It's all in the application: Recon Instruments Snow 2 vs Paragliding (Part 4)

BLE - Bluetooth Low Energy.

Its all the rage in 'wiring' up sensors to a flight data aggregator (such as the GliderHUD on the Recon Instruments Snow2).

Now that the GliderHUD app can display flight data generated by the internal GPS, its time to look at external data sources like the XCTracer vario/GPS.

Using the sample application provided by Recon (which is based on the Android BLE tutorial published by Google) - I was able to get the Snow2 and XCTracer chatting with one oddity. It appears that the BLE stack on the Snow2 struggles with multipart messages. This is not particularly surprising as the only BLE device the Snow2 could talk to originally was the remote. I imagine that the up/down state of 6 buttons could easily be packed in the 20 byte limit of a BLE message - precluding the need to address a rapid chain of messages hitting the onboard transceiver and protocol stack. Just a hunch though. It could also be the quality of the Bluetooth chip itself. Who knows.

Well, the message format I wanted to support out of the box was the native XCTracer frame with a plethora of data.

But it is not to be.

After the third (sometimes fourth) XCTracer subpart, a new message begins - meaning the remainder of the original is dropped. Trying to accommodate a rapid turn around within the characteristic notification callback, I tried posting the byte data to a Handler immediately. Still no dice. Maybe a bug on my part.

What I do know works (mostly...mostly) is the LXWP0 format - it comes across in two parts as opposed to the five or six portions with the XCTracer sentence.

So LXWP0 it is.

Sadly this costs me the groundspeed - it would be nice to be able to skip using the onboard GPS on the Snow2 altogether except as a backup.

The changes are up on GitHub - https://github.com/Levemus/GliderHUD

The vario data coming from the XCTracer via BLE (the XCTracer is reporting the altitude as a negative, which the altitude display floors at 0 m):

Continued in Part 5

It's all in the application: Recon Instruments Snow 2 vs Paragliding (Part 3)

A quick recap from Part 1 and Part 2:

A killer deal on a Recon Instruments Snow2 +
A device that runs on the Android OS +
A paragliding dev with a modest amount of experience in game engine implementation on Android.
=
A Paragliding HUD work in progress.

Using the sample Compass app from Recon and some ideas on wind drift approximation from Alistair Dickie (along with a circular regression implementation from Dr. Micheal Doube) - I managed in the last pair of posts to put together a simple PG HUD that showed heading, bearing, altitude, groundspeed, and wind drift direction (along with a poor mans climb rate/vario and glide ratio).

In the 'rush' to slam together this prototype implementation, things became a bit of a hot mess (as they always do) - with the inevitable intermixing of UI and data provision (emmveecee rather than MVC, as it were).

Reorganizing

So a refactoring we will go (caveat: it is a work in progress, this is simply a snap shot at the current moment).

The result: The display elements are listeners that subscribe to broadcasters.

Broadcasters and Listeners

When the app is started, broadcasters and display elements are instantiated. The broadcasters are passed to each display (listener).

The listener attempts to register itself with the broadcaster, specifying which Flight Data elements it cares about and the minimum interval between notifications.

The broadcaster looks at the requested elements, compares them against what it can provide and replies with those it can service.

The listener stores the outstanding services it still needs until the next broadcaster is sent its way to register with.

Flight Data

Once registration is complete, the listeners wait for invocation of their onData callback. The passed param is a Flight Data object. The listener can query the Flight Data object for values it needs to update itself with. If the Flight Data object cannot provide the value (as could be the case when subscribing to multiple broadcasters providing different data) - an exception is tossed (the alternative could a TryGet like function seen in C# dictionaries, perhaps).

With data in hand, the listener (display) can update and refresh itself.

ListenerBroadcasters

Some broadcasters are aggregators of data - subscribing to get information, processing it, then providing a result to a downstream listener. The WindDrift is one such case - it subscribes to the GPS for bearing and ground speed information, processes it, and provides wind speed and direction.

Moving forward

Right now the implementation does not handle competing data broadcasters - we could get altitude information from the onboard Android GPS and we could (once implemented) get that same altitude from a BLE device such as the XCTracer. Experimentation leads me to believe that the XCTracer will provide better altitude data, but being a BLE device - it is not as reliable a source as the onboard GPS. This needs to be accounted for - some form of override and failsoft -> use the Android GPS for altitude until a better source appears, use that source until it drops off, then back to the Android GPS. Maybe an intermediary manager.

Source

Disclaimer:
Source is up on github, purely for educational purposes. Paragliding is a dangerous activity and use of this software in any way, shape, or form, can result in serious injury or death. Levemus Software Inc. assumes no responsbility and provides no guarentee related its use. Any use of the source must include the below github url from which the source originated. Any commercial use must have prior written permission from Levemus Software Inc.

https://github.com/Levemus/GliderHUD

Continued in Part 4

It's all in the application: Recon Instruments Snow 2 vs Paragliding (Part 2)

While it has been hectic week as we try to roll out a new toolset to the content creators, things are under control to the point that I get to have my weekend. To be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised at how little OT this return trip to the games industry juggernaut EA has involved (compared to my last stint a decade ago). *knock on virtual wood*

In any case, free time => back to the repurposing of a Recon Snow2 HUD for paragliding.

In the last post, I managed to get the device to show heading, altitude, ground speed, glide ratio, and climb rate. Now time for something a little more meaty - wind drift.

Wind drift is a rather useful morsel of info. It can be 'back of the hand' calculated by eyeing the ground speed while performing a complete turn - note the heading and degree with which ground speed drops off to its lowest value. That method works just fine if there are no obstacles (such as other pilots) nearby.

But I am lazy. Also when there are airborne obstacles nearby, my line of sight intersects the screen of my Flymaster with a frequency of about....oh....zero.

So having the digital navigator compute and display the value for perusal at my leisure is a big plus.

Before beginning: a big hat tip to Alistair Dickie @ BlueFlyVario and Dr. Micheal Doube @ the Royal Veterinary College. Without the prior works of these two gents, I'd be stuck doing the back of the hand method.

The baseline assumption: A paraglider has a very narrow range of speed compared to almost every other form of aircraft => the delta between trim and stall can be as narrow as 15 kph. This means we can treat airspeed as near constant.

An aircraft at a constant speed and at a constant bank will fly in a near perfect circle absent any outside influence (such as the wind). If one were to take the tangental ground speed velocities (constant in magnitude, varying in direction) and plop them down such that they share a common base - we could draw a circle connecting the tips of these ground velocity vectors. The radius of the circle would be the airspeed and in the case of zero wind it would match our ground speed.

