Flying Malaysia

[mcelrah]

Paragliding Accuracy World Cup at Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. First (practice) day. The Thai, Indonesian, Taiwanese, Slovenian, Serbian, Montenegrin pilots are quite good at spot landings. I am not - but the entry fee includes hotel, meals, rides up the hill - and a subsidized climb up 12500 foot Mt Kinabalu (porter to carry PG) with the possibility of flying down IF conditions permit. - Hugh

[hang_pilot]

Mt Kinabalu is the 20th highest peak in the world in terms of prominence. Do you know the alt of the LZ, i.e. is a 12k sled possible? I'm thinking that the hike alone will be amazing, I don't have words to describe the potential flight.



Maybe a cloud dive?



Have fun and be safe!

Best,
Daniel

[mcelrah]

Did and did! Hard climb from 6k to 10200 foot lodge. Got soaked by rain, stripped and got in dormitory bed to warm up. Hearty dinner with international climbing crowd. Bought dry socks and boot drying service - this meant leaving boots at lodge and climbing 150 meters to dorm barefoot on wet rocks, then down in the dark for 2 am breakfast, but it was worth it. Hypoxic climb with headlamp and trekking pole to 4095 meter summit. Carried Serbian flag in daypack for Serb pilot photo. Back down to 12500 foot level (bottom of long slope in photo Daniel posted) where porters had our PGs by sunrise. Predominant wind was over the back, but once at launch there were short weak lee side incoming cycles. Porters were enthusiastic for us to fly ( they wouldn't have to carry them back down - I was not looking forward to hiking down with sore knees either!). Mine, who probably weighs 140, had hiked my 44 pound glider and harness; he's already got 45 PG flights, was helpful sorting my lines for requisite committed forward launch. Thin air with light wind meant ya gotta run like hell - difficult to exert that much effort at altitude after climbing for 4 hours. Serb guy went first, looong run on somewhat irregular surface. I was second, picking a shorter run that I thought I could sustain at good speed and keep the glider overhead - and whaddaya know, the damned glider picked me up comfortably before the cliff edge! Smooth air - no problem letting go of the brakes to do photography ( will post link once Sallie brings the laptop back from a work trip to Mindanao - she's having her own adventures - Mindanao is normally off limits to embassy community due to kidnappings- too bad: best flying site in the Philippines is there!). Half hour 8000 foot sled to LZ next to roundabout in "downtown" Ranau, trucks honking as each of us landed. Six of ten pilots who climbed got launch able cycles. One Thai pilot had a blown launch, fell 30 feet on steep cliff below edge, both shoes came off, broke small bone in foot, saved by glider catching on rock, rescue squad used ropes to bring him back up, then 8 guys carried him down the mountain on a stretcher in 5 hours. Unaware of this emergency, those of us who flew celebrated with chicken wings and durian (stinky fruit) - Malaysia is majority Muslim, so beer is not always available. Two hour van ride to modern port city (250k population) of Kota Kinabalu. Dato ("Sir") Seri Tengku Zainal Adlin, a member of Malay nobility, director of Sabah tourism, honorary president of the flying club and a dozen other organizations, had us out to his country retreat, a collection of traditional Malay bamboo structures, for dinner and presentation of large format aerial photo of the mountain while on a search and rescue flight.
I should add that the international camaraderie at the Paragliding Accuracy World Cup was also a highlight of this trip. I now have Facebook friends whose posts I cannot read!
- Hugh

[Matthew]

That's too AWESOME!!!

Can't wait for the pics!

Matthew

[mcelrah]

Here they are:


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... d7f8270e75

[jyoder111]

Hugh, when you get back, you'll have to start organizing some of those song, drum, and dance routines for our Fly-ins, ok? Nice pics.

Jesse