B8 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 12, 1996

TERRACE STANDARD

SPORTS

DAVE TAYLOR 638-7283

} alr |

LOOK, UP IN the sky! It’s a bird,

i SKEENA ANGLER
ROB BROWN

Heli-fishing
offee Pot, Home Run, Bonanza,
Beaver Flats, Blue Flag Calahan's

Last Stand, Triple Header, Dead ‘

Man — these are the main streets
of Mecca for devout steetheaders. Today we
will fish them all, all the great reaches of the
Babine, the river of giant steelhead, and we
won't slop there. We will fish the Moose Drift,
Laura’s, Lobo Bar, as well as the lesser known
and the unknown drifts. We will fish every inch,
from foaming canyon to placid glide, of the big
tributaries, Shelagyote, Shedia, Nichyeskwa--
substantial rivers in their own right.

“It's a good day to fly,’? says Mark as he
winds gaffer tape around his antenna and the
FM antennae protruding from the nose of the Jet
Ranger.

I look where he looks. The flag pole is a
bright white against the lead-coloured sky. The
red ensign is draped around it like kelp at low
lide. The rotors of the helicopter droop toa,

Though I’ve flown this way a dozen times.

I'm never completely at case in these ephemeral

machines wilh ‘their . frail cxoskeletons of
aluminum and glass. DaVinci's -brainchild,
modern incamation, the contraptions look as if
they shouldn’t be able to fly,

Yet they do, with more agility and more safe-
ly, in these twisting coastal landscapes than
fixed wing, according to statistics kept on such

things. Strength is waded for mobility, making’

the Jet Ranger the ideal apparatus for threading
canyons, the narrow hallways between

mountain ranges and for navigating river val-'

leys just above the tops of trees.
Logic says that flying once exposes one to
more risk than not flying at all, but that after

that, the chance of accident is the same each |
time one steps into the machine. The risk of ac: :

cident does not increase. Siill, many friends and
acquaintances of mine are biologists, and it
seems they all have tales of tragedy or near trag-
edy to tell.

As we sland on the tarmac, awaiting the pilot:
and Dana Atagi, Mark’s biologic counterpart, '

fragments of these stories scroll through my
mind: Dionys deLecuw counting fish from the
air, below the tree taps, low in the valley, head-
ing toward the pool at the junction of the Cran-
berry and Kiteen Rivers. From ground work two
days earlier he recalls a black unmarked cable
across the river and around the next bend. The
pilot must know, he thinks, but as they burtle
closer he decides to check.

“You know about the cable over the river up
ahead???

The question is electric. The pilot jolts, his
eyes widen. He hauls on the stick. The machine
misses the cable by inches,

There is also the image of wildlife biologist
Grant Hazelwood--who has spent hundreds of
hours counting goats, caribou, moose, and
wolves from planes and choppers--standing bes-
ide a lake as shards of rotor whiz by him. One
of the missiles kills a deer standing at the edge
of the woods, Miraculously, Grant is unscathed,

An image from the night before: Mark’s part-
ner Debbic, a wildlife biologist working fur the
Parks Branch, over dinner tells how she and two
colleagues were plucked from a mountain top
after their pilot lost visibility, bounced off the
mountain, became airborne long enough to say,
“We're lucky,’’ before hilting again, The sec-
ond time the craft did not regain the air.

“We were lucky,’’ said Debbie, The machine
heeled over on ils side like a wounded animal,
Everyone was able to crawl out while a beacon
senl a pulse out to rescuers,

As [load film, Dana and the pilot, Darrell Ad-
zich arrive. Some thirty thousand dollars worth
of saphislicated radio tracking equipment is
packed aboard in two black, briefcase-sized
satchels. Wires are quickly booked up, We're
aboard, Mark and Dana are huddled over their
receivers in the back like pair of monks in a
high-tech confessional.

Darrell rhythmically flicks switches and
pushes buttons; the machinery whines the motor
growls, rises in crescendo; I think of video
ganies and pipe organs as we rise like steam
then burtle. over the Driftwood valley, over
greening up farmland cut in two by the Bulkley
River, which, in minutes, is a snake, then a sil-
ver ribbon, then a memory as we whip along
over the snows atop the Harold Price Range.

