Bir/Billing pics

Best Regards
Andre

Indian stuff

More from Andrew:
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> Hey girls,
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> We're having a complete blast in Bir/Billing.
>
> Bir started to grow as a Tibetan refugee village. Now it's a Tibetan community surrounded by elaborately gilded Buddhist monasteries ( you know, monks with round faces and shaven heads wearing purple robes, golden lions and huge gongs, all drinking yak curds? ) So being Tibetan, many folk have slightly Chinese features (it's a joke, so laughs here please), and different cuisine.
>
> Bir's a hilly place at the foot of the Himalayas, rising from 1,500m at Bir through 2,400m at the Billing takeoff ( the first change of slope ) to 3,400m at t he crest of the ridge just behind takeoff. The next hills back get up to +4,000m and then into the PROPER hills.
>
> Mornings are clear, with Cu's starting on the east-facing slopes around 9 bells. Base was varied today, from 2,400m to 3,100 m. So we don't see much of the topography after 10 or 11 am (see pics).
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> Everything works by taxi. Roads are v tight, between terraced rice paddies or tea fields. So the protocol is to hoot. At peds. At other cars. At dogs, sheep whatever. Continuous. No aggro, but plenty horn.
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> Taxis are mainly (very) small Tata's. Pilot travel is 3 wings on roof and one in back. Tight with 3 Sud Afri's on the back seat.
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> It's about 40 minutes up the windy windy to T/off. Virtually no overtaking. Hooting all the way.
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> The comp is smallish with about 65 entrants, mostly less experienced. The Indian superstars Vijay ( our gracious host ) and Guprid and the Russian National Champion ( forget his name ) are the best of the bunch.
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> Today's task was a 50k race up and down the ridge, then a few k's out for the end of speed section and back to landing. Pretty easy, but you need to get each climb first time to stay fast.
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> The start was fantastic. We all got 200 - 300m above base in the wisps. Strong fingers of lift shooting up at 6 or 7. Himalayan griffons, Lammergeiers and a host of other raptors showing us the cores. Have to be careful though as they easily fly into you if you join them the wrong way!
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> We (Indians and Sud Afris) were styling at the start. Only prob was that the Ruskie was 100's of metres above us and he could avoid the second climb, never to be reeled back in!
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> Sharp fingers run down from the back ridge into the valley, separated by bottomless gullies. Each finger works, and on both sides! Quite fun flying. And great racing. Never certain where along the ridge the climb will be if the vultures aren't about, so the advantage changed back and forth a few times. Guess we will understand the lines much better in a day or two.
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> By the second last TP, the Russian was a few minutes ahead with Nevil and Vijay neck and neck. Theuns gave them a few minutes and Guprid and I went to the wrong turn point, extending their existing advantage over us by a further 5 or even 10 minutes. We had been told which was the second last turn point but it was somewhere else!
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> And to compound matters this Jimmy couldn't manage to start his fancy (and nice) new instrument so had to guess the distance to some turn points. Ugly.
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> Unbelievable number of paragliders here. Free fliers. Bivvy artists. Tandems. Jockey and John Silvester coaching. Russians by bus load. French. Some Brits. Probably +200 in the sky today.
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> Culture & Touring
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> Amazing place India. Bedonered cultural diversity. Quite religious in general, the main beliefs being Hindu, Buddhism, Sikh and Islam. Vijay is Hindu so he's explained the significance of some of the temples we've visited and the importance of some of the 1,008 Hindu gods. An old temple we visited nearby, Baijnath, with the sacred/protected monkeys, dates back to about 750 AD.
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> On the drive up to take off, there's a small temple where you leave an offering to the flying god ( actually the goddess Matagi who rides a tiger and carries a trident and sword, protecting us from all things bad) make some gifts of food, ring the bell, light the incense and so forth.
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> The opening ceremony included a prayer ceremony on takeoff. Sit cross legged around the fire on which the priest sprinkles oil while chanting as those around repeat the chants and sprinkle spices into the flames. Then orange and black daubs onto the foreheads ( and temples and ear lobes ) - makes Catholicism look plain vanilla! We all receive marigold garlands for luck.
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> Food is Indian. Unless you hunt out noodles in the Tibetan quarter, and get a bit more Chinese flavour. So we have curries, rice, dhal, kidney beans etc. prices are low to ridiculous. Last night our meal for four (2 x mutton curry with rice, 1x chicken curry ditto, 1 x veg curry, 2 portions dhal, beans and plenty roti with 2 cokes and water) amounted to Rp 380 or R65!
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> Here education is taken seriously and the kids all attend school diligently. In neat uniforms, for long hours. An interesting observation is that while cellphones and TVs are omnipresent, the Indian culture remains strong - even kids wear traditional clothes. Not the Disney franchised pink barbies and blue Ben tens fed to our kids by American tv. Probably because Bollyhood is so strong and dominates the programming here - apart from cricket of course!
>
> Sent from my iPad

Bir-Billing Day 1 Task 1

News from Andrew today:

 

"V nice 50 km task up and down the ridge under a low base (2400 at end of day) So plenty squeezing in and out of the gullies at treetop height.

