Learning to Fly

Stress relief

Saturday was blowing a strong wind all day and everyone ended up going down to the chácara for a bbq and I went to the office to get a few things done. Today looked like it was going to be the same but about 2:30pm the wind started to drop a bit. The ramp was full of people wanting to fly but nobody wanted to be the test pilot that took the leap.

I decided that I wasn’t going to miss out this weekend and I was going to be that guy. I prepped my kit during one of the low patches and Simone came up to me with a worried look on her face and told me I could prep but I shouldn’t take off yet. Although I didn’t think it was that bad, I began to second guess myself, and decided I should wait for another low just to make sure.

About half an hour later there was another low, and Daniel and I prepped and went down to the front of the ramp. There were about 30 tourists and pilots all seated on the grass watching us and it made me a little nervous. I wished I had just taken off earlier when I had first thought it possible, before the crowd had formed.

Daniel was a little in front of me so I told him to go first. I didn’t want to miss the low and urged him forward. I felt bad pushing him out first, as its really his decision, but I was feeling pressured too. As soon as he had taken off and was out of my way I inflated my wing. I was expecting a strong pull from the wind but I forgot to take a step under the glider. It gave me a jerk, but as soon as I was under it and had spun round to face the wind I felt that the wind wasn’t quite as strong as everyone had been saying. I felt much more confident, and even did a small swan dive take off to keep the crowd happy.

The wind was strong but there were solid thermals and in about 5 minutes I was 500m above the ramp. I realized that I was pretty stressed from waiting all Saturday and most of Sunday to fly and although I wanted to get some height and get away from there and the crowds I decided I shouldn’t miss the opportunity to get a little adrenaline and clear my head.

I pulled in hard on the right brake and went into a steep spiral. I was slightly in front of the large rock to the right of the ramp and could feel that everyone was watching me. As such I wanted to exit the spiral as cleanly as possible. I started out with the left brake slightly, and then as the tip got up above the horizon I pulled in hard to do another half turn and come out smoothly.

I had been in quite quickly and so I came out quickly. The brake I used to come out was quite forceful and the other side of the glider lost form and started to fold up slightly. I wondered if I should have used some outside brake as well to control that or if a weight shift would have been enough. I wanted to get high enough to practice again, but the thermals had paused, and it took another 40 minutes before I got high again.

When I finally caught another good thermal it was directly above the ramp and drifting over the back. By the time I had gotten up 500m above the ramp I was way over the back of the hill and with the strong wind I knew getting back would be a problem. Another glider had taken off and was slightly ahead of me, and I thought it was Cesar, heading for cross, so I followed him.

We flew for a good 10 minutes straight, heading toward Santo Antônio do Jardim, without hitting a single bubble of rising air. I realized I had made a mistake but there was never any chance of turning back.

As I got close to the ground I started to find a few bubbles and kept myself aloft for a minute or so, but then had to land. There wasn’t any clear area I could see, so I went for what I thought was a small corn plantation. Turned out not to be as I landed in a field of Sunflowers.

I spent the next hour untangling my lines from the sunflowers and folding my glider. I then got down to the road and hitched a lift with Paulinho to the entrance to the chácara. We passed and picked up the other pilot who had gone with me, and it wasn’t Cesar, but another visiting pilot who didn’t know the area.

Total flight time: 1h