Hooking up the tow bridle for the first high altitude flight
The Idea of flying came back to me with full strength this time, and with a nagging desire of putting every other plan on the shelf but hang gliding. I looked up on the internet and there was a school called "Dynamic Flight" in Victoria run by one of the most known figures in hang gliding; Rohan Holtkamp. I rang up and booked myself in the nine day restricted licence course. They sent me a text book for home reading about aerodynamics and I was reading it just addictively.
Time has come and I am heading south to Trawalla, I caught up a strong flue on the way down, but never mind the first two days in the course were mainly theory nudging with minimal physical effort. The third day on the course was for the training hill runs and that was just too much fun to be described in here. I was first to have a go, got into the harness, hang checked, "Happy Pilots Bring Cash", and ran into the A-frame; at the time I was running the wind picked up a bit and it sort of gave the wing more airspeed which eventually caused the glider to zoom upwards and lift off from the ground about 10 feet. I just couldn't believe this magic force that was grabbing me from my back and lifting me up that high, it was so powerful and so smooth at the same time. I was so blown away by the fact that I am flying and I even couldn't hear what Rohan was saying to me "Pull the bar in" which I didn't, I stalled the glider and crashed into the ground. Rohan said "Pull the bar in next time". Next few runs down the hill were actually better in terms of the control that I had over the glider, eventhough I didn't get as much hight as the first time.
The next day we went in turn on a 2000 feet tandem trike flight with Rohan to adapt with the arial cue and excersise a real time control when Rohan gave us some authority to handle the controls and to find out if we are ready for the solo flight.
Day five has come and thats the day for the high altitude ground tow, in which the glider gets towed by a car that has a tension meter, and students will be able to go up as high as 1800 feet above the ground in a solo flight. Rohan recons that the smoothest flights will be attainable in the early morning just at the sunrise, of course before the sun heats the ground and thermals start kicking up. I had to see a couple of students crashing before I had to go so I was having big rush of contradicting emotional messages through me, my mind was racing and I just had to try it myself to give a proper assessment for the situation, whether I am in or not. So its my turn now, Rohan was talking to Nic over the radio beside my ear, "wind is 3-5 knots, wings are level, bridle is free and clear", waiting for me to node my head "and ready to GO GO GO", I took a few steps running as the tow rope pulled me in, and I was airborne. 100 feet, 200 feet,.., 600 feet and Rohan was saying "you can breath now if you like", 900 feet and he said "keep an eye on the tow vehicle, and you can swallow now if you want by the way", these sort of messages contributed greatly to my comfort as I was clueless about my destiny. 1500 feet and I got locked out in the tow without being able to recover, it scared the hell out of me because it was something we were not told how to respond to. I thought to myself that I am in a deep shit by the sound of the situation, and I am way out of my usual safety envelope, until I heard an astonishingly calm voice on the radio going into the repetitions of "Release, Mohammad, Release, Release, Release, Mohammad, Release" which I acted to accordingly by reaching out to the tow realese and pulling it out, and due to the fair amount of tension I had on the overall system and the locked out bank angle I had on the glider, I went through the first aerobatic show on my first high altitude flight, as the glider went into a wingover, the a big stall followed by a severe dive and PIO's "pilot induced occilations", after which I lost every ground reference of where the directions are and where the hell am I, I had the death grip on the uprights and sooner I started hearing from Rohan again saying "relax your grip and pull the bar in a little bit" and "we are just about 30 degrees to your left", these messages are so simple but at the same time quite prescious and vital when you're just reacting subconsciously and automaticaly. I started unfolding the enjoyable part of my flight as I was slowly descending to the ground and I had to try the 360 and the S turns as well, after that I had to setup for landing which Rohan instructed me how to do especially the keeping high airspeed part of it, and all I had to do was to aim the glider into the direction Rohan was indicating (which we had to find out on our own shortly after that). I had the glider perfectly lined up with the runway even though I had to land on my belly. Now ground consciousness came back to me and a big grin made its way on my face, those ten minutes felt like one or two minutes only, and there were such a new person born inside of me who is flight hungry flat out and cannot stand staying on the ground for long anymore. Everyone else's feeling was pretty much the same as they lost their flight virginity. Take-offs, Flying, and landings were getting better and better during the day, and I even managed to get close to spot landings within 2 metres, that was until the wind became so gusty and flights were so punchy and bumpy, Rohan then called it off. We were left with a huge amount of words to talk and describe our life changing experiences, that all came up when we went for dinner celebrating our first flight in Ballarat.
By day nine I had my Restricted Pilot Licence and I headed back home with so much to think about, and with a changed way of thinking as well. I started taking interest in things I didn't care about before, like wind direction, strength, the way tree leaves are rustling, cloud types and so. And like always, we don't get what we want straight off, and hang gliding was not an exception to this rule, as I got fairly busy and I could hardly find some time like once in a month to go back to my school and fly with whoever is there, just to keep up with my beloved sport and not get thrashed out.
Dedication and strong commitment are what I needed to get to where I am now and where I am going to be in the future. You have to crawl before you can walk and run and I am just fine if I had to crawl for a while. I finally managed to set myself up with a suitable four-wheel drive car, a hang glider, and a harness. So pretty much I got mostly geared up and ready to soar.
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