Cool Flying
Last weekend I had my first proper thermalling flight of the season – hooray!
It was great: I launched from Woodside, got to base fairly quickly, and ended up hanging next to a cloud for quite some time. In Australia I was scared of clouds, but now I like them! I am still pretty cautious, but the one we were under was a happy cloud, and I was having fun.
Anyway, I decided them to glide to another cloud and as I did, I descended. Oh the pain in my fingertips! The change in temperature made me feel my fingers, and wow, did I ever wish I hadn’t! I flew back to the cloud above launch, hung out for a while, and quickly realized I couldn’t handle the cold in my fingers.
I flew out into the valley, of course finding lift everywhere, attempted a spiral to get down only to find that my fingers could barely wrap around the brake handle, tried again, succeeded, and landed. Flight time: 1 hour. I literally stood clipped into my glider for about 5 minutes trying to warm my red fingers while I moaned in pain. Yikes!
After packing up, I called a special someone to ask where he flew to. He said he was in Hope (25 k’s or so flying distance from Woodside, but about 40 k’s driving distance) and needed to be picked up. Knowing that the only two cars to drive out there both had manual transmissions, I cringed...I don’t drive standards!
I asked a pilot for a 5 minute lesson, and ambitiously hopped into one of the cars and started to drive. It wasn’t pretty, and I was scared of a big hill, and I was careful not to ride the clutch, and there were some tense moments which took 100% of my concentration, but good golly, I made it!
It sure was a bummer that I missed out on an XC flight because I had crappy gloves on but on the other hand, the adventure of driving to Hope in a car I didn’t know how to drive, was probably even more exciting! The next day however, I went out and bought a pair of down-filled mittens made of Gore-tex and a million chemical handwarmers. Bring it on, Fraser Valley!
It was great: I launched from Woodside, got to base fairly quickly, and ended up hanging next to a cloud for quite some time. In Australia I was scared of clouds, but now I like them! I am still pretty cautious, but the one we were under was a happy cloud, and I was having fun.
Anyway, I decided them to glide to another cloud and as I did, I descended. Oh the pain in my fingertips! The change in temperature made me feel my fingers, and wow, did I ever wish I hadn’t! I flew back to the cloud above launch, hung out for a while, and quickly realized I couldn’t handle the cold in my fingers.
I flew out into the valley, of course finding lift everywhere, attempted a spiral to get down only to find that my fingers could barely wrap around the brake handle, tried again, succeeded, and landed. Flight time: 1 hour. I literally stood clipped into my glider for about 5 minutes trying to warm my red fingers while I moaned in pain. Yikes!
After packing up, I called a special someone to ask where he flew to. He said he was in Hope (25 k’s or so flying distance from Woodside, but about 40 k’s driving distance) and needed to be picked up. Knowing that the only two cars to drive out there both had manual transmissions, I cringed...I don’t drive standards!
I asked a pilot for a 5 minute lesson, and ambitiously hopped into one of the cars and started to drive. It wasn’t pretty, and I was scared of a big hill, and I was careful not to ride the clutch, and there were some tense moments which took 100% of my concentration, but good golly, I made it!
It sure was a bummer that I missed out on an XC flight because I had crappy gloves on but on the other hand, the adventure of driving to Hope in a car I didn’t know how to drive, was probably even more exciting! The next day however, I went out and bought a pair of down-filled mittens made of Gore-tex and a million chemical handwarmers. Bring it on, Fraser Valley!
posted by Veronica at 1:28 PM
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