Monthly Archives: May 2012
Cape Point PPG Flight – First Photos
To date, only two people had ever done it: a powered paraglider flight around Cape Point, the “Fairest Cape of them all”, the Cape of Good Hope: the Cape of Storms. Today, that number was doubled. The Flying Ant (one of the original two) escorted Neil and I in a gentle, cold but perfectly smooth [...]
Quick words on fear
From a book I picked up today (which is proving to be a pleasant, thoughtful and humorous read): I want to talk about fear. We let it hold us back too much. Fear is a funny thing. I always think of it as a disease: it is natural, evolves with society, it can affect us [...]
PPG Dawn Patrol Video
It’s been quite a while since the flying that generated this footage, but I finally set aside a rainy Saturday and cut together a rough montage. The story can be found in the blog archive, so I won’t repeat it here. In essence: some magic crack-of-doom flying in the middle of summer, when the sun [...]
More speed-flying
Stumbled across this video on a rainy Friday and had to share it. Speed-flying Mont Blanc to beautiful piano music… lovely. Watch it in HD if you can – it’s worth it.
New aeromedical presentations available
I’ve uploaded another two talks onto the ‘Presentations’ page. These are lectures I gave recently as part of the ILS Aviation Health Care Practitioner’s course at the Red Cross Air Mercy Service here in Cape Town. The should be considered introductory, and there is a lot of (verbal) content not in the presentations, but the [...]
Patterns from the sky
I went on a lovely post-call aerial meander today. While I caught up on sleep during the morning the wind turned light north-west; cold sea air began to replace the more boisterous south-easter and most of the PPG fraternity were congregated at Dolphin Beach. I joined the crowd around three o’clock and was airborne shortly [...]
Yzerfontein PPG – a few more photos
These courtesy of Hannes Jansen, one of the other pilots on our sortie to Yzerfontein recently. I do so love to see my beaut orange & yellow Eden 4 in flight.
Why we fly PPG
The link to this video has been circulating the flying community, and it explains the thoughts and feelings behind flying powered paragliders so nicely that I have to pass it on. If you have a fast connection, click the settings (cog wheel) and watch it at 720p – it’s worth the wait.
Powered paraglider XC to Yzerfontein
Great PPG flying on the West Coast today. We met at Grotto Bay and flew north along the coastline to Yzerfontein – 30km of almost uninhabited and deserted beach, with the occasional wild ostrich for company. After an extended coffee break at Yzerfontein to assess what the wind was doing (a NE land breeze meeting [...]
