Learning to Fly

Sheep

Jussara and I got up the hill around 11am and nobody had taken off yet. It had been cold over night and the ground was taking a long time to warm up. The sky was clear blue and a few wisps of cloud were starting to form over the ramp but they wouldn’t last long before dissipating. With the sun shining I knew it wouldn’t be long so I lay on the grass and waited watching the clouds starting to form.

About 40 minutes later Gilmar and a few of the more advanced pilots took off and went out over the ploughed farmland where they found their first thermal. There was a big gap of blue sky between the ramp and the first thermal they had found and I knew my wing wouldn’t make it so I hung around for another half an hour or so and took some photos of the details of my wing as I waited.

Daniel and Lu arrived and by that time everyone was deciding that there must be some thermals forming along the southern ridge by now. There were about 20 odd pilots still waiting to take off but Daniel and Márcio decided to lead the way. I got ready quickly and joined the queue, and took off after them. I wasn’t more than 5 minutes behind them, but by the time I had got a little left along the ridge I could already see Daniel way down below looking like he was about to bomb into a field of cows.

I could see Márcio still struggling on the ridge though and knew I would have to keep my wits about me to avoid bombing out too. Every little bubble of warm air that I found was evaluated to see if it was worth sticking around in, and if there was something stronger nearby. I shifted my weight left and right to feel the different areas for bubbles, and cut in really close to the ridge to try and catch a little bit of lift from the gentle breeze.

I thought I was too close a couple of times and even the smallest descending pocket would have left me hanging from a tree top, but I managed to get out into a valley with a few rising bubbles. I felt my way around there for a bit before spotting a lone buzzard about 200-300m out from the ridge. I went out toward him and found my first weak thermal. It was enough to get me up high enough to follow its derivation back toward the ridge though, and I was soon up above the ridgeline.

I battled on for a little while before I had enough height to make a break for another thermal closer to the city that Márcio and some of the other pilots had already found. I got there and went up to nearly 2000m. I was high again but it had taken a while and I knew the thermal was dying out and the sky was blue all around. I could see a wisp of cloud starting to form back along the ridge near the ramp, but I didn’t want to head there on my own and not find anything, so I headed out over the farmland after 2 other pilots that had headed that way assuming they were going to show me were the thermals were.

After nearly five minutes of following them in a straight line I realized that there was nothing ahead. My glider was too slow to keep up with them against the headwind and I was just losing height and had barely made it past the southern landing spot. I looked back toward the ridge and could see that little wisp had become a good thermal and there were half a dozen pilots circling where had I decided not to go. I had been one of the highest looking down on all the others struggling below and had lost it all by being lazy and following someone else, but instead of kicking myself for not being a leader I decided I would call it quits for the weekend and go out with a few tricks. I did a few wingovers and spirals down to the southern landing spot and packed up with Daniel and headed to the bar in São João da Boa Vista for a few beers.

Total flight time: 35mins