smokenjoe50 wrote:Mark I'm glad you are having fun. I learned the same way. Don't let these negative people get you down. Everyone likes to talk about safety to justify there lack of balls. If flying was safe everyone would do it. You are going to love that T2. I only had about 60 flights when I started flying my T2C and I'm still alive. Call me I would like to come fly that site with you.
Joe correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Mark should know a bit about you.
Joe was an experienced paragliding pilot before he took up HG, I think he has his pilots license and is able to HG 2-3 times a week to stay current.
In other words he's got some really good aviation experience and decision making (something I don't have yet). I don't know what your experience is and I don't have enough air time to critique your flying, but people are seeing things that you are doing that are a very real danger to yourself.
They are being blunt because they've seen too many people get hurt or die in this sport and they don't want that to happen to you. Be safe and get a mentor.
I drive a little over an hour to fly Crestline/Marshall with the guys there. I drove 5 hours each way for my hanggliding training last year. It was well worth it and I learned a ton. You seem to have the basics, but there's always more to learn and there's no reason why it has to be "beginner" training. You'll progress much faster under an instructor. Even Olympic athletes have trainers.
"Survival at hang gliding requires patience more than anything else." -Ken de Russy
Have you tried flying any other glider? From what I hear you trade some of the "fun" for the high performance of the T2, and I don't know about you, but I fly for fun. You have the rest of your life to fly, so why rush things?