here is a video of the ipswich flight

Back in Ipswich and first flight !

Only 600m from my house, I found a nice field on today and took off for about a 30 minute flight (was near sunset).

bit of wind at altitude, so not making a lot of forward progress, so just few around bramford area a bit.

excellent to get up in the UK and Ipswich and near my house for the first time!

Saturday: last day

well, it started good. nice weather, so down at the DZ for 7.30am.

Needed to be at the airport for my flight home at 6pm, so last chance to complete AFF. .

the wind started to pick up early, but I got my level 8 jump in at about 10.30.

This is the first true solo ! i.e. I jump out on my own, fly down on my own, etc.. no instructor even in the sky with me.

Went awesome! it really is a great feeling plummeting to earth at 200km/hour on yer own especially at about 6K when the ground really starts rushing up towards you. Did get a bit of a bollocking for landing in the instructor landing site.. but it's next to the hanger and I was sick of walking through the grass! :-)

Level 9 is the last real level (level 10 is just a 4.5K exit to prep for emergencies). This involves jumping out solo, then making yourself go into a fast spin. You do this by holding on of your feet while saluting with the other hand. Basically you start to spin faster and faster and faster until you are pulling 2 or 3 Gs. It's fecking brilliant! Then you have to get stable again (i.e. stop spinning and gain recovery). This went fine and had a good canopy landing right in the centre of the field.

The wind built up, and the final jump was not possible, but since I'd been doing exit practice touches on the last 2 solos I am effectively now a qualified AFF sky diver !! woohoo.

friday and a good day for AFF !

Well, I didnt hold up much hope for today what with the track record of
weather this week.

the 2 indian pilots got a level 5 jump each on tuesday but they didnt pass
it. wed and thu were too high wind so that was their lot: they had to go
back to the congo today.

I was expecting much the same luck when i turned up at the DZ at 7.30 this
morning.

The level 5, 6 and 7 are the most tricky:

level 5: 1 instructor holding on exit. releases when stable and theb you do
a 360 turn in each direction before pulling at 4.5K

level 6: instructor exits with you, but not holding.. you do a forward
somersault exiting the plane, get stable then do a back flip. then get
stable, enjoy the fall and pull at 4K

level 7: instructor exits with you, not holding you...you do forward
somersault exiting plane. you then do a couple of 360s and a forward delta
fly using only the horizon as a point of reference instead of the
instructor. you dont pull till 3.5K

well, by 10.30 in the morning Is successfully completed all 3 of these
levels !!! yup, it surprised me too. .. clearly Im a natural :-)

so. . .only 3 jumps left and they are all solos. . no instructors at all !
so ifyou feck up, you are chubbed.

Unfortunately there is a 3 daily jump limit for AFF students. . arse.

so I am hanging around at the moment in the hope of persuading the owners to
let me jump some more today, seeing as Im clearly naturally gifted :-)

Thursday: last day paramotoring

Another early start this morning, left a 6am and over to the same place we went yesterday.


Yesterday we got 6 flights in, 2 flights the day before (very very hot and wandering about with 30kg of paramotor on yer back was making me a wee bitty tetchy lets say... ).

today: 4 flights, bringing the grand final total to 20 flights !!



Not bad eh? I now feel I have the skills to build on when I get home and feel comfortable taking my own paramotor into the air! :-)


So, here is the video of my final flight: the take off, a bit of in flight and the landing.

click to watch final flight video

Townships

Just near where we are in Tableview there is a township. These places still exist all over SA.. slums like you see in Sao Paulo, etc.

SA still has a long way to go before everyone is equal I reckon...

Irn Bru !

yup, its one of the biggest drinks here!

you can get it everywhere.

not barrs though I'm afraid, and it's spelled iron brew... oh and it tasted F.A. like iron brew. . more like Dr Pepper.

I reckon it probably came over here at the turn of the 19th/20th century when it was still iron brew in scotland, before trading standards got them to change the name to IRN because it didn't have any iron in it . .

