My Flying

Arrive early, 9:30. Not much happening. Hang around here, hang around there. Not a cloud in the sky, light SE blowing. Decision taken by instructor F(2) to fly. He wants to aero-tow, but the tug pilot can't as the club first need to comply with certain procedural documentations. My wallet breaths a sigh of relief. Winch battery dead. Lots of battling and it eventually starts 20 minutes later. Wing walk the Twin to 08R.
Two students and a pax. Pax goes up first, I insisted.

Get taught how to connect the winch cable to the glider and about the safety back pressure release. Apparently good lift at the ridge. My turn, go through the check list. The instructor adds to previous instrument check: radio set to correct frequency and is working and compass is working. Instructor also goes through a cable break drill.

South-easterly has picked up now. Instructor launches. I kind of fly to the ridge with lots of help from the instructor. The lift there is sufficient to keep us at about 1000ft (which is a few hundred feet above the top of the ridge).

We spend about 20 minutes running up and down the ridge. In this time I practice rudder and stick co-ordinated turns, about 30 to 45 degrees. After about four turns I start getting the hang of it, though I am controlling the pitch, the instructor has set the trim. Execute a few successful turns. Still find flying from A to B hard. He then explains crabbing to me.

Crabbing - As the wind is blowing at about a 50 degree angle to the ridge you actually need to point the glider into the wind to get it to fly from one point to another. Try this, but not very successful. At about 25 minutes the motion-sickness gets worse. Instructor lands straight in from the ridge with lots of crabbing. Total time 20 minutes (Cost = 71,00ZAR).