K-Blog

Moving....this is my last post

I have outgrown Typepad. I've been using (and paying) for this service since I started blogging in 2004...unfortunately Typepad has not kept current with other open source blogging/website programs like the brilliant Wordpress.org, so I have moved my blog to ....

kathrynoriordan.com.

Soon I will be redirecting this blog to automatically go to the new location and eventually I will get rid of the service (when I move all my photos which is a looooooong process!! Thanks Typepad for making it so difficult!)

Thanks to all!!!

PS: you will see a section on my new blog for ads. If you want to find out why I have this and how you could benefit...read more here

Inspiring Women

As the Women With Wings Clinic in Bright, Australia approaches I am thinking more about my female inspirations in this sport.

One being Kari Castle. I admire her because she is bold, adventurous, funny and of course she flies, launches and lands exceptionally well.

Here is a short interview with her way back in 1989. I was just smiling the whole way through, I connected so much to what she was saying. Have a look..

Boredom does not enter the equation

3 days, 3 different sites, 3 totally different flying conditions.

Friday evening I rushed home from work to grab some duning time in Cronulla. It was too South but I setup anyway. Gar came along and we did some hovering and basebarring on the dunes and suddenly, out of nowhere, the wind turned SE, and I got the most beautiful perfect soaring conditions for an hour.

If you're not in you can't win!!

Saturday Jonathan, Alex and Jonas L drove down to Canberra. On our way to Pig Hill, we decided that Lake George looked better so we went to The Collector launch on the Northern end of the Lake. We were the only ones there. Sweet.

(Photo thanks to Jonathan K)

Jono and Jonas ended up getting some great flying in. Jon even top-landed fly-on-wall style on the hill. Nice work. Flying so much in Stanwell pays off...

Meanwhile Alex and I bombed pretty much. I went up for another fly and managed to stay up a little bit but again, I was happy just being there, launching and landing, trying to thermal in wierd conditions. It's all learning.

On Sunday morning Jonathan, Big Fred, Dave and I drove to Blackheath on a good forecast. A stunning day for the mountains. We were joined by some more Sydney-siders and heaps of paragliders.

We watched paraglider after paraglider launch and not only bomb out but get totally drilled in the process in massive sink, barely making the landing field. It was so wierd. We knew there was inversion but some were getting up so we knew it was possible to get high. We waited for it to get a few degrees hotter for the thermals to break the inversion and for some more favourable launch conditions.

We saw some really dodgy paragliding launches. Tandem launching and then touching down just before the edge of the cliff, not having enough airspeed. Pilots falling over on their runs over the many obstacles in their path. It was like a sidehow, seriously. But they didn't seem too worried. I tell you if I was ever interesting in taking up paragliding, it turned me off it for good! I can't even imagine what the poor students who were up there that day were thinking "oh yeah before you get in the air you just have to get over your fear of dying on the run down the hill, because you will fuck it up at some stage". :)

I might be harsh, seeing as it's an advanced launch and the conditions were not ideal but it was kind of scary to watch, if not a little entertaining after a while :)

Golden rule of paragliding - Do not "whoo hoo" until you are well clear of the hill! :)

Well we finally took off and experienced a bit more than expected. I was fully prepared to bomb like everyone else and packup in the field below, resigning myself to the fact that at least I spent a fun day with friends....but alas I happened to launch in the best cycle of the day and went straight up to over 8grand ...so rewarding.

Unfortunately my vid ran out shortly into the flight. I flew around launch for a while waiting for Dave or Jono to get up. Dave ended up going low through the valley and I lost him for a while. My aim was to make it to Lithgow at least. I knew I was high enough but needed a couple more thermals to get there.

Flying over the Sugarloaf I saw Dave and Andy the paraglider low but climbing fast. I went over to join them and climbed to base before heading off over some more ranges.

Trying to keep up with a LiteSpeed is not that easy, but I tried!! I lost Dave over Lithgow. He went straight through a thermal and I stayed because I wanted to be high leaving Lithgow as I was told it was a sinkhole. That thermal was SHIT I was being thrown all over the place, so I glided out to the end of town.

If I had looked around more I would have seen dave climbing in a screamer but no, I did a 180 and landed in Lithgow Oval (I always had a secret desire to land in a football field :)

I was so pissed when Dave told me I was so close to him. Next time charge your radio K and look around more! He ended up 30kms from Rylestone.

