Why Don’t You Take a Flying…

A memorable first was taking that advice and paragliding off the side of a mountain in the Swiss Alps a couple years back. Not having had any formal training I chose to jump with an experienced para-glider. The first picture was me getting strapped in. “It’s just those strings that will be holding us up?”
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The tricky part is running in tandem down the hill to get air into the sail. I am really going to do this? “How often have you done this in the past?” I ask. This is where the adrenaline starts pumping.
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We lift off the ground and 5 seconds later we are out over the cliff edge with a few hundred feet of air between us and the ground way below. “Whoooooaaaa, shit!!!”
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My career had me physically in high places but this is way higher than I’ve ever been with just a piece of silk holding me up. I am amazed at how comfortable I get. We have a beeping altimeter that tells us if we are going up or down. I am such a featherweight that the warm updraft off the stone cliffs gives us lift and we start climbing. Round and round we go staying in the draft close to the rock cliff face. My pilot has been on the controls but he asks if I want to try my hand at them. “If you trust me, I got it!” And he coaches me into a gentle turn, me holding tightly to the control handles, easing one down gently.
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I didn’t pay to have us go over the mountain so we start our descent. It takes a lot less time to go down than it took us to climb to where we started. “Remind me again, how do we land without breaking bones?”The landing is perfect, again running in tandem as we touch down. My mate, waiting below, couldn’t watch the landing but was happy to take a picture when I was again standing nearby in one piece. Only then could we share the story about why the air ambulance had landed above just before we took off. “Damn that was fun...but I think a one-and-done on that adventure.”
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