In otherwords, if our PG has an airspeed of 30 kph and there is nil wind, our groundspeed will be 30 kph. Likewise, where we are facing is were we are going (no drift).

If we were to introduce wind, we know our ground speed will vary (facing into the wind will reduce our ground speed, running with the wind will increase it). But our airspeed will not change.

Back to our PG. 30 kph airspeed. 10 kph straight on headwind. Ground Speed? 20 kph. Likewise, 30 kph airspeed. 10 kph straight behind tailwind. 40 kph ground speed.

The simplest of vector addition.

What about crosswind? It is still vector math (but will not involve a little trig to determine direction).

Airspeed is still 30. Crosswind is perfectly square on to our side (90 degrees off our heading) and 10 kph.

What is our ground speed (and direction)?

Treat the heading as the Y component, treat the wind as the X component.
Y = 30 kph.
X = 10 kph.

The magnitude of a vector is the square root of the sum of the squares of its components.
Huh?

This: square root ( 30 * 30 + 10 * 10) => square root (900 + 100) => square root (1000) => 31.62 kph.

Our ground speed will be 31.62 kph. But not in the direction we are facing.

How do we find the direction?

We know from high school that the sine of an angle in a triangle is the ratio of opposite over hypotenuse. The cross wind (10 kph) is the opposite edge, the hypotenuse is our just computed ground speed (31.62 kph).

sin angle = 10/31.62 => 0.3162.
Inverse sin (arcsin) 0.3162 and we have our angle (in radians) => .31172129 rads.
In degrees: rads / PI * 180 => 18.4 degrees.

Because of the wind: we will travel @ 31.62 kph, 18.4 degrees off our heading.

A long winded way to say that the wind impacts not only the speed but also our direction of travel in the air.

That is all fine and dandy, but what if we don't know the wind component and only know the end result (only ground speed and a bearing). How do we determine the wind component?

Circular regression.

Huh?

Given a constant airspeed and bank angle (rate of turn), one can create a circle that best fits the tips of the ground speed vectors that share a common origin. The vectors will vary in magnitude due to the wind. This variation will mean the common point of original for the velocity vectors will not be the centre of the circle. This is very important, as it is this delta that we want.

A picture would help immensely here, but that will likely have to wait. Trust me.

One method of finding the best fit circle to a trio or more of non-colinear points is the Taubin-Newton Circular Regression algorithm. This is what we will use.

The regression gives us the centre and radius of the best fit circle. The radius will be our airspeed. The centre will be offset from the common point of origin. The magnitude of the vector joining the centre of our newly computed circle and the common origin of the wind drift influenced ground speed vectors will be the wind strength. The direction of this end vector will be line of wind travel.

We now have a wind direction and speed. Easy peasy in the words of a certain Brit SIV instructor.

In testing, I assume a 30 kph airspeed with a 10 kph straight south wind. The Y axis is North/South with North being positive. The X axis is East/West with East being positive.

The velocity vectors (X, Y) fed in look like:
(0, 40)
(0, -20)
(30, 10)
(-30, 10)

The output vector indicates wind out of the south @ 10 kph.

The result:

The blue arrow represents wind direction. I have yet to add a strength value above it. The bearing indicator (green) is being obscured as the line of travel is in direct opposition to the wind (there a pixel thick line of green just to the left of the blue wind direction indicator).

Next steps involve retaining the wind values over time, applying an exponential weighted average over these retained values to smooth out any sudden changes (and give more weight to more recent data), and optimizations.

Continued in Part 3.

It's all in the application: Recon Instruments Snow 2 vs Paragliding.

Over the summer an online dealer in Utah for the Recon Instruments family of devices had the Snow2 + Scott googles on sale for over 50% off. Even with the exchange rate, it was a phenomenal deal compared to the price local dealers were charging. The Snow2 is a pseudo HUD in that it does not directly overlay ones view, but instead sits on a small display in the lower right field of view.

An image of what the HUD looks like within the goggles, from Necessary Coolness.

Here is a link to Recons info page.

The HUD software is geared almost exclusively towards snow sports (thus the name Snow2 and likely why I got it so cheap mid summer). But it runs on Android, and strangely enough yours truly has a decent amount of experience with Android fairly close to the metal.

Trivial to repurpose this device towards a more paragliding centric application. Grab the Recon SDK, the sample app, and a hacking we will go.

The result:

Fairly simplistic. It autostarts on boot, precluding the need for the all-too-easy-to-lose remote. The compass rotates in line with heading, the green arrow indicates bearing. If the user has a sufficient change in bearing or a climb rate above 0 m/s, the centre display will show climb rate, otherwise it shows glide ratio. Climb and glide are averaged.

Next up will be determination of wind direction and speed (a blue arrow on the compass?). After that, maybe speed to fly, maybe BLE connectivity (if Recon has finally updated the OS for the device with proper SDK support) to a PGing GPS such as the XC Tracer.

In any case, it and the laptop will follow me to Brazil for further testing/dev.

Continued in Part 2.

...Or skip ahead to the current refactor.

Club Care

It's been a while since haunting this blog.

Since the last posting, I managed to get the Gin Carrera Plus up in the air a couple of times at Bridal Falls. Really like the improvement in 'feeling' over the base Carrera - feedback from the wing tips is spot on.

Health took another nose dive Sept/Oct bringing the flying season to an end (it has since started improving with an increase in dosage of the med cocktail).

AND....I'm no longer on the Board of Directors for our local club - the President, Tom, let me off the hook at the AGM (I think he realized I don't have enough left in me to give the role the attention it needs). When agreeing to run again last year, I wasn't counting on further health issues or ending up back in the games industry - balancing the needs of the club against real life has proved a bit much. But everything worked out in the end and new, eager blood has stepped in to take over.  Looking forward to seeing what new ideas they roll out over the next year.

Being on the Board for the largest paragliding/hang gliding club in the country certainly provided for an education in the legal and regulatory considerations that go into free flying and clubs in general.

Two big ones:

1. The club must be incorporated. Being otherwise opens the entire membership to the risk of being named parties in litigation. Consult a lawyer if you need more info on the risks of joining an unincorporated club (as they will vary by juristiction).
2. If you are asked to serve on the Board of a club, make sure they have Directors and Officers Insurance. It basically helps cover you as a Board member in the event of a lawsuit for a perceived mistake or omission in carrying out your role, but typically does not include willful illegal acts. Talk to an insurance provider more info on D&O insurance.

