Yay!! Little missy went to cloudbase!
I'll elaborate later, and perhaps finish posting about the classic, but i gotta go soak my sore muscles for now.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Classic Day Two
Today was the second day of the Canungra Classic. I couldn't be bothered blogging about yesterday because it was too windy, so it got canned pretty early.
Today was a task from Beechmont to Moogerah dam via Coulson and Croftby. Over 20 made it to goal, so it was a good day. Looked pretty tough to get up! Quite a few down in bomb out, but some of them managed to get back up and re-launch, so it was all good.
A little bit of excitement early on in the day when a paraglider came into land just behind launch and ended up flying into power lines. She was unhurt, but the lines sparked and ignited the tinder dry grass in the paddock and started a little bushfire, the boys got over there and managed to get it out, but it didnt stop the fire brigade coming out with lights flashing, and then the news crews.
I say that she was unhurt, but i'm sure her ego took a bit of a bashing.
I've just come back from the HQ where Tim has been working hard getting the scores in, and it looks like the top six are:
1. Rohan Holtkamp
2. Rick Duncan
3. Tony giammichele
4. Richard heffer
5. Enda Murphy
6. Jonny Durand Jr
A little bit of excitement early on in the day when a paraglider came into land just behind launch and ended up flying into power lines. She was unhurt, but the lines sparked and ignited the tinder dry grass in the paddock and started a little bushfire, the boys got over there and managed to get it out, but it didnt stop the fire brigade coming out with lights flashing, and then the news crews.
I say that she was unhurt, but i'm sure her ego took a bit of a bashing.
I've just come back from the HQ where Tim has been working hard getting the scores in, and it looks like the top six are:
1. Rohan Holtkamp
2. Rick Duncan
3. Tony giammichele
4. Richard heffer
5. Enda Murphy
6. Jonny Durand Jr
Friday, October 2, 2009
Check out the T-shirts!
I'm really impressed with what Kat's come up with this year. Canungra Classic t-shirts are awesome!
The event kicked off tonight with a welcome BBQ, and we'll be up bright and shiney tomorrow for briefing. Ahh.. the season is beginning!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Check flight? not so check..
I have a list of things to do, it goes a little something like this:
1. Fix glider
2. renew memberships
3. Check flight
And i was going pretty well with it.
After some cursing and a few injuries, attacking my glider with some Inox and a hammer and perhaps a little bit of a cry when it wouldn't work, and then finally giving in and getting a man to do it, number one was completed. (here's a little tip, if you fly at the beach regularly, check out your bolts, especially in the base bar knuckles. Mine were so corroded i almost had to replace the whole knuckle, and when they were finally removed they showed some pretty worrying wear)
Number two took the sacrifice of a few pairs of pretty shoes, but it was completed. HGFA still haven't sent me my card, but it'll arrive eventually, right? And the Canungra Club have welcomed me back, even if i am wearing last season's shoes. ugh.
Number three is proving elusive. it's been almost a month now, first weekend i eagerly got up at 7am only to find it blowing Northerly, which isn't really brilliant, so no dice there. The Sunday would have been perfect, but my instructors were nowhere to be seen. damn. So i got to do what i do best, Drive for the boys. Weekend after? dust storms galore! It was so windy i put on my red shoes and renamed the dog Toto.
I'm getting acquainted with the ancient art of Hang-waiting.
But i'm super excited because next week i have the whole week off work to devote to flying! the Canungra Classic hang gliding competition is on, and i'm driving again. Hopefully i can get the check flight in early on saturday and spend the rest of the week flying in the morning and driving in the afternoons. I really didnt want to have to do my check in front of everyone, but i guess i have no choice now! eugh! i just hope i dont crash!
1. Fix glider
2. renew memberships
3. Check flight
And i was going pretty well with it.
