SAFA Skysailor Magazine

24 SKY SAILOR November | December 2023 breeze and I had no problem getting off the hill, but I should have noted, in retrospect, that there was not a lot of power in that breeze and therefore not as much lift. This should have raised a flag with me, but hey, jet-lag. I did note that at that point of the day, before the landscape was really working, the thermic bubbles were quite small and disconnected; nothing really to latch onto. If I had not been jet-lagged and was undertaking a serious flight, I would have played in those for a while until the day fired up. As it was, about 20 minutes after I landed, all of the group launched and a few made it to Segovia. Talking with the guys that night they told me it was really hard work – punchy thermals at 6+m/s that kicked in from nothing. Another factor that I am going to raise here is my lack of currency with flying thermic conditions. The last time I had flown properly thermic was in November last year at Corryong. With the information delivered at the briefings and the anecdotes from the previous day, I had in my head an amount of trepidation at stepping straight into strong conditions. This fed into my decision-making processes. Whilst the goal for the day was to get to Ávila and Segovia, mine was just to make it to the first climb and take it from there. I had nearly two weeks ahead of me and I was playing the long-game. After a good night’s sleep, I had a clear head on launch. We arrived with plenty of time to set-up and the upper level cloud meant a slower start was indicated. When the cycles started we were all set up, ready to go and intently observing the developing cycles. With all of that described above, I made the conscious decision to take a lighter cycle. Whilst the cycle strength was okay, its duration was not. I cannot honestly recall where in the cycle I launched; I thought I had tagged it at the about five seconds in, but I may be wrong. Regardless, it died, and then the last two problems came into the frame. I have been flying a Supair Delight 3 since 2019. I love this harness – it is so comfortable in the air. But for me there is a flaw that I have just flown around, rather than fixed. On launch, as soon as my feet leave the ground, I am pulled back into the seat quite forcefully. Coming into landing, I cannot hang out in the straps. I’ve flown around it and just put it down to my weight and height configuration, as other pilots flying this harness do not have the It happened to me… in Piedrahita Photo Courtesy: FAI