11/03/2014

What did you do in your lunch break today?

Yep, today I achieved something I have wanted to do since I first started training to become a paraglider pilot. I nipped out for a bit of a fly at lunchtime. Having got stuck in to all those thermals yesterday gave me the confidence to drive to my nearest flying site, have a fly about, land and go back to work. Of course flyable weather was also a requirement.
Leisurely lunchtime flight, as you do.

What did you do in your lunch break today?

10/03/2014

Spring thermals at White Mountain

Today must have been one of the most days demanding I have ever spent paragliding. Not only the mental demands of flying with many others in thermic conditions, physically my back and shoulders ache from operating my controls in my attempts to stay in the thermals. It has to be said that I am still not exactly relaxed when flying. I think I have a good few more air hours before I can really relax back into my harness and react in a calm and confident manor but I am working on it.

Things didn't start on a positive note, when we arrived at site we found the padlock on the gate had been tampered with and it seems someone had broken something off in the lock. Resigned to the fact that the lock would not be soon fixed, four of us started the walk up the hill expecting the others to follow. It wasn't until we had walked the 30 minutes or so to the top that we found out from other club members that appeared looking fresher than us that the farmer arrived minutes after we set out to sort the lock problem.

In very little time the air was full of gliders whizzing about making the most of the thermals. When I was happy that there was enough vertical separation between me and the other gliders I launched and was soon sharing thermals with the other pilots. I had made the mistake of doing up the velco on the neck of my new flying suit which kept catching as my head whipped around to try and keep track of everybody.

Several times I was turning around thermals with other pilots, desperately trying to look like I knew what I was doing and probably just getting in their way but the sky is a big place and at times there was plenty of lift to go around. On at least on two occasions my circling had taken me way back over the hill but somehow I wasn't able to keep track of the lift. I was also aware that I was missing my GPS that can sometimes point you in the right direction when you lose a thermal (I managed to leave it in the car at the bottom of the hill).

I after all the lift I had clearly squandered I found myself back at the ridge scratching around for lift but there wasn't enough. In a few moments there were 3 of us landing back at launch because we couldn't stay up. I took this opportunity for a bit of a breather while the other pilots took off in the next thermal that come through. This was probably my downfall, it has been said before that this is the point that everyone will clear off on a cross country and leave you, well they did. Seven pilots went cross country. I managed to get a couple more flights in and at times I had loads of height, I even tried just following about one of the experienced pilots that arrived a little later then everyone else who is a bit of a XC hound but this just proved that the the best of the day was over.

Oh well my quest for my first XC continues. As payment for my tardiness I got to help out with the retrieves. You would think that people would be grateful to be collected when you drive out to fetch them in places you have never been before but you would be wrong where one certain Scottish individual was concerned. I may be wrong but perhaps "Where have you been? Doing research for the tourist board?" is as close to a thank you an English man can expect from a Scotts man.