OMG

The title is of short text form because Don was suppose to write this flight log, seeing as Alex is not yet here to carry on the President’s Log. But we all know Ike is a pilot of few words … ah, typed words, that is.

Saturday arrivals were Duck & Ginger, Sharky, Larry & Adriana, Big Island John and finally Donna & Sidehill. Ike & Yolie and Mad Dog and Jeanine were already here for a few days. This day was a day to catch up on jet lag. A few even fell asleep at the table during dinner.

Sunday I woke fairly early and stood out on the lanai, cloud base very low and it was nippy. We made breakfast and during this time the weather started to clear. The next trip on to the lanai revealed the Chamonix Mountains and the infamous Mt. Blanc. I can not write the words to describe this vista hopefully we will have enough pictures but even those will not capture this area’s magnificence.

The monkeys started to chirp on the coconut wireless and planned to gather at the Brevant lifts around 9ish. Note: Ike wants to motion that we put a lift in at Kahana. I met a Brit pilot at the lift and apparently he knows one of the Monkeys to come. “You have a crazy guy, a fireman” He said, I replied “Oh, ya Fireman Dave, he gets here around the 5th”. The Brit said “Buggers, I have to leave on the 4th, tell him I said Hi and will be out to visit him one of these days” (sorry Dave I think his name was Biz or something, but Donna got a picture of him leaking at launch).

Big Island John has no problem going first. He was already flying around us while Ike, Yolie, Donna and I were on the lift. He buzzed over us and he was wearing shorts. Yes, shorts and his only comment was that he needed warmer gloves. I thought this is hopeful because I really don’t like cold.

When Ike & I got to launch we found Mad Dog, our injured guide, laid out, “I thought your back was killing you” Mad Dog replied that Sharky had graciously volunteered to carry his gear. Oh, Mad Dog hurt his back somehow just before getting on the plane earlier this week and was not planning to fly. Carrying his gear was bad but sitting in the harness was ok, so big kudos to Sharky for being a Sherpa. After 2 tries Mad Dog got sucked up off the grassy launch and off he flew.

Duck took off from the other side, Ike and I laid out and were shortly in the air. It was cold but I was bundled from head to toe. The thermals had not quite organized yet but for most of us it was the best extended sled ride ever. Now I did say most of us, one pilot, Mad Dog, had to stay up for ever and got super high.

The LZ was a huge grassy field with parapentes all over. We all landed and folded up and someone mentioned “Hey no sand in my wing, awesome”. Smiling monkeys all left the LZ to have lunch of begets, cheese and wine.

The afternoon session we piled into the Duck Tour bus and headed for Plaine Joux. This is where we all got some air, big air that is.

Big Island John again was the first to launch but at least this time he was dressed, he put on warmer gloves. Mad Dog and Ike launched then Duck and lastly Sidehill. Sharky elected not to fly yet till he had acquired more gear. Donna & Yolie were very grateful because they did not want to drive down from this launch.

While I was lying out, Mad Dog announced over the Radio “Some one landed behind launch on the ski slopes, hope it was not one of ours”. Shortly a response “Yah, It was me” Duck replied. Yes he was the first and only to top land of sorts. He quickly relaunched to join the gaggle of parapentes.

This place is huge. Ike’s goal was to reach the ridge face above and behind launch. He has had several flights here before and had never gotten up to the face. Well, today was the day - it was the day for all of us.

The thermals were rowdy down low but once well over tree line they were, well, just so much fun. We all got high and of course Mad Dog got the highest and disappeared around the corner. Ike & I were the closets to watch his Torque fade away. Just a note that will only make sense to Gene and Sammy on the Big Island, I got to see a lot of the top of Ike’s wing. I reached a personal record of 7398’ for an hour and half flight. Of course we started at 4500’ but you had to earn the elevation.

Big Island John was easy to spot, shorts, the only one; even the locals here gave him strange looks. He was soaring near the ridge and a huge eagle soared next to him. Apparently the eagle thought his attire was quite odd as well and gave him a good loud screech that I could hear from a ways behind him. He then headed across the valley to the other side just to see what was there and landed shortly after.

When time came to land I found some new skills that I need develop. How do you come down to an LZ that is like an air hockey rink? It was awesome at first, kind of like soaring the trees at KNA but with out those dam trees catching your lines, that was for Joey. But when I wanted to go down I couldn’t. My little wing overs that I had been practicing just were not cutting it. A few spirals did not drop me enough. I had tried big ears earlier because I watched other pilots use this to get down. Mad Dog had come all the way back from Never Never Land and landed before me. I was next with Ike and Duck on my trail. Finally I started some more wing overs that I thought were too close to the ground but apparently not and finally landed with Don & Duck on my heals.

Sharky chauffeured Donna & Yolie down from launch and I am sure there is a story about that. These roads are narrow twisting and these people are Indy drivers, well most of them we did get stuck behind one Hawaii driver on the way up that jammed up everything for a bit.

I had my first LZ beer and then a 2nd and then a 3rd when I brought all the glasses back to the bar across the street. The bartender is also a parapente. I informed him of the conclave of monkeys that were going to invade, so stock up. He said he looked forward to flying with us later this week. Yup, bar on the LZ no wonder Reaper likes it here so much, actually should not have singled him out all the monkeys would love this place.



It’s Time to Fly Get Your Gear & Go!!!!!!