Learning to Fly

Clear Skies Ahead

Daniel, Guto, Jussara and I met up at Antônio’s and fished in his pond for a while before going up the hill. The sky was completely blue, without a single cloud, something I hadn’t seen in a while. There were a few buzzards circling but none really high.

We took off from the southern ramp a little after 2pm. There were a few other guys flying but only 2 had gotten above the inversion layer. I felt the breeze pick up as I took off and managed a couple of laps in front of the southern ramp before I had to head left along the ridge. I passed through a few small bubbles and tried hanging around but just lost more height and regretted making that same mistake I had many times before.

When I got about halfway along the ridge toward Andradas I was already pretty low and thinking about having to head for the southern landing spot, however I saw a lone buzzard circling below and to my right, near another pilot. I headed over and caught a good thermal and rose a few hundred meters.

I was surprised to see the other pilot keep circling where he was and not come to join me. I was soon well above him but the thermal started dying and I needed to find a new spot. I looked around and there were some more buzzards heading toward a spot a little way back along the ridge and 1 other inside the valley I was at the opening to.

I decided that I didn’t want to go back and searched around in the valley but didn’t find anything significant and had to head out. I was then too low and had to start looking for a spot to land. I was over the stud farm and hit a few bubbles which got me closer to the road. I lined up a big paddock which I thought I could make but was surprised to find I didn’t descend as I had expected and got there quite high.

I did a few pendulums to lose some height and lined up to land. I was still higher than I expected and not dropping the way I normally do so I had to resort to ‘flapping’ my wing to drop quicker. I had seen other people do it many times, but never myself so I wasn’t sure how hard to pull on the brake lines. I gave them a few solid pulls and watched the wing soften up. I dropped down and landed nicely near the banana plantation.

Jussara drove down to pick up Daniel, Guto and myself and we headed to the bach to sort out things for the dinner planned with Afonso, Maria Rita, Lu and Dani.

Total flight time: 20 mins