Team Challenge 2011 - Back for More!

Inventory check: XC bag, camel-back, vario, GPS,
two radios, spare parts, helmet, video camera,
and some bolt-on wheels for my glider.

It's been a year since my first hang gliding competition and things sure do look different.  I've changed jobs, moved to Chattanooga to be closer to my kids, and my soul-mate has moved down from Michigan to be with me.  Life is good.

Since I'm now only about an hour away from Dunlap, TN, the Hang Gliding Capital of the East and home of the Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge, I'm not going to have to camp out!  The competition is only about an hour from my house, so I'll come home to sleep.  It'll mean long days and short nights, but it'll be good to sleep in my own bed.  Another thing that will be different this year is that my girlfriend is going to drive the retrieval vehicle for my team.  It's going to be really great to have her involved!

Gloves - coated with silicone for extra grip
on the glider's down-tubes.

Last year I didn't do very well in the competition.  I had a lot to learn and didn't get a lot of time to practice or study due to a pretty demanding work schedule.  This year has been a little bit better, but my flying has had different challenges.  Namely, two crashes and the loss of a friend and flying buddy.  The first crash was due to a landing that didn't go as planned, the second was a launch that didn't go as planned, and the friend was Tim Martin, who got caught by a passing storm front.

The most important hang gliding
food of all:  Beer.

All of these incidents were frightening, humbling, and educational, and I think that I learned more from them than I did from all of the rest of my flying experiences together, but when I think back on the year it's the fun times that I remember... not the scary or sad times.  I had so much fun flying with my friends and, if you've never done it, you just can't understand how amazing it is to be 7,000 feet in the air with nothing but the wind in your face while you, literally, play in the clouds.

The cold-weather gear.  I probably
won't need the hat or pants this early in
the season, though.

I'm a better pilot now than I was a year ago and I'm looking forward to this year's Team Challenge even more than I looked forward to last year's.

So... it's prep time.  I've been flying all year, so there wasn't as much to do as there was last year.  Charged the radios, changed the batteries in the GPS and Vario, cleaned my helmet and washed my cool-weather clothes (they were a little stinky).  Cleaned my harness and fixed (hopefully) a broken hinge housing on the lower part of the back-plate.  I cleaned out the jeep and loaded in my spare tip-wand and down-tube... now it's time to go to bed and dream sweet dreams of out-flying my good friend, Dr. Barry.