After some cursing and a few injuries, attacking my glider with some Inox and a hammer and perhaps a little bit of a cry when it wouldn't work, and then finally giving in and getting a man to do it, number one was completed. (here's a little tip, if you fly at the beach regularly, check out your bolts, especially in the base bar knuckles. Mine were so corroded i almost had to replace the whole knuckle, and when they were finally removed they showed some pretty worrying wear)
Number two took the sacrifice of a few pairs of pretty shoes, but it was completed. HGFA still haven't sent me my card, but it'll arrive eventually, right? And the Canungra Club have welcomed me back, even if i am wearing last season's shoes. ugh.
Number three is proving elusive. it's been almost a month now, first weekend i eagerly got up at 7am only to find it blowing Northerly, which isn't really brilliant, so no dice there. The Sunday would have been perfect, but my instructors were nowhere to be seen. damn. So i got to do what i do best, Drive for the boys. Weekend after? dust storms galore! It was so windy i put on my red shoes and renamed the dog Toto.
I'm getting acquainted with the ancient art of Hang-waiting.
But i'm super excited because next week i have the whole week off work to devote to flying! the Canungra Classic hang gliding competition is on, and i'm driving again. Hopefully i can get the check flight in early on saturday and spend the rest of the week flying in the morning and driving in the afternoons. I really didnt want to have to do my check in front of everyone, but i guess i have no choice now! eugh! i just hope i dont crash!
Friday, May 15, 2009
New home with genuine mountains!!
So it's been a while since i last blogged here, i guess it's time for an update!
I guess the really big news is that i am no longer living in the great flat land of Western Australia where our biggest "mountain" is 800ft, we have become masters of "dune gooning" 3ft sand dunes because we cant be bothered with the 2 hour drive to said "mountain" and we dont really have to worry about landing options because they are everywhere. Big open 5km wide flat paddocks which will have a dead tree for shade, if you're lucky. No longer will i be ground towing, because they just dont need to over here. (which is actually kinda sad.. i liked ground towing. Areotowing scares the bejesus out of me!)
I shall never again dance on the bar of the Wyalkatchem pub to celebrate a cross country flight. *sigh*
But not that that's really all that troubling, because i now live in Canungra. A place which is arguably the flying mecca of Australia. I look out the window from my home on Mt Misery to see Mt Tamborine launch and in the same distance the other direction i can go to Beechmont. I've been coming to drive at the competition here for the past two years, and now finally, i might actually have to courage to fly in it!!
Also of note, my poor little abused Fun 160 has been saved from the ravaging hands of students.
So i left Perth on the 21st December 2008 and set off in my little car for a last blast on the beautiful coastal cliffs of Albany in Australia's south west. Of course, murphys law came into play and we didnt fly a damn single day. until i left.. I am so very well practiced in hang waiting now. :(
Anyhow, never mind, because i set off from albany to drive solo across the Nullabor desert to Forbes for the comp over there. Four days of driving for ten hours a day and i finally arrived. I was at Forbes to drive for Curt Warren and Tony Lowrey who i successfully convinced to allow my good buddy Steve Elliot onto the team also. I'd met Curt at The Canungra Classic the previous october and i may or may not have been drunk when i agreed to drive for him "and his buddy tony" at Forbes. I'd always driven for missy, so it was good to have him on the team. I always knew what i had to do with Missy. Beer? check. Cigarettes? check. it's all good. That was until the first day when missy unfortunately had an accident on launch which he never recovered from. I didnt see him lock out, but it was horrible to see the aftermath. He was always so strong and independant that it was very difficult to see him lying there on the ground barely able to breathe. I think that is always going to stay with me that afternoon. Missy was a great mentor to me in my early flying, especially helping me to keep going after my accident, even though he never saw me fly. I'm not entirely sure how i managed to drive to goal that afternoon to pick up the other boys while steve was being helicoptered to hospital, it's amazing i could see at all through all that mascara!
But anyway. I'll never forget you Missy. you were a legend.
