8/9/11  9:20 PM  Today was another great day of flight instruction and camaraderie. It didn’t exactly go as planned, but that’s paragliding for you. It was decided that in the morning we would drive about an hour to a launch site that would enable us to get some launching, flight time, and landing experience without towing assistance. Unfortunately, the winds proved far too gusty and strong as we approached the site, so we turned around and came back.

The experience was certainly not a loss. The drive through the Idaho countryside was beautiful.  We even got to see large, old and broken up black lava flows near the intended launch site.

The drive time afforded me lots of time to pepper our driver, Chuck, with questions about paragliding.  Fortunately, once we got back here, we were able to go to the same launch area that we used last night, and two more of us were able to experience flying tandem. It has been fun to get to know some of the other guys better. It’s been great to bond over this shared pioneering experience.

After an afternoon nap, we came together for indoor instruction on weather and winds, how they affect paragliding, and how to determine whether it is prudent to fly. Then we headed back to the morning’s launch zone, hoping to get two more tandem flights in. The winds did not permit it, but fortunately we were able to get some fantastic kiting experience at the LZ.

We all did far better at controlling the wing and keeping it from crashing than we did yesterday.  I experienced a huge improvement over yesterday, which was thrilling and very rewarding. In some ways it was as fun as the tandem flight, because I felt like I was controlling the wing.  And actually I was.  It is going to be incredible when I get to be both flying and controlling the wing myself.

One other thing we got to do today was to spend time with the people responsible for designing our paragliding the rigs. They heard our suggestions for possible improvements, but more importantly, we were able to express our deep gratitude for helping to make this awesome sport available to us. So it was another fantastic day. It feels like I have been here a week already.  I am really looking forward to tomorrow.