Some fine launches lately from Chiu, but his latest flight of Bridal was a great challenge with a huge surprise payoff - one of the best sunsets ever!

Honorable mentions to Aaron for his first east facing launch off the Chief.

Graham had two of his finest launches today - impressive since they were his first ever high flights, followed by a minimum of landing guidance. Honorable mentions to Golfer Joe and his flight today, after being away for almost two years!

Aaron managed quite a few nice launches this weekend, in high wind, and at one time he rushed from the tent (in his underwear) just in time to stop Chiu from being dragged; then on Monday he did his first B-stall and started experimenting with asymmetrical spirals.

What a weekend of flying for Aaron: countless flights at Whidbey, then after a four hour hike, he launch (from a new 6000’ site), flying over the top of the clouds and after two hours spot landed. Honable mentions to Chiu for completing the final novice maneuvers – he just needs two more flights for his rating!

Lots of great launches, acro and landings from Matt these day, nothing new, but today he did his first top landing at Bridal (then drove down the Deimos truck). Honable mention to Aaron for helping me guide some students.

Zenon managed to keep his wing over his head in sometimes bumpy air this week - climbing to more than 1000' over launch. Honourable mentions to Chiu for pulling off a few nice flights in tricky East wind conditions, and some huge (baby?) acro!

Patrick has been flying a lot these days, and he finally started going through the Deimos Novice maneuvers. Today he finished the last of the acro moves and received his HPAC Novice rating. Honorable mentions to Shane for his multiple top landings.

For a pilot with only three flights, Zenon was looking very impressive with his reverse and forward launches - too bad it was a little too windy to fly solo at Whidbey today.

Honorable mentions to Little Dan for many sucessfull flights at Whidbey today.

Great progress from Andrei these days – I guess coming out to flying three times a week helps!

At just 20 flights, Chiu had the perfect flight: a great launch, solo flight to upper launch, then cross country to base of Cheam, then long glide into the LZ for a soft landing – more than two hours in the air. Well done indeed!

Aaron was once again priceless: landing students left and right and some times center, prefaced by near perfect launches and hour long scratching sessions. Honourable mentions to Dan for his first Birkenhead flight.

Even though Rick continues to get sick in the air, he is always keen to fly. On the ground he is always there to help carry gear, roll up wings or offer to drive the truck. Yesterday he was in command of our tandem for about half an hour before it became too bumpy,and time to remove some internal ballast. If Rick can somehow get over his motion sickness, his story and effort will be legendary!

After a quick phone call from Tom in Toronto informing him of the Deimos site being down, Aaron was able to make a quick save and have it back up in a few hours. Good job Aaron!

Aaron confidence could not be much higher, I’m not sure if it’s the wing he is flying or the skills he has learned, but this weekend he set more personal bests by flying 3+ hours, cross country trips to new a remote LZ, out and return trips to Cheam, and his first (guided) top landing at Bridal.

It was like there was a spot light on Aaron all weekend: First to Karin after her incident, first in the air at Savona, best spot landing at Savona, first off King Eddie with top landing at Baldy, help to guide in students, first off Mt Vernon, and driver for our new Lakeside site.

Dan continues to improve on each flight: on Friday he launched, after Aaron, and headed over to Harvest West LZ. Once we lost sight of him, we started driving down. When we arrived at the LZ Dan was MIA. Then a few minutes later he finally headed out to the LZ – not before climbing back up to a few hundred feet over take off. This was also his first reverse launch on his new Style 28 wing. Well done!

Honourable mentions to Owen and Jonathon who did a great job helping me teach a dozen grade 10 students - many thanks.

Once again, Samuel gave up his own flight to allow others to fly – this is becoming a common scene these days – much appreciated by all.
Honourable mentions to Patrick for finally do his first twist-around, and Zenon for his first solo flight.

We all had difficult launch conditions at Ripley’s, but new Novice rated student, Owen with just 31 flights, nailed the launch and landing. He also showed his wisdom by not flying when the conditions were too much for him.

Owen bravely followed the selected intermediate students, and myself, on his first big cross country flight to Butterfly and back. At one point he was in big trouble and would likely have to force a landing on the highway or trees, but with some guidance, he was able to scratch back up and eventually land at Bridal LZ.

Some great progress from all the students that came out this week, but Dan had two great days of flying - logging a few more hours of air time, including a low save at Woodside and corrrection of a 50% collapse (at Bridal during his take off).

Some great flying was noted from all pilots, but my newest student Brent (with no solo flights) shined the brightest today: on a beautiful Sunday, he volunteered to run a full First Aid course to a lucky group of pilots, tailoring the course to our many questions and paragliding scenarios.

Shane managed his best cross country todate, following me to Ludwig and back to Bridal (more than 36 km). He got low in a few spots but slowly climbed back up to complete our flight back to Bridal take off. Unfortunately, he missed his approach and landing slightly short on his top landing – no damage to pilot or gear.

Diane’s baby spirals looked small to us, but I bet felt big to her. Congratulations on finishing your Deimos Novice rating!

Dave really set himself a new bar to high jump: find Elk parking lot, hike up and launch all by him self! Next time start a few hours earlier so we don’t have to worry, oh yah, bring a head lamp!

"Super hero" of the week is Chiu: not only did he make a special effort to pick up Aaron, Brent and Melba, but he helped configure the new Deimos forum and web camera – now on line! A bonus was his first winter flight, of 2007, off Bridal Falls in tough conditions. Honorable mentions to Aaron for his hiking efforts and great aborts (at Bridal this Sunday) - unheard of for a student with less than 40 flights.

Last year it was TJ that got back on the horse (after his big fall), this weekend Samuel had to fight with his inner demons. His flight was much the same, as his Sept 30th flight, but with a much softer landing. Welcome back Samuel!