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

charlie-qi

顶一下！最近哪玩去了？

粉色猪猪桃丽丝

哇 写得好精彩！ 佩服lz得勇气！我此生是玩不这个了，胆子太小 ！

136mydream

太。。。精彩了
我级别低，今天分数都给你了:)

nngn

oops...haven't updated my post for a long long while as I was busy flying over the just past summer season and tied up with some other stuff.

I had quite some good flying since last time I updated this post. and I had organized a novice competition over the last 3 months and enjoyed the Easter Fly In as they are two of the biggest events of our club (tailored to new pilots)

Been to Corryong(1st time), which is at the border of VIC and NSW, 5.5 hrs drive from Melbourne.
Had great flights over the Easter up in Bright and got my new height and distance records up to 22XXm agl and 17km XC flight, 39 hrs air time all up now, still a humble novice.

Will upload some photos when I got a chance.:)

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2009-5-5 23:18 编辑 ]

nngn

It's been a long while.
Yep, being tied up with moving to our new place, having a trip back to China, and the crappy weather over the winter in Mel.
It's time to dry the sock and get off the ground again.

As we all know, before getting back to the air, need to get your ground handling skills current.
It's lucky that there's a massive grassy place where I can do my GH, yep, only 10 mins drive from my place, it's Latrobe Uni.

D riser practice


There is a dam around 50 meters to my back


ooh...off the ground! I'm back!!!


Where to go? no doubt is my favorite Bright.
The weekend after the Melbourne Cup 'Long weekend' is the once a year 'Hot Rods' in Bright.
Check out these incredible 'monster machines'!









There are loads of them! I would say more than 200!


All right, time to enjoy my loved free flying again.
Do a sleddie to get back the feeling


Then what's this? sorry I was quite up high, it's hard to see clearly from the ground (my wife was taking the shot) and I was flying with an eagle, yep! it's huge! I would say about 1 meter wide when it spread out its wing. Flying with this creature is absolutely amazing! Actually I spot that thermal by watching them circling up, so I joined them, thermalling together, I'm quite lucky that they behaved quite friendly (some of our pilots had experienced eagle attack in their flying career)


A friend of mine (an experienced pilot) snapped a great shot for me when he was flying above me. I knew he was taking a pic for me, so I maintained and stayed cool hehe (I was at around 1300m asl), I love this photo, my wing is always distinguish in the air.


After 2hrs 40mins flying, I was so hungry and you know (so much want to pee), couldn't concentrate any more, then decided to land. It's a bit bumpy over the landing paddock, I lost height dramatically at the final approach, so landed quite far from the gate, anyway, still smooth. Checking back the vario. Best height at 1700m, best climb 4.7m/s, sink -4.1m/s, longest inland flight for myself. Fairly happy    (46.5 flying hrs all up, still a novice
)

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2009-11-21 15:04 编辑 ]

nngn

上周的飞行，我经历了飞行以来最‘刺激’的一次collapse.百分之几？
50%?...nop
70%?...nop
It's 100%!
free fall 自由落体 80米。

故事如下：
It was a bit rough this weekend up in Bright. Saturday was forecast 15-20km SW, by the time I got on the launch at around 12:30pm, people were starting to pack up and leaving the hill. I felt the forecast underestimated, would have been around 13-15 knots. Mystic Cup was canceled while some guns had caught the window and flew off just before it blew out. I waited until Colin J & Gengis left, then...it's a nice site seeing.

Sunday, forecast dropped by 5km to 10-20km SW. I was up the hill at around 11:30am. lighter while as gusty as yesterday, some people flew off, providing some entertainment in the air, some people waited, including me for sure. Never launched from Mystic in such a strong wind before. an hour passed, wind dropped down a bit, people all flew off, I was the last one took off, preparing for a sleddie or short glide...on the way from Marcus to Emily, passively encountered a strong lift, alright, have another go, stayed, stayed, while I could feel the strong gusty south westerly component had been causing some steering and drifting problems. 30mins passed by, I stayed, until the Mystic cup crew went away, I started enjoying the lift by myself above launch even they are not so nice. got tucks now and then. never felt that rough before, another 30mins passed by, people are coming back and trying to top up and flew to Goldmine. then they were gone again. Good, all by myself again, enjoying the whole Mystic.

Making sure Mandy had driven down safely, I told myself 'now concentrate!'. I started to look up, tried to locate thermal from the cloud above instead of from the terrain down under. not that much luck, finding mainly sink then, oops, got a good lift, I pull a bit brake, slow it down, going up...checked my vario, 1315m, good...kept turning, suddenly I heard a noise above my head sounds like the wrapping paper got trashed, immediately I found myself rolled over to my back and up side down! I saw my wing! the whole canopy!...it collapse!...(I had experienced big collapse in Corryong before), so I was not too nervous at the first second, then when I felt myself free falling and I was still upside down realizing all lines had loosen, my whole canopy had lost its shape, gone into a full stall! I instinctively immediately grab the handle of my reserve (Don't know why I had done that), as I was upside down, I could reach the handle easily, from the side view I knew I was still free falling and with a bit of height, I hesitated (or just mind blinded) for a second, then I heard a noise again, much louder than the last one. then I felt myself immediately rolling back to the forward position and the free fall stopped! all the lines got tension again. I looked up...ooh...thank god, my wing had fully recovered, followed with some severe pendulums, I active pilot and stabilized it. Now I could see I was a lot closer to the ground, quick checked my vario, its 1236m. I had free fell almost 80 metres. all these happened in just a few seconds! I can't help giving myself a huge scream!...Oh my...lucky I was up high and no one was close around...

