Paragliding in the Nevada Desert

Ben and I are currently staying in Las Vegas, where we are giving a keynote presentation on 20th June, 2007, with Dave Roberson (Senior Vice President) at a major annual Hewlett Packard conference where there are expected to be 2000 people in the audience. We are also speaking to journalists about the testing we did for HP on Everest back in 2006. Sound like a gruelling schedule? No, not at all; not until we heard that there were some small hills just outside the city!

We decided to take our paragliders out with us in case we got the chance to fly. Local pilot, Carl Appelin, was extremely kind in offering to show us the local site at Jean Ridge (about half an hour from the City). Carl picked us up from the Mandalay Bay Hotel in his HUGE pickup. We reached the site at about 6pm in searingly hot temperatures – about 100 degrees. The winds were SW and it was possible to soar. We had 40 minutes of delightful flying, while the sun set across the desert. We were wearing T-shirts and shorts and the winds were warm and constant giving us smooth rides up and down this mile long ridge!

Thank you Carl, Melonie and Max, for showing us this unique flying site. We loved it. Please come and visit us when you are next in the UK.