SAFA Skysailor Magazine

8 SKY SAILOR January | February 2020 When I first heard the term ‘dune gooning’, it conjured images in my mind of cheap drunks, wine bladders in hand, rolling around on a sand dune. As entertaining as this brief thought was, I figured it was not the type of dune gooning my paragliding buddy was referring to… by Michael Long Dune Gooning I quickly learned that dune gooning, as it is affectionately known, is simply the act of flying sand dunes – at any beach that offered dunes with accommodating features. Apart from being a whole lot of fun, dunes are also very technical to fly, yet soft and forgiving to a certain extent. I have discovered enormous benefits to flying the dunes, beyond having more fun than I had anticipated. You will learn a lot about the characteristics of your wing rather quickly when flying dunes. You have a good reference (the dune) to judge how your wing reacts to different inputs and techniques, and when you do stuff up, most of the time you end up with little more than a full body exfoliation and a recalibrated attention to detail. Flying dunes will improve your depth perception, hone your wing handling, and at the right site, allow you seemingly endless launch and landing practice. Do not be fooled though: As with all flying, dunes come with their own inherent risks and they should be treated with the same amount of respect as any other type of flight. Specific risks include water landings, terrain collisions, and a very real risk of being blown over the back. Flying mini wings on the dunes is also common and popular when wind strength is too great for ‘big wings’. I won’t go into the specifics of mini wing flying – it is a topic unto itself – suffice to say that flying a mini wing is best left to advanced pilots who hold the appropriate endorsement. Minis come with extra considerations beyond those I outline here. There are a number of factors to consider when flying dunes, each addressed in the following: 1. Ground handling skills As with all flying, the mantra of ‘great ground handling skills, make you a safer pilot’ applies in full strength on the dunes. You need to be very comfortable with strong wind launches on the dunes, along with great overall wing control. While dune flying will improve your ground handling and general skill set exponentially, first practising in more forgiving wind strengths at your local park, oval or wide flat beach, will pay huge dividends, offering both comfort and safety when you hit the dunes. Hone your reverse launches, go through a series of ground handling exercises and practise tasks such as sitting down and getting back up while keeping the wing steady above your head, inflating the wing with different techniques and understanding what subtle line inputs do. By practising these tasks in particular, you will be better equipped to deal with unexpected forced landings on the dunes as well as traversing the uneven terrain. 2. Gear selection There are a lot of differing opinions and infor- mation available relating to gear selection. Ultimately though, the undertone of almost all literature comes back to the same point: Fly the gear you fly everyday. Use the wing and harness you use most often. You are already comfortable with this gear and you are further honing your familiarity skills. There is an argument that sand and sea air will degrade your gear faster – and with extended seaside use this is true – but let’s be realistic here: How many hours are you actually going to spend dune gooning versus flying coastal or inland? I would suggest the dunes will take up a very small percentage of your total flying time. Thus,