And it was definitely a.... Sporty day, shall we say? John M had a class of 5 or 6 students, and he was initially worried that it would be a blow-out. 15-20 gusts on the top of the hill at 1pm, wasn't looking good! But I set up anyway with hopes of improvement, and it *did* get a bit better with some launch-able cycles by 2:30 or so.
But it was gusty! And it was switchy! And there were wave clouds aloft! Not an easy day by any stretch. There were a couple of first-time students on the hill, and of course the conditions made it pretty challenging for them. But I think even they managed at least 3 or 4 flights with their feet leaving ground, and it was clear that they were all learning to handle their gliders, putting lots of energy into their runs, etc. Very cool to see that kind of progress on a tough day, and I hope that they stick with it.
Matt I. was there for an HG lesson, Carlos was there for an HG brush-up, and Ben Kidemu(?) was there to do some PG kiting. Karen and Matthew arrived late in the day, so that Matthew could test fly his glider. Although there were some cycles with lighter winds, it never _really_ got nice, even as sunset was approaching.
I did 6 flights from the top of the hill, quickly remembering how dramatic the gradient can be at Taylor's on a strong day. But even so, my 4th flight totally sucked : Doesn't matter where you are, you can still learn something! In my case, I was overly-concerned about landing into the wind, and made a too-aggressive turn at a poor time (lots of rotor & cr@p today), a bit low/slow. Couldn't wrestle the glider back onto the proper heading in time, got popped up, which made it even harder, got popped up again.....Argghghghhh! Luckily I crashed fairly gently, and believe me, I was ***SO*** off of those d-tubes once I knew there was nothing else I could do.
With some helpful comments from John, I realized that I was making a mtn-pilot mistake: Remember, it's ok to land cross-wind! Remember doing that at the training hill? Yeah? All the time? Well DUH!
Briefly had visions of buying two more downtubes from John, oh no!!!! But I lucked out, and then my fifth and sixth flights were much better. Phew!
I don't know much about PG, but Ben's kiting looked REALLY good, and he had at least three flights from the middle of the hill. Matthew took two flights, with wire-crew assists from Matt, Karen, and myself. At the end of the day we headed to Brock's Riverside Grill in Fredericksburg for dinner. Wow, great day! Me sore!
MarkC
