Paragliding On The Rocks: How To Become An Early Riser

Join Greg on a west-facing mountain slope early in the day, as we try and stay aloft together and work the scraps of lift to avoid an embarrasing landing at the base of the pass.
In this episode: investigating sloping terrain, keeping turns flat and tight, turning before you leave the lift, matching your proximity with your skill level, looking for recurring patterns to find lift, gliding fast and straight in sink, using figure-of-eights to follow the lift, alternating between lift sources, being patient and working for every metre.
#xcsecrets #thermaling #paraglidingtips
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[@2rRas]

Thank you Greg. I'm learning so much of this particular video, as it is quite similar to my flying site. I found myself inadvertently weightshifting on my sofa.

[@greg26e]

"1st of January 2020, let the flying begin, I intend to fly as much as I can"... DAMMIT! That hasn't really worked out for us 😖 I hope you and the flybubble team are staying safe and well Greg!

[@joshheater]

These kind of little videos are good as gold. Preflight site overview and inflight decision making. I feel like I there with you learning about the new site. There more sites we learn to read with you, the better pilots we all become where ever we live in the world.

[@martinschulz1524]

Feed like a condor watching this. Very nice.

[@adamedgar5765]

great video...one can easily see how just a bit of grit and determination can make all the difference. Knowing one should turn in the lift, and actually doing it are very different things. Its almost as if the body and mind are saying "no-no, dont turn you will sink out" has us blindly going headlong straight through lift sources losing any advantage even that 1 metre of height gain has provided. we then are forced to turn in the sink and lose bucket loads of height in the process. Love the video. This would have to be one of my favorite flybubble videos. I will refer to it often!

[@NelsonsWings]

Looks like one of our launches... except we dont have a bulldozed clearing lol. Lovely proximity work, fun to watch!

[@carlsjoquist4299]

Great verbalization of your stream-of-conscientiousness - way cool flying, thanks Greg

[@karelchevalking]

So grateful for your video’s Greg! Your ability to fly and give explanatory comment is amazing. I have not just learned so much from these video’s but they have also inspired me and my flying buddies. Please do keep the video’s coming!!!!

[@abbott876]

This is awesome Greg. Thanks!

[@oviniciusmansur]

Great job! Congrats!

[@countryliving3930]

Great Video Greg!

[@Warbird-Aviation]

One of the best clips!!! great

[@AviationSports1978]

Beautiful flying nicely done.

[@leonalden8866]

Awsome loved watching this. Thankyou

[@n8slittleworld]

I always love your videos. Especially ones like this that you really help to build confidence while staying perfectly calm and cool :). Thanks for making this video!

[@HirenMistryhirenhcm]

Thanks again for this amazing video. Please more of such videos.

[@pastyves]

Super informative as always! Thanks Greg!!!

[@gadgetgeorge]

Very helpful. Thanks Greg 👍

[@flyshacker]

Very inspiring! I love to watch you talk through your flying skills. Great teacher!

[@LernGuru]

Thanks Greg. Great Lesson during lockdown...

[@DougBowman6]

Thank you for sharing! Excellent work. I appreciate your narration of the flight :)

[@keawewong6110]

Great video. I learned a lot. Thanks!

[@romeromf]

Awesome work!, thanks for sharing your knowledge in a very easy to understand manner!

[@ChrisJewell7333]

Very impressive...! Thanks for sharing

[@bitsnz1837]

Fantastic vid Greg.. Real nostalgia trigger, launch & recovery look like a significant improvement..

[@MitchG]

That's some professional flying! Very challenging but so satisfying when you climb above launch.

[@SemiFlyingPharmacist]

Great video, thanks!

[@johnwagenhals881]

this place is amazing! and your tutorials are spot on.,,thank you for sharing")

[@roshanlobo-avianhumanoid5380]

Loved the video and the content. Learnt a lot.. Thank you 👍

[@crimsonraen]

The scratchiest of scratching, nice! Thanks for the video, Greg! :)

[@SergeRomano]

Awesome job and video... Very instructional

[@mmpatriot2170]

Great instruction. I love how you give us your continuous thoughts and strategy. Thanks!

