Ability Half Life

One of the nice things about a flying a paraglider is that you don't lose a lot of form in a lay-off. That's not the case in a skill sport like tennis or a fitness one like cycling, or one that's a combination of the two like rock-climbing. If you stop any of these sports for 6 weeks, it's a big effort to get back to previous performance levels. Fortunately with paragliding the loss of ability is smaller and it really only takes one decent flight to recover previous levels.

Although I've kept flying through the winter, I think I've had only one thermic flight this year. A lot of hike and flies but only one 'proper' flight. That's getting to the point when I'm aware of the danger of being 'rusty'. 

So I was very glad to fly for nearly a couple of hours today. Typical spicy early spring conditions. There weren't many pilots in the air - maybe 10 - and one pilot - Frode - had a nice flight while a few sunk out early. I was happy to be somewhere between these extremes. I had a couple of lowish moments, but managed to scrape back up. I landed back at St Andre as showers were falling just to the north and my glove batteries gave out. Great practice, just what the doctor ordered!