Learning to Fly

Curtain Up

I didn’t want to let the year end without one more flight so despite the heavy rain forecast I went to spend the night at the bach. When I got there the sky had cleared and it was looking good, and I knew I had a chance of flying.

I woke up early and went out onto the porch to see if it was worth the effort. The sky was blue but the hill was shrouded in a blanket of cloud that covered the top of the range like an extra thick frosting on a cupcake.

I was sure it would clear by the time I got up there so I called a mototaxi (Zé Carlos) and we made our way up there. The road was terrible from the constant rain over the last week, and we struggled a bit but finally made it up there.

It was still clouded in at the very top and Mário, Geraldo, and Mateus were already waiting there. We chatted for a while watching as the clouds started to part and then closed again time after time. I knew the covering was pretty thin and that if I took off in the direction of the southern landing spot I would pass through them pretty quickly. I was also tired of waiting and keen to at least get in one short flight so I opened out my kit and prepped my wing. Just as I was clipping in the clouds parted with a nice southerly breeze and I took 2 steps forward and took off.

It was a great feeling flying back and forth along the front of the ramp with the low clouds at either side of me. The wind wasn’t quite keeping its force steady though and I never got quite high enough to land back on the ramp. Then suddenly the cloud closed back in and I couldn’t see anything. It was too dangerous to try and fly back near the ramp without any visibility so I looked down at the compass on my GPS and headed out toward the southern landing spot.

I hadn’t flown more than 100m and I popped out the other side of the cloud. I was too far away from the ridge to get any lift though and too low to make it back so I continued on my way. I know I should have headed left along the ridge to try and find some more lift, but there was more cloud along that side so I headed out over the farmland to try and find some thermals. Despite the strong sun and the circling buzzards I had no real luck, as the land was all still quite wet.

Mário and Geraldo waited another hour or so for the cloud to clear again and for them to take off. Mário came straight to the landing spot, but Geraldo headed left along the ridge and found some good spots. When he came in to land we all got a lift back up with Ivan who had brought us down a few cold beers.

By the time we’d made our way back up the rain gouged trail to the top we’d all had a couple of beers in the hot sun and were getting a little happy. I wasn’t keen to wait around as I wanted to get in one more flight and head toward the planned new years celebrations. I kitted up quickly on the southern ramp in the low spot to avoid the breeze. I guess being in the low spot I must have forgotten to check how strong the breeze actually was and when I went to take off I pulled hard on my glider to lift it and it popped up out of the sheltered area and into the stronger breeze. I wasn’t expecting quite so much and it flew up and passed me quickly and collapsed pulling me over.

I got up laughing and did it with a bit more thought and took off and flew left along the ridge. There were not many really solid thermals, but there were bubbles of hot air rising almost everywhere and I was soon a few hundred metres above the ramp. It was stronger nearer Andradas and I flew more that way before I started playing around. It wasn’t that good though as my feeling and reactions were a bit off from the beer I felt, and decided I should quit flying and head off to the party. I did a few wingovers and spirals over the city until I was low enough and then lined up and landed in the Rio Branco Stadium. It was a little hairy as the high walls changed the wind direction inside and I ended up landing with a bit of speed and close to hanging my glider in the wire fence.

I walked around for ages trying to find a way out and ended up having to unbolt a service grate in the fence and pass over the stage where the guys were doing the sound checks for the concert to make it out onto the street. It was worth it though and I spent the whole evening thinking about my flights and how I’d finished the year.

Total flight time: 55mins