So the rest of the comp carried on like they usually do. The boys flew, i drove, we all drank beer and were merry! I should also point out that on the first day at forbes also, before Missy's accident a russian pilot on an Aeros glider tumbled and threw his reserve, he came down beautifully and suffered only a few bumps and scratches, the same couldnt be said for his glider.. and then to make things more interesting a dust devil whipped up in the launch line and took out five gliders! I felt really sorry for the two Norwegians Olav and Oyvind who had only flown their gliders once before suffering carnage. Amazingly Olav was able to salvage parts off Oyvind's glider and managed to fly to goal that day! determination! I was a useful little driver and while chatting with Tony as he was waiting in the line i was able to jump on his wing and prevent him from being flipped over like a turtle while gliders in front and behind him were trashed! it's a shame that he didnt set up his GPS properly and got lost on the way to goal..
On the third day at Forbes, Trent Brown decided he would try to scare the shit out of us some more and gave everyone in the paddock a very big scare whilst trying to thermal in a dust devil. He got slammed into the ground so fast that he bounced (while also giving everyone watching the impression that he had just killed himself, including the general manager of the HGFA and the Police investigator who was looking into the accident on the first day) It was a big vicious dusty just at the end of the tow line, which meant that all the tugs were flying straight for it, landing three pilots including trent in it. Goodness knows why they decided to thermal, but a few turns told them that they shouldnt really be there. while trent got pummelled into the ground, nick purcell managed to land safely and the Aeros glider flew out the other side. I freaked out because Curt and Tony were either just about to tow, or just had and i didnt want another one of my pilots in a medivac. thankfully they were both waiting on the dolly. phew! Trent was okay, despite the impact, as the paramedics were trying to put a neck brace on him he was heard to be saying "nah.. you can put that on after my next tow.." i guess the glider did it's job, the uprights both went through his shiney new sail, and when i saw the broken parts a month later at the Moyes factory it turned out that every tube on the glider was broken. poor little brand new Litespeed RS.
Thankfully that was the last of the eventfulness of Forbes. The rest of the week went off without a hitch, bar a few days off in which we drank a fair bit, went to Parkes for the Elvis Festival and finally a rest day so that we could attend Missy's funeral in Sydney. And no matter how many times people say i look like Paris Hilton in them, i am so thankful that i own huge sunglasses!
Wow. Forbes was heavy..
Meanwhile, after that eventful week, i headed south to Mt Beauty for the Bogong Cup. This time i was driving for the Norwegians and Jonas Blecher, a young German pilot. the weather was not so good at Bogong, so a lot of our time was spent hang waiting and chilling out in the mountain stream. It sure beat hang waiting in a sheep paddock though, so i wasnt complaining. The area down there in Victoria was amazing and i'd love to fly there someday. Mt Buffalo is somewhere i have to launch from, no matter how much just looking at that ramp makes me want to wet myself with fear. I think there were three flying days in total, and nothing really much to talk about. Great party on the final night with a live band and an awful lot of Jagermeister!
From Bogong, i headed south to catch up with a friend from high school and see all her wedding plans. She moved to Melbourne just under two years ago, and although it was sad to see her go, it's good to see her so happy. So it's a trip down there in august and a pretty dress to buy!
I only stopped in Melbourne for one night and was back on the road to hang out with my flying buddies in Stanwell Park. I fell in love with the place on first sight and can only dream of living in the place i was staying. I had become good friends with a swiss girl named Claudia who was also driving at the competitions, so i went to stay with her at "the bunker". I cannot imagine a more perfect location. I woke up in the morning to the sounds of the waves breaking and looked out of the window to see the launch on Bald hill. Bliss. there were also some adorable dogs who lived at the bunker, i wanted to adopt them and take them home with me. Tobias and Chica were Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Chica decided that my swag was much more comfortable to sleep in than her bed. I am hopeless when it comes to animals, especially dogs.
