More strong winds forecast for today, but we woke up to an eerie calm and no wind in our valley. Marc posted on the Parapent Girona list that he thought it would be flyable, and I agreed. High pressure and strong tramuntana winds are an excellent mix here and pretty much guaranteed to make for great conditions at Santa Brigida, despite it being a SE facing hill. We had far too much to do to be out for the whole day, so we headed out at 3pm and met Marc in the landing field. We got chatting about holidays and by a complete coincidence, he is going out to Lanzarote the same day as us. We’ve already fixed up dinner!

As we were getting ready, Joan and friends came and five of us had a pleasant (apart from the odd bump) thermal around.

I am having a launch crisis at the moment. I was having trouble identifying what the issue actually was, because one time I stumbled, the next I had the brake wrapped round the riser and braked the glider asymetrically, etc., i.e. there was always an excuse. But today I had an involuntary launch when trying to straighten out the wing and a gust came through. I managed to get away with it, but that’s how accidents happen or mid-airs occur. I sat down with Geoff later and we’ve identified that I am not being assertive enough with the wing, letting it fly me, not the other way round. So my crap stumbled launch probably wasn’t that I fluffed it because I tripped, but I tripped because I fluffed the launch. I’ve been launching really well all summer, so I don’t quite know how this has happened, but I need to sort it – otherwise I’ll break something. It’s funny how you go through phases when everything works well and you’re on top of your game and then one element suffers and it becomes the elephant in the room. Rather than launching fluidly, I have been tense, not wanting to fluff it and that’s not helped. But having someone to watch and help identify the issue is really essential. So I have some work to do…

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