Flygirl and the world of Paragliding - South Africa Koppies Dam SIV/ACRO - Flygirl

South Africa Koppies Dam SIV/ACRO - Flygirl - Day1

Flygirl

I have been uncharacteristically reticent about writing of the SIV/Acro course, perhaps because I found it to be an intensely personal awakening experience.

Everyday fun flying is great to write about, but when your whole world is literally turned upside down, your perspective altered forever and the chains of fear are broken...what can you say that will allow other people to understand a tenth of what you have just experienced?

I don't believe it is possible, but as with the SAT, I am going to give it a try. Why? Because I don't believe fear should be allowed to rule us. It holds us back from living Life fully and I have done this for far too long.

And so I signed up with Bradley, the organiser of the Koppies Dam SIV, without knowing that my buddies Ioel ShemTov and Ian de Vries were also going. What a great surprise when I told Ioel and he responded with, 'Good, then you will be amongst friends.' And I cannot express how wonderful it is to do something like this with friends. It really makes a huge difference to the total experience.

Budding Cape Acro Pilots

What did I want from the course?
My intention was to become better acquainted with my wing, The Shaolin. I have always had a nagging suspicion that a wing that flies so well for its class (CEN STD =ish DHV1/2) must have some nasty little surprise hidden somewhere, just waiting for the right moment to bite me. Well what a let down. It does not.

I pushed The Shaolin and myself to stages I have not gone before. I have never 'locked-in' a spiral, not even close. Walter suggested I go in fast to miss the anxiety build up, so I did and before I knew it, my glider's leading edge was horizontal with the horison. I straightened up in my harness and sat neutral with no weight shift and no brake input......and my glider stayed 'neutral', spiralling down out of the sky on its own. I weight shifted out and he still spiralled down, I felt perhaps that he even speeded up. I applied some outside brake with the weight shift and what do you know...the G-forces are huge but not unbearable and it is possible to ease out gently. I lived to tell the tale, did I not? :-)

I did all the usual SIV manoeuvres in two tows because you get so high at Koppies. Tows are usually 800-1000m. Us Coastal Capies noticed straight away that our gliders handle very differently in the thin air. Releasing at around 2300m ASL makes a big difference to how your glider reacts. It is FAST! Our reflexes smartened up pretty quickly after the first manoeuvres.

For those interested in how The Shaolin behaves under pressure:
B-Line - stable and solid with full glider shape, just thinner. Kind of funky like I am flying a high aspect ratio sliver of a wing in super smooth air.

Accelerated asymmetric(speedbar and one whole A-riser yanked in across the stomach) - well I did this 4 times cause I was sure I could make it go really ugly, but no chance - 90deg max without counter input.

Accelerated front tuck - (speedbar and both whole A-risers) Sharp hard drop with almost instant inflation and carries on flying with no need to dampen dive.

Upside down on a tandem with Walter

Full stall - well now this one got messy on every occasion I tried it. I held it in too long on all my attempts and The Shaolin dived and kicked and snaked and bucked. Perhaps I was a little apprehensive about what it would do when I did let it out, so I locked my arms in the full stall position thinking that the craziness I was experiencing was the safer experience. Better the Devil you know and all that. But Walter convinced me each time that I had to release and come out of it eventually. I need to work on the full stall a bit more so that I release before the glider rears back for its second and subsequent frenetic dives.

Point of Spin was surprisingly low on my brake lines. Don't know why I was so surprised by that, but I was. This manoeuvre is always a pleasure. Knowing you can start to spin your glider, recognise it and release gives me a silly girlie pleasure. It is such a soft, silky manoeuvre.

I have always enjoyed the Spin itself on my Pro-design Jazz, but I gotta say, the way The Shaolin and I do the full stall exit now makes me a little hesitant. It is not fun at all anymore and I don't expect it will be again until I have tamed the Full Stall itself.

I wanted to try the SAT and Walter said I could, but as much as he tried to explain the point of entry to me, I just could not understand it. My mind kept blanking out. Same with the Asymmetric/Rhythmic spiral. So Walter suggested showing me on his new Ozone Magnum Tandem. I jumped at the chance. Have not been tandem in years and I miss the shared energy experience that comes with flying closely with another person. Little did I know what I had let myself in for.

Relief, Flygirl has landed

We had to abort our first tow when we took off with a knot in the trailing edge lines. We released and landed on the shore closest when we could not get it out and launched immediately from there a few minutes later. All of Koppies water edge is flat and clear for safe landings and take-offs and the boat recovers the line very quickly without it going in the water. Our second tow got us high and Walter went into an immediate SAT. He had not done a SAT on this wing before, but that was no problem. But MY G*D the G-Forces! I thought I was going to die or pass out or rip through the seat. The forces are incredible. My entire body drained to a tiny lump of concentrated matter in the base of my spine. My mind screamed for Walter to stop and I was completely and utterly overwhelmed. But I could not say anything, I was shattered.

My mind is a little unclear at this point, but I think he may have done a second one I am not sure. Then came the Rhythmic/Asymmetric spiral which required aggressive weight shift in opposite directions from myself. I was only too happy to do this - anything but the SAT again! I quite like the Rhythmic spiral funny enough. It's fun and playful and yes the fact that the top skin is facing the earth is irrelevant. We scraped in onto the shore with a well timed immediate landing and my knees gave way with relief shortly afterwards.

So now it was my turn to do the SAT alone....but my next turn was only the next day. YAY! Recovery time!!!!

Last Updated ( Thursday, 31 May 2007 )

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