Gaining confidence

Having had a bit of a worrying time on the previous flight, I felt I just wanted to get some shorter flights in, getting used to the more turbulent air and also practicing my landings. So over the next week or so whenever it was flyable (and calm!) I flew but stayed in the thermic air only as long as I felt comfortable.

I did start to feel more confident and managed a couple of hour long flights - on one of them gaining some considerable height and making a transition to the next spur running down from the ridge behind take-off. Unfortunately my landings all seemed to be jinxed - either I only just made it into the landing field, or only just landed before I ran out of room (heading towards power lines on the other side of the boundary trees!).

Whenever we landed there was usually a small reception party of local children, and sometimes some monks. Often we would be coming into land while game of cricket was in progress (the landing field was their local pitch). The children seemed happy playing in the sun and would hang around for ages happily chatting away to us and wanting to help pack up the gliders. While the flying was obviously great (well most of the time) the interaction with the children was one of the nicest things about being there. To top it all we were in a beautiful and unspoilt area of the world with green terraced fields stretching out from the Himalayan backdrop. I love India.