From tripping in holes in the ground to sliding half-way down a hill in my car, the most dangerous part of hang-gliding can be found while still on the ground. For instance, I stared into the glassy eyes of death this morning, when I put my hand on a rock that was a few inches away from an angry (huge!) rattlesnake. cookie girl has a photo of it. I found it, or rather, it found me as I was climbing the 600' hill to meet up with Daniel and cookie girl. I grabbed hold of a rock to help climb up the hill when I heard an awful hiss. I immediately jumped back because I didn't know what kind of snake it was. People tried to convince me it was a harmless variety of snake until we heard the rattle.
In terms of flying, I had a pretty good day. It started out with an early flight from the top. Daniel had me going from one end of the hill to the other looking for the perfect launch. In the end, dead wind is dead wind and I launched from the most convenient spot. It was a smooth flight with a perfect landing. I also had a flight from the 600' hill, but that one saw lots of sink and a little bit of turbulence.
Cookie girl also had two flights today, from the 600' hill; but was cheated out of a third by Marianne (Wanda's cousin, the marine layer that regularly shoots the 600'). She can describe her flights better than I can, but she had at least one perfect landing and she flew well enough to convince an observer to sponsor her off the top.
Wind: 8-10-15 mph, W cycles to NW cycles steady through the day. A bit bumpy. Gusting above 20 after 3 pm.
Log: cleanpants (1 flight off the top, 1 flight off the 600'); cookie girl (600' flights 8 and 9).
And here's our best rattle-shot (click on the picture for the real size):
No comments:
Post a Comment