I took some time interview Enleau O' Connor at our last maneuvers course. He, his wife Anne and their son Cameron operate the boat that does all of the towing at our courses. They are remarkable people and this interview with Enleau ought to give you a little idea what they are all about.
Enleau O'Connor
C:You’ve only been flying
full time for three years, it’s kind of odd that you are being interviewed for
PG Magazine isn’t it?
E: I guess.
Maybe it’s because I have been flying three hundred days a year each
year. Also, I have a fair amount of experience because I get to burn up lots of
altitude. I am always out towing with the boat in the summer and the truck in
the winter. Mostly, I have been in contact with a lot of people. My wife and I
have done the towing for more than sixty maneuvers courses. Most of them had at
least ten people. Most of them had
never towed before and so, we have worked with a lot of
people pretty closely.
C: How did you get started?
E: In the early days,
1991 actually, I took some flights at Hat Creek Rim and got scared flying
mid-day. I got into deep stall and ended up landing on the side of the hill in a
small clump of trees. I looked over and saw Ed Pitman landing on the side of the
hill just the same. We decided that Hat Creek Rim ought not to be flown mid-day.
Shortly, I tried a friend’s newer, high performance glider. I was going
to land and was doing a lame. wing over type approach. I took a collapse,
stalled the flying side and met the ground, straining my neck. All that was
enough to make me put off paragliding for a few years, though I still took a
couple of flights a year.
I realized that I was
one of the better pilots around, but that I didn’t know anything. I didn’t
have any guidance; I was sort of turned off.
C: So, what happened?
E: I went back to riding
motorcycles. I was riding at a pretty high level and found myself taking some
big risks. I went down on the street a few times and decided to call it quits. I
did a little paragliding and found that the technology was a lot better and
people had a better understanding of paraglider dynamics. I felt that I had some
people that I could learn from. I was inspired.
I did some towing, and
figured out that I didn’t have to worry about soaring and thermalling and that
I could just work on, and learn about paraglider maneuvers dynamics. All of the
sudden, paragliding was something that I had to do, full time.
C: Now you are one of the
top three top paraglider aerobatics pilots in the country?
How did that happen?
E: I met up with you,
David Enrod, Felix Rodriguez, Urs Imhoff. Some good aerobatics pilots who
willing to share information. I got my wife to video me a lot and bought in on
an Ed Pitman Super Tow hydraulic pay out winch. We have done a lot of towing in
the last few years.
C: You have learned to do
all of the hot, new tricks, is there anything that you wish that someone had
told you about the whole pursuit before you started?
E: Ya, I wish someone
had told me that I didn’t have to stay up, you know, soar, in order to have
fun. I found out that it’s a lot
funner, for me, to just fly down, land and go hook on the tow line, or drive
back up to launch and do it again. I
guess that it has to do with the fact that I have been lucky enough to have
access to lots of good towing equipment. I am able to pursue paragliding the way
that people pursue skydiving. I go up when I want, come back down and do it
again.
C; What keeps you traveling
around, doing the towing most of the “over the water” safety training that
goes on in the US, coaching maneuvers and just doing maneuvers whenever you can?
E: I like the learning
environment, I like being around people who share their insights and tricks
about how paragliders work and I like teaching, people watching people progress
to be able to fly their gliders better and better. I like to see people come to
be more confident. Plus, it beats cutting timber.
Since I progressed too
quickly in the early days and got scared, I now enjoy where I am in the sport
without wanting to progress to quickly. I like being a beginner; I am always
working on perfecting familiar maneuvers and on doing new maneuvers safely, by
doing a thoughtful learning progression.
C: Which maneuvers are
familiar, which ones are the new ones?
E: Wing overs, stalls,
spins, asymmetric spirals, loops. I am always working on those, but the SAT and
all the variations on the SAT are the most interesting for me right now.
C: What’s your overall
philosophy, or approach to the new maneuvers to any new maneuver?
E: I really believe that
a person, above all else, needs to find the proper learning environment. I need
to be high above the water, video camera rolling and exactly the right glider
and harness. More novice pilots might need to be in a grassy field, where they
can practice kiting. Intermediate pilots need to be over the water, with good,
new equipment, simulator training, good briefings, rescue boat and radio
guidance.
C: What do you recommend
for fly safely, improve and learn to do tricks?
E: Find a pilot to
mentor, ones who make good decisions. Get in a good environment, with guidance.
Hire guides, take lessons, travel, and get over the water. Most importantly,
check out your mindset; make sure that yours are a good one. Flying is a mental
exercise. You have to look at situations objectively, exercise good judgment,
and manage your fears. We see it
when we get groups, those that maintenance all those aspects of their flying, do
well. Those that neglect any one
aspect of their flying come up short. To tell the truth, we have to have
guidance, with all of the variables involved in flying, we all need help.
