that wont be so quick because I have to type with my left hand..

I’m stuck in Pokhara until the doctor gives me the ok to travel, which should be tomorrow…. except that theres a general strike until wednesday so I cant get to the hospital! Joy! If he gives me the all-clear then I’m considering returning to the UK to wait out the healing process. I’ve got things to do at home so I wont be quite so bored!

On the other hand its warm here and dead cheap to live so I may stay and travel around a bit if I feel ok, I’m not decided yet though, I still really want to see india..

Heres some pics of the mess I’m in:

i crashed my glider today on launch and broke my collar bone and the top of my humerus (arm bone). Bad day.

Yesterday we had to pull people out of a bus crash, 13 people died.  BAD WEEK

.. the weather has pulled a London on us and were grounded for the day. Spent 2 hours sitting at the landing zone waiting and then we all gave up, theres no wind at the top of Sarangkot so we cant launch at all. Its a shame because were practicing pitch control over the lake today, this involves periodically braking to induce some mad swinging so that we can learn to control it. Looks like fun too

I shifted the blog to a new domain name, the old one will work for 2 more months then I wont re-register it, the new one is http://noproblemshere.com. I’ll also stick a swear filter in so that people in jobs can read it

Ohh so now I’ve got nothing planned for the day, renewed my visa – which is handy as it expires in 3 days – and now I can stay here for a month more Sweeeeeeeet

woot woot, 2 solo flights under my belt, no description just an image dump

my glider packed neatly away in its bag

Started the half hour walk up to the launch point today, people ask “why dont you learn in england?” and I show them this

and here are the two launches..

This is the first one, I fucked up a little and forgot to brake after the glider reached flight position. It overshot me whilst I was off the ground, which resulted in me swinging like a pendulum with my arse on the grass-top.. Rest of the flight rocked though, there was a little cross wind whilst going down the valley followed by a nice valley wind at the end. I managed a couple of 180 turns before having to land. I flared out a little late and scraped along the floor before standing and running with the glider

Second launch, better this time, didnt fuck up the pitch of the glider and just ran right off the edge of the cliff, sailing away into the haze.. This one was a lot more turbulent, the valley wind was much stronger and produced a lot more turbulence at the peak of the glide, the glider bounced about like a motherfucker and kept drifting off course. Landing was dodgy too, there was no head wind to slow me down to walking/running speed so I came it at full pelt (22km/h for a glider like mine) and braked hard. Bam! Arse into ground.

Tomorrow is a day off for us, then next day we start the next 5 days of the course. The aim of that is to be able to land and fly without radio guidance, were expecting 2-3 flights a day Fuck yeah

I’m finally going to fly solo! Tomorrow we fly from the top of an 800m high mountain, down a valley (cruising along the edge of the ridge to gain free lift), over a village then landing on a dirt patch. AWESOMES!

Definitely not nervous at all…

So the course has been going well, first day we spent playing with the glider as though its a giant kite, laying it out on the floor and using the risers to infalte it and move it about. They really have some pull on them even in slight breezes, couple of times I was dragged along the floor whilst forgetting to pull the D-riser and drop it.. Next 2 days were all about getting in the harness and running with the glider to control it, for the first day about 90% of the time I wasnt inflating the canopy fully and it rolled over to one side pulling me with it, but I got there in the end. By the end of the second day I could set it up, inflate it and run with it controlling its direction with the airbrakes and my body weight (its all about weight shifting…).

Today was our final “ground day” and we spent the morning practicing getting the glider up and at the right angle-of-attack to gain lift for a takeoff, I only managed a couple of runs but on the last one I hit the sweet-spot and lifted about half a metre off the ground before stalling and dropping back again. The secret on that one seems to be leaning forward properly during the initial running, once thats in place the straight run, straight canopy and lift all fall into place

Tomorrow we get some training on turning the glider and assuming the right position once up in the air, then we head up to the launch point.. Its a simple flight-plan, just come down the valley and try to gain lift on the right side (as the sun hits that side of the valley it causes the air to rise, if we stick in that we end up rising too) then doing figure-8′s over some houses to lose height and practice control and finally doing a landing approach and landing itself. All the time on our own in the glider with radio contact to the ground… woop woop!

I’m looking forward to finally being off the ground and in control, but also nervous about being off the ground and in control :p Nervousness is good though, stops you from fucking up

AGH!

Let me lead you through the ultimate cock-off:

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.. are a bunch of c**ts. They gave me a date to come back to pick up my visa, which I then queued 3 hours for, just to be told “oh come back monday”

So the full story goes:

Anyway, so I left Pokhara on a shitty bus that cost me less than a Starbucks coffee where the jerk-off in front of me kept putting his seat back then getting the arse when I asked him to move it (the leg room on that thing would make even a giraffe comment that Ryanair planes are “roomy as fuck”). Arrived in Kathmandu and checked into a cheap hotel, then proceeded to do fuck all for the night.
Next day I queued up at the embassy (actually a bank as the Indian embassy here is too shit to take in all of the tourists, so they moved it to a bank with room) with an ample stack of stuff to read and pass the time with.

3 hours in and my number is called, the guy looked at my form, wrote “faxed 1/12/09″ on the top and then threw it back to me saying “its in london at the moment, come back monday”

Ahem. What.

Obviously I kicked off, “Can I leave it for 2 weeks and get it then? I’m busy until then”

“No, 1 week then you have to apply again”

“What the fuck? Its a piece of paper, cant you hold it longer?”

“no sorry sir”

“Well fuck you then”, and at that I left.

I hope their english was good enough for them to understand me calling them “a bunch of useless Wankers” as I stormed off out of the waiting area. I dont like to burn bridges, just cover them with napalm and flick a match from far off….

So I’ve headed back to Pokhara as its infinitely more chilled and relaxing than the fucking hellhole that Thamel can be sometimes, I paid extra for a better bus this time (about 70p extra buys you water and leg room) and the journey went well.

For once I didnt ignore the hotel guys at the bus station and haggled myself a room for about 3 quid a night (as I’m staying for 2 weeks). Now I’ve discovered that the paragliding course is running a few days late as the weather hasnt been good enough to run the Thermalling course, which has been delayed and has pushed mine back..

Oh well, off to the batcave tomorrow!

.. just booked the paragliding course and picked up some laundry. Decided to take a walk up to the World Peace Pagoda but the directions in my 5 year old Lonely Planet were a little off..

It got the position of the lake right, but the rest of the walk…

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The journey from Kathmandu to Pokhara wasnt entirely great, it was 6 hours long, cramped and I had an annoyingly friendly nepalese guy next to me that wanted conversation the whole way. Thats hard for me to do when I got up at 5:45 to get the bus and when all I want to do is sleep with my iPod on (which was VERY LOUD so that he got the point)

Finally arrived at the “bus station” (for “station” read “field”) and did the usual run of ignoring the hotel pimps to get a taxi, in this case one of the pimps offered me a taxi to the hotel for 130 rupees (slightly over a quid), except the taxi driver exclaimed that “it is very far – 150 rupees”. Ok whatever, the extra 20 rupees is worth approximately 1/3rd of Fuck-All and I cant be bothered to argue..

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On Monday I popped into the Last Resort booking office to arrange a shot on their immensely large rope swing..

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