Learning to Fly

Window

I woke up just after 8am and the hill was covered in cloud. I was sure it would clear shortly though and there was a northeasterly blowing, I could tell from the direction of the clouds derivation, so I knew it would be good.

I had some breakfast and sorted out some bits and pieces and got up the hill around 11am. It was blowing a light northeasterly by that time and the cloud had cleared. There were a lot of people arriving on the ramp and opening out their gliders. Xuxa and Márcio had just landed and were saying that it was really turbulent and they looked a little scared to go out again.

I was a little aprehensive, as so far I’ve never been in anything so rough that I’d rather be on the ground. I wanted to see someone else go first though, so I prepped my kit and waited while everyone else got ready too. After a while I realized that everyone else was doing the same thing, so I clipped in and waited at the front of the ramp. As soon as I got there I saw a bird circling and rising on the left side of the ramp and took off after it.

When I got there I rose quite quickly and was soon around 50-60m above the ramp. I was expecting to keep going up from what everyone had been saying, but it soon died and I was looking around for another option. I had spoken to Daniel just before take off and he’d said he was on his way from Pinhal, so I decided to try my luck along the ridge toward Andradas.

I managed to get about halfway along. It was pretty patchy and I was always pretty low, and never got much above the ridgeline, but I did make a fair distance toward the pousada. I decided not to risk going all the way to Andradas, as if I didn’t make it I would have a long walk and the car was still up the ramp. I made a break for the road and landed nearby.

I had time to pack up my glider and watch the rain pass by where I had been just before Daniel and Lu turned up and picked me up. We went up the hill but by that time it was patchy rain on all sides and never cleared up again, so after a long wait we just went back down again.

Total flight time: 15mins