Cloudbase Mayhem Podcast

Nik Hawks returns to the Mayhem in response to the pilot survey we put out a couple months ago to take on a whole bunch of topics you, our listeners asked for. We broke this wide-ranging show into four main parts- Nik’s answers a bunch of questions about his own sometimes frustrating progression and how he’s had to adjust his own expectations in the sport in order to avoid being a “dangerous pilot”; I answer questions from Nik about a recent interesting discussion he had with a new pilot on launch; we revisit some of the takeaways from the Kiwi SAR effort in Nevada; and finally Nik interviews me about the upcoming Red Bull X-Alps, my own progression choices over the years, what makes a “dangerous” vs a “safe” pilot, gear choices for hike and fly and a lot more. We had a ton of fun with this show and hope you enjoy it!
Show Notes: 

* Survey results:
* 60% of our listeners fly less than 100 hours a year & almost 80% identify as intermediate or beginner.
* Most listeners into XC

Questions for Nik

* How many hours do you have now?
* Why hasn’t your progression been faster?
* why don’t you fly more?
* why don’t you do more SIV?
* What’s your longest XC?
* Do you consider yourself a dangerous pilot?
* What “needs to change” in the world of free flight, if anything?
* If you had 8 weeks over the spring and summer to do any flights anywhere in the world, what would they be?
* What would you tell your 50 hour self?
* What do you wish the new pilots on the hill would do more?
* How have you handled reckless pilots on your hill?
* Biggest eye opener/change of approach or attitude from when you first got into flying vs now. IE – what were the early misconceptions (“I’d like to race in the 2019 RBXA vs the reality”)
* Tips for finding a good mentor? And…what makes a good mentor?
* Top three frustrations in your progression

(local P3 new pilot w/100 hours, questions)

* self taught, started flying at beginning of lockdown
* kited solo for a month
* flybubble, GoPro everything then ask another pilot for feedback, read the Art of Paragliding and other books, researched online stuff
* launching lee side into 18 mph wind thinking it was fine, got lucky
* “I’m often the lowest pilot, and lately I’ve been sinking out without warning.  If the wind shuts off, I’m fucked.”
* tips on sidehill landings, because that’s where I get hurt
* is it better to pick a safe spot and aim for that, or is it better to figure out the wind and land into the wind?
* wind direction without indicators, how do you figure it out?
* multiple intermediate syndromes
* there’s not just one time that you realize you don’t know shit. It happens over and over.
* I hurt myself on a launch after 60 launches and realized I got lucky 60 times
* I’m psyched out on landing; every landing is an event now and it used to be something I looked forward to
* I only get one shot at the “tricky” landings, which makes them even more nerve-wracking.
* I have at least 50 landings “on the carpet”, but I missed twice and now I’m psyched out about it
* I can stick 5 out of 10 landings on the box at Torrey. I don’t want to practice those at Torrey because then people will think I’m incompetent.
* breaking hours up to ridge soaring (10 hours) & mountain hours (90 hours)

KiwiSAR

* Should we have seen him?
* What were our lessons learned?
* gear (having a tertiary location backup)- 2 min tracking
* comms, command, control (Telegram was amazing)
* community really rallied. Was Kiwi that special, or can we expect that every time? USE US FIRST!
* What was the best part of the SAR for you?
* Other than Kiwi crashing,