Paragliding with a Golden Eagle

My favorite local flying site is Cayucos, California. Why? Many reasons, it's easy to get to, hike or drive. It's close. The view is amazing, especially this time of year when the green hills roll off to the eastern horizon, and the ocean sparkles in tropical tones. But what I really love about flying at Cayucos is that it is different each time I fly there. Some days it's a lazy sled ride to the beach, some days it's blazing ridge lift for hours. And in the last several years we have really started figuring out the thermals there, which really makes it exciting. We are able to thermal out of the bowl started literally one or two feet from landing back up several hundred feet over launch. It's a great challenge, and great practice for turning in tight, small thermals.

Cayucos often has several resident birds to mark thermals, they often join us for a few turns. Red tail Hawks, and Turkey Vultres are the common local thermal birds. Turkey Vultures will turn in anything, and are often turning over food, so they will trick you into an area with no lift. Red Tails can core up in the smallest thermals, so I will often find that the lift they are climbing in is nothing more than a momentary blip on my vario. Both birds are still great fun to fly with, and often lead me to lift.

Today though, I noticed a larger bird coring up. I drifted under it and found a very nice thermal rolling up the west-northern side of the Cayucos hill. I turned a few times under it, checking it out on each turn. Unlike the other birds, this bird was not shy about getting close to me, or even flying right at my paraglider when I was falling out of the core. Reminded me of flying with comp pilots:) It was a Golden Eagle! It wasn't the first time I've flown with one, but it's always cool!

So far it's been a great week with birds, soaring with a golden eagle yesterday, Tim flew with Condor in Dunlap last week. Hope the locals don't get jealous of our new thermal partners...we still love you Red Tails and Turkey Vultures!!