I reckon Barrs should sue ! :-)

Added links to 2 sky diving videos

look down and you'll find links to 2 sky diving videos added (level 3 and level 4). Links are to youtube.

copied here for convienience.

level 3 sky dive

level 4 sky dive

:-)

monday: level 3 and level 4 !

wahee. just done my level 3 aff jump.

i think i said what that involved yesterday in the blog.

anyway, went excellent. 1 instructor let go, and the other one just held me
with 1 hand so I was nearly freefalling on my own. Ill send folk on fast
links my slo mo video.

canopy came out nice.

then i farted about too long doing 360 spins :-)

by the time i stopped I noticed the wind was a wee bit strong and i was
having to fly at full speed to try to get into my holding area, pretty much
coming down vertically.

anyway, managed the the edge of the dz just ! missing the trees by a good 50
feet :-) not ideal but is was my first unassisted landing, so learning all
the time.

Unfortunately after my perfect landing, I though ID gathered all my chute up
and walked over to the hanger.. . only to find out that Id been dragging my
lines in the grass. arse.

its this sort of weird hook grass stuff and it just all hooks into the lines
like barbs and comes off in them !

Took about an hour to get all the fecking grass out.

still damn fine jump if i dont say so myself!

now waiting for all these tandem numpties to jump. they make the cash for
the club, so they do a lot fo them, and today there is at least 13 ! and
some want to go again !!

so I reckon that might be it for today Im afraid.

today barry is flying his motor for an advert for microsoft vista

no ! just did level 4 !!! this includes a "release" from the single
instructor at 10k, and then for the first time i am freefalling on my own
with no one holding on to me ! it wiz the frecking business ! you for the
first time really feel that you are flying yourself.

it wasnt ideal. .i span a bit, but mostly stayed heading steady. nice deploy
and a really nice stable landing. the dogs nads.

ill try and upload a pic.

Here are the videos:

level 3 in slow motion

level 4 solo

tomorrow starts a 3 day stint of paramotoring.. fingers crossed for some
good weather !

p.s. last night they had guy faux night here !!! fireworks on the beach, the
lot ! have it every year. . they have no ideal who he was but it doesnt
seem to stop them !

sunday and aff jump level 2

Sunday started off with nice blue skies, so the sky diving was on !

for jump 2 we had to go out and fly forward for 6 seconds.

My jump went ok, but my alti was lagging a bit and i thought it still said
7K when it was infact 5K and time to pull !

the instructor told me to pull and rather than doing it, i started thinking
about it. . "why is he getting me to pull at 7k ? i have 2K more freefall
left. ..." i went for the rip cord but even then hisitated. . "is it just a
test, does he really want me to pull ?".

a rough grab of my pull arm in the rip cord told me that i was definately
supposed to pull... so finally i pulled.

canopy came out ok and i was at 3K. . .

hmm. oops.

anyway a debrief later and 2 things were learned:

1 - be altitude aware. . alti might lag or stick so you need to be aware of
altitude and time and ground (mine hadlagged and said 7k when it was in
fact 5k)

2 - when the instructor says pull, PULL ! dont start asking yourself why he
is asking me to pull. . PULL THE FECKIN RIP CORD !!

anyway lesson learned. since i did the manouvre ok and pulled my own rip
cord i can progress to level 3.

level 3 is a 90 degree turn in the air. It also involves 1 instructor
letting go of you and maybe both.

the other major new thing will be that once i am under canopy it is up to me
to get into the holding area, make my landing approach and land, without
any help from people on the ground with arrows or battons. .

so, its 4pm now and we are waiting for the wind to die down. doesnt look to
promising though :-(

well, wind stayed gusty, so no more jumps today. and that was at 6pm.

so another day survived and now ready for level3!

tonight is the other couple staying with barrys last night, so we are all
going out to primi (restuarsnt) tonight. its pretty good: italian stlye
with a SA twist.

red sky tonight so i reckon itll be a good day for aff tomorrow. hopefully
get a few jumps in before we go do 2 or 3 days of paramotoring.

barry is coming back just now though, so if dolphin bay looks good, i might
get a few evening paramotor flights.

saturday above lions head

well, another day of waiting for the dz to open. but at 2pm they finally
closed for the day.

by then it had been on and off raining all morning. the others had bogged
off to lions head which is the right most pointy hill when looking at table
mountain from where i am staying.

so i packed my wing and a harness in the car and headed off to join them.
figured a bit of ground handling never goesq wrong.

really nice area out at the front of the cape. they were landing on the
cricket pitch of some fancy private club (who were doing some sort of model
shoot at one end. . . while the others were landing paragliders at the
other.

there were quite a few gliders. the game seemed to be "who can buzz the bar
the closest before landing on the cricket pitch.

well, wind had died off to nowt by the time I arrived. You need a bit of
wind to ground handle (i.e. kite the glider) so there wasnt much I could do
really.

