the flying effect

Biskupinn flying in Annecy. Photo: Brian Steele. Published in XC Mag's Readers Gallery, August 2011. www.xcmag.com

Name?
Timothy Bishop (AKA Biskupinn)

Age?
42

Where do you live / where do you come from?
I live in Iceland, but I’m from England.

Employment / studies / what you want to be when you grow up?
I’m a retired Royal Navy Lieutenant turned software engineer and part-time paraglider repair man.

When I grow up I’d like to be one of those adults that oozes competence and to finally have a feeling that I actually know what I’m doing.

Marital / family status / is your partner a pilot?
I’m married to the lovely Steinunn and we have two daughters. Steinunn’s not a pilot but has shown an interest in doing a tandem.

Do you have or want children in the future?
I’m lucky enough to have two stepdaughters, who teach me about everything from Justin Bieber to the finer points of Icelandic grammar. If another child comes along that would be a welcome addition to the global population of paraglider pilots. In around fifteen years’ time.

What does ‘Freedom’ mean to you? What gives you freedom?
Freedom means many things to me. Selfishly, it means being able to do what I want, to choose my own direction in life. More importantly, it means freedom from the issues that affect far too many people in this world, like lack of democracy, religious intolerance or gender inequality issues. I’m acutely aware of the unjustified privileges that I have in some parts of the world simply by virtue of having been born male. My range of feelings on this issue goes from deep shock at the horror of genital mutilation in African adolescent girls to disappointment that even in a country like Iceland the gender pay balance is unequal.

If you had one wish in the world, what would it be? For yourself or anyone or anything?
I’d love to be able to fast forward the process of human intellectual evolution. I’ve come to realise that we are an immature race because we still behave like wild animals and we have not evolved anywhere near as far as we like to pretend we have. I’d love to be able to fast-forward to the point where unfit memes like exploitation, religion and gratuitous violence have been naturally selected out of the human gene pool.

Taking off in Hafrafell, Iceland.

When, how and why did you start paragliding?
I was on a skiing holiday in Chamonix, standing at the top of the Brevent lift, looking across at Mont Blanc. I saw a paraglider lazily thermalling about a thousand metres above the valley floor and was captivated. I turned to the person I was with and said: “That looks flipping brilliant. I need to do that.”

I then couldn’t stop thinking about it and took a two-day introductory course with a now-defunct company called Peak Paragliding in summer 1994. I then did my Club Pilot rating in Wales with the UK military paragliding school.

I had a break until 2007, when I bought my first gear and re-learned how to fly.

Why do you still do it?
I fly because it gives me overwhelming pleasure and enough of a challenge to keep me constantly on my toes. I’ve spent vast amounts of all types of resources on flying of various types, from being in the UK military, to getting a commercial pilot’s licence and working in aerial photography, to bumming rides in fighter jets. What I didn’t realise until I started flying properly was that I’d always been searching for the feeling of paragliding: the purity of flight, the intensity of the feeling, the wind on my face and the strong sense of connection with the wing and the air.

Do you prefer XC, acro, soaring…? and what are your goals in paragliding?
I remember saying to someone, when I bought my gear back in 2007, “I know there are people doing XC and acro and stuff, but I’ll just be happy to be flying. Just soaring the ridge.”, and in my first season that was enough for me. I then started learning to find and use lift and learning to enjoy the bumpy ride rather than be scared of it, and I remember how deeply surprised I was the first time I realised I was soaring the ridge and felt just a tiny bit bored.

This year I did an SIV and XC course in Annecy and I’m not the same pilot any more. Given limitless resources, I’d do lots of acro training, become competent at the core manouvres, then go on to master the skills of mountain flying. I’ve realised that in the same way that for fixed-wing powered flight aerobatics is the most fun part, on a paraglider acro is the most valuable and fun part. I can also say that based on my own tiny, tiny experience of chucking it around in Annecy, paraglider acro is much more fun that anything I’ve ever done in any other aircraft. And that includes some really crazy stuff.

Glider?
Gradient Golden 3, in custom rastafarian colours. Only after GHing it did I realise that from underneath it looks exactly like a watermelon, so my wing is officially named The Rastamelon.

Harness?
Charly Tube. I’ve just bought an ultra-lightweight mountain harness and hope to build up my hike’n'fly rig this winter.

Vario / gps / radio / camera / other electronics while flying?
Vario: ancient but trusty Renschler Sol 15 that I bought broken off eBay and fixed myself. I love it because it’s ‘old skool’ and I spiritually invested in it by fixing it. It’s also solar-powered, which is ace.
GPS: old Garmin eTrex Legend. Simple, cheap, does the job.

I also have a very nice smartphone, a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and I’m hoping to start using that in flight, because I have XCSoar running on it. If I can get it working it will give me all the functions of a €1000 flight instrument.

I use a Yaesu VX-3R radio, which is one of my favourite bits of gear. It’s so compact, light and powerful. I have a home-grown PTT with a helmet-mounted boom mike, which works really well and is now on about version 9,0b.

Do you log your flights, how many hours / flights do you have?
Yes, I’m really fastidious about logging. I find it very useful to go back and read my logbook; I get so much learning from it. I log my ground handling as well and try to force myself to keep advancing my skills. I write quite a lot of detail about each flight.

I currently have 51 flight hours over 148 flights, and 53 hours’ GH.

Memorable flying experience: the best one? the worst one?
My first short hops of course, my first twenty-minute ridge soaring flight in Wales, and more recently being kindly led around the Tour du Petit Lac by Brian Steele. When I landed I was so ecstatic I was cackling and laughing like a madman, for quite a long time.

My worst experience was while I only had less than an hour’s airtime and found myself in air that was too rough for me. It was terrifying to the extent that I said to myself “well, if that’s what paragliding is like, it’s not for me!”, and nearly gave up. I subsquently realised that my gear was all wrong: my harness too big and wobbly and the chest strap set dangerously wide, and I was flying a wing way beyond my ability. I learned a lot from that about the profound effect that equipment can have on the feeling of flying.

How do you handle fear? Flying, on take-off, etc?
I can be very stubborn and mentally strong when I need to; skills which I learned in military training and from years of doing silly things like mountain biking and mountaineering. I try to control my mind, remind myself of the difference between rational and non-rational thinking, focus on the positives and I find that having my mojo helps. I also use visualisation a lot for take-offs and I find that helps a lot. I have a big yellow smiley-face on my flight deck which I use when I get scared. I look down, see it, laugh out loud and say out loud “It’s okaaaay!!! We’re okaaay!!!! You’re wing’s fine, your gear’s fine! Your reserve is there! Nothing to worry about!!!”, then I laugh again and crank into the lift.
One of the most important things I’ve learned is to be comfortable in strong lift and thermals, and that the best strategy is to load up the wing by turning and climbing.

Timothy Bishop

What’s next / coming up in your life?
I’m changing jobs, so I really hope I settle well into that and can manage to both make the best of the forthcoming seasons and get away to Annecy again. I really hope I can learn to SAT.

Anything else you would like to add?
Thanks for paying me the respect of being interested.