Martin Fouracres: Skywalk School of Paragliding. Volksrust 20 to 22nd March 2010.  Oh my greatness, but these team meetings can go on & on. Subjects are covered that I have nothing to do with & so do not understand. Boring to the nth degree. Thank goodness I have my imagination. What a wonderful weekend we had. - I must remember to apply some brakes as the wing gets above me. Nicely done. Looks good. Turn around and run like heck. A touch of brakes. Wow, only 3 steps & I am in the air. Gently bank right.
Management meetings, Risk management forums, meet with Payroll tomorrow to give them an overview, Regular defect meetings. Time to escape……... “Come here students, I want to brief you”. We all gather on the edge around Ronny. “You see that cliff face to the right. Just look below it, there is a small hill & a slight valley between the two. There will be rotor in that valley. Unless you are high, do not fly over that area. Closer to us, is a bit of a flat area. Do not land there as you can see those BIG rocks in that area. Look to the left. The ridge face turns inwards. I do not want you flying there as I cannot see you to guide you. Now look straight out, over the road, but watch for the telephone lines next to the road. Over that road is the landing area. It is big, and looks pretty flat from here. It is not. It slopes away from the road & if you land far from the road, you will have a long uphill walk. Try to land close to the road, but remember the telephone lines.”
I rush over to lay out my wing. Clip myself in. Careful now, lift all the risers & twist myself under them. Good. Build a nice wall, take both A risers in my hand & wait for my turn to take off.
At last the meeting is over. Go to my desk, password in, my desktop is unlocked. Very important to complete the “write to & read from file” exercise. Look in the testing code for where I stopped on Friday. Oh yes, I must execute the code. Start the automation script. Good, Client in, Username in, Password in, that is it, click on the Login button. What the heck. Login failed message. This cannot be correct. Try again, nope failed again. Let me do it manually. Blast what is wrong. Go to the developer. Ok, I will look at it. Ya, I know look at it, this can take hours.
Sitting at my desk. I am blocked, I cannot go on unless I can execute my code, unless the application works, unless. I have to get out of here… - ….Ok, I have banked to the right, losing a bit of height, move closer to the ridge. Great I have got back that height & a bit more. Oh, oh, coming up to that cliff face where I must turn back, Nice bit of lift here, Turn to the left. Bit slow. Oh yes, I must shift my body to the left. That makes a nice difference. Wow I am now moving with the wind. Go baby, goooo. Lets swing around this corner, lets not. I am moving into the area that is blind to Ronny. Turn back, try not to turn out too far & lose any more height. In towards the ridge, nice lift here. Head to the cliff face again & back, turn & back & back & back, again & again. Blind corner coming up again. Turn right, no, no, NO, what happened, why have I lost so much height. Whoa, must not try to get back to ridge, ground coming up to me rather fast. Turn left, that is better. Now where are the telephone lines. No problem. I am still quite high above them. Lets fly a bit more to the west. Ronny on the radio to tell me to turn back else I will not make it back to the field. I forget how quickly I loose height when coming in to land. Comfortably passing over telephone lines. Best do some S’es. I do not want to walk too far. Right I am back close to road & pretty low. Time to straighten out & come into land. Get out the harness, bit high up but rather not forget. Ground coming up nicely, looking good. Blast where has the ground gone. One of those dips in the ground that is running downhill. Quick butterfly, slight misjudge, light bump on my butt, straight up onto my feet, run a few steps. Canopy drops down behind me. Not too bad a landing… - …. Best check if the developer has sorted out the login problem.
Now where has that developer disappeared to? He is not at his desk, or the coffee machine or……What a pain, but not as much of a pain as Saturday.
A number of us had already left on Friday night so that we would be rested when we get to Jantjieshoek the next morning. It is Saturday morning, let’s go, let’s go. Oh no, some folk have gone off fishing. FISHING, we have come here to fly, what are they doing? You are kidding me, is it always windless so early in the morning. Ok. A leisurely breakfast, now let’s go, let’s go, see there is some wind. What do you mean, the site will still be calm. You have been here a number of times, ok then, I will try to be patient.
At last we are on the move. Boy, it is far, can’t you drive faster. Yeah, turn left onto the dirt road. How much longer. A farm gate. I will open it, here let me please. Come, come ,come, move faster. Gate closed, lets go. So slow, I am sure those rocks will not damage your tires if you go faster.
Look at that view. One can see for at least a million miles, & that twin mountain peak to the east. Wow. I am so excited, I even say it backwards; woW. Hey, something is wrong. Where is the wind? Coming, what do you mean coming? Oh, that is why we did not rush here.
Please, please send us some wind. Yea, those clouds behind us do look black & those in front of us do look quite grey. Thats ok, hey. Don’t clouds give you suck which means lift which is great as long as you do not get sucked into them. Don’t kid me. Rain. What the heck was that. A bolt of lightning to the south. No Please, Please don’t let it rain. Holy mackerels, that was one heck of a bolt, just listen to the thunder going on & on & on. Look, the rain is moving away. I have never seen the actual rain looking so black. It is an unbelievably heavy downpour. I am so glad I am not stuck in it. What do you mean I might be. Look behind me. No I do not want to. No. no. no, please not. That nice little grey cloud in our flying area is so much darker & bigger. Look, there is rain coming from those clouds further back.