Barry jumped off lions head with a tandem passenger and had a decent flight
down. no lift though.

we packed up the gliders and had a beer and were going to head back. Id have
probably got a few paramotor flights in on dolphin beach, but andy (another
scot staying with barry) wouldnt have been able to fly.

Instead, barry offered to take me up for a tandem glide. that way andy got
to also have another flight from the top.

I wasnt too bothered about doing a tandem to be honest. . . tandem sky
dives, passenger in race car, pillion on bike. . all things that have never
interested me. . prefer to be in control (or out of control).

but it looked like the views would be good and itd be chirlish to deny andy
another flight, so up we went.

you drive up lions head most of the way, and then there is about a 15-20
minute hike to the take off spot. . . thats a hike with a glider and
harness on yer back of course. . so was knackered by the time i got to the
top, and wishing i hadnt had that pint at the bar.

take off spot is a 45 degree slope about 700 feet below the summit.

i got harnessed up to barry, barry inflated wing and we were up !

the wind had really picked up off the sea, and as it hits the mountain, its
forced up the front of it. flying in this is called ridge soaring.

and soaring we went ! both me and barry are light and we were flying a big
tandem "big enough for a fat baxtard customer" wing.. so we basically shot
up like a cork. In less than 5 minutes we had gained about 900 feet, and
were now high over the summit of lions head, looking down in the folk at
the top, and behind the summit over to cape town centre, the bay, robin
island, etc.

got some great video and stills.

barry reckoned we could fly through the pass and over to table mountain, so
we had a go...

we made it to the start of table mountain. the plan was then to fly in
towards it, get some lift from the rising wing and use that to ridge soar
along it.

however, about 50 feet from the mountain the lift disappeared and we started
sinking like a stone, only about 20 feet from the side of the mountain at
this point.

so we headed out again and got enough lift to take us back over to lions
head again.

the wind had definatley moved by now though, it was coming more from the
south eliminating most of the lift.

this was causing the glider to pitch and roll, and drop suddenly, then rise
suddenly...

A combination of being a bad passenger (I get sick sitting in the back of a
car!), having had nothing to eat that day but a pint of lager and a fry up,
staring into my camera screen to get video shots, and finally being jogged
all over the sky by the wind, finally took its toll. . .

I just had time to tell barry I wasnt feeling too well, before I chundered
all over my flight suit and into the air. if there was anyone below me,
they are no doubt still wondering how lumps of sick can hail out the sky.

anyway, we went down pretty sharpish after that, landed on the cricket
pitch, and I lay on the grass for a bit feeling like crap, and like a right
nobber.

definately give the tandems a miss from now on.

tomorrow the gliders are driving 2 hours away, so Im gonna stay here and
hopefully sky dive. If we are put on standby Im going to go down to dolphin
beach and ground handle if the weather permits.

1 week left. . cant afford any more downtime.

friday

hi peeps !

well friday has been a bit rubbish. pishing it down woth rain all through
the night and stilll sloshing it down in the morning.

so sky diving off, and paramotoring off.

went to the mall in thursdays shit weather day, so nowt much else to do
really. sea was rough so scuba out, clouds completely covered table
mountain so not much of a view to be had from driving out there.

so I decided best thing to do was to wait it out in my bed. . with any luck
it would clear up late afternoon and I could get a few flights in.

but it didnt.. . . it was still blowing gale and pissing it down in the
afternoon.

finally got up at 6pm, and went down to the front for some scran. typing
this at 8pm in the news cafe bar.

bloody email to blog is sh1te... most of the time they just seem to
disappear, and pictures mostly dont make it. . . Im sure it something
simple, but all ive got is my little clie handhelld for wifi access, which
is really quick, but limited capabilities means i can edit my blog directly
(XHTML support).

or I go to the netcafe down here and ue the pcs. . but they are on a pig
slow (5k a sec) link.

so, I emailed some folk the picture of my tangled shoot deploy. Ill add it
here if i can get it workng.

weather looks better for tomorrow. play it by ear in the morning, if i can
sky dive i will as i need to get some progression there.

sat or sun there is a front coming in, so its looking like we will have to
start getting up 6am, and driving inland to escape the wind.

