Learning to Fly

Falling Over Backwards

Jussara, Gabi, and I got up the ramp just before 2pm. The wind was fairly strong and coming NNE. When we arrived the first pilot had just taken off and had been shaken around in the turbulence so much that nobody else had followed. It was another 20 minutes before 2 other pilots took off, and they went right along the ridge to escape the turbulence, but were still a bit shaken and came down about 15 minutes later.

The wind was starting to offer a few lows that would allow a cleaner take off and I didn’t want to miss my chance to fly so I prepped my kit and went to the front of the ramp. I called Daniel, Márcio and Stéfano to come with me but they were waiting for it to calm down a little more.

Xuxa came over to help me check my wing and I noticed the left tip was tucked through the lines which made me worry about how I would have pulled it out once airborne. I tried not to think about it too much and inflated my wing in a low patch. It has been so long between flights lately that I had forgotten to run back under it and got pulled back with a jerk. It was quick and I was shooting up quickly in the strong uplift. I realised that if I hadn’t fixed my wingtip I would have been in trouble.

I flew out to the right along the ridge as there were 2 small clouds forming over that way. As I got to the first big rock I found my first thermal and it was bubbly but strong. I got up a bit higher and then worked my way over to another one further along the ridge. After a bit of effort I was 800m above the level of the ramp and could see the others getting inspired and preparing to take off.

I flew back over the ramp and Daniel yelled out that he was on his way, and I went back over to the right to get some more height so we could head over the back of the ridge. I flew around for another hour or so but Daniel never managed to get the height necessary to get over there and I didn’t want to head off alone so I went back over toward the ramp and dropped down in a tight spiral. It was good and I tried coming out of it the way Kurt had described in his book, ‘Manual do Parapente Obediente’ (Obedient Paraglider Manual), waiting for the wing tip to get to the level of the horizon and then pull in hard on the brake I used to enter to do another full turn. It worked well, but I think I could have let the wing tip get slightly above the horizon before starting on the brake.

I flew around a bit and then went in to top land on the ramp. I didn’t want to go too far back because of the strong wind, and the first time I ended up passing over the ramp without getting close to touching down, but the second time I went much further back. I flew in close over the shop and spun round left to land well back on the ramp. I came down quickly but touched down well. I didn’t manage to get to the B-risers quickly enough though and got pulled over as I deflated the wing.

I had something to eat and talked to a few of the guys. I felt good about my flight, except for the landing that obviously needs more practice. The wind was becoming less turbulent though and I wanted to play around a bit so I took off again. My take off was terrible as I hadn’t stretched my wing out enough for the strong wind and it lifted a bit twisted. By the time I had straightened it I was already on my ass, but it lifted me quickly.

I flew out forward from the ramp as the wind was strong and I knew I would be carried back toward it. I then started my wingovers with a progressive right turn, as I had seen in the videos and then released the brakes to let the glider dive. As I reached the bottom of the dive I pulled in hard on the left brake and put my weight to the right to maintain tension in the upper lines. I alternated this a few times with varying success. Each time I would go further out from the ramp and get a bit more height and then start again. Once I didn’t put enough tension in the right side with additional brake and the wing tip folded in, but I quickly reopened it.

I repeated this over and over until I was reasonably comfortable doing it, but I was still sure that it wasn’t perfect. I played around a bit and once even got quite high, so I was looking down at my wing. I must have been close to or slightly above 90 degrees, but as I looked at the lower part of the wing I saw the lines starting to slacken. I realised I wasn’t ready to get that high yet and decided to call it a day.

The wind was quite strong and I had to land using big ears. The landing was easy, but to pull in the B-risers I had to release the ears and got pulled backwards again. We all went down to the Baiana to get something to eat and talk about the afternoon.

Total flight time: 1h45m