Man I wish I was as buffed as I feel!

I woke up late today rather sore to the sound of my phone ringing. As per normal when im in bed I let the answering machine pick it up. I faintly heard Jay on the other end saying something about a pumping day today. After what happened yesterday I was definitely not interested. In the end a rather insistent, never take no for an answer Josh persuaded me to come flying. After arriving at Beechmont i had a few uneasy words with Jay and after a long conversation managed to clear a few things up. Just as well too considering after the few uneasy words I pretty much decided not to fly. I always said I wouldn't if my head wasn't clear.

Anyway after setting up my kite I watched as they set Josh of on a soaring flight. 15 minutes later I was running hard off the hill in what turned out to be a very hard breeze. If I hadn't had good bar pressure i think i would probably have been flipped backwards. I climbed high almost straight away and found the conditions a little bumpy but very flyable. I finally was on a flight that at first didn't seem to take any effort at all to stay up. Jay and a tandem passenger launched soon after, and with Phil Hysteck and Jonny Jnr boating around me made for a very pleasant flight.

After about 45 minutes conditions deteriorated and if you hadn't found your self up high at the time, found it extremely hard to achieve now. I battled for another 45 minutes climing 200 feet and sinking 220. For the first time ever towards the end I even felt a little air sick. I found myself trying to work out if I had to spew, how to do it, considering I had my full faced helmet on. I worked it out but luckily didn't need to put it into practice.

I flew for 1.5 hours with the only other remaining pilot being Jay and his tandem passenger. I didn't want to be the first person in the bomb out, but in the end couldn't be bothered waiting for that miraculous bit of lift that would see me high enough to top land. Instead I decided to head for the bomb out at the bottom of the mountain in the quickly prevailing light. I was buggered! and didn't realize the effect (relief) of heading out to land had on my phyici. My approah was good and was apparently being looked over and commented on by Jay to his passenger who also happened to be a student he's in the middle of training. With the light being so bad and the wind sock in the bomb out being hard to see at the best of times I decided to go staight up the guts and land, but at the last second saw the wind sock and change my approach to cross the fence and land up wind in the Northern paddock. In the end I found myself double guessing my decision thinking how quickly the fence was coming up at me. I decided to bank at the last second and land cross wind to play it safe. I seriously doubt I would have cleared the fence so I was happy with my decision. I gained speed and flew into land with my wings still slightly banked. I ended up landing a bit hard and broke a batten at the tip of my wing. I put it down to a number of things and after packing up my gear went back to the scene of the crime and went over it in my mind, trying to see what I could have done to avoid such a landing from occurring again. One big thing I was to bring from the experience was to leave and land earlier and not to let my stubborn pride compromise my safety. At the time of my decision to land, the light was fading fast, and having my sunglasses on and being very overcast anyway impared my judgment on approach.

After landing I looked around to see where Jay was. I was shocked when I couldn't find him in the air and guessed he must have found the miraculous lift as soon as I had left. Dam I thought, barstard! After I walked my slightly damaged baby to the top of the paddock I was delighted to look over and see Jays glider parked with both exhausted pilot and passenger still lying dead flat in their hooked in harnesses. I was so happy not to be the only pilot to have bombed out. Apparently they had left the ridge 30 seconds after i had. I immediately went over to greet them and was even happier to find that Jay hadn't bombed out just to keep me company. He was FUBAR (fucked up beyond all recognition) saying instantly how hard it was to get up high again and thus confirming i wasn't the only one who found it difficult. After talking to them for a while i casually looked over at my glider to see a couple of hungry cows trying to work out wheather it was good enough to eat. I quickly ran back and shewed them away and packed up whilst continually stroking my damaged girls wing and appologising to my favourite piece of Mylar.

Luckily Josh was able to be talked into the top paddock by Jonny and after packing up drove down to pick us up. We then drove 40 minutes back up the mountain got into Josh's car and arrived home at about 10 tonight. I was sore when I woke this morning, you wouldn't believe how my muscles ache now. Man I wish I was as buffed as I feel! After my disaster yesterday it was nice to have a decent fly. All up 1hr 35min. Sweet!