Gnarly take off at Forries

Forresters Beach, NSW. Strong wind, southerly, 15 knots. Pilot 25 hours, novice. Wing DHV 1-2, Sol Ellus 3. Weight in the middle of the range. Lots of lessons learned.

For those who don't know Forrester Beach, there is a big communications tower near launch and during this gnarly take off I came uncomfortably close to it.

Lesson 1: in strong wind conditions tuck stirrup away so it doesn't foul deployment of the speed bar.

Lesson 2: pilot should have brought the wing down having moved too far up the slope, and moved back down the slope for another launch attempt.

Lesson 3: just after launch the pilot was distracted for a second by the small tree when he should have been weight-shifting left.

Lesson 4: Pilot thought no brake was being applied but reviewing the video shows that he probably was.

Lesson 5: Ballast would have been a good idea.

Lesson 6: sequences of small errors can lead to gnarlyness.

I am glad I filmed this so I can see what I did wrong.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• gnarly
• take
• off
• at
• forries

[dogforahat]

@ty456756 Many thanks for your informed and constructive criticism. I will take your comment into account next time I fly.

[ty456756]

gay