My path to Pilot

On Saturday the Ohio Flyers club had their annual meeting. So I drove out to Columbus Bolton Airfield and met a number of other area pilots that I haven't met at the field yet. The meeting consisted of socializing, talking about membership, site upkeep, and other club business. Many people also repacked their parachutes. Sunday looked good to fly so a number of us students showed up for another day of towing. Another pilot named Ken was also there to fly his brand new Wills Wing U2. He unboxed it and set it up to fly in the afternoon. It was cool to see a brand new shiny hang glider fresh from the factory. While drooling over the glider I was surprised how loose the sail on the U2 is when the VG is off (Variable Geometry is a setting that can be adjusted in flight that changes the shape of the wing). On the U2 VG does an amazing job taking the sail from loose and billowy to drum tight. My Horizon has VG too but the difference between VG full on and full off is much smaller. At l...

After the illuminating discussion on Landings at the Oz Report , I went out to the field figuring I would try out a number of the techniques Jim Rooney talked about as well as working on spot landings some more. But I got a little sidetracked when instead of getting a bunch of short sled rides from the top of the tow to the landing target, I instead got a 10 minute and a 15 minute soaring flight. My first ever!! Shortly after leaving the cart on the second tow. The sky was clear, it was sunny with a calm wind 4-5 from the North or NNE. This let us make full length tows which dropped us off at about 900 or 1000 feet. One of the other H2's there today was Matt Gethers he took the first tow and came down absolutely grinning after feeling his very first piece of lift. He said he made a few turns through the lift and gained 100 feet or so and the feeling of the climb was fantastic. On my first tow at about 1:30pm I didn't find any of that lift, maybe a beep or two on the vario...