I want to progress on the sky diving, but at the end of the day I dont have
a sky diving rig wwaiting to be flown when i get back . . I do have a
paramotor.

so number 1 priority is to get to a decent level of competance on the
paramotor. The more sky diving I can fit around that the better.

I had to get some cash out yesterday to pay for the sky diving, so i changed
850 quid i brought over in the bank...

since things are aboot 1\3 the price in SA, plus even then expensive for
most SAicans, this appears to be the equivalent of 6K or summit !

anyhoo, i was alright with just getting cash out until he cashier starting
asking me why i needd so much cash and then (while her colleagues told her
to shut up) started telling me how dangerous SA is, and that this time of
year is the peak for crime and how she wouldnt travel anywhere with that
sort of money bla bla.

anyway, the rands were all in 100s so I had about a 2 inch roll of the
feckers.

Feeling self consious now and not wanting to appear a mugging target, i
stuck the roll down my pants. :-)

what else. . . well where my car is parked just now it is "guarded" by 2
locals with baseball bats.... its unclear whether the baseball bats are to
ward of potential car thiefs or to encourage you to tip well. . .

you can scuba dive in an aqurium tank full of sharks here. sounds a bit
lame-o touristy to me, but if i get another crap day Ill probably do that.

l8r.

stu

day 6: tuesday

well, high winds and more rain scuppered any sky diving plans for today. And
it was no good for motoring either, so a free day.

Still got the same bug I got a day or so ago though, so I either have to eat
and then stay within dashing distance of the lav for the next 4 hours, or
not eat.

so Ive found as long as I dont eat anything till 9pm, I can function during
the day. . though admittedly far from ideal its better than being confined
to bed all day. With a bit of luck it will pass soon.

So. went down to a really big mall today.

prices are cheap as chips !! all yer designer stuff like billabong and
ripsurf and arnette and salmon, etc dirst cheap.

example: salmon dri-right top... cost in uk probably 30-40 quid... 130 rand
! (less than a tenner)

I got some really nice tshirts that would have cost 25 quid each in uk for
less than a tenner each.

stuff isnt cheap for locals, just us brits, so you feel like david beckam
flashing yer plastic ! he he.

oh yeh, right nex to the kiddies toy shop. . ."home security warehouse". .
get your carbon fibre baseball bat, stun gun and selection of macheties.

and no. I didnt buy anything !

tomorrow looks like strong winds again, but Im gonna try for some sky
diving. So far Ive had 4 days where IVe been able to get some paramotor
work done, and 1 day of sky diving training. Today has been the first down
day, so am actually well ahead of schedule I reckon.

No more exciting happenings today really. If Im still 'off' tomorrow Ill go
and see a doctor or summit as clearly only being able to eat at 9 in the
evening is a bit of a pain, and although it means I can make use of the day
it does mean Im up all night which is beginning to take its toll. yawn.

what else. . . fancy a house in cape town ? new development prices start at
about 30K !

Its not clear if that includes the 10 feet concrete wall and electric fence
that every single house has here though. . or whether it includes the
"armed response unit".

First sky dive

Wahee !

today was the first static line jump, which went a bit hairy.

Basically you are trained to expect a few twists in the lines, but mine came out with about 10 of them so when

my chute deployed it was basically just a big ball behind me, ar$e.

but the training kicked in. I stuck with it trying to get the twists out. They weren't coming out at first so I though I might

have to go into reserve drill (i.e. jettison main parachute and pull the reserve), but then they started coming out so

I stuck with it.

Once they all came out, it was a clear ride down to the DZ. excellent fun.

