Training Hill Kiting

Click image for more photosAdam gets a taste
Paul and Chris kite
and Jim from Calgary picks up his Sport 4

Paul, Chris, and I met up with Adam who drove in from Lake Cowichan to redeem his DayTaster gift certificate that his wife Hanele had given him last fall.

Conditions at the Training Hill were south crossing with some strong thermic gusts so we elected to stay on the lower flat area and practice inflations. Paul had his new Swing ARCUS 5 out for the first time and I took it for a quick flight before handing him the reigns for the rest of the day.

While Chris and Paul practiced both forward and reverse inflations, Adam learned the basics of paraglider design and function and it wasn't long before he was inflating the training glider quite well in the challenging conditions. Way to go Adam!

Jim from Calgary arrived with his wife (they were on the island attending a wedding) and I opened up his crispy new Airwave SPORT 4 and launched straight up in a nice east cycle that quickly took me high above tree height. If Jim wasn't under a time constraint, the first test flight of his SPORT 4 would have been an XC flight from the Training Hill! Hanele got some of the flight on video here:

After trying his hand at some kiting, Jim and I packed up and he made a dash for the airport. Hope to see you back on the island for some high flying Jim!

Adam, Paul, and Chris spent some more time kiting and I took the Airwave ALPINE EXTREME for a flight as well. They all made good progress throughout the day.