The weather at Torrey finally was good enough to fly today. This is the first day where I’ve been able to fly since the clinic.
I've got a new wing.
It took me nearly an hour to work out the tangles and straighten out the lines on my Merlin. Something just didn’t feel right. I kited for a while. At one point Dan was encouraging me to launch. I told him something just didn’t feel right to me, but Dan was insisting that conditions were perfect. Fair enough, but my personal conditions weren’t up to snuff yet.
I’ve heard many times from David and Gabriel that when you don’t feel good inside, when something tells you not to fly, don’t. Dan was applying full steam peer pressure. I’m not sure why. I told him to back off. I didn’t feel right. It’s funny how hard that is for some people to do.
Flight 128 - 131
Finally after adjusting my harness things did start to feel right, so I launched. The conditions were very north, WNW about 300˚. But, the wind was great, 12-14 mph. There was plenty of lift but maneuvering around was a bit challenging with so much north speed.
I landed and took off twice just getting readjusted to my wing. Something still didn’t feel right. It wasn’t a safety issue. I just did like the way my wing felt. Dan has the exact same wing as me, an Independence Merlin, same color too, but his is a medium whereas mine is large.
When I did my sat and wingovers at the SIV clinic I was using his wing. I felt like I had much more control in that wing. I’m sure there’s a better way to phrase it, but I felt like there was less chance of the lines going slack. I could take a wrap, turn, get out and up over the wing and not feel like I was going to throw myself in it. Since that flight I’ve thought I needed a smaller wing, but that would be a safety issue.
When I came down from my 3rd flight Gabriel arrived. While we were flying he was busy making phone calls for adaptiveNRG. He landed our first meeting with a landfill. Awesome. I complained a bit about my wing. Dan mentioned that you should have a safety check on your wing once a year. I’ve never had one and I’m in my 2nd year with this Merlin. I told Gabe, “I think I’m just going to buy the first Dragon I fly anyway.” He jumped up with enthusiasm.
When he came back he delivered my new wing. An Independence Dragon3
Large of course. My plan was to fly until 3PM and start working on adaptiveNRG’s proforma. This new wing completely threw that plan out the window.
The wing was already used once, I think by Henry at Owens so I didn’t exactly get that “new car” experience of unpacking a fresh wing. But it only used once and clearly new. I kind of liked seeing the bits of Owens sage in the lines.
I inflated the wing for the first time and immediately felt a difference, much more lift. That’s interesting because the wing is physically smaller.
It was Gabriel’s day off. He had a wing out and was doing all kinds of crazy manuvers out in the window. It was inspiring. Watching Gabriel fly is watching and expression of pure joy.
Flight 132 - 135
I took my new wing the edge and launched. There’s a lot more control and the wing moves much more dynamically than the Merlin. I got a lot of lift early and went over the ocean to do some wingovers. I immediately felt the control that I had with Dan’s wing, but this wing was built for my weight. I felt much more buoyant. This was awesome.
I noticed that my speed bar was not attached so I came in to land to attach it. This was interesting. The Dragon is faster and a bit more difficult to land. Gabriel said I’d adjust to it.
When you’re doing wingovers you need to look at your wing. I think that’s the trick. Because this wing is new I just want to keep looking at it. When I was doing my wingovers I just kept looking at the wing as the horizon came up to meet it, and they were much better. I don’t actually think it was the wing that made the wingovers better, I think it was the fact that my eyes were in the right place.
I put on full speed bar to fight the north wind heading to the golf course. I played for a while in the ravines there and came back to the north ridge for altitude. Then I pulled big ears and did some spirals.
The bottom line is everything about the wing is more dynamic. I am glad I waited before buying the wing. I don’t think I would even know what I was getting before. I came in for a few landings. This is still the tricky part. On those last landings I noticed that not only was the wing faster, but it was slower as well. It reacts much differently than the Merlin. I’m in love with this thing.
On my drive home I had to call Gabe. Somewhere in Encinitas on the 5 I noticed I was coming down from a high.
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