Showing off

Today was the first time that any of my family or friends (that I had made before starting paragliding) have seen me fly. My mate Steve was over to visit from England and I had already warned him that if it was flyable I would probably cry until he agreed to come out to the hill and be exposed to my hobby.

Steve, my son and I decided that we would head out to Robin Young's Hill in the late afternoon. I wasn't sure what the conditions would be like but I thought I would give it a try. When we arrived there was no other pilots about. So I checked the wind in the car park and it was a fairly consistent 14mph. Worth the walk up but I was worried that it would be stronger higher up. Another pilot arrived and I went over and introduced myself. This was re-assuring that someone else thought that there maybe some flying to be done. We all climbed up the hill and watched the other pilot take off and soar for a short while and end up bottom landing it seems the wind wasn't so strong up on top.

With my daily checks done and happy with the conditions I decided to I ask my son to take some photos as I launched. Unfortunately on my first flight I sunk like a stone and it was no time at all until I was landing in the bottom field.
I climbed back up to take a second flight and when I arrived I was greeted with a very enthusiastic nine year old. It seems that watching my flight had really hit a note with my son. So he offered to record a video of me taking off with his iPod.

I think that the video is not bad for a nine year old's first attempt. It seems that my son also wants to come out the next time I go flying, I wonder how tolerant of the inevitable wasted trips he will be.