Then we continued with the AFF training and before I knew where I was, I was in my jump suit, climbing on the plane to

be taken up to 11000 feet for my first freefall !!

that went excellent. nice clean exit, stable posiition, nice ride down to 5500 feet at terminal velocity of around 200km/hour, and then

pulled the chute. You get quite a jolt as it pulls you up compared to the static line (and also my static didn't really come out, so...).

Then a nice long ride back down to earth and a light landing on my feet.

The freefall bit is really good. You get a really good ground rush from about 7000 feet as the ground speeds towards you are 140mph.

The chutes are really stable so you can really hammer some turns into them (more than you can on the paraglider), and do some spins.

landing is also a piece of piss compared to paramotoring.

So, looking forward to jump 3. Weather is a bit iffy for tomorrow, so we'll just have to wait and see what it's like.

Certainly the freefall is a walk in the park compared to paramotoring. I'm gonna treat the sky diving days as low stress days to relax between the high stress paramotor days I reckon.

here's a pic of my ball-like chute on my static, and of the end of my freefall just after I pulled the canopy.

stu

the faulty prop

the faulty prop, originally uploaded by powerlord_tvr.

aye, it was definately fatigued....

First flights !! . . . and first crash !!

First flights !! . . . and first crash !!, originally uploaded by powerlord_tvr.

Was supposed to be doing my static jump today, but low cloud closed the DZ

(drop zone) for the day.

However it was ideal conditions for a paramotor. . .

so down at the beach, just like wilbur and his bro 100 years ago, I did a

reverse launch and shot up into the air ! My first flight was about 15

minutes: down the coast, turning, going back over the sea with Robin

island on my right, and then coming down for a reasonably decent landing,

though I didnt stay on my feet.




10 mins later I had another flight under my belt !



It was time to do a forward launch for next flight as the wind had fallen to

zero: in conditions like this you have to face away from the glider, pull

it up and while pulling, run like feck... oh yeh.. and remember you have

30kg of motor on your back. . and at some time along your run when it is

flat and smooth, you need to build up to 100% power on the motor on your

back. . .



all went well at first, then I made a rooky mistake: once i felt the motor

begin to take my weight rather than continuing to run and keep the power

on, I lifted my legs up . . .



this was not good.



basically it does not have enough lift to get you up at this stage, so all

that happens when you lift your legs, is that the ground comes up to meet

them !



I knew I was fecked at this point, but tried to save it by getting on the

brakes... it didnt work and by this time (only 2 secs start to finish) I

had lost reach of the engine cut off.



So I hit the ground sideways, fell back with the engine still running and

the prop still turning...



$&**(!. and I was on the ground with smashed prop everywhere as the prop

had dug into the ground and cage !



Anyhoo, such is life. Luckily he had a spare prop, so on with another 250

quid of prop and back on the horse!



I managed to get up next time on a forward launch, and finished with 2 more

flights, the last one being about 45 mins long.



So all in all a good day. Tomorrow is still up in the air (hahahahaha). .

could be sky diving or paramotor depending on weather.



have to say, its fair knackering me out running around all day in the heat.

. been having a wee siesta in the afternoon. . . sitting at a desk 9 hours

a day doesnt really prepare you for this sort of activity. . .

most folk here are cycling, jogging, kite surfing, etc. . . all superfit.

never been in a country where the average person is so fit

day 5: monday

Hmm

well, had a KFC at about 4pm yesterday. By 7 I was on the lav. Pretty much
had to remain there for the next 16 hours... bloody chicken. . its always
chicken. this was the full cold sweats and liquid.. well youve got the
picture.

so it was raining during the night and the plan was for me to do my static
jump today, but seeing as I couldnt be more than 10 feet from a bog until
noon that wasnt really a goer. .

so stayed in my room recovering.

By noon though it seemed to have passed, but the DZ was packing up for the
day as the wind was geting up, so it looked like a wasted day, but Barry
called at 2 to say the wind on the beach was perfect for motoring !

so out with the motor for another go.

During prechecks though I noticed the main engine mounting was missing. . .

oops.

obviously this had detached itself during the previous days incident... so
the only thing holding the engine on was a rubber mounting at the top.

pity I didnt notice this yesterday before I did 2 flight AFTER the crash
with this being the only thing holding it on !!!

anyhoo, got a bolt from a hardware store and fired that in with some washers
and we were back in business.