[@mbrunnme]

God these videos are good. Thanks for sharing your skills. I was on the edge of my seat watching the work get put in and the strategies paying off.

[@StanBarankiewicz]

Loved your commentary on how you thermal in light conditions! Very helpful indeed!!

[@laniik]

Awesome, I love the commented flights, more of those please!

[@lauraagazzi6629]

I watched the video last night and put it into practice today. Very useful 😊

[@jonasadanielsson]

Where are you flying Greg?

[@nanotech2691]

Cool video Greg, thanks for the input. I believe it'll help my flying performance to improve.

[@alexalexis6342]

Great job thank you 🙏

[@jerrydelyea5820]

love it I love working light lift.

[@AP-gn9fd]

Great video, awesome skills.

[@Larzemensch]

That was a nice one!

[@warsztatpodchmurka]

Rewelacja, jestem początkujący i bardzo dużo się od Ciebie uczę. Trzymaj tak dalej 👍 Pozdrowienia z Polski

[@MuraKun]

You are a wizard, mate!

[@ChurbanovAlexander]

This video is very helpful video. This winter I tried to ridge soar by making the broad passes along the ridge and finding some lift bands. By the time I got back to the lift bands locations they were gone. So instead of soaring I landed since there were more sinking areas that lifting (like 2/3 sinking and 1/3 lifting). Now I try to hang around these sweet lift spots.

[@flyingfalcon777]

Thanks my friend nice video 👌👌👌👌😘😘😘

[@Florentin-Parapente]

super image !!! et beau montage :)

[@sreid70]

I'm a hang glider pilot, but I'm finding these videos very helpful. Thanks

[@mrtracyut]

Fantastic. I fly in Al Fayah Dubai sometimes and the rocks are quite scary!!

[@Cristian-jh4iz]

Thanks for a useful, honest video, regretfully a true rarity on youtube. I guess I have some of the required experience for scratching like that. What I most certainly lack is the required patience. Low frustration threshold, I guess.

[@shaynel9720]

Nice video thanks I sky dive havent tryed paragliding yet shure looks like bliss

[@apocalips8008]

Man this is good stuff...as is your other video...watching in isolation from the UK...

[@ANNAI89]

Thanks for sharing ;)

[@Brian_yeah_that_brian_Strang]

Nice job

[@ld4347]

very interesting thank you

[@Hemersonr]

Wow... smooth operator!!! In brazillian portuguese "suave na nave"... impressive! Thanks for sharing... I can see myself doing this in the same way.. but the result i dont know....lol

[@GC987]

Great stuff - thinking of taking up the sport as a form of social distancing !

[@webbi55555]

Hello dear master. I wait for you at (Turkey / Samsun / Bafra / Kapıkaya ) position. This is a really different location. You have the opportunity to fly for hours. We would love to see you around here. Have a nice flight

[@ziadwakim4114]

Great and perfect like always. Such a pleasure to watch and listen.

[@xavierdupla9766]

Again a fantastic video and some amazing flying skills!! Just a question: in such small conditions, how much do you break on the inside brake ? Is it mainly weight shift to avoid loosing too much height ?

[@andywendler3887]

Trank you!! Perfekt

[@ralphvanthoff]

Explains in depth a thoroughly analysed, backed up by decades of experience flying paragliders, delivering a practical and theoretical correct way of which areas to avoid after takeoff in order to avoid rotor and possible low-level collapses over rocky terrain. Then takes off straight into the aforementioned area ..... ;-)

[@ralphvanthoff]

@@flybubbleparagliding Go for it Greg! Yes. I must have grabbed a sip of something during that mention ;-)

[@luiscevevery123]

Moi aussi, j'ai pu apprendre pas mal de petites choses avec ces vidéos. Très bon site.