“Look there,’’ orders Darrell, who, for the
rest of the day will spot things long before the
rest of us do, We peer down over the white ex-
panse and sce long lines across the snow fields,

To be continued, .

High flyin’ bi

it’s-a plane. No, it’s some guy Icap-
ing off a cliff with a parachute
Strapped to his back.

By day, Brian Fell might look
like any other mild-mannered Jaw-
yer, Bul between litigating cases,
Fell’s eyes turn to the skies, check-
ing the wind.

“You've got to be patient in this
sport,’” says Fell,

That sport is paragliding and it’s
Fell’s passion.

“Most people altracted to it are
thrill-scekers,’’ be says. ‘‘But for
me it’s more of a relaxing thing.”

We're sitting high atop Copper
Mountain, near the spot where 39-
year-old Fell leaps into the wide
blue yonder, a spot that he calls his
‘launch site’.

But the wind isn’t being coopera-
tive today.

According to the airport tower,
winds are 15, gusting 20 knots —
too strong to attempt a launch. Yet
Fell is more philosophical than
anxious.

“This is what’s called para-
wailing,’’ he says, munching at a
fruit salad. “A big part of this sport
is just being in the great outdoors.
Sometimes you've just got to relax
and wait out the weather.”

Fell first flew four years ago
when he was at law school in Aus-
tralia.

Originally, it was hang gliding
that drew him to the skies, but he’s
since swiched over to paragliding
almost exclusively.

Hang gliders and paragliders both
have wingspans of about 30 fect.
But while hang gliders have rigid
wings and an aluminum frame,
paragliders consist of just fabric
and cords,

The glidezs perform differently
too,,Paragliders can move as slowly
as 15kph, with a top speed of about
40kph. Hang gliders can’t fly as
slowly, but can achieve speeds of
up to 80kph.

For Fell, the choice came down
to convenience. A hang glider, ful-

ly packed, is still 20 fect Jong and
weighs in al some 30 kilograms,

But a paraglider can stuff into a
backpack and weighs only 5-6 kilo-
grams. This means that Fell can
hike to launch sites that are in-
accessible to hangliders.

That’s important in. Terrace
where the only*viable Jaunch. sites
are hike-ins.

The Copper Mountain launch is
nol always an easy one, according
to Fell. The winds pick up speed’as
they curve around the mountain,
much like a river speeds up in a
tum.

The result is ofien what
paragliders call ‘‘rowdy’’ or rough
air that can sometimes be tricky to
handle,

“But rough air usually provides
the best lift,”” Fell says. “IF you
have the guts to fly in it, you can
ect really high.”

For Fell, the hardest decision to
make is often the decision not to
fly, especially after going all the
way to the top of a mountain.

This appears to be one of those
days, The wind isn’t dying down
and the shadows are growing
longer.

But Fell knows when it’s likely ta
be too rough.

“You develop a real knowledge
of sublle variences in weather,’' he
says. ‘You learn to get a feel for
the texture of air,’”

Those variations can change
quickly, as Fell knows from experi-
ence.

One time he had to land in the
Lomak parking iot — a good dis-
lance from his usual landing spot at

Bluebacks back
from Nationals

the golfcoure, after he un-
derestimated the speed of the wind.
“Twas flying into the wind full-
tilt,” he says, ‘‘But when J looked
down, I was going backwards. The
wind was moving faster than J]
could,’”
Another lime Fell was cruising

close to the | facd=Sof-vCopper!i«

Mountain, searching for wann-air
thermals that could give him a
boost. ©

He got one.

*T suddenly shot straight up for a
couple seconds,"’ he says. “Then J
looked up, and the whole glider
collapsed like a taco and I went
into a freefall for just enough time
to think — oh, this is stupid. Then,
bang! the thing opens up again and
I'm floating. So I figured }’d land.’

