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| | With plenty of experience, but only recently adorned with his tandem license, Bertrand had offered some time ago to take me aloft. |
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| | We arrived at the club house and headed up to the West launching point ... |
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| | ... on Mt Yamaska. |
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| | We watched some others. |
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| | I know nothing about this yet, but a good principle seems to be to inflate the wing before raising it. Unfortunately, the wind was not always coming straight uphill. |
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| | Abort! |
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| | These things are pretty forgiving even in tricky winds. |
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| | After watching three non-ideal take-offs, my pilot advised me that we would not launch here in current wind conditions. |
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| | We hoofed it all the way to the North launching point. There, one take-off option is a wooden ramp, extending the hill to be a bit more cliff-like. |
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| | My pilot prepped his tandem wing, and reminded me to pour out any water I had not yet drunk. |
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| | At one point during the launch, my job was, leaning forward, to "run like I was about to get eaten by a tiger". I only got in two steps before we were aloft ... |
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| | ... and immediately well above our take-off. |
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| | Due to our false start on the other peak, we were a little bit late to get the best thermals. Nevertheless, Bertrand took us back and forth, sharing updrafts with the turkey vultures and the other paragliders. |
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| | I didn't say much. I just had no words. I shed tears of joy at living a 25-year old dream. |
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| | I actually mostly ignored my camera. |
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| | Eventually, our landing zone would be the lighter-green field, not covered in corn, adorned with a building and cars. |
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| | We actually had a deadline to be back in town. |
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| | We flew back over our car. Ahoy, ours was not the only white Tesla! |
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| | I gave a hug of gratitude to my amazing pilot. |
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