Small things to consider that could have a huge impact on you as a member and as a Director if you are asked to 'step up'.

Transformation: Gin Carrera to Gin Carrera+ (Plus): Part 3

In the basement sits a Gin Carrera+, its lines swapped over two weeks previous. The conditions that day allowed only for a short kiting session. Inaugural flight is still in the queue.

Today: a sunny Saturday morning with questionable winds - northwest, 15+ kts. A opportunity to head for the training hill @ Diefenbaker Park and try my hand at foot launching in rotor. The recently completed South Fraser Perim Road makes short work of the drive, allowing for a bypass of Burquitlam and New West. All in all, a 40 minute drive in non existent traffic.

Arrive to find the park empty - I gather iPG is none too keen to have students out in this. Wouldn't blame them as the conditions are leaning towards a plucked and dragged sort of day for newbs.

7AM on a summer Saturday, this place is typically filled with students and wings. But not today.

Setting up on the southern slope facing into the park bowl, I quickly clip in during a lull. A quick duck under to face the wing and a swipe of the brakes.

The rustle of leaves from the trees to the N/W followed by a rapidly building sway in the trees down the road to my right (west) signals an approaching gust. Gloved hands fumble to get at the C's - the risers miniscule width coupled with the new lines frustrate my efforts.

The gust builds, snatching the wing.

Pulling in the C risers, the tail is kept firmly planted. Looks like the new riser design does the job.

I use the dying wind to work the wing quickly into a wall and let it settle back onto the ground.

And wait...

And wait...

Another gust begins, but more west. There is enough to bring the wing up, turn, and run more or less across slope.

And wack!

The left tip falls victim to the rotor being formed off of the trees backstopping the main slope of the hill.

Kill the wing, ball it up, trudge back up.

A trio of attempts follow before calling it a day. I have one question answered - can I ground handle (thus launch) it in strong conditions?

Yes.

But how will it handle in light to nil conditions?

A question that will have to wait for the FlyBC training hill tomorrow morning.

Video of the First Flight on the Gin Carrera Plus

Planning Ahead: 2016

The lackluster state of flying here in the Fraser Valley means an early start to planning for next season.

Now add a dash of slow motion currency freefall (I would not be surprised to see the CAD = 0.65 USD by years end).

The result is a rush to get things booked and paid for ASAP.

I had chanced upon a course being offered by Dean Crosby (the gent who vol biv'd the Pyrenees back in 2012) of Active Edge Paragliding in Iquiquie, Chile in November, but work was a no go with my disappearing during that time period.

Plan B. Same company, same instructor, different time/location.

Brazil, early 2016.

Here's why (from a group flying there in 2011):

Transformation: Gin Carrera to Gin Carrera+ (Plus): Part 2

As, Bs and Brakes down. The Cs took another 1.5 hours in the backyard.

Sunday morning, off to FlyBC. I need more space to spread the full wing out and trace the lines from maillon to attachment tab - to make sure nothing is crossed or wrapped.

One pair of crossed lines on the left C, easy enough to sort.

I expected the riser swap to be very straight forward and aside from the B maillons, it would have been. Both maillons were a right sob to get clear of their respective riser loops. But perseverance paid off and the lines eventually made their way across. All of the maillons were taken to finger tight as there was no point in adding the quarter turn by wrench until after kiting the wing.

New riser left, old riser right.

Curious.

Transformation complete. Time to kite.

Laid out in the LZ. Very switchy winds today (SE right now).

Pull up. The tips noticeably lag compared to the base model.

Back down, South wind now. Notice the Altocumulus Virga?

Rebuild wall, winds now SW.

Pull up, again tips lag -a good sign for strong conditions.

I also tried my hand at A+Cs, and it appears this new configurations is much more user friendly. I was concerned I might have to engage the floating Cs, but all is good.

Due to the switch winds, more kiting will be needed to ensure there are no problems (mistakes in line attachment) followed a few jaunts up and down the training hill. 

Next weekend.

Onto Part 3 of the Gin Carrera Plus Transformation

Transformation: Gin Carrera to Gin Carrera+ (Plus)

Finally!

After two months, the line set has arrived.

When I first demo'd the Gin Carrera, I remarked on the inability to A+C's the wing during launch due to a rather unique riser configuration. The C3 line is mounted to a floating maillon between the main B and C attachment points. The webbing upon which this maillon rides significantly limits the C riser range of motion. The updated Carrera+ riser is expected to help address this short coming by lowering the rear attachment of the webbing strap.

Original Carrera riser layout.Note short C3.
Courtesy of Gin Gliders.  

Carrera+ riser layout. Note extended C3.
Courtesy of Gin Gliders.  

The other thing that stood out was the 'floppy' wing tips. The brake fan layout on the first generation Carrera would engage the centre portion of the trailing edge well ahead of the tips. The byproduct of this configuration is a reduced 'feeling' for an impending collapse short of riding somewhat deep into the brake range. The new line layout on the Carrera+ is expected to 'slow' the tips and engage the trailing edge in a more even manner.

The upgrade kit itself consists of 50 lines (for XS through to M) or 56 lines (for L and XL), an instruction set, a pair of new risers, a new certification/serial number label, packing bag tab, and a '+' sticker to affix to the right of the 'Carrera' label on the wing tip.

The instructions are a single double sided page:

The line set is organized into a collection of daisy chains, grouped by riser and by tier.

I set out to break the chains down and subgroup by pairs of individual lines.

Brake lines mid tier. Each pair (L and R) is placed in a single marked baggie.

Once all of the pairs are divided, its time to label the old lines that are to be replaced. As the instructions are not available online, I went overkill and created a label for every line, unsure which would be flagged for replacement.

Line labels.

Wing laid out in the backyard.

A check of the instructions to confirm which line is next.

Crack open the maillon, slip the line free, follow it to the attachment, un-hitch.

Place the tagged old line in a large baggie and extract the new line from its individual baggie. Check the tag holding the line pair to confirm the index (there is a slight inconsistency in how the lines are labeled on the instructions and on their tags - but it is easy to deduce what goes where). 

Follow the new line end to end, being sure to follow the instructions to attach the thicker sheath portion of the bottom most lines to the bottom of the mid cascade.

Re-attach. Rinse and repeat for other lines. When done, place back on old risers in same order.

