I got 4 scooter towing flights today for a total of 14 minutes of air time. Unfortunately there was so little wind that our scooter tows couldn't possibly get us high enough to work lift. So all 4 of my flights were sledders with the occasional meager effort to search for lift. Although another student named Matt did manage to extend his flights on 2 occasions to more than 10 minutes. 15 minutes in one case I think. So he managed to find what I could not.
Anyway, I think I had 4 great landings today, and was pleased with what felt like consistency. I was setting up my approaches better, and flaring strong and with good timing. I was even able on 3 of the flights to land right back where I started and only a few steps away from the launch. So my accuracy or judgment of final glide is getting better. However I did notice after watching the video that my fourth landing showed some yawing oscillations which led to a slightly off balance flare. I've heard other people mention this before on a number of occasions, usually after it led to a whack. I think their conclusion was that a late, or aggressive turn to final leads to this oscillations after rounding out at the ground. On a very high performance wing, this oscillation can be much more significant too. In this case it led to a slight imbalance but if it was any worse I would have been too off balance to keep the glider on my shoulders. I will have to pay closer attention to this next time and be conscious of my turns before final.
Check out the video, the landing with yaw oscillations is at 04:39 in the video below. I included 1 flight, but all 4 landings.
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