Friday, July 17, 2009

SIV in Annecy 22nd - 25th June 2009



The SIV course with Jocky was excellent, even if we did have to get up at the crack of dawn to drive up to take off. I have to thank Scottish Sean for keeping me laughing when I sometimes felt like crying! I will never forget when just before doing symmetric tucks, Sean said it he would think it was like pulling his wife's knickers down.

Another memorable moment would be landing in the bullrushes at the end of the lake. For some unknown reason I couldn't make it to the landing field so had no real option apart from the bullrushes. I landed alright and managed to gather everything up. It was very difficult to find a way out as it was surrounded by trees and bushes. At one point I contemplated getting in the lake and walking round to the campsite but though better of it. Eventually I found a path and I walked across a little stream and felt a snag, I looked round only thinking I'd caught a line on something to find my reserve all strung out behind me. F**k! Well I couldn't carry everything so I unclipped the glider and carried on walking until I found somewhere that I could pack up. Once I was packed up it still took me another twenty minutes to get out. Needless to say I missed my second flight that day but I have got a repacked reserve. :-)

The spiral dives where the most exciting for me as I managed to scream so loud that even Jocky heard me from the boat. :-o It was great to watch the video at de-brief so you could see that what you did looked nothing near as bad as it felt in the air. If I do another SIV I would consider going to Turkey again as you have a lot more height and there are no bullrushes to land in.

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