C: What, specifically, can
the average person do, to improve and to learn to do tricks?
E: Well, if you are
always concerned with soaring, thermalling, staying up, then you don’t always
do the exercises that help you to learn the most that you can about your flying,
your glider. Also, you have to be hyper critical of your own decision making
processes, your own behavior, your own glider handling. You have to be doing
exercises that keep you focused, that keep you from becoming complacent. It’s
easier to become complacent when you are endlessly scratching around. You have
to go flying when it isn’t soarable knowing that the take off, the exercises
that you do in flight and the landing are all going to be worthwhile in terms of
making you a better pilot.
C: What kind of exercises
can the average pilot do on an average flight when they aren’t soaring?
E: Practice good
posture, weight shift, making smooth arcs and avoiding the unwanted, unnecessary
pendulums. People need to make smooth take offs on the first inflation, along
with smart approaches and good flare timing.
Things like boating around and doing big ears don’t really teach you
much.
C: What’s your ratio of
flights over water vs. flights over the ground? Towing vs. Mtn. Launch? Soaring
vs. just burning altitude with maneuvers?
E: About 70% over water,
30% over ground. 70% tow launches, 30% Mtn. Launches. 70 % burning altitude, 30% attempting to soar. I always
burn some altitude doing exercises, even on flights where I am trying to soar at
some point.
C: Been Cross Country?
E: Once, thirty miles…
I just wanted to go out and do some tricks, but I got blown off course.
C: You are pretty adamant
about people needing to fly new gliders and you have about seven gliders
yourself? What’s up with that?
E: It’s so cool.
Getting to fly different gliders and different sizes teaches me a lot.
I know what things are glider specific and which are common to all
gliders. By flying so many different gliders, I learned to identify the little
differences from one to another. Sometimes I fly four different gliders in one
day. Every time I try a new one, I think it’s my favorite one. I really
appreciate glider design, the way that different gliders behave compared to
others. I even talk to designers about what I can do to make my gliders handle
better. I want a new one right now. Every time I get a new one, I become a
better pilot. It keeps things fresh, new, exciting. Little things make big
differences like brake line length, harness adjustment, where you look, how you
weight shift, little timing details, the speed at which you pull brake. I would
never be in tune with those subtleties unless I had flown so many different
gliders.
I like my Ozone Proton
for the SAT, my Gin Gliders Bandit does it nicely too, but Boomerang is really
dynamic in the SAT. I think that the Ozone Octane is really the best one for the
SAT all around. My Firebird Booster is the best for stalling and spinning and is
the first glider that I did the SAT on. When I spun the Booster trying to SAT, I
knew that it would be ok. I have had a Bonanza for a while and it does the best
loops. I just have and easy time staying smooth when flying it and the maneuvers
end up being really smooth. I
don’t like to do stalls and spins over the ground, but I sometimes do, on my
Bonanza. My wife has some small
gliders; Booster, Bolero, Bandit and I get to fly those when she lets me.
I also like the Edel Sector, I learned to loop on one of those.
We saw some gliders
suffer structural failure during some over the water maneuvers. Now, I don’t
let anyone that I like fly old gliders. The new ones are safer, funner and if
people don’t have one, I loan them one of mine. There’s rarely a decent
excuse for not flying the new technology.
C: What are you looking
forward to for the future?
E: I look forward to seeing people flying their gliders better.
I’d like to help to get more tow rigs out there and more people trained to
operate them safely. I’d like to see people getting a lot of flying in during
the winter months. I’d like to see people quit worrying about thermalling. I
want a new glider. I want to go to Red Bull Vertigo in Switzerland, the Seattle
Aero-Battle and any other Paraglider Aerobatics Competitions that pop up. I’ll
do anything I can to make that sort of thing happen.
Still, if I had one
wish, it would be that people would enjoy simple flights, gliding down and
landing for the awesome experience that it is.
C: Any parting shots?
E: My favorite thing has
been to watch my wife become the best female aerobatics pilot in the world. She
has worked really, really hard and she does beautiful stalls, spins, wing overs,
loops and SAT’s. She is smoother than any of us. I’d like to see her
continue to improve and to see her recognized as being the best or among the top
three in the world at least.
Enleau(29), Anne(26) and
Cameron(7) O’ Connor live in Northern California. Enleau is an advanced
instructor and tandem pilot. When they are not doing “over the water”
courses, they are teaching people in their area to fly. They can be reached at gonetowing@hotmail.com
or at 530 472 1427.
Cameron, training for inverted aerials...
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