I know I stole this from my last post, but it really is a good opening haha. A couple years ago, right before I climbed El Capitan, I had the opportunity to do an internship in California. I was finishing up my Computer Information Systems degree at the time and needed the internship to satisfy that requirement. As part of the internship, I agreed to drive cross country from Maine to California while recording various places and adventures in 360 videos. Knowing this I went on a major dreaming expedition in my head thinking of all the things I wanted to see and do. I had to try to pack it all into 2 weeks, so I wanted to hit as many of the major things as I possibly could. In my search on Google for adaptive things to do, I found an organization called Project Airtime. They allow people with disabilities to experience paragliding in a specially made wheelchair, and they do it all for free.
Chris Santacroce – Founder of Project Airtime
Chris Santacroce has been a full-time paragliding professional since 1992 and spent 13 of those years as a Red Bull athlete traveling the world to showcase free flying sports in general. He flies everything from airplanes to powered and unpowered hang gliders – paragliders, paramotors and has hundreds of skydives and BASE jumps. Chris founded Project Airtime after suffering a life-altering spinal cord injury which resulted in him spending some time in a wheelchair. As good fortune would have it, he made a 120% recovery but was left with a different view of the world and an improved view of life.
He went from a wholehearted “look at me and look what I can do” sort of attitude to a world where the only question was, what can I do for you? He answered that question by making it his life’s work to make sure everyone regardless of their situation in life can experience the freedom of flight.
Blake Pelton – Project Airtime Instructor
Of course, like any good nonprofit it can’t run without some amazing volunteers. I
got to fly with one of those amazing people, Blake Pelton.
Waiting on Wind
Blake texted me that morning and set a time for around 5 pm that day but as anyone who flies knows, the weather is everything. We had to wait for a bit once I got there to have enough wind to make it possible to get both of us and the special wheelchair off the ground. While I waited the sky filled with paragliders and Blake took another lighter person flying. It was one of the most breathtaking things I have ever seen. I counted 20 parachutes at one time in the air. Yet with all that activity it was completely quiet and peaceful. The only sound was the occasional light wind. Some of the early starters who got into the air as soon as possible managed to make it thousands of feet into the air. It was quite a sight.
My First Paragliding Flight
When Blake came back from flying with his client we jumped into the chair. I got all strapped in while the guys from Project Airtime got the chute all laid out to take off. It took two people pushing the wheelchair and Blake in the middle to get enough speed to get the parachute above us. They pushed us to the edge and right at the last-minute Blake jumped on the back and we were off into the wild blue yonder. We had a difficult time finding enough thermals to get us much height, but we did manage to get a few hundred feet in the air or so above our starting point. We were already fairly high up though, as we started from a huge hill. There is the initial thrill of leaving the ground and then it gets quiet and only the wind is heard. I find that when I know I can only control so much of the situation. I tend to relax and just enjoy the moment. If something happens that’s ok. I can deal with it then but for that moment when everything is working, and the world is on hold, it is like transporting yourself to another world.
The view is quite different from being in a plane because your view is unencumbered by anything. It is really the closest thing to flying like a bird you will ever find. I got some really good 360 videos that you can see on my YouTube channel.
How Does It All Work?
As we were flying Blake was explaining how everything worked. There is a device that attaches to the rig or the pilot that beeps a certain tone if you are getting lift or another tone if you are sinking. This tone allows you to find rising air to gain altitude. Of course, the other sinking tone lets you know that maybe you should be looking for a place to land. Then after you have lift it is all about steering and maintaining or gaining altitude.
Call It A Day
After about an hour we finally decided that we weren’t going to get much more altitude. So, we made the decision to call it and land. Blake made a textbook landing nice and smooth at the base of the mountain we started from. The guys that helped us take off brought down a truck and loaded us on the back to take us back to the takeoff spot.
Blake said I could come back the next day and try again since we didn’t get very high up and I struggled with changing my next appointment and trying to figure out the timing of driving the next day but in the end, I decided there just wasn’t time. I am hoping to continue the quest of piloting a paragliding rig on my own as Joe, Matt and others have accomplished.
Closing Thoughts
As I have been writing these posts about the various ways I and others have left the earth behind, I realized I have flown in almost every way possible. So next week I will continue with the flying theme with another soaring adventure!
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