Broken Toe Acro DVD
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Average Rating 5
Ian Wallace, Rated: 5
This DVD may save life, or in the least will minimize the possibility of sustaining damage to your wing and body. It also may be the best investment you will ever make in your life, as well as your flying career!
I've taken an SIV/Acro course 3 years in a row, and if I could afford the time and money, would be doing it every year. The first year it scared the snot out of me in a couple of situations because I did not prepare myself at all, and didn't know what I was getting myself into. After the first SIV course I bought Broken Toe Acro, an excellent SIV/Acro instructional DVD. I watched it dozens of times before doing the SIV course again in the following years, and practiced by doing visualizations of each maneuver many, many times. This helped with programming the muscle memory etc., to be able to respond more quickly and effectively. Then when I participated in the SIV/Acro courses in the following 2 years was well prepared and more able to focus much better and respond much more quickly and effectively to the maneuvers. And most of the time understood and knew exactly what was happening with my wing at the time.
However, there are times when things happen so quickly, and we get very disoriented, particularly when one event cascades into others. At these times the pucker factor is to the max. For example, while on the third course I purposely entered a full stall in 35+ km winds by burying the brakes, was going through the proper recovery technique of bringing my hands up to between 1/2 to 3/4 brake and held them there to allow the wing to stabilize overhead, began to release, and all hell broke loose. I had no idea what was happening, as it occurred in a microsecond and I was immediately disoriented. I had no idea what my wing and body were doing other than the fact that I was all over the sky. I was later informed by my instructor on the ground that it appeared as though I had entered a spin/spiral while coming out of the stall. I was also informed that I probably did not bring my hands up too quickly and evenly, which caused only one half of the the wing to start flying as it surged forward in the final stall recovery stage, and that put me into a spin/spiral/stall cascade of sorts. But because I had studied the Broken Toe Acro DVD, and had practiced a lot, I knew that one of the best ways to get out of a bad situation, was to enter a stall to sort the wing out. So I buried the brakes again and held them there until the wing stabilized over my head, brought them up to my waist, let it stabilize again, eased my hands all the way up, checked the forward surge and was flying under control again. I was quite rattled by the experience, so I did a bunch of spiral dives (one of the fastest ways of dumping altitude) to get down, followed by some wing overs and got to the beach safely. After getting my wing sorted, I had to get my mind sorted out and figure out what had actually happened, and how to minimize the possibility of it happening again... if possible. So, the information on the Broken Toe Acro DVD had helped get me out of a very disorienting and potentially dangerous situation, safely!
SIV/Acro courses, studying and practice are the path to being able to gain the confidence that when things go wrong, we know how to respond quickly, and there is no need to panic. If panic sets in at any time, our response time will be limited or non existent, or we may make matters worse, which increases the risks of damage to wing &/or body. As we learn to respond appropriately to any possible eventuality, it enables us to have the confidence to be able to control our wing in thermic conditions, and to explore the flying dynamics of our wing. We can do a lot more than just fly around with the wing over our head, and in relative safety with good training and lots of practice. When flying in thermic conditions it's not a matter of if we will experience collapses, spins, spirals etc., or get stuck in lift that is too strong... it's a matter of when. And it is a questions are whether we panic or respond to these eventualities, and whether we are able to minimize the risks and potential damage to wing and body.
It's up to each pilot to decide how much fear, and how much pleasure they want to experience. When we fly, we always experience the adrenal/endorphin cocktail... resulting in the euphoric high that we get addicted to. Adrenal is a fear based response, endorphins are a pleasure based response. And when we begin to fly high, the ratio is something like 80% fear/adrenalin and 20% fun/endorphins. And as we fly more, learn more, study more, visualize and practice more, the high is still the same, but the percentages vary. E.g. the adrenal percentage decreases, while the endorphin's increases. And to look at the opposite end of the scale, a master pilot may experience a 10% fear/adrenalin to 90% pleasure/endorphin based cocktail. Of course the percentages vary considerably, depending on how aggressively we push our limits, and the current environmental conditions. It all depends on whether we want to float around in sky in fear, or crank 'n bank with confidence.
So, if anyone is interested in learning how minimize the risks to be safe, and how to control our wing with confidence, I highly recommend taking SIV/Acro courses, and studying the Broken Toe Acro DVD beforehand in preparation. Jocky Sanderson's DVD's are very good too, particularly the "Performance Flying" DVD. And the book "Acrobatics, paragliding secrets" has fantastic step by step descriptions, explanations and graphic illustrations for all Acro maneuvers and more!. Every instructional book and DVD gives different perspectives and techniques which my save life, limb and wing, as well as increasing our confidence and ability fly more dynamically. All we need is to get one or more new perspectives or experience from any new course/book/DVD and it has more than paid for itself by potentially saving life, limb and wing.
I have found Broken Toe Acro to be the most informative. In it Enleau and Anne O'conner et al, describe and perform all maneuvers while explaining on the ground and in the air (using split screens), what happens if we don't respond at all, don't respond quickly enough, what happens if we over react, how to quickly gain control with appropriate corrections, how to enter and exit each maneuver safely... and when to throw the reserve.
Taking these courses, reading books, watching videos, practising through visualization etc., all help to expand our horizons in paragliding dynamics in learing how to control our wing all around us, not just overhead.... it's a lot more fun and gives one the confidence to know how the wing behaves in flight and that you know how to respond to all these situations we hear about that may happen in flight, or more accurately will happen, at some time when flying in thermic conditions.
Flying is always risky, so why not minimize the risks by learning and practicing how to effectively control our wing under all possible conditions?
So you decide whether you want to float around not knowing what to do if anything goes wrong, or learn how to minimize the potential risks and be as safe as possible while flying, and be able to expand your horizons to be able to fly dynamically, with confidence. It's your choice.
Note:
There are other great sources of paragliding and SIV instructional information available in book and DVD format, and a few qualified SIV instructors. Some may be better than others, depending on our individual learning style and preferences. And we definitely get more bang for our buck if we are well prepared beforehand.
Fly high, fly safe and enjoy the cocktails!
cheers,
ian wallace
Food for thought:
More than anything else, the sensation is one of peace, mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination.
-- Wilbur Wright.
Think up, you'll go up. Think down, you'll go down!
-- Mike Harrington, Canadian Hang Glider Pilot
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when open.
--Frank Zappa
There is no key to happiness, the door is always open!
-- Unknown
People don't stop working & playing because they grow old, they grow old because they stop working & playing.
-- Zig Ziglar
He who can no longer pause to wonder
and stand rapt in awe is as good as
dead his eyes are closed...
Joy in looking and comprehending is
nature's most beautiful gift�
There are two ways to live:
you can live as if nothing is a miracle you can live as if everything is a miracle.
-- Albert Einstein, 1879�1955
Life is just a daring adventure, or nothing
-- Helen Keller
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