yoink

Shit. Thanks for all your advice and time Tonto. You'll be missed.

It'll be interesting to see what flight characteristics the Spire has... I'm really hoping for a high-performance wing that handles in a similar way to skydive wings, but has a much improved glide - something around 1:5 would be nice! Not too much to ask! The paraglider-type wings like the Nano and Bullet seem to have a generally better glide ratio than some of the flatter, faster skydive style wings at the moment, but they lose massive amounts of height in toggle turns due to the high roll component which I'm not a fan of. Yaw on toggles, pitch on risers please!

Rich, I've got a 105 version of the Ballistic and it's seriously good fun - I'll bring it up to Hib next time I'm in the area if you fancy a look?

Slightly off topic (sorry Ian!) - does anyone have a contact e-mail for Kevin? ta

Hurrah! More UK ground launch folks! Welcome!

It depends on the student and where they're up to in their progression I'd say. It can get pretty tiring - you'll be using muscle groups that you wouldn't usually use and there's a lot to take in... You're far better doing 2 or 3 really good jumps than 4 or 5 not-so good ones. Don't try and rush it - forget about numbers, just have fun and relax.

There aren't many qualified coaches around yet. There's the GLC in the States and a few people that teach ski-launched speed flying in Western Europe. There's also a GL school in Crimea, but that's about all I think. There aren't any qualified coaches in the UK at the moment - hell, there aren't exactly a lot of people ground launching over here yet. Tim, I echo Tony's advice - get to a paragliding school in your area. There's a fair bit more to site selection than just finding a hill and hucking yourself off it. The paragliders will probably be happy to give you some advice on predicting turbulance around hills, advice on kiting and launching as well as information on sites to stay away from. For now, practice kiting your canopy in a wide, open space. You'll soon figure out what sort of wind speeds are appropriate for that - start in light winds and work up! Practise both reverse and forward kiting - it's invaluable at the launch point. Edit: Something to think about - most experienced ground launch pilots suggest that the ideal wingloading is from about 1.3:1 to 1.6:1 - this isn't a 'you need a smaller wing' argument, but more of a 'until you've developed the skills to fly a parachute at that sort of loading competently, maybe you don't need the added dangers of swooping hills?' Keep practising up high and try and get some canopy coaching.

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You know what they say - it's the second bounce that kills ya! Good job you reached the water for that one!

There are lots of canopies out there that are specifically designed with groundlaunching in mind. They range from the skydive inspired Daedalus GLS / GLX and Aeros Ballistic, to the high-performace paraglider end such as the Neuvres Swoop and Bio Air Ski'M. Have a look at this site for some of them: http://ulrichprinz.de/air/speed/index.html#pdf We're also starting to gather a decent amount of general Ground Launching information over in the Speed flying forum on paraglidingforum.com. The only skydive wing I've launched was a Sabre - it's a brilliant canopy for kiting, but required quite a steep hill and specific conditions to fly well. Have fun!

Try a search for 'Ground Launching', 'Speed Flying' or 'Speed Skiing' and you'll turn up a fair number of results. Looks like we've got yet another term for it! What canopy were you using? Nice launch point though.

You seen him play the Harp Guitar? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f27megLOleQ Love the false harmonics in it.

That's a great video!

With a wingloading of 0.51 on a nil wind day you might be pushing it! Especially running over that type of ground to get airborne! As others have said, it looks like a beautiful flight, but it's a high tariff one. Looks like lots of rocks and I'd guess not too many outs. I bet it'd be a great area for paragliding if you could find a launch site though!

This is a link to the speed-flying harness I got: http://www.ukairsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=306 You can see in the picture that the attachment points for the risers are a good 6 inches lower that that of a skydiving harness. With my Sabre, I use a full arm stroke when I land, from arms all the way up, to all the way extended down to the bottom of the flare. Because the risers are attached 6 inches lower, and my arms haven't correspondingly grown that much, I've found I miss the bottom end of my flare stroke. I could shorten the bottom of my brake lines by 6 inches, but this is a pain in the arse, would take out the slack in my brake lines, and I'm much more used to a skydive-style flying position anyway. The Blade has the attachment points much higher up on the shoulders, but has a much longer chest strap to make it easier to get your head forward for launch. That's the theory anyway! We'll have a play when it arrives.

Scott, part of a PM I sent Tonto might give you a better indication of the terrain for GL over here. It's not all smooth hills. Hey Mac! I liked the video of your flight at WHH! I'll have to come down again. I've just bought an Aeros Ballistic, so we'll have to compare it to your Nano when it arrives. I've got a Gin speed-flying harness and I'm not a big fan to be honest. I think that with skydiving canopies on it you lose a lot of the bottom end of the flare since the risers are mounted on the harness much lower, and given the relatively short flight times in the UK I don't think the added comfort of being in a seated position is worth the trade off... I'll be getting a Blade skydiving-stlye harness for my new canopy. Can't wait!

Not true - Ideally, for long, fun GL flights, a long steep hill is ideal, but for learning, a shallow one is far better. Launching off a steep hill takes real commitment - srtarting small is easier I think. Matt, Get lots and lots of practice at kiting your canopy before you even attempt to make your first launch. Unless you've got a big yard, I wouldn't bother doing it there - you'll move around lots under your canopy and turbulence from buildings doesn't make it any easier. Find a big open area and wear a helmet when you're doing ground work. :) Learn how to make both reverse and forward launches and get comfortable switching between them. Go to paragliding forums and learn as much about micrometeorology as you can. Remember, your launch and landing sites aren't like a DZ. You're responsible for working out where turbulence is likely, or where the places not to land are... Walk your route before launching. To be honest, the paragliders can teach us a lot about this. It seems to me that we're more comfortable with flying fast, closer to the ground than they are at the moment, but they have a wealth of experience at launching and landing in off-dz conditions. Use that knowledge to your advantage. As to the name - Ground Launching, Speed flying, Fixed-object Swooping... who cares? That's all I got for now. Pics and video of some GL in the North of england after the weekend.

Are you guys using any particular type of elbow / knee / back protection for swooping? After walking through a landing area I was looking at using after groundlaunching, I think I'd like to get some additional protection - there are a number of decent sized rocks all over the place, and that's fairly common on the GL sites I've been to. Anyone got any manufacturers they prefer? Stuff to look out for or to avoid? Given that I'm going to be humping it up hills, a lighter weight option would be good. Cheers

I missed some DPs too... I think pretty much everyone does. A good bit of advice I got from my instructor was this: "You're not going to beat the canopy opening, so don't try. Smooth and relaxed is the best way..." Remember, they don't really care that you reach and pull in half a second, but more that you maintain a good arch, keep looking up and recover well. Relax and smile, it'll come.

Adrian Nichols did.

You can't geek your own camera! That's cheating!

I took this short clip on the day I left Perris earlier this month. http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=5643 There were several large dust devils that came through that day. The first one crossed the pool area and overturned the deck chairs around there... I'd never thought they could be that big or that strong. I was glad I was on the ground. I'd just got a new camera the previous morning, so you'll have to excuse the crash-zooms at the beginning of the video! you get a sense of scale in the second half.

Might be worth doing a quick search or asking your instructors about Target Fixation.

Technically we only need visibility of the ground for the canopy portion. Doesn't say anything about wingsuits...

I got back from some canopy coaching with Luigi Cani last week and the first thing he made me do after my first jump was add 5" to my brake lines... it makes such a difference and you really start to notice the problem in other peoples canopies when you realise that!