Both of them haven't flown since October and were anxious to get going. The forecast called for a late day, but they didn't care - they needed to fly NOW! I decided to keep them company. We didn't plan to fly anywhere, just practice thermalling over the airport.
Around 11am we all got towed up, and managed to find small but strong thermals. Great for the practice day. Bill Gottling also was flying with us in his new Moyes Gecko. As day progressed, thermals started to get bigger and stronger, taking us to 4000 feet MSL.
Once I've got established in a thermal and traveled to the top of the lift for a couple of times, I decided that today was a video op day, and a silly fun day. I was trying to get videos of everyone thermalling with me, and then tried 'dead man float' thermalling, and standing on the control bar thermalling. All worked great. I had fun, but got bored after an hour forty minutes, spiraled down and landed.
Here are the aerial shots from that day:
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| 'Dead man float' thermalling |
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| 'Step on it' thermalling |
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| 'Step on it' thermalling |
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| Crystal |
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| Bill Gottling |
That was my third day flying this week, and I just started getting back into 'this is a lot of fun' mode. My first flight a couple of days back was mostly work. My body remembered how to fly, but my brain was lagging behind and the whole process required a lot of concentration. Now I could enjoy flying again and I remembered why I love flying so much.
And the last thing, neither my body nor my brain remembered how to land. All of my three landings were either outright whacks or slightly better drop landings. The glider and I survived, but I wasn't a happy camper. I showed videos of my landing to Crystal and Ilya and they gave me some input. Hopefully, I'll get my mojo back. Tomorrow is another day.
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