On Jun 28, 7:40 pm, wrote:
On Jun 28, 2:57 pm, Ian wrote:

On 28 Jun, 03:20, wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYDdEjloYJ0

Sports Class Nationals people - was this landing as frightening in
person as it is on tape? what was the wind doing then? looks like a
wild ride

Coo. I wondered why he didn't put the wheel down until the last
hundred feet, but if he was planning on landing on the wing ...

Ian

Thanks for your concern..... Yes, the landing was as frightening in
person as it is on the tape. Much more so. There are several things
that were going on that are not shown on the video. The sink on the
approach to the airport was very heavy. I had been in strong lift
less than 3 minutes before. The CD had been anouncing "light and
variable winds and light rain at the airport". Things changed quite
rapidly. The landing gear was up and the spoilers in because I was
just clearing the shortest trees 1/2 way down the runway. The rain was
pouring down. The visability out of the canopy wasn't very good. And
there was another Genesis on the runway in front of me. I was trying
to turn to the right to avoid messing up two sailplanes. Quite
obviously, I had plenty of energy to pull up a little and complete my
turn before dragging a wing. I am not sure exactly why I wasn't smart
enough to do that..... The wing touched and let me tell you how stupid
I felt while swinging around out of control. Flying near
thunderstorms is stupid. For a few points that day, I flew right under
one. When we got the glider pulled to the side of the runway I had to
sit on the upwind wing for over 10 minutes to protect my Genesis. I
sat there happy to be in one big piece, happy my glider was in one big
piece but mostly feeling stupid......

Don

well im glad you got it down in one piece Don. sometimes the
pressures of flying work us into making mistakes. this is how we
learn. happy soaring,