Saturday at EKY

Curtis joined me yesterday at EKY (Bessemer Airport).  We did a little jaunt around the local area.  Gotta love having an entire GA airport to yourself on a beautiful Saturday morning.

Video evidence of our fun:

Back to Blossom

Another business trip to LA, so I spent the weekend in San Diego at Ron's new place in Vista.   Jeff and Cuv joined me and we hit blossom again.

We all made it to El Cap this time - special thanks to Phil Russman (Lite Touch Films) for the encouragement to make the jump over the valley when I didn't think I was high enough.

Here's my track.

And a Doarama of my flight.
 


Here's Jeff's video:

Motor fun!

Sorry for the lack of updates - not much flying going on recently.  I used the down time this winter to get some motor maintence out of the way.

Anyway, I got my usual Saturday before Fathers day Hall Pass and used it to go flying!

San Diego Weekend

Rob C, Steve and I had business on the west coast, so we all met up in San Diego for some flying.  Jeff straggled out and joined us.

Rob, Steve and I flew Soboba on Friday and it rocked.

Then we hit Torrey Saturday morning, then Blossom Saturday afternoon and Sunday.  Great time and excellent flying, especially Blossom, although no one managed a run to El Cap and back.

My Soboba track is here.


One of my Blossom tracks here.





Some video from Blossom:

Ozone Ultralight 3- Mini Review

Received an Ozone UL3 in a 25M late last week. Incredibly light and small. 


I laid it out against a S swift 2 and a MS Geo3 - looks to be the same size and shape as a small Element 2.  The size of the risers is sick - so small, thin and light!

Photo comparison of the UL3 on the left, compared to a Swift 2 on the right, along with the light risers:

I put about 4 hours flight time on the UL3 last weekend at Torrey Pines. It was all ridge lift with the exception of one climb in the house thermal on the south side. Glide is better than expected and because I am light on the wing, I was usually the highest glider on the ridge.

My all up weight is 79kg and I was flying the 25M size with an Advance Lightness harness.

The good:

• launching is a breeze... very stable overhead too.
• very responsive, once you learn to give it quick, deep inputs
• surprisingly good glide - a bit less that 7.5:1 but I think I am light on the wing.
• typical smooth ozone handling
• love the light weight and packing size
• love the light brake handles - very comfortable, especially with taking a wrap.
• very easy to make a flat turn, without the need of outside brake

The not so good:

• the light risers are a pain in the ass to sort
• no brake line snap - just some velcro that doesn't work well. will be modifying that.
• glider seemed very slow (but I am coming from an A2/Swift2 as my usual wing)
• the speed system requires a good bit of pressure to engage
• weighshift is not that great, but once you get in a turn initiated, its easy to keep it in the turn without needing brake

Love the glider, but I think I am going to sell it and get a 23M. I got the larger size because I intended to use it for vol biv trips and wanted a better glide, but I think the 23 will be just fine and also give me a bit more speed for mountain flying where there are high valley winds.

Here is a quick video of a short flight in very light conditions at Torrey... I top landed after a single pass rather than risk a hike up from the beach.  


UL3 First Flight from Rob Reynolds on Vimeo.

Switzerland 2012 - Wrapup

Another great time in the Jungfrau - lots of flying and on the 2 days that were not flyable we did some hiking/exploring and rented downhill mountain bikes.  Loads of fun.

Here's some photo's from the week.

Parawaiting:

Rob C:

Launching at Mannlichen:

 

The crew, going for a hike:

 Hiking to the Lauberhorn:

 The crew, starting the muddy ride down:

 Post ride:

 

The town square slackline provided hours of entertainment... especially on the way home from the bar:

 

 Steve at the top of the Shilthorn:

 Jeff:

Steve:

Rob R:

Switzerland - Just a little taste!

We all made it to Switzerland - Jeff, Rob, Steve and I.  Today we took the train from Wengen to Niesen to fly this famous mountain site.

