Close Call during a 100km out and back - paragliding

[@maximilianchristl674]

The combination of the 3D Map view and the 360 cam footage is excellent. One of the best flight documentation I have seen so far. Really well edited. Great! Glad everything worked out well

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you very much!! Glad you enjoyed it, working on getting better at this editing thing. :) Yeah me too, I was really happy to make it to the sunny side of the mountain.

[@mwigman0001]

What a nice summary, greatly appreciated, thanks!

[@FlyingKarlis]

Glad it was helpful!

[@DarrenGoodlad]

I love the 360 views while you're thermalling, so cool watching the cloud develop above you super fast speed 🥰

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you, if only it would be as easy to spot them in real time :) It's really clear in the video when the cloud is growing and when not, not always it is as clear during the flight. I have filmed every flight this year, with more bad weather days I will make some more. :)

[@DarrenGoodlad]

@@FlyingKarlis cool, totally dig your videos, so much information, can't wait to be back in the Alps 🤘

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you, glad you find them useful! Are you comming towards South of France?

[@DarrenGoodlad]

@@FlyingKarlis yeah we'll be back 3rd September. Hopefully we'll bump into you again!!

[@michasikora6522]

That suspense music and low save was riveting! 😯🎉🙌

[@FlyingKarlis]

Yeah, it sure felt riveting while doing it as well 😯

[@ganzenveer7805]

wow, thank you for this lesson learned.

[@FlyingKarlis]

Glad it could help. 🥰

[@schoolcomputingmathsdigial3768]

Fantastic commentary and visuals - very informative throughout, learnt a lot. must get back to Chabre (used to HG there, but not been back since I moved to PG).

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you so much for your comment! Glad you enjoyed the content! Chabre is a great place for both Han gliders and Paragliders, I have been flying here for the last 5 years, love it!

[@Les__Mack]

Nice flight. Thanks for taking me along.

[@FlyingKarlis]

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it.

[@joshmedina5471]

Dude, that’s amazing! Y’all paragliders just think on a whole different level! At some point I hope to transition from paramotors to free flight. 🤙

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thanks, we do have to understand the air a bit more as we are way more dependent on it.

[@FlyWithSergio]

Sooooooooooooo cool editing and WOW! 200km in a strike! You have such a great skills! Thanks for the video!

[@FlyingKarlis]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@ferelo9538]

Really good, well explained, and interesting videos, very usefull and didactic. Thanks

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you! 🥰 Glad you found it usual.

[@SkidzFPV]

Very nice flight, like the 3-d map and explanations

[@FlyingKarlis]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed the video!

[@ludocean]

Amazing, crazy, and so hard and beautifull 🤩👍💪

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thanks 😊

[@ivicatic]

That was tense :D Better then any thriller movie ;) happy you reached your goal ;)

[@FlyingKarlis]

Yes! Thank you! It was tense indeed, while re-watching my heart rate goes up as well.

[@youtischia]

Lovely video as usual. But at 9:08 it looks bad. Big rocks below. If you had needed to land, where would you have gone ? Deliberately into a tree to miss the rocks ?

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you, glad you enjoy these! Yeah, I would have landed in the softest looking tree near by. Even later near the large cliff I was considering 'toplanding it' or tale the near by trees. Last 30 seconds was the most nerve wrecking, as ther could have been more sink, with a gust of wind or thermal triggering on the upwind side.

[@jerbearflying9305]

Great vid 👍

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! :)

[@ozoneswiftak]

I'm guessing you can land in these vallys, and find a ride. Theres no way I'm hiking 50 miles. Great video. No music. Thank you

[@FlyingKarlis]

Most places where I fly has roads near by and it dose not require me to walk more than a few hours at a time. This is one of the reasons I love flying in Southern France.

[@emiliegraille508]

Nice flight! Just a word of caution, be mindful regarding the VMC, you are regularly in the cloud. Just in case another aircraft comes around.

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thanks.

[@roshanlobo-avianhumanoid5380]

Wow .. you just made it .. a Lovely video tho. got to learn a lot ..

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you, glad you found it useful!

[@mozartantonio1919]

great comenting and video.

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you, glad you liked it!

