Half Way to 100K....
Yesterday I had a pretty successfull flying day...
In the morning I went tandem off Baldy and top landed on King Eddy, relaunched and landed in the LZ. Whoo hoo! Two more tandems under my belt! My launches were better and landings are coming along. Physically, my sissy ass arm muscles are preventing me from coming into land nicer...I put all my strength into flaring, and it's just not quite enough. Almost, but not quite...I guess I need to bulk up a bit.
After that a few of us headed out to Mara Lake, where I've done SIV in the past. I've never had the opportunity to go XC out there, so I was excited to see what the site had to offer in that area. I launched, played with some crappy thermals with small cores for a while, and then saw a pilot climbing better, so headed out to him. I got up to about 2400 meters and started my route to Vernon.
At one point one of the pilots was putting on a little SIV demo of his own over the trees, when his wing was surging violently and turned him round a few times. I was heading to that spot as I thought it would be a good thermal source, but after seeing him, I quickly changed my mind. I found out later he was on full bar and his wing just went ape on him. He had a good attitude about it though - after it happened we got an enthusiastic "Yee Haa!" on the radio, much to my relief!
I kept flying and flying, getting in deeper past Enderby and took thermals off cutblocks. In OZ I went in deep a few times so my comfort level in that respect, has definitly increased although I do my best to always monitor the winds and to make sure I have an escape route if I hit sink.
As the day went on, base lifted, and after climbing to 3400 meters, I thought I was high enough. Base was still 100 metres higher, but I was starting to feel a bit lightheaded so I glided towards Lumby and as the day was coming to an end anyway, I landed about 3 k's past town with another pilot - sweet! So, after 3.5 hours in the air, we flew about 51 k's - not too shabby!
I think I'll leave for Golden tonight after I hopefully squeeze in another tandem today - after yesterday's flight, I'm fricken tired, but feeling ready to tackle Mt.Seven!
In the morning I went tandem off Baldy and top landed on King Eddy, relaunched and landed in the LZ. Whoo hoo! Two more tandems under my belt! My launches were better and landings are coming along. Physically, my sissy ass arm muscles are preventing me from coming into land nicer...I put all my strength into flaring, and it's just not quite enough. Almost, but not quite...I guess I need to bulk up a bit.
After that a few of us headed out to Mara Lake, where I've done SIV in the past. I've never had the opportunity to go XC out there, so I was excited to see what the site had to offer in that area. I launched, played with some crappy thermals with small cores for a while, and then saw a pilot climbing better, so headed out to him. I got up to about 2400 meters and started my route to Vernon.
At one point one of the pilots was putting on a little SIV demo of his own over the trees, when his wing was surging violently and turned him round a few times. I was heading to that spot as I thought it would be a good thermal source, but after seeing him, I quickly changed my mind. I found out later he was on full bar and his wing just went ape on him. He had a good attitude about it though - after it happened we got an enthusiastic "Yee Haa!" on the radio, much to my relief!
I kept flying and flying, getting in deeper past Enderby and took thermals off cutblocks. In OZ I went in deep a few times so my comfort level in that respect, has definitly increased although I do my best to always monitor the winds and to make sure I have an escape route if I hit sink.
As the day went on, base lifted, and after climbing to 3400 meters, I thought I was high enough. Base was still 100 metres higher, but I was starting to feel a bit lightheaded so I glided towards Lumby and as the day was coming to an end anyway, I landed about 3 k's past town with another pilot - sweet! So, after 3.5 hours in the air, we flew about 51 k's - not too shabby!
I think I'll leave for Golden tonight after I hopefully squeeze in another tandem today - after yesterday's flight, I'm fricken tired, but feeling ready to tackle Mt.Seven!
posted by Veronica at 11:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home