Thermaling/XC clinic in Brazil

[mingram]

So I'm a new P2 (just got my USHPA yesterday) and I'm overly excited and I need some advice. I'm thinking hard about a trip to Governador Valadares, Brazil in February for a thermaling/XC clinic with my instructors from Eagle Paragliding. Instruction is $150/day and transportation including a visa will cost about $1500. It seems really expensive and rushed since I only have 2 total hours of flight time and have only taken 4 mountain flights, but it may be a great way to get a ton of flight time and solidify my new skills which should make me a better/safer pilot.

Most non-pilots are telling me to slow down, but if I have the time and money the training and experience may be worth it. Or am I still too green and a trip that expensive won't be as worthwhile until I've had more flight time? My goal is to learn to soar safely and become a regular in this club.

Anyone else been to GV?

Matt

[Matthew]

Go man. GO!!!!

I went there as a P2 and Karen went as a P1 and got her P2 there. We were, however, Hang 3s at the time. So the HG experience helped in judging conditions. Still, there were a lot of P2s there and it's a great place to learn to thermal in gentle conditions in a paraglider-- it was for me anyway. I've heard stories that it can get rowdy at certain times of the year. But if you are going with instuctors, you should be OK. My only advice is to bring a radio and make sure the instructors also have radios in which you can communicate while flying.

Matthew

[brianvh]

You don't need to get the ham radios most pilots eventually end up with: FRS ("family" or "farm") radios from radio shack will do the trick, are cheap and are fine for any P2/H2 activities.

The Ham radios are really only needed for doing ridge runs or going XC. 80% of your flying activity needs will be covered by FRS unless you become a serious XC pilot. The problem is, you can't talk to the Ham radio people, only other FRS people. So start with FRS and move up later - you have time.

[Matthew]

One more thing-- don't go in the clouds!

When we were there, our instructor told us it was OK to go into the clouds because it's not a flight violation and becasue "well ,if you go in the cloud, then everyone else knows it's your cloud".

Uh... no!

So stay out of the clouds.

Matthew

[mingram]

I made it to Brazil and I'm having a blast. Thanks Matthew for helping talk me into it!

I took a tandem on Tuesday with my instructor Kevin McGinley and ended up going XC about 30km and touched my first cloud! We had a full frontal, an 80% deflation, and a low save at the beginning of that same flight. What an introduction! The mountain we fly from, Ibituruntu, is shear rock and gets really spicy at times.

Deflation :


Cloudbase:


I had my first real thermal action today. It was cloudy and rained a bit this morning, but it was nice and calm this afternoon and I got 30+ minutes in an 1200 ft. over launch. Kevin followed me the entire way. I had to use Big Ears for the first time to get away from the cloud. I'm loving life!

Governador Valadares, Brazil

[mingram]

I'm not sure why those videos didn't link in. Here's a link to all 5 in order.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 196697DE46

I forgot to mention that there were 3 reserves thrown that same day (by pilots on competition wings, at least) and one guy misjudged his glide and landed in the river, but still got his gear back. Needless to say, I'm only flying in the calmer morning and evening conditions for now.

[chgpa]

Hi Matt, fixed the youtube links for you.

To embed video in the forums, take the identifier of your youtube video
(which is the alphanumeric string after "v=" in a youtube URL), enter that
string in your forum post (no 'http', just the identifier), double-click on the
identifier, and then click on the 'youtube' button that is located above the
window where you are composing your forum post.

Cheers!

[pink_albatross]

jealous!!!
but thanks for sharing! looking forward to more!
-- ellis (being greedy)