A SKY GOD IS BORN

1997 BAJA FLIGHT LOG

When Steve Kwaiser called us from North Carolina in December 1996 to sign up for our 1997 trip to La Salina, he had no previous flying experience.  He was looking for the thrill of a lifetime, and that's exactly what he got in the ten days he was with us.

Steve Kwaiser soars 400 feet above the ridge as another pilot prepares to launch.

Like all beginners, Steve started with an hour of video tapes and then spent his first two days on the sand dunes at Cantamar, learning how to inflate the paraglider and getting short hops into the air and soft landings on the dunes.  By his third day, Steve was at the top of the ridge at La Salina.  The wind was fairly light for Steve's first flight from the ridge, just as we had planned it.  His "sled ride" to the landing zone took only about 5 minutes, but those were the most exciting five minutes of his life to that point!  Everything worked out as planned.  Steve followed my instructions over the radio carefully and landed in the designated landing zone below in all four of his flights from the ridge that day.  I was impressed with his enthusiasm and how quickly he picked up paragliding flight.   He followed our instructions carefully.

In the following days we went to Black Mountain for more practice flights and the dunes at Cantamar again when the winds were too strong for launching beginners from the ridge.  Then we got strong Santa Ana winds from the northeast, sometimes switching to the northwest in the afternoon.  Each day we would drive to the launch site on the ridge, hoping the winds would abate and come in from the west.  Many of the more experienced pilots on the ridge flew, but winds were too strong for beginners, Steve, and our most recent arrival, Wayne Larmie.

Finally, on Saturday morning, February 22, Wayne got his first flights off the ridge and Steve got three more flights in before the thermals got too strong for our beginners.  We rested during the midday back at the villas and returned to the top at 3:00 p.m. to find ten pilots soaring above the ridge.  Conditions were still too strong for Steve and Wayne at first, but by 4:00 p.m. the thermals had thinned out and the gusts were down to levels that could be safely handled by beginners.

Wayne took to the air first, and with my instruction by radio, managed to soar the ridge for 45 minutes.  Steve got in his first soaring flight of 35 minutes before the evening "glass off" subsided and both Wayne and Steve landed below.   Both of our novice pilots were ecstatic.  Wayne was especially pleased that he had been able to finish up his week with us with a soaring flight up to 300 feet above the ridge, for he was scheduled to fly out of San Diego Airport that evening.

Steve had one more day with us and Sunday, February 23 turned out to be the best day yet.  We drove to the launch site, arriving shortly after 10 a.m.   The wind was directly out of the west at 13 to 15 mph and several pilots were already soaring 300 feet above launch.  The thermals were still very light.   Perfect conditions for Steve.

Steve soars just south of the launch site.

Since Wayne left the day before, Steve would have his first opportunity to fly the Edel Quantum, a premier beginning/intermediate glider with much more performance and more speed than the Meteor Gold he had been flying.

Steve laid out the Quantum and did a flawless reverse inflation.   Obviously, all that practice over the preceding nine days was now paying off.   Steve stabilized the glider overhead, spun around quickly and with two steps was in the air going up.  Within minutes, he was 300 to 400 feet above launch and over a mile away up the ridge to the north.  Steve floated about with the others up and down the ridge as the thermals started to build.  He crossed the gap near the southern end several times, ascending to 600 to 700 feet above the ridge at points.

I talked to Curtis, who had top landed to take a break after Steve had been up for over an hour and asked him to urge Steve to land before the thermals got too strong.  Curtis took to the air again and flew with Steve for maybe a half an hour.   when Curtis left the ridge for the beach at the Baja Seasons just after noon, Steve followed him, clearing the main highway, the power lines and the villas by a safe margin and landing on the beach shortly after 12:15, just before the thermals got really cooking.   Steve's final flight had been just over an hour and 45 minutes in duration!

A sky God is born!

The ridge at La Salina, now officially known as Puerto Cielo, has been developed into a much more civil flying site in the past year, complete with signs and outhouses.

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Last modified: March 30, 2008