Three days running.

Third day running at Big Collin mountain. Really being spoilt with the weather. Arrived mid-afternoon because reports from the hill said there was little or no wind. The wind had picked up a little. So I climbed the hill and performed my daily checks.

There were a couple of other pilots at the top of the hill which I spoke to while setting up. They were just practising standing with their wings above their heads. Once ready I gave this a go but found I was slowly moving back up the top section of the hill with each attempt. After a while I found I was on my own at the top as the two other pilots had taken off, so I picked up the wing and moved closer to the normal launch area.

I then got the wing sitting above my head happily for a while until I got bored. So I coolly (or so I thought) looked up at the wing to make a final check all was well then leant forward in the harness and ran off into the air. I landed right down in the bottom landing field but again forgot to "take a wrap" before landing.

I climbed back up the hill with the wing and only stopped either to take a breather or once to discover there wasn't enough wind to ground handle the wing up (which is easier to do than carry the wing).

I would have tried more ground handling at the top but there really was no wind. After rest and a chat with the other pilots, one took off leaving only Gavin, Bertie and myself at the top. With no wind it was clearly the last flight of the day so Gavin (another pilot that has less than 10 hours air time) suggested a spot landing task: see who can get closest to the wind sock in the bottom landing field. It was obvious that Gavin and I were not going to win against Bertie but we gave it a go anyway. I was first to forward launch, I landed (forgetting to "take a wrap" again, grrr) about 20 meters away from the wind sock (that I was secretly thrilled about). I started to put my wing away when I thought it would be funny to move the wind sock next to my wing for a bit of craic. Gavin and Bertie hadn't taken off yet so they probably didn't see what I had done. Gavin took off and landed exactly where I had moved the windsock from. His first words on landing where "I can't do spot landings" so I confessed immediately. Bertie of course practically landed on top of the windsock, the temptation to pick the wind sock up and run off with it when he was on final approach was nearly, but not quite too much.