Drove out to headquarters this morning and met the meet
organizers and the pilot I'm renting a glider from (Juaki). As soon as I got out of the car, I saw
Soraya, a Venezuelan pilot I've flown with at 2 U.S. comps, and immediately thereafter,
Claudia, another South American pilot I've met at comps and Quest (my local
flying site) several times, and Pedro, a Spanish pilot I met at a comp last
year in Georgia. It's pretty amazing to
come half-way across the world and see people I already know.
Since it was too windy to fly today (I had hoped to do a
practice day), I drove up to the launch sites, then all around the valleys to
get comfortable with the area visually, the launch, the terrain, and the
temperature (I'll need one more layer for the top). The comp starts tomorrow, although we may not
fly the first one or two days with the strong north wind coming from the Bay of
Biscay. (This is normal for hang gliding
comps; this comp is scheduled for 9 days, so 5 - 7 days of tasks would be a
good comp.)
The view from launch is spectacular, a photo just doesn't do
it justice. We're hoping to fly the
north side the first half of the comp, then the south side later. Conditions and tasks are completely different
for the two sides, so the variety would be really interesting.
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| South Launch Ramp |
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| Testing the flight clothes for temperature. Flying will be less windy than it is on launch today, but higher will be colder. |
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