30 mins later I was on the ground. (the LZ was bumpier than usual) saw Loz, Julie, Gengis, Peter C. 'How did you find it Nelson?' I responded 'Good experience'. 'it's quite rough today' they said...Yeah, Now I have a bit more understanding what they call 'rough'.

Total flight: 1 hr 36mins, best height 1513m asl.

感谢LP给我照了好多好多漂亮的照片，拿几张出来和大家分享。

charlie-qi

爽啊

shine99

好刺激。。。

我正在鼓起勇气，等着有朝一日，我也能像楼主你一样

自由飞翔。。。。

nngn

如果哪位同学Xmas刚好‘路过’Bright 的话可以抽空抬头看看天，如果看到黄色的Wing上面有APCO字样的话，可以Say个Hello哦 :)

Merry Christmas

nngn

This Xmas and new year holiday we headed up to Bright again and had a good time
I flew 5 days out of 7 days, had good cloud flying practice, flew to Porepunkah for my first time, catching up with flying mates, met some non-local pilots (from NSW, USA, UK etc), went fishing, enjoying the relaxing time along the river...

P.S. we met 2 Chinese couples in the caravan park we were staying, they were camping there. And we saw a Chinese family taking photos along the river while we were having a nap there. It looks like more of our fellows started to know this place. :)

26/12/09
Boxing day, good to be back in the air. Best height 1989m, up for 40mins.


Searching thermal down low (scratching)


Hooked into strong but smooth lift under the cloud, straight up to 1900+ m


Flew with some tandems



27/12/09
Condition was bad, sank down after launch, stay up for only 10mins


28/12/09
Inversion was still low btw 1300-1400m, got tucks and minor collapses now and then, struggled btw 1200-1000m, had enough and landed

Morning launch


Off I go!


The dust from the road (when people are driving up) is the best thermal marker(that's where you could climb up)


Afternoon, went up to launch at 2:00pm, condition was fairly strong, 20mins later, dropped down and turned to SE-S(over the back), desperately waited til 5:30pm and drove back to the camp. Quite disappointed. 3 hrs para-waiting!

29/12/09
Today I flew to Porepunkah for my first time. (a town next to Bright)
Best height 1951m, up for 1.5 hrs

Don't you think my launch is cool?


Dropped down to 100m below launch soon after take off, thought my flight would end soon, scratched back up above launch, connected good lift around Mystic, climbed to 1300-1400m in a few mins.


1 hr later, I landed at the Porepunkah air strip (a small airport), I was so happy!
on the background is Mt Buffalo, I will make it one day!


My wife drove and picked me up at Porepunkah, then we had a quick lunch at the camp, headed back up the hill again and I had another flight in the afternoon. Best height 1883m, up for 50mins. It is the best flying day I ever had up in Bright so far.



30/12/09
Today I had my longest inland flight, I stayed up for 3 hrs 10mins!

It is very busy today, and very slow, inversion stayed at 1300-1500m for almost an hour!
I was one of them.


After 3hrs flying, I was so tired, my arms are sore, thirsty, hungry and really wanna take a leak!
So I set up my landing, while I found some lift straight above the landing paddock, so I play around, climb from 600m back to 800m aha!


Gave it a strong flare as the wind was a bit switchy on the ground.
What a great last landing to conclude 2009!


31/12/09
New year's Eve
It's storm and shower and of coz big rain fall later on, so no flying today.
Then we went fishing (in a trout farm xixi)
We got two fishes and had a great yummy dinner!



It is a beautiful, relaxing and happy Xmas and New Year holiday for me

Happy New Year!!!

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2010-1-2 12:21 编辑 ]

nngn

Oops, sorry, double posted

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2010-1-2 12:18 编辑 ]

nngn

Yesterday I did another one day trip up to Bright.
Yes, 'one day trip' means drive up in the morning and drive home in the afternoon, 3.5+3.5=7 hrs drive in one day!!!
You may say 'Are you crazy?!"
Maybe, or I can answer 'Yes I'm crazy about flying'
当你对某一样东西着迷到某种程度,你会为它做出些旁人认为crazy的事情:)
况且,free flying能给你带来的独特的感觉是只有亲身尝试才能真正可以体会到的...

OK,here is the story.
I haven't flown since the new year break due to my injured nail and being unwell (the throat).
Now the nail is alright except turning all black, sore throat still.

