What a nightmare journey to MK last night! The fog was thick and people just didn't know how to handle the situation. The traffic was a lot worse than normal and people were driving a lot slower. This resulted in us still being 10 miles out side of MK at 17.30, when I should of been at Airkix. As I was having private coaching with Paul, he rang to see where I was (he knows I'm normally early or on time) I explained and thankfully it was only me and Paul and one of the other instructors in the session so I didn't have to panic too much.
We finally made it at 17.50 and I filled in my statement of risk as normal, went to the desk, the receptionist read my statement, said "You've had a dislocated shoulder?" I replied yes thinking I would be getting the normal 'we advise you not to fly talk' but was gob smacked when she said I wouldn't be able to fly. I explained that this would be my 11th flight and that I was here every week. Thankfully Andy was stood behind the desk with Gary and they both recognised me and as I had flown before several times they let me fly! That was nearly the straw that broke the camels back!
Once I was clear of reception we headed round to the briefing area and met Paul coming the other way. We started discussing my flying straight away. Plenty of things to work on and more of letting me teach too. Next up was gearing up, Paul headed to get a suit and I darted in the loo! I was busting!
We headed up to the tunnel and round to behind the control room. I was to teach Paul how to back fly! Paul led down on the board and I explained to him how to make the various maneuvers including going up, down, round to the left, round to the right and side sliding. The idea behind this was that it would help me with my positioning in the tunnel for my back flying and to help me with when I (hopefully) become an instructor.
We moved into the staging area with Dan (the other instructor) Paul and I opted to go first. The first 2 minutes were going to be me stood teaching Paul the correct positioning for back fly.
The wind started and we moved into the tunnel. I stood on the edge and Paul led in the middle of the tunnel. I explained as best I could using hand signals how to get lift and turn and then side slides. I really feel Paul allowing me to do this will be beneficial to me in the long run and I gain alot from it.
My next two minutes were back to sit fly positioning. I had a bit of a wobbly start and lost my balance and shot off across the tunnel and straight into Paul! Once I was back on my feet and back in position I remained stable for a while before losing my balance again and ending up on my back! I had a dodgy zip on my suit and upon getting back up the zip was down and I was verging on giving poor Paul and eye full! A quick zip up and I was ready to go again. Rather than trying the sit fly position again, Paul taught me how to go from standing to belly flying and back again. One foot up, two feet up, belly fly! Then back to feet, although the wind caught me and I ended up against the glass. Back to belly fly again and then time was up. Rather than flying out I opted to go back to standing, rather more successfully than the attempt before and walked out of the tunnel.
Between flight we stuck the zip on the suit to save any more embarrassment!
Flight number three and an attempt at me back flying... I obviously wasn't half as good at it as Paul, but I can work on that! At least I managed to lower myself onto the net without going splat! That's an improvement straight away! Back flying is still causing me a few issues but I did manage to get lift, but as soon as I did I was spinning around pretty fast! It looks pretty cool in the video but it's not what I wanted to do! Thankfully Paul stopped me before I came to any harm. Lots of bouncing around the tunnel followed before I got a stable position again, then of course my time was up and Paul guided me to the door.
On to flight number 4 and a bit more back flying, this really does seem to be taking me a while to pick up! This time seemed to be more successful though! Once I had my positioning Paul had the wind turned up to see if I could remain stable. There were a few hairy moments with a couple of random turns and a bit of a dive for the net, but nothing too disastrous! Think my back fly still needs some work though...
On my last flight of my first session we were back to doing more sit fly positioning. I walked into the tunnel, got into the position and moments later was on my back! I was straight back onto my feet though, although I'm sure I was supposed to get back into the sit position. Paul showed me where I was going wrong with getting up and then it was my turn to try again. Getting down onto the net is the easy bit, it's getting back up again I seem to have an issue with, I think it's in the balance and the positioning. Paul pointed out that I'm nearly there, I just don't follow the movement through. When I did manage it we moved back to the middle of the tunnel to do more sit. This was going OK until I lost my balance and ended up on my back (again!) That was time up again...
That was the end of my private coaching session, but I had more flying to come with flight night. Between sessions mum and I opted to go in search of food and drink, we'd forgotten to bring anything with us, doh! I un suited and we headed to Costa, 2 rather yummy hot chocolates with whipped cream and marshmallows followed, along with some sandwiches. We didn't stay long and headed back to catch up with the rest of the Flight Night group.
Thankfully Paul had found me another suit so that I didn't end up nearly baring all to everyone again, we all sat around talking for a little while before it was flight time and I asked about the new ruling on shoulder dislocations, hopefully though it shouldn't affect me... we shall see!
We moved up to the tunnel and the group before were still flying, there seemed to be loads of them! While stood waiting we watched and ran through what we were going to do again. I seemed to be in with a good bunch and we all had a chuckle.
I was third to go into the tunnel from our group and was going to do more sit fly. The wind had been turned up this time ready to try and get some lift and I certainly noticed it when I got into position, it swept me straight off my feet and straight towards Paul, I got my balance back on my feet and moved back again, tried to get the position again and was swept forwards again. Third time lucky and with a little help from Paul I finally managed to stay in position. Paul took hold of my toes and we had lift off! It was short lived though as I was soon on my back again, onto the net, then in an attempt to get up I was thrown back against the wall and straight back onto my back. Once back on my feet it was time for the second attempt at sit fly, again Paul took hold of my toes and I was in the air, again though it didn't last long. There wasn't time to try again so I left the tunnel.
On to flight number 2. I still hadn't quite got the hang of getting up from the net into the sit position so we tried a bit of this to begin with. Paul demonstrated and made it look so easy, but I couldn't get to grips with it, I either flew across the tunnel or couldn't get off the net, there is obviously a knack to it which I don't have yet, more practice required! Back to my feet and back to trying to sit fly... on trying to get into position I managed to end up sit flying, completely unintentional of course! Paul took hold of my knees to keep me stable, I managed to (just about) stay in the sit this time until my time was up again.
This should of been my last flight for tonight, but two people had booked to attend flight night and didn't turn up, so Paul offered the 4 of us the chance to purchase the additional time. There would be no point wasting it so we all opted to have additional time.
Back in the tunnel for the last time and straight into the sit fly, looking a lot more stable this time! We even managed some forwards and backwards movements before I ended up on my back again. It took a few attempts to get up correctly though (this definitely needs work!) Rather than trying the sit fly again we tried some walking at the higher wind speed, I followed Paul around for a little while before I ended up against the glass. Time was up again.
A total of 17.5 minutes racked up in the tunnel last night and I can't wait to get back for more!
When we all went down to take off our gear me and Paul were talking about becoming an instructor again and he asked if I'd spoken to Andy (the manager) about it and when I said no he suggested we go and see what he had to say. We headed off to his office leaving mum waiting patiently (thanks mum!)
I'm now currently filling in my application form in the hope that they like what they see and give me a chance and I've got to work pretty hard to be fit enough for if they do call...
Until next time
x
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