Backlogging - March 9, 2008 - I Did It!!!!!!!!

I woke up this morning encouraged to hear that conditions were still hopeful for today so we decided to meet at the Woodstock, VA LZ at 3:30. The drive out was beautiful as always and I got there about a half hour early. The LZ is right at the foot of the mountain so there is a nice view of the launch. There was no one flying when I got there but I could see at least a half dozen gliders set up at launch. As I waited, I watched someone launch. Sweet! Not a minute later, another launched. Yes! Next I watched a pilot with an ATOS launch. Then a PG! Hell yes! There's no way a PG can launch and I can't! Almost on cue, a sailplane came cruising by. Then another pilot launched. Within 10 minutes, there were 5 HG's and 1 PG in the air. Around then my instructor got there so we walked the LZ and talked about the desired approach and other local knowledge. The LZ is surrounded by trees and is on somewhat of an uphill slope. That can help but there is also a significant gradient effect because of it. I loaded my glider on to his truck and we headed up the mountain to launch. We talked over the flight plan on the ride up to launch and everything felt great. I noticed on the ride up that I wasn't nervous at all, excited yes, but very confident in what I was about to do. When got to the top we got our gear out and got set up. I watched a few people launch, all great launches in pretty smooth, a little cross from the left, relatively light winds. When my instructor saw that I was set up and pre-flighted he came right over and said, Alright, get your helmet on, let's go! I was ready. Honestly, no butterflies. I hooked in, and walked over to launch. Woodstock is a slot launch with the running area being pretty-much-flat rocks that stick out of the ground on a steep slope. The tree line below is way down there, but it is there. The gods were smiling on me today. A smooth 10 mph wind blew right in, right up the slope. This was all me. My instructor, on my left wire said, Looks good, run hard, have fun! I took a deep breath, yelled Clear! I ran, leaned forward, and didn't worry about the slightly uneven terrain below my feet. I launched nicely and climbed a bit right out of the slot. I watched as the trees below fell farther away and turned left up the ridge. I had a b**** of a time getting my feet into my pod because I was really not used to having my glider bag, and harness bag and all that packed away. But after a few tries I found it and got tucked away. I flew for a bit and then turned back and flew past launch. I could see that I had lost some altitude and took note of that. I flew up the ridge in the other direction for a little bit and then came back. This time I was lower still. So while all the local skygods are soaring hundreds and thousands of feet above lanch in very nice conditions I was having what was turning out to be an extended sled ride. I noticed that my instructor hadn't said anything to me over the radio so I figured I must be doing okay. After 5 or 6 passes I could see that I was getting pretty low and about then I heard my instructor on radio saying something. But what?!?! I couldn't hear anything he was saying!! I had no idea what he was saying but I decided that it was possible, if not likely, that he was telling me to go to the LZ. I was thinking the same thing so I headed out. As I began gliding away from the mountain, I realized that I should have began this process with more altitude. I knew I could make the LZ, but I wasn't going to have much set-up time. So I was still flying up wind toward the LZ, about 200 yards from the downwind tree line. I had plenty of altitude to clear the trees but I was seriously considering skipping my downwind and making a right onto my base leg. The problem with that was that there was another pilot landing right then. He was on his downwind about to turn on his base leg. If I went straight to the base leg I would have been too close for his comfort, IMO. So I decided to fly a little more upwind right where my downwind leg would be (should be). This gave the other pilot time to land and get clear. I didn't have much altitude left so I hit a sharp 180 and did a short downwind. I turned onto base, and then turned onto final. Both were good turns but when I came onto final I got hit with the severe wind gradient. I dropped pretty fast and didn't have enough energy to pull a nice flare. I got one foot down and then fell to my knees. Damn! But still, that was awesome!!!!!! The flight was about nine minutes and those are nine minutes that I will remember for the rest of my life. When my instructor landed I told him that I couldn't hear him and he said that I was doing what he was telling me to do anyway! Cool! I've trained for 8 months for this and every moment of it was worth it. I can't say enought good things about my instructor, John Middleton of Silver Wings. He is the one who got me here and prepared me for this day. Through his patience and expertise, I was able to walk out to a rocky, mountain slot launch, without an ounce of nerves or self-doubt and launch, fly, and land safely today. I will forever be in debt to him, for he has taught me to fly.