No met wind.

Thermicals up to 6 m/s

Like a huge stonking Barberton

Fantastic

Russian 1st ( we were all above base at the start but he had 250 m on the field and we never caught him) Then Vijay and Nevil, Theuns, Me, Guprit.

Great flight, but a bit short. A slow climb costs. I blew my admin and went to the wrong tp. Cost 5 - 10 mins! Wot a wanker."

National Paragliding Championship 2012 from 25th October to 1st November at Bir-Billing

Three of Africa's finest are in India to compete in the National Paragliding Championship 2012 from 25th October to 1st November at Bir-Billing.

They are Andrew Smith, Nevil Hullet and Theuns Koekemoer.

Comms are a little dodgy, so I have volunteered to publish whatever info I can get out of them during their stay.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the team, let me introduce you:

Andrew Smith of world cup fame - a long-distance paragliding pioneer in the late 80's and probably the first person to fly over 200km on a paraglider.  Andrew is: a former #1 on the world ranking; a multiple SA national champion; a recipient of the prestigious Doug Sobey award in South Africa;a  British Open Champion (Piedrahitha); and the only pilot ever to win an open class world cup event on a serial wing.  Andrew participated in every FAI world championship event from inception to 2003 where he 'retired' from FAI Cat 1 events.  He has maintained his form since then never dropping out of the top five of the SA ranking.

Nevil Hulett the 'dragon slayer' - If for some reason you didn't know (on account of living under a rock somewhere remote or something), Nevil is the only man to fly more than 500km on a paraglider.  Less well known is Nevil's competition career which includes a number of local victories, but also several international cat 2  wins including a British Open Championship victory in Piedrahitha and a glorious task win in the Granada world championships (2001).  Nevil has completed countless flights of more than 200km in Kuruman and surrounds over the last ten years.  Nevil has represented SA at the FAI world champs on six occasions and has also remained in the SA top five for a decade or more.

Theuns Koekemoer - National team hopeful and explorer extraordinaire.  Theuns is a national team hopeful consistently ranked in the top ten SA pilots over the last few years.  Theuns gained notoriety after flying over parts of sub-Saharan Africa unsupported on a micro-light.  He has toured through more parts of Africa and Russia by motor bike and regularly takes his jetski over the horizon in the Indian ocean off of the Mozambican coast (solo!) in order to indulge in some big game fishing.

So far we have this report from Andrew after what sounds like a harrowing travel plan:

View from Hotel Balcony (photo A. Smith)

Main Street of Bir (photo A. Smith)

 

 "A quick update on action this side

Fun travels.

SAA decides that THEY want us to have yellow-fever certificates for India, despite India not saying this! 2 hour queue at the clinic. Theuns needs to find a mate to get us jabbed in time.

Just make the plane and dept Jozi 11 am arrive Mumbai 11 pm.

No lounges or couches! Lie down on floor. The Indians do it in Dubai, so the Sud Afris can do it in Mumbai.

Hang ball till 7.30 for flight to Dehli.

Vijay meets us in Dehli.

Thanks goodness. We'd still be in the parking lot arguing with the taxi driver We tie our gliders onto and squeeze into a small taxi.

It's 14 hours. Like driving to CT through a continuous Alexandra.

BUT add in the suicidal cement truck drivers and the winding roads and the darkness and the potholes and you have a recipe for heavy drinking.

We finally arrive in Bir at about 2 am. Toast.

Find a guest house and the sky opens. Power goes out. No hot water. No towels. No toilet paper. And so on.

But all good today. Fresh snow just above the 2400 launch. Many many pilots. Russians, french and a few Brits. Indian army pilots too.

Great day. Lowish base at 3100 m. Plenty raptors, Lammergeiers and Himalayan Griffons thermalling with us. Cold.

Big ridges and uncrossable gorges. We do an out and return. Tres nice.