[@Kurikost_]

i know the place when flying to Rhnosterhoek. Lucky for me, i nearly has always a lot of thermals here. Without thermal i always landed near the farm. This is often the area where a good flight stops, when you try reaching Rhnosterhoek. Problem is going over the highway and reaching Sprit Kopf(Piekenierskloof Kardosie) for the next waypoint.

[@mateusceccato]

Hello there! Congratulations for your work on this channel! May I ask how you record voice for the videos during flight? Thank you!

[@mateusceccato]

@@flybubbleparagliding Thanks!

[@alpaslanaytek]

great ::))) thank you

[@transilvaniak8485]

If you would make some videos or take more time to do a terrain briefing and explain the dynamics of wind and terrain, it would be a huge help to the speedfying community as well as for the beginner paraglider and mini wing flyers. Thank you mate!

[@musicforlife4571]

"Don't take off over those rocks on the right...." he says ... "takes off, over those rocks on the right" :D I let you off though, love watching you fly! But I do miss your 3rd person Insta360 video camera angles.

[@musicforlife4571]

OMG! It actually caught fire?!? I'm due to come visit to get kitted up in about 2 months time, so if you haven't got it yet, I'll drop a few in the kitty to go towards it. :)

[@climb315]

Beautiful. Is this possible also with EN A wing? :)

[@flybubbleparagliding]

Yes, of course! 🪂

[@v.e.7236]

Don't know how you can stand that variometer beeping all the time? Would drive me crazy! I am officially envious! Been years since I've been able to fly due to a motorcycle accident. So, videos like this are my vicarious flights. Enjoy.

[@teddyruxpin3811]

great video. can you do another video about how to make your turns flat and tight when in weak lift?

[@greghamerton4422]

um, I just did? Perhaps it would be helpful to have a 360 'chase' cam position so you can watch the hands ... I'll get a new 360 cam sometime soon, my current one caught fire.

[@teddyruxpin3811]

@@greghamerton4422 Well yeah you did a tiny bit. You said "weight shift and then brake". I talking about going more in depth though about how to make really tight turns while staying flat without diving. I've heard some people use heavy weightshift, little inside brake. Some people use heavy inside brake and opposite weightshift. Some people do zero weightshift and some inside brake. Some use light outside brake too. There's so many different recommendations and everyone on the mountain seems to be the expert but they all say different things. Even though I'm a P4 I still haven't found a method that's superior and it tends to be wind dependent too which makes it harder to pin down. I tend to do heavy inside brake and opposite weightshift but honestly I'm not sure if it really does much compared to everything else. I'd like to see a true comparison with maybe some vario data to go along with it. Just a suggestion. Thanks

[@sgdran]

@@teddyruxpin3811 Did you finally solve this question? I am currently in training and it's giving me some trouble. In fact, I'm getting quite obsessed with finding the absolute truth... But as you say, there are several "methods"... Thanks in advance

[@clubsnapperuk]

always inspirational. some people would think all that effort to get 300 foot above launch site a waste of time, I see it as tuition and payback for the rest of the days flying.I would sell my ppg in a heartbeat for some of this, unfortunately getting up on the motor is all too easy, Please, someone volunteer to teach me free-flight, you could make a video, no hope to some hope to high hopes for teaching free flight to a total noob, I can see it now, " Greg takes on a basket case and gives him wings" OMG , im sold,

[@KirkMcc]

When transitioning between lift areas you say, "Keep my speed high" a couple of times. What does that mean? Are you using speed bar while that close to the terrain, or are you just going hands-up?

[@dieuwerfeldbrugge8373]

hands up, keeping the flow going, not doing anything that goes against the natural pendulum of a glider

[@arnekvinge3118]

I use no speed bar close the terrain. If i got 2 narrow lift and sink in between i use energy exchange. Hands up in sink, braking a lot entering lift. And I use to turn as slow as i can in lift

[@paraglideaddict]

Seems like the Porterville area in South Africa... Greg probably found this site in the (highly recommended) book ‘Fresh Air Site Guide’! ;-)

[@nico_albrecht]

my evening program is secured ☺️

[@RowOfMushyTiT]

Is this live narration or did you narrate it afterwards? Just curious because the sound is quite good.

