Friday the 13th sounds like a good day to fly
I think I may have found a new hobby in Paragliding. The feeling while airborne is exhilerating, and not scary at all-which I fully expected it to be.(Some of you may know that I'm scared of falling which makes me not like heights)
We went to a town called Zell Am See where we took the ski lift to the top of the local mountain, about 2000m.
Views from the top; the lake of Zell am See:
The Austrian Alps (one range of them, three actually run through the country). The highest Peak in the country is the one between the two flags with a wisp of cloud stuck on it:
They showed us the site, set up the gliders, which look like parachutes I think, strapped us into the harness which has this cushion seat, like the ones people bring to basketball games to sit on but elongated and then asked if we were ready. The only instruction given was run until they say stop...nothing else such as emergency procedures...although maybe all they are is "scream" which if you plummet I'm sure you'd be doing anyway...
I was surprised how much you have to push when you are running at the end. You have to really dig your feet down to keep running when the chute pulls you up. Once we were airborne it felt more like floating. My pilot gently turned us left, and then caught a thermal (hot are rising up) and that really felt like flying, I could feel the wind lifting as we circled higher and higher. Here are some views the first one is the site were took off from and the last one you can see mom's paraglider:
Then the pilot took out a camera attached to a pole to take a picture of us, so you know I'm not making it all up ;)
After a while, my pilot asked if I was ok, I said yes, that is was fun. After a pause he asked, "would you like more fun?" I laughed and said "yes, just let me put the camera away." Once I had done that, he asked if I liked rollercoasters, at my affirmative reply he put the glider into a tight spin. The mountains all rushed round and round, and the g-forces certainly rivelled those of a rollercoaster. It was awesome.
The spin made me wish I had kept the camera out for video, just because the scenery spinning looked so cool, so I took it back out and took a video of the landing instead. It is crazy, all they had you do was lift your legs as if you were sitting with them in front of you and then you slid to a landing.
We went to a town called Zell Am See where we took the ski lift to the top of the local mountain, about 2000m.
Views from the top; the lake of Zell am See:
The Austrian Alps (one range of them, three actually run through the country). The highest Peak in the country is the one between the two flags with a wisp of cloud stuck on it:
They showed us the site, set up the gliders, which look like parachutes I think, strapped us into the harness which has this cushion seat, like the ones people bring to basketball games to sit on but elongated and then asked if we were ready. The only instruction given was run until they say stop...nothing else such as emergency procedures...although maybe all they are is "scream" which if you plummet I'm sure you'd be doing anyway...
I was surprised how much you have to push when you are running at the end. You have to really dig your feet down to keep running when the chute pulls you up. Once we were airborne it felt more like floating. My pilot gently turned us left, and then caught a thermal (hot are rising up) and that really felt like flying, I could feel the wind lifting as we circled higher and higher. Here are some views the first one is the site were took off from and the last one you can see mom's paraglider:
Then the pilot took out a camera attached to a pole to take a picture of us, so you know I'm not making it all up ;)
After a while, my pilot asked if I was ok, I said yes, that is was fun. After a pause he asked, "would you like more fun?" I laughed and said "yes, just let me put the camera away." Once I had done that, he asked if I liked rollercoasters, at my affirmative reply he put the glider into a tight spin. The mountains all rushed round and round, and the g-forces certainly rivelled those of a rollercoaster. It was awesome.
The spin made me wish I had kept the camera out for video, just because the scenery spinning looked so cool, so I took it back out and took a video of the landing instead. It is crazy, all they had you do was lift your legs as if you were sitting with them in front of you and then you slid to a landing.