Return to the tiny village of Bir. Beautiful setting in the rice paddies. Buddhist temples. Many Nepalese émigrés. Colourful like you can't believe. Fantastic cultural diversity.

Will send pictures In due course.

Comp starts day after tomorrow.

Can't fly early tomorrow cos a politician has taken all the airspace for a campaign visit!"

Paragliding World Cup - Sun Valley Wrap Up

Paragliding World Cup - Sun Valley - Last Days

Red Fish: a lake @ 2,500m ASL (photo: K.J. Bowden)

I apologise for the lack of information over the last week.  It has been a rough ride travelling aside.  

 

I will publish video footage of the last day when I get around to it.

The last days of flying were intense to say the least!

Let's wind back a little to catch up. Day five saw us go to launch with the forecast predicting fairly firm winds from the north. For those of you not familiar with the launch direction, north wind would be over the back.

This forecast was fairly accurate in the sense that by the time we were ready to launch and a few minutes before the opening of the window the wind was very clearly over the back. This confirmed the warning that we were given at the briefing that launching in the lee of Bald Mountain can be tricky at best with dust devils steaming through.  There were as many dodgy launches as I have seen in the last couple years of World Cup.

I had one of those sublime launches where I got the gust right and was barely air-borne and got hoisted in a rapid ride to the top @ 4,500m ASL without incident.  That we were in the lee was undeniable with the final confirmation for me was wrestling my glider through the turbulent layer before we got above the terrain where it became sublime. Others were less fortunate with a couple of near misses compelling Mike to close the window and cancel the task as previously mentioned. Footage of some of the near miss experiences available here.

Paragliding World Cup -Sun Valley- Day Six - King Mountain

Despite the fact that we had had relatively good flying up until this point flying every day had only yielded one valid task.

With an unfavourable forecast for the final day and in an act of desperation we all willingly drove the 90 miles to King Mountain in the hope that we would have a late task.

The driving itself was very interesting through the Craters of the Moon with the Fields of dark chocolate lava chunks providing a couple of tourist moments where we all stopped to survey the terrain in the howling gale that appeared to be coming out of the south east. This wind was 180° opposite to the wind experienced by those who took the shortcut through the pass.

The King Mt launch area is in many ways superior to the Bald Mountain launch simply because it can take close to 50 gliders. It was unclear at the time of the task setting what exactly the wind was up to.

 With our instruments primed with the optimistic task we sat around and waited for the wind to settle or abate.

In the 15 min or so leading up to and after the window opened the wind swung through 90° placing the launch in the lee which for the third time in this competition resulted in a cancelled task after numerous incidents. I experienced this first hand taking an asymmetric collapse while fiddling with my go pro which resulted in an easy dive and smooth exit after a mild 360° turn requiring minimal input.

It was a delightful experience to be flying on the mountain that had provided such relief and joy on the first day hoisting everyone up into orbit over the cliffs.

The visibility was much improved providing the opportunity to survey the stark majesty of the King Mt and the surrounding farmland in the Valley.

A couple of pilots ignored the cancelled task notice electing to fly the course. Ordinarily I would have been critical of such apparently selfish behaviour but, if truth be told, I was envious as the task was totally doable and the launch had simply let us down yet again. By all reports those two guys had a magnificent flight albeit a little slow.

Paragliding World Cup Sun Valley final day.

Few people expected to fly on the last day so many were probably nursing free-beer-at-lefties hangovers going up to launch.  The task was quickly set applying lessons learnt early in the week and the window opened in short measure with the start following within the hour.

It was immediately apparent that the massively thick and murky inversion would not be breaking in time to facilitate the task. The start was one of those mincing stop-start-wondering-around confused messes that we occasionally see when the conditions don't quite fit the task planning.  To make matters worse the wind was making its mark on the field right from the start.  Just getting across the first ridge was in itself an achievement.  I found myself on full bar pushing toward the lee side of the ridge sinking @ -3m/s with the full expectation of being flushed before the day had properly begun. If ever there was an opportunity to make an argument for open class gliders then this last day would be my showpiece. It was not a day to be scratching low given the punchy thermals and the violent little gusts that occupied every little invisible corner like a cockroach infestation.

Two groups eventually managed to fight their way out of a dead-end gorge taking care to avoid the airspace and the inevitable walkout in the very likely event that one would land if you lost focus.

You would have been forgiven for thinking that the lead gaggle and the chase gaggle were ignoring the course line entirely because almost everyone abandoned the course in favour of the terrain anticipating climbs at the crest of every ridge.

