Back to the Training Hill

You have no idea how sore and tired I am. I usually write my piece on the evening of an adventure. Not this time.

I went back to the training hill yesterday to try and work out my landings. Having had a few disastrous encounters with terra firma I decided to finally do something about it.

My day started with an early morning Josh pick up, then straight to Tambo for an early morning fly before any other pilots arrived. In the end Josh drove his car down as well. He dropped it at the bombout and we headed up the mountain in my car. On arriving we met Jonny, Lee and a few others, as well as a student of Lee's that Jonny was throwing off. Lee came up to me and asked if I wanted him to drop my car to the bombout, seeing he was heading that way anyway to talk his student (who also happened to be named Lee) down.

After setting up I changed my hang straps around in an attempt to slow my glider down which has been flying at 'light speed' speed. Lee launched soon after on his second ever high glide, followed 10 minutes later by myself. It was nice to be walked out by Josh for a change. A speedy run and I was off. At that time of day I found it extremely hard to find the lift and ended up heading straight for the bomb out where a group of students and other pilots had started to gather. Great! I thought to myself, just what I want to see considering I hadn't landed on my feet for what seemed an eternity. The pressure was on. My approach was good and I came in for touch down. A few seconds later and I was on the ground. I couldn't believe it! I had landed on my feet. Unreal! I thought to myself, although it hadn't been the prettiest of finals and probably comprised of more ass than class.

I walked my glider to the side of the field where Lee started telling me what I did wrong and what I need to do better. He also said it was great that I had asked to come to his training fields to work out my landing delemer, and that we would probably leave by 2 o'clock. Cool I thought, just enough time to have another fly. After we watched Josh roll in for a pretty sweet landing we packed our gliders away and headed back up.

On arriving we found the skies full of hang gliders as well as the hill full of pilots ready for launch. There were also quite a few paraglider pilots eagerly waiting for the wind to slow down. I tossed Josh off and watched him steadily climb. I went back to setting up. When I was about to hook in I heard Jonny Jnr call out "Ant!" I walked over to see what he wanted. "See how the conditions are slowly changing" he said. I said I had noticed a difference in when I first arrived to now. What do you think I should do? I feel pretty confident I can fly this easily enough (and had flown much worst in the past), but would have Jonny call it for me. "you should be fine at this stage", Jonny said, "but keep your wit's about you in case it gets any stronger". He also brought to my attention how many of the advanced pilots had begun their way out to the bombout. It must be getting pretty dirty up there he said.

I decided to go for it and Jonny came over to give me a hang check and walk me out. Whilst hooking in Jonny noticed Dirk (also quite new to the sport) had drifted way past launch. "that's enough Dirky" he said, "I'd be heading back if I was you". We watched with Brandon O'Donnell, and Richard Glassock for the next 5-10 minutes as Dirk slowly edged his way forward. He finally made it back and once over launch headed straight down, probably to get a new change of underwear. That was enough for me and I again asked Jonny for some more input. " I'd probably give it a miss Ant", he said. "Pack up and come with us to the training hill I reckon". I started packing up whilst chatting to Brandon. Brandon was also heading out and I arranged to give him a ride.

We met at the Outpost and had some lunch before meeting Lee, Jonny, Kath and a bunch of new students. We followed them to Koralbyn where I saw the most impressive training hill id ever seen. It was awesome and I compared it to the rolling frontier plains I'd seen on the movie 'Dances with Wolves'. This should make my landing practice a hell of a lot easier I thought.

In the middle of setting up I felt an extreme itchy stinging pain coming from one of my Ass cheeks. I went aside pulled down my dacks half way and realized I had a tick settling in. I couldn't believe it, id never had a tick before. I showed Lee who explained I probably got it from Tambo. I tried to act real cool, but deep down was freaking out. The thought of having a parasite sucking my blood out really got to me. Lee advised me to drown it in sunburn cream while Kath went to work looking for the tweezers. After a few minutes the tick started to back out and Lee pulled him with a clockwise twist. After both Kath and Lee were done examining my bum I was happy to be given the all clear, he was totally gone. Feeling a little embarrassed about the whole affair Kath tried making me feel better by saying, "don't worry about it Ant, I've had to pull them out of Lee in worst places than that". That did make me feel better and I started back at setting up.