I will do the riser swap at the dealers, as he has a rigging loft when I can also check each line end to end before taking for a spin kiting.

Thus far, both sides:

• A+Bs -> 1.5 hours
• Brakes -> 40 mins.

Next up Cs.

Onto Part 2 of the Gin Carrera Plus Transformation

The 2015 Ozone Chabre Open: Looks like a bit of a coup.

The results speak for themselves.


A 'rookie' on a Recreation Class Gin Carrera+ beat everyone, including the X Class pilots on the much higher performing Ozone Mantra 6.


Only goes to show the two axioms of competition flying:

1. It isn't the best pilot who wins, but the most consistent.
2. A comfortable pilot is a consistent pilot.

Paragliding 103: HPAC Novice/P2 vs. Asymmetric Collapses

Asymmetric Collapse

The asymmetric collapse, an inevitability of learning to fly in thermic air. We learn to first mitigate and then prevent them by flying in increasingly active air, preferably under instruction.

Mitigation can come by way of active weight shift and braking technique. The ultimate goal is collision avoidance, be it with the ground, terrain, or other pilots.

Another means of mitigation is wing selection (passive safety). A lower EN/LTF rated wing can help reduce the aftermath of the collapse. An instructor is the best place to start with deciding which wing is best suited to the pilot. That said, the first steps we take as a pilot-in-command is making and accepting responsibility for own decisions. The more information the new pilot has, the better the decision they can make.

The basic certification system (EN/LTF) is not perfect, as per Divide 'EN', Conquer. But the certification system is continually evolving. Part of this evolution is the trial testing of wings by the DHV using a data logger and documenting the post collapse behaviour beyond a simple change of direction/pitch.

DHV Safety Class

The core of the DHV Safety Class is a trio of safety ratings per wing: symmetric collapse, asymmetric collapse, and spiral dive. In addition, notes are provided on altitude loss, G forces experienced, cravat and cascade tendencies. It is these notes that are of interest.

Below are the DHV Safety Class Notes on unaccelerated asymmetric collapses for common paragliders used in the Fraser Valley (Vancouver) for student and novice pilots:

The source for these values and notes can be found under the DHV Safety Test webpage.

In addition, the suitability for training and manufacturer notes regarding the target pilot are included to give a more complete picture. This data was pulled from the manufacturer webpage and user manuals.

Wing Made/Model	Height Loss	Pitch Angle	G Force	Training Suitable	DHV Notes	Manufacturer Notes
Skywalk Mescal 4	20 - 29 m	-60 degrees	2.4G	Yes	Massive collapses and maximum deformations usually recover with little diving and course change.	Suitable for beginners on the training hill, the MESCAL4 also offers lasting satisfaction for ambitious hobby pilots for their first XC flying experiences.
Icaro Cyber TE	30 - 39 m	-65 degrees	2.3G	Yes	Relative moderate reactions, moderate dynamics	Beginners who are looking for a fun, but performant and fast glider, that—nevertheless—still is gentle and easy to fly, will find a good companion in the new Cyber TE.
Ozone Mojo 4	40 - 49 m	-65 degrees	2.3G	Yes	Greater height loss and course change angles than other [...] gliders.	The Mojo 5 is designed for new pilots. First and foremost it is a safe, fun, and easy high-performance wing suitable for students in training but ideal for the newly qualified.

Wing Made/Model	Height Loss	Pitch Angle	G Force	Training Suitable	DHV Notes	Manufacturer Notes
Ozone Buzz Z4	30 - 39 m	-60 degrees	2.3G	N/A*	Moderate dynamics, height loss < 40m. Maximum collapses result in large pitch forward dives and occasional opposing collapses, but without course changes.	The Buzz Z4 is an ideal choice for pilots who fly approximately 30-50 hours per year [...] .
Skywalk Tequila 4	40 - 49 m	-75 degrees	2.9G	Yes	Difficult to collapse to measurement field limits. Marked rotation with dive angles of up to 75° for large collapses. Opposing collapses observed with occasional cravats and course changes.	The T4 is quite forgiving, making it the right choice for talented beginners.
Icaro Instinct TE	40 - 49 m	-75 degrees	2.9G	Yes	Without using special collapse techniques the wing collapses very steeply and has high rotation and pitching dynamics, resulting in opposing collapses and cravats on both wingtips.	Since it performs at a very high level, but is also very pleasant and well-behaving at the same time, the Instinct TE is the perfect glider for all pilots who want to feel comfortable in the air.
Icaro Wildcat TE	40 - 49 m	> -75 degrees	2.6G	No	Height loss is average for its class, but reactions are very dynamic, dive forward angles are severe and course changes are rapid. The canopy folds steeply, creating a lot of resistance and turns abruptly and dives forward steeply. Total height loss was average for the class. Generally the canopy shows a tendency to dive forward steeply which often leads to cascades and cravats.	Recommended flight experience: 20 - 30 flying hours per year.
Gin Atlas	50 - 59 m	-60 degrees	2.3G	N/A*	Relatively low dynamics (pitching, G-forces, sink velocity) for its class, but delayed recovery resulting in higher height and course changes. In some cases, recovery had to be aided with a little pilot input.	The Atlas is suitable for beginning to intermediate pilots.

* There is no clear indication regarding suitability (or lack there of) for training. Consult your instructor.

Side note: notice any differences between the DHV and Manufacturer Notes?

The HPAC Novice/P-2

The current Hang Gliding/Paragliding Association of Canada (HPAC) requirement to be awarded a Novice/P-2 rating includes the following prerequisites:

B. Prerequisites

• Paragliding P1 Beginner Rating
• Thermal Endorsement or the Coastal/Ridge Endorsement

 The Thermal Endorsement includes the following:

• Demonstrates proper directional control and correction of full (i.e. 50% of the wing span) asymmetric collapses.

Anyone flying in the Fraser Valley will receive their Novice/P-2 with the Thermal Endorsement (due the lack of a consistent Coastal/Ridge Soaring Site). 

Under the current HPAC requirements, the Novice/P-2 candidate who satisfies the Thermal Endorsement will have demonstrated the proper response to a 50% asymmetric collapse. 

Re-read the above descriptions of asymmetric collapse behaviour and ask which wing would you want to be on with less than 25 flights and asked to demonstrate the 'proper directional control and correction of full (i.e. 50% of wing span) asymmetric collapses'. Demonstrating a response means experiencing the collapse to then demonstrate the proper response.

I suspect if this requirement was fully enforced by HPAC, we would see very few students on EN B wings.

