Paragliding, first cross country flight

I could hear the high pitched sound of my vario going beep.beep.beep as I looked around me and found myself alone at 1,000 metres above launch. The radio came to life with “Marika, remember that height is your friend”.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the other pilots were all landing. From my birds eye view, I could see one had landed in a tree (resulting in a broken arm), another had just landed between the trees on a narrow dirt track and the third was losing height very rapidly. None of my friends had time to land in the bomb-out field.

With only a few strings and a piece of material over my head I managed to take control of the fear that was gripping me. This was my first solo inland flight, and I was not supposed to be so high or so alone. I fought against the deep seated desire to land and be close to the ground, instead, as I felt the next thermal and heard the high pitched sound of my vario again, I leaned far over to the right, pulled down on my right brake and steadied my wing slightly with the left brake. Circling in the thermal and gaining more height I started to feel in control and my mind was totally focused on the task at hand…fly the paraglider.

The mountain that I launched from was now far below me as I straightened out my glider and headed to the next ridge. Beyond these mountains lay beautiful green paddocks. I kept my eye on a distant country road and one of the paddocks along side it. Approaching from high, the farmhouse looked very small and I remembered how important it was to keep a watch for the powerlines running from the farmhouse to the road. These powerlines are almost impossible to see, so I knew to keep away from the most logical path. I wanted to land as close to the road as possible, while avoiding the barbed wire fence and the powerlines. Circling above my anticipated landing spot to gauge the wind speed and direction, I put into action all that I had learned and positioned myself into wind then flared my wing for a perfect landing.

After my radio call back to the retrieve vehicle, informing them of my position from the GPS, I was absolutely elated and brimming with a grin so wide that I could hardly contain myself. I had mastered my first cross country flight, totally on my own, making all of my own decisions, and yes, in a paraglider, height is definitely your friend.

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