Learning to Fly

Forced Exit

I had been in São Paulo this morning and got back a little earlier than I had expected, so I decided to sneak up the hill and see if I could get in a quick flight. It had been a nice afternoon but by the time I got up the hill it was about 4pm and the wind had died almost completely. I wanted to fly, even if it was just going to be a short flight so I talked to Ademar about driving the car down to pick me up.

As I was getting ready to take off from the southern ramp Mário and a few other pilots started turning up. It seems I wasn’t the only one who had the idea of a quick afternoon flight. Soon there were 8 of us prepping our kit on the ramp. The wind was very light and although we all had hopes it would pick up, nobody wanted to wait.

Mario took off first and I went right behind him. It was a completely uneventful flight to the southern landing spot that reminded me of my first few flights over a year ago. I have now flown 3 or 4 flights with my new wing however and the glide ratio and speed in the air I feel haven’t changed at all. I wanted to feel what was different so as I got above the pond before the landing spot I pulled in the right brake and entered a spiral. I made it a bit faster than I had done before but I had only done a few turns and was rapidly approaching the ground so I released the brake and it didn’t seem to come out by itself. I then pulled the left brake to pull it out and had to do so harder than I was expecting. It came out and I braked the right side to control the exit, but it seems I had forced it out a little too quickly, or controlled it a little less than I should have as a wave raced through the glider with a loud wapping sound.

I pendulated slightly and then made my approach in to land. I swooped in with a bit of speed and braked hard to land well. Mário and I went back up the hill to drop Ademar off and pick up Mário’s 4x4 before heading home.

Total flight time: 10mins