It is better to have a wing you can grow out of than one you need to grow into.

Small Victories (with a flying 'pitbull')

July First, a welcome mid week holiday.

Onto the West Coast Soaring Club Line group to pop a quick, 'Anyone flying Bridal?'

Andrei replies, "sometime after noon."

Car loaded and out the door. I will likely be sitting around for a few hours waiting for a ride to show, but as the investment adage goes, "Better a year early than a second late."

Sitting in the car at the Bridal LZ, AC running to stave off the increasing heat. It doesn't take long for a car bearing an older gent in a collared shirt to pull up. Josef, an occasional pilot here in the valley. 

Following him is a pickup with Chris and Shawn (the pilot from the Yukon who unofficially broke the Canadian PG distance record with a flight of 260 km). A little milling about occurs, hoping a ride shows up but no dice. Our quad of pilots piles into the pick up to make our way up to Lower Bridal.

Along the way Shawn recounts his adventures in Brazil, conversations with pilots planning to cross the Sierra Nevada range, and the Burning Man festival. Oh, and the general state of flying in the Yukon - the lone consistency lies in the lack of back to back flyable days.

Arrival on launch reveals some strange conditions. The west wind is completely absent and a pulse of NE cycles make their way through the trees just behind us. The outflow has yet to completely subside.

Time passes, the outflow ever...soooo....slowly decays.

Shawn kits up and I give him a hand layout the wing out, ribbing him with a "I just wanted to touch the highest performing PG wing in Canada.". It takes little time for a cycle to come through and Shawn is away and climbing out.

Chris is not far behind.

I watch their wings with a keen eye, looking for small sharp yaw and pitch movements indicative of rough conditions. Nada. Just smooth carves.

In the meantime, Andrei, Elena, Tyler and Kristi have arrived and hiking up with a family of 'launch tourists'.

Launch is about to get cozy. Go time.

Thirty minutes later Elena has set up above me and is starting to feel the afternoon heat. It is starting to roast out. A puff of a cycle comes through and Andrei points out, "Looks good." Not hard to tell he wants me to hustle so Elena can get away quickly. Wouldn't blame him in the least. Two sets back and the wing just drops. Not strong enough for a reverse. Switch to a forward. I hear the right tip thwack during the run but don't feel it.

Airborne.

Away from terrain and scan for traffic.

Clear.

The radio chirps to life, its Andrei...

"You have a small cravat on your left tip." Glance up, the trailing edge tip is caught in amongst a few C lines. One pump of left brake. No effect. Quickly grab and tug the stabilo. Clear.

It is situations like this where SIV training pays its dividend. One of the quirks of the sharknose on the Delta 2 is the tenacity of the cravats. Previously working through these makes for quick work in the real world.

Everything squared away, off to the mixing bowl we go. Except with the lack of wind, there is no mixing bowl today. Just a wide swath of gently rising 1.5 to 2.0 m/s air. Over Alan's Ridge and beyond. Approaching the next spine things spice up a bit and I start to bank into a carve. The rising air draws me towards the side of the mountain. I look down and east to see a road leading towards what I suspect is Upper Launch  A sudden chill to the air signals the end of the inversion.

Onwards to Elk!

Mind you, I am not entirely sure which peak Elk is, just that Elk is at the end of this ridge and that is where I am going.

So ...

Onwards to Elk!

The air begins to take on a sporty flavor with my first (and only) collapse of the day. I am near the lip of the ridge either in rotor or mixing thermals from both sides of the ridge. Not sure how much worse it will get, I decide to take a prudent path - push out front.

To find...

Sink, sink and, more sink. Rotor?

Oh well, return to the churn and backtrack to the bowl behind launch.

Several rivers of thermal crawl up the mountain to my right, beckoning the nose of the Carrera. One in particular causes the Carrera to go full on 'pit bull', the nose snapping right and charging in for the kill. My view immediately fills with tree covered hill side. Hard right to force the wing to do a three quarter turn to get back on heading. I make note of this spot to revisit at another time, today is not the day for tree top kicking climbs.

Back to the bowl to see Kristi climbing in a right hand turn. I blend in from outside and just behind but don't find much (1.5m/s) compared to the strength of the climbs closer to the ridge line (3.0 m/s).

Back west, again. This speaks volumes to my lack of patience.

I settle for a triangle route. Back down the ridge, out to the highway, back to lower.

The glide out to the highway initially has some decent chop (more hints of rotor?) but smooths out nicely. I am able to grab a drink from the Camelback and flip through some Podrunner mixes on the iPod+iHome mini speaker on the flight deck. Out in the valley, the west wind is picking up. There is a risk of being forced to back into the LZ if the wind climbs much more.

New plan: Play it safe, tag Lower, and set up to land.

The remainder is uneventful with landing coming up about 15 feet short of the cones. I watch other pilots work the ridge just downwind of launch, varying between standstill and crawl. I am sure the winds will die off as the sun sets. There are no regrets on my end for calling it a day early.

Just about to leave, I am paid a visit by a fellow flier who seemed quite content to stick around for a few minutes. Didn't have much to say, but then again ...

Those who do can't explain, those who don't can't understand.

A Paragliding Playlist

Early Saturday morning, expecting record breaking heat. The forecasts are confused, some indicating strong winds, others much more mild conditions.

Assume worst case, be out early to maximize odds of getting in the air before the arrival of the valley wind tempest.

0745 hrs - car packed up, sitting in the drivers seat and fishing through some old burned CDs from a decade plus ago. The faded out sharpie on one is barely legible, so I pop it in and take a four wheeled acoustic time machine.

16B feat. Morel - Driving to Heaven

Not hard to tell there is an upcoming holiday. The roads are busier than normal with folk heading off to Harrison Lake to camp. Traffic is manageable and I am fortunate not to get blocked by a freight train travelling inland, the tracks of which cross my path twice.

Arrival at FlyBC, the lot is empty. Everyone is either in Pemberton or Chelan.

No early students this weekend either. Odd. With the rapid onset of summer, the valley has become rather stable and prone to blowing out shortly after noon. This daily blow out is forcing student flights to occur in a very small morning window. I would have thought they would be eager to get out and flying.

What are out in increasing abundance are the skeeters. The car provides refuge until Jim appears and starts to mill about. Following Jim into the barn, multiple boxes of Sup'Air and Ozone product pop into view.

