People keep on asking me what parasailing is, and how high the airplane or cliffs have to be to jump. First of all….it is NOT parasailing that I’m doing (or base jumping, or sky diving)…it is (say it with me now) PARAGLIDING. Good?…k Just to clear things up…para-sailing is what drunk tourists do when they’re on vacation…you get pulled by a boat over water and have no control. Now onto paragliding…
In paragliding, although you are capable of jumping from a helicopter or cliff etc…the way you are supposed to do it, is run off of a steep slope, or mountain face. You can control the direction of the wing, even control the speed a little. Using lift from the wind off of a slope, or rising hot air (thermals) a paraglider can stay up all day long, and travel in excess of 300km.
While I’ve been in school at the ranch, I meet up with a fellow by the name of Andreas. To show exactly what I’ve been doing, check out the two videos he made below…I’m not in them, but they were taken at the Aerial Paragliding ranch in Cashmere WA. I believe in the second video, that is Kristy (sp?) flying my Ozone Buzz glider the weekend before I bought it from the school (mostly red with yellow and orange).
Alright…hopefully I cleared some of this up…maybe?
Eh….enjoy the videos anyway…he did a good job with them.
Hahah….good stuff 
This little camera/camcorder is incredible. I have been planning to get one with my REI dividend+membership sale, and with videos like this, it’s easy to see why…
Sugar Cane GoPro HD PPG from Brett Paull on Vimeo.
A good review for the camera can be seen here ENGADGET REVIEW
I don’t really want to go into all of the pros and cons of this little gadget except to say, I am completely impressed. The design leaves a lot to be desired in my view. The boxy look, depth, and weight could be better…common GoPro…everyone else is doing streamlined bullet-cam-styled cams…why still the box? The top latch seems very flimsy to me too, but I hear the package holds up well, and they have a very loyal following both with the new HD version, and older standard definition one.
The thing can go up to something like 170ft deep in water, has a heater (that’s right I said heater) to keep the battery functioning in cold temperatures, can take 5mp photos both manually and at intervals, and can take HD video at up to 60fps!!! The attraction for me is the ability to mount it anywhere…for example, check this video out…this fellow turned it into a “chase cam” by putting it in a little wind-sock sort of device that follows behind his paraglider (attached to the trailing edge break lines)…
Or this one, where another person has attached it to the top of his wing…
Again, after seeing it in person, I was a little disappointed at the physical design of it, but it’s easy to forget when you weigh that with it’s good sides…this camera/camcorder has truly been impressive so far, with features, and applications that seem too good to be true for the price…
…almost forgot to mention…”early 2010″ GoPro plans to add accessories to the GoPro HD that hook into the back, which will allow it to have an; lcd screen, extended battery, and who knows what else…
Anyone have any personal opinions on it, or have used it themselves?…please feel free to leave comments!
Cheers,
Justin
I learned a new trick the other day with HTML called iframe. It’s a slick little way to implement one web page inside another. So what I did was get links to different weather data sites for the specific regions I was looking for, and then posted them into my Info To Fly tab. The slick thing about this trick is that what you see in my tab, is literally their web page…only specific to what I’ve told it to look for. It’s a really cool feature, and while I’m still working on it…I’m pretty happy with the results so far.
Basically the purpose of that page is to get different weather data on the Pacific Northwest region (namely the Chelan, Yakima, Seattle, and Spokane regions of WA state). This data should give anyone flying a non-powered aircraft (paraglider, hang-glider, sailplane, etc…) a view on how the day will pan out….info such as the: jet stream, winds aloft, barometric pressure, suggested flyable sites, and general weather can now be seen both in data, and graphically in one place…the Info to Fly tab…Enjoy!
About 5 years ago I went on a NOLS expedition and did a lot of talking with my instructor who combined mountaineering with paragliding. Since then I’ve tried all I could to make going back down as much fun as the climb up. I’ve invested in a randonee skiing setup, and tried to make my gear as light as possible. Lets face it though…some stuff you just can’t ski down…(well…I can’t anyway…I try to avoid cliffs as much as possible). So a couple weeks ago I finally bit the bullet and signed up for lessons. The closest I could find is a three hour drive away in Cashmere, WA by the name of Aerial Paragliding. I didn’t know what to expect, and the cost was high, but I tried to keep my expectations low. I was pleasantly surprised though. They run their outfit from a ranch house way up in the hills away from the city. Some dude that hit it big with Microsoft actually owns the land, and they are jointly building a new facility next to the cabin that will be much bigger. For $10 a night you can stay up there too, so they have a really nice set up with beds and everything.
Anyway, the first day I was already flying solo hundreds of feet off the ground, and I was hooked. I signed up for the full P1-P2 course from there and never looked back. I will probably have to continue my training next year as school is in session and they only have about a month left until winter comes. The gear will have to wait, but hopefully I will be able to get some used stuff next year.
It’s a new adventure every time I go there, but I guess I’ll just leave it to the pictures now and update this post (and my blog) when I can. I’ve set up an album to look at, and you can see it here:
