. For sure it costs a lot more than staying in camp, but when planning a family holiday, comfy is the priority.
When we arrived, we were surprisedly happy that the room is really nice.
That's after we pull all our stuff into the lounge.


The Flying
The day we arrived(Sunday 05-Feb) was thunderstorm, so we just chilled out and relax.

Monday the 6th, I had a flight. wind was SW 15-20km/hr, Condition was reported to be rough for many. I had a big collapses right after launch, first from the left then from the right, got flushed, headed to Emily, found no big lift, landed soon after. My PTT was broken, can't talk conveniently on the raido in flight anymore. need to get a new one.
our sweetheart was having fun at the LZ


Tuesday the 7th, I had 3 flights today.
The 1st flight was a 13mins short flight, wind was still SW 10-20km/hr, Mystic hill gets rough when under strong W or S. still intrigered by the rotor generated by the westerly wind, didn't get much height and landed soon after.


Headed back up the hill for a 2nd flight, wind was till SW 10-20km/hr, still rough down low, but persistant than the last two flights and got up to 2074ms with peak lift at 7.4m/s(biggest for me so far) above Mystic, headed to Goldmine soon after and got there with 1800+ms height, not much lift and maintained at 1600-1750m for a little, half way to Smoko but sank down quite low, nobody else is on the radio so I decided to head back to Mystic to top up, ended up landed soon after with sink at 3.4m/s-4.4m/s all the way down.
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/556095




On my landing approach, I heard someone on the radio reported xxx threw his reserve and landed in the tree at Goldmine ridge, I reconfirmed that after hearing the pilot reporting his GPS coordinate on the radio and I chatting with pilots and the LP. The pilot was ok, uninjured, but took 6 hrs to get him down back on the ground.
Obviously, when this kind of thing happened, the media is the first one to react, and 9 out of 10 they react dramatically and put up some kind of story, over exaggerated so as to attract more attention.
I'll put on some pics and a media link next.

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-23 14:23 编辑 ]

nngn

Arrived on Sunday, flew Monday,Tuesday and today.
Met a HK pilot friend, great to catch up and team up flying.
Having a great time with my lovely families.
Details follow later.

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-2-8 15:29 编辑 ]

nngn

The decision: 'Go flying or not'- weekend is approaching, there are still 3 weeks away from my flying holiday organized in Bright, I wanna keep my skills current at the same time wanna be with my families. Should I still go out while there will be a 'long' flying holiday coming soon or just stay home, maybe some ground handling? I was in a dilemma, really don't wanna upset honey. It turned out that we had just decided to host the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner for our group(close friends) late Saturday, I gather I should go flying to have some fun before the big day and honey would understand that hehe :).

Where to fly - there has been some great flying reports came out from Bright, ppl keep achieving PBs, I was thinking if I should do a day trip like I used to do last season and hoping for some epic flight, or find a closer site to make a short day. Another dilemma appears as Bright is easy and I'm familiar with it while it takes up all day and demands me to sleep and get up early to make a day trip, which means we would have to sacrifice a movie night (it does take up lots of time and things to make a day trip to Bright now); also, I haven't flown Flowerdale or Broughton for a long long time even though they are not too far from home, i.e. I haven't found a 'local' inland site. Well, I think I should not put too much expectation on Bright although peer keep achieving PBs as this would put pressure on myself and induce more risk taking, and I should really check out those two sites to see how long it would take to get there with our SUV so that if they could be my 'local' sites. So there we go, I picked Mt Broughton.

The drive - I haven't driven to the LZ by myself before, so did some googling last night and put up a note on my GPS since the LZ is not even shown on GPS, yep, it's quite remote though hehe, you wouldn't go places like these unless you take up sports like this.


The weather didn't look so good when I drove out this morning, quite cloudy, hmm......could it be a 'maybe' for today? will see


Up on Plenty Road passing by South Morang, I found there are a big new residential area along the road, nice houses, and quite a few of them are just at the foot of the hill, looking at them, I was imaging that I could do some take off and landing practice if I have a house here haha :)


The sky looks better while I keep heading north, good sign...let's see what it brings. Also I drove through the 2009 bushfire affected area Kinglake and Whittlesea, there are still some sign where you could reassemble that horrible Black Saturday.


I timed my driving along the way, it turned out that it only took 1 hr to get to Flowerdale and 1.5 to Broughton, great! They ARE my 'local' site, or sort of, I should do them more in the coming days then.

The Site: Mt Broughton - I think I did a bit of introduction for this site on this thread before, it's a nice looking flat land site. and with today's sunny weather, it makes it look even better. I always dream of a great flight when I looked at this open view, just inspiring!


