Last hurrah in the Philippines

[mcelrah]

Today was a Philippine Department of Tourism-sponsored press day for sporting venues at the municipality of Carmona in Cavite Province, our dry-season/east monsoon flying site 40 minutes from downtown Manila. It's only a 210 foot ridge, but the wind is so consistent that you can pretty much count on soaring every time you come out - IF you bring the right equipment! I am the sole active hang-glider pilot in the country I think; I have a student who now has a glider (purchased from Richard Hays and imported all the way to here - long story), but she is on sabbatical to have a baby. Another couple of guys have flown my glider on winch tow, but one of them has tried and failed to launch at Carmona - the soft vegetation below launch, banana trees and tall grass, make it a fairly benign "training hill" albeit on top of a 200 foot ridge. Paragliding is king here - but still tiny - maybe a dozen pilots in the metro Manila area, another hot spot at General Santos on the southern island of Mindanao. To deal with the often strong monsoon wind, pilots quickly learn to transition seamlessly from full-size cross-country paragliders to smaller wings and speed wings as conditions require.

Today was also exactly 3 months since I had surgery to repair my shattered left femur (paragliding accident, naturally, but I never left the ground - got jerked at the beginning of a winch tow, stomped down to avoid a face plant and the leg collapsed - another long story). Doing physical therapy, I can walk, climb and descend stairs, but am far from 100% for running and jumping; I had been looking for an opportunity to get back in the air with favorable conditions. It was blowing 12-15 and building and only speedwing paragliders were flying, so all I had to do was limp/gimp a couple of steps and I was airborne. The press corps - a bus load, with many big-lens cameras both still and video - had just arrived and I felt obliged to stay up to give them something to look at at the "Carmona Airsports Venue" before they would leave for lunch and the nearby horse racing and go-kart tracks. Conditions were strongish and "textured" but no challenge compared to a post-frontal day at Woodstock. My Falcon III 170 is the perfect tool for the job, maneuverable close to the ridge, but immune to the bumps and cloud suck that cause PGs to make precautionary landings here as things pick up at midday. Having proven my point after 75 minutes, getting hungry and interested in peeing, I landed with my mid-week flying buddies on speed wings, Uwe (German) and Olivier (French) - they're stay-at-home dads whose wives have high-powered careers in Manila. The wind was even stronger and punchier, making it easy to hover in for a two-step landing.

We leave the Philippines to return to the DC area in 3 weeks; pack out is in one week, so I have to short-pack the Falcon next week. I had hoped to sell the glider to an individual or consortium just to keep it in the country - the Asia Beach Games in 2014 will have a hang-gliding event and southeast Asian nations are training up HG teams - this is a forcing function to develop hang-gliding as the "big brother" to paragliding in these rapidly developing nations with burgeoning middle classes. But the one guy with disposable cash backed out, so I am happy to keep this perfect tool for many (but not all) jobs... Pictures follow.

Looking forward to reconnecting to you all soon! - Hugh

[jyoder111]

Hugh, I've enjoyed reading your reports and seeing the occasional photo and video of your time there. Will be good to have you back!

Jesse