Drained!

A fairly disappointing day for me today, I decided to go to Rainbow again with Keith for what we thought would be a relaxing fly. Once again we prepared with Keith crashing the evening prior at my joint.

We also teed up with Rainbow instructor James to do our intermediate exam so we could progress to the next license level in our hang gliding careers.

We cram studied at breaky after only a few hours sleep (we went to bed after 2 am). We also crammed on the drive up. We had both studied prior to this though, so felt pretty confident. On arriving we went to James's home and sat the exam. It was a lot harder than i thought it would be and i immediately wished i had been as dedicated to its study as i had been with the restricted exam.

It seemed to take forever and after it was finally over and we had gone over our incorrect answers we were totally drained. About 3.5 hours had passed! To be honest i really didn't feel like flying in the end and only decided to do so because of the distance driven to get there. Anyway we both aced the 100% part and passed the 75% part nicely.

We went to the blow and set up. Keith was first off this time while i slowly walked my wing down the dune to launch. Five minutes later and i launched nicely and started a slower climb than i was use to above the ridge. Keith got nice and high but i had real difficulty reaching the same level, until the last part of my flight which saw me get up. Later James said both Keith and himself had got convergence and that it was only a small window, and that's why i missed out. I wasn't even aware you could get convergence so close to the coast so have to look into that a little more when i get the chance.

Anyway i once again had extreme trouble getting low enough to land and once down asked James how on earth he can fly his 220 and land so well. I then asked him if he wanted a fly of my baby which he immediately said he would love to. He launched and did a circuit before landing and saying, "man your gliders flying so fast!" "that's why your having trouble pulling on the speed to land" So after a bit of hang loop re-rigging he was off. The first comment he made when he landed was "Man this thing's a sweet ride!" which made me feel awesome. Try it now he said.

With out going into great detail of what happened next with my launches i will only say one thing, I was so upset and pissed with myself. It involved some thing called the Rainbow Shuffle. The guys tried making me feel better by saying it was because i was not use to my new hang point and i was tired but i knew it came down to one thing. I rushed it. A mistake that saw my wing pull me over on top of it.

Anyway i got off in the end and flew out in what felt like a completely foreign glider. My base bar was way out in front of me and it just didn't feel right. I did seem to be flying slower and after a quick fly in the very fast prevailing light i started an approach. Keith said it was an awesome approach, as he and James were watching he could hear James say "he should be turning about now!" and as he said it i did it exactly at the same moment, as if i had heard him. Apparently the whole approach was excellent and i was able to pull the bar in more to get the right speed to loose height. At least i did something correct that day.

Now im not sure if i will keep the hang point there but will give it another chance the next flight i have at Canungra. Anyway after landing i just rested there under my wing thinking of my Rainbow shuffle and beating myself up. I was almost in tears. Its definitely not what i wanted to happen the same day i pass my intermediate test. James said not to worry about it and that he's pretty sure it wont happen again. He also said that the reason i thought i could get away with launching like that was because i got away with it on my last flight on my last trip up. Now that i do agree with.

Anyway we packed away on the dune in complete darkness with mozzies attacking us, stacked both the gliders on the trolley and slowly wound our way back through the forest to the car with a moonless sky. It sucked! We went back to James's house for a while then started our way home at about 7:30. Got home at about 11:00pm, Kieth flaked while i stayed up completely disappointed with myself and watched 'Poseidon'

Lessons of the day, Never fly tired or drained. Never rush, and always stay focused.

A absolutely epic day!

All up 1 hour

Well after countless wedding invites i finally got to go to my first
school formal. I had a sweet coastal schoolgirl ask me shortly after i took an order to make her a formal dress. My only prerequisites in accepting were 1. As long as she asked her mum and dad (especially her dad) 2. That i wouldn't be wearing a suit, as long as she was happy with what i wear to work then id be honored to be her date. She was more than happy with what i was wearing and said her folks were the ones who gave her the confidence to ask me in the first place. Here are some of the pics. It was at the Hilton. There were about 3 schools outside waiting at the time. Out of all the schools we definitely made the most spectacular entrance. As you can see we arrived in a very hot 54 Chevy with an 8 Harley Davidson motorcycle escort (very loud, especially because they started revving their bikes when we stopped to get out). We had hundreds of people cheering us. Jasmine's was by far the best dressed and was talk of the night, "Whose the guy she's with?" was probably the most asked question of the night, as well as "where did you get your dress!" "Awesome corset, wish i had thought of that" was another frequent comment. She loved the attention.

Well it was a long wait to go to my first formal but well worth it. Her
mum and Dad were so proud and took tones of pics of us which i am yet
to receive.