Flying at Bates

Coming in to Santa Barbara on the train yesterday we were a bit worried about flying weather. We'd heard reports of torrential rain north of Los Angeles, flash floods and mud slides causing the I-5 to be shut down. We could see that traffic on Hwy 101 was moving at a snail's pace.

But after settling in to our home for the next couple weeks we emailed Chris (our instructor from Fly Above All) and learned things should turn around in the next day or two and planned to meet him and Lorenzo at the Elings Park training hill.

Kiting here was amazing!!! What a difference consistent winds can make! Unlike the wacky wild wind gusts we usually try to kite in at home. Seriously, it was the best either Andrew and I have ever kited.

We also got a few runs off the training hill while hoping that the clouds to the east clear off soon.

There are mountains there somewhere!

After lunch (tacos and smoothies, of course!) a couple other newer pilots and students of Chris' figured that Bates might be soarable so we decided to join them and headed about 20 minutes south to Carpinteria.

And sure enough, it was! We both had fun flights of about 20 - 30 minutes.

Andrew getting ready to launch at Bates.

Words of wisdom from Chris about flying this site:

1) Don't land on the highway.
2) Don't land on the railway tracks.
3) Don't land in the water.
4) Don't land on the people on the beach (fortunately, not too many of them there today.)

Andrew in flight.

Out of the Nest -- First Flight

Finally, conditions were looking better and it was time to fly. As Andrew got out his phone Saturday morning to call Chris to make sure things were still on, my heart immediately started to beat faster. I looked at the clouds . . . wondering . . . almost hoping for an excuse. That’s how nervous I was!

We met everyone at “The T” and loaded up Chris’s big Suburban, with all the bags secured in the roof rack on top. Chris tweets his activity and location for the day each morning so there were several other pilots waiting for a ride up to launch. Eleven of us piled in, plus a few more in another vehicle.

It was a long uphill drive on highway and then a narrower winding road up to the launch. But it was paved and we had to be careful to avoid the many cyclists zooming by on their way down hill.

Once out of the vehicle we shouldered our bags and hiked less than five minutes uphill to the launch area. As we came over the crest of the hill, I was taken aback by the strength of the wind. It felt at least as strong, if not stronger, than some times at the training hill where it was enough to make kiting very difficult or shut it down altogether.

From our beginner group, there was me, Andrew and Mel ready to take our first flight. Testing us, Chris called the three of us together and said, “Well, what do you think?” We all agreed the wind was quite strong and coming from the wrong direction. We shouldn’t fly. “Good decision,” he said. “I wouldn’t fly in this.” And he’s got 15+ years of experience behind him!

Fly, No Fly discussions. (Photo: Robin Lempicki)

One of the other pilots had a small wind measurement instrument, which showed that wind gusts were fluctuating between 10 and 22 mph. For beginner pilots, maximum winds are 12 mph with gusts up to 15 mph and wind direction no more than 25 degrees off the direction you want to launch.

After sitting and looking out at the horizon for several minutes we all (including all the experienced pilots) packed up and left. Chris looked at the forecast for the following day and it didn’t look promising. Andrew and I decided we couldn’t put off the long drive home any longer and that we’d head out in the morning.

Later that night we got an email from Chris. The winds had died down, the forecast for the morning looked good. “Let’s fly!” he wrote.

Again we met at “The T” and loaded up the suburban for round two. This time as we crested the hill to the launch area we knew it was on. We nervously stood around while Chris set our fresh-out-of-the-box radios to the right channel. “Let’s get ready,” he said. “We don’t want to lose this opportunity.” I quickly got my harness on, unpacked my canopy and went through the self-check process.

“Shelley, you ready to go?”

“No! I’m not going first!”

I’d just finished reading an article withadvice for new pilots. Number one on the list was, at a new site, watch a more experienced person go first. And, sure enough, watching one of the other pilots launch was reassuring. But after setting up my canopy, my palms were still sweating in my gloves and I took several deep breaths and visually triple checked my setup.

Getting ready to go. (Photo: Robin Lempicki)

My launch was good first try, if a little off to one side. I easily found the stirrup to get up into my harness, turned right and then left to follow the spine of the ridge downhill. There wasn’t much wind and, for the most part, it was a pretty smooth ride with only a few little bumps along the way. But those bumps definitely made me catch my breath and made my heart beat faster!

In flight! (Photo: Robin Lempicki)

After Chris told me at least twice (over the radio) to relax I finally realized that I didn’t have to keep my eyes totally glued to the landing zone. That I could actually settle back, look around at the amazing view and enjoy the ride. And the landing zone was still in the same spot when I looked back at it! :-) 

Relax until the next few bumps that is! Then it was back to tensing up until things smoothed out again. I know I’ll get used to it eventually! 

As I got further out, away from the mountains, I had to demonstrate 360 degree turns. I’m pretty sure mine were a bit more tentative than Chris would have liked! Again, it’s something I’m sure I’ll get used to with more longer and higher flights.

Turn! (Photo: Robin Lempicki)

Then was on my own to make a few more “S” turns to decrease altitude and get lined up for landing. “Just like at the training hill,” said Chris. Luckily the landing zone at this location is huge and you just have to avoid some big rocks and a few single trees. The many, many flights and landings at the training hill definitely paid off. We all had great landings.

Andrew scoping out the landing zone.

