Theres been many km's travelled and lots to do these past months :)
But now back in Rolda with a couple of days before getting on a plane to Europe, I have some quiet time to think back over the stuff I was going to rant about before we went wandering!
The successful World Cup last year and the competitions leading up to it have really promoted the flying area here in Valle de Cauca.
When I first came to the Rolda paragliding paradise we joked that we would have 5 years before the Disneyland invasion of gringos, tour groups and random numpty's chased us away to find somewhere new. That 5 year prediction is coming true, unfortunately :(
The numbers of foreign tour groups already are doubled and doubled again; some are collaborating with experienced local pilots and organisers. Others think they can do the job on their own ...
Given that in the minds of the world-at-large Colombia is a perilous nation filled with drugs, bandits and all manner of unimagineable dangers it's surprising that so many pilots now feel totally relaxed about showing up here with no knowledge of the flying areas, the local infrastructure or basic safety and security precautions.
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| The Rolda Wonderland :) |
Novice pilots who have read on the forums and in the press and comp reports of the soft comfortable flying conditions here in the Valle de Cauca ...
and arrive here with no thermalling experience, no site knowledge and no back-up in the event they might do something predictably stupid. They then leach off anyone who appears to be willing to give them a site-briefing, even if that person is new to and unexperienced in the area themselves!
After launching into the inevitable sink cycle they don't manage to cross the power cables, land in a plantation and then spend the rest of the afternoon with machete wielding children cutting down someones income-generating banano tree!
Finally, deciding that this thermalling malarky isn't all its cracked up to be, and in the absence of some other fool willing to witness their lunacy they jump straight back on a plane to gringo land putting the experience behind them and hoping that the farmer won't have a clue what happened to his tree.
The improving intermediate with an ego the size of the small mountain nation he hailed from who decides to base himself here to self-teach xc flying...
The daily quest for more k's pushes rational thought and acceptable behaviour aside. Lucky escapes, daft decisions and an attitude that its only the other idiots who can screw up, results in the inevitable bad landing. However, after a hospital visit for the 'badly damaged back' just 12 hours rest and opiates are needed to regain a zen equilibrium and achieve a "better state of connection" between himself and the air.
Ego drives him always for more distance from a flight, another few points in an xc ranking. Another few minutes airtime & metres flown is more important than consideration for other peoples property, after all the valley is full of sugar cane! Cutting down a 20m track of growing plants to remove glider etc is apparently nothing to the industrialist who might, or might not own it. But where is any consideration that the field may have been owned and planted by a local co-operative and that 'x' kilos of cane is income for feeding a rural family!
Oh, and in the event that he does actually f..k up, it won't be his fault of course; "you should have told me...." (as if that is ever possible! ;-) )
Now that all that can be done has been done, he is leaving wonderland. But beware, he might well be headed to exactly where you are in your paragliding paradise. Be afraid, be very afraid! ;-)
The expert European competition pilot with his paying tour group who has never been to the country, never mind the area or site, who does't speak the language and who refused all local assistance. Then when members of his group have serious crashes he can't act as he doesn't know how to contact the emergency services. He then 'needs' help to get rescue / hospital treatment etc causing local pilots to lose flying days, then in a loss of all rational behaviour tries to fight off the paramedics attending the seriously dehydrated/injured victim!
And to really put the icing on the cake, not a single word of thanks was mentioned to anyone for sorting out his mess for him before he got back on a plane back to the frozen north, leaving a trail of bad feeling and a couple of pilots stuck back together with titanium!
That guys like take money from clients for a 'guided tour' somewhere they have never been, haven't researched locally, haven't any arranged local support and don't even speak the language, is in my view at best unethical and at worst negligent.
So, how long will it be before the locals get fed up of supporting an emergency rescue / medical system used time & time again by people with more money but less sense that the average village idiot or having their proporty destroyed by someone who walks away afterwards without an apology or a backward glance?
I fear for our freedom to play in the skies of the Rolda Wonderland ...
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