If you're Martina, you practice misplacing your purse, aka leaving it on the side of the road as you run to catch the launch shuttle (luckily rescued by comp organizer).
If you're Andrew, you practice almost losing your cellphone out of the back of a madly careening launch shuttle (luckily caught before bouncing out).
Mostly though, you meet new friends and get to fly a different site. This one is a lot different than I'm used to, with launch at 380m (a height we hope to find a "low save" at back home).
My first launch took me above the mountain right away so I figured I could by-pass a couple of small thermals and just soar around...and I soon found myself on the ground. Oops. Although spot-landing between hang gliders setting up to get towed and a dozen other pilots caught in a flush cycle who were also ready to touch down was exciting...and hearing a "nice landing Madame!" was a fun cultural experience ;)
Best quote of the day though was from local pilot Julie, "You must try the chocolate dipped ice cream cones at Chez Ben...they are the most structurally sound you'll ever have!". And yes, yes indeed it was. My friend & local tour guide Chris landed with me after flight #1 and we decided to take an ice cream break before heading up to launch in the 4pm shuttle.
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| Structurally sound (and obviously delicious) dark chocolate dipped cone. |
Flight #2 was amazing. As soon as my feet left the ground I saw a gaggle of about 10 vultures & flew over to join them. With their help I got up above launch, dug in and held on to tiny thermals and played around until it was time for the 6pm pilot meeting. It was a challenging (in a good way) time in the air and I'm excited to see what the rest of the week has in store for us!
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| Looking back at Yamaska on flight #2 today |
2 comments:
Have a great competition! Looking forward to reading your blog.
Hope you have a fantastic comp, Martina!
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