Ki inspecting my reserve chute.
One of the amazing things about Torrey is the consistency. I dropped by the gliderport for a late lunch with no real intention of flying. I did have an intention of flying, but at Marshall, about an hour and half from where I work. I fought that urge all morning as I payed bills and checked charts.
When you read paragliding blogs of europeans they're always complaining about the conditions: rain, no wind, or great conditions all week, then the weekend is a washout. When you show up at Torrey it's pretty much perfect every day; a little cross perhaps, but no threat of rain and the wind is just perfect.
After my sandwich I couldn't take it. The conditions were just so good I had to pull the wing out of the SUV and go.
I was wondering what my objectives of the day would be. Altitude was definitely one. A lot of people were getting very high. I thought I could do some wingovers as well. When I saw Bill and asked if I could fly he suggested spot landings. Oh yeah, that's right. I'm still a beginner.
That said, spot landings are exactly what I need to work on. I still make some incredibly dumb mistakes coming in for landings, and my first 2 tries where glorious examples. Wind was a bit north so I landed from the south.
Flight 49:
I used my vario today in record mode. I "competition packed" my gear last time with the wing still attached to the harness. I have a fantasy about pulling everything out and just flying one day. It seems like it still takes as much time to check all the lines and get the wing up, which I did. As I was setting up I thought about Gabe's PWAIT check list. It's something I don't normally do at Torrey. I got stuck on the 'P'.
I didn't feel personally good about flying. My intuition wasn't saying anything was dangerous, just that I should go back to work. Work seems so daunting these days. I need to get back my focus. I'm still reconnecting.
With this uncomfortable feeling I went through the weather, air space/alternatives, indicators, terrain on my most familiar of flying sites.
I went north and came right in for a landing from the south. My turns were too abrupt. I came straight in. I needed to crab.
Flight 50:
Next time out I got a lot of air time. The LZ window was full of people taking off and all kinds of contraptions from hang gliders to huge RC devices. One looked a lot like a 747 and kept coming very close to my wing. When I came in I did my best land of the day, pretty much right on the pylons.
Flight 51:
Another quick flight to the north. This time I got a lot of altitude, nothing record breaking, just to about 550. I felt confident enough to keep going north to the golf course. When I returned there was a lot of traffic. I can only imagine what this place is like on the weekend. When I came in for my landing I turned to the wind too quickly. Traveling with the wind you move very quickly and lose a lot of altitude, then you turn and suddenly you're motionless and far to high. This is pretty much the big thing I need to get over. Practice will make perfect.
Flight 52:
There was long wait to the next flight. The wind nearly died, a few folks went to the beach. I didn't mind kiting. I've been having a blast going up and down the hill controlling with the A's and D's. I even simulated a B-line stall. Suddenly Bill flagged me on for a launch. Cool. I took it.
Again I got a lot of altitude. I was feeling pretty good but again had a long wait to get in the LZ due to all the take offs.
Then the air died and the tandem was coming. You have to give way to the tandem. I went from 500 to 375 in 1 pass of the north ridge, and then started coming down wind. I started scraping for altitude. I'm getting better at that. I feel a lot more comfortable with what the wing can do. I survived a lot longer than I expected. Bill was encouraging me to land on the beach but I got 2 more passes before that was necessary.
Finally I came in for my north landing on the beach. It was beautiful down there. I gathered my wing up into my ruck sack and asked the nudies if there was a trail on the north side to the top. There is and it's a lot quicker than the south trail. This was a nice find. It's very direct and steep, but that's fine. I timed the walk up. I started at 3:25 and got to the top at 3:30. What! 5 minutes? That can't be right, but that's what it was.
I'm never going to complain about that climb again.
In fact, it's another 10 minutes or so from the top to the LZ, but it's a nice walk. The sky was full of paragliders again. It was a temporary lull.
I befriended another guy with a Merlin packing up and a woman who's got easystorecreator.com written on her wing. It's a good group of people at Torrey - entrepreneurs, bums, millionaires and students. I love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment