AWESOME. Full-on spring thermals and wind today at Pule. Straight-lining it and going up at over 5m/s on the averager, I ended up over Standedge—2Km upwind—on full bar, desperately trying to stay below the 3000ft base of Manchester CTA.
Not bad for my first flight at Pule. Not being able to go XC added a new dimension to the flight. Instead of circling back with the first good thermal and blasting off downwind, I just tried to S-turn in the strongest lift and pick good lifty lines under the procession of clouds that drifted my way. Over the winter, I’d re-read that it’s relatively easy to make progress upwind under cloud streets, and this was true today—at times on the ridge it was possible to make upwind progress only on speed bar.
The alarm on my phone went at 2PM. Time to land and do the school run. I was tempted to try one last climb, but figured that it might take me a while to get down. It did—big slabs of liftiness everywhere. But 15 minutes later I’d bundled my stuff into the car boot and within the hour I was stood in the queue outside Leo’s classroom with all the other Mums and Dads. I tried to hide my manic grin and fit in, pretending that I’d had a boring day. God, if they knew how much fun I’d just had, they’d try to ban it. Days like this—when the adrenaline rush created by the gut-wrenching spring air is tempered by the serenity of the view—paragliding just seems obscenely, insanely GOOD.
Post a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.