Evening Test Pilot

I've been aware that my wing needs to be re-trimmed for a few weeks now; reluctance to launch, heavy controls, slightly asymmetric trim. Last Sunday I did some kiting and it was hard to get the wing completely overhead, even when the wind was strong. Nova has a new, complicated system (NTT ) for trimming a glider and, of course, I want only the best for my baby.

I could get a NTT re-trim done in France - but it involves doing without my wing for two weeks. Hard to do that at this time of year. I've been a bit silly - I could have sent my wing away during a trip to the US in May or when my son was visiting in July and I wouldn't have missed it. Isn't hindsight great?

So I decided to do a 'quick and dirty' re-trim myself and postpone the 'real' re-trim till November - there's too much good flying at this time of year. So, after a decent day at work, I headed to the LZ and stretched all the lines; everything went according to plan, except the wind was blowing at 15-20 mph. I wanted to do some kiting to check everything, but not in that sort of wind (especially with all the spectators).

In the end, I did about 3 minutes of kiting and suddenly the wind died. Everyone jumped on the shuttle and we headed up to launch. It was strong on launch, with a big group waiting. After 10 minutes or so, it was noticeably less strong and I launched. My wing came up nicely, the controls felt a lot lighter, it was flying really nicely - great! I built some height, observing everyone rushing to get ready and headed N along the ridge.

I normally don't get very excited by evening flights; but this one was very nice. I found a nice gentle thermal, got high and headed W (away from the hill) and there was gentle lift everywhere. The sun set - very pretty - and I knew the moon was full but it wasn't quite up yet. I could easily have flown to Barreme; but then there was a retrieve problem and maybe looking for an LZ in the dark wasn't too smart. I came back to the ridge, arriving well below launch, and benched up easily. I flew about for a bit and then headed for the LZ.

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