Alas, it was a crappy day for flying---winds were blowing from the E around 10-12, with occasional gusts up to 15+. Bill Priday towed up around 1:30 and came back down pretty quickly. On his second tow, things got so nasty Bill bailed at a couple hundred feet, which convinced the rest of us to stay on the ground (Bill's a solid aerotow pilot who rarely pins off early).
The chute repack was great! Many thanks to BVH and Cragin for supervising/teaching all afternoon. I've been wanting to do this for a year---never having seen the contents of my chute pouch and wondering if there even was a chute in there!
Several of us hung in Steve's simulator (with control frame) to throw our chutes. In my case, I pretended to be flying along happily, and asked Linda to say "NOW!" to simulate a sudden catastrophe---at that point, Dave started wrenching me around violently enough that my (helmeted) head got abused by the control frame. I was glad that my chute came out pretty easily, and I hossed it with both hands, getting it 10' from the simulator. Not quite as good as spinning around...but way better than never having done it at all.
Then we inflated our chutes to air them out. The day's excitement came when Linda got caught holding her bridle in a stronger cycle (chute inflated) and started getting dragged across the field. I jogged after her, thinking I'd catch up and help her wrestle it down. Steve came after us in the golf cart yelling "Let it go Linda!" which she did, right before I got there. The chute then picked up speed (still fully inflated and dragging Linda's knee-hanger harness).
I continued to run after it, and when I heard Steve approaching from behind in the golf cart I thought "Oh good---Steve will go get it." NOT. Steve started yelling "Go get it Scott! RUN!!!" So I went into full sprint mode and made a diving tackle of the harness (Cal Ripken would be proud). Of course I then found myself being dragged across the grass, skinning my elbow...but I slowed it down enough for Steve to grab the gore lines, and together we wrestled it down. Definitely a good lesson on the power of a chute in the wind! (Is that what PGs feel like?
)In spite of not flying, it was a fun day. Daniel, Carlos, and a few others aerotowed around 6pm when things had calmed down, but I think they all had sleds.
I feel much more comfortable now with increased knowledge of and experience with my chute!
Scott