This is becoming an awfully long "quick update"!!
So it's past midnight, i'm gonna skim through the rest. After Stanwell i headed to Manilla for the NSW state comps where i drove for Paul Barry, Brod Osborne, James Lowe and Joel Mckay. All Queensland boys. Paul, Brod and James are all from the north coast, and Joel is a local boy who cannot organise himself to save his life, so i found him a team, let him sleep in my spare bed and made his lunches. I actually ended up making sandwiches for quite a few people that week.. there wasnt a decent sandwich shop in town, so i used a whole loaf every day making sandwiches. Manilla is awesome because most people stay at the Royal hotel, which is where the breifing is in the mornings, and the presentation night, so it was all very communal and fun. This little social butterfly had much fun flitting around chatting to everyone! Overall a great comp where we flew everyday and had a great time.
I thought that Manilla was the end of my comp season but on the last day i was to be proven wrong. Jonas and Curt convinced me that i must go to Dalby to drive for them once more. But before they headed out there they wanted to spend a week driving around flying different sites. So i headed to my new home of Canungra for two weeks before flying back down to Sydney to take the boys on a flying tour of NSW. Added to our group was Ollie and joining us up at Dalby would be Tony once again. We spent a few days in Newcastle with Conrad and Anousha, flying the stockton dunes and other local sites before heading out to Manilla and eventually arriving at Dalby where we had more bad weather and only three valid tasks. Windy windy!! But when we were not flying, the organisers found us other things to do, like Shooting out at the Gun club which was very interesting.. I also started my ultralite training with a short flight in the Drifter! I really need to get back out there and keep working at that!
So i guess that brings me back to Canungra. I've been here the best part of three months now, and i gotta say.. looking for a job in a recession sucks. But i'll keep plugging at it and hopefully something will eventuate. in the meantime, i have an awful lot of free time to fly... and the weather is awful!! damn!!
I guess the really big news is that i am no longer living in the great flat land of Western Australia where our biggest "mountain" is 800ft, we have become masters of "dune gooning" 3ft sand dunes because we cant be bothered with the 2 hour drive to said "mountain" and we dont really have to worry about landing options because they are everywhere. Big open 5km wide flat paddocks which will have a dead tree for shade, if you're lucky. No longer will i be ground towing, because they just dont need to over here. (which is actually kinda sad.. i liked ground towing. Areotowing scares the bejesus out of me!)
I shall never again dance on the bar of the Wyalkatchem pub to celebrate a cross country flight. *sigh*
But not that that's really all that troubling, because i now live in Canungra. A place which is arguably the flying mecca of Australia. I look out the window from my home on Mt Misery to see Mt Tamborine launch and in the same distance the other direction i can go to Beechmont. I've been coming to drive at the competition here for the past two years, and now finally, i might actually have to courage to fly in it!!
Also of note, my poor little abused Fun 160 has been saved from the ravaging hands of students.
So i left Perth on the 21st December 2008 and set off in my little car for a last blast on the beautiful coastal cliffs of Albany in Australia's south west. Of course, murphys law came into play and we didnt fly a damn single day. until i left.. I am so very well practiced in hang waiting now. :(
Anyhow, never mind, because i set off from albany to drive solo across the Nullabor desert to Forbes for the comp over there. Four days of driving for ten hours a day and i finally arrived. I was at Forbes to drive for Curt Warren and Tony Lowrey who i successfully convinced to allow my good buddy Steve Elliot onto the team also. I'd met Curt at The Canungra Classic the previous october and i may or may not have been drunk when i agreed to drive for him "and his buddy tony" at Forbes. I'd always driven for missy, so it was good to have him on the team. I always knew what i had to do with Missy. Beer? check. Cigarettes? check. it's all good. That was until the first day when missy unfortunately had an accident on launch which he never recovered from. I didnt see him lock out, but it was horrible to see the aftermath. He was always so strong and independant that it was very difficult to see him lying there on the ground barely able to breathe. I think that is always going to stay with me that afternoon. Missy was a great mentor to me in my early flying, especially helping me to keep going after my accident, even though he never saw me fly. I'm not entirely sure how i managed to drive to goal that afternoon to pick up the other boys while steve was being helicoptered to hospital, it's amazing i could see at all through all that mascara!
