Background
My roots are in Southampton and with a fairly poor education under my belt I joined the RAF at sixteen. Twenty four 24 years later I took my lump sum and pension and ran as fast as I could…..So to that time in life where you look back and take stock of what you have achieved and think about what you would like to do in order to satisfy that mid life crisis….. mine was to Paramotor!
During my time in the RAF I undertook Paragliding EP and CP courses at the Joint Services Paragliding School in Crickhowell (Wales); falling just short of my CP due to poor weather.
The support of my girlfriend is one of the reasons I’m here. Thanks do have to go to DantheMan and Ben (huffhuff) for putting her in touch with Simon back in December 08. In fact it was the blog of DantheMan that inspired me to write this, good to look back on too.
So here I am…..the story so far:
24 April 09
Met Simon for the first time at his home field. Plenty of ground handling today which I’m pleased to say was not too bad after my paragliding courses. The field was cut by a local farmer and it looked more like a cricket pitch. Great location to have as your back garden.
3 May 09
Met at Simons field again, this time to practice unpowered take off with all the equipment on. I must have covered that field a dozen times fully loaded….Great fun but hard work. The reward was Simon saying “you are ready, next flyable day you are off the ground”. Slept well.
10 May 09
Met at the flagpole with the wind in the best direction…up hill. Very nervous but getting lots of encouragement and learning a lot from watch others take off and fly. The one thing that has really impressed about the club is how helpful people are. People I have never met offering words of encouragement
So to my flight which did not go according to plan. I had a good brief from Simon and Pete. The RL was spot on and the take off went without a hitch. However, I soon realised I could not get into my harness and although strapped in was hanging out with 18 stone bearing down on the Jacobs and the greatest wedgey of all time. An uncomfortable panic is the best way to describe it. I could hear Pete screaming in my ear “power….power” but all I wanted to do was get down ASAP. So ended my first flight of 50 seconds (yes I did time it) with a down wind landing. No damage to myself or kit….lucky.
LESSON LEARNT:
Check my harness is seated correctly before take off
Avoid landing down wind…even when in a panic.
POSITIVE
I killed the motor before landing
I’d like to thanks those who helped me out of the field, especially the guy in the Chelsea shirt for carrying my motor back, I did not catch his name maybe someone can help.