[@PieterBaele]

Quite tricky and messy. Yes indeed it is ;-)

[@FlyingKarlis]

Yup, didn't like it at all. 😐

[@andrewpearse53]

Hi Karlis, Many thanks for sharing the good bits and the tricky bits. I have two questions. At 8.50 why didn't you turn back to the fields to your right - it looks like you could have got to them easily - were you focused on closing the out and return? Secondly when you are right in the bad place you are using nearly full bar - was it really sinky? Cheers, Andrew

[@FlyingKarlis]

Hi Andrew, Glad you find it useful 🥰 By the time I got there, the fields seemed a riscky proposition. As I was hugging the tree line that had some lift, if I would have moved away, most likely it would have been more sinking air. I had decent glide and I knew the place, that the mountain is getting lower. Also by this time changing plan didn't seem as a good option, as every meter of altitude counts. If I would have moved around more, I would have risked the tree landing more. Speed bar I used because of turbulence, wings tend to cut through the air better when accelerated, I cept controlling the pitch with speed bar and C steering, this way I have a lot less drag and a lot more efficient cutting through the air to move forward, I moved back to the breaks once the air got more turbulent and bubbly. I find that speed bar plus C's gives better control in situations like this with a lot less drag. If I would have used just the breaks, I would sink out into the trees most likley.

[@istrasoft]

Great stuff as always. Be more careful indeed, this did indeed not have enough margin ... Where to you have your camera attached btw ?

[@FlyingKarlis]

Thank you! I agree it was too close for my own comfort! I have the camera on a selfie stick attacked on the side of the harness pointing about in the middle in front of me. I also have external batter to keep it charged for the entire flight and a 400 GB SD card that can record 11 h of 4K footage. Which I clear out and back up after every flight.

[@istrasoft]

@@FlyingKarlis Thanks a lot for the detailed description ! Wow 11h is certainly very ambitious ! I didn't even know we had 400 GB sd cards now haha ! I wish my PG level required such big cards :) haha, thanks for all the tips and videos man ! be safe !

[@FlyingKarlis]

@Alexandre I've flown a few times 9h, 10 and 11 isn't impossible here in Alps. There are even 1TB cards these days, as we move into 8K era.. I'm still making the videos in HD just filming in 4k to have better options for framing. Also my computer isn't able to edit 4K in any reasonable way 😅😅 Glad you're enjoy the content! Thank you for taking your time and commenting.

[@istrasoft]

@@FlyingKarlis very welcome ! yep about the alps it seems so. i have a friend who just made almost 6h in Niesen while before that he only ever reached about 2 hours like me, pretty magical but also very difficult ! and well about 8k honestly barely anyone has 4k displays to watch youtube anyway so unless it's for an actual movie ...

[@Itsallgoodtogo]

That speedbar control :) Keeping the wing above your head with the sped bar is the most efficient glide. Did your legs hurt a bit? :D Mine do.

[@FlyingKarlis]

They sure do, 2 days ago I flew for 10h. Touching down my legs was quite weak, I almost fell over just from trying to walk 😅

[@CoIoneIPanic]

Dood why did you get so low in that canyon and the living F did you get out?? What were you going to do when you thought you were boxed? were you looking for a tree or something to ditch?? Explain your thinking please

[@FlyingKarlis]

Why did I get into it... mostly pushing too close to terrain to see how low it works, this is my local area where I fly a lot. Every now and then I like to see how far I can push it safely to optimize my average speed over large distances. All the rest of the times I've flown here, I've always been higher than the ridge. Since I also keep higher than the ridge or jump East instead of West (west is in this video) if I am getting too low. That would be thinking. The mistake was that I misjudged the conditions and there was too much wind from the west down low that created too much sinky air in the area as well as skipping some thermals well before to keep going straight. I did look at multiple alternative options, there where some tiny fields in glide, as I was considering them I got a bit of lift and the line I took, looked doable. So I went with it. As you can see in the video, I was not happy with my self not at all, I hate it when I make calls like this. I am doing my best to avoid getting myself in situations like these.

[@CoIoneIPanic]

@Flying Karlis you should have been more afraid than you were. I have crashed seriously before. Now I am very cautious.

[@FlyingKarlis]

Fear - will not get me anywhere. I should have been more cautious that I agree with.

[@kaicasswell1]

but what happened to your glove!

[@FlyingKarlis]

I take them off every now and then. Sometimes to use my phone, which is also my flight computer. Sometimes I take them off, when I know I'll be flying low for a while. I don't like to overheat.