But anyway. I'll never forget you Missy. you were a legend.
So the rest of the comp carried on like they usually do. The boys flew, i drove, we all drank beer and were merry! I should also point out that on the first day at forbes also, before Missy's accident a russian pilot on an Aeros glider tumbled and threw his reserve, he came down beautifully and suffered only a few bumps and scratches, the same couldnt be said for his glider.. and then to make things more interesting a dust devil whipped up in the launch line and took out five gliders! I felt really sorry for the two Norwegians Olav and Oyvind who had only flown their gliders once before suffering carnage. Amazingly Olav was able to salvage parts off Oyvind's glider and managed to fly to goal that day! determination! I was a useful little driver and while chatting with Tony as he was waiting in the line i was able to jump on his wing and prevent him from being flipped over like a turtle while gliders in front and behind him were trashed! it's a shame that he didnt set up his GPS properly and got lost on the way to goal..
On the third day at Forbes, Trent Brown decided he would try to scare the shit out of us some more and gave everyone in the paddock a very big scare whilst trying to thermal in a dust devil. He got slammed into the ground so fast that he bounced (while also giving everyone watching the impression that he had just killed himself, including the general manager of the HGFA and the Police investigator who was looking into the accident on the first day) It was a big vicious dusty just at the end of the tow line, which meant that all the tugs were flying straight for it, landing three pilots including trent in it. Goodness knows why they decided to thermal, but a few turns told them that they shouldnt really be there. while trent got pummelled into the ground, nick purcell managed to land safely and the Aeros glider flew out the other side. I freaked out because Curt and Tony were either just about to tow, or just had and i didnt want another one of my pilots in a medivac. thankfully they were both waiting on the dolly. phew! Trent was okay, despite the impact, as the paramedics were trying to put a neck brace on him he was heard to be saying "nah.. you can put that on after my next tow.." i guess the glider did it's job, the uprights both went through his shiney new sail, and when i saw the broken parts a month later at the Moyes factory it turned out that every tube on the glider was broken. poor little brand new Litespeed RS.
Thankfully that was the last of the eventfulness of Forbes. The rest of the week went off without a hitch, bar a few days off in which we drank a fair bit, went to Parkes for the Elvis Festival and finally a rest day so that we could attend Missy's funeral in Sydney. And no matter how many times people say i look like Paris Hilton in them, i am so thankful that i own huge sunglasses!
Wow. Forbes was heavy..
Meanwhile, after that eventful week, i headed south to Mt Beauty for the Bogong Cup. This time i was driving for the Norwegians and Jonas Blecher, a young German pilot. the weather was not so good at Bogong, so a lot of our time was spent hang waiting and chilling out in the mountain stream. It sure beat hang waiting in a sheep paddock though, so i wasnt complaining. The area down there in Victoria was amazing and i'd love to fly there someday. Mt Buffalo is somewhere i have to launch from, no matter how much just looking at that ramp makes me want to wet myself with fear. I think there were three flying days in total, and nothing really much to talk about. Great party on the final night with a live band and an awful lot of Jagermeister!
From Bogong, i headed south to catch up with a friend from high school and see all her wedding plans. She moved to Melbourne just under two years ago, and although it was sad to see her go, it's good to see her so happy. So it's a trip down there in august and a pretty dress to buy!
