Yahoo! Sports?Let's talk about things that are more fun than broken down tubes and pilots that have no business ordering Litespeeds. But first, thanks to all of you who have sent notes and called; thanks to those who helped me unhook when I lay on the ground and cried. I feel very stupie.????? ????I cannot dress myself. I cannot pick up my glider, much less fly.?I cannot ride my horse. But I am a lucky little stupie; I am basically fine in spite of my ineptitude. Hopefully it is true that anyone can learn to fly a given glider if the progression is correct. I am trying to think positively, instead of deciding to back paddle and decide that I am too slow and deadly to ever learn the skills necessary to fly a more difficult glider. Who knows where it will lead? I only know the person?I want to become is the one not overcome by a challenge. I don't want to make too much of it -- an incident that will cost only money and a couple of weeks -- but?I also don't want to make too little of it, because it could have cost me my life.
????Enough of this. Wanna hear about my great Saturday? At the Highland fly in, this was the day of the XC contest. I was tired from flying the U2 the day before, so I decided just to fly my own glider instead of practicing in the morning and then flying my Sport. Paul warned me to get high over the field before leaving. On tow (on my beloved, easy Sport) I was pulled through lift at 1300 feet per minute, but?I hung on. As much as I tow, I don't love it. I sometimes pin off before I have enough altitude to play the game. But the extra 500 feet I gained wasn't worth it. I was dropped in lift no where near as good as that I had gone through, in a street to the east.
????I fought and gained a few feet, but remembered Paul's words and fought my way back upwind when my lift died. I once again drifted to the north with a couple of other pilots, and finally managed to get to a decent altitude -- maybe 4000 feet. One of the pilots (who out climbed me) gave me advice. I asked who it was and he said PK. He took off to the north and I followed, spreading out so maybe one of us would find lift in the blue conditions.
????At 4 miles out, PK rocketed forward, and I had plummeted to below 1000 feet. I didn't have the altitude to continue over the unlandable area ahead, so I diverted to a field. I found some gnarly, light lift there. I struggled in zero sink for 15 minutes, trying to fight my way upwind. The LZs were terrible downwind?and ?I wasn't gaining enough to cross them. I took? a huge risk when I saw some birds. I left the crap I was in -- knowing I would never find it again - and aimed for the birds. Sigh. Another 4 mile XC. I had unzipped and picked the exact spot where I would land. I need to sharpen my hook knife so I can kill myself with it. But the birds proved right.
????My glider settled into a neat turn, the kind you get when you have found the heart of the lift. I enjoyed an effortless 500 fpm gain, which took me to 5000 ft. Conditions got better. I stayed high, finding lift everywhere. I still flew conservatively, taking everything over 300 fpm. I had Dover AB as my "GoTo", but I flew a more northerly track, crosswind. This was when I circled and noticed a cloud had formed above me and I had time to notice what I miracle I was living. I rose into its mist before flying north again.
????Then PK radioed that he saw me; that he was only a couple miles north directly over Massey Airport! And he was circling! I thought he was long gone. I put in Massey as my Goto then. I was so happy when I saw PK. I glided directly towards him and got low again, but not like before, maybe 3 K. I couldn't find the core over Massey but PK radioed that he was directly over the cross of the runways. Griffin spiraled upward when I hit the prime core. Thanks, PK. Ha, I eventually called PK that I thought the lift had ended at 5 K; did he want to go on glide? I didn't receive an answer but saw him than -- a mile north! I found my radio had become unplugged and struggled to fix it on a most ugly glide before I fixed the problem.
????We continued north over Ric's house. Very cool. I got nervous that I was too far towards Dover?and hit the Airport as my Goto once again. It was WAY to my East, and WAY to my south. I have never been so happy. I began to realize I might have a decent flight. No worries unless I turned around and flew towards home.
????We needed to veer left, to the west, to cross the canal and stay away from Wilmington. PK flew straight North. I flew directly upwind, towards a dirty cummie cloud, towards the west.? I have decked it twice in the past 2 weeks?due to crossing streets diagonally. It is shorter?across the sink to the next street when you fly straight. PK climbed while I sank, though. The ratty cummie produced nothing.?When I flew north again, PK was 2 miles north and much higher than I was, in spite of what I considered better strategy. Oh well, this is another lesson, who is the more experienced and better?pilot? Following is sometimes better than thinking.????
????I reached Middletown and called Paul on the radio. I didn't know where I was and ?wanted to make sure I wasn't busting airspace. I had to urinate badly but I was so low I thought I would wait. I made an agreement with myself that I would wait until got at least 3000 feet and then?I would just wet my pants (this was almost 3 hours out). I needed altitude to cross the city and finally veered left towards landable area. I sunk to about 1000 feet and could see nothing but apartments and strip malls to the north. I never found anything good enough to climb in and landed, at about 36 miles from Highland (slightly shorter than my flight to goal at FL Ridge). I cheered on PK after I landed. He is really great.
????I landed in a soybean field wets of Middletown, not 50 yards from where I used to ride my horses in the Middletown Pony Club Horse Trials. Weird. Fun after I landed. People drove by and yelled things like "Rock and roll!" I waved and tried to look cool.
????PK was the Sky Stud and made another 6 miles, crossing the canal. My thanks to him being so generous helping me along the way. And to Paul for the pickup. What fun. PK won 1st in the XC open distance contest and?I was 2nd.?Highland gave me speed sleeves (very much needed) and a hat!
Lauren
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