There were about 10-12 paragliders in the air at most yesterday, 2-3 hangies. Best traffic ever had in Bright
I had two short flights, 30mins & 20mins.

The first one started with 100m below launch and scratched back up with some narrow stuff, up to 1400+ at some stage, ended with 2m-3.2m sink for the last 5-8 mins, felt like all the sudden it shut down completely.

The second one was flying with a bit strong NW component, flew too far away from the launch (tempted by a strong continuous smooth climb at 3-4m/s under a cumulus), hit sink and too much head wind, quickly drop from 1300m down to 1100m way behind launch, picked a paddock on the way to Wandi and landed there. Went home in time to watch the tennis.



大家有没有留意到我戴了一个黑色的面罩? yes, this is my new balaclava, 很奇怪,除了可以更好地遮挡太阳光晒以外(少涂好多的sun screen),飞行时受风声干扰少了,好像可以更focus了.


My free sky, 我回来啦!


在100m below launch的地方挣扎了方许,终于找到这一thermal,back up again.


Enjoying the quiet sky and fantastic view.

Thanks for following me all the way through.
感谢同学们的继续关注.

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2010-2-7 14:41 编辑 ]

nngn

3 Years Anniversary in OZ (Non-flying related)

3 years ago, in the dawn of 11/03/2007, one couple, after 10 hrs of exhausting flight, landed at Melbourne airport, showered in the first glimpse of the morning sun light, excited!

Still remember the second we stepped out of the airport. How fresh the air was! We are here, standing on a land we had never been to before, ready to start our brand new lives...

3 years on...Been through lots and lots...
Jobs, house, CPA study, road trips, paragliding, new friends...
Life seems starting to roll back to some sort of routine.

Not exactly.
We know we had changed, like the rest of the world, a little or a lot.
Something still remains.
Like most of us, keeping an open heart and adventurous spirit.

Look forward to our NZ trip next month; look forward to our round the country and round the world plan; look forward to more spectacular free flying; Look forward to everything ahead.

The world keeps changing and life is short, no time to worry too much, no space to regret, live our happy lives and go for what we love.


Cheers everyone...:)

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2010-3-11 09:40 编辑 ]

nngn

距离上一次飞行已经有6周了。忙着过家家，socialize，bad weather...a lot excuses to be found
今天，又做一次 Bright one day trip.
还是发片吧。
为了迎接 next month 的NZ trip,我们买了个Sony DSC-HX1.这次就专门拿出来试一下。
当然了，我是忙着飞行，LP 才是我的‘御用’摄影师了。

先来几张Countinuesly shooting. LP拍了10多张，我挑了其中4张。









速度还是挺快的，OK，PASSED。

20倍光学变焦测试



As we are already touching Autumn, the thermal was not as strong as in summer any more, very gentle, so I was just boating around, and as there were a lot more cloud to follow, I was just enjoying the fresher and cleaner air. Up to around 1900m with average climb of 1-3m/s, very pleasant.




LP 试了两张 ’Sweep Panorama‘ 全景照，不错，是我挑这款HX1的原因之一。






劳苦功高的LP大人



P.S. Easter我们将会和友人一行六人Camp in Bright, see you there if you are heading that way too. :)

greanbean

LZ, 您的小宇宙很强大。让我想起第一次sky diving

nngn

原帖由 greanbean 于 2010-3-15 21:23 发表
LZ, 您的小宇宙很强大。让我想起第一次sky diving

Greenbean，我们俩好喜欢adventure，好期待下月的NZ TRIP，Skydiving is already on the top of the 'To do List',  2nd option would be a Scenic Flight over Milford Sound or the Glacier. fingers crossed for a good weather for us

nngn

Trophies, Ground Handling & HX1

Today we went out to test our HX1 again.
Not flying (even though it would have been good if I did as the weather turned out to be flyable opposed to the crap forecast), we went to Latrobe Uni again to do some ground handling.

We are still learning how to shoot a portrait with the background blur out. So we took this opportunity to take some shots for the trophies I got from the Skyhigh Paralgiding Club, because one of them (President Cub 'Novice') was a rotating trophy for each winner of the year, it will rotate to the 2010 winner in a few months, so before it got away I have to do something

This one had captured everything needs to be included. Three cups, me and of coz my wing (the whole canopy)
There were 3 cups here, the biggest one is (as you could see) awarded for the winner of the year (President Cub), the club awards pilot for what they had achieved throughout the year based on a set of criteria, such as flying skills improvement, contribution to the club and the community, safety etc, I was lucky to be the winner at Novice level in 2009; The one in the middle was the award for pilot made good improvement, I was lucky to have one in 2008; The one on the left was a DoDo award for someone who did some 'silly thing' and amused others, again I was 'lucky' to have one in 2008 (if you had followed my story you could remember that I got my wing caught on the tree the very first time I used it, for ground handling) and took numbers of experienced pilots to help me sort it out



This looks like another 180 degree sweep shot, but actually it is not, I just cut it into this size in PS, I like the moving cloud (wave), this would be a good condition for the plan like glider to fly with as they need stronger and smoother wind. Since I got into this sport, I had got a habit to look up and watch the cloud a lot.



