Learning to Fly

Missed the Boat

I spent the morning taking care of a few chores and as such Jussara and I only got up the ramp after midday. Daniel called out on the radio as we were coming up the hill and was already at over 2000m. When we got to the top though he had landed back on the ramp and was waiting for Mário and Guto to get ready.

I rushed to get ready but when I finally was the area in front of the ramped was shadowed over and we had to wait. I waited for about 15 minutes before I saw a buzzard off to the right of the ramp. Daniel took off and went to the left and I inflated and took off. Just as I was flying off the ramp I caught a glimpse of Daniel coming back at the same height so I assumed I was heading in the right direction. I went out toward the big rock to the east of the ramp but as I did the buzzards disappeared. I forced on for a bit but soon realized it was hopeless and tried to head back toward the northeastern landing spot so I wouldn’t have to walk too far. I was really low but caught a few bubbles that got me quite a bit closer. I saw some buzzards circling and gave it one last shot but it was no good, I had to land and downwind at that.

I came in really fast and to avoid a tumble I swung hard right to land crosswind. As I got close to the ground I wound in the brakes lines around my hand and braked really hard. I skimmed a few centimetres above the ground and came to a clean stop. It was quite a buzz getting out of the difficult spot although I did end up with a few splinters in my hands from the grass.

When I got back up the hill Guto had just bombed out in the same spot so I went back down to pick him up. By the time we both were back up the ramp Daniel started calling over the radio that he had already landed in Santo Antônio do Jardim. I really wanted to have gone with him on his first Cross Country flight, but I was glad he hadn’t waited for me.

I took off but the area was getting more and more shadowed and I was forced to follow the remaining sunny areas toward Andradas. I never got very high but managed to make my way through the gap in the ridge to the city. I found that if I stayed in the line of the gap the downdrafts were a little weaker and even being so low I could still keep enough height to make it to land at Moacir’s.

Everyone met up at the Baiana to toast Daniel and his flight.

Total flight time: 40mins