A great day. Jono launched at 5pm and still made it past Lithgow. He won the Blackheath trophy for best flight. Nice! When he gets his LiteSpeed I will never see him again!!

3 great sites within 2.5 hours of my home. Spending time with people who are motivated enough to fly. Lots of laughs. Being outside in the beautiful Australian countryside. What a great weekend!

Worst storm in a century about to hit Northern QLD

Just watching the news now. Cairns and all the towns closeby have been evacuated. The worst is supposed to hit about midnight tonight....good luck up there!!

2 movies you have to see

The Kings Speech - Great acting by Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and one of my fave actresses Helena Bonham Carter (I would love to have a drink with that woman!).

The premise: Man (a Duke, who later becomes King) has stutter, has tried everything, comes across an unqualified speech therapist with unusual methods and after a shitload of hard work, triumphs..

Message: Do a shitload of hard work and you will triumph, even when you think it cannot be done :)

The Black Swan -  Natalie Portman and yummy French Actor Vincent Cassel. See it!!

Have you ever have such negative thoughts that you couldn’t even voice them to someone else? Thoughts that made you feel guilty even thinking them? Society wants us all to be happy conforming people. Sweet people. I know I was raised that way. Don’t cause trouble, don’t make a fuss, just get on with it.

What if you had the chance to be that alter ego (lest we say evil person) for a while. Would you be able to summon up the courage to let it out?

The Black Swan that deals with exactly this topic.

A sweet, fragile girl who is a perfectionist in her craft (ballet). She auditions for the role of The Swan Queen which requires her to play not only the beautiful and delicate White Swan but the evil destructive Black Swan.

She plays the While Swan to perfection but has trouble channelling the darkness within her to make the Black Swan performance realistic. The movie is about her devastating journey to let this dark side out…something that is within her but she has learned to control, up to now.

 Turns out she is obsessed with ballet and has total OCD, but she played it so well it was believable and she got me thinking for a long time afterwards.

Message (for me anyway): Be a little naughty every now and again, let go, let loose because keeping it inside will only end up destroying the one person you are trying to protect. Youself.

Sometimes you learn more by not flying

Waiting on Lake George, watching the others launch, and seeing some long runs and some 'interesting' launching in really cross wind, I thought to myself...is it really worth it? It really made me think about what I feel I am capable of.

Even Trent waited for ages to launch, and that alone made me nervous. I still do not have a lot of confidence in nil wind or cross wind in my glider. The A-frame is swimming on me and my head hits to keel post when I try to hold it on my shoulders, showing that my shoulders are just not broad enough at the top of the frame. All this adds to my nervousness about my control when I launch. Need to shorten my speedbar, have no doubt it will help.

My launch technique could probably be better too. If you do not have 100% confidence in your own launches then how do you think you would feel in sub-standard launch conditions? I found myself wishing I could aerotow. But that's not what I want going on in my head. I want to be able to launch in x-wind, light wind, nil wind and know exactly what i am capable of.

I know I just need a lot more practice, like anything, this will build my confidence no end. Like Jonathan who, even though has had most of his hours in Stanwell, he has done countless launches in all different conditions. You could see he was pretty OK with the conditions yesterday.

I want the glider to feel like it's a part of me, an extension of my body...not something I fear in any way. How can you fear your arms, your leg, your toes? :) You just accept they are there and use them automatically without thinking.

Storms coming through near the lake yesterday

The 'out of towners' waiting for the locals to show us the way.

So my aim? To make my wings my arms. Wish me luck :)

Playing the waiting game

Waiting on the north launch at Lake George. Stunning day but its proving tricky to get off. Too cross. Trent, dave and jono went for it but they are braver than i. Now the rest of us wait for some change, anything ..well some east would be nice!
just heard on radio dave is 20Km heading east and trent has gone 10km south west.

Steve Hocking Challenge Day 5 - Too Windy

20 knots on the ground. A clear cut decision not to fly today :( :( :(

Means we have to party a bit earlier than expected :)

Presentation and dinner tonight with the pilots that have stayed on....

Still deciding....

Looks good to the North, but the wind is more from the East bringing a rain front. We waited an hour in the field and they finally cancelled.

Steve hocking challenge - day 4

Its raining now,are but we are coming back at 12 if weather conditions improve.