Jim starts unpacking and sorting this verifiable Christmas day for any pilot. As boxes are emptied and sorted, I have a chance to pick Jim's brain on the business and instructional aspects of the paragliding industry. Unexpected educational opportunity.

In the midst of this, I query regarding the Carrera Plus line set to see if it has arrived.

No dice. *sigh*

Jim points out that if it wasn't for the change in the riser geometry, we could have the line set fabricated rather than wait on Gin. Frustration grows after what has been a six week wait and I begin to ask in earnest about switching back to Ozone - maybe grabbing a lightweight B to use for hike and fly (along with the start of spring) and then wait for the release of the Delta 3.*

The boxes sorted, Jim returns to the house.  I lounge about until a pickup pulls in with a rather lost looking couple. Even money they are tandems.

Yep. Tandems.

Thirty minutes pass and the Atlas is loaded up with kit. A student finally pulls into the parking lot, but his body language hints he is not particularly eager to fly today. I can fully relate from my student days - I was the penultimate problem student and it is a testament to the patience of Dion at iParaglide that I made it through. I hope this student eventually finds his eureka moment as I fortunately did.

Sans student, the Atlas crawls relentlessly up the mountain. Driving to Heaven.

KMFDM - Superhero

At the top of the mountain, there is no escaping the growing heat. The two TMs (tandem masters), their charges, and I gingerly hike down the incline into the main parking area. Voices creep over the last climb to the launch area,

"Iwannagohome!"

"In a few minutes."

A family greets us as we crest the last climb. A trio of children are pacing about making it clear that staring at a haze filled valley floor does not constitute a valid use of their summer vacation.

A small collection of kit belonging to a new addition to our local flying community sits off to the left. I greet the gent (and manage to immediately forget his name for the first of three times that day) and answer his stream of queries about LZs, areas of lift, and obstacles.

It takes little time for the TMs to gear up the passengers, lay the wings out, and get set for launch. Dennis is off first and quickly finds himself in a flush cycle. Jim follows Dennis after the passing of the interloping cirrus. The hoots and hollers of Jims passenger shatters the stillness of the valley as I begin the machinations of aircraft assembly.

A faint engine noise off in the distance, a 4x4 making its way towards launch.

I wonder for a moment and return to getting ready.

Wing laid out and clipped in. I glance up to see a growing collection of neophytes appear, followed by a smaller number of tandem masters. A voice pipes up, "We have to stop meeting like this, you're leaving when I show up."

Definite deja vu. Martina is driving for Kevin and Andrei.

The cycles are now weakening and demonstrating a noticeable cross wind component due to the northern valley outflow.

A short puff of direct in wind prompts Kevin to announce, "Looks good". I suspect that is his hint to get the show on the road, they have paying customers and I am blocking up launch.

The trick to nailing a perfect launch is twofold - good kiting skills and a proper cycle. Kiting skills I know I have, the cycles - well there is not much one can do with 90 degree cross unless the goal is to kamikaze a stand of trees.

As the TMs start to unpack, I am hyper vigilant for the lack of wind on the left side of my neck (being back on to launch for a reverse pull up).

Finally a good one. A quick pull up, check, turn and three steps. Airborne. For the crowd of neophytes, a Superhero launch.

BT - Believer

The afternoon, Bridal Falls.

Gary, the gent whose name I still forget (by now I have learned he is a former skydiver, current speed flier, learned PGing in California, and lives in North Vancouver), and I camp out in the only shade to be found on launch. Eventually the valley wind will be blocked by the influx of thermic cycles, enabling us to launch. But for now we wait. I lose track of time, having fallen sleep until a pair of gents and a lady add to our number.

Several birds of prey circle overhead clearly marking climbs up along the ridge. Still no cycles.

The radio squaks to life, the accent sounds eastern European.Where there is one, there is often a hoard. Free for all ridge rules can be expected.

No time is wasted. We have a thirty minute opportunity to get ready and launch before the (potential) hoard arrives.

Gary and the two late additions are quickly away. The lady is going to drive the truck down. This leaves the gent whose name I can't remember and myself.

The cycles die.

NOOOOoooooo!

An impromptu fire pit in the upper corner of the lower launch lane leaves me with minimal room for a reverse pull up, even with a good cycle. This lack of wind means moving to the upper lane or flipping for a forward.

Forward it is ... with 15 feet of runway. I won't claim it was a pretty launch, but I managed to get away without taking any trees with me.

In the pod, I quickly turn left to face west and advance on Alan's Ridge. This spine is the stepping off point to benching up onto the plateau leading to the main ridge line connecting Cheam and Elk. Getting to Alan's Ridge requires the traversal of a bowl that is a mixing pot of thermals churned by the valley wind.  One of the members of our crew from a few years ago used to refer to this area as the washing machine, having discovered some potential additions to the SIV training regimen. Gary has already climbed up and is working towards the main ridge line.

The mixing bowl.

The decision to fly sans vario today means I will need to focus on feel to find lift and follow up with visual confirmation against terrain as degree of success. The Carrera thermal autopilot does its job flawlessly, the nose hunting towards nearby thermals and driving in. The churn makes for very disorganized climbs with the risers going slack at one point and necessitating a sharp jab of brakes. The wing threatens to frontal but settles back into place.

A presentation by Russell Ogden of Ozone comes to mind, one in which he comments on keeping a close eye on the wing in turbulent conditions to catch collapses as early as possible. I am normally one to go by feel when flying, using visual to keep an eye out for changes in conditions, climbs, traffic, and terrain.

But airspace is relatively unobstructed today and there is a decent lift band well out front of launch along the ridge. Maybe a good day to be made a Believer.

Empty airspace in front of launch. Great time to experiment.

IIO - Rapture (John Creamer & Stephane K Remix)


In front of launch, an airborne metronome flying like clockwork. East to west, west to east.

The lads heading for the LZ.

The air is clear of distractions, two of my counterparts already setting up to land and Gary well up on the plateau. The only thing I need to keep an eye out for is the tandem laid out (the 'hoard' turned out to be a false alarm - simply a father and son duo looking to get a flight in together).

Pushing to the outer edge of the lift band, I double check no one is around and crane my head back as best I can with the tail of the Impress 3 pushing my helmet to one side.

And watch.

The wing above is in continuous motion, reacting to the medium within which it exists. Small nudges forward and back of either one (yaw) or both (pitch) wing tips. I go hands up and leave the wing unhindered, still watching. The movements become more pronounced.

Wing based hypnosis.

