Wednesday (Day 4)

Well what started out positive ended up a bit disappointing with a pain in my back. Ho hum...

A bit of a rush this morning with everyone expecting a blank start to the day, but after Alan drove down to the airfield for an inspection it was panic stations to get down for some ground handling before the wind blew up. We managed about ninety minutes on the field in reasonably strong (to me) wind and my reverse launches seemed to have come on a bundle. I was enjoying the all too brief time we had and realised the wind was getting a little too strong when I was blown over and dragged along the ground. Thankfully Paul and Alan were on hand to help get the wing down, although I was in the process of pulling the wing towards me via the lines, which is what we have been trained to do. Although I was on the ground with a bloody big piece of material flapping in front of me, I never felt for a minute there was any danger. There again it's easy to say that when Paul and Alan were on hand to save me!

The morning was taken up with admin and Tim, Dave and I managed to escape to the SuperU supermarket in nearby Thouars to stock up on essentials - these being toothpaste, water and beer. We also managed a lightning visit to the local McDonalds just to check that their burgers were as bad as those in England. Well it was late morning, we were hungry....

This afternoon we had ground school and covered Air Law (Alan), Human Performance Factors (Witters), Flight Principles, Communications and Paramotor Comparison (Paul) and Met (Pete). By around 6.30 it was evident that some more ground handling could take place so it was of to the airfield, but with some twinges in my back I decided to miss out on the hour and get myself in better shape for tomorrow and Friday. A bit disappointing but I'd rather look at the longer term.