That New Wing Smell

I am a firm believer in rewarding oneself for hard work so as a “congratulations” to myself for keeping up my enthusiasm for flying and for achieving my tandem rating, I splurged and bought myself an Addict 2 (good bs story, eh?!) That’s right, no more pictures of a blue wing in the sky anymore – you will now see images of my new best friend who just so happens to look red hot, but in a sort of subdued manner. Canadian colours with a splash of grey, red Addict 2 colours but rearranged, – whatever you see it as, red, grey, and white are the colours of my new “A2.”

My first flight on my new wing today was excellent. An hour of thermalling in small bubbles below launch (stupid inversion!) was exactly what I needed to get used to how my wing handles. I originally testflew an Addict XS but opted for a small instead, and indeed, the two felt different to fly. In today’s light conditions at Woodside, the small was probably a better choice, but we’ll see how things go when conditions are nuking.

My second flight was more bobbing around but for fun I did some riser twists (which then started to twist more and more on their own – oops!), played with the speed system, and finished off with a low spiral as today wasn’t a day where altitude accumulated easily and where something like a SAT was realistic. With ground spirals I’ve personally witnessed one go very wrong and know of pilots who have been injured doing them, so I’m trying to remain conservative and train myself slowly into doing them closer and closer to the ground. In Broken Toe Acro, Enleau O’Connor talks about approaching learning them in a progressive manner…common sense for sure, but sometimes there’s that little voice that tells you to push it harder and just fricken “giver” and see what happens! But right now the last thing I need is a membership to the back injury club, so I’ll just stick with my cautious fun and get better at spiralling towards the earth in a “safer” way.

My supposed 2 week trip to Vancouver has now lasted something ridiculous like 7 weeks, so I am pulling the pin and going home in a few days – sunshine or no sunshine. The forecast looks great for next week, but it’s time to turn the other cheek and just say “no!” I’m still poking around for flying jobs overseas - crossing my fingers something will come up.