[Mavi Gogun]

Couple weeks ago, I took my first few flights on a Discus C- just launch, approach, and land. I was a little apprehensive- and my head was filled with landing theory. Each landing was better than the last- but they came down a bit heavy. After a few more flights in more active air, my apprehension of the wing is beginning to fill in- and my regard for flare theory a bit... adjusted.

Launch was into 9 - 19 mile-per-hour winds off of an egg shaped hill; the glider was relatively easy to handle and stable, launch was uneventful. The shape of the hill made for a small lift band and required constant heading and velocity adjustments; were I satisfied with less than all I could work, turning effort wouldn't have been remarkable; working as close as my estimation of the wing allowed, however, meant slowing the glider and muscling it around; I lost a bit of skin off the base of my thumb doing so. The same air on my Sting would have been a bigger hand full on launch, and probably less effort working the narrow lift. However, I would have been stuck to that hill. Maxing my altitude, I pulled out all of the VG and ran across a gap to the next hill- and suddenly discovered the "why" of this kite. Flying fast and relatively flat is effortless. Arriving at the next hill, I let out all the VG and topped out again- then set my sights on an upwind peek and tightened the sail back up. The upwind glide was equally effortless, flat (the same line on the Sting would have been a struggle that left me on the deck). At-speed roll control of the tight sail wasn't remarkable; arriving at the next ridge line, I dumped all the VG again, went back to work.

Landing in turbulence and thermals, the glider was relatively stable, with only a bit of minor yaw. On either landing, after round out I kept hands at close to shoulder height and squeezed weight a little forward as I rode out yaw and lift; on one landing, I prepared to flare 3 times. On final, I made a minor course correction to avoid being any where near a wind sock on a 2 meter iron spike that was placed by our paragliding friends; this incidentally lined me up with the only cow in that part of the field. Just as I was slowing to flare, I was picked up; squeezing on a bit more speed, I was still good to land well before the cow laying in my glide path. I moved hands to shoulder height, slowed to trim- and was picked up again. Keeping my weight forward and riding out the lift, I was prepared to flare the moment I left the thermal. The cow's expression changed from indifference to wide-eyed indifference as I continued to climb, pulled in even more, and dove over it. I could have reached down and touched it; were in not possessed of cow-like reflexes, it could have stood up and killed me. My feet once more skimming grass, I was lifted for a third time, rode it out with speed, slowed, yawed around a bit, stabilized, and flared nicely. I appreciated the stability of the Discus.

About that flare (and another, on the same day): my hands were a bit lower than where I would have liked them on my Sting- closer to shoulders than ears -which I believe reflects the difference in stall speed between the gliders. Timing was all about how much pressure I felt keeping the nose down. Coming in and out of thermals, there was no pleasant 'ease out and verify trim by waiting 1 second' opportunity- judging the moment was all about loading, as airflow on the backside of those thermals were both out and down. Seems to me that real-world flaring success has a lot to do with posture (feet, back, head, hands) and timing- but timing and character of the flare are necessarily analogue, not adhering to a digital description (Trim+1, crescendo, 2 step, etc.).

[AIRTHUG]

I describe it as a balancing scale- there's flare timing, and flare technique. If one is off, you can make up for it with the other. If you start to flare early and can recognize it, you just slow the flare way down. If you're late on the flare, it has to be very good and very aggressive. If you nail the timing, a nice easy flare is perfect.

Always flaring only enough to stop your forward motion. If you have a lot of ground speed, that means a big flare. If you have very little groundspeed.... flare very little.

Flare TIMING is based on airspeed.... flare amount is based on groundspeed (more or less)...

Probably most importantly is that landing should be repeated so many times that it becomes a muscle-memory thing. Things can happen so fast your brain can't be a step behind or you're doomed. Sounds like this was your trouble? Stop thinking so much

Just relax, fly the glider, and do the best you can. If the best you can isn't good enough, you're in the wrong conditions, wrong glider, wrong site, something...

[Mavi Gogun]