This is my favorite out of the day, good blur out(背景虚化)effect, of coz again thanks to my LP


[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2010-3-20 23:52 编辑 ]

charlie-qi

原帖由 nngn 于 2010-3-15 21:36 发表


Greenbean，我们俩好喜欢adventure，好期待下月的NZ TRIP，Skydiving is already on the top of the 'To do List',  2nd option would be a Scenic Flight over Milford Sound or the Glacier. fingers crossed  ...

四月正是秋天，一般都是好天气．　应该试一试ＱＵＥＥＮＳＴＯＷＮ的世界最高ＢＵＭＧＹ－　ＨＩＧＨＷＩＲＥ．

nngn

原帖由 charlie-qi 于 2010-3-21 19:10 发表


四月正是秋天，一般都是好天气．　应该试一试ＱＵＥＥＮＳＴＯＷＮ的世界最高ＢＵＭＧＹ－　ＨＩＧＨＷＩＲＥ．

Hey Charlie, are you up for getting into this sport yet? You would love it :)

Yep, fingers crossed for good weather all the way through.
Hoping to see the colorful leaves and landscape.

Had checked out Bungys on their website, it does look really cool, would really love to do it, but got a budget to manage, might have to pick either one btw Bungy and Skydiving, at the moment I'm sort of opp to the latter one.

charlie-qi

原帖由 nngn 于 2010-3-22 10:55 发表


Hey Charlie, are you up for getting into this sport yet? You would love it :)

Yep, fingers crossed for good weather all the way through.
Hoping to see the colorful leaves and landscape.

Ha ...

Yes all these kinds of adverture activities in NZ are expensive. I believe as you have some many paragliding experience you won't feel much difference from Skydive except the first 30 seconds free fall, which may not let your heart beating too fast because it is too high to feel fear at all as mankind don't have that fear in gene. but bungy will make you really exciting. In bungy, it is youself that make thre step but in skydive it is that guy make the jump. So you may rethink about it. Also bungjy is cheaper than skydive. As I remember, skydive might cost $250 to $300 while bungy only $90 to $150. But of course you should try one skydive in you life to feel it. Haha, so the only way is to increase your budget. I have done both(though not the highest Highwire bungy - only tried 80m).

Actually you can paraglide in Queenstown.

As to paragliding, i will wait my son old enough to try it together as I have no time at all now. Everyday is busy busy busy. That's what family life is. Enjoy your current situation.

[ 本帖最后由 charlie-qi 于 2010-3-22 19:08 编辑 ]

nngn

原帖由 charlie-qi 于 2010-3-22 19:06 发表



Yes all these kinds of adverture activities in NZ are expensive. I believe as you have some many paragliding experience you won't feel much difference from Skydive except the first 30 seconds f ...

Hmm good point Charlie, make the jump yourself is totally different. That's why we call Solo out of Tandem, isn't it? Yeah, apart from checking out the spectacular scenery of NZ, one of the reasons we are making this trip is to try the 'Extreme' fame of Queenstown/Wanaka. So had got approval (from the 'boss' of coz) to put up to 2.5k into all these activities, do really wanna do the bungy, never know, might just squeeze it in, do it and fix the bill later haha. Life is just too short, sometimes just make the move, can't worry too much.

One of my dreams is to travel around the world with my wife and do tandem paragliding with her(working hard on this), Queenstown is for sure on top of the destination list. Would be amazing to enjoy the breathtaking view from above, flying, quietly...Got flying buddy there, could come in handy one day.

You are seriously thinking about do paragliding? I was just joking haha.
Maybe one day your boy would become a great pilot if he did enjoy his flying experience.

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2010-3-22 21:05 编辑 ]

nngn

Haven't updated this post for a long time as I had grounded myself for 10 months, enjoying the parenthood looking after my baby girl.

Had a fix yesterday in Bright, but let's have a look back the last fly in I had in 2010.
4 of our friends came with us and camp in my usual stay, the camp Krusty.
It was a busy season, the camping ground was so packed.



A friend of mine had his 'virgin flight' - tandem above Mystic.
right before take off, we could tell from his expression he was so nervous


Then off he went!


Honey was taking photos for them.


Then I had my pre-flight check and ready to go


It was a bit of para-waiting before my take off as I was trying to find the good window to launch


Kept on waiting, from the look of others, not a good cycle in front of us...then yeah I was right, I was straight down to the bottom, landed 15mins after.


As we had stayed for a few more days, I had a couple more flights after that, it was very enjoyable.
One evening, we headed up to Mount Buffalo and a friend took some great shots


It is truly breathtaking view up there in the alpine region

nngn

Since we found out the great news about our baby girl Gabby last year, I decided that I should ground myself until her arrival and settle down.
Now Gabby is two months old and doing great, so as honey.
So I decided to sneak out for some flying.

