For the 2nd time now, this page has slightly more than Paragliding content,
sorry but this was too good to be true.
An early Birthday present form my lovely lady - Wingwalking! yup, strapped on
top of a biplane, the one below...
I don't know what to say really apart from "whoa", its quite simple really, a
really great company "Aerosuperbatics" based by Cirencester provide this awesome
service, after a thorough safety brief, a very good flight brief by the very
skilled Pilot (David), ear plugged and goggled up you climb on top of the
upper wing and are attached to the harness by one of the professional
Wingwalkers (Kirsten) and given final safety checks/brief on top of the plane,
it was all clear and start up the huge slow running radial engine.
After pre-flight checks it was a short taxi along the grass field before Take
Off, this was SUCH a surreal amazing experience, being strapped to the top of a
Bi-Plane, try to imagine that. The prop got upto speed and we began moving into
wind along the field, very soon we were in the air where, all I can say is...
"amazing feeling".
The flight lasts approx 10 minutes where the pilot (after prior discussion with
you) will take the plane (with you on top of it) through various manoeuvres,
nice and easy if you wish, or maybe a bit more extreme if you wish, you have the
ability to hand signal the Pilot to ease off the extremity of the manoeuvres, or
land at any time, you are in the Pilots line of sight at all times.
Wingwalking
The flight was amazing, steep banked turns climbs, dips, low level flying
buzzing the buildings where you sign in, just amazing, so surreal, beautiful
scenery, and quite er... breezy, the planes speed varies from 80 to 150mph so
the wind pressure on your body is definitely something that you feel (try
sticking your head out of a car window at 70 and double it!)
After 10 minutes we came into land which was remarkably smooth and taxi'd back
the the building where a Wingwalker climbs back onto the plane after the prop
has stopped to undo your harness and remind you how to get down off the wing,
sound silly but you are buzzing when you have landed.
Amazing experience.... simply surreal, amazing and with no doubt at all, one of
the most adrenaline pumping things I have ever done.
So... now, we were at the airfield, I was buzzing, the weather was superb with
clear sky and sun, it was quiet there (due to Covid-19 BS) and there was the
opportunity to take a 2nd flight. After the 1st flight you 'qualify' to go
for the aerobatic flight, you cannot do this on the first flight, I was
struggling with the logic behind this, but after doing the initial flight I
totally understand with this is the case, I really do, it is quite an extreme
thing to do and it simply would not be right to jump straight into aerobatics,
as David said, it really is 'another level' of wingwalking. So... the
question... should I go for it??
What question was that? I thought as I paid, kitted up and re-loaded the camera
with battery and card?
Aerobatic flight
I never - ever using this acronym, ever..... OMFG - sorry to be cheesy and
overdramatic BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The flight consists of, Safety Briefs, Flight Brief, Hand signal brief, Get
strapped on the plane, final safety check, camera running, Taxi, Take of, climb
to 3000 feet some 4-5 miles from the airfield with an itinery for the following
(for those that know aviation manoeuvres):-
- Loop the Loops
- Stall Turns
- Cuba 8's
- Barrel Rolls
With me being strapped on top the of wing.
Okay, I can't put this into words, it is now the morning after and I'm still
buzzing, words just cannot do any kind of justice to this flight, in any way, it
is juts... unbelievable, surreal, amazing, mind blowing, awesome, all senses
blown completely off the scale, I just cannot type the correct words now because
there aren't any really. There is a video below which is a montage of
photos and both flights, watch it and judge for yourself, but imagine being
there, actually strapped onto that plane......
After we landed I was unbuckled and climbed down from the wing, the adrenaline
levels were off the scale, totally off the scale. What am amazing early
birthday present, what an amazing experience, totally blown away by it, still am
the following day, burnt into memory for life.
Again, I never usually do this stuff but if anybody wants to try this, I can
thoroughly recommend 'Aerosuperbatics'
for their professionalism, enthusiasm, skill, and just being 'nice' people, what
a fantastic thing to have done, and a fantastic day, not it's certainly not
cheap, but seriously, to use the cheesy saying "you only get one life" and
whilst I am physically capable of doing things like this, it was worth every
single penny - really.
Paragliding
Well, after all the excitement we were driving past the Malverns on the way
home, the wind was indicating ESE on the hills so we headed up to Pinnacle Hill
(Kettle Sings) where we saw 8-9 Paraglider flying so we set up and
launched, it wasn't a high flight, only 3-400 feet ATO but a lovely chilled out
22.5 hours ridge soaring session that turned restitutional at the end for some
really relaxing flying in the really warm heat, quite a remarkable day really,
some photos below:-
