Vienticinco

Uvia. Rain. We all woke to a solid rain shower today and we ate breakfast as usual but delayed or departure by one hour. 

Brad sporting a Niviuk umbrella. I want!

I remained optimistic and told everyone that we were going up the hill, and would likely fly. 

The road was muddy but the drivers got us all to the top. 

The sky was filled with all kinds of clouds. It was really beautiful. It took a long wait in clouds and even a sprinkle on launch. 

The groomers seemed unaffected today. 

Farmer brought the flag used at the world championships as a patriotic wind indicator. It was really nice. 

Impromtu discussions broke out for the wait. 

Bradley with Christian waiting to launch. 

Rob Sporrer discussing the day. 

John and Marge chillin in the cloud. 

Eventually most everyone launched except John, who opted to pack up and ride the Cipri down. A good call. It never makes sense to ignore your gut. I was feeling great, and I launched last. 

Unfortunately I had an invisible knot in my upper left brake lines that included A and B lines as well. Ugh. I was able to hold my heading with considerable opposite weight shift and brake input, and quickly assessed whether or not I could make the LZ with such a mess in my lines above me. As I flew away towards the house thermal that was completely shaded, I found that I was going up in smooth steady lift nearly to cloud as I held a steady course until I had plenty of altitude to work the problem safely. I opted to fly all the way out to the Oscar's LZ so if I accidently made it worse, I would still be over a safe place to land. Eventually I pulled hard enough that the fragile upper brake line broke, releasing the other tangled lines. Sweet. Now I could go fly. Farmer, Brian, Jef, Rob and I scratched around in light lift near Oscar's until we all ended up landing there. We all would easily make it to the landing there so with the light lift we all tried to stay up as long as we could. 

Most everyone landed at Oscars and I had some local kids help me pack. They liked my hat. 

Back at the hotel I was able to replace my upper brake line that broke with an extra one (from my spare line set I brought down with me) and reassemble everything inside of 30 minutes. 

Hugh was the only one in my group to really seize the day and landed in Zarsal. Well done! 

It wasn't an easy or perfect day, but it had merit. I think it was hard for everyone to see the day change so dramatically for the better, albeit less than ideal. It certainly gave everyone more experience, and we all landed safely.   Well, almost. A hard landing injured the wrist of our Canadian pilot. 

Dorian at the radiology dept in La Union. 

No stranger to injury, it was more impressive to see the previously installed hardware in Dorian's hand than the alleged fracture that Christian supposed existed there. $35 USD and 30 minutes later, we were back at Casa Blanca.  With a DVD of the X-rays. Cool!

5:30 came quickly and Rob Sporrer gave an excellent talk on risk management. 

Tomorrow I give my talk, and it will likely encompass elements of hydration and inflight urination, but will focus more on the talk I gave last year, which had more to do with planning, preparation, goal setting, in addition to having a positive can-do attitude. The psychology of paragliding is really a powerful aspect that I think many don't give enough attention to. Henry Ford once said:

"If you think you can or cannot achieve something, in either case you are probably right."

Our groups have had great energy and super attitudes this far, but it is easy to let our inner dialogue derail our potential for success. I hope I can give everyone permission to be patient and understanding with themselves and empower all of them to take charge of how they think and feel. 

I had a great chat with my family late last night thanks to FaceTime on my iPhone (audio only) and the weak WIFI here at the hotel.  It was really great to hear everyone's voices. I miss everyone and look forward to being home in a week and a half. In the mean time, they seem to be doing really well, and I am having the time of my life. 

Missing you all,

Martín

Veintiquatro

Average 6:00 am sky. Epic day ahead. 

Today I flew tandem with Christian, a trauma specialist who directs emergency surgery at two different hospitals. We had an interesting discussion on the way up the hill today. Trauma, while urgent and serious, often is very interesting and there are usually lots of stories to be told. He had lots. 

5 people opted to hike up today with Redbull athlete Dawn, but even with extra seats folks still rode atop the Cipri. 

I paced myself with the heavy tandem wing only to see a local guy carrying two tandems at the same time. Dang!

There was no north wind today and everyone who wanted to, got up fairly easily and were able to hang out at cloudbase to meet up with the rest if thier groups. Climbs were gentle at first, but soon got stronger as the day heated up. 

Rob Milley hit some strong turbulence over the house thermal, lost control of his wing and threw his reserve parachute. It opened quickly and he landed on the steep side of the house thermal hill with no injury whatsoever. We dispatched some locals to help him get back and he was able to ride a horse back to the vehicles, get a ride down and eventually repack his reserve parachute at the hotel later that day. 

I gifted Rob some limes, Vodka and a toy parachute for his quick and decisive thinking today. Bravo!

Cristian and I had a great flight. (3:20). We flew nearly the whole "box" but opted to land short of Roldanillo just to be safe.

Rob Sporrer and Hugh over Zarsal. 

We got low, really low, once but for a low save and added another hour or more to our flight. Yesss!

Oh what a great sky we had today. 

The west wind came through just as the last pilots landed. Perfect. 

Rob Sporrer landed next on his tandem with Hugh, and we posed to celebrate. 

Brian and Phyllis landeding.     

Rob G., who was a newer pilot in Brian's group landed with us again. He is having incredible flights each day. Wow!

