23 July 2002

Airsickness. Not a pretty word amongst pilots, especially macho hang glider pilots... And yet I guess lots of us get sick. For me it's getting quite acute two out of three flights this year when I didn't take tablets found me wretching my guts up (yes, I have a full face helmet, too). My current "solution" is Dimenhydrinate, sold as Xamamina here in Italy. I've also got a "Relief band" shock therapy system, which seemed to work well the first flight - I was real high, 2700m (1800m above summits, 1500m above valleys) and had no problems. But my wrist was covered (glove) and then the next flight I didn't have gloves on: the gel dried, conductivity stopped... and I heaved.   Well, I don't have any clear answers here. In one sense, Dimenhydrinate is OK since it seems to keep me remarkably calm when I fly... and without it I'm usually rolling about the sky vomiting. At least I know I'm in fairly good company (world record holders and American champions too, it seems.  5:00:38 PM     Today I had planned to fly. Overcast (looked like rain) so I abandoned and cycled in to work. Mistake - today is best sky for weeks. F*&^%. Typical. 4:32:46 PM     Out again Saturday 20th July. Pretty good conditions considering ceiling was 1550m, finally got to S Martino where a cloud started up. Come back was pretty uneventful, but it was quite rough. Even so back to Sasso, up again (one nice climb with five birds of prey of various sizes) and across to Nudo again. Up for 2 1/2 hours, so that was positive. A visiting German pilot had a bad crash, didn't witness it (I landed 5mins later), seems he wing-overed (PIO?) in between to buildings. Was in a bad way, bruised and shocked, but Mauro said he was amazed he wasn't dead. 4:31:27 PM

© Copyright 2002 Flyblog. Last update: 30/07/2002; 16:45:34. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.