Flying - up, up, up and away

The new skill that Zach & I have been learning this last year is how to fly - in three different ways!

Gliding

We took up gliding about a year ago, and flying has become a pretty big part of our lives where we travel out to an airfield about two hours from home and generally stay for the weekend.

We have about 40 flights each and a total of about 20-30 flying hours each.

Zach is keen to solo and even has a $20 bet running with me that he will solo before me. Zach has therefore been greatly encouraged by the instructors who say that Zach is ready to solo and is probably a flight or two ahead of me.

Unfortunately, the two-seater glider that Zach and I were using for training (an ASK 21, the one pictured above) has been grounded, and so while we probably would have soloed by now, we're waiting for the aircraft to be returned to service.

The long story is that all ASK-21s in Australia have been grounded due to concerns expressed initially by the military about cracks in filler which might be more substantial. The concern has been formalised in an AD (air directive) from the Gliding Federation of Australia (GFA). Now, Australian authorities and the manufacturer of the glider, Schleicher, are engaging in a battle about whether the cracks represent a real concern or not.

In short, it could be a while before Zach and I get our chance to fly solo - at least in the ASK21!

Paragliding

Meanwhile, during this year I took up paragliding.

Starting in June, I have now completed about 30 flights, about 5 hours of flying and have completed my first rating, PG2, which allows me to fly at sites under supervision.

Just to be clear, paragliding is like hang-gliding, but with a soft, parachute shaped wing overhead rather than the solid delta-framed hang-glider wing.

It is not parasailing where a type of parachute is pulled up behind a boat.

Nor is it BASE jumping - that's parachuting or wing-suiting from buildings, aerials, spans (bridges), earth (cliffs).

This is the video taken of my first flight. I was towed to a height of a couple of hundred feet, released myself from the tow line and flew myself to land.

As you can see, I was pretty excited!

Since then, I've soared at a number of sites including some where we not only get to soar like the eagles, but even occasionally get attacked by the eagles!

Kitesurfing

I've been kitesurfing for some years and bought myself a new kite this year to continue in that activity.

One day in the latter half of this year, Zach came down to the beach while I was kitesurfing, and was so excited by how high I was jumping, he asked me if he could learn.

So, this we did, and this was him jumping on his first day of training on the beach. Since then, he has dragged his body through the water behind the kite, and he's about to have a go on a board sometime in the near future.