Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Frankton Beach

Ah, once again.
I'll have to get some pictures or something.
Frankton beach is one of my favorite places. It's a small park on the banks of the Frankton Arm (inlet) of lake Wakitipu (the big lake that Queenstown is on). Frankton Beach is cool because, when the wind is right, you can fly there.
And the wind was very right today :)

It's also rather convenient that when the wind is right for Frankton also happens to be when the wind is wrong for everything else... so, oh darn... we can't work ;) We'll just have to go play.

Frankton is a ridge soaring site. The wind comes up the beach, hits a 45 degree incline for 20 yards or so and sets up a standing wave that you can just fly back and forth and back and forth and... you get the idea. It's playland for pilots.

I chose my flat two years ago for the sole reason that it was next to Frankton Beach.
Me and my flatmates headed out there today for some fun.
We took two hang gliders and a paraglider.

At the begining, the wind was too strong for PG, so we "flew" the hang gliders for a bit. I say "flew", because at a beach site, you can fly them without a harness :) We call it "flying monkey style". You climb up onto the frame and hang on. It's much fun. You're only a meter off the ground, so it's no worry.

Things calmed down and smoothed out, so we headed down to the main ridge and played around for hours. Towards the end, some other pilots started showing up and joining in the fun.

Good times
Jim

1 comment:

pat rooney said...

Oh, that bit of news of monkey flying sure did stop my heart for a second! :-( I do try not to worry. Sounds like it is fun though. :)