Leaving the Nest

I went out to Whidbey Island and flew off the bluffs at Ebey. Darina flew off Tiger Mt. in Issaquah the day before.

John Kraske is the instructor and pilot for my tandem flight. We started from the tops of the western bluffs of Ebey Park on Whidbey Island. John strapped the wing to himself and then strapped me to him and pointed me in the direction he wanted me to run and said go, I just took off and started running the wing was pulling me back so I ran harder, like John, was telling me to do and pretty soon i was running in mid air as i ran right  over the cliff and was lifted up into the air and the ground fell away beneath me...and there i was just gliding along like a bird...and i started screaming enthusiastically and pulled my landing gear (legs) up into the chair and i was sitting comfortably...seeing the water below and the cliff beside me...gliding along silently...........floating above the earth......like a dream...............then an updraft suddenly picked us up and lifted us high into the air...and then just as suddenly the wind stopped and we began to descend rapidly gliding gently toward the 8 foot wide strip of  beach at the base of the cliffs...our original plan of catching a thermal and riding it up and then landing again up top was rewritten by the wind...we know we will have to climb up the cliff with our gear...as we rapidly descend toward the beach there is a big tree stump in front of us...it almost looks like we are going to hit it, but John takes us up and over it landing us nicely on the open beach beyond...for the briefest moment we are standing safely on the ground without injury then all of a sudden the wind changes direction and carries the wing past us pulling us forward onto our faces on the rocky beach. I skinned my elbow, John skinned his knee and the wing went in the water. Other than that it was the most amazing and exhilirating experience of my life. I've always wanted to fly like that. I was just a passenger, but it was still amazing.

We packed up the wing and harnessess and climbed up the cliff...and did some more kiting where you pull the wing up into the air and fly it like a kite—a huge kite—a kite that is capable of lifting you up into the air. Up above ma and  pa eagle are taking their two chicks soaring. They make it look so easy and effortless. Jim, a local friend of John's, has come out to the bluff for the afternoon. He's like a Zen master of flying. He is out there dancing with the wing in the most mesmerizing ballet. The wing will pick him up off the ground a bit and he'll set it back down like crouching tiger hidden dragon. It was stunningly hypnotic.

I've had this crazy recurrent nightmare throughout my life where i am flying and then I just get higher and higher and higher and i can't get down. As i watched Jim being lifted up into the air I would panic for him, even though he is a master flyer with 16 years experience. At one point while i was kiting, solo, i got picked staight up into the air about 12 to 15 feet, I am told, but i thought it was more like 100 feet. I totally freaked, how was I going to get down? I have no idea how to fly these things yet (I've only had one very short 3 minute tandem flight). The idea of being out there on my own is very frightening. So I grabbed hold of the strings that connect to the back of the wing and pulled down hard to collapse the rear of the wing so it would set me back down on the ground. Once i was back down on the ground i just sat there clutching the handfuls of strings that brought me back down, inventorying my breathing and heartbeat to make sure i was still alive, like a little bird who had just jumped from the nest. I was very happy that I could keep myself from flying away.

In the picture below we are just two small black spots toward the end of the beach, trying to find a way up the cliff...

More pictures here http://doolang.com/paragliding/

beach landing