My First Flight

Wow! What a day

Absolutely fantastic, I cannot describe the day I have had………well ill try.

Friday night got all my kit either loaded in my van or in the front room….house now stinks of 2 stroke fuel, and all ready to go for a seven o’clock start.

Got a morning wake up call at 6.15 from the Boss and packed the rest of my gear, drove down the M65 and got a call from Fraser who was on the A59, I think we were both buzzing because we both knew what lay ahead for the day.

We both met Mark Ingham and he took us to his new training site for Pendle PPG, as we climbed up and came to a parking spot the views were unbelievable, we had Pendle Hill two miles in front of us, the launch site looked great.

Everyone got thier gear out, just after Mark did some very talented dancing in the road with a dairy cow its not very easy to barn dance with a pair of HanWags on.

Now the exciting bit after 3 launches I got away and climbed out and did a full circuit of the field but I had trouble getting in my seat for some reason I had hold of my brake lines and did not want to let go. The second flight around the circuit I go in my seat and started to climb out just as Fraser was beginning to launch under me.

Then on the radio Mark told us both to go and fly round Pendle Hill, the air was so smooth what a perfect day…Fraser was now out to the right of me and climbing out, I flew to about 1400 ft and then after about a mile a half then flew under Fraser and took a right turn away from the hill and flew over some small lakes.

I tried calling Fraser a few times on the radio…..Fraser how goods this mate……Fraser…….Mark ……….Hello………No answer from anyone.

I got the radio out of my pocket and the batteries flat………panic……..ok ok calm down everything’s ok……now I’m flying at 1500ft no radio and just made a turn into the wind to head back to the DZ.

I managed to sit back cross my legs and enjoy the views, fantastic scenery, my engine was just purring I think it was enjoying it as much as me, I looked up had a quick look of my wing…………this is just ace how lucky am I, below me was a field full of geese and an old farm yard just full of old machinery.

As I flew back to the DZ, Mark flew above and I tried to get some contact to tell him my radios gone………but just he just waved. With the DZ in sight I made a right turn and dropped some height, as soon as I got to about 500ft I started to get bumped about so made a left turn and into the wind for my final approach.

I can see Fraser just packing his wing after landing and watching me coming in, I presume the funny hand signals meant cut the engine………so I did……It all went silent just air rushing past my face…………I was thinking I hope I’ve got this right because I was heading straight for my van.

So picture this my First flight……..flew to 1500ft and lost all radio contact with both my mate and instructor and I’m coming into land at 25mph into the side of a hill……..not something that can be practiced………all I can remember Mark saying was you will know when to brake, how will I know its all down to me can I nail it…

 The answer is yes I nailed it, the only mistake was I didn’t get out of my seat and land on my legs, I stayed sat down and landed on the seat but I had a very safe and controlled landing.

The day was fantastic, Im glad Fraser did come with me because I think it was important to me.

Details

1. Flight time          56 mins

2. Flight length        no gps data

3. Place                  Mark Ingham, Fraser Smith at Pendle Hill

4. Fuel                    Just under 2 litres

5. Weather             Very still, 3mph NW wind no cloud cover

6. Comments          Fantastic first flight

This entry was posted on 20/10/2007 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Paul Flight Log. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.