As I had been out of action for so long, I did a few days' ground handling before going anywhere. I was so surprised to find that I got so unfamiliar with my gear, even forgot which hand grab what risers. After three session of GH in three different days, I felt I had got my feeling back and should be ready to give it a crack. (btw: I had found a cricket ground just 10 mins walk from home where I could do GH, even though it gets a bit turbulent, it's a good place to practice and very convenient, so I did all those GH  when I got home after work)

Also, I had bought myself and brand new GPS, which I believe could help me flying better.

Saturday 29/01/11
06:10am - got up
07:00am - head on to Hume Hwy
10:30am - Arrived at the landing paddock in Bright, man, I missed this place so much!
11:00am - up on launch, it's a lot crowded than I thought(on the way up, I was so excited, nervous and anxious, complicated)




11:30am - set up and took off, wow! just felt so good to be back in the air!! found no lift, hang around for bit and landed 13 mins later, landing could have been better, oh well, first flight after 10 months, not bad, so glad I did those GH.
12:45PM - got a ride back up on launch, cycle had become strong. Had some snack, and off I went!


These are my gear


All these pics were taken from my BlackBerry, not that good quality, anyway, just have it as records


People are launching into rough condition


1:25pm - landed after 40 minutes of battle, condition was a bit rough, good to have some theralling practice, I told myself 'I still have it'

4:30pm - after a long wait, finally I got a lift back up the hill (no good going flying alone, if I had teamed up with someone, it would have been much easier to secure a lift back up), the gusty wind had back off a bit, then I set up and launched. attempted the usual thermal source 'Marcus', no luck, headed to Emily (closer to landing), kept going down in sink! in about 3 mins I was already 150m below launch. man! no......I kept up my concentration, focus on every little bubble and the movement of those trees, kept scratching and scratching, my persistence paid off, I got back up, and above launch! the wind was still quite strong, giving me some interesting moments, but all manageable. Not so many gliders in the air, so I could concentrate more on thermalling rather than managing the traffic. Eventually I punched through those rough bullets below 1300m and got a couple of smooth lifts behind launch and slowly got up to 1700m, even better is with the strong NW wind, I easily drifted to Goldmine ridge and had sight of a couple fo landing options in distance. It's so nice to have that height and had that view again, while thermalling, my phone rang, then I realized I hadn't rung honey to tell her my updates, and now it's 5:11pm already and I decided I should go back to Melbouren tonight, so I didn't attempt going further, instead I decided to have a long glide back to landing paddock, it's upwind, so it glided slowly, again, it's so nice to have that smooth and quiet glide under the later afternoon sun light.

7:00pm - After packing my wing, I got a lift back up the hill to pick up my car, then drove down the filled the tank and started to head home.

10:10pm - Home, witnessing the Grand Slam Final of the aussie open, well done LiNa even you didn't get the last match.

It's so good to back in the air!!!!
Have I told you that I Love Paragliding?! :)

nngn

When I heard of the 'One Day Trip to Bright' idea from one of the experienced pilots Matt two years ago, I was a bit shock! 'What?! one day trip to bright, that's 7-8 hours drive in one day! it's crazy! what if you can't fly?!'
Then one year later, I did 4 one day trips to Bright in 4 consecutive weekends, luckily good flying I had paid off (thanks honey for great company)

Today is something newer and crazier happened to me.

I did a one day trip to Bright again, but not on weekend, instead, over the week day, yup, I took a day off and went flying, is that crazy? I asked myself quite a few times. The answer is 'Yes!'
The reason is simple, because I love paragliding, a lot(have I ever told you about that?), and the weather(forecast) for weekend is no good, and, the flying season will not last too long, so....... isn't this the easiest analysis hehe? I always have the puzzle in my mind 'how do those pilots survive? do they have a job? or do they ever need to work for a living? how can they fly so often?', well, one day if I win a lotto I will go flying everyday, one day :)

One the way to Bright, Matt told me that there's Bright Open happening up there (an international paragliding competition), and when those comp pilots are launching, the launch site will be closed for free flying, oh...I should have known this earlier. Anyway hope they will launch quick, let's hope!

10:40 am - arrived landing paddock, the sky was not looking so good, it looked quite hazy, and the high pressure system did put a huge lid in the sky, eh...please...please be flyable...I took a day off and got all the way up here, please...at least give me some airtime, please......got a ride up with the local school (good, I don't need to drive my car up as it would be too hard to retrieve it if both of us out landed, even though it didn't look too optimistic at that stage)

11:00 am - on launch. OMG! the launch was packed! yup, packed! full of gliders, bundle up under the trees. there were roughly 50+ pilots doing the competition meeting (briefing), never seen such a scene before. Take a look. Do they look like some rubbish plastic bag trashed around? Isn't the yellow glider on the bottom left corner of the picture beautiful? Yes, coz it's mine...and the food (in the plastic bag) on the right on the wooden bench was my energy that day.



