The Chaotic Crafter: Facing my Fears

Facing your fear

Oamaru, NZ, Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I sleep so well in this bed that I don’t even turn over during the night. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep as late as I would have liked, waking at 3:15 am, but I turned on my iTouch and listened to Pride & Prejudice until 6:30 before getting up. The sun was out and it promised to be a beautiful day so James said we were going to head to Omarama (Oh-‘Ma-rah-ma) and check out the gliding. Yes, I had said I would go gliding but I was having serious second thoughts as the reality approached. The drive up to Omarama took about 90 minutes since we stopped along the way to take pictures at the Waitaki Dam. Along the way we passed more cows and sheep than you could count. The vistas with pasture lands and mountains in the distance were magnificent. Our first stop in Omarama was at the gliding place to inquire about the possibility of going up. J2 decided he didn’t want to go but James really wanted to do this and I figured it was the one and only time for me so I let him sign me up for a 1 hour flight at 1:30. We took a drive to the Clay Cliffs and had a light lunch and then we headed back to the gliding place. We each were assigned a pilot and got briefed on where to keep our feet and hands and how to adjust the radio controls. The gliders were only large enough to hold 1 passenger and 1 pilot with the passenger in the front seat. I was seated and buckled in and the cockpit lid was locked down. We had to wait our turn with the tow plane.

James, strapped into his glider

James was about 2 planes ahead of me. I kept telling myself that I wasn’t going to get sick and that I could do this. My pilot, Mike, has been doing this for 51 years and hasn’t lost a passenger yet (so he said). Finally it was our turn to get tethered to the tow plane and after a few seconds of being dragged across the grass we were airborne.

My glider still attached to the tow plane

It was surprisingly easy and pleasant. We circled and circled trying to find a good thermal current to gain altitude but only got up to 4600 feet. I saw Mt. Cook and Benmore Lake (many times). We stayed up for 55 minutes and then headed back to the airfield for a perfect landing. I was worried about how I was going to lever myself out of the glider, but I managed to do it more or less gracefully. On our way back to Oamaru we stopped at a Wine Shop where we tasted some Pinot Gris and then we took the scenic way home and stopped at the Elephant Rocks.