Dudley

Was on this afternoon. It started quite light but gradually increased in strength as the afternoon went on. I enjoyed a couple of hours in the air exploring the lift band and generally mucking around. Despite the work that has just been done it is a horrible little take-off. I rigged up with the glider tail to the wind and then weighed up my options. Being there by myself I was going to have to turn the glider around and T/O unassisted despite the increasing wind strength. I decided to clip the harness into the glider and climb into it and then turn around and T/O. I should have gone with my other plan of just wearing the harness and helmet and getting the glider to the edge of the ramp and clipping in and taking off then. The wind was strong enough to make it difficult to pick up the glider and when I started to turn it around, first some of the outside batons and then the pitt pin in one corner of the basebar snagged the netting that has been put on the ground. It resulted in one of those slow motion turtles where you realise it is inevitable and concentrate on not breaking anything. I managed to unclip my harness and roll the glider over the right way and then fly it down to the edge of launch and clip in and T/O. The wind seemed to me to be bang on, but the bottom half of the ramp was rotor city with the glider trying to turn sharp left until I hit clean air just after T/O. I almost made it to the car park on the beach after staying over the dunes when I landed. I got plenty of exercise walking back up to get the car and then retrieving the fun. I love my fun.