11:20 am - I quickly set up (pre-flight check) and bundle up, after a few attempts, I finally found a spot to put my glider, then wait; quickly I found out the launch window opened (for the comp)  12:10pm and will close 1:10pm, that means, as a free flier, we could either launch before or after that window, man, two wind dummies proved that the first option wouldn't be too good (they were both going down, and so quick), so we wait...

12:10pm - comp launch window opened, pilots started to line up for take off. from the faces of those pilots, I know many of them are not locals, later on I found out they come from everywhere, inter-states and overseas. I even saw my instructor from NSW. hmm, seems like Bright Open does have its appealling and reputation.



12:30pm - after waiting for a little, the official wind tech proved that the condition had improved, so everyone is starting to launch, man, they are quick and fast! literally they launch one by one with just seconds interval, such an efficiency is what a big competition requires, so if you are not confident to launch within that narrow window, you'd better get yourself sharp!



Within minutes, all comp pilots are in the air already. Wow, what an efficiency, I was standing there, like watching a show! many of those comp gliders got a crazy looking shape! I just wonder how hard it would be to fly those monsters! Take a look at the first lot who jumped into the air and started to form a gaggle.





After they had gone, there was a feather look like cloud in the sky got a rainbow colour, look at that, there was an eagle flying towards it, so beautiful!



The picture was taken with my blackberry again, so not so good quality.

Time for our free fliers.
Launch no problem, thermal no problem as those top guns had gone on their task, while I made a silly decision to make the crossing too early too soon with only 1600+m ASL height, hoping there would be lift on the way to that ridge (Goldmine), then, nothing, nothing, nothing....35mins after launch I landed. I asked myself, why are you so impatient today? you would have stayed above launch for at least 30mins normally, was that the comp got you too excited? hehe, anyway, it was good flying.

Easily I got a ride back up the hill (there are heaps of nice people around who are willing to give you a ride anytime, that's how beautiful this sport is, the flying is indescribable, and the people are amazing!)
2nd flight, the launch was in btw strong cycles, it's weird that the launch was so empty by then compared to the crowded scene a few hours ago. the strongest climbs had gone for the day by the time I was high enough to core, so I was just practicing my thermalling and scratching skills, up and down quite a few times, best climbed up to 1400+m, had a couple of good low saves, people launched, flew below me, next to me, above me and below me and then landed, while I kept flying, kept flying...
a little while later I landed, 2hrs in the air, felt real good! Had quite a few collapse but all recovered well.

With a happy face I was on the way home and arrived at 9:00pm.
What a beautiful way to end the one day trip to Bright, oh yes, it's a one week day trip!
Now I'm looking out at the window of my office, wondering if that cloud would generate some lift or not...

Thank you honey for looking after everything on my absence, you are the best! love you :)
mate, when I said something nice about my honey here, it would be sweet if I could get some bonus points from you guys, thank you......... :)
加分!加分!加分! :)

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2011-2-11 08:40 编辑 ]

nngn

Looking back the day when I decided to take a day off on Wednesday and went flying, the weather forecast for weekend was crap, so it was pretty convenient for me to make that decision.

Well you know, forecast is forecast, and everybody knows how accurate our weather forecast could be against our ever changing weather, so it turned out that Sunday was a sunny day, so you know where I'm heading to, yup, I did another one day trip to Bright again.

Please don't question me 'are you serious?' or 'are you tired'? the answer is both yes, but all these didn't have enough power to stop me doing so.

Driving on the Great Alpine Road, the cloud was forming below the summit of Mt Buffalo.


After having the lunch prepared by honey, I launched, straight into sink...struggled for 10-15mins before I got back up above launch (it made you feel so good when you have saves like this, yup, this is not easy, at some point I worried that could end my flight, luckily it didn't)

The day was a little humid in the air as there was rain on Saturday, so there's lots of cloud to follow, which is fairly good, the only problem was the base was low and getting up slowly, I was up and down between 1200m-1500m for almost and hour before finally I got pass 1600m. The base was still low that's why at some stage I was flying next to and above some cloud, not safe to do that, so I headed out and sink down a little, but the view was incredible.

When I was thermalling above Mystic, I saw one glider was doing some sort of radical acro manevous or the glider was in trouble, it was in spin, helicopter and wing over and some stalls and collapse, it was very scary to me, even though it was quite high, by the look at it, I would never do those things in the air. Anyway, gave us some sort of 'entertainments'.

Eventually I got up to nearly 1800m, ok, safe to do the crossing.
With the dominate SE wind, I head to Clearspot with that direction (thanks to my newly bought GPS, it let me know my ground speed so that I know when I was flying upwind and when is downwind, pretty helpful).

Tried to follow gliders in climbs but didn't get too much luck over there, so the crossing over the valley or even to the Porepunka airfield is not looking too good, then I follow the Blackfellas ridge and landed at the end after a few low attempts(around Porepunkah). The landing was ok, not very nice, but safe. The paddock looked pretty flat and grassy from above, while in fact it is a little slopy and got some long scrubs in it.