I only stopped in Melbourne for one night and was back on the road to hang out with my flying buddies in Stanwell Park. I fell in love with the place on first sight and can only dream of living in the place i was staying. I had become good friends with a swiss girl named Claudia who was also driving at the competitions, so i went to stay with her at "the bunker". I cannot imagine a more perfect location. I woke up in the morning to the sounds of the waves breaking and looked out of the window to see the launch on Bald hill. Bliss. there were also some adorable dogs who lived at the bunker, i wanted to adopt them and take them home with me. Tobias and Chica were Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Chica decided that my swag was much more comfortable to sleep in than her bed. I am hopeless when it comes to animals, especially dogs.
This is becoming an awfully long "quick update"!!
So it's past midnight, i'm gonna skim through the rest. After Stanwell i headed to Manilla for the NSW state comps where i drove for Paul Barry, Brod Osborne, James Lowe and Joel Mckay. All Queensland boys. Paul, Brod and James are all from the north coast, and Joel is a local boy who cannot organise himself to save his life, so i found him a team, let him sleep in my spare bed and made his lunches. I actually ended up making sandwiches for quite a few people that week.. there wasnt a decent sandwich shop in town, so i used a whole loaf every day making sandwiches. Manilla is awesome because most people stay at the Royal hotel, which is where the breifing is in the mornings, and the presentation night, so it was all very communal and fun. This little social butterfly had much fun flitting around chatting to everyone! Overall a great comp where we flew everyday and had a great time.
I thought that Manilla was the end of my comp season but on the last day i was to be proven wrong. Jonas and Curt convinced me that i must go to Dalby to drive for them once more. But before they headed out there they wanted to spend a week driving around flying different sites. So i headed to my new home of Canungra for two weeks before flying back down to Sydney to take the boys on a flying tour of NSW. Added to our group was Ollie and joining us up at Dalby would be Tony once again. We spent a few days in Newcastle with Conrad and Anousha, flying the stockton dunes and other local sites before heading out to Manilla and eventually arriving at Dalby where we had more bad weather and only three valid tasks. Windy windy!! But when we were not flying, the organisers found us other things to do, like Shooting out at the Gun club which was very interesting.. I also started my ultralite training with a short flight in the Drifter! I really need to get back out there and keep working at that!
So i guess that brings me back to Canungra. I've been here the best part of three months now, and i gotta say.. looking for a job in a recession sucks. But i'll keep plugging at it and hopefully something will eventuate. in the meantime, i have an awful lot of free time to fly... and the weather is awful!! damn!!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
A not so flying blog..
Since my first post last year i've not been flying very much at all!! unless you count Boeing 747's and Airbus' on my way to and from europe!!
Unfortunately my arm is still not getting any better, in fact it seems to be getting steadily worse! The movement is still very restricted, i'm unable to straighten it fully or supinate at all. Any twisting movements or strain on the joint are very painful, which totally sucks and makes life very difficult indeed!
Sometimes when i'm sitting on top of the hill or out in the paddock getting hot and dusty watching the boys have an awesome time up in the air i contemplate taking a bunch of painkillers and just taking off, but along with the physical restraints of my injury, i'm still having problems overcoming the mental impact of my accident.
It sounds really stupid, because with the description of the actual crash, it wasnt really that big. i just screwed up. i know exactly what i did wrong, my landings have always suffered because i dont quite have the upper body strength or size to flare effectively, so when i think about it, it's easily corrected. i've done it before! I had a similar crash in a prickle patch when i was still getting my qualification but i had wheels on the glider that time, so my biggest problem was digging all the prickles out of my arms and legs! I need to think about what i'm doing, get my arms nice and high on the uprights and push up and out, and if the landing doesnt go to plan, i need to remember to let go!!
But that's not the part that gets me. It's the fear that has set in over the last ten months. Every time i think about clipping in and taking off, i get nervous. I start thinking about all the things that could go wrong and how easy it is to just screw something simple up and end up paying heavily for it. I think about how i need a parachute that fits in my pocket, not the one i have currently which is really just too big and hard to pull out of the pocket. I think about all the little tiny parts of the glider that could snap, or break or come loose. I think about tumbles and mid-air collisions. I think about locking out on the tow line or not having sufficient air speed on hill launches. But mainly, i freak out about my landings.
