Alaska Traverse, Photo Jody MacDonald

In this bonus episode I take on listener questions. We talk about coring thermals, mini wing advice, Red Bull X-Alps preparation, the dream bivvy line, fear injuries, weather planning tools for bivvy flying, line and glider degradation, what qualifies as “big air”, risk changes when you have children, flying performance under pressure, team flying tips, hydration and energy tips for big flights,  how to not be a “freezer” when anxiety jumps, Flow state and transferable skills from other sports, the “Survivor bias” and more!

Show Notes: 

From Emanuel:

1.       I would like to fly parts of the x alps route in 2021. Is it irritating if  I am flying the “race” line?

2.       How do you center the thermals?

From Tony Bartoletti:

Can you talk about ridge soaring and even thermaling with mini paragliders.. is there more risk or more tolerance for wind? Both?

From Pelle Nyberg:

How to plan for an xc flight for multiple days? Which tools to use, weather planning and other things to consider.

Always start with the Forecast Discussion. Skysight, Meteoblue, XCSkies, Windy.com

From Nate Scott:

How about discussing your thoughts, on the durabiltity, & degradation differences, between 2 & 3 liners?

From Earl Pilatti:

When you talk of big air in sun valley. How big is big?

From Gunnar Friese:

Does your acceptance of risk change now that you have a daughter? My little sunshine is almost 2, I have been kitesurfing for more than 15 years and flying paragliders and speedwings for 8 years, my risk taking has changed. I am sometimes flying along thinking I need to be more careful. … I’ve got a daughter now! Go land it’s not worth taking that risk only for a few kms more.

From Kyle O’Glee:

Has the competition mindset ever negatively affected your flying performance or decision making in a negative way? Trick question, I know it has, but I’d like to hear your experience with trying to win vs. trying to fly good whenever there’s a conflict. I’m always reluctant to engage in any competition involving flying as the consequence of making a mistake could be dire. With your high level of competition experience, please weigh in on some of the cons you’ve found over the years.

From Cal Breed:

While new to XC and gradually being able to accept more cues from the environment each flight (building intuitive decision making), how do you direct those wanting to start flying more as a team with a few other pilots with similar goals? Can you suggest a path, plan, or process of developing this team dynamic? Expound on some communication techniques whether technological, signaling, hooting, etc. Are there group flight patterns to taste more air? How do you most efficiently and effectively see, communicate, and share in the sweetness when the team has found good air whether thermal or a lifty glide line?

Best foods to carry on XC, where in your harness, and when do you eat? In a climb on a glide, while searching?

From Tyrus Leverich (speaking about episode 127– “freezers”):

Not sure if this will help, but I’d like to tell you about an experience I had in the army. I went to Airborne school in Georgia following basic combat training in 2010. They introduce you to a week of “ground school.” That school is strictly the PLF(Parachute Landing Fall). The second section of the school is called tower training. During the introduction they teach that the 34 foot tower jump is much more terrifying than leaving the door of the C130 at 1100ft.

Thus when they teach you to leave the tower the first thing you learn as a student is that it is hilarious to watch what happens for every single student the first time out the tower. They ALL freeze! The looks are hilarious and the way they try to continue the body position make for some very wacky and hilarious events. The second jump after coming out alive almost every student will do the process correctly.

I think the idea of the “freezer” is similar. I think if more paraglider pilots were to do something similar (train to jump at low height, pull reserve, PLF 100 times instead of 2 or 3, and maybe do a PLF from a 6 foot box) you might find a lot more coordinated and less injury prone pilots in our sport.

Ben Kaufman:

See below:

1.    Given your proximity to Kiwi leading up to his accident, has the accident produced a vicarious fear-injury for you? If so, how are you approaching healing & recovery?
2.    You have spent considerable time evaluating “operational” insurance for PG pilots (SAR/extraction/medical). Would love to hear any insights you have into life insurance coverage. (Exclusions to watch out for, specific available riders, favorable companies and/or underwriters)
3.    Coming from a fellow ski-racer; a three-fold question:
1. Other than flow-state, what do you see as the transferable skills, sensations, and mental approaches between the two sports?
2. What wings &/or maneuvers best recreate the sensation of a carving a race ski?
3. Since your deep dive into PG, has skiing lost its allure?
4.    Would love to hear your perspective on how much the “survivor bias” that is inherent to the sport skews both the perception of risk as well as it’s practical mitigation.

Note: Survival bias is the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that made it past some selection process and overlooking those who did not, typically because of their lack of visibility. This can lead to false conclusions in several different ways. It is a form of selection bias.
Survivorship bias can lead to overly optimistic beliefs because failures are ignored, such as when companies that no longer exist are excluded from analyses of financial performance.

Unknown:

What does your X-Alps training look like?

6.    Is there an un-pioneered XC route that is on your wish/bucket list? Not a TX/Brazil distance feat, but a maybe a particularly rewarding triangle or mountain route?

Wrangells to Glacier Bay, AK. Tibet…Nevada. Caucases- Black Sea to Caspian Sea, Mt Elbrus

7.    Other than X-Alps, are there any hike & fly races that are on your bucket list?
8.    2021 X-Alps edition: would love a run-down of your goals, wing choice, & preparation milestones

Goals- process goals, performance goals. Wing choice. Books= “relentless” “You can’t hurt me” “Performance Paragliding” by Maxime Bellemin, “With Winning in Mind”…working with Thomas Theurillat– Making a game of the race, asking what is the opportunity instead of what is the risk, etc.

9.    If you couldn’t paraglide (or decide at some point not to) – what form of aviation would you turn to in order to fill the void, and why?

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