From the landing paddock looking back towards the Blackfellas Ridge.


Mt Buffalo is just on the other side, I could have made the crossing if I had one more climb, well, next time.


Packed up and for the very first time I hitched a hike back to the landing paddock!
There are really plenty of nice people around.
Pretty happy with 1 hr 45 mins in the air and a little XC (10+km) for the 2011. 3rd flying days since I got back to flying.

Got back home 3.5hrs later, it was 6:30pm.
Took a shower and baby sitting.
Couldn't ask for more for a weekend.

Ohoo! I successfully uploaded my very first fligtlog onto Leonardo(International Paragliding forum), check it out!
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/412856
Check out the Google Earth file, it will give you a very vivid view of my flight.

And share with you one of my favourate videos.
Runaway

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2011-2-19 10:35 编辑 ]

nngn

Had done another day trip to Bright last Saturday.

Condition was strong, and with lost of westerly wind, Mystic had become quite turbulant, lots of rotor.
Couldn't go any higher than 962m, thermals were all scattered by the strong wind, couldn't even do a full 360 as it was too low, too narrow and too much drift.

Traffic around launch was quite busy at times, I had a closer incounter with one of the gliders, a big scream from me saved a potential collision.

While I was glad that I was the 2nd last one to land as people got enough and went land, I didn't enjoy the flight, almost nervous the whole time. As the wind was so strong, my DHV-1 wing couldn't penertrate well and parked there, not much forward speed.

The landing was tricky as well as the wind was so strong I misjudged the glide and landed quite close (later I realized there was still 20+ meters) to the end of the LP. So nice to be back on the ground.

I made the call the drive back home right away as I believed the condition wouldn't be too good in the avo as shower had been forecast for the afternoon and possible thunderstorm for Sunday, on the highway driving back home, I kept looking up at the sky, those cumulus clouds did look beautiful, just looked like an epic day, (shame we don't have another launch), well...by the time I got back home (around 5:00pm), the sky was all covered by overdeveloped cloud, then I said to myself 'good call to go home'. Then Sunday, it was raining, raining...it seems that my weather study has improved a bit.

Oh forgot to say that Autumn had arrived early in the Alpine region, leaves had turned yellow, I could smell it.

Our sky god, please give us a few more weeks(weekends) of thermal flying and please give us epic weather for the labour day long weekend lah, as I will be running up to Corryong, really look forward to the trip :)

nngn

Yesday I did another day trip to Bright.

On the way up, I found myself not as happy as I used to be while driving up, it must be the fact that I felt more guilty leaving my baby girl and honey at home while I go far away and have fun by myself. It must be the day before when I had done something with honey and bub together and found myself so lucky and happy to be with them. Now I feel homesick! driving up alone, 300km away from home!

Oh what's the matter with me?!
I should enjoy and make the most out of it!
So I did.

Not much to say about my flight except that there was so much traffic at one point, and I saw an ugly recover from an acro, and my average height was 1100-1200m, lucky to have touched 1400m for a few seconds then down again, and I had a good save above Emily again, and I stayed in the air for over 3 hours! Now I had passed that mental mark I set up for myself to be comfortable to say 'I am ready to upgrade my wing now'. Yep, 70hours, just that little. So hard for so long.

Tomorrow is the start day of the WomenwithWings2(WWW), so there were quite a few female pilots on launch. To be honest, I never seen so many female pilots gathering before, there must be over 20 of them! They are all mothers/wives/girl friends with happy faces. what a scene!

Happy women's day!

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2011-3-7 11:37 编辑 ]

nngn

I have been slack and reluctant to update this post as I felt that I had been talking to myself all the time and also had not actually got so much good flying. Well, as I'm having some thoughts lately I gather I should put it down for my own review.

For the record, I had been for a 3 days para trip to Corryong over the Labour Day long weekend.
If you wonder where Corryong is, google it, it's far away from Melbourne.
There was an organized trip with paid retrieve driver and shared accommodation, so I had high hope for it, dreaming that would be some nice XC flying to be had, some nice thermal flying time to log into my log book and some nice para chatting. It was a hard decision though as I was going alone, far away from home without families, this had made me more eager to get much more out of this trip.

Well, it turned out that the weather was much worse than we hoped for. So I had some stats as follows
1st overnight para trip in 2011.
2 ear plugs, best friend at night with two guys snoring next to my bed, big time!
3 sledies.
41 mins in the air.
5 km XC...walking, yes, with 20kg gear on my back!
And I had clocked up 1100km odo reading on my car.
(will attach some photos later when home)

Day1
my usual resting spot on Hume HWY


not looking so good on the way


passing by Wodonga


launch was covered with humid cloud when I got there


it's so green this year, unusually green, so open,basically you could land everywhere.


[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2011-3-24 19:31 编辑 ]

nngn

after some parawaiting, one glider went off


then he sank, sank,and sank, right to 50m above ground


amazingly he climbed out after great effort and made a 20+km XC, well, he is a pilot with 13 years of experience. then I managed 1 extended sleddie in the avo.

