Paragliding at Dickey Ridge, Shenandoah NP, USA

Pictures taken by Tom Ceunen and Marcel Dettling, January 2006

This is the launch at Dickey Ridge. The landing field below is marked with a faint black cross.

That's the glider I got to fly this day: Gradient Aspen, a classic DHV 2. I had a lot of fun with it.

That's the small launch at Dickey Ridge. Behind me, there is a 10ft drop-off. Good launch technique is required.

It was very cold, -5 degrees Celsius, but the winter sun and a good temperature gradient produced excellent thermals.

Tom and I tried to get to two local turnpoints. We are on our way to the lookout about 2kms south of launch.

That's above the turnpoint. Tom caught up with me. His Avax XC is a tad faster and also has a slightly better glide.

After more than 2 hours of superbe flying, we toplanded (with frozen hands) near this radar station for Dulles Airport.

That's the toplanding area, about 100m above launch. It's narrow and thus not easy. But a piece of cake for the tiger ;-)