Learning to Fly

Beach Head

After a few mornings tanning at the beach in Ubatuba and then heading for the ramp in Caraguatatuba in the afternoon I managed to make it there on an afternoon that wasn’t going to rain. It had been good all day and I was expecting to find the small ramp packed with people wanting to fly. However when I arrived I was surprised to see only 3 tourists taking photos and no pilots whatsoever on either the concrete southwestern ramp nor on the grass covered eastern ramp.

Both ramps are pretty tiny in comparison with the ramps at Pico do Gavião, being large enough for only one glider to prepare at a time. I was a little aprehensive about flying somewhere different without talking to a local first, but I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity, so I prepped my glider, and double checked the wind direction, the proposed landing spot on the beach, and an alternative if something went wrong.

Everything seemed ok, so I waited for the wind to be just right and launched off the eastern ramp. The wind gusted up a little stronger than I expected and I was able to fly a few short laps in front of the ramp before I was forced to head over the city toward the beach.

It was a very short flight and there was almost no thermal activity at all. I was able to keep myself aloft for a minute or so but never gained any altitude at all. As I turned to approach the beach however and went into the wind I becgan to drop quite quickly and almost didn’t make it over the row of palm trees along the beachfront drive. I swung right across the wind and went between them however without any problems, and landed easily on the grass area above the beach.

It was a very quick flight but I appreciated having flown somewhere different and the scenery was marvelous. As I was coming in to land I noticed 2 other gliders flying in the lift at Martim da Sá and popped by to see what it was like. It was too late to fly, but it looked pretty low and restricted. I spoke to Silvio Ramos and the other pilots and they told me it was small but it was the better place to fly during the week.

Total flight time: 10mins