I came, I soar, I went.

Yesterday I had a valuable experience, it lasted for just 24 seconds and it's not one that I'm keen to repeat. Here's how it ended: Our K-21 glider nestled in some seriously thick weeds off the end of runway 24 And now, here's how it happened. I was flying as P2 from the front, with an instructor in the back seat. The flight started like any other, with pre-flight checks which included an eventualities brief which, for a winch launch (which we only ever do at our club on 'ridge days') will be something like this: On the ground roll, should a wing go down or I detect another problem, we will release immediately and come to a safe stop. Should there be a problem in the air, we will release the cable, adopt the recovery attitude and regain a safe flying speed, upon which: At low level, I will land ahead. Should I determine my height sufficient to reach the local ridge safely, I will do so and attempt to climb away, at least to a height sufficien...

Since my cross country course, I've been continuing to fly whenever I can. I'm still working toward my goal of achieving the bronze certification as well as my cross country endorsement. For the Bronze, I'm mid-way through my check flights. I've been subjected to spins, awkward launch failures, spot landing checks, and a DG-1000 that seemed to refuse to do what I wanted - doubly annoying when it's an aircraft you know you've flown well before, if not often.  I've been forced to take a pause from the assessments due to unfavourable conditions that would have made everything much more difficult than it needs to be. The last signature needed for the cross country endorsement is 'simply' a 2-hour solo, soaring flight and it has so far proved somewhat elusive. On two occasions prior to the course, I have given up perfectly good flights around the 90-minute mark in order to give somebody else the chance to fly the aircraft I was using. Those flights w...