Reigning the wing back in with a little brake, I impose my will on these small movements. When the right tip moves forward, I try to limit it with a small application of right brake. Same with the left. It feels strange to be applying brake inputs based on visual stimuli rather than brake/riser pressure especially when the wing and lines are dampening the output.

Odgen mentioned he uses this sort of technique in rather rough air more for collapse management, but I can also foresee value when working an inversion and trying to get a sense of where a thermal might be pushing through some distance off. The wing may start reacting with small otherwise un-felt nose twitches to the surrounding air being drawn in.

A lot more experimentation is needed, staring in Rapture, before I have this technique nailed down.

Sasha - Wavy Gravy

The sun edges towards the horizon.

Downshift.

Still in an experimental mood, I glide out over the highway. The soft, light lift from the concrete river makes for a sort of smooth Wavy Gravy-esque ride, a far cry from the toss and turn we have been finding mid day at Woodside. At a loss to explain why I don't come over here very often, I make a mental note to try to end every morning at Woodside with an end of day trip to Bridal.

I don't have quite the height to try again for the new gas station to the north of Hwy 1. My last trip with this source rendered a really nice thermal back up to launch height. Next time for sure, I promise myself.

Cross back over the golf course to hear the distinct thwack of a tee off.

Press on to the LZ.

Light winds and lifty. Figure-8 the tree line.

Line up with the wind sock for final and allllmost kick the cones demarcating the landing target.

Another great flying day comes to a close.






* A subsequent whine fest on my part on PG forum has drawn the attention of the Gin Canada distributor, so hopefully it will get resolved soon.

Happy Sky Birthday* to me!

June 26, 1999.
Mile High Parachuting.
Jump 1.

A rather warm sunny Saturday in Arnprior, Ontario.

Nervous energy moves throughout a group of lads of varying origins, ages, and occupations.  They have congregated at this small airport with one goal in mind - to jump solo out of an airplane for the first time.

The skittish herd was greated by a trio of instructors ('Turtle', Eldon, and Cyr) and ushered into a classroom to learn a pair of mantas needed to complete a IAD (Instructor Assisted Deployment) jump. The first being the dynamic exit - "Have you got my pilot chute, left foot, left hand, right root, wingtip. Arch-thousand. Two-thousand. Three-thousand. Four-thousand. Check-thousand." The second being a cutaway and reserve deployment - "Look. Reach. Pull. Look. Reach. Pull.".

Throughout the morning of lessons we were prompted to repeat these mantras, louder and louder. Drilling home these distilled steps. Nail these, let gravity do its thing, and everything will be ok.

Following the classroom was the hands on training: chucking ourselves from the mockup of the Cessna C-182 onto a thick mat, learning the art of PLF, and the (soon to be dreaded) hanging harness...

We were walked through the process of identifying if a canopy could be landed, and if not, how to perform the physical actions that paired with the reserve deployment mantra. While hanging in a retired old skydiving harness, a picture of a canopy in some form of (non-)malfunction would be placed over  our head.  If judged to be a malfunction, we would be coached through the process of cutting away and deploying the reserve. Even if the canopy was land-able and we cut away, we were praised for making ultimately the right decision (if in doubt, cutaway).

After the first handful of passes, Cyr (a former Canadian Airborne Regiment NCM) took over. The tranquility of this sleepy country airport was shattered with a cacophony of yelling and shaking.

The first to fall victim went complete deer in headlights, plummeting to his virtual death.

Calm.

Repeat the cutaway process in a slow and controlled manner.

Success.

Set volume back to 10.

Success.

The seeds of stress inoculation are taking root.

My turn comes and goes like the others. One of mine was a good canopy chop due to line twists. When in doubt ...

Spring, 2002.
Skydive Chicago.
Jump 115.

Stoked after a successful dive out, chase and dock on a 4 way formation, I deploy typically high at 3500 feet.

Line twists during the opening. No big deal.

Then a turn and dive. I'm on my back and the wind noise cranks right back up. Big deal.

Back to that day with Cyr, instinct kicks in and I'm under a reserve.

Too this day, I credit the reserve pack job of the SDC rigger and the training at the hands of Cyr with saving my life. MileHigh drilled home the need to completely banish indecision and aggressively execute the needed corrective action in a stressful training environment. They had this in place before we ever set foot in the plane.

Today.
Vancouver.
A few hundred jumps more.

So what does this have to do with a paragliding blog?

I ask, how many paragliding schools (or national associations for that matter) require reserve training before high mountain flights?

I suspect you will quickly discover the same as I -> nada. Excuses abound.

Incidents occur - even during student training. Not having the foreknowledge to properly execute a reserve deployment greatly reduces the ability to respond.

Reserve training needs to be done in a recent, relevant, and realistic manner. At the very least that means a hanging harness with induced stress. Before feet leave the mountain.

It might save your life and enable you to share many of your own PG Sky Birthdays to come.

* Sky Birthday - a skydiving term for the day of your first solo jump. The day you were born a skydiver.

Paragliding Economics 101A: Shopping Around (First Paraglider Purchase).

Looking at lessons, trying to sort out the true costs.

No rental option, local used market is dried up (there is an ebb and flow to used wing availability - very dependant on time of year).

Guess a new wing it is.

If you are part of the rare 1% who has reigned in impulse and taken a step back to consider the true costs - you're likely wondering how to best save some coin on equipment purchase. 

The majority of the worlds wings are fabricated in a small number of factories that cater to multiple brands (a secret manufacturers don't make very public) and are made from a very small collection of fabrics. The result -> production costs are relatively similar.

In addition - R&D, administration, and marketing typically scale. Larger manufacturers pour more into marketing (sponsoring competition teams and factory pilots), have in house designers, and employ test pilots. Smaller shops outsource the entire design process and limit marketing to very specific regions/segments. 

What does this all mean?  

Commoditization.

A wing in EN class X should cost Y no matter the brand. A price above this is either result of inefficiency or the padding of margin somewhere between you and the manufacturer. The former will die due to decreasing market share, the latter will perish with an informed customer.

What can you do?

Become informed. Window shop around. This can be a touchy subject as it will eat into a schools margin. A *pre-authorized* purchase outside the school is sometimes offered as an unspoken option for an 'uncorking fee'  - typically around $500. It will not hurt to ask up front before paying for lessons, if I want to buy a different brand than what you carry, what is the additional cost? If nothing else, it could pressure the school dealer to price match if they wish to maintain market share.

How much could you save?

