{"id":417,"date":"2014-07-02T19:56:05","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T19:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flyfiesch.co.nf\/?page_id=417"},"modified":"2025-09-02T06:40:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T06:40:20","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/?page_id=417","title":{"rendered":"About me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My name is Robert Smith.\u00a0 I started paragliding in 1992, and have over 3,700 hours airtime, including around 700 flights from Fiesch.\u00a0 I retired from work in 2011, and divide most of my time between the UK and the Alps, skiing in the winter and flying in the summer.\u00a0 I am not an expert pilot, and have no coaching, instructing, or guiding credentials, but over the years I have learned a lot about flying from Fiesch, which I aim to pass on in this website.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I first flew in Fiesch in 1994, and continue to do so regularly, recording most of my flights on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xcontest.org\/world\/en\/pilots\/detail:XDrRob\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">XContest<\/a>, usually with a commentary and pictures, and on flyable days you may find me on <a href=\"https:\/\/puretrack.io\/?k=X-xdrrob1752\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">live tracking<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2015, I became the only pilot to have ever won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xcleague.com\/xc\/leagues\/2015-20.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UK overseas league<\/a> on an EN-B glider, but have entered no competitions since the 1990s.\u00a0 My attitude towards flying prioritises enjoyment over performance numbers, which is reflected throughout this website and in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/?page_id=2661\">my choice of equipment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I have written <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/?page_id=2328\">several articles<\/a> for Skywings, the magazine of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Anti-spam-non-link.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3821\" src=\"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Anti-spam-non-link.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1060\" height=\"30\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Anti-spam-non-link.png 1060w, https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Anti-spam-non-link-300x8.png 300w, https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Anti-spam-non-link-1024x29.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Anti-spam-non-link-768x22.png 768w, https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Anti-spam-non-link-500x14.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1060px) 100vw, 1060px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>I would be very grateful to be told immediately about any technical problems with the site, e.g. links that don&#8217;t work, so that I can put them right without delay!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I am also keen to hear from any pilots who know Fiesch well and disagree with anything here, particularly if they feel it\u2019s dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My name is Robert Smith.\u00a0 I started paragliding in 1992, and have over 3,700 hours airtime, including around 700 flights from Fiesch.\u00a0 I retired from work in 2011, and divide most of my time between the UK and the Alps, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/?page_id=417\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2325,"parent":2,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-417","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4105,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417\/revisions\/4105"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flyfiesch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}