Not a Good Day to Fly

After yesterday's flying and subsequent glider repair I wasn't overly enthusiastic about flying the Dyke on such a marginal day [there's a lesson in there somewhere!], however, the boys from Suffolk had come down, so it would be rude not to join them!

At the Dyke there was only one pilot rigging his glider and a distinct lack of local pilots! The conditions had not overwhelmed me to fly (12-25 mph) so I sat in my car and sipped coffee while I waited the arrival of the Suffolk boys. It didn't take long and after morning pleasantries, everyone started to rig their gliders.

Richard was first into the air and coped well with the fresh conditions. Meanwhile the rest of us noticed a beautiful rainbow headed our direction. I quickly recognised this as an inbound wedge of rain and I secured what of my glider I could and placed my harness in the car as it began to rain while Richard landed.

After the rain had passed, it seemed to freshen a bit and the wind felt a little more consistent. Paul, Chris and Will launched and did well, but didn’t gain much height. Richard kindly assisted me to a launch when, unexpectedly, the wind turned very lively. I struggled to control the glider and was very grateful Richard was on the nose. Twice I was lifted off the ground, but thanks to Richard, the glider remained firmly anchored.

I warned Richard that when I instructed “release”, I intended to go for it straight away! As I waited for what I hoped would be some consistency in the wind, I was again lifted but this time the glider felt more stable so I shouted "Release!". Richard, let go I and rapidly extradited the vicinity. The glider penetrated forward slowly, then, as the wind suddenly dropped, the glider descended. I had anticipated this and as my feet re-connected with the ground, I ran and accelerated and took off for the second time. As I moved away from the hill, I was jostled around in the sky. This wasn't fun and something in my left elbow had really started to hurt.

Once away from the hill, with the exception of the odd hole here and there, the air became stable. There were several moments, when my glider was turned towards the hill which required significant weight shift authority to counteract. After one too many of these encounters, I headed away from the hill, pushed out to the road - another first, and to my surprise, the glider climbed and once over the road, I was 300 feet higher than I was when I left the hill! Very strange! Two 360's later took me back to the ridge where I joined Will for a quick beat along the ridge, after which I headed back over the road again where I climbed again, but not quite as high.

The pain in my left elbow had become unbearable so I decided to bottom land. I can't remember how many beats back and forth I made across the field trying to lose height, but eventually I felt I was low enough to start my approach and land. To my horror, the glider didn’t sink! I managed to overfly the entire length of the field, probably only losing 10 fit in the process. At a height of 40 feet I was seriously running out of room, then, just as I was about to run out of field, something aggressively lifted the nose skyward. I kacked myself as my glider had never done such an involuntarily manoeuvre and I was close to the ground! In response, I stuffed the bar to my knees. The glider responded and entered a deep dive toward the ground. Just before what I thought would be an impact, I pushed out hard and the glider landed on its wheels, and I was dragged along beneath it before it came to rest! Never before had I been so happy to be on the ground!

Fortunately the landing was remarkably gentle and the glider undamaged. It was only when I attempted to lift the glider to carry it to the de-rigging area that I noticed I had a problem. My left arm was completely lame and my elbow throbbed! Something very similar had happened to me in Mendlesham earlier in the year and I'd put that down to the effort required to pull the sail webbing over the ends of the LE's when rigging from short packed. This resulted in a tear in my elbow tendon [tendinosis], and I think I'd just done it again.

With the help of Paul who'd driven down to collect me, I was able to pack up my glider and head home. In hindsight, today was probably a day not to have flown.