Finding the balance – and I'm not just talking CofG!

Walking off Wolstonbury Hill in mid April after my first ever taste of slope soaring (or rc flying of any kind for that matter), I remember Scott saying to me that the biggest challenge I'd face learning to fly would be finding enough time to practice. And he wasn’t wrong. With the pressures of work and family life, finding the time (or more accurately, being able to justify the time) to throw “toy planes” off blustery hilltops is a weekly challenge.

Since Wolstonbury, I've probably clocked up around six or seven hours off actual flying time – including maidening my Spectre at Butts Brow, crashing it (for the first time) at Itford, grazing the nettles at Ditchling Beacon, hurling it off the cliffs, pulling some loops (and crashing several more times) on the Isle of Wight and, most recently, enjoying some more relaxing thermalling from the field.

So almost two months on and seven-hours of thrilling flying time later, I'm just about able to launch, fly and land my Spectre – just not necessarily all in the same flight! Thanks to some great tuition and supervision from everyone at Slope Soaring Sussex, I think I have developed the confidence and basic building blocks to become a proficient flyer – in time.

So far I've been lucky. My wife has been extremely supportive and encouraging of my new hobby. Not without justifiably asking on occasions, however, whether this is the thin end of the wedge – a question that I always find hard to find a convincing and non-incriminating answer to, not least because I’m still uncertain myself!

I’m also fortunate that my two young children (aged one-and-a-half and three years old) are mad-keen on anything that flies and love tagging along to get in on the action. When I got home from work yesterday, my eldest took great delight in showing me how to launch his “glider” (a Playmobile plane) while clutching a Duplo “transmitter”. Learning to fly has become more than just a hobby for me. It is an investment in a common interest that I can enthuse and bond with my kids over.

While the cards are perhaps not all stacked in my favour – lack of time, money, driving licence etc. etc., I plan to keep seeking the allusive balance that enables me to clock up my hours and continue growing my skills and experience.