Solo Flight Certification

Well, I've passed my P2 flight certification, meaning I can fly my paraglider without the presence of an instructor -- that is, alone. Which means I'll be 'street legal', as far as the FAA is concerned, when I go up to Alaska from 10 December to 03 January to try the first paraglidier aviation on the North Shore. NEWS FLASH: Chiu, my old climbing partner, will be coming along, to shoot video of the project for a TV program in his home country of Taiwan! Hooee what a Relief witha capital R, I don't have to shoot it all myself, like I did in Iceland, for National Geographic. Food is prepped, tickets bought, and last "tweaks" to the plans are coming together! I'm worrying about polar bears again, and enduring -70F windchills. But I'm also remembering the foam of stars; the pulsing aurora; the crash and shatter of snow and ice underfoot; and the feeling of cleanliness that comes of not being advertised-to for nearly a month. That's all worth it!

Release

My short, experiential description of paraglider flight is now available in Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine (November 2008), on pages 66-67. Like a lot of my recent articles, this item;

* started as a little meditation I scribbled in my notebook after an experience

* made its way to a blog post

* was refined and polished in my writing group meetings

* was finally sent by me to a publisher

* and was finally picked up for publication.

The text is available as a JPEG I've scanned in; I like the way the editors broke up the words; I think they understood exactly what I was trying to convey. The print version has a picture associated with the text, but I haven't scanned that. The scan of the text is available below.

Make Way!

This says it all for me today!

Make way, make way! Back to Wasilla, you, and take your bumper-sticker vocabulary! And back, back to Crawford, you, and spend your days cuttin' brush! Clear out your desk, Darth Vader, get back to the dust devils of Wyoming -- and watch the door doesn't hit your ass on the way out!