Day2
similar condition, nice looking cloud around while massive ugly looking over developed cloud is closing in in all directions


after some parawaiting, I launched, headed to the left...and straight down, packed up and started to walk, by then I didn't know how long a walk I would be doing. On walk out, the sky just looked amazing! how stupid I was, if I had waited another 30mins, I could be flying in a XC condition


after 1.5 hrs of walking and searching, I found the gate which led to a dirt road connecting the main road, that's the track I had walked through.


I was picked up 45 mins later. By the time we went back up the hill, the black cloud had closed in, shutting down all activities, then I managed another sleddie, this time I landed at the landing paddock, which was big relief as I didn't have to walk another 5km.




That was the last flight I had there, the next day morning, drizzle...I bailed out, went home.

That's it, that's paragliding, driving a long way, having high hope, and not necessarily having good flights.
I bailed out early on Sunday as I found myself being homesick when I was not flying, yes, homesick! I missed my little daughter and lovely wife so much! I asked myself 'what are you doing here? 500km away from home, not flying?!'

Now, I'm wrting this, knowing the forecast for Bright this weekend is unusually good for this time of this year, I keep thinking if I should go there, stay overnight and hope for some good flying, or just do another one day trip. Really dilemma, really!

Also, I had been seriously preparing for upgrading my wing, lots and lots of reseach had been done, quoation received, almost placed an order, put to a pause at the last minute as I knew I don't need a new wing right now, right at the end of the flying season, I can wait a bit longer, clock up more flying time,hopefully the price will drop a little then I order it, then the next season starts, do a tow course, then a SIV course, then XC tandem and 3 weeks para holiday to be followed! big plan! yes, so much to look forward to.

Lots and lots going on with my flying 'career'.
I'm so grateful that I have an amazing wife who is always so supportive and my lovely baby girl.
I always dream one day when I got my tandem license I will travel around (maybe the world) and fly with my families, that would be so nice.......so.....nice........

I'm an addict, I confess.

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2011-3-24 19:33 编辑 ]

nngn

The day started with some expectation as we were all told that people had a great day yesterday.

By the time I got set up on launch, I realized it would be a crowded day, seems like all those top guns are following the forecast or the rumors.



I launched at 12:50pm, straight into the nice little climb, thinking, good, should be a good sign for some more good climbs..then for the next 80 minutes, I was struggling to get high, circling in those broken thermals, up and down between 1000m-1200m.




In flight I found the battery of my GPS went flat, I was reluctant to turn it off as I was hoping something nice will happen and then my GPS can record my record flight, then I heard people declaring cloudbase at 1500m, I was loosing hope for any XC, oh well, if I can't go anywhere, then just get some quality airtime then. I turned my GPS off.

Witnessing people flying off and disppear in distance, I kept wondering 'could I do that if I got a faster glider?',hehe, well we will find out in 12 months.

I had started grabbing the brake handle in different way, putting my wrist through the brake handle and use the finger tip to grab the brake line, this did give me more feedback of the air around while gave me less comfort in flight as I got used to hold the riser, well, just need more practice.

Got some collapse as always and some nearly frontal as well as some big swing in turbulance, lucky I got in the air early so that I didn't feel so scared by then, and I found myself sitting a bit loosen in the harness, everytime I got collapse it seemed I was slide to one side and triggered some rolling motion,inducing some instability, I think I need to do some adjustment later on.

Eventually I got passed 1400m when there were only a few people around then I pushed out towards a cloud above the high point of Goldmine that I had keeping an eye on for a while, one glider got a good climb under it and the cloud still looked ok by the time I left the hill.

There's no doubt that sink is with me during crossing, had some very weak beeping on the way and some zero, I slowed down a bit, then sink again so I used speedbar, I realized I was loosing too much height, by the time I almost got to my target I was already level with the summit and worse was that the cloud had started dying, no good to keep going into bigger sink, then I had switch to sratching+landing mode, staying as close to the ridge as I could but found no usable climb all the way down to 600-700m, I'm glad my forward speed wasn't too bad as I had almost level with the back of the landing paddock, I looked at the vario, oh still 15mins to 2 hrs, I wanna make it a round figure, so kepting sratching on the lower ridge of GM leading to the LP, down to 500m, no hope, I set up my landing approach, cruising above a little pond I found some 0-1m climb, judging my AGL height, I should be safe to hang around, so I did, a couple of figure 8 and some 360 I was climbing again! I climbed 100m out of these little bubbles! I was so pround of myself thinking 'would that save my flight and I could keep flying?'

10 minutes later I was on the ground. Those climbs were too unorganized and too short a cycle.
So 2 hours in the air, some nice practice with the brake handle adjustment, harness, speedbar, a low save or sort of, not bad to conclude a day.





The thermic flying season is definitely getting to its end soon.

[ 本帖最后由 nngn 于 2011-3-28 20:17 编辑 ]