Who could have thought! Valadares seems to be back to it´s well forgotten glory! Today´s flights were long, fun and did I mention long? But here is the funnest part - the results. The estimated distances - pending GPS log uploads - Slave ~55 km, Sander ~40 km, Joka and Marko ~ 37 km. Yep. All these in correct order! Did I mention that this was Slave´s FIRST cross country flight? Oh, well, let me tell you - this was Slave´s FIRST cross country flight. Yep. Not just in Brazil, but altogether! Smiley, you taught him well! David and Ken had shorter flights today.
So, the day started simply enough - with a taxi ride up to the top - but the top is quite different these days - it is the 2007 Brazil Open Championship - check out in pictures - dozens of gliders on launch are just as tightly packed when they are up in the air in a gaggle - luckily today´s task took them around our path but it was quite a site to see about 60 gliders glittering in the distance, pushing out, low and fast to make the elusive goal.
As to our flight - we all were doing quite well. I finally payed attention to my own thinking about shedding some weight off the gear - and getting rid of about 4-5 lbs of non-essential stuff seemingly payed off - I was able to stay in and use the same thermals as Marko and Joka with greater ease. But the real surprise came today with Slave´s flying - he simply would not give up. More than once he was so low that landing was the only option to all observing - yet he persevered - and his insistence payed dividends quite handsomely - of 4 of our little gaggle he has gone the longest, even overflying the competition goal!
I had a little adventure after the landing to lighten up the day - I landed about a half of a kilometer away from the road and was hiking back. Saw a kid with two bicycles that he was struggling to get to the road with one falling over the other. I asked if I can help by riding one of these - shortening my walk in turn! He said ¨sure, but *((&()&¨ - well, I should have looked that up. What *((&()& meant was - ¨but there are no breaks!¨ Let´s just say, I was very happy to see the end of the road going uphill - because I would have continued rolling a very long time with extra 25 kg on my back!
Hitched a ride back and for just extra 10 reals same guy drove me to the top - so I got another flight in, did some acro and landed to join the rest of very happy pilots on the ground! Flying the way it was meant to be! Oh, and check out updated Floripa post - added 38 new photos with comments. Some are quite funny, if I may say so myself!
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