Up and ready for flight number 6. . and went great. took off cleanly and
landed on my feet for only the second time.

Next flight also good. and again landed right on my feet !

Final flight of the day was a longer one. Had some air traffic during this
one: a huey chopper above me, a small plane coming towards me on my left,
and another paramotor below me.

But no probs, all in control.

barry had me then do a partial clapse of the wing (big ears). this is where
you clapse the wing so only the central part is inflated. Its useful for
coming down quickly if you need to. That went well too.

Finally I touched down for my 3rd landing of the day. and all on my feet !

so. progress definately being made.

tomorrow its over to the airfield to try to get my static jump done, the the
plan is wed: paramotor, thu: sky dive for first time.

<fastshow>today I was mostly eating anything but fecking chicken </fastshow>

day 2

day 2, originally uploaded by powerlord_tvr.

Ent out to some africance farm about an hour from cape town to practice

launching with the motor.



In the morning it was almost windless, so there is a fair bit of running

about to get the wing up over your head.



Once I started to get the hang of that it was on with the motor !



spent 2 or 3 hours running about with that on my back doing trial launches..

it was 33 degrees by this time. . . with a 30kg fan strapped to your back.

. while horse flies are drawing blood all over my legs !



But made some good progress and was ready to have my first flght.



However I cocked up the next 2 take offs. BY this time the wind had started

to pick up and it was getting a bit blustery.



Barry took the first flight to check out the thermal activity. I got some

good video of him takin off, and Im glad it wasnt me as he was bobbing up

and down quite a bit in the turbulance.



FOund a wifi hotspot but not working properly. Going down to the beach where

Im told there is another one to try. . .

new sight

new sight, originally uploaded by powerlord_tvr.

I saw my first white person walking today along the sidewalk. . . they did

look like they were just on their way to their car, but still . . Ive gone

2 days without a white face walking.



The bus stops are very busy, but are black only really. never seen a single

white person queuing.



all the houses are still surrounded by walls and fences and big signs

proclaiming "armed response unit" security.



The weird thing is that to the locals they dont notice this as its all just

normal for them, so I dont feel I can bring it up in converstion.

local trade

local trade, originally uploaded by powerlord_tvr.

Oh yeh, driving through the farms this morning at about 9am, and we passed 3

or 4 bkack wimin in white leather boots. Apparently the passing truck

drivers like a pick me up in the morning !!

day 1

day 1, originally uploaded by powerlord_tvr.

Cool ! DAy one was excellent. got into cape town about 8am and was ground

handling my new wing by 10am ! By 12 noon the wind had picked up a bit...

enough to lift me 6 feet or so, and hang for a bit with Barry pushing me.



In the afternoon the wind picked up a bit, so we packed it in about 3pm.



Not before Id had the motor on my back for a bit though to get used to the

weight.



Tomorrow: more ground handling in the morning trying to get full control of

the canopy without running around all over the place... then if I make good

progress, maybe the first flight in the afternoon !

day 2 still

day 2 still, originally uploaded by powerlord_tvr.

IN a bar called the Primi. Its pretty cool.



Have to say it really takes some getting used to here...



appardheid might be gone, but any bar around here is 100 % white. staff are

100 % black.



One guy just served me a beer with "here you are master"



The whites are very definately in control still. They have that sort of

authoritanian attitude that is simply not challenged by the black pop.



we had longer to drive back today because the local township had riots and

were throwing stones at passing cars.



It is a bit of a stereotype, but all the wimen are gorgeous, all the blokes

are 6 foot tall and fair skinned.



They still have a pretty weird fashion sense that has girls in their 20s

going about in skirts that barely cover their knickers. . . which is nice

:-)



so some scran tonight, and 8.30 tomorrow I start my static line jump

training. . . the first stage of AFF: accelerated freefall.

Motocross madness

another test, originally uploaded by powerlord_tvr.

First real post. Just to check its working. This was me on saturday on the motocross bikes for the first time.

Plan is to try to regularily post piccies and updates here with I'm in Cape Town with some in flight stuff too.

Stay tuned !

stu