Flight Log - in the Alps

At the time of writing, I'd had two weeks experience of flying in the Alps, the first one in France in the spring of 2004 and the second which was more to the east in Slovenia this summer. As I write this page I'm just about to go back to Slovenia for another week - it was that good!

For many flyers, Annecy in France is one of the big sites that must be done. I was lucky enough to fly there before getting my CP status and only one day after flying my first "thermals". As usual with paragliding, it was a brilliantly sunny day when we got there (if it's a horrible day, we don't go) and the view over the lake from the takeoff point 2000 feet above it was stunning. Click the link for a log of one of the flights.
We were staying near Chamonix with Dennis Trott, the former builder of many Fireball dinghies before he took up paragliding. Now he does B&B for groups in his new home down the valley, and acts as instructor and guide during the group's stay.

Having managed to get through my CP exam at easter-time 2004, thanks to the excellent tuition received from Mark Dann at Beyond Extreme (Oswestry), I began to feel a bit in the doldrums, because I wasn't experienced enough to do any serious flying on my own, but had now 'left school' without knowing quite how to progress. Paul, a friend from BE, mentioned that he was going to Slovenia in August and I decided to join the trip.
Brett Janaway was leading this trip, a most experienced pilot in several disciplines and British champion for accurate landings on a couple of occasions. He imports gliders and reserve chutes into the UK from AirSystems in Slovenia and also leads recreational gliding trips to the Julian Alps - right next to the Austrian border. It's a very beautiful area of fertile valleys with wild-flower strewn hay meadows, rapid rivers and white limestone mountains reaching up to 2000m and more. We stayed near the beautiful Lake Bohinj and flew from several sites around the lake and also from a higher takeoff near Villach in Austria. One of my best flights was around the lake at Bohinj - if you would like to read about it, click the link.

A year later (autumn 2005), I don't have a lot more hours in the air.The best flight recently was my first "cross-country" attempt, which started at a site called Lijak in Slovenia and ended a few miles to the southeast.

The thing about a Cross-country is that you don't know where or when you are going to land, so while the flying was no more difficult than I'd done before, the big gamble is getting down again. To read about it, click this link.

Another 18 months have passed. Now its June 2007 and I'm back at Lake Bohinj. Second home is nearby, along the ridge at Sorica. Half owned, anyway, if the planning department can decide that the building we've bought doesn't have to be demolished. At the end of a week of poor weather and little adventurous flying, I have another flight around the lake - remembering the flight I'd made three years earlier. Click this link to read about it.

Click here to return to "hobbies" or close the page to end