Oregami in Oregon

Over the last three days, I lost 27,000 feet of altitude in a matter of minutes, mostly while clenching on to my risers fully terrified as I watched 27 meters of wing reduced to about 3 meters of angry flapping nylon as I plummeted out of the sky in a head down position. I was doing exactly opposite of what 10 years of muscle memory have taught me - why am I burying only the left brake and holding it there as the wing starts spinning like a roulette wheel?

I flew my boom sport, my old Quarx, and a Gin Ganster. The boom sport was such a pleasure to full stall as compared to the Quarx - the Quarx was a nightmare - the surge on it was unstoppable on a few occasions and free falling looking down at the TOP of the wing releases a strange mix of chemicals into your bloodstream. The loud pop in my neck as the lines went tight was probably good as it must have released a bunch of scar tissue from my old neck injury...

The Gin Ganster belonged to Dave Cantrell and his small wing and harness are built for acro, and it felt pretty safe as Brad G talked me through a couple of SAT's.

The clinic was run by Kevin Lee and Brad Gunnuscio, with Stu Caruk operating the most reliable tow boat on this earth.

I plucked out many cravats on my boom sport and learned a lot about how to make it fly when it tries to go "Oregami" on me.

No more G's for a while I hope.

Ciao