The first group more or less disintegrated with the second group coming in above them with all those pilots then working together to get up for the crossing into the Abyss.

No sooner had we clawed our way back up to the top before we went on a blind death glide in an attempt to complete the crossing vaguely in the correct direction.  Another desperate scratch demonstration saw twenty or thirty of us claw our way up to the hard ceiling before diving into the haze again.  This next crossing was different in the sense that we were now getting ground speeds in excess of 70km/h and we were going to have to climb pretty well to clear the terrain that hosted B52 which was the final TP.

I’m not sure if we were unlucky at that point in so far as experiencing a prolonged lull, but I was absolutely not comfortable to continue along the course line over the big mountain low and elected to fly completely off-course onto the foothills into the prevailing wind.  I was not convinced it was safe so I did two full circles of the bowl in order to make a decision based on the ease with which I could penetrate into the flats.  It is not often you see a world cup gaggle wait it out on a ridge to check the safety.  We wasted close on an hour before getting a climb of sufficient magnitude to get safely over the mountain with Marina. Personally I would have preferred to be on my R11 but that's another matter.  I suspect this was the area where Guy went down.
 

It was shortly after crossing the summit of the mountain and turn point that I bumbled into the only sustained 10+m/s thermal that I have ever seen in my flying career.  To say I was in control of that bucking beast would be a little light on the truth, but I held on thrilled and terrified at the same time knowing that the higher I got the better things were going to turn out.  Marina followed closely without any apparent problem and we sprinted over the back into the relative safety of the flat lands on our way to goal.  At some point the task got stopped and then the epic fat bastard Guy saga started.

The prize-giving ceremony was a late and subdued affair with Mark, Andre and Nariyama making up the men’s podium and Regula, Marina and Yayoi completing the women.

Bucket List

I don’t how many of you keep a bucket list for paragliding, but mine just got shorter:  I get to tick off: a Sun Valley world cup; a 100 mile task; and a podium finish.  Guy tried his very best to upset the experience but thankfully he failed mostly!  There are probably easier ways to get a ride in a Black Hawk, but that must have been a rush!

 

Equipment update

A previous post described my latest flight deck.  This is what I used in Sun Valley (along with my IP6, Advance Impress III and Mayday reserve):

-       Brauniger Compeo+ using route optimisation functionality

-       Samsung Tab II 7.0 running XCsoar on Android

-       Mini-Gorilla (for powering the radio and any other USB device)

-       Garmin GPSMap 60 (mono Colour)

-       Go-Pro Hero 2 (New addition)

 It turns out that LK8000 (evolutionary brother of XCSoar) with richer comp functionality has not been released for android.  This is not relevant for my use-case as I have adopted the Samsung tab as a visual navigational aid in support of the Brauneger as the primary task tool.  The reason is simply that a software based device should never be trusted as a primary scoring device on account of the ‘loose coupling’ (to borrow a service oriented architecture term).  In other words, in the same way that you should never user your iPhone with a wireless interface to the braking system of your motor vehicle (however cool that might sound in theory) to perform an emergency braking manoeuvre, you should not risk software failure when collecting turn points and logging flight data during a paragliding task.  To this end the new Flytechs and C-Maps, (which are tightly coupled purpose-made hardware devices) are better suited albeit overpriced, fragile and temperamental at best judging by the complaints I have overheard at the last couple of comps.  XCSoar offers most of what is currently considered useful for task planning and execution and the Samsung Galaxy Tab II 7.0 is tough, affordable, sexy and super cool with hi-definition video and audio.

 

For those of you looking to buy a new harness, consider the Impress III if your frame is 6ft+.  This is simply because for the first time ever, I did not experience any pressure-point-pain or any other discomfort during the six hour 100 mile task which involved more than a few white knuckle periods.

 

Finally, I feel compelled to be honest about gliders (and I wholly expect the arm-chair brigade to froth at the mouth spewing popcorn and cream-soda over their opinion soiled bibs in protest): I believe the open class wings in the right hands are inherently safer than the two line EN-D gliders ESPECIALLY when the sky gets really big and for no other reason that they have the stability, speed and range to stay out of trouble when it really matters. 

 

Last Word

I am not surprised at the flame war that erupted in a closet on the forums.  I prefer to stay out of the sometimes mindless commentary partly because it is so much easier to snipe from afar, but mostly because it seems a pity that people feel the need to spoil something really special. 