Pricing options for low end EN-B (a common first wing here) plus harness and reserve in the Vancouver market:

Equipment	Dealer A	Dealer B	Dealer C
Wing	$3900	$3500	$4000
Harness (with back protection)	$900	$650	$1100
Medium Reserve	$660	$700*	$1000

* I had to query the reserve price, as none was published.

The right combination of the above can net over $1200 in savings.The catch is the need to negotiate. A smart dealer will realize a customer who feels they are getting a good deal will become a repeat customer.

In the end the right questions cost you nothing and can save you alot.

Weather Synopsis: Bleah

A weekend in Whistler.

Dreams of venturing back to our local paragliding Mecca, Pemberton.

Weather forecast:

Pemberton, not likely.

Well, perhaps Woodside.

Glance at the FlyBC launch webcam:

Crossed arms and a windsock going up.

Woodside, not likely.

As the adage goes, what do you call 2 days of poor weather preceded by 5 days of perfect?

The weekend.

Bleah.

Back in the saddle: Part 2 (with the Skywalk RangeAir)

The wind sock goes from limp to a south, to a southwest, back to limp. The wing 'breathes' with the rise (the nose rising, A's tensioning ) and fall of the cycles (nose rolling over, A's going slack).

A cycle presents itself - going from a south to straight in southwest. Pull up and the high AR (aspect ratio) of the wing makes itself felt. Half the wing orients south, the other half more west.

Herding wingtips.

Having experienced this a few times while kiting the Delta2, I ease off the right side brake and let the lagging side 'snap' back into alignment. Kite for a second to let the wing settle, turn, and kite another second to be sure everything is good to go (an instructor from Germany mentioned letting the wing settle a second after it reaches the apex).

The cycle ebbs as I start the run. Airborne, touchdown, airborne, touchdown, airborne and away.

Long runways and weak days go hand in hand.

Two tries and I'm in the pod of the Skywalk RangeAir. The RangeAir is an extra light airbag XC harness. I have been a huge fan of airbag based back protection after watching a low airtime pilot spin a wing at tree top height, have it surge, pendulum him underneath then drop him hard. Running over, I fully expected to find a corpse. Instead the pilot was standing up and brushing himself off. The airbag harness absorbed the brunt of the fall.

The catch to an airbag system is that it needs to be inflated (by ram air) for it to work. Maybe not particularly well suited to those who are likely to suffer a drop launching such as a student who lacks the kiting skill to manage a wing or a comp pilot who doesn't have the luxury of being picky about the cycle they launch in. But for those in the middle, it is a viable option if weight and pack volume are limited - hike and fly pilots along with the globetrotting crowd come to mind.

As for the effectiveness of airbags - give this spreadsheet a gander. The lower the G force value listed (in column H), the lower the impact force passed onto the pilot. 'Schaumstoff' is foam based back protection (as opposed to airbag).

Back to the RangeAir, comments sent back to the dealer include:

A few observations - the weight and pack volume phenomenal. I can fit the harness + reserve in the Gin concertina bag with the Carrera. The reduction allowed me to drop to a 90L pack (from a 130L) with the possibility of dropping to a 70L. The loss in overall weight has me on the cusp of downsizing to a small wing.

Setup is a bit fiddly. I found the best way to accommodate is leave everything attached and loosen the shoulder straps for step in/out. Extra attention to the speedbag closing lines is needed in this case during donning - they like to pop loose.

The speedbag is very easy to get into post launch - I don't need my foot leash like I do with the Impress 3.

The chest strap appears to be non adjustable. I found out how much wider I normally run the Impress 3 in comparison when I near line twisted myself up leaning in aggressively on entry to a tight core.

I am leaning towards saying the Range Air provides more feedback vs. the Impress 3 but need more airtime to be sure.

Two additional features of note - the reserve is front mounted, which satisfies the growing comp requirement that the reserve be reachable by either hand. The front mount also eliminates the possibility that pilot weight in a hammock harness (as opposed to those with a seat board) will interfere with reserve extraction. There is also the matter of an underseat reserve potentially placing a non compressible perch between the pilot and the ground. The first thing that will hit may well be that  un-deployed reserve, prevent the remainder of the body from absorbing any impact - driving the entire impact force up into the spine. Something to think about - is the underseat reserve under your spine or your upper legs?

The second is the flight deck/front mount reserve container that is held in place by attaching to the chest strap. This helps eliminate the possibility of launching without having the leg straps done up. I had crossed paths with a fellow Impress3 owner who had launched with the flight deck secured but not the leg straps. The small snap shackle held them in long enough to get into the harness, but the shackle design would not have held them long if they could not hook their feet into the speed bag (based on comments from a harness designer back in 2012).

RangeAir

Flight Deck/Front Mount Reserve Container

Reserve Container Flipped. Leg straps tread through.

Two step speed system.

Speed bag closing loops

Opening for hydration bladder.

Velcro and securing tab for Spot or micro vario.

Back to the flight.

The trusty spine.

After a few beats back and forth, there isn't much out here yet. I try my goto trigger, the spine to the north. There is some lift, but not much. Time to push out.

The vario shows a south wind @ 8kph (2 m/s). Climbs are also 2 m/s. Add that to a 1 m/s sink.

Quick mental math time: 2 m/s horizontal vs. 3 m/s vertical. Move upwind, but not much today.

And I find it, 5 seconds of climb along a southerly course. A turn right and I fall out the side. Get it around quick then begin to widen the turn. More chirps from the vario. Tighten it up and we have a core.

Bring it around. Bring it around.

399 m.
400 m.
401 m.
401 m.
400 m.

An inversion establishing or did I just lose the core altogether?

Widening the turn again, looking for a way to keep climbing.

The Carrera starts 'sniffing'/edging right. I align the wing with it and feel myself being sucked in.

Another climb, this one breaks through and gets me to 460m, but has me pretty far north. Zero chance of making Riverside, still a chance of making the Ranch. Time to push out, keeping some margin for error on a day the winds are forecast to climb quite a bit. Not a lot to be found, again bouncing off an invisible ceiling around 400 m.

Not much from the farm buildings today.

Eventually, gravity claims both the wing and I as we set down at the Ranch.


The afternoon is punctuated with a bit of kiting in the growing valley winds. Attempts at A+C'ng the Carrera is met with frustration as the wing repeatedly tries to horseshoe. Hopefully the C+ addresses this, as this is my go to technique for stronger mid afternoon conditions.

No point in fretting about it until I have the new line set installed.

Otherwise a good day to be back in the saddle.