Back in the Saddle

Ha! After a nearly three-month haiatus, I've finally gotten my feet off the ground and back in the air where they belong. It was a brief flight, but it proved to me that my shoulder has sufficiently healed for me to take to the skies once again.

I've been waiting for a chance to go back out to the training hill and see if I was ready, and I thought I had the chance a week or so ago, but the winds were wrong and all I managed to do was make a few exercise runs. That was enough to show me that I could still execute a landing flair, which is the part of the flying process that had me most concerned after this injury.

Since then I've been watching the weather in hopes of finding the right convergence between sunshine, wind direction, and time (weekends). Yesterday was good for 2 out of 3 (sunshine and time), but the wind was forecast to be east, which is typical for late fall/winter in this area. Fortunately, we have an east-facing site overlooking the Evans Valley in Rogue River, so my plan was to talk Ken into taking a sledride with me there. Ken hasn't flown since Labor Day, so I thought it would do us both some good to get even a brief flight in.

Ken realized early Sunday morning that he wasn't feeling up to flying (an old back injury that flares up occasionally), but he offered to drive for me. What a guy! I loaded my big boaty glider on the truck, leaving my higher-performance wing on the rack, and headed for our meeting spot. We got up to launch, took in the view for awhile, did a bit of weedwhacking to keep launch in useable condition, and I set up and got ready to fly. About the time I got my harness on, a couple of locals came to watch the crazy guy run off the mountain. I don't care for audiences, but I didn't object.

I waited for the next decent cycle to roll up the hill and punched off into it. Flawless launch! At least I remembered that much. A few seconds into the flight I zipped up my harness and tried to relax a bit & let the glider fly at trim. My vario didn't beep even once, but I didn't mind. I just looked around and enjoyed the view.

Heading out over the LZ I made a few turns to try & spot the wind flag so I could plan my approach. By all indications, the prevailing wind (what little if any there was) was from the north. It's always more difficult landing in no wind, which often means you have to come in fast and run the landing out, so I mentally prepared myself for that scenario. I made a few s-turns at the south end of the field, crawled out of the harness, and prepared to land. The landing was flawless as well, with a good solid flare and maybe 3 or 4 steps. Best of all, the injured shoulder didn't bother me a bit, either in-flight or during the flare. I radioed Ken of the situation and packed the wing to the breakdown area with a smile on my face. Can't wait to go do it again!

I'm Baaaaaaack!