Back in the air

Flights: 102 - 107

It took the return of my friend Gal to get me back up in the air. I'm glad he came and I'm glad I did. I was warmly greeted by everyone at the gliderport. I was among friends.

It's been almost 7 months since I've flown. I needed to kite and re-familiarize myself with my kite and the wind. I kited for almost an hour. People kept asking me if I was going to fly. It's funny, kiting is strongly encouraged but if you actually do it people wonder what's wrong with you.

Finally I got my confidence back and launched. It was blowing 13, slightly south. What a joy to be back in the air hanging from those tiny threads. I did a few passes at the souther ridges and came back up for a landing. Landing is what I was most concerned about. It has been a while. The landings, all 5 of them today, couldn't have been smoother.

I got a chance to fly the full length of torrey today, nearly 3 hours in the air. The toughest part for me was keeping fully off the brakes during launch. I still haven't learned to keep my hands full up. Bill showed me a technique where you turn your palms up. He said he asks muscular guys to do that as they often lack the flexibility to get the brakes all the way up.

Gal and I are talking about flying in Columbia next month: click, click, and click. It's just a matter of seeing if I can take that time off of work. I'll let you know.