HGFA Skysailor Magazine

26 SKY SAILOR May | June 2019 understanding of the top-landing process. I was mesmerised because I hadn’t done a top landing before, I was also pretty nervous. Conditions were on the strong side so I hung back towards the back of the group and pretended to be too busy to launch. Mark was setting up his own tandem wing and spotted me avoiding eye contact. He smiled and said, “You wanna to go for a tandem, buddy?” I jumped at the opportunity and we launched effortlessly. Mark immediately put me at ease with casual conversation, then had me flying the tandem under his guidance while he gave me another in-air full site brief. Mark was pointing at landmarks and provided historical information about the site and area, he demonstrated several top landing approach angles and let me pilot the tandem so I got a feel of what to expect when I would fly solo. This made a huge difference, because now the dark art of top-landing was demystified. This was the benefit of touring with these lads: If at any time you felt you wanted to work on an aspect of pilotage, the opportunity was always there to do a tandem. More on that later. We landed and it was time for me to launch my own wing. Conditions were still stronger than I had experienced at home on the coast. The boys assisted me and coached me through the cobra launch method. Later, I was en-route to my first top-landing under the watchful eye of Mark. Even though we’d not long before done it in the tandem, I have to admit that my heart was absolutely pumping! Lining my first one up… Damn it! I botched it. Not enough brake and not far enough back. Bugger. It’s a wonderful head-game, knowing where to position yourself and how much brake to have on and when. Such a delicate dance. My memory of a cold winter at home quickly diminished once I soared around beautiful cliff-tops in the warm breeze, the sun kissing my white body. The Cloudbase team have a great radio presence and their calming voices make you feel at ease, even when what you’re doing isn’t going to plan. I had a target fixation issue the boys helped me with and I was stoked with that. One thing I found really useful was simply flying around listening to the radio, and observing the calls associated with what others were doing. I had a huge number of ‘Aha!’ moments where things just clicked for me. I even got proficient in the cobra launch technique during my time in Bali! There’s excellent food and drink on offer on the hill. The Balinese are a crucial part of the Cloudbase Indonesian team. You will have your favourite ice- cold drink in your hand while you watch your wing be expertly folded. There were other great parts to the tour that I didn’t expect, like the poolside evening debriefs and Steve’s morning surf and scooter tours. Steve would lead a convoy of bikes and riders in matching Cloudbase shirts around all the hidden spots that I would’ve never found without him – from supermarkets to all the great little restaurants the locals go to with all of the best food. Amazing! At night, the tour would meet up again for fun group dinners and families are always welcomed to join in. The latter part of the week had me perfecting touch and gos, after repeated coaching and increased personal confidence. I executed more cobra launches and even accomplished landing with big ears in the stronger stuff. Exhilarating! Geoff took me on another tandem to teach me wingovers and 360-degree turns – it was awesome. Every tandem was a teaching moment, so I never turned tandems down. Thanks, Geoff! After the daily morning briefings, there were clinics on cross-country flying, route planning, gear inspections, ridge soaring strategies, ratings progression, and reserve repacking. You could turn up for as little or as much as you wanted, so I pigged out on all of this free information, soaking up as much as I could. The afternoon post-flight feel was just excellent. Standing around with my new friends on the hill with big smiles on our sun-kissed faces. The boys have a ritual of beers and debriefs by the pool until it was dinner time and we went out to find a new restaurant every night. Sometimes as a whole group and sometimes with just a small silo of new buds. Awesome opportunity to meet a bunch of flying mates. Overall, I highly enjoyed the Cloudbase tour. The Darran who arrived vs. the Darran that left was a completely different pilot. I gained a huge amount of skill and confidence, and met some new paragliding buddies. On a personal level, I haven’t had much of a family upbringing, so what I felt and experienced from Cloudbase was special to me and won’t be forgotten. Bali 2019 – the journey continues Last year, I didn’t really know what to expect from a tour of this nature and quickly found it was very inclusive for partners and families. So this year I am taking my wife, my three-year old, 13 and 15-year old kids with me on tour. I can’t wait. I enthusiastically share this as a reminder to Mark that as a returning pilot, I get my name on my shirt this year! Photos: Mark Rossi Charming The Cobra