Andrew closing in on the ground.

Great landing Mel!

I had debated long and hard about whether or not I wanted the hassle of trying to use my GoPro on the mountain flight. Didn’t I have enough to worry about? But wouldn’t it be nice to have some cool footage from my first “real” flight? I tested both chest harness and ankle mount on the training hill and, although it wasn’t ideal, the chest harness was the least intrusive. And it turned out to be really non-intrusive because I totally forgot to turn it on!!!! Once on the ground though I did get some footage of Andrew and Mel coming in for their landings. I had GoPro in one hand, regular camera in the other. Another new friend, Robin, got some video and photos of us taking off. Thanks Robin!

It felt so good to have this first mountain flight done. It was an exhilarating experience and I was literally shaking with excitement at the end of it. Can’t wait til next time!!!

Again, HUGE THANKS to Chris Grantham of Fly Above All. 

Harder Than It Looks!

Our paragliding training days (with Chris Grantham of Fly Above All) melded into a somewhat predictable pattern. Up early, long coffee/breakfast; meet at 9:30 or 10 at the training hill at Elings Park in Santa Barbara; light winds and several flights off the training hill in the mornings; tacos and smoothies for lunch; higher or changing winds and kiting practice in the afternoons. If we were lucky, the winds would calm again and we’d get a couple more flights late afternoon. We usually wrapped up about 5 or 5:30 pm. The long and hot days meant we were usually exhausted by the end of each afternoon.

Due to wanting to get the flights in while the winds were good, we often didn’t take a lunch break until about 1:30. As most people know, I tend to get a bit (a lot??) grouchy on an empty stomach so I quickly learned to pack emergency rations in the pocket of my harness. I was convinced Chris was trying to starve us! And of course I teased him just a little bit about this. 

After the first couple days I was covered in bruises. On my biceps from doing forward inflations and fighting with the glider, on my calves from the stirrup and speed bar banging into them, and at the top of my thighs from the leg straps of the harness.

Seriously, Chris. My arms don't go back any further than that!

My neck and shoulders were stiff and sore from looking up at the canopy while kiting and from being totally tense the entire time. “Relax!” was a frequent piece of advice. My arms and legs were sore from hours of doing somewhat different motions than any other activity I normally do. I had grass stains on the knees of the pants I was wearing on one particularly long and tiring day from falling down on my last three flight landings of the day. Ibuprofen was my friend!

In addition to Andrew and I, there were several other students during the two weeks we were there. Bill, an 84-year-old retired ER doctor who was learning to paraglide after hang gliding and sky diving in past years (Georgie, his feisty little wife, was an avid spectator); James and Bianca, a pilot and flight attendant for United Arab Emirates, who presently live in Dubai; and Mel, a pretty southern girl from North Carolina who was great fun to spend time with! Her Italian boyfriend, Lorenzo, is an experienced paragliding pilot and often helped out at the training hill and was trying to get a few more tandem flights in to earn his tandem pilot rating.

With all these people, plus students from another paragliding school and local pilots out training, the van going up & down the hill was often packed to the rafters! We even had "star sightings" a couple days as Cedar Wright and Matt Segal (professional rock climbers) were also there learning to paraglide. 

People and paragliders! (Photo: Melody Isenhour)

Kiting seems like it should be easy and more experienced people made it look effortless (i.e. Chris and Lorenzo on a day that the winds were too strong for us beginners to kite).

Lorenzo making it look easy.

Reverse kiting involves totally counterintuitive motions. For example, if the glider is tilting one way, it seems to me the logical reaction would be to pull the opposite direction to bring it back, right? Wrong!! Because you’re holding the opposite brake lines (i.e. reverse), you actually move and pull in the same direction the kite is tilting. Sounds easy, right?? Not!!!!

Thankfully for our own sanity, we improved every day. I know the exact time the light bulb came on for me. Craig, one of the assistant instructors, was standing behind me giving directions as I was kiting and suddenly I said, “I get it!” I knew and understood what I had to do to keep the glider in the air.

Unfortunately, the bulb has a dimmer switch on it and there were still several ups and downs. Times when things totally clicked and times when . . . well, they didn’t.

Chris helping Andrew learn to kite.

As the days went on, we practiced various in-flight maneuvers required for our certification, had a “ground school” discussion about wind, clouds and other need-to-know topics and wrote our P1 and P2 level exams. All this, in preparation for our mountain flight . . . all the while praying for the stars to align and give us the right weather, wind speed and wind direction, before we had to head home.  

Paragliding Fun

Andrew posted photos from our first full day . . . now it's my turn.

In the morning, the wind was again appropriate for us beginners to do several flights off the top of the training hill.

Shortly after noon the wind picked up a bit and, after lunch, we spent the rest of the day reverse kiting. Although we both did better at it today, it was still an exercise in frustration.

One of our instructors did a demo and he made it look so easy!!! When our canopy lines get so muddled up they look like spaghetti that we think will never untangle . . . they just come over, pick a couple lines, give them a couple pulls and . . . voila! No more tangles! They both pointed out how long they've been doing the sport though and one of them has won paragliding aerobatics competitions and is a stunt pilot. They assure us we're doing okay for Day 2.

Ready, set, go!

Run, run, run!

Enjoy the view!

Get ready for the "flare."

A gentle landing.

It doesn't always look this pretty!