They have always been the bane of my flying. My first ever landing on my bunny hops i ended up on my stomach. my second? on my knees.. I eventually started to get it, and with practice it came, but i would still have the occasional stuff up and end up covered in dirt and double-g's. Every time i had a break from flying i'd come back and freak out some more about landing. It got to the point where i didnt want to take off because that way i wouldnt have to land right?! But i had some good friends who helped me through it and got me flying well and happily. It was going really well until this accident, and now i have that thought in the back of my head again. I dont need to land if i dont take off.
I have flown a little since my crash. In the period after the surgery where my arm was at it's best i did a couple of weekends of towing out in Wyalkatchem. The first weekend went really well. I was out with a bunch of guys who have been flying in WA for years. they're the guys i would watch flying when i was 11, the ones who are kinda like uncles now. We started right back at the beginning, attaching the glider to the trailer and driving up and down the paddock a few times to make sure that my arm was strong enough to do the nessecary controls. It seemed okay, so we set up the tow line and i gave the boys a few tows to thank them for spending all morning talking me into flying. Now here is the part where i started getting a big nervous. Being one of the only girls in the paddock and also the daughter of the CFI over here, everyone knows who i am. everyone watches when i fly. everyone fusses over me and makes sure that i have everything i need, but i'm the kind of person who doesnt like being watched in pressure situations. I hate being fussed over. So on this day, when people were constantly fussing and watching me and asking when i was going to take off, i was getting more and more worked up. I had the glider set up, i had everything ready, but i just couldnt bring myself to clip in and tow up. It took me about and hour and quite a few tissues before i actually managed to clip onto the tow line. Once i was in the air and finally off the tow line, i felt that familiar feeling. the relaxing freedom that comes from just being up there. "i can do this" and "i remember how to do this" were uttered a few times. I was so happy to be back there!! The air was beautiful and smooth, perfect late afternoon soft boyant air! I came in to land and mentally landed from 800ft, making sure that i knew everything i had to do. The landing was perfect, the kind of landing i do when i go cross country and land out in the middle of nowhere so that nobody can see my perfect landings!! I did a few more tows that day and ran the tow car out of fuel, so we had to pack up and call it a day.
After that weekend, the weather was bad for about a month, so i didnt get to fly until just before i left for my five month europe trip. I managed to get out to the paddock at the end of October and joined in with a few students who were trying to get their soaring flights. This trip wasnt as successful. The air was lumpy, but not the good kind of lumps that make you go up. it was the scrappy remenants of thermals which only served to jostle my nerves and make my arm sore. I took two tows that day and ended on a sour note. My landings were fine, but my confidence was not. I was uncomfortable, unsure and didnt want to fly. That was the last time i flew. not a good note to end on.
So now i sit on the top of the hill wanting to fly, but at the same time, i'm absolutely petrified at the idea of stepping off that launch. it's frustrating. I want to fly again, i need to fly again, but i just cant.
Hopefully a few tandems and some good support will help get my wings back.
Unfortunately my arm is still not getting any better, in fact it seems to be getting steadily worse! The movement is still very restricted, i'm unable to straighten it fully or supinate at all. Any twisting movements or strain on the joint are very painful, which totally sucks and makes life very difficult indeed!
Sometimes when i'm sitting on top of the hill or out in the paddock getting hot and dusty watching the boys have an awesome time up in the air i contemplate taking a bunch of painkillers and just taking off, but along with the physical restraints of my injury, i'm still having problems overcoming the mental impact of my accident.
