Busman’s Holiday

Yesterday was an interesting day. It was blue in the morning with a forecast for scattered thunderstorms and light east winds. It sounded like it might be a good day. I headed over to Godfrey’s where I found a definite lack of enthusiasm in the group. Eventually, however, we headed up the hill. As we made our way to launch, clouds started forming. These weren’t nice puffy cumulus clouds, but row upon row of smooth lenticulars. Clearly there was some wind aloft and I was sure when it mixed down things would get ugly. I left my glider on the basher and just waited and watched. After a while, nice puffy cumulus did start to form. Hmmm… this didn’t look too bad. A few other hang glider pilots showed up and started to set up. That was all it took to get me going, and soon I was set up too. I still wasn’t feeling super motivated, but I really didn’t want to ride down the hill with my glider – better to fly it down. About this time some of the nice puffy cumulus to the north turned into nice big cumulo-nimbus. That didn’t look too good. I launched, made a few half-hearted turns in the choppy lift and flew out to Godfreys to land. I made a nice approach and a clean fast final in no wind. I waited a bit too long to flare, couldn’t run it out, and WHACK! Damn – that’s the third time this week I flared too late. I’m really not paying attention. After thinking about it some more I realized that I am feeling just a bit burnt out. It was time for a day off.

Today I had a relaxing morning doing errands, making phone calls, and generally taking care of things. Eventually I went out to Godfreys to see Jahn. Jahn and Mary-Eve are a French couple
who are staying at Godfreys for the summer and driving the basher and generally being quite useful. Mary-Eve is a massage therapist, and Jahn is a very good cartoonist. He made some really creative signs promoting Mary-Eve’s business. I am making a casual attempt at selling my glider here so as not to have to take it home. I was going to make some signs to have up during the upcoming comp, but after seeing Jahn’s signs and given the poor quality of my penmanship I decided to ask Jahn if he would make one for me. He was quite enthusiastic about the project, and offered to do it for free, but of course I won’t let him do that. I’m really curious to see what he comes up with.

Naturally since I was already out at Godfrey’s I decided to go up the hill. Everyone had already gone up in the basher, and since I wasn’t flying I decided to see if the van would make it up the hill. It did quite well, only spinning on the steepest, sharpest corner. Successful, but something I will not likely try to repeat. I hung out and watched, helped a few pilots launch, relaxed and visited. It was nice not to be setting up a glider and putting on warm flying clothes in the heat.

After everyone had launched I headed back to the van. I had this eerie feeling that I was being watched. I looked around and was startled to see an Eastern Grey Kangaroo watching me from a few meters away. I didn’t have my camera, and I was sure she would be gone by the time I got it, but she waited patiently and posed nicely for several pictures, proudly displaying the little Joey she had in her pouch. You can find a high resolution picture of them here.