First post.

With my return to flying fast approaching, i have decided that it is high time i start my flying blog! I initially signed up for my blogger account during the 2007 Hang Gliding World Championships in Big Spring, Texas - i was inspired i guess by reading the blogs of all those top pilots. I wanted to be there. So i made a deal with myself that i would do it. Me and my pink harness are gonna compete with the big guys someday! hopefully.. Barring any more crashes..

I've been flying for over a year now. I started learning in April 2006 after many years of standing on windy hilltops and dusty paddocks watching people go to crazy lengths just to get even ten minutes of flight. I didnt really understand why they came down so exhilarated until my first solo flight. I will never forget the moment when i released from the tow rope for the first time. I cant describe it. It was breathtaking and amazing and i finally understood after all those years of watching why we had to wake up at stupid hours of the morning to get to a flying site, why we had to spend hours and hours on a hillside "hang-waiting", why people liked going to Wyalkatchem. But i guess being an instructors daughter, it was going to happen eventually.

So yes, i decided that my first post would have to explain the make-or-break point in my early flying career. That phrase isnt really a good one, because it really was a break that made me stop and consider where my flying was going. Two months ago after a nice afternoon's hill soaring out at Mt Bakewell (the closest thing we have to a mountain out here, but it's more like a small hill) I was coming in for landing, the wind was "light and scary-able"I guess the increased ground speed spooked me as well as the approaching fence, so upon flaring, i didnt do it properly and ended up nosing in and breaking my ulna inside the elbow joint. One surgery, five pins, one plate, lots of painkillers and two months later, i'm ready to fly again! All this time off has made me realise how much i love being up there in the sky.

Next weekend i will head back up to Wyalkatchem to start from scratch again, and then in less than two weeks i will head to Canungra to help out at the Classic, but never fear, even though i'll be driving retrieve i shall still be taking along my Hot Pink Contour and hoping that i can get a flight or many in!