April

Having got some extra ground handling practice at a nearby field, I am getting to appreciate more the superb manoeuvrability of the Cage. The wind got quite strong during the practice, in fact to such a degree that if I had my paraglider I probably would have gone home. It gave me an ideal opportunity however to put into practice the big ears techniques for pull ups.

I found it very important to make sure the lines were slack when pulling the toggle for the ears and also to exaggerate the horseshoe shape a little to bring the tips in closer to you. It is also very important to keep low and bent to take out the speed of the pull up and very little pressure is needed to rotate the Cage. It almost feels like slow motion. It is important to keep the hang strap slack during the pull up to allow you to keep your arms bent.

Once up, I could decide whether to keep the ears in or let them out again. With the ears in, the canopy is a lot more solid and with less of a tendency to wander and so remained extremely controllable. This gave me a chance to experiment a little. I found that I could, for instance, give sufficient pitch control to lay down, keeping my body straight throughout and using the Cage to support my weight as I did so. I could then lay controlling the canopy until I felt like getting up. I would then pitch up on the canopy and get it to pull me back up again although a couple of times I had to bend my legs a little to help it.