Thermal Season is Officially “On” in the Fraser Valley.
Paragliding pilots look forward to spring because that's when the increased sunlight begins to warm the earth and produce thermals- rising columns of air. We use these to soar higher than our launch height and once up, we go XC, (cross country) which means anywhere other than down to the normal landing area. An XC flight could be five kilometers or 500 kilometers depending on the location and the pilot’s skill level.
For me, this is the most challenging and rewarding type of flying. It's very exciting and beautiful to travel somewhere new using the wing and the wind. I've flown to Hope from Mt Woodside and from Bridal Falls a couple of times.
A route that has become a classic is the Raymont Challenge named after the first pilot to accomplish this flight which is essentially a loop around the Fraser Valley starting at Mt Woodside and heading east to Bear Mtn, crossing the Fraser River to Mt. Ludwig on the Mt. Cheam side and then flying west to “tag” Elk Mtn and then re crossing the Fraser River to get back to Mt. Woodside. This route requires pretty good conditions and I’m lucky if I get to do it a few times a year. The flight takes between three and four hours to complete.
We use GPS to help with decision making. For example, a GPS gives us our ground speed so we know how well we’re doing relative to the wind which can either help us or slow us down. GPS also gives us our altitude and this helps us to know when to leave a thermal and glide to another place on our route. Finally, the GPS provides a track of our entire flight which can be uploaded to a computer and then to programs like Google Earth so we can really see where we went.
I upload my big flights to a website that collects flight data and keeps an ongoing record. I can compare my flights as well as the flights of other pilots. Leonardo (the website) even allows me to watch my entire flight on a map as an animation!
Here is the link to my last big flight from Saturday, May 2. On that flight, I actually completed considerabley more than the Raymont Challenge and was in the air for five hours, ten minutes. Play around with the buttons and enjoy the ride.
Click Here to see it
