Page 42 - RADC 2023

An
experience
outside my
comfort zone
Cpl May Fox
I was extremely fortunate to be selected for a vacancy on the Paragliding Elementary Pilot Course at JSMTC Bavaria. The trip started with hopping on the coach at Aldershot and 19 hrs later arriving in Bavaria, in Southern Germany for what I knew was going to be 2 weeks of being out of my comfort zone.
We kicked off the course with issuing of our paragliders & harnesses, which vary in size depending on your height and weight, so......., day 1 immediately put me in the stretch zone for sure when I was asked to get onto the scales in the storeroom!
If like me, you thought a paragliding course was going to be purely practical,
you would be wrong! It is 50% practical and 50% theory, most of which was taught on days when it was raining or too windy to get out on the hills. Our lessons consisted of: meteorology (weather), laws of the air and theory of flight. It was essential to learn the theory so we could apply it to our practical sessions.
Each day started with a met brief, delivered by a mix of instructors and students, and yes, I released my inner Carole Kirkwood (BBC Weather Host) when it
was my turn to deliver the weather for the day. Every morning we wished for perfect conditions to get on with our practical sessions and luckily, it didn’t disappoint.
The Instructors, Paul and Karl, took us through the fundamentals at a very gradual pace, with practical sessions on the training slopes. We learned how to ground handle our paragliders, correctly setting them up for flight, feel for the correct wind direction and learned how to control them whilst in the air. Fortunately, all conducted with feet firmly on the ground at the beginning!
As the days progressed, the training ramped up and we were being gradually tasked with launching our paraglides across a farmer’s field, whilst also learning how
to turn left & right (I covered 10km in the morning session, all whilst dodging the cows!). This then ramped up again as we started launching from a small hill, where we built up some speed and naturally got airborne. Thankfully, Paul and Karl had taught us how to land correctly and how we should avoid staring at the cows unless we
wanted to land on them, otherwise known as object fixation. This was where the ‘novice’ mistakes occurred with people face planting, crashing into fences and of course the cows ... yes, I did
make all those mistakes but with a smile on my face to conclude week 1.
Week 2 -back to the classroom where we learnt on a simulator how to safely deploy our reserve shoot and carry out emergency procedures in the air, all with the aim of having a mountain flight at the end of the week. With final practice on the training slope perfecting our drills, we were ready.
A quick theory assessment to put our knowledge to the test before we ventured up Buchenberg Mountain 340m up to recce our launch site. This was the real test of nerve and ability, not even 10 days into learning how to paraglide and they want me to fly
off this mountain solo? I was certainly in
the stretch zone stood on the edge looking down at the landing sight which looked like
40 RADC BULLETIN 2023
SPORT & AT