TTGBlog

Paragliding in Colorado

Tavis — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:46:59 +0000

I flew into Colorado and met TJ whom I met on my PG trip down in Mexico. That same day we flew over at Lookout Mountain in Golden. TJ did a lot of work to get the locals to let me fly there so, with all the paperwork filled out, we went to launch where I promptly got right up to 9k feet. The next day we flew North Boulder where I again got really high ( all the way up to 11k feet ) flew over to the Flat Irons about 5 miles away. Then I landed in a city park and got warned by the ranger that it was not an approved landing area butjust this once it was ok. Below is video and pictures from the flight at Golden.

From Paragliding in Colorado, posted by Tavis Gustafson on 5/10/2012 (6 items)

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Flight at Tuna Canyon Park

Tavis — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:21:54 +0000

I flew my paraglider in Tuna Canyon Park. I think it might be the first flight in this area. I launched and got up above launch. Then I top landed and then re-launched. I got up on thermals once again but decided to fly over to my bail out landing zone to make sure it was feasible to land there. Landing was perfect and the hike out took 45 minutes. What a great day ! Check out the gps track in google earth here : http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/583102/kml/&lang=english&w=2&c=FF0000&an=0

Sailing with Chris

Tavis — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:15:09 +0000

We went sailing and it was quite fun. On our way back to the slip, we got the engine started, the sails down then ran into a bit a “snag”. There was a girl sailing a little sailboat called a laser. She was coming right at us and I was watching her to make sure she didn’t hit us. She almost tacked right into us then immediately tacked again to avoid us. I thought that was weird and continued on. Ten seconds later the engine stopped with a thunk. A bit of panic rose in my stomach as I ran to the bow to drop the anchor. Could my engine have seized ? Just then the sailing instructors in their power boat motored up and ask if we had seen their small buoy. No I said. Then they asked if I had their buoy. No I said. Then it dawned on my that I might indeed have their buoy. I went back to the stern and looked down by the rudder and sure enough there was the buoy under the boat, its line wrapped around my propeller shaft. I yelled over, Yeah we got your buoy, its in my prop! I went down below to get my mask and wetsuit on. This might be kinda fun I thought.

I got down to the propeller and tried to unwrap the line but it was way too tight. So I started untying the buoy from the line. It was a bowline so it should have been easy to get undone but I still had to come back up for air multiple times before getting it out. I threw the freed buoy into the dingy and went to work on the rest of twisted up line. It was really tight and I realized I would have to reverse the propeller in order to get it loose. I got back on board and started up the engine in neutral. I popped it in reverse for a few seconds and could hear the engine working really hard to reverse the propeller. I popped it back into neutral and drove back in the water. Now the line was more loose and I managed to unwrap the line taking care not to drop the line leading down to the little kedge anchor. It was a good thing that anchor wasn’t too heavy or else it would have pulled me down with it and I would have had to let it go. After getting everything back on deck we pulled the anchor and motored over to the instructors to return their buoy.

The next day I motored the boat around to make sure everything was working ok and it was.

We had Fun at Camp Deal With It!

Tavis — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:01:03 +0000

Here is the link to the photos on facebook :

Camp Deal With It

From Camp Deal With It 2012, posted by Tavis Gustafson on 3/20/2012 (144 items)

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2012 Mexico Paragliding Trip Video

Tavis — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:46:03 +0000

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Paragliging in Tapalpa, Mexico

Tavis — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:39:16 +0000

This is the GPS track of my last flight in San Marcos, Mexico. The red parts shows I’m going up while the blue parts show I’m going down. We got to cloud base near 10,000 ft.

Cutting of the Hair 2012

Tavis — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:37:37 +0000

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First XC Paragliding Flight

Tavis — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:09:14 +0000

I went to the Owens Valley over the weekend and did a clinic with Kari Kastle. The third day I did my first XC flight where I flew up to 10,500 ft and flew 20 miles south. I ended up having to hike 5 miles to the highway. Here is the link to flight data : http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/522046

I got a new paraglider – Kantega XC

Tavis — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:11:35 +0000

Wow. So fast and so maneuverable.

Here is a link to my first flight : First Flight in Google Earth

Rocket Sail

Tavis — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:29:17 +0000

Breck and I too the Windhook out onto the Santa Monica Bay to see if we could spot the Altas 5 rocket launch from Vandenberg base. The wind was blowing santa ana style and almost blew us right off the dock and down into the channel. i had to back and fill in the middle of D basin while a beam wind pushed us sideways. Right off the bat I got the feeling my engine and prop were a little bit overpowered by this wind. I put up the working jib in the main channel and we sailed right out of the south entrance. Right when we hit the waves a jar fell and broke down below. I turned us around and attempted to motor back into the marina up wind. The boat wasn’t going. It was wallowing left and right but not making andy good progress. It was blowing 20-25kts. I realized we’d have to sail out and back into the north entrance. On our first approach to the north entrance we came really close to the rocks. I brought down the jib to let the engine have it’s way but that only stopped our forward progress. So back up went the jib and another tack back out into the bay. We did three tacks on the jib alone but once we put up the main to balance us out the last leg was a perfect angle. Strawber and Tacoma were bearing through all of this stress and excitement. By the time we got back to the dock the wind had completely died and the dogs were skating around the docks in the doggy version of kissing the ground at our feet.

We didn’t see the rocket. Well we thought we saw a red glow for a little bit but it was not very rockety.