Flying Away Together

 Music by Planetary Nights (http://www.planetarynights.com/); used with permission.

Simulation of Flight Incidents SIV September 1&2, 2012

It's time. Time to learn the limits of the flight envelope of your paraglider while flying over beautiful Lillooet lake at our upcoming SIV: Simulation fo Flight incidents Seminar!  September 1 & 2 (with 3rd as weather back-up day).

SIV will empower you with vital skills to be able to deal with turbulent conditions and will greatly help in: preventing the development of a extreme flight attitude; restoring an extreme flight attitude to regular paragliding flight; or executing a well timed and delivered reserve parachute toss.

Paragliding SIV should be conducted at least once a season to keep your skills sharp and especially every time you get a new paraglider, so that you can understand your new gliders behavior characteristics at the limits of the flight envelope. 

iParaglide's SIV (details here) is conducted on the September long weekend each year as the weather most often cooperates in that time frame and the lake levels are ideal at Lillooet Lake for towing.

This is a quality course, with a smaller group size to ensure you get lots of flights and learning opportunities are maximized. We use a high-end pro tow hydraulic payout winch and jet powered boat to tow you up to 3000ft over the lake.

Towing for SIV and acro training is the most favored delivery method for a number of reasons:

• you get a flight on the way up to altitude and learn new skills
• turnaround time is more efficient than mountain based flights
• more flexibility for wind strength and direction, not dependent on cycles like on mountain launches 
• pilots can view all participants maneuvers and hear instructions, learning from others flights as well
• hanging out at the beach and watching all the action is more fun than driving up a mountain! :)

Accommodation will be available on a number of levels, from the first class GREENWOOD B&B with hot tub and barbecue deck, to the rustic LILLOOET LAKE SIDE LODGE cabins just a stones throw from our SIV beach LZ, to camping on the beach.

This is my favorite weekend of the year as the "aha" moments abound and the sky bustles with the energy. The grins from pilots who have just learned new tricks and have gotten to know their glider more intimately are priceless.

SIV Simulation of Flight Incidents  Seminar details are here.  Reservations click here. 

Looking forward to seeing you all!

Paragliding Reserve Parachute Seminar: August 25

It's that time of year again when we get pilots thoroughly understanding their paragliding reserve parachute systems. The seminar will prepare pilots for successful reserve deployments should they encounter an unrecoverable paraglider attitude during flight. This seminar is also a pre-requisite for our upcoming SIV (Simulation of Flight Incidents) course.

This seminar covers significantly more material than other reserve seminars and is done in a much smaller group size allowing for multiple repacks. Paragliding Reserve Parachute Seminar details are here.

We look forward to helping pilots practice the important topics to learn: how paragliding reserve parachutes are designed to function; when and how to deploy their reserves; what to do during a reserve ride; and how to repack.

Paragliding on Joy TV Channel 10 Aug 8 22:00 & Aug 9 08:00

Hi, 

We recently had a great time coaching a group of new pilots including Harpreet, of the Harpreet Singh Show, in their evening theory session, morning training hill practicum, and afternoon first paragliding high mountain flight classes.

Working an optimized progression, we walked the group through the entire sequence of body movements required for a successful paragliding launch and landing.

Then radio launch commands quickly had the new pilots catching some air on thier first low altitude paragliding flights.

When the entire group was doing great launches and landings at the training hill, the first flight smiles started appearing...

With the gained skill and confidence, the new pilots were ready for some serious altitude and we headed up Mt. Woodside for their first high solo flights.

And before long, they all had ideal first launches and radio guided flights to soft landings in the valley below. 

After flying, we rounded out the day with a celebration of  their first high altitude paragliding flights over a beer at the Sasquatch Pub. 

Catch all the action on Paragliding First Flight Perspectives tonight Aug. 8 22:00 & tomorrow morning Aug.9 08:00 on local Joy TV Channel 10: the Harpreet Singh Show.  

Also Harpreet (thanks!) just added to youtube here:

Great to be in multi-cultural Canada...patience young padiwan...English starts at about 40 seconds into the clip!  

Please note: due to the speed this came together, the producers made a number of typos in the names of the pilots interviewed. The correct paraglider pilot names are as follows:

• the third interview at 1:24 was iParaglide Assistant Instructor Russell Smalley (not Craig!);
• the interview at 2:02 was iP1 pilot Ismael Moura;  
• at 3:36 was iP2 pilot Camila da Silva;
• and at 4:04 was iP1 pilot Jae Kim 

Enjoy!

Flight Club: Friday Aug.3 18:00

We encourage all local paraglider pilots to come down to this Friday night Flight Club.  

A great social gathering of free flyers and friends, Flight Club happens the first Friday of every second month.

Situated in the heart of Yaletown's high energy venues, meet us at the Yaletown Brew Pub at 1111 Mainland Street (@ Helmcken).  Conveniently located one block north of Skytrain Roundhouse Station: you can relax knowing you can drink and skytrain it home. 

Ask for the paragliding "Flight Club" at the hostess stand to be whisked away to our section on the Pub side.

With the upcoming Canadian Paragliding Nationals starting this weekend, a great opportunity to get caught up on flying stories and make plans for participating in or watching this spectacular upcoming event.

Hope to see you all!