[@Mertyck]

Thanks for turkish subtitles. Greetings from Turkey.

[@TheChrisBreyShow]

Nice, looks like our spots in Arizona! What country are you in here?

[@TheChrisBreyShow]

@@flybubbleparagliding thank you, I love all your videos and you are a great inspiration! I've been flying ridges with no instruments to get a better feel. Over 30 years of RC flying has sure given me an advantage

[@arnekvinge3118]

BGD Cure 2 again. Any second opinion in this condition?

[@karumisbelshazaar4451]

there is lots of vario sound in this video. Which one did you use?

[@fredericjaquet3729]

Thanks Greg ! Quick question here : you say not to fly close to terrain if not experienced (which I think is wise), but how to get experienced with it if avoiding it ? (newbie pilot still in training with only 21 solo flights).

[@Hemersonr]

Good question...

[@fredericjaquet3729]

@@flybubbleparagliding Ok, thank you for the advice ! I'll remember it when I'll get to this point of my training :-D

[@nugley]

I get your drift.

[@KTMSparky]

Do thermals stay in the same place? Or is it a case of finding them on the day?

[@ugur9479]

thank u great teacher. come to pls turkey ölüdeniz. i love you.

[@dbrgn]

You write "keep the turns flat and tight". How do you generally do that? A strong brake impulse (to turn tight) will cause a larger angle (non-flat turn). Do you try to weight shift inside as much as possible to avoid using the brakes, or do you lean outside to keep the wing flat?

[@blooskyy7]

Looks like Porterville?

[@gijsbertkoren1191]

Is that Piekenierskloof South Afrika?

[@dqz666]

Isn’t very dangerous if you collapse that close?

[@SteveWrightNZ]

See how he finds and plots out all the bumpy bits and makes a note to avoid them - thats why. Terrain flying is ok in very smooth conditions, but you need to know what features to see and avoid, and remember your map of bumps you have made so far. Conditions on this day appear to be generally smooth, which will definitely change if the wind gets up and goes 45 degrees cross, which would likely close the site for launches, maybe not for flight for those who have altitude.

[@musicforlife4571]

Would love to know where in the world this is!

[@musicforlife4571]

Aaah ok! It looks amazing! Have a great trip!

[@ToughStuffMadagascar]

@@flybubbleparagliding come fly with us here in Kenya too one day, we've got some amazing sites here too! Happy to take you around with some of the Nairobi flying gang!

[@gastonnogues]

Where is that site? Looks like California....or Spain?

[@ralphrodriguez9556]

Piekernierskloof, South Africa.

[@ShahidKhan-pt7ko]

Sir how flying without animometer altemeter plz answer?

[@greghamerton4422]

Shahid you can hear the vario beeping, it is strapped on my riser. No need for anemometer (airspeed) or altimeter when flying on the terrain (you can see if you go up).

[@cw2126]

👍👍👍

[@ChipperWilliams]

👍🏼

[@nychillboy8724]

Are you the guy that landed early in some dudes backyard and, go up and said "hellooo? 😂😂😂

[@GregHartSk8er]

Haha nothing like Porterville to bring out your sarth efriken accent ey bru! Lekka!

[@judboyd57]

At 10 minutes in the video the mountain looks like it has a face in it

[@isaacjonathan8367]

!

[@safranpollen]

I know this takeoff :-) wish you nice conditions....may be a bit turbulent ones :-))

[@safranpollen]

@@flybubbleparagliding I was flying there one week, better conditions like on your clip, but far away from real good. And all times fucking punchy stubborn:-)))

[@-biela-8060]

Aai mis ek nou die RSA!

Great content. Keep it up! Would you like to be KZbin friends? :]

[@kenjgood]

Is there anyway you can get rid of that accent so we can understand you? JK :) Thanx for sharing your expertise!