Wow – I can fly
Parapenting has been one of those things a bit like the ice diving back at New Years, a study in determination. It takes time to organise the time off, the course, to pay for it and unless it’s a priority it doesn’t happen.
But every day there are fliers up in the sky about Chamonix, and I can’t keep my eyes off them, so it became a priority and yesterday I had my first day’s training.
Turned up to my Clem, my instructor at 8:30am. Hung-over, coffee in hand. He was running around looking up at the Brevant yakking into a radio and tells me to grab the rucksack cos we’re off to the ski lift. What? No theory first, just jump straight off a cliff? Ah…. Why not. A tandem jump of course. Half an hour later we’re standing at the take off point 2000m above sea level and a vertical drop to the landing zone of several thousand feet.
And then we were flying. As soon as we were in the air Clem gave me control of the brakes and talked me through flying the thing. It’s dead easy. Just pull down left and you go left. Bosh.
It’s the closest thing to pure flying I’ve ever come across. I’ve parachuted, sky dived, flown a fixed wing glider and a twin seater aircraft, but this is something else. The wind is in your face and nothing else – you don’t notice the canopy unless you look up and there’s nothing blocking your view of the valley below. The harness seat is pretty comfortable, and I was swinging my legs about at one point. Till Clem told me to stop because I was rocking the glider
The rest of the day was all about the training. Practical canopy control on the ground and basic flight theory. Turns out the hardest part of the sport is not landing as I assumed, but getting the thing off the ground. Yanking a great bit chute into the air getting it over your head and under control and building enough speed to take off. Doing all that in the 4-5 second that you are running towards the edge of a cliff, you can see that you have to get it right 100% of the time.
I had it sorted by the end of the day, but I was so bashed up. I can barely walk today and my bruising is spectacular. On top of my tramampalining bruises I look like I’ve been in a car crash.
3 more days training to go. A lot more canopy control training and 5 or 6 more tandem flights and within a week or so I should be ready to make my first solo flight. That will be the end of the course, but I’ll be qualified to borrow their equipment and thrown myself off the aguille du midi. Wow.
My friend Sib is coming out to stay in a month. I’m going to organise a tandem flight for her with an instructor and fly solo myself at the same time. Exciting times.
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