Prevost Provides

Three more flights for Grant - complete with some nice thermals!

Paul's Four Year Flying Anniversary!

And Charlie Soars to the Raptor Centre - Twice!

Paul, Grant, new student Christopher, and I left Victoria around 10am this morning and found the sky over Duncan to be covered with high cirrus with next to no lower cumulus development - perfect for some high flights for Grant!

The drive up the mountain was much easier than before and we only had to hike the last steep section. It was Paul's first time up Mt Prevost since last November and nice cycles were rolling through Middle so off he went! After cruising around for 15mins or so, he put down in the LZ and I sent Grant off. Sometimes students flying straight from the mountain stumble upon nice lift and that's the very thing that happened to Grant. I had him perform his first linked 360s and he got up to launch height over the lower ridge before eventually landing.

Christopher and I then drove down and, just as we were about to drive up for round two, Charlie showed up. He was going to have a day off from flying but changed his mind :)

We decided on West launch this time and just as we arrived on top, Zdenek, an old PG buddy of mine that I haven't seen in many years popped out of the woods, his glider on his back (I love how that happens in the paragliding world). After a brief reconnection, I elected to go first and was soon thermalling high over launch, buzzing over to Middle, then Main (where I could see Steve the hang glider pilot setting up for his first flight of the season) and then back to West again, climbing up to the limit in the process.

I was tempted to fly XC but remembered Grant was expecting me in the LZ so I waited for him to launch and then headed out. I was still over 3000' above the landing area so I pulled a B-line stall and then spiralled for a bit to lose height before Grant arrived. As I was about to set up my landing approach, I radioed Grant to see if he'd like some in flight thermal coaching and he was game!

Charlie meanwhile, had headed east towards the Raptor Centre for his second time this week. Meanwhile, Zdenek and Paul were thermalling high over the mountain, enjoying themselves completely.

Have a look at the video I took at this point:

Grant was able to fly directly across from me for 10mins or so in a nice, wide thermal before I spiralled down to land so we could go back up for one more flight.

Here's a video I took during our thermal session:

After we'd both landed, I radioed up to Paul that I was going to grab Charlie at the Raptor Centre and then drive back up - so he should keep flying. Christopher drove retrieve and by the time we were all back on launch, Paul was nearing the 2hr mark on what turned out to be the four year anniversary since I first took him tandem from Mt Prevost back in 2004! Check out the photo from back then in the gallery HERE.

Another short video:

Charlie launched off first on the last round and thought he'd try for the Raptor Centre again - which he did do! For the record, he has now had 4 flights on the demo MISTRAL 5 and he's flown XC to the Raptor Centre on three of those flights!

(Click image for Prevost Photoset #2 -> )

Grant was so excited to get in the air again that he had a couple of aborts and then the wind switched south on us so we hiked back to Middle. And then it switched back west again so we hiked back to West launch. At this point, Grant pulled his launch together and flew off in smoother, less thermic conditions on his third and last flight and, a little while afterwards, I caught an elevator ride straight up high over launch before boating around over the mountain in smooth early evening conditions. It was after 6pm by the time we were all down!

Thanks to Christopher for driving retrieve and special thanks to Prevost for providing some sweet spring flying!