A Good Day

Today I woke up bright and early (ok, early for me) and sat in on a cross country course one of the local schools is teaching. In the morning we got off the hill and I had a really nice flight. It wasn’t an XC flight but it was a flight with what I thought were ratty thermals. Some were 7 ups or so with rough edges. It was good practice flying in that kind of air. I wanted to take pictures so bad, but it was tricky getting the camera out in the kind of air…but I did it anyway. Not the greatest photos, but at least it proves I flew.

Then we went out to an airstrip and did some groundhandling in gusty, strong conditions. Man, did I ever need that. When I have problems launching, it usually means I haven’t groundhandled in a while. So that was fun, and even moreso were the others in the course – they’re a good group.

After that, back up to launch were I had a nice smooth thermic flight. Nothing choppy, just nice smooth lift…ahhhhhhhh. The winds higher up were strong, so that was kind of interesting watching people drop out of the sky over the lz, but I had lots of height to spare when I made it. I’ve been practicing building up my G’s tolerance – everytime I get over the lz, (or ‘landing paddock’ as the aussies say), I try doing steeper and steeper spirals. I have to get my kicks somehow…

Tomorrow looks like another good flying day. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!