 

We went to a spectacular place on our planet and we experienced a form of communion that only the most privileged glimpse.  I felt welcomed by the inhabitants of that special place and I have left carrying with me an indelible kaleidoscope of emotions and memories about the experience. This is paragliding and the world cup in it's finest form. 

Sun Valley - post mortem

As expected conspiracy theories abound:

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=49733&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60

Why is it that so few have so much to say and the pilots in the majority are quiet with those who do venture to comment mostly come out in support of the comp organisers?  I was there and I feel I did nothing I ordinarily would not have done free flying.   Having a local monitor conditions for my benefit is a bonus and largely why I choose comps for cross country in foreign countries.  I would gladly attend any comp Mike puts on in future and I would trust him to do the right thing as far as my safety is concerned (again).  Any pilot dumb enough to require a level three call and an instruction to land during a world cup task does not belong.

For the record, the majority of the lead gaggle flew completely off-course out of danger on the last day to evaluate wind strength in the foothills before B52.  I know this because I went first and wasted close on an hour until I got a climb of sufficient magnitude to get safely over the mountain with Marina.  Personally I would have preferred to be on my R11 for the stability, range and speed, but that's another matter.

So knock yourselves out with your opinions, but take the time to thank Mike and all the tough mofo pilots like Nate, Nick, Russ, Nicole and Guy et al for showing us how to behave like real men and women.

Guy survived!!

 

As most of you will know by now, Guy Anderson was found alive with multiple injuries.

 

It is turning it one hell of a story with some information here:

 

http://www.xcmag.com/2012/08/paragliding-world-cup-sun-valley-guy-anderson-organisers-statement/

 

When the whole story comes out I will write about it along with task summaries about the last two days including some video footage too.

Paragliding World Cup - Sun Valley - Final Day

Guy Anderson is missing.  I will update this blog when we know more.

Paragliding World Cup - Sun Valley Idaho - Day 4 Task 3 - Cancelled Video Update

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bAAawjn5y4

Paragliding World Cup - Sun Valley, Idaho - Day 4 Task 3 Cancelled

I feel good 'cause I should and it was looking good, really good and then a simple little thing like twenty knots over the back spoiled the party for the sixty or so pilots who where @ 4,500m ASL.  A couple of nasty shocks, whirlies and one near miss forced Mike to pull the plug.  I had it (fairly) easy and after wrestling the python for about three hundred metres, I took an Yngwe Malmsteen shred elevator to the top floor.  Getting down was another matter all together and I had the opportunity to practice my PLF skills.  Two clever souls headed off toward Jackson and will probably do 250+km. 

 

 

Paragliding world cup - Sun Valley - Pics

Compliments of Nic Greece

World Cup - Sun Valley - Day 2 - Task 2

Day three was cancelled due to the threat of OD. 

I have had many awesome paragliding experiences, so I won't bore you with comparisons suffice to say that yesterday was up there with the best of the best.  I'm not generally in awe of big distance for distance sake, but when you fly over the terrain we did yesterday in the spectacular conditions and with quality pilots I get terribly excited. 

The task map provides hints but speaks nothing of the desperate isolation of Scorpion mountain; it does not describe the raging splendour of King Mountain; and it most certainly does not do the alien landscape crossing to Saddle Mountain any justice.  The fact that Nate and friends do these flights with nothing more than SPOT for company speaks volumes for the passion and commitment they have for the sport and the area (not to mention the balls they possess - I was wondering why they walk funny).

The start was a little dodgy in the sense that we ended up grovelling after the crossing from D01 to B07 which proved to be more challenging than expected with the 5mile airspace around B61(just off the bottom of the task map below) pushing us into the hills NE of the airfield.

Most managed to grab B51 at altitude before going on an extended glide toward A43.  I lost touch with the lead along the way with a dubious choice of line.  The lead changed several times on the way and A43 turned out to be crucial with the bulk of the lead group flying south of the course line to the spur leading north to King mountain (D02).  I elected to fly alone (for some unknown anti-social reason) and ended up flying alone for the better part of an hour before hitting the monster thermal at the foot of the King mountain pass.  This thermal somehow elevated me from mid field to the back of the lead gaggle which had fortuitously slowed up contemplating the crossing to the diamond peak mountain range (B67).  We did the crossing almost exactly on the course line.  It was great to hook up with Wagga, Raul, Russel, Urs, Mike, Dean, and others who all worked really hard together to milk the last few lines of lift while going out into the flats with 50km left to go and a required glide of twenty or more.  We were bullish about completing this gargantuan task for a while with signs of convergence/streeting setting up.  All too suddenly the day switched off and within 15mins it was clearly over and we all went on the mandatory death glide landing tantalisingly close to the elusive goal.

