Training Log Archive: jjcote

Pushing/carrying glider up the hill to between 60 - 120 feet (also did two ATV trips). Started out reasonably successful, then had one ground loop, and after a CG adjustment courtesy of Steve, had a very bad takeoff where unnecessary pulling in got compounded by grass snakes, and I whacked in kind of hard. My feeling is that anytime you wind up bleeding in this context, it's an indication that you need a lot more practice. But once I realized that I no longer needed to compensate for the trim being off, the last two flights were basically perfect. On the next-to-last one, I found a four-leaf-clover at the spot where I was about to take off from, then did a flight that was largely hands-off, and when I landed, I found another four-leaf clover (which I gave to another pilot who seemed like she could use it). Hot and humid day, which left me pretty wilted by the end.

Tired before I started from all the hang-gliding and driving, plus a threatening cold, so I didn't push very hard. Still managed to moderately botch a few controls, and had very small errors (hesitations) on a number of others.

Sprint - Splits

Across from the house, another failed attempt to run the "standard" Lane-Horse-Seaver loop, although I didn't bring the GPS this time. Wary of getting caught too far to the right coming down from the northern high point again, I managed to get too far left, and when I thought it looked familiar, I compounded the problem by going even further to the left. Eventually got within sight of some house on Tyler Rd. (Bobby Smith's old place, maybe), and then turned right on a dead-end ride, and picked my way around Square-Pond Marsh, which involved going though a bunch of thick saplings. Until now, I hadn't really appreciated the extent to which the descent to the Friendly Trail involves threading a needle between ugly areas. Need to find some good landmarks in there. I did observe that the leaves are now thick enough that I can't see the house on Seaver from the trail turnoff. Didn't bring a light, and it's a good thing I wasn't out there much later (though I could have finished up on roads once I got near the lake), but it was still 76 F at the end.

Been caring for a sick kid for a couple of days, and I have a ticklish throat now. Hoping it doesn't develop into much.

Followed Stephen around the White course. He did quite fine for most of it, though at control #9, what I thought was successful execution of a tough leg turned out to actually be random wandering until he found it (there was a simpler route, but he made a wrong turn), and on the last control (#10), he did exactly the right thing, but the sketchy little trail had him skeptical because it appeared to dead-end, so he backed out to a place where he was sure of where he was, then got upset because things weren't working out. So I encouraged him to try again, doing what he thought was right, and he found that the trail contunued, and he didn't have much further to go to get to the control. There were streams in the way, though, and he didn't know how to get across, so I had to explain it to him. "You're a boy", I said, and with that he splashed his way right across.

Forest Park, Sprint #1. A little inefficient getting down the hill to #1, trouble seeing the flag at #8, and didn't attack too well at #10 (or maybe the map wasn't quite right). Pretty hot and humid, so it was tough to get up much enthusiasm for going fast.

Skipped Sprint #2 -- it was getting late, it was very hot and humid, and the Koehlers were enthusiastic about hitting the road, particularly Nicole, who had a birthday party to get to.

Sprint 1 - Splits

Valerie loaned me her old GPS (Garmin 301) a few weeks ago, and I finally got around to trying it out. Intended to do the standard Lane-Horse-Seaver loop, to find out where it actually goes. This was after a brief rain, so the ferns were all wet, and therefore soon so were my pants. No matter. But on the Horse Corral trail, I may have turned off into the woods a little early, and I thought I got to the top of the hill okay, but there are too many leaves out now to see the house, so there was some uncertainty. Then heading down toward the Friendly trail, I got off course somehow, and I was worried that maybe I was going too far to the left. Cloud cover kept me from being sure which way the setting sun was, and the next thing I knew I was going much too far, through some thickish stuff (lots of saplings, and laurel here and there. Nothing to do but forge onwards, and I knew I'd come out on a trail or road somewhere. Eventually I did, and it was a much bigger trail than I had been anticipating. Took only a few steps to guess that it was the powerline trail, which was confirmed very quickly when I passed the Snowmobile Dead-End (and that also confirmed my guess that the woods off the end of that trail are not much fun). That means I was actually much too far to the right, not the left. Just headed home from there.

The GPS made various beeping noises during my run. I looked at it the first time, and it seemed to say that I had completed the first lap (whatever that means). I suspect that the others may have been warnings about losing/acquiring satellite lock, or perhaps low battery. Guess I need to RTFM. Which will also be necessary if I want to download the track log.