I finished in time to see one of Lee's 9th day students launch from the top of the hill and land beautifully. Shit! I thought to myself. Now I'll really feel like crap if I stack it. I wish I had one of those funs (training glider). My first run was pretty ordinary. Launch was good but the thermic conditions had me holding on a bit to tight. I ended up landing on my wheels. Lee told me that's exactly what I've been doing on all my other flights, holding on tight and way to high. "Not enough control Ant. Move your hands up only when your about to flare". I tend to agree. I worked out exactly what I had been doing wrong. I started the walk back up the hill. It was then that my own training hill days at Murderers Gully came flooding back to me. I realized that the beauty of the region didn't make a hell of a lot of difference. A hill is still a hill, and when your walking a glider up it with flat tyres, all hills suck. It took me almost 35 minutes to walk back up top. Half way I thought, Dam! At this stage ill only get one more run in, and at the thought of having to do this again, I don't even want to do that.

On arrival up top I threw myself down in a gasping for air thud. I don't want to do anymore I said to Brandon, who by then had strolled over to see if I was ok. "don't worry mate" he said, ill carry it up next time. I always wanted to no what it was like to have a hang glider on my back, to know what it feels like". It sure looks so much cooler than paragliders. (Actually that last comment 'MAY' have been said, I'm not sure, it was pretty windy at the time and I was still a little delirious from my climb, I'm sure I heard him say something along those lines)

Take two was a little better but I was still in my holding on to high mode. On the third flight I decided to fly from half way up the hill which was still at a good distance and would give me more than enough glide to complete a flared landing, it would also save my legs, as well as Brandon's from any more climbing. Ok I thought, deep breath, think about what you want to do, and I was off. I saw Lee and headed straight for him. The glide was sweet and a little after my glider had gone to trim I pushed the bar out and flared with style. Yes I thought to myself, finally! It was at that stage it all came back to me. I remembered my own training days and it was all good. Lee all the while was being extremely encouraging. I went again and had another perfect launch, flight and landing. I went again and almost pulled a hat trick but pulled the bar in hesitantly half way though a flare and had a bit of a fumble, but a fumble with style:) We all had a break and then went back to it. I launched again and landed perfectly. One more time I thought, lets make it a good one. I want to leave on a high.

Lee at this stage was on top of the hill behind me. After yelling clear I started another nil wind launch. I glided beautifully and timed my flare well, with a no step landing (I think). I sighed a sigh of relief and eventually turned my glider around to see Lee jump with his arms up over his head as if someone had just scored a goal. "That'll do Ant, that'll do", I quietly said to myself with my newly regained confidence. By the time I had packed my gear away it was about 7:30pm and by the time I arrived home it was about 9:30 pm. On the way home Josh had called me saying, "what happened to you today?" I explained that after launching for the second time from Tambo I went on my first ever cross country fly and flew to Rathdownie. Really!! He said in amazement, that's unreal!!!............ He's so gullible ;)

I thought id go to the hill, find myself a nice out of the way slice, and practice by myself. I had no idea Lee was going to give me the kind of attention he gave me. I felt a little bad and tried my best not to take up his time, but I felt extremely thankful the whole afternoon for his generosity. Thanks Mate. Thanks also to Kath and Jonny for your advice and kind words. Brandon your a legend mate! Thanks for your strength big fella. You should be club president!

All up 15 minutes (Tambo sledy)

PS. Whats this pink stuff all over me? Is this what its like to be sunburnt? I guess there's a first time for everything :) Later Lovelies