Learning to Fly

Good Morning Mr Tyler, Going Down?

After watching a morning of strong winds on the metrogram, Daniel and I saw it drop and made a break for the hill around 1pm. When we got there everyone was already flying, and we unpacked and prepped as quickly as possible to join them.

I took off in the light breeze but went straight up due to the large thermal activity. The strength of the thermals was surprising due to the sky being relatively overcast, but about 100m above the ramp things were a little different. I tried going to the right of the ramp to find a thermal to get a little higher without any luck. As I did so I saw that everyone else had gone left and gotten higher than I, and so I changed plan, only to find them doing the same.

I flew back and forth trying to get higher without much luck. I only found stronger thermals when I went to the back side of the hill to catch the leeside thermals, as mentioned in Jocky Sanderson’s DVD. I didn’t want to hang out too long on the leeside however as I knew a lot of people already had their eyes on me after the collapse I had suffered last week on the leeside, and although I was well aware of the risks didn’t want them to worry.

After a while rain started to form all around the leeside of the hill a way off but was getting closer. I decided it would be a good time to land, but as I got close, about 20m, above the ramp my glider stopped descending. I spent nearly 3 minutes hovering above the ramp with the brakes lightly pulled keeping the glider in the same spot and doing small pendulums and curves to the left and right trying to descend. I guess after the 2 hard touch downs I had at the start of the year I have become a bit aprehensive and didn’t want to come in too fast. Although I eventually touched down perfectly, it took far too long, and I realised it’s something I need to practice more to up my confidence.

The rain then came in and Daniel and I had to drive home via Aguas da Prata as the ford to Andradas was up over the bonnet of the car and we decided it too deep to attempt crossing.

Total flight time: 40mins