fly

The instructor-dude hasn’t called for a few weeks. I wonder if the wind has been bad all this time or if he’s forgotten me. I’ll have to call him to see what’s up.

and then they called back and said “the weather WAS good.” So the wind dropped off.
It was actually a great way to get woken up on a Saturday. They called me at about 7am and I didn’t even try to get out of bed for it. But then they called my mobile and after that stopped ringing I had a look to see who it was. It was the hang-glider dude. He tells me that the weather forecast was favourable. I say, “cool.” And we agree on a time and place. Then he calls me back at 10am and cancels. So I relax and we wait until next weekend.

Called the instructor tonight. He says the weather may be OK but I should call him again in the morning. The uncertainty of this is starting to get to me. He said that in September, they fly every weekend, no problems, but August is not so dependable.

I’ve had a longing to fly since I was a little fella. When I was 13 I was in the air cadets and was set on being an F-18 fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. Unfortunately, minor health problems prevented that from happening. Probably just as well, the idea to going to war doesn’t really appeal these days.

I figure the closest I can get to frequently flying (and I don’t mean in a passenger seat) is something along the lines of Hang-gliding. A part of the appeal is that its free, once you have a hang-glider, and its unpowered and therefore the closest to natural flight I will ever get.
So, my new and fulfilling activity for August is to go for a tandem hang-gliding flight for my birthday.