My Flying

What a day! Really enjoyed it! By the time everyone had arrived and the equipment was ready it was 12 noon and the wind was blowing. It was averaging 30km/h and gusting to 40km/h at ground level.

The first two flights went off very well. Good launches and I planned the circuits and executed the landings with zero input from the instructor. I was very happy with my performance especially considering the conditions. I quit out of the first launch at 1100 feet as the winch was pulling us too fast. The instructor F(6) was not happy with this, but I'm fine with that; under the circumstances I think my actions were reasonable and were based on what previous instructors had shown me. The day's launch heights averaged 1300 feet.

Later in the day I had my third flight, by then the wind had picked up to 45km/h gusting to 55km/h. The flight was pretty amazing and it's the first time I've really flown in such conditions. The wind at 1000 feet was definitely even stronger and it was a bit bumpy, but I managed to find enough lift to keep us up for 17 minutes, the longest flight of the day by far for all that flew.

I didn't venture far from the airfield and it was pretty scary just how quickly the wind pushed us relative to the ground. If I started orbiting over the winch, after three orbits I would be over the launch point. The last landing was a bit of a mess though and this spoilt my otherwise great day. The wind gradient caught me napping and the speed dropped to 80 km/h while we were still a good 5 metres up.

A very good day in my books, lots of windy condition practice and three flights totalling 32 minutes for ZAR162,60.