Sunday, December 11, 2005

Lazy Sunday and eating dirt.

Well it´s Sunday, so didn´t get out of bed still 10:00am local time, made a quick phone call home and spoke to me youngest daughter.

Had a shower, got out of the apartment and had breakfast a local cafe. It was a nice day, and the Spanish know how to enjoy it, they just sit and drink in the cafes and bars. For a while I joined it, sitting and watching the world go by, I suddenly realised I was supposed to be meeting my hang gliding instructor at 1:00pm, it was 1:20pm! I made a quick call told him I was on my way, and promptly got my lazy self into gear.

It turned out we were going to a local slope where I will be doing low flights to re-familiarise myself with the glider and the basics of flying, the last time I flew a hang glider was in April.

I rigged the hang glider (still remember how to), did my daily inspection and pre-flight checks and was ready. Tony my instructor reminded me of the basics of hill launching and told me to go. I ran, the glider started rising, I held onto the A frame, and it would rise anymore. 'Let go' shouted Tony over the radio, I obeyed, the glider flew up, then started going down, before I reacted, I hit the deck on my knees and belly, as the glider dragged me a couple of feet (I didn´t remember how to land)!

Unclipped from the glider, draged it to the top of the hill, where Tony de-briefed me. Had another go, slightly better, but the basics where still missing.
In the end I had about 10 or so flights, by which time I had regained my skills, and was also worn out! 'I´m pleased with that' Tony said as we packed up for the day, I was happy we had done this, as I´ll be ready to go tow flying tommorrow.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

good luck shola

Jáco Herbst said...

hang in there...how's the flying goin?

cheers

Jaco