But Fell ‘stresses that the sport is
actually very safe, He says that new
gliders are rigorously tested to pre-
vent failure and adds that pilots al-
ways have a reserve chute to fall
back on — literally,

Fell adds that he doesn’t take
foolish ‘risks. He even left his first
career as an ambulance driver be-
cause he was worried about all the
heavy lifting involved,

Sometimes the ride down will
take only a few minutes. But Fell
speaks wistfully of days when he’s
managed to get “big air’, and
flown really high.

“On a good day here you can

_ Stay up for hours,”’ he says, “One

time I got up to 8,000 feet. It was
amazing, you could see forever.”
Fell is now concentrating on get-
ting a group of pilots to fy togeth-
er, Which he says is much more fun

itt dat ae ccs
than flying solo. Radios Jet them
talk to cach other and to people on
the ground,

He has also ordered a tandem
paraglider so he can help teach
others to Oly with the birds, and is
becoming a paraglider distibutor
for the area under the name
Revolution-Air Paragliding.

Fell says that a beginner glider
with a hamess and a reserve chute
Starts at about $3,000. He figures
it’s moncy well-spent.

“T used to have lots of hobbies,”
he says. ‘‘Like motor biking and
scuba diving, But when I started
flying, it was like a combination of
the best aspects of all the other
Sports. It’s addictive,’’

Fell isn't going to get his fix
today. It’s getting late and the wind
is still buffetting the trees, He
shrugs,

“Sometimes it just isn’t meant to
be,’? he says and starts the truck.

A couple of days jater I see Fell
in the sky, climbing higher and
higher until he literally disappears.
Now that’s big air,

Cal boys
bash Rupert

THE CAL BOYS rugby team is flying this year, post-

POINTS NORTH swimming associa-
tion made a strong showing at the Ca-
nadian Nationals May 29-31.

It was the first time in five years that
Terrace has sent anyone to Youth Na-
tionals. So for the swimmers, it was
their first time competing at this high of
a level.

“The kids didn’t know what to ex-
pect,’’ says coach Mike Carlyle. ‘‘So
this was a very good learning experic-
nee,”

Five Terrace Bluebacks joined with
three Kitimat youths for the journey.
Oniy 18 of the 127 teams that competed
had eight or more competitors. The
high number of qualifiers from Points
North indicates a bright future for the
association, says Carlyle.

‘Three of the five qualifiers have at
least one more year to compete. in the
Youth Nalionals,”” he says, ‘And. the
way they jumped in their rankings,

sometimes by 15-20 spots, is a very
positive sign for the ones who will be
returning.” ee

One of the youths who won't be in
the Youth division next year is Seth
Downs. But Downs went out wilh a
bang, posting 100 per cent best times in
the long course.

The team did especially well in the
relays. In the 4x50 metre relay, all the
boys had best times, times that they had
hevcr even come close to before.

Unfortunately the team missed
qualifying for the finals by one-half of
a second.

Points North ended. up placed 23rd
overall, although Carlyle points out that
the final rankings were helped some-
what by the Kitimat youths like Amber
Wuensche who placed first in the 100
metre breaststroke.

The next mect for the Bluebacks will
be June 15-16 in Kitimat.

ing another big win last week in Prince Rupert.

The cold and rain left swimming pool-sized puddles
on the field, which should have favoured the Rupert
squad.

Bul the boys came out flying, and the combined team
of Prince Rupert Senior Secondary and Charles Hayes
were left flapping in the puddies, unable to post a
point,

Cal’s domination lasted through the game, which
ended 44-0 for our boys,

Coach David Hull says the futuze of rugby in Terrace
looks rosy.

“The game is very well received by both players and
parents,”’ he says. ‘‘It's a good fast, physical game, but
it's not expensive to play because you don't need much
equipment.’ , Lo

Many of Terrace’s 17-and-under players will be par-
licipating in the B.C, Games this year in
Trail/Castlegar,

It’s been several years since this zone has been
represented in the games and Hull says that Sending a
team shows the growing support for the game.

“Next year we. want Smithers and Kitimat to get on
board,’? says Hull. ‘And Cal will be involved in more
tournanicnis, ”! 4 oe