K-Blog: Move over The Golden Girls

After a long plane journey with no sleep, Jamie met me at Orlando airport. Despite the lack of sleep I was pretty awake and excited to be there. Spending time flying in Florida was something I was looking forward to since I started flying.

The next day we drove the 1.5 hours to Quest flight park. Very chilled there. Rhett and Dustin were towing. There were a few students...Zhenya from Russia was practicing her towing on her Aeros.

Despite the glider being a 'yaw machine' (as described by someone there) she was doing really well to stay straight on tow. Someone to look out for in women's competitions in the not too distant future...

There was another student Catherine doing her tow endorsement, again doing really well.

And I did a few tows with Rhett. Because I didn't being my own glider, Lauren, a friend of Jamie's very kindly lent me her Airwave Pulse. An old but very reliable glider ..according to wikipedia anyway:) We checked it over and it was good to fly. It's a bit more advanced than my own, being a double surface, but it was grand in the air. We stuck a fin on the end to help with yawing and I did some tows...no problem. The bar pressure on the tows was about as much as the Fun so after the 2 tows and staying in the air for an hour thermalling over the park my arms were getting pretty sore!

The landings could have been better but I am positive they will improve...

Arrived home late after a dinner in a great Mexican place with some of the guys from Quest.

Today was chilled. Went for a 5 mile run with Jamie, a swim and spent the rest of the day trying to dry out my phone I accidently dropped into the toilet :( It's now turning itself off and on. I am taking this as a good sign because it was dead as a doornail a few hours ago.

View from Jamie's door..

Florida is not all retirees and condos. There are lost of young'uns around and we even met a nice irish man from Slane working in the electronics department in Walmart!

The plan for the rest of the week? Hopefully flying the next few days before we head down to a hang gliding competition down south at the Florida Ridge flight park...

And..um...homemade pizzas tonight!

Ciao for now.

February 2011