Happy New Year, Bring it on!

Chinese (and Korean!) New Year, on the second new moon after winter solstice, is a more fitting date to mark a new year than the Western alternative. The days are lengthening, and—for frustrated soaring pilots like me—the first breaths of spring thermals are just around the corner.

This time last year, I was psyched up for an assault on the UK XC league. But “life” got in the way—work, family and plain bad luck. My season was epitomized by a 2 week holiday at the end of July—the only flyable day turned out to be the only day that I was not free to go flying on. Desperation set in. Not achieving my goal was driving me mad.

My luck eventually turned in August, on our family holiday in Slovenia. I had some of the best flying in my life, my first proper mountain flying for years. I rediscovered my love of big air and big mountain scenery. There’s no substitute for the feeling of sheer energy you get when you’re banked round in a thermal flying at 25mph and climbing at over 10mph vertically. Rock faces rush past, then fade into insignificance as you hit the white fluffy stuff.

Another source of inspiration towards the end of 2009 was the series of articles on pilotage in Parapente Mag by David Eyraud. I realized that there’s so much to more to learn—and so much fun to be had—even on “boring soaring” days, even on my local grey UK hills. XC flying does not have to be the be-all-and-end-all.



So for 2010, I plan to build on these sources of inspiration. I don’t know when I’ll have chance to fly. But whenever I do, I’ll forget my goals and simply enjoy each day to the max.

As the great Slovenian Himalayan climber Nejc Zaplotnik wrote, we all should live and appreciate every single day:

Kdor isce cilj, bo ostal prazen, ko ga bo nasel.
Kdor najde pot, bo cilj vedno nosil v sebi.

Literally in English: He who is looking just for the goal, will stay empty when he finds it.
But the one who finds the way, will always carry his goal inside.

To me, these words are a nice reminder that the journey is more important than the destination. It’s a philosophy that’s nothing new to many of us, but it’s easy to keep forgetting it within the confines of our everyday modern existence.

My 2009 season in brief

Total number of days flown = 28

Despite missing all the best UK XC days, I did actually fly on more days than last year, due to flying more locally for the odd hour between work and the school run.

Total hours flown = 40 ish

About the same as last season.

Number of XC flights = 6

(4 in Slovenia), total distance = about 300 km

Longest XC = 103 km free triangle

From Stol, Slovenia. A few records went that day from Sorica, world female out and return and UK tandem out and return. Brett Janaway of XTC made 200K O/R.

Number of new sites flown = 2

Stol, one of the classic sites of the Southern Alps.

Model ridge, a classic Northerly site in the NE of England—odd that I’d never made the trip there, somehow I always head for Lords Seat in Derbyshire in a Northerly.

Lesssons learned

To make the most of any day you can get out on. Whether it be XC, pilotage exercises or even just groundhandling.
To just “go your own way”, to set your own agenda about what you want, and what it is possible for you to achieve, from flying.