Z5 Harness: $800
Knocking over your observer's windsock on your first mountain flight: PRICELESS
So my first mountain flight was at Bill's Hill this Saturday. After spending the first couple hours helping the slot clearing effort, walking the LZ, and setting up my glider, I find myself at launch and ready to fly. Matthew went over the flight plan with me again, wind was coming straight in, and it was time to go. It sure is a lot more intimidating than the training hill! But the launch was pretty good and once I was flying, I felt right at home.
Did a left turn and went a couple hundred feet that way, checking the ridge to see if I was maintaining my altitude. I thought I was (really wasn't), so I turned back the other direction and took another look. At that point, it definitely looked questionable, so I turned out to head to the LZ.
Lesson number one - paying attention to the ridge does not preclude one from casting the occasional glance to the LZ ...you know, that place where you need to LAND. As I make my way to the LZ, I notice I'm a lot lower than I want to be at this point. Not good. Not to the point where I need to be worrying about tree landings, but still not good. So I remind myself to relax the death grip on the control bar - let the glider fly. It does, and I make the LZ ok, but promise myself not to make THAT mistake again. (Pucker Factor = BAD)
As I set up for my landing, the sock is hannging limply so I pick a line that gives me some relatively flat ground. I keep the speed up in the approach, into ground effect and flare for a decent stand-up landing. Lesson number two - when picking a line for your landing, make sure it has enough room for you AND your glider. Although the landing was ok, I clipped the windsock with my left wingtip, knocking it over and knocking off the bolt that holds the sock in place. Didn't really kill it completely, but I'm sure it was seeing stars. My apologies to the pilots that were trying to set up their landings after me, going "what the heck happened to the windsock?" <raises hand> Um...that would be me.
Sorry!So at this point in time, my excitement at making my first mountain flight was somewhat tempered by the thoughts going through my head, which were pretty much along the lines of: "Great - I just gave my observer a cardiac arrest by being so low, AND I broke his windsock...now that's just fantastic. No one is ever going to throw me off a mountain again!" Many thanks to the pilot that landed after me, noted my story about knocking over the windsock, and replied "F*ck it - tell him you were aiming for it!" It made me feel a lot better.
So not exactly the way I really wanted to make my mountain flying debut, but I launched, I landed, I lived, and I learned. Matthew was kind enough to consent to throw me off again a little while later (after my performance the first time, he's a saint in my book for doing that). Second flight was MUCH better than the first (although the launch was a little lazy). Headed straight for the LZ and got there with plenty of altitude this time, so I did a few figure 8 turns and set up for landing. Flare was a hair early this time, so I popped up a couple feet, but still managed to stand it up. All in all, a heck of a day for me. The fact that I flew off a MOUNTAIN (twice, even) is still kinda sinking in...and I like it
Definitely a lot of room for improvement, but I'm looking forward to doing it again.Don't worry...your windsocks will be safe from now on...I promise!
--Chris Donahue
And I insist on the penalty to, uh, 