Redeemed

I awoke today at 8:10 to the sound of my almarm beeping. I flew into action and started packing my pack with my ice cold water, fruit and muiseli bars. I immediately got a call from Kieth to give me the low down on gliding conditions as well as possible launch sites. Tambo pumpin he said, meet me in the bombout and ill drive us up and leave your car there. Sweet ill be there in hopefully an hour i said. Wishful thinking i thought to myself but who knows i might get lucky.

Lucky i got, i drove from Ferny Hills through Brisbane to the highway without getting one red light! "Sweet! Im on the highway, I'm in for a chance". 5 minutes out Kieth rings to say "change of plan, Lee will pick you up and take me to Canungra where he'll meet me and drive us up to launch".

Lee and Jonny both drove me in, all excited about what the day may have i stall for me. "Its looking good Ant" Lee said, "if you get to 5000 feet again you better go cross country". "We'll see" i said, "we dont have a driver and my car is in the bombout". "listen Ant" was Lee response, " if you go cross country I'll pick you up!" . Hmmm, i thought to myself, no excuse now, and as the other boys eyes widened as they looked at me i said "hey thanks for the offer mate we'll see how we go". I still had to make sure i got Kieth back up top before mid day so he could get ready for work.

Launch was almost nill wind but still coming up the face slightly. I still hadnt eaten, gone to the bathroom or had any liquids this morning and wanted to make sure i did all three before leaving the mountain this time. I mentioned to the guys that i probably wouldnt be ready for about forty five minutes or so. I got a bit of negativity from this statement and had Raith volunteer to set my glider up while i got to work taking care of my other concerns. Twenty minutes later i was doing a pre flight and giving myself a hang check before swinging my glider round and walking past the spectators to launch, just in time to see Raef run off.

There wasnt much breeze about and Raef did seem to struggle quite alot. I stayed sitting hooked into my wing on the hill for about ten minutes more before deciding that things werent looking like they might improove and that if im not lucky the wind would start blowing over the back. So i told Kieth who was behind me by this time that i was outta here. "have a good one mate" he said.

There was hardly any lift at all and all my scratching experience didnt amount to much on this day. I watched as Raef flew in on final and nose dived his glider into the ground. I watched and waited to see him get up and walk to the side of the bombout to see that he was ok. I flew for about ten minutes before i decided to stray out a bit more. I got a few bubbles but couldnt seem to make the most of them. I headed towards launch and noticed the wind sock was pretty limp. I decided on an approach that would see me come straight up the main paddock to land. Just at the last moment the wind sock started to blow south (i think its south) and i decided to change my approach slightly to fly into its direction. Id never landed this way before and was hoping i was doing the correct thing. It wasnt to much of a course correction, just a wider circle before final. But then i noticed it change again and decided to just go to my plan A landing.

I came in fast and watched as the ground came towards me fast. I looked straight ahead and waited for the correct time to flare. I chose my time perfectly and did a text book style landing, my best yet! It was almost perfect and i wha hoood!! with excitement. I looked over to see if Raef was watching but he was busy behind his glider doing something else. F%#K!!! i thought to myself, no one saw me again!

I put my landing down to one thing and one thing alone. Im at the stage where ive gotten quite good at flareing to late and have now work out that critical milli second that im about to crash. It's at that second i push up have every thing work out well. Actually if i flare even a second sooner it may even be better. We'll try for that next time.

I watched as Keith came in for a nose dive landing. He would have done quite well but forgot to raise his arms and flare hard, at least he came in with his wings level. I was and still am stoked with my sleddy run. If i land that well each time i dont mind bombing at all. Well maybe for a while that is. W e both Listened quite intently as Raef gave us some good sound flying advice as we packed up, and then headed back towards Canungra. I drove Kieth back up to Tambo before heading home myself. Great Day. Thanks to Keith for being my fly buddy for the day, Raith for all his advice and Lee for the generous offer to retrieve. Hoping to stay at his Kieths house a night or two next week and get a few serious hours up.

All up 20 minutes