The valley winds were strong and we should have stayed in lea in front of launch.  We didn't.  Everyone had good flights but the landings in the valley were interesting.  Rob and I landed at the official LZ in a howling valley wind and lots of thermic bumps.  I was on full speedbar until about 6ft above the gound and barely penetrating.

Jeff and Steve landed in a tiny field near the train station.  They were about 2 miles up the valley and the winds were not as bad for them.  Rob and I got a nice workout hiking to meet them.

Looks like its gonna be a good week!

Sample from today's flying:

A Peaceful Sunday Morning at Torrey Pines

Spent the weekend with Jeff & Rob in San Diego.  Got to put some hours on the new Swift 2 - very pleased.  Love this glider.  Handles great, good glide & excellent speed.  Glides really well at half bar too.


Can't wait to hit the Alps with my new ultralight setup - Swift 2, Advance Lightness harness & a  Plum ultralight reserve.

Here's a bit of video from Sunday morning.

Peaceful Sunday Soaring

New GEO 3 for Sale.

UPDATE:  Glider is sold. Thanks!

Since the buyer I had lined up for my Geo 3 backed out at the last minute, its back on the market.

This is a custom color scheme Ozone Geo 3 in size Medium-Small. Colors are White/Light Blue/White/Blue and it has the standard risers.

Brand new, been out of the bag and flown for less than 6 hours from a grassy coastal ridge soaring site(Torrey Pines).

I purchased in December but didn't get the chance to fly it until this weekend. During that time, I lost weight and also went to a lighter weight harness and reserve. The result was I'm too light on this glider now. I am about 1/4 into the weight range.

Glider performed great but handling was sluggish. Once I added almost 10kg (21lbs) of ballast, it was a different glider.

I highly recommend flying this glider in the upper third of the weigh range (above 87kg - 190lbs or so - its a much better handling glider when loaded up.

Comes with inner stuff sack, speed bar, ultralight concertina pack. and light rucksack. Rucksack is brand new. I ordered a new one for this glider since the original rucksack that came with it got a bit scuffed from checking my kit on the flight out to San Diego.

Free ground shipping in the lower 48 US states.

Asking $2600 but make an offer, I need to move it fast as I have already replaced this glider with a smaller wing.

More info on the Geo 3 at:

http://flyozone.com/paragliders/en/products/gliders/geo-iii/info/

Weekend Trip to Torrey Pines

The DN's and I (Jeff, Steve, Rob) too a quick trip out to Torry this weekend to fly and go to the supercross races. Great time, got to fly Friday, Saturday & Sunday and had press box seats at the Supercross races thanks to Christina at RoostMX.

Take aways from the weekend:

- The Geo 3 needs to be flown at the top of the weigh range... handled very poorly with the light weight harness and reserve. When I backed 20lbs of ballast into the harness, WOW! Completely different glider.

- The Geo has a great sink rate for a EN B glider; until you push the speed bar. Sucker drops like a rock on full bar.

- Fared harnesses make all the difference. Jeff was on the top of the stack all weekend and we didn't know if it was because of his new Alpina or the fared harness (Impress 3). So he switched gliders with Rob C (Rush 3) and was still on top of the stack, even with moving down to a EN B glider. The drag reduction of the fared harness is significant.

- Rush 3 vs Alpina - hands up, the sink rate is about the same, but the Alpina is faster and turns better. Since this was Torrey, the air was smooth, so it will be interesting to see how the Alpina handles in the mountains.

Given the weight issue that I have with the Geo, I need a smaller size, so the I have a Medium-Small Geo3 for sale. Ping me if you want a great EN B hike & fly wing cheap.

New Gliders Take to the Air

A couple of new gliders took to the air this past week in Tampa. Scooter and Stinky received their new Ozone gliders, courtesy of their favorite Ozone dealer. A slick new Alpina for Scooter and a Rush 3 for Stinky.