Wonder if the developer is back at his desk. Still not. Does he not realize that I cannot do anything if I cannot log in? Jantjieshoek, here I come again.
Why must I pack away my kit. It going to rain here within a few minutes. You are kidding. No you are not. Rain can fall sideways for quite a long distance. I am running as fast as I can with my kit. Why did you park so far away from the flying area. That is not fair, we waited at least 2 hours for the wind & now it is howling around us. Safe in the car. No flying today. That is not right; I have been living for this weekend. What a waste of a good Saturday. At least Ronnie got in a fair flight. Boy he sure flew far to the west in such little wind. One day when I grow up, I want to be so good. Barend had brought his quad with him & he & his wife had gone for a ride as high up that massive peak to the east. Had to turn back when the slope was 70% & could not go further without tipping over backwards. They had looked so small being so far away.
Let me fill in my timesheet & do some other admin work. Developer still not available. Wait, there he is. Speak to him, but still more waiting to do, might as well have a cup of tea.
Look at my computer performance indicator. It is bouncing up & down. Looks like it has hit some heavy turbulence. Glad my Sunday afternoon flight was not like that….. - …... It was pretty uneventful. No it was not. I forgot to switch on my radio. Only realized that when I was in the air. Get into harness, see that all is stable & have come out of my turn to the right. A way to the cliff face, so let right brake handle go, good boy, you did not try to reach down to radio with brake handle in hand. Mmm, glad I did not, would have turned into the ridge. Fun & games, radio does not want to switch on. Must be the batteries. Should have checked it before I took off. Oh well, no problem, enough people in the air to follow & flew area this morning. Right, time to turn, look around, looks clear, turn & head back. Another glider coming towards me, No problem, or is there? Now who has right of way. What do they say “right is right” & person with ridge on right has right of way. Move out a bit. No problem. Look about. Oh oh, person behind me catching up rather fast. No sweat, he is higher than me & I therefore have double right of way. Wonder what he is flying, it really is fast. Oh a Chili.
Developer has disappeared, blast. Why can’t they fix the problem. What an unproductive, boring day. Great nearly time to go home. Must not forget to buy my wife an Easter egg.
What do you mean, you folk can’t actually help me. It is another developer that works with the passwords that can help me. Why did you not tell me yesterday. I have wasted so much time, time time………..Oh yes, I must remember to take my watch with me when I fly. Far easier to look at my watch just before I take off & just after landing. Far easier that cell phone stopwatch which is difficult to set. Guys, I know that it is my chance to take off, but wait a minute while I set my cell phone stop watch. Blast, that gap in the other flyers has closed & I need to wait for the take off area to be clear again.
Timesheets completed, now what other admin work can I do?
Monday morning, hardly any wind. I could not believe it when seven of the guys said that they are going to climb to the top of that high peak with their wings. Sure, the wind should be stronger up there, but it is kilometers away & you could get altitude sickness. Look at how small they look up there. Would not see them if they were not silhouetted against the sky.
Look, look, someone is pulling up their wing. That looked like a fair distance he had to run to get into the air. Another & another guy in the air. One guy seems to have a bit of lift, nothing dramatic. They are disappearing behind the dip between the two peaks. What a pity, they have appeared around the left of the smaller peak. Bit of action there but losing height. Others are also in the air now. They are dropping more. Bit of lift over that ridge. No good, they are coming towards us. Some are heading towards the landing area. Very neat, a couple have landed right on the road or next to the road. Recovery vehicle already en route. We are so fortunate to have a number of folk that are willing to drive recovery. They deserve a medal.
Pity, the wind is now north west. Great, we can walk to the corner, the hidden area & take off into the wind. Ah, that was a neat takeoff. Not much lift about. No I am wrong, here is some lift, but quite a bit away from the ridge. Have to do a landing from east to west. Ground again fooled me & had to turn away sharply else I would have gone into those bushes. Bit more running, but in the end, a good landing. Get back on top, wind even more west. Some of the more experienced pilots have taken their cars & driven towards the massive peaks, Wind will be far better there & the right direct for that section.
Blast, could not launch successfully. A number of folk have to leave, so that is all the flying for me today. Good heavens, look at the lift those other guys are getting. The sun has been out the whole morning & there are actually some thermals. First decent ones this weekend. Some guys are really getting some good height. Wait look at that guy. He is spiraling. Oh, how I envy him. Out of the spiral & look, he is gaining height again. I must, must get more experience so that I can be with them next time.
What a pity. The best flying conditions the entire weekend & we must leave. When is the next fly away? They are always the best for good flights & getting great experience.
Ah, great, the other developer is here. Maybe he can resolve the password error & I can finally get to do some decent work. Later, when I get the chance, I will fly in my memory again.
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