Had to happen of course. All that stuff about landing's a doddle etc.
Saturday 1st Feb looked possible, but it was bloody cold and at first I thought I wasn't going to hang around at the top of Sasso and feel the north wind come over the back. Then at midday it switched and seemed like it was on...
Take the dustbin cableway up with Craig, there are four others on top when I get there and they take off into obviously improving conditions: I setup, check it out and at 2.45 go. Ten minutes of scratching in light thermals before finally I get away OK, Craig's already been up above the summit and then we're both climbing out, he leaves first but I stay with it until 1400m and then go after him. I get to Nudo TO at 1250 (not bad, 2.5km for 150m of altitude, I get around 15:1 on the glide through) then in front of Nudo summit I climb slowly out, by the time I get to the summit height Craig's with me again (caught me up, the bastard, on his PG...) and we climb out averaging 1.4m/s until 1700m, when I decide Colonna is easy from here, and shout to Craig to GO!
On the way there realise my fingers are beginning to freeze... no worries, get to Colonna high and carry on to San Martino, getting there at 1350m (so, 350m for 4.5km, again nice, into a bit of a headwind but it was also buoyant). By now, I can only just feel the speedbar, so decide to head back, stop for a few turns at Colonna but it's a waste of time, I'm cold and it's head for home. I leave at 1320m, making about 13:1 on the 6km glide back. Considering I was windmilling my arms to get the blood back in my hands, not bad, into a valley head wind, too.
Decide I'm going for the new landing field, Craig's car is there, and he'll land there too. Float round taking a good look, windsock dead calm, field in shade, do a "downwind", base, extend it to get as low as possible over the power lines, do one S in front of them, go in low onto final, 250m of field in front of me, 20m up and I now do my best glide of the day: well over 15:1 as I ground effect the entire field. Half way across I realise I'm still too high, pull in, I'm on the uprights the whole way but, no, I'm going to reach that concrete wall and the warehouse no matter what I do. 30m out I skim the ground, then get to the wall and ease up over, zoom up maybe 3 or 4m, now maybe 15m to the warehouse, stall a touch faster than I expect, drop straight down and bang on the ground. Next thing I know I'm lying on the asphalt car park in prone with sore knees, a bruised rib cage and a bent upright: the glider is on its A-frame and keel, nose didn't even drop...
Who was it said this is like a WW Falcon?
My errors: maybe a bit ambitious for 6th flight to try a new field. Should have remembered also that cold, shaded areas have dense cushions of air - more ground effect. Be more aggressive losing height going into the field (but that's a difficult one on a new glider...). Maybe I even eased off too quickly on the speed - pull in if you're too high (I did this too late, obviously). Be more positive with a parachute height flare - if I had landed on my feet, maybe I didn't lose the upright. Get a drogue chute...
At least I didn't hit the warehouse... Nevertheless, first bent aluminium since 1988, five clean years of flying (1989, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002) and well over 200 flights. I'll try and make it another five.
By the way Moyes ZOOM uprights are very, very tough. I can't even bend it back.
11:12:00 PM 
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