First solo hanggliding take off

This was my first solo flight take off in St Hilaire Du touvet in the southern France. Yes, I was crapping myself. 800 metres straight down to the valley floor.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• hang
• gliding

[fergalwhelan]

Yes BroNizzle,

We spent one week learning on a gentle slope, progressing further up the slope as the week progressed. So, technically made a couple of very short solo flights before this. Three tandem flights from this same take off platform and then whoooooosh...you're flying solo.

[fergalwhelan]

The wind was buffeting eelesey, video simply shows the moments before take off. hand on the keel was the light touch to help stabilise the wing before takeoff. There is a ramp out of view from the angle you can see, and the cliff drops away 800 metres almost vertically. Its a famous take off site in France and they hold the Coup Icare there every september. They were among the first to showcase wing suits and have been in business for almost 20 years. Your comments may seem to be a little rash.

[warneriza]

l'anglais pue!!!!!!

[fergalwhelan]

@warneriza Je suis Irlandais moron,

[morace250]

Geez i dont know if i could of done that isnt there a mountian you can run down or something insted of jumping off a cliff...lol

[diccoo32]

@eelesey1 got to be honest. i can kind of see your thought on that. a lot of people would possibly think that. having been through the whole CP system in the last few years I would disagree. you should know that airspeed is crucial on take off. did you not see the rate that this guy went off? It may seem daunting but I would say it is safer than rolling of an english hill or going up on aerotow like i did. be interested in your thoughs!?

[BroNizzle]

holy crap ! lol first real solo flight?

[flugfahrrader]

My first three and only three flights to date (more to come though) offered uneventful take-offs, so no super video opportunities there, but the last landing deserved a kite mounted camera to show the instinctive reactions I made to avert clipping a tree. So, the next time I go airborne, I'm mounting my trusty click and shoot with video capabilities to the old bike helmet.

[eelesey1]

first solo...buffeting wind (ie gusty), stabilising keel (should not be necessary), 800 m vertical cliff (radical), first solo-rash-I think so. +30hrs CP minmimum..

[eelesey1]

nil wind, step launch, holding the keel...accident waiting to happen. Airspeed airspeed airspeed...cannot believe that was a suitable solo launch site...