Well I'm glad I got that out of the way

We woke up Tuesday morning and things were looking promising. It wasn't pouring down rain like it was expected to. I prepped my PW-5 so that I would be ready just in case but I had every intention of flying in a twin with an instructor.

The briefings were talking about soaring techniques and I pulled an important bit out of it. You don't want to fly through the same sink twice. One way you do this is when you are turning in a thermal and one portion of the turn is in sink then try to estimate the center of the sink and look down your inboard wing and pick a landmark. As you continue your turn when your nose is pointing at the landmark straighten up for a second and then turn back into the thermal.

It was something that I was constantly trying to do before but I didn't really have a method, I was always just doing it by feel.

The briefings were relatively short compared to Monday's. All of the instructors were looking at the sky and were mumbling to each other then out came the task. Oh, only a simple 70k task to start off the course.

Then came the list of who was flying what and with whom. I must not have been paying attention because when I looked up there was only one twin left and Terry and I both had our hands up. I can tell you that my stress level shot up at that point. The whole beginning of the course I was saying "I just want to fly the single and get it out of the way." but when it came down to it I think that having an instructor in the back would have treated me fine.

Since Graham was flying IV then Terry was the obvious choice to go in the last twin since he didn't bring another single. Well here we go.

Everything was prepped luckily so we towed VF down to the grid, when we got there Trev Terry said, OK you are in front. I laughed and he said "I'm not joking." Ok, first cross country attempt and I am first to launch. No stress. I had all the gear prepared so that wasn't a concern so I strapped on the parachute and hopped in. Then Andy came rolling up with MP and slotted in front of me. Ok, that will buy me about 10 minutes to get my wits about me.

It ended up that I was 4th to launch after Graham, Terry in TT, and Andy. Trev said that there were thermals near the waterfall and that the ridge was working. Well BANG I am released and pointing my nose at the waterfall with blatant disregard for getting back to the field with the hope of finding lift. 2000' feet I am cool and waiting. 1900' I am wondering if this was such a good idea. 1800' I am picking paddocks. My luck hits and I catch a thermal up to 2800' and am feeling good. Now I need to make the decision to either head upwind to try to catch another thermal or head to the waterfall to see if the ridge is working. Bad decision #1, lets head upwind and look for thermals. Sink sink sink sink sink and going nowhere.

There were blips of lift but nothing that I could turn in. Down to 1600' and the angle to the airfield was not looking good. Now I was at a point where I couldn't get back to the field and things weren't looking good for staying up. This was the point where I let go of all stress. It wasn't about the question of if I would land out but where and when.

At 1500' I had a paddock picked and had already done a couple passes by and it looked good. Now I would try to stay up. At 1200' I climbed back to 1300' then my luck gave out. I was in position to join at 1000'. At 900' (700' AGL) I turned into a quick downwind, base, finals half airbrakes directly into wind and the PW-5 dropped out of the sky. 20' over the fence was a bit high but fine with the length of the paddock and the wind. Flair and touchdown with an amazingly short roll but smooth as anything. So why was I scared of this before?

Once I got my wits about me I tried to call Andy to get him to relay a message that everything was fine but could barely talk because of the adrenaline. A quick call to the retrieve crew and a bit of a wait and we were back at the field.

I learned more today in 25 minutes of flying than I have for a while.