Learning to Fly

Home Coming

Daniel and I got up the ramp about 9am. It was blowing a northeasterly of around 28-32km/h and we decided to wait a little before taking off. We began opening our wings out at around 10am when the wind dropped but before we were ready it came up again and tangled everything up. We waited until 11am before trying again.

I did everything to protect myself against the strong wind. I set my glider right at the front edge of the ramp, curved it into a horseshoe shape, and waited for the wind to drop. As soon as it did I inflated it and spun around. I wasn’t going forward at all and had to extend my speed bar fully to inch forward, and I was shooting up like a rocket. In the first 10 seconds I was nearly 100m above the ramp.

Although the ramp was filling up with people who had come to spend their Carnaval flying, there were only 2 of us who had managed to take off. We flew around for about half an hour before the wind dropped a bit and the others started taking off. I flew around in front of the ramp waiting for Daniel to take off, but when he did something went wrong and he ended up landing down below quickly. I couldn’t managed to talk to him on the radio and was getting higher and higher and blown further and further back over the ridge. I decided that trying to get back would end up putting me in the same situation I was in last Sunday so I decided to head after the other pilots who had headed south.

I flew toward Santo Antonio do Jardim and found although I was already pretty low, a few buzzards appeared at the last minute and showed me a good thermal to get enough height to make it to Espírito Santo do Pinhal. I arrived pretty low and didn’t get to pass over the Carnaval celebrations as I had hoped but landed in Siomar’s yard which is only a couple of blocks from home. A lot of little kids from the neighbourhood came and helped me pack up my glider, and for the first time I was able to walk home.

Total flight time: 1h30mins