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Annecy 2015 - 4th day
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Annecy - Jason's 2nd dbag - final day
Annecy 2007 - Mont Blanc - day 7

Who Killed The Electric PPG
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Italy valley flight
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Annecy (the sequel!) - 2005

This was a great trip. I got to fly with my twin brother Jason, parents Janet and Brian, girlfriend Emmalyn and friends Suzanne, Andy and Chris DAYS NUMBERED AS -4,-3 etc WERE BEFORE THE TRIP (this was confusing Jason a little bit)
(Day -4) (Day -3) (Day -2) (Day -1) (Day 1) (Day 2) (Day 3) (Day 4) (Day 5) (Day 6) (Day 7) (Day 8)

Day 2

Wednesday 27th July 2005

The day started with Jason and I getting up at around 6am to mess about with all the stuff that we had brought with us for the filming. Not having the luxury of my paragliding harness in Canada I I decided to bring a selection of stuff to improvise camera mounts from. Jason and I spent several hours that morning making our very amateur mounts and then went to breakfast. We had already decide that the camera mounts need to be lightweight, collapsable and simple and were quite pleased with our efforts.

I have previously tried launching with cumbersome equipment which delays launch, is possibly hazardous during take off and is difficult to use in the air. We haven`t cracked it yet, but we now have a much clearer idea of what we need. I think the next trip will be much better equipped.

Afer breakfast we were in no great rush to get to the launch site since the thermals don`t really get established until at least 1pm and usually more like 2pm.

Chris is a paramotor pilot and had only very limited experience of launching without a motor. We drove to the landing site at Doussard and talked through the various rules for flying in the area before catching a `navette` to the launch site. These minibuses are quite regular and you can find out the time for the next one from the sign near the tandem kiosk in the landing field.

We paid our six Euros and headed off up to the Col de la Forclaz launch. Jason was very focussed as soon as we got out of the minibus. He was set up and ready to go in a matter of minutes and was soon off the launch matt and working the thermals on his way to la Tournette.

Chris and I were still talking through the launch and local terrain as Jason disappeared into the distance. As I said before Chris flies paramotors. He has done for seven years. He was lucky enough to get considerable help and advice from many experienced pilots on the hill, including the US paragliding safety adviser (whose launch was absolutely terrible by the way).

Chris told me that he had very limited experience of launching a paraglider without an engine. After the series of take off attempts he made, I was beginning to wonder if he had any. The safety marshall, seeing Chris struggling, advised him that he should not launch until he had worked more on his technique and that he should be able to launch in three attempts.

I was getting just a little frustrated at having to wait so long to launch, when the conditions were perfectly flyable for me, and was eager to launch (after all I was here on holiday and not to teach!). I told him that I thought he should give it one last try and that I would then be concentrating on myself.

Well he busted another launch and wisely decided to head the advice of others before injuring himself. I launched and had a magnificent evning flight lasting an hour and a half.

I landed at the Doussard landing field and got myself some food. I was very pleased to have got some paragliding (without the engine) after a break of over a year. I was soaking in the surroundings and taking my time packing up. I had no idea where Chris or Jason were, but I had the car keys so I thought I would just hang around the landing field.

Jason landed first. It turned out he had already landed earlier, had met up with Chris and headed back up the hill in the minibus for another launch. He had spent more time with Chris on the launch mat and he had managed a successful launch.

Soon I saw Chris coming in really high over the landing field. He was beaming from ear to ear. He had pulled off his first real paragliding launch from the mat at Annecy. Not bad for a beginner!

Jason`s account

Early Start ? Mark was up at the crack of dawn and shooting video around
our B & B, Le Manche. We arrived late the previous night. Our host, Beverly, had cooked us a lovely meal of chicken in mushroom and onion sauce with
fancy rice and green beans .. Hmmm

I joined mark at around 6:30 - 10:00am, improvising various camera mounts
for our lipstick cams from a collection of telescopic fishing rods, coat hangers, thread, superglue, old kite parts and a lot of Velcro, very Heath-Robinson but prototypes have to start somewhere.

Breakfast was good (thanks Bev) and we were joined by our parents, Mark`s girlfriend Emmalyn and Mark?s American friends, Chris and Suzanne, who had travelled down from Paris.

We left the house at 11am, me, Mark and Chris in one car, the non-flyers in the other. We drove Chris to the landing Field at Doussard to show him where he would be landing later and to talk him through the landing approach etc.

Chris has about 7 years of paramotoring experience but hadn`t free-flown in the Alps before.

We stayed at the landing field for a couple of hours. We`d been to Annecy a few times and knew that the thermal activity generally doesn`t get established until after lunch. We chilled out in the landing field and watched the numerous tandem pilots bringing their passengers in with graceful landings. After lunch we caught the Navette (bus) up to Col de la Forclaz for 6 Euros.

Take off was crowded and Chris was a little nervous. Running off an increasingly steep hill is a bit different from a motor on your back on a level ground. I left Mark to coach Chris off the launch mat and was in the air in a few minutes. Fortunately I hooked straight into a 4 m/s thermal to the right of the launch area and took the opportunity to use the height gained to set-up my camera equipment? telescopic fishing rod assembly with miniature camera pointing at me and getting in video shots of me and the scenery... something for everyone! From the ridge at Forclaz I hopped across to the next rock formation North and then on to Les Dentes. I had enough height to cross the lake, but the wind direction was southerly, so meant I wasn`t sure about the crossing the lake. If I`d be able to ridge soar on the west side of Lake Annecy. I headed back to the Forclaz launch and lost about 700m fighting the headwind. I couldn`t see Chris flying so headed for the landing field to get the bus back up and check if Chris was ok.

Found Chris at the landing field and was shocked to find out he hadn`t flown. The busy launch pad and his inexperience had been too much. After several failed attempts he`d decided to take a rest and head back down on the bus. I soon persuaded him to have another crack at it and we caught the next Navette (bus) up to the launch. After a couple of failed launch attempts Chris did an excellent launch (about time) and could be heard climbing in front of launch barking like a
dog! Apparently a trade mark of his... perhaps it helps to be American to appreciate it!
Unfortunately, in my haste to make up for the lost flying, whilst helping Chris launch, I rushed off and left my vario-altimeter behind... An expensive mistake (150 quid`s worth of kit). At the landing field I scribbled a note in English and French saying I`d lost my vario and left a number to call me on. I was hopeful that a kind
paraglider would return it. We`re mostly good guys.

Time would tell whether I would see my vario again?

Oh yeah, later that night I really smacked my head at a local restaurant?.
Bloody great iron bar sticking out at head height, supporting a neon sign.

Bloody Hell it hurt!

The content of this site is ï¿½ Mark Andrews 2005-12, mandrews1973@gmail.com