Sweet December Dance

21 DEC 09
On Monday I called up my good friend Sun to see what he was up to and if he was up to flying. As always he was and we soon met at Asan park in Asan City. This is a beautiful place to fly and provides for a great take off area. Asan park lies next to a windy river, beautiful mountains to the north, and a large city to the south. So pretty much in every direction you fly there is something fun to see and look at. Especially so towards the west, as the windy river flows besides hundreds of rice patties and leads into pyeongtaek bay. All the way there are hundreds if not thousands of birds that are more than happy to fly with you anytime you come along. This day we departed from the parking lot as the soccer field was covered in snow. Following the river the scene was absolutely stunning, the snow of a few days past was still on the ground, which provided for stunning contrast between the river and the fields and the blue cloudless sky. Making our way west I could not believe the amount of birds absolutely everywhere, mostly ducks it made for a spectacular sight. I found that I could surprise them in the river and sneak up for a closer look by coming in low over the rice patties and breaking out right above the river. This made for some awesome formation flights. I couldn’t believe I was flying with the birds, I couldn’t believe that feeling, there was nothing like that, I mean who gets to fly like that. Some were faster than others, my wing outran a few of them, some would "duck" underwater to get away from me. We ran into a few high tension wires along the route, Sun, the more experienced pilot decided to go low underneath them close to the pole, so I followed. That was quite the thrill however, as close as it felt, there was plenty of room overhead with no danger of getting into trouble. The wind this day was absolutely perfect, if anything a slight 1 to 2 mph wind from the sea. I would use this to my benefit later in the flight. It was cold this day, I was prepared with my heated gloves; however Sun did not have his this day so after about an hour flight we landed in a rice patty for a break. After warming up it was time to take back to the skies. Flying south, we flew over a few foothills that lead into larger mountains with tall buildings scattered here and there... I noticed a traditional looking Korean structure on top of one of the foothills so flew in a little closer to see what was going on. There were a few hikers that waved, I wondered what they must have thought about me buzzing by their little hut on top of the mountain, I wonder if anyone of them who saw me will look into what they saw and maybe one day take up the sport. We then headed back for the city of Asan, I skimmed down a golf course which no one was playing on, and a good thing or I might have been hit with a golf ball, as we approached the city I noticed Sun hitting the throttle for higher skies. He likes it up there, but not me. I took this no wind situation as a chance to get in close. When I first started this sport i drew my inspiration from a single video trailer I saw on youtube called Kimchi Session. If you haven’t seen it please look it up for it is an exceptional video. These guys who many I have met from the Paramania team at this years 2009 Deajeon competition were doing some really crazy things in this Kimchi Sessin video, skimming rooftops, flying between apartment buildings, under bridges, through the heart of a Korean city. I thought today it was my turn. So I buzzed in low, right above a few room tops, got a little bit more comfortable and started skirting down the sides of some of these 15-20 story buildings. It was phenomenal and my heart was almost bursting through my jacket. The sun was getting low on the horizon which lit the Korean sky up red and orange. I could see my reflection in the windows of the buildings, and flying along I could see people in their offices and homes starring out at me. They must have thought I was crazy, but if we were to have switched places I would have thought whoever that guy was flying by my home was freaking awesome!! The sun was finally setting and it was time to land, we both came back for a nice landing beside our cars, packed up and took off. Sun invited me over, it is always nice to see his two daughters and his wife who is always trying to pick up on some additional English. We went and ate Korean bbq and afterwards took his daughters to their Tae Kwon Doe lessons. This was a great day, the day of the Sweet December Dance...