15th July 2002
I finally got airborne again!!!! After missing the best weekend flying weather of the summer, as I'd arranged to be away this weekend before I even considered flying microlights, I spent the whole weekend fretting about missing flying. So I arranged to take time off work and fly today instead. I'm self-employed, so I can do it; I shouldn't, as I need the money to pay for the flying etc etc etc. But I have a deadline I never got around to mentioning in all the discussion of backwards control systems and so on. Some time after I agreed to this 3-day flight next year, Genghis decided he wanted to fly round Wales for a few days this summer. Did I want to come? Well of course I do; it's free flying; what a silly question. I'm not sure if I'm being asked for my superior navigation skills or to make sure I actually like being in one of these aerial....OK, I know, the joke is wearing thin. Anyway, this little jaunt is next week. And I decided I'd try and learn to fly it by then. It seemed sensible at the time, but now I only have a week left. It felt like flying to the moon next week would be easier, but I decided to give it a go. Anyway, to continue...
I'd decided that since old habits seemed to be the problem, maybe if I just forgot I knew how to fly anything and moved the controls any old how and had fun, I'd learn faster. Well, as a philosophy it doesn't sound very convincing, I know. But amazingly it seemed to work. Quite suddenly, I could sort of nearly a little bit fly the thing, if you follow that. Well, at least I moved the controls the right way. So much so, that one time I reacted instinctively to a gust, and panicked, thinking if it was instinctive it must be the wrong way! But it wasn't. Anyway, Tim said whatever I'd decided to do to keep on doing it, cos it was working. And we flew in circles around clouds to practise turns and so on, and then landed at a very short strip by a pub for a coke. Er...let's not get carried away; Tim landed; I followed through and pretended I was. Anyway, these little machines really are fun. We started looking for thermals and generally playing around, and it's rather nice flying something where you really feel what's going on and have to put in a bit of physical effort to fly. Yes, I know that completely contradicts all I've ever said about why I like flying helicopters; well, tough, I never claimed to be completely logical. Anyway, after a break we did some takeoffs and circuits, though the thermals were really picking up by then so it was quite...er...exciting. But in 1.8 hours total today I've gone from thinking I'll never ever succeed in learning to fly a microlight to feeling as though it really is possible, and will be great fun. Wx permitting, I'm back tomorrow - earning a living can wait. I think I get to try landings next, so the next post could be...er...interesting.