We were picked up by Cipri and in no time were eating roasted chicken and drinking smoothies. Everyone down safe. 

Ahhhh. Pineapple mango for me today. 

Dinner was was pork loins, served at 7 pm after Brian finished his talk that began at 5:30. After eating and reviewing he day with my group, I retreated to my room to rest and blog a bit. 

Tonight I will try to chat with my family via FaceTime if all goes well. IPhones are great, but the wifi at the hotel limits the potential at times. Fingers crossed. 

Buenos noches,

Martín

Veintitres

Ahhh, the perfect morning sky. Average is usually epic. 

Gear is prepped before going down to eat breakfast. 

I am flying tandem with Phyllis today. Her husband Lars is in my group so it should be fun to thermal together. 

It's a big grip this week so Marge and Farmer rode up top on flaco's rig.  Others rode up top on the Cipri rig as well. All seats were full. 

"Keep calm and soar on" says my shirt I bought at my youngest daughters' school. Coincidence that the school mascot is an eagle? I think not. 

The day was great, but it wasn't easy. Most of my group got up, one landed after a heck of long time being low, and finally landed. The rest of us moved north to La Union where another got low, hung on for a while but then also landed. 

The clouds were getting big at times and shading a lot. My two remaining pilots and I hung out near La Union with Brian's group for a long time, getting a low save together and finally all topping out as a group. One more of my group got low and radioed up to us that he might be landing. The rest of us flew out towards La Vitoria. In the middle of the valley we got a climb. Amazingly, Dorian who was about 200" off the deck when we left, caught a climb and reported he was at cloudbase and on his way.  Nice!

We were all together again and caught another climb over La Vitoria. I moved south towards Zarsal to the huge clouds over that way.  Brian, (also flying tandem with Johno) pushed out front with me and we connected again to base, while Dorian got low again we were all hoping he would somehow connect again but this time he did not.  After landing he reported he was safe and asked if it was okay to launch from the small hill he landed on, to fly again and hopefully get back up.  I said it was up to him, and he took that as a yes. After landing the 2nd time he radioed up that he was finally finished for the day. Awesome effort. 

Hugh staying high and close, right to the end. 

At this point Rob Sporrer came on the radio and reported strong wind at La Union out of the west. Nice to know, and we already expected this due to the length of our flight. We opted to land in Zarsal and even that far away from the mountains we landed in 10-15mph winds.  Everyone was safe. 

We had nice welcoming committee in Zarsal. 

Matt "Farmer" Beechinor giving a talk. 

The sky turned dark and rumbled with thunder into the night. 

Dinner was yummy. 

Carrot soup. Mmmmm. 

Fruity, cudtard like desert with cookie at the bottom.  Mmmm 

I fly tandem with Christian tomorrow. 

¡Hasta pronto!

Martín

Veintidos

The sky was remarkably clear this morning at 6 am. I was concerned it would be very strong and may draw in the nasty north wind. We all pulled together to get up top on time. 

The disco that is part of Casa Blanca was packed full of people even now after a night of dancing, drinking and general partying. Wow!

This is a sample of the party scene I shot on the walk home from dinner last night. It was empty until around 1:30am or 2:00 am and rages through the night. 

Flaco (I've been spelling it wrong it turns out) put air in his tires with his onboard air compressor as we readied gear to load. 

The easy way, unless you are the horse. 

Hiking up the stairs was strenuous, but even with the tandem today, I was pleased with my performance after a week away. Whew!

With such unisually sunny conditions we ushered out pilots into the air asap to get them out in the air before it got too strong. I was last off with my tandem "Rich" as the launch shaded and blew down a bit.  Meanwhile two pilots in my group landed out below launch or just beyond the bailout LZ. Eventually we got a good cycle, launched and found our first climb. Finally we got to cloud and rendezvoused with Dorian and Hugh, my remaining two, and picked up a straggler from Brian's group (Rob) to make three. 

Flying tandem with Rich. 

We made it just west of Roldanillo still high in the mountains, climbing up to cloudbase and recycling there until Rob made it over with us. Dorian 'hoovered' into the cloud, eventually popping out at over 8,000' pointed east. I had him take advantage of his mistake (and his height) by encouraging him to go on glide for the valley crossing with us just behind him, not to mention encourage him to manage his exit strategy better next time to avoid whiting out.  It happens. 

Roldanillo. 

It was sinky away from the mountains and we all Ianded together in the middle of the valley. 

Rob landing with our group at the "Airstrip LZ" just off to the side of the road to Zarsal.    

Destin and Jim were also there waiting In the shade ,having landed just before us as well. We Flagged down a bus and were sipping smoothies and eating empanadas in Roldanillo in no time. Cipriano was there to scoop us up just as we finished slurping up the local citrus, and whisked us away back to the hotel. 

The pool was the ticket for many.  My cool shower brought me back to life, that and café con leche. Mmmm.  

Everyone is accounted for and safe. A group meeting is in one hour, and there are many happy faces (and a few disappointed ones too) milling around at the end of today's flying. Strikes and gutter balls is often how it goes here, but I can't complain, it is paradise here and I know it. Grateful is all I have to say about that. 

¡Hasta mañana chavelotes!

Martín