Change in the Weather
While Tamworth itself isn't exactly a tourist mecca, it does have an increasingly famous cousin, Manilla. Manilla happens to be home to a recently "discovered" hill now owned by Godfrey Winness, who also owns the world paragliding distance record. The hill, nicknamed "God's takeoff point" within paragliding circles, has since become famous for its consistent ridge lift and unique to the topography of the Australian mountains - year-round thermals.
Paragliding is weather dependent. No one wants to be 1500 meters in the air with a storm on the loose (for obvious reasons) and no one wants to go jumping off a cliff with nothing but nylon attached to one's back unless there's at least a little bit of a wind to travel on- otherwise you and your "wing" will experience just a "boring" float down to earth as in a parachute.
The morning after I arrived in Tamworth, I called Bob Smith (and by the sound of it, was pretty sure that wasn't his aboriginal name). Bob is a professional paragliding instructor whose name I'd gotten from none other than Godfrey, whom I'd called the previous week to ask about what it would take to have a go at a tandem (training) paraglide. Godfrey and Bob own a paragliding training school together (and even teach instructors). I asked Bob how the weather was looking that day. He said it was looking fine. Fine for gliding I asked? Looking mighty fine.
I seized my chance.
Paragliding is, as one would expect, like parachuting over a distance. Except that you go sideways. And sometimes up. And you get to sit down during it all (I don't know that this makes any difference at all - but it looks comfier). Paragliders catch air from underneath the "wing," finding lift through air moving over the top of a hill or rising from patches of sun-heated earth. The air moves the wing briefly upwards, allowing a pilot with a bit of control to soar around the sky, then return to the upward moving column of air, and repeat until the air (or the pilot) is exhausted.
Bob and I hit a particularly good flying day. Flying tandem, Bob found us a thermal that carried our duo for nearly an hour and a half, enough time for me to shoot so many photos I nearly drained my camera empty and to pepper Bob with enough questions about aero- and thermal-dynamics I could have taught a high school physics class after. Driving back to the Manilla town center, I asked if there was such a thing as competitive paragliding. There is, he said. Like a world championships of paragliding? Yep. Where is it? Right here in fact, on this hill.
Paragliding is weather dependent. No one wants to be 1500 meters in the air with a storm on the loose (for obvious reasons) and no one wants to go jumping off a cliff with nothing but nylon attached to one's back unless there's at least a little bit of a wind to travel on- otherwise you and your "wing" will experience just a "boring" float down to earth as in a parachute.
The morning after I arrived in Tamworth, I called Bob Smith (and by the sound of it, was pretty sure that wasn't his aboriginal name). Bob is a professional paragliding instructor whose name I'd gotten from none other than Godfrey, whom I'd called the previous week to ask about what it would take to have a go at a tandem (training) paraglide. Godfrey and Bob own a paragliding training school together (and even teach instructors). I asked Bob how the weather was looking that day. He said it was looking fine. Fine for gliding I asked? Looking mighty fine.
I seized my chance.
Paragliding is, as one would expect, like parachuting over a distance. Except that you go sideways. And sometimes up. And you get to sit down during it all (I don't know that this makes any difference at all - but it looks comfier). Paragliders catch air from underneath the "wing," finding lift through air moving over the top of a hill or rising from patches of sun-heated earth. The air moves the wing briefly upwards, allowing a pilot with a bit of control to soar around the sky, then return to the upward moving column of air, and repeat until the air (or the pilot) is exhausted.
Bob and I hit a particularly good flying day. Flying tandem, Bob found us a thermal that carried our duo for nearly an hour and a half, enough time for me to shoot so many photos I nearly drained my camera empty and to pepper Bob with enough questions about aero- and thermal-dynamics I could have taught a high school physics class after. Driving back to the Manilla town center, I asked if there was such a thing as competitive paragliding. There is, he said. Like a world championships of paragliding? Yep. Where is it? Right here in fact, on this hill.
posted by eric at
6:04 AM
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