Photo by Markus KinchWell it’s been a while since my last entry. Not a lot has been happening flying wise as apart from being in the cold and wet European winter I’ve also been steadily recovering from my accident that occurred in Bassano at the end of last year. Thankfully I’m almost back to normal with just some residual pain that should slowly diminish with the aid of a bit of physiotherapy and time. There has been some local flying though and especially nice were the soaring flights over the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire after the unusual winter snow. Everything magically came together to give us a great winter day out with fresh snow, sun and the wind at the right strength in the right direction.
You can’t start the year without some free flight goals and so this year I’ve made some. So in no particular order here they are:
(1) Get through the year accident free!
(2) Do an SIV (Simulation d'Incident en Vol) course.
(3) Get better at ground handling and kiting my wings.
(4) Enter 6 qualifying flights in the British XC league.
(5) Get a 100+ km XC flight in somewhere.
(6) Put at least 100 hours flying in.
(7) Enter a paragliding competition.
(8) Fly a classic route in Europe that I haven't done yet.
(9) Fly somewhere big again – Hindu Kuch, Pamirs, Karakorums etc.
(10) Attempt a small vol-bivouac trip somewhere.
I don’t expect to get them all (I’ll try very hard to get the first one in), but it’s nice to have something to aim for. I already have plans in the pipeline that should address at least some of them. I'm looking forward to it!
Video by Markus Kinch