Today is a busy day, there were about 20 pilots on launch, a big crowd indeed. And I'm glad that I caught up with a pilot couple who just moved back from France after staying there for 1 year or 2, nice to see them back. Pepople in this sport are quite often with some interesting stories to tell about themselves. The lady finished her degree back there after getting her pilot license in OZ and the gentlement found it hard to get into the workforce with the lanuguage barrier, while they did have some great flying in the European Alpine, really great flights! I'm jealous but honey and I have plans in place, we will make our Europ trip one day haha :)


The day turned out to be a slow day, this is a glider launched 2nd and passing over the launch after searching at the back. I like this shot.


The Fight - it was a 10 mins short glide. I wasn't expecting any big flight since I haven't flown this site for over 2 years and only flew it once or twice if I could remember, so it's good to be back and up in the air and the plan for today was set as 'Have a flight then go home safe'. I waited on launch for over 2 hours before taking off, checking out the condiction, catching up with ppl etc,. I aborted my first attempt on launch as ppl found my wing got line over (one side of wing tip was folder on lines), hoo, I wasn't happy as this is my 2nd take off incident in 2012, I have always been confident with my take off skills, I gather I should do some different type of ground handling then. it took me quite some time to sort the things out and missed some good windows. Right after take off, I got some bubble and got above launch twice but forced to head out after going down on 3.1m/s sink air and I was worried with my glide out since the GPS is showing only 18-20km/hr forward speed, no good to hang around with some big trees underneath before I have a clear ground for landing. The LZ as usual produced some thermal, but it was broken and too small to core. But it still feels good thermalling down low. I took this picture right after I landed, the bald patch at the top of the hill is the take off area. I packed up and headed home straight away.


It's a good flying day out, nice drive and nice to be in the air.
I'm happy and thankful.

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-1-16 10:35 编辑 ]

nngn

原帖由 charlie-qi 于 2012-1-9 14:04 发表

Really:o :o

I have not been using MSN for quite a while and I don't remember I have your MSN a/c. That is shocking!! You meant someone is using my MSN talking to you? My pw is pretty long I don ...

Oh...I think I've got the wrong person, sorry mate.
I had a friend called Charlie who went skiing with me at Mt Buller a few years back. I had mistaken you of him when I saw your label image here, sorry

charlie-qi

原帖由 nngn 于 2012-1-9 10:28 发表
Thanks all for the kind words.

Hey Charlie, it's been a while, how's since?
Have you used you MSN lately? it seemed someone might have hacked into your account.
I thought we were catching up the othe ...

Really:o :o

I have not been using MSN for quite a while and I don't remember I have your MSN a/c. That is shocking!! You meant someone is using my MSN talking to you? My pw is pretty long I don't know how hackers can do that!!!

nngn

原帖由 shyeu2 于 2012-1-6 15:33 发表
樓主能說一下玩這運動的消費嘛? 好想試試看

之前有人問過... 但樓主說過一陣子才說..
現在能說了嘛?

謝謝~~~

Hi shyeu2,

Altough compared to other aviation sport, paragliding seems fairly cheap, it still costs.
Here is some numbers for reference.

1)Do a course to get a license: approx $1800-$2000;
2)Get your own start up gear (glider+harness+helmet+glove etc): approx $5000-$7000 for brand new, around half for 2nd hand;
3)HGFA memebership: $300-$350 p.a.
4)Local club memership: varies, $35 for my club in Melbourne, $100 for the club in Bright;
5)Flying instrument (GPS, vario etc): approx $500/GPS, approx $300/vario
6)Go flying (petrol, food, accommodation/tickets if you are going away from your local area);
7)More things to buy and more to pay: you will probably like to subcribe to some free flying magazine or buy some DVDS, you will probably buy a sport camera to record your sensation, and you will probably like to go overseas to fly or bring your families with you and fly around the world and you will probably do some advanced course to progress and fly better and safer, and you will definitly buy a beer for those who come to pick you up when you fly a XC and land somewhere and you will definityly spend more on social things as you will get to know more and more like minded people from around the world...

It's an endless spending hahaha......
Paragliding is dangerous sport, but once you are hooked, it will become an addiction and your lifestyle...

Let me know if you want to know more :)

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2012-1-9 11:15 编辑 ]

nngn

Thanks all for the kind words.

Hey Charlie, it's been a while, how's since?
Have you used you MSN lately? it seemed someone might have hacked into your account.
I thought we were catching up the other day but I felt suspecious about the conversations.