Task/Vario Stats
Max Alt: 4324m ASL
Max Vario (1s): 9.0 m/s
Max Vario (10s): 5.8 m/s
Total height gain: 19565m
Distance Flown: 175 km
Effective Glide Ratio: 8.75

See video below or for HD version go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I3yCTZGCUU

One Word: EPIC, EPIC, EPIC

This must be how big game hunters feel when they come to South Africa to bag one of the big five (although I felt more like the prey on several occasions).

195km of sheer thrill.  An absolutely incredible day of flying yesterday.  No one made goal and it took 8 hours to get back to HQ in the wee hours crammed into the the retrieve vehicles like sardines without a single complaint should give you some idea of the general sense of euphoria among the competitors.

Six hours of leap-frog racing through some very heavy moon country with several crossings left a group in front at cloudbase 50km from goal.  I was reminded of a couple of tasks in Chelan..

We have to go up the mountain now, I will publish pics, video and a blow by blow account of yesterday's task for those interested....

World Cup - Sun Valley - Day 1 - Task 1

'Lauri Lauri Hallelujah, Lauri Lauri Hallelujah!' or 'It's raining men, Hallelujah, it's raining men'

Our recovery driver, Lauri, rescued us from the storm.  Just reward for asking Nick the Greek 'Why did they stop the task?'

It appears we may have appeased some or all of the 34 fire gods on offer at that great source of reliable information, Wikipedia.  In the process we appear to have annoyed one or more of the multitude of rain and water gods.  Puzzled?  It was the first day of world cup action and, accordingly, the first day of rain in Sun Valley in ninety days. 

A task of sixty kilometres was set to Twin Bridge via Borah (B03) @ 23km.  This was a two thermal task at best which started like a shred solo from Van Halen to 4,800m and ended in rain and hail amidst frantic calls of level three, level three!!.  One clown insisted on claiming level one, level one!! to every level three call, but he will have to crawl back into a hole once he understands that when Nate calls level two he means it's too late baby, now it's too late.  Nick followed Nate quickly and cracked the seal with a level three call before the flood gates opened (so to speak).

Task1

Task/Vario Stats

Max Alti: 4494m ASL

Max Vario (1s): 10.1 m/s

Max Vario (10s): 5.2

Today's shot from launch is still several airbrush sessions away from the Sun Valley promise, but encouraging none-the-less:

Sun Valley is a seriously beautiful place to fly and the local US pilots are enthusiastic and gracious hosts.

Pics are by Nick Greece flying from King Mountain two days before the comp

World Cup - Sun Valley - US, Idaho - Practice Day

Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to Idaho we go!

Yes friends we are in the spectacular resort town of Sun Valley in Idaho 4hours North of Salt Lake City in Utah (pronounced 'Yew Tar' for those of you unfamiliar with the South West) where you can ride your Harley without head protection while wearing your side-arm in plain view on your hip.  You can even purchase an AK47 at gun shows I was led to believe although coming from South Africa I cannot imagine why I would want to do that let alone contemplate the challenges of importing an automatic rifle to South Africa.  I will just have to get one in Braamfontein where the going price is around R1,500 (< $200) I am told.

So you must be asking yourself: 'Why did he take a 15 hour flight (seat 74E) from JNB to JFK followed by a 6hr flight to SLC and a 5 hr drive to Sun Valley?'.    Well.... It's simple.  They promised us this:

Andy Macrae photo

At the risk of sounding critical, this is what we got today:

..and so the curse of the world cup claims another victim.  No matter where we go the world cup has the capacity to provoke the wrath of the rain, wind & fire gods. 

Sun Valley got a serious dose of the latter:

(http://www.xcmag.com/2012/08/paragliding-world-cup-2012-sun-valley-phoenix-from-the-flames/).

The resulting smoke cloud has reduced the fabled clear skies and spectacular views to a poorly executed rendition of Monet's soleil levant: 

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of impressionism, but just not when it comes to paragliding.

We set a 70km task to the north east through the murk and I owe an apology to Nate in that I doubted his optimism.  I was thinking he was nuts to suggest we would fly anywhere but down, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself at 4,000m ASL gliding blindly along the course line getting trashed on the spines as the valley breeze clashed with the met wind.  My vario reported 6.5m/s peak and 3.8m/s on the 10s average with brutal sink.

I wonder if the forecast is teasing us by suggesting it will clear in the next couple of days....