A TANDEM FLIGHT

This true story was reported by the October issue of Skywings.

"Last Friday, I was standing in the field watching a student, Andy Bailey, performing an extended top-to-bottom flight. Behind him I suddenly noticed a falcon in hot pursuit of a wood pigeon, which was doing some impressive stunts to avoid becoming dish-of-the-day.

Passing just behind Andy's Paraglider, an Apco Prima, the poor bird made the best decision of its life. Throwing in a 5g right turn, it nipped between Andy's lines (losing a feather or two) and landed onto his shoulder!

Imagine the falcon's surprise - and imagine Andy's!

Being him a sort of cool dude, he accepted he was now flying a tandem wing and brought both of them in for a perfect landing. The pigeon stayed on his shoulder until he'd collapsed the canopy, before metaphorically raising its hat to Andy and dashing off...

To the credit of both aviators, when I examined the harness later, I found it free of er any mess. Both outside and in!!"

[Thu Oct 28 18:50:31 1999]