Friday September 19th
I left work early to get a flight in at Italy Valley where Karl and Katrin were reporting it was blowing straight in at around 10mph. I had thought it might be blown out but having missed what was probably a sweet Harriet day Thursday, I didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Besides, it was Friday...
Katrin was on the ground in the LZ and Karl had just launched when I got there. We rode up top as Karl sky-ed out. By the time we got carried in, it was blowing harder and he was sinking out. A long wait ensued and finally the wind seemed less obnoxious- but it was pretty late. Mark launched and got a little bit over and I followed. Immediately I knew my glider was f*d up. I had that hard left turn that made my life miserable (and almost cut it short) at Bristol in July. I knew I would have to land before my right arm gave out on me. I tried to get high enough to top land, and there seemed to be plenty of lift, but I couldn't feel much besides the glider wanting to spiral left. I was dreading trying to navigate into that tight LZ, but I crossed the valley thinking about my options. There really weren't any besides tucking the right downtube under my arm and hanging from it as I set up an approach. Not much wind down there so at least I wouldn't be trying to surf the tree line..... I came into the field and just hung on flying it as straight to the ground as I could. I knew from last time not to try to slow down or flare- thank God for wheels.... I came to a stop and beaked it in. Karl arrived with my car and we inspected the glider. The left wing was so turned up at the tip so dramatically. I switched the tips (one is more curved than the other) and decided it looked more symmetrical and so I would keep it that way for my next flight.
airtime: 12 minutes
alt2: 58 meters
yuck