Learning to Fly

Plan B

Despite the forecast of another day of strong NE winds turning NW, Daniel and I got up the ramp early. We arrived a little before 10am and spent the next 2 hours waiting for the wind to drop. There were only a couple of campers there when we arrived, but by midday the ramp was full, and the wind had dropped enough to make taking off possible.

I prepped my glider, but the wind was shifting north and looked like it was going to turn northwest. I wanted to take off and get some height before it turned and I was stuck on the ramp. Adenar took off first and was getting thrown around a bit, but I decided to join him. I was surprised that nobody else was following, but after flying for the first 2 minutes I realized why. There were no thermals strong enough to get any height and we were left struggling back and forth along the ridgeline in the changing wind.

An eagle came and started attacking Adenar and then came after my wing. I left the ridge and saw some buzzards starting to circle a short way out. I went through some strong descending pockets to get there but was sure it was going to be the elevator to the clouds. As I got there I started to rise strongly but it quickly vanished as did the buzzards and I was left looking for a way back to the ridge. I was already too low and had to land.

I packed up my glider and got a lift back up to the ramp with Márcio. It didn’t take long and on the way up I saw various other pilots who had taken off and were forced also forced too land.

As I arrived at the ramp the wind shifted round to the northwest and Daniel took off from the lower southwestern ramp. Several pilots battled for a while and it was Eliana who finally made it up above the level of the ramp. Then several others took off and went in her direction.

I waited for a long time for Daniel to get a lift back up as he had bombed out pretty quickly with the rest. The wind had started to go round to the south though and then a strong thermal popped up in the northwest. Geraldo and I grabbed our gliders quickly to catch it. As I inflated my glider Lucas came over and started telling me good spots he had seen thermals in the south. They would have made a good plan B but I was too focused on the thermal right in front of me and didn’t listen much.

As I took off I caught a bit of the thermal and rose a few meters before it disappeared. Geraldo and I didn’t have any choice but to head round to the south. We searched around and followed some buzzards, but never found any thermals.

As I was folding up my glider I realized I really should have taken off with a prepared plan B, as things aren’t always what they seem to be.

Total flight time: 25mins