Jason and Vanessa's Hang Gliding Site
Have you ever dreamed of flying like a bird?
Kariotahi (Auckland) looking south,
Kariotahi looking north,
This
is a great coastal ridge soaring site. A great place to learn. My
sixth flight was here, I flew up and down this coast exploring for
over 6 hours. It was nearly dark when I forced myself back to land
with the last of my strength.
The higher you go the better the view...
This fact leads pilots inland to hills and mountains to hunt thermals, cores of rising warm air that have the potential to carry you upwards at 3000ft per minute. That is, approximately 60 kms per hour in a vertical direction. I have flown up to 11,000 ft and across straight line distances of up to 101kms.
This picture shows the views around Omarama
in the South Island of New Zealand. Take off at Magic Mountain is
at 5600 ft and flying is extreme.
Here I have experienced thermals
that peaked at 3600ft per minute (as high as my instruments will
measure). The strong turbulence is exciting and the occasional involuntary
inverted dives are wild. I once I free fell for 500 ft, my glider
pitched.
Pilots often take off at a
lower take off when the winds are around 40 knots at the top. As
this wind has just come over the Alps you can ride Wave Lift below
lenticular clouds -until about 9500ft when things start to
go up and backwards a little too quickly. On one occasion I had
to kneel on the base bar for half an hour to try and get back down
below 7500 ft.
I will also never forget sharing a thermal at 9500ft with migrating geese or flying over one hundred kilometers straight line distance. An exciting five hour flight and as one hundred Km + flights are rare in New Zealand, as a new pilot I consider myself fortunate.
My wife Vanessa and I have
a Tandem wing and enjoy flying together.
To share flight with someone special is fantastic.
To see how I learnt how to fly click here...
To meet Bruce, Cameron and some of my other flying mates click here...
Flying is a gift from God!
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