Sunday 11/11/12 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by
[Marty] [Andy] [Hammer] [Scotty] [Cougie] [Tim Barker] [Aaron] [SD]
Monday (Veterans Day) flights [Aaron] [Tim Barker]

Tim Barker
Monday (Veterans Day) 11/12/12

2 Flights
Side Hill Brush Land at  Skyport
then
Relaunch and fly west to the VOR
Back eastbound to Parma

Articled copied from
http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2696
by timobarker » Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:04 pm

Another great day to be a SB flyer. We met up with Marge and a crew at Parma at 10:ish and headed up the mountain. Today the thermals were light down low and the temperature at skyport wasn't exactly cool. But, there was some promise, and like SD predicted yesterday, it only got better as we waited. Aaron got off first and made it look fun scratching above and below launch, waiting for that boomer to take him skyward. He beckoned me into the air and off I went. We were having fun cruising back and forth in front of launch....until....I swooped too closely to the van, left myself no exit and dropped into the underbrushed directly left of launch. When I realized what was happening, I mitigaged my losses by imitating the sidehill landings I've practiced forever on the training hill. I walked away without a scratch. But, I wasted 20 minutes feeling like a dumb ass picking my glider out of the velcro.

Launched again into a boomer and finally caught up to Aaron and Scotty down at No Name. We bumped over to VOR and had smooth, although light sailing all the way back to Parma. It was great seeing the crew launch and fly West Bowl. When the conditions are right, it's fun flying in a gaggle. I saw a couple of great saves that I'd love to hear about...

As to my incident...I learned a lesson for free...Always leave yourself some exit room and don't get too cocky. I'm really lucky to have learned this lesson 20 feet from skyport, not at the power lines or white ledge or basically, anywhere else. It took me 20 minutes to pick my glider out and walk the 20 feet back to sky port. I can only imagine what kind of nightmare it could be somewhere else.

So here's to humility! I apparently I needed to learn some.