Here's a video of them breaking them in with their paramotors.

Switzerland Paragliding July 2011

Thompson put together this great video with our combined footage from this weeks trip. Wasn't the best flying trip due to the weather, but we still had fun.

Thermals above Mannlichen

Here's some raw footable from Jeff Thompson from last Saturday.

2011 Alps trip - 3 Week Countdown

T minus 3 weeks until our annual paragliding trip to the Alps. We are headed back to Switzerland for the 3rd straight year. While the Swiss Franc's continue pummeling of the dollar doesn't make it nearly the affordable flying vacation it was 3 years ago, the sheer number of flying sites and their diversity (thermal, acro, turn & burn, extended sledders with a view), along with excellent public transport, stellar food and luxury accommodations keeps us coming back.

Once again our base will be in Wengen, where we scored the same apartment as last year (Thanks Mrs. Paterson!) on the top floor of the old Eiger Hotel. I'm sure Jeff & Rob will be terrorizing the locals at the Monkey Bar until 2 in the morning again this year.

Here's a taste of why we continue to go there - great video from Jeff of last year's flying.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sqrIpPopYI

Cuv's Flight Tracks from the Alps

Rob "Stinky" Covington finally got around to downloading the GPS tracks from our 2 previous trips to the Alps over the weekend. You can find them posted here: http://robcovington.com/paragliding/paragliding.html.

The last flight on 8/20 at First is a really good map to the house thermals at this great site. We are headed back to the Jungfrau region again this summer because the flying was so consistent. Here's an album of my photos from our August trip.

Soaring at Torrey

Weather was much better today. We had a great day of soaring at Torrey Pines then headed to OB to watch the late game and have dinner.

It was great to run in to motorhead Ron who was taking a break from grad school in Miami and visiting his old stomping grounds.

Photos here.

I've got meeting out here tomorrow and Jeff is off to Seattle.

Glamis Again....

Scooter, Skyking and I are in San Diego for the weekend (Scooter and I had west coast business and we needed Skyking to carry our bags). Its not flyable today at Torrey so we headed to Glamis to ride quads on the dunes. Awesome time as usual, but hauling ass up 400ft dunes can wear you out.

Here's some video from Scooters helmet cam.

and I posted a few shots to Flicker here.

(Don't worry, Skyking was fine after this little "mishap")

More Video from Switzerland

Sorry for the lack of posts, but we were too busy flying out butts off! Here is another video of a flight from First, over the town of Grindelwald. This site was great! Lots of space to layout and take off and good thermals with predictable triggers. Heres the video - be sure to hit the HD button so you can see it in HD.



I'll be posting some photos later this week and maybe another video or two.

Sunday Flying - Grindelwald & First

Today we flew off the backside of Mannlichen, an extended sled ride to the LZ in Grund. From there we took a quick train ride to Grindelwald and a short hike (uphill, as always) to the bahn to First.

First rocks! South facing, lots of room, nice grass launch and thermal triggers everywhere. We all had good flights and got very high. The goal was to get really high and jump over the back and land in Interlaken. The strong west wind made the difficult. Jeff and I had no chance and landed back at Grund. Rob was skyking and got plenty high but took pity on us and landed at Grund too.

We hung out at the bar on the bahnhoff a bit too long ("just one more beer") and missed the last train over the top of Mannlichen so we hand to take the long route - 2 hrs home. Another great day and the Joungfrou region is the place to be for paragliding.

Saturday - Flying!

Had some great flying today. We started the day off at the top of Mannlichen and flew from their down the valley toward Murren.

Here's a video with some of the flight from my helmet cam:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyeGADRadpo

We landed at the Stechelberg Bahn that takes you up to the village of Murren. For our second flight, we took the bahn to Murren and launched above the town. Here's Cuv enjoying a post flight beer while checking his crackberry.

Here's the village of Wengen as seen from the valley floor.