Hooking Up!: New Member Orientation

Well today was definitely a no fly day with winds easily more than 30mph on Curium so after a quick visit to Dave's house and a nice cup of Coffee and some biscuits, Glenn (our newest member) and I set off with the idea that we would look at some of the inland sites to introduce him and also give him a definite sense of what lies at the end of his 10 hour hill probation. These first 10 hours can seem to the lay person and indeed to the new pilot to be a bit of a hindrance and many people will be tempted to miss out most of this period. I would definitely recommend that anybody who is thinking along these lines are fool hardy and will most likely come to strife on some of the larger hills with no real idea of what to do should anything go wrong.
I was tempted myself but I am so very glad that I stuck to it. After my scary experience at Lefkara (Kourtellarotsos) I would have struggled to get my glider down in the tight spot that I finally ended in had I not spent all those initial hours struggling to stay aloft on our most visited and friendly hill.
Well I digress, we had at first decided to visit Avdellaro (being the closest and most benign to Ay Nik) but en route Glenn asked about Lefkara and expressed a wish to see it and also try out his newly acquired 4x4 Mitsubishi Pajero. I told him it was a little out of the way but I agreed it would be nice to see the place and directed Glenn to launch. I am glad to announce that the Mitsubishi had no trouble at all in climbing the very steep sides of the hill and we arrived at launch in a shower of rain!

We waited for the worst to pass and then climbed out into a light drizzle and very pleasant that was too. I noticed that someone had thrown the ribbon down the hill so I scrambled down about 20m to retrieve it. The view from the top with the low cloud was really nice and I was suprised that we were standing in near nil wind with the occasional light breeze blowing over the back but as I had already resigned myself to a no fly day I was not disappointed. The sun was shining through the clouds and giving a spectacular view.

We decided after a few minutes of chatting about the site that we had had enough and jumped back in the car to return home with a possible detour via Avdellaro. The Pajero happily descended the top of the hill and we headed down the windy asphalt road toward Lafkara. Half way down we were stopped dead in our tracks by a very unexpected site.

2 articulated trucks had got themselves stuck on one of the hair pin bends in such a way that they could not move forward and reversing really did not seem to be an option. Luckily for us a local couple in a Toyota Rav 4 knew an alternate route to the bottom and agreed that we could follow them in order to get off the hill. Our very greatest thanks to that couple! without whom we would surely still be struggling to find our way.

Lesson learned : Always expect the unexpected and be prepared to get out and chat to the people on the scene. Even if no English is spoken you can usually get your message across.