Oh sit down...

I've finally found time to write this weeks update! Busy busy!

Well Tuesday saw me make my weekly pilgrimage to MK for a private coaching session with Paul. Thankfully the traffic was kinder to me this week and I made it in plenty of time. It's so much better when I'm chilled out from a good drive up and not a bit tense because I'm running a little late!

I signed in and headed down to the briefing area, it wasn't long before I was joined by Paul. After discussing what the plan was for today (getting from the net into the sit fly position and the sit fly itself) I asked Paul if he could be the last reference on my application form, luckily for me he agreed, so we moved to the staff room to fill it in.

Once this was done it was time to get geared up. On the the flight suit, grabbed my goggles and ear plugs and an Airkix helmet and we headed up stairs. While we waited for the group that was in the tunnel to finish we worked on my sit fly position on the sofa, it's totally different in the tunnel though!

We were sharing the tunnel with 4 first time flyers and Dan was going to be teaching them. There's something about watching the first timers, the smiles on their faces and sense of achievement that they get, it's just great! Reminds me of the feeling of my first flight.

We opted to go first as we had the most tunnel time booked. Into the tunnel on my feet and to the centre of the tunnel. I was going to be practicing getting into the sit fly position from being on my back on the net. The logic behind it - if I bail onto my back when I'm sit flying that I can safely get back into the start of the sit fly position. I leant back slowly onto the net, think I've finally cracked this without going splat! Now I was led on my back with my feet in the air and I had to throw my head back with my arms above my head and arch my back to bring the upper part of my body up, and bend my legs to land in the sit position. My problem to start with was that I was throwing my hips forward aswell which was changing the way the wind was hitting me and sending me forwards. By the end of the first 2 minutes though I'd just about got my hips under control and was moving from the net to the sit! Hooorrrrayyyy!!!

The next 2 minutes were more of the same, but at a higher wind speed. This changed everything again and I found my self flying across the tunnel again and I'm pretty sure at one point I ended up in Paul's arms and I may have also kicked Dan who was stood in the doorway! Oooopppsss! Sorry guys! I'd just about got the hang of it by the time the 2 minutes were up. Enough for Paul to say I was safe if anything happened anyway!

Now that I was safe enough to get from my back back to the sit position, it was time to work on the sit fly itself. I seem to have the knack of getting into the sit fly position on the net, I do still have the odd wobbly moment which sends me off across the tunnel, but once I have my balance I get straight back to where I should be and start again. Paul took hold of my toes and we had lift off, it was short lived though as I was still rounding off my shoulders causing me to end up on my back. This seems to be my main pitfall on sit flying.

The second flight of sit fly was a little better but still not great, I was still not arching my back enough to keep me upright. As I was feeling myself falling back I would throw my chest out and my head back and would be back where I was supposed to be, but would soon end up falling back again... grrrrrr!

When I came out of the tunnel from this flight I was roasting! Working hard to stay upright. I had 2 minutes to cool down and get ready for my last flight.

The first half of my last flight was I feel the best, the second half fell apart slightly as my arms got very very tired! I managed to stay in the sit position with Paul keeping hold of my toes until my arms got to tired. I ended the flight with a bit of back flying as I couldn't sit fly anymore!

Flying over and back downstairs to get the suit off and put the kettle on! We spent ages in the staff room drinking tea, eating mince pies and discussing all things flying. I think the guys are getting used to seeing me around now! 

Paul thinks that 10 minutes more of sit flying and I will have cracked it and he'll be able to let go of my feet, then it will be trying to learn to turn! Hopefully this will be part of next weeks lesson. I'm making speedy progress apparently and I feel great about it all. I know there is still stuff to work on, but practice makes perfect!

Once we'd finished in the staff room, we headed to Andy's office to hand in my fully completed application form. There are no vacancies as an instructor at the moment, but as I'm not physically fit enough to be an instructor yet it's not a major issue, but at least my application is in. Andy did mention something to me though which gave me food for thought...

Until next weeks update

x

Total flight time = 1hour 27.5mins