Learning to Fly

Backward Buzzards

Daniel and I had spent 4 hours on the ramp on Saturday waiting for the clouds to open up only to give up when the rain started so today we were determined to fly. When I got up the ramp about 11am with Jussara, Daniel was just finishing preparing his kit on the southern ramp. It was packed with people and about 10 unopened gliders were spread out on the ground waiting for someone brave enough to lead the way.

As we arrived Fabinho took off and flew up and behind the ramp for about 10 minutes before coming back and landing beside us. Daniel and I watched his flight and then waited for the lift cycle to start again. It took a while and although there were 3 or 4 gliders outstretched on the edge of the ramp, nobody wanted to be first.

I didn’t want to be first either, but having not flown yesterday, I decided that I was willing to risk it. As I was unfolding my glider however, Max and Simone came over to have a chat. Apparently they had heard about my collapse and were wanting to know the full story. I explained to them that the rumours that had been flying around the ramp for the last few weeks had been exagerated a little, and gave them my version of the events. I was expecting an ear full, but they believed me and left me with the impression that someone was trying to make them sound negligent.

Realizing I was the focus of a lot of attention on the ramp I then decided I shouldn’t be first to take off on a day with so many people as if anything went wrong it would just be another nail in my coffin. Daniel and I then waited for Gilmar to go first and although he went to the wrong spot in the beginning he soon found some thermals in front of the ramp.

Daniel was then a little hesitant and I wanted to go so he made a little room for my glider on the left point of the ramp. I knew it was really tight and the wind was malaligned there, but I wanted to take off badly so I risked it. I had 2 attempts but both times the wind was a little too weak for the glider to inflate well, and I also pulled the wrong brake to try and open it. I was getting frustrated, but then Paçoca and Emerson took off and I quickly dragged my glider over to take advantage of the newly cleared area. It wasn’t the cleanest take off, and the glider wasn’t fully opened, but I could feel everyone’s eyes on me and really wanted to get out of there so I threw myself forward and finished opening it properly as I went down.

I was soon flying and went left along the ridge to try and find some thermals. I was soon in some and managed to keep myself near the height of the ramp. I circled for quite a while but could see that almost everyone else including Daniel had gone to the right and was rising higher than I was. I made sure I stuck to my own flight plan though this time and started making my way along the ridge.

The ground was still quite wet from all the rain over the last 2 days and as such the thermals were quite patchy and I never really got any higher than the ramp. I made my way along the ridge though and toward Andradas.

As I rounded the end of the range and got close to the start of the city I had dropped down quite low. I had expected to find strong thermals above the city but thought I was too low to get any more. Sure enough though, as I got close I found 2 quite strong but patchy thermals. Just as I started to gain good height, about 7 or 8 buzzards came to join me. I guess I was used to them showing me the way, so it was quite a surprise for me to be helping them.

I got a bit of height and went up above the radio towers but it was pretty turbulent and I hated the thought of the stories that would spread if I’d ended up impaled on the towers so I dropped down and landed at Moacir’s.

Daniel wasn’t far behind me although he got stuck in the low level wind and had to land in an agricultural patch on the other side of the power lines.

Total flight time: 40mins