It sounds really stupid, because with the description of the actual crash, it wasnt really that big. i just screwed up. i know exactly what i did wrong, my landings have always suffered because i dont quite have the upper body strength or size to flare effectively, so when i think about it, it's easily corrected. i've done it before! I had a similar crash in a prickle patch when i was still getting my qualification but i had wheels on the glider that time, so my biggest problem was digging all the prickles out of my arms and legs! I need to think about what i'm doing, get my arms nice and high on the uprights and push up and out, and if the landing doesnt go to plan, i need to remember to let go!!
But that's not the part that gets me. It's the fear that has set in over the last ten months. Every time i think about clipping in and taking off, i get nervous. I start thinking about all the things that could go wrong and how easy it is to just screw something simple up and end up paying heavily for it. I think about how i need a parachute that fits in my pocket, not the one i have currently which is really just too big and hard to pull out of the pocket. I think about all the little tiny parts of the glider that could snap, or break or come loose. I think about tumbles and mid-air collisions. I think about locking out on the tow line or not having sufficient air speed on hill launches. But mainly, i freak out about my landings.
They have always been the bane of my flying. My first ever landing on my bunny hops i ended up on my stomach. my second? on my knees.. I eventually started to get it, and with practice it came, but i would still have the occasional stuff up and end up covered in dirt and double-g's. Every time i had a break from flying i'd come back and freak out some more about landing. It got to the point where i didnt want to take off because that way i wouldnt have to land right?! But i had some good friends who helped me through it and got me flying well and happily. It was going really well until this accident, and now i have that thought in the back of my head again. I dont need to land if i dont take off.
I have flown a little since my crash. In the period after the surgery where my arm was at it's best i did a couple of weekends of towing out in Wyalkatchem. The first weekend went really well. I was out with a bunch of guys who have been flying in WA for years. they're the guys i would watch flying when i was 11, the ones who are kinda like uncles now. We started right back at the beginning, attaching the glider to the trailer and driving up and down the paddock a few times to make sure that my arm was strong enough to do the nessecary controls. It seemed okay, so we set up the tow line and i gave the boys a few tows to thank them for spending all morning talking me into flying. Now here is the part where i started getting a big nervous. Being one of the only girls in the paddock and also the daughter of the CFI over here, everyone knows who i am. everyone watches when i fly. everyone fusses over me and makes sure that i have everything i need, but i'm the kind of person who doesnt like being watched in pressure situations. I hate being fussed over. So on this day, when people were constantly fussing and watching me and asking when i was going to take off, i was getting more and more worked up. I had the glider set up, i had everything ready, but i just couldnt bring myself to clip in and tow up. It took me about and hour and quite a few tissues before i actually managed to clip onto the tow line. Once i was in the air and finally off the tow line, i felt that familiar feeling. the relaxing freedom that comes from just being up there. "i can do this" and "i remember how to do this" were uttered a few times. I was so happy to be back there!! The air was beautiful and smooth, perfect late afternoon soft boyant air! I came in to land and mentally landed from 800ft, making sure that i knew everything i had to do. The landing was perfect, the kind of landing i do when i go cross country and land out in the middle of nowhere so that nobody can see my perfect landings!! I did a few more tows that day and ran the tow car out of fuel, so we had to pack up and call it a day.
After that weekend, the weather was bad for about a month, so i didnt get to fly until just before i left for my five month europe trip. I managed to get out to the paddock at the end of October and joined in with a few students who were trying to get their soaring flights. This trip wasnt as successful. The air was lumpy, but not the good kind of lumps that make you go up. it was the scrappy remenants of thermals which only served to jostle my nerves and make my arm sore. I took two tows that day and ended on a sour note. My landings were fine, but my confidence was not. I was uncomfortable, unsure and didnt want to fly. That was the last time i flew. not a good note to end on.
So now i sit on the top of the hill wanting to fly, but at the same time, i'm absolutely petrified at the idea of stepping off that launch. it's frustrating. I want to fly again, i need to fly again, but i just cant.
Hopefully a few tandems and some good support will help get my wings back.
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