In my pursuit of the ideal aerial photography platform I’m selling my ultralight and moving to a paramotor. As a first step in this transition I was grateful for an opportunity to observe a maneuvers training workshop led by the amazing paraglider/paramotorer/instructor Chris Santacroce. Phil Smith of Midnight sun paragliding has been hosting Chris in Alaska for several years to teach workshops to eager Alaskan paraglider pilots.
From an outsiders view the weekend basically went like this: The student lays out his paraglider on the beach of a lake and hooks himself in between the wing and a boat that takes off across the lake away from shore. The student starts running as he’s drug towards the water, the paraglider wing inflates and flys up over his head and viola! the paraglider starts climbing and lifts the smiling pilot up over the lake. As the boat circles the lake letting out more and more line the paraglider keeps going higher and higher until roughly 2,000ft when the pilot releases the tow line and the real fun begins.
Chris is layed back in a lawn chair squinting up at two little spots in the sky representing a paraglider wing and a person. The student has a walkie-talkie taped to his helmet so Chris can give directions. It was admittedly a little disconcerting to watch at first. Chris would say something like “OK, now pull on your left brake hard and lean into the turn, hold it, hold it, hold it . . . ” meanwhile the two little spots of a wing and body start spiraling towards the ground at a rapidly increasing speed. I could see that everyone was enjoying testing the limits of their paragliders with an expert eye and calm voice of experience ready to coach them out of any flailing, falling, twisting messes they might get into.
Before this weekend I had no idea that a paraglider could recover from such dire looking situations. It similtaneously made me more confident in this form of flight and made me hope I never find myself in an uncontrollable weather situation where the paragliders recovering abilities are required.
I’d like to put out a thank you to Phil Smith, Chris Santacroce and the rest of the paragliders for letting me hang out and learn about paragliding from some real experts. That wasn’t the last time you’ll see me.
Below are a few photos from the weekend. If you were involved in this weekend and have been waiting to see the photos a healthy selection is now online here.
If this subject interests you there is a bunch more photos online here.
Comments
4 responses to “Paragliding maneuvers weekend”
Scott,
How are you? I am really glad you have been so busy. Great shots. Have you sold you trike? Did you get a paramotor or are you planning on going down to the POM for some training and then get a motor? It will be great to have you in the sport. I hope to get together with you again soon.
Scott Amy
Hey Scott – I’m doing great. It’s been one great adventure after another all summer!
I still have the ultralight and am looking to sell it so I can roll that money over into the paramotor project. However, I can’t wait to start flying the paraglider so I’m prepared to go ahead whether the trike is sold or not. I just had a photo shoot cancel in the first half of October so I am thinking I’ll head down to POM then and hopefully come back with everything I need after that to start flying.
Looking forward to seeing you again also. You are always welcome to drop by in Homer.
Scott,
Hello, I was one of the pilots towing during this maneuvers clinic, I just stumbled across your website and was hoping to check out the photos but the link to your archive and the paragliding photos doesn’t work. Are the photos still around? I hope you have gotten up on a paraglider, if you haven’t yet then you have been missing out! Anyway, great photos I am glad you had a good time at the lake.
Thanks,
Carl
Hi Carl – The photos are no longer online. I do have a paramotor setup now, it’s working great! cheers.