Tuesday 24 April 2012

Get the sky for your birthday

Freelance photographer and glider pilot Jaanus Jagomägi tells Suzanne Zhang about flying, and the importance of training in extreme situations. 


“The clouds there look really nice, let’s go there”. In what world does one have that kind of freedom? To navigate in the sky and choose your own route just because the clouds look nice. Imagine that kind of freedom; that calm and appeasing feeling you get when you see the soothing sky? Well now it is possible to actually be there. To say to yourself, ‘hey, let’s turn right after the second cloud’. We know it’s every man’s dream.

“Flying a glider is like having a bicycle in the sky”, says 20 years-old Estonian game design student Jaanus Jagomägi. It is easy and instinctive, but unlike when you are on the ground, when you fly, “all your senses are heightened, but in a more relaxed way”. A glider is a small plane with no engine that is transported by thermals; so there is a very natural feel to it, says Jagomägi. Ironic, as it is made out of glass fiber with wings spreading to at least 18 meters wide, like the LET L-13 Blanik, the most common glider in the world.

It was on the L-13 Blanik that Jagomägi first learnt to fly a glider, when he turned 16. “Flying has been in the family ever since I was a kid, since my father was a pilot”, tells Jagomägi, who remember growing up in airfields, next to gliders. He passed his first license when he was 16, which is the legal age in UK. However, the gliding license is not an easy simulation test, it requires time and practice. You are required to pass seven exams: navigation, aerodynamics, meteorology, human factors & limitations, rules & regulations, and finally, a full-time two-day medical course at the hospital. All this was easy for Jagomägi as he had several tips from his father and friends, “all airfield instructors”.

His brother recently passed his license, a birthday present since he turned 16. When asked about the different prices in Estonia and in the UK, Jagomägi raises his eyebrows and explains that “in the UK they are after your money, whereas in Estonia you can fly for very cheap because they are not being opportunistic”. You should expect 17 pounds for a 12 minutes flight and 34 pounds for a 30 minutes flight (and then up to 10 hours). In the UK, however, the prices are much higher: 200 pounds at the London Gliding Club and around 444 pounds at the South London Gliding Club. Thus getting the sky has its very own price.

When asked about fear of heights, Jagomägi replies that he “used to be scared”. The scariest part is not flying very high because “when you’re low you’re going to need to land in a random place, and you can’t see well”. The further high up you get, the safer you are, as the thermals keep you safe from hitting the ground. But is flying a glider as safe as they make it sound? “Small manoeuvre accidents are bound to happen, but you are always prepared thanks to the training”, argues Jagomägi, who has had two frightening experiences. His scariest moment was two years ago, when he was “flying in a really big triangle (when we go flying we put three points on a map)”. The weather changed abruptly and the clouds disappeared, which means that the thermals are not stable enough to carry a glider. “Looking for a place to land and not seeing anything was one of the scariest things”, says Jagomägi. His glider lost height because of the lift to drag ratio, and he was suddenly at 300 meters above ground. From what he remembered from the textbooks and the practice, he needed to land as quickly as possible in a big flat field. Because he couldn’t see any, he flew over a combine since it released a thermal from a field, which is what all textbooks advise you to do, and “got up to 900 meters, which was more than enough, although [his] heart was racing”.

Jagomägi emphasises the importance of the textbooks and practice as he recalls this adventure, telling me that “it’s not all about instincts, up in the air it’s very technical”. He recalls other experiences, when he went skydiving and again argues that for your survival, practice and the textbooks are what will save you in the end. So what about people who get scared easily and have a mediocre sense of orientation? “It’s doable”, replies Jagomägi. In his opinion, when you get up in the air, you must feel the plane, the mechanics of the manoeuvres; but this is a skill you learn to master. And GPS and maps are always a necessity on gliders, which means that really, anyone –even with fear of heights-could fly a glider.



Contact info and photo: http://foto.jaanus.cc/ 


Real women....identify as women


I was going through my newsfeed on Facebook a couple of days ago when a status caught my mind. It read : 'Real Women have curves, deal with it'. And although I do advocate the normalcy of all shapes and sizes in women, somehow the phrase 'Real Women' is something that infuriates me (If you've never seen me angry and would like to, saying this phrase will suffice to unleash my inner Caitlin Moran and end up with both of us yelling at each other). 

Girls, there is no such thing as a real woman. Curves don't make you real. Boobs, fat rolls and a big ass don't make you real, just as a size 0 doesn't make you real either. In fact, there is no such thing as 'real' woman. 'Realness' is a clever 21st century marketing concept. And the first problem with this 'realness' idea is that it is a divisive one. If you don't have curves, you're not real, and thus you are fake. Worse, you don't exist -I mean, you're not even real! And to be honest, I feel that there is nothing worse than being reduced to nothingness because of the way my body is. Yes, I know that some girls mean well by trying to subvert the unattainable ideal of a size 0 to another ideal, but what they end up doing is the same : setting an ideal of beauty, of femininity and realness. And this leads to shunning others who are not part of this 'curvy girls group' (and by curvy, I mean Scarlett Johansson curvy. Fat is not curvy. Obese is not curvy. Don't try to make things prettier. Being fat and obese are medical issues that affect your health, they're not a fashion statement). 

I am all for raising the self-esteem of women of all shapes (and yes, skinny girls have body issues as well, self-esteem doesn't necessarily increase as your weight line drops, this is not an economic graph), but telling someone what their ideal of beauty - even worse, what their ideal of being a 'woman' and being real is the most vile thing one can do in the beauty industry- and god knows it's a big industry. Yes, I am aware that this happens on a daily basis throughout the media, but take a time to think next time you hear something along the lines of 'Real women have/are...'. No one holds the power to dictate your way of thinking and your way of seeing yourself. Concepts of realness are vapid and not supported by any valid arguments. Women's bodies  are commodified through this 'real women' phrase and it suggests you have no power over your own ideals and beliefs, when really, you do.



Real women ......identify as women. 



Ps: this picture is to be taken as seriously as the sentence 'Real women have curves'