Winter Play
Having worked through physical therapy for my shoulder, and being fully cleared by my doctor… I’m officially a healed, rehabilitated, physically able-bodied person again! And despite record cold and getting trounced with snow, I’ve been doing by best to get out and fly when I can.
Here are a couple recent shots from doing some winter flying in my Falcon 4 and my new (used) harness
These photos were captured with the Specked Out “Follow Cam”… which Fly High happens to have in stock for $80. Obviously it works great and captures a unique not-often-seen angle, and I’m pretty stoked to get out and play with it some more!
I’m also pretty stoked about this new-to-me Rotor harness. Although the fit is great, it’s clean and it’s comfortable… it’s not so much the harness itself that I’m stoked about, as much as it is that I can actually fly it. I have had this harness before, on loan to me by it’s previous owner, and the compromised upright position of an older-model race harness did not jive with my shoulder one bit. That’s actually how I ended up shelling out for a Covert- because it was the most upright of the race harnesses that were competitively clean and fast.
I’ve kept this Rotor hanging in my basement while working through physical therapy, and would hang it it often to see how my range of motion compared to what I would need to fly this specific harness. Because- if I can fly THIS harness- I know I can fly the newer, better harnesses no problem!
When I felt strong and confident in my recovery, I took it for a hop… and was very pleasantly surprised that I can flare and land in this harness, even with it’s pretty poor upright position. This was something I haven’t been physically capable of for many years. I was so excited I called up the loaner owner and offered to buy it from them. So now it’s MY race harness.
I’m flying it most of the time right now, because 1- it’s warmer than my cocoon, especially stuffed full of thick egg-crate foam like I’ve got it right now (you can see all the bulging in the pics, but it’s toasty warm!), and 2- I’m using it as a training tool, getting back acquainted with race harness flying and landing, for the upcoming summer flying season… and likely some comps.
But mostly… I’m just flying when I can, having fun, and trying not to freeze to death.
Des and I did escape winter for a few days- by going to Utah for a quick ski weekend! Would it be cliche to call that ironic? We had 60 degree sunny days on the slopes, with near-70 degree temps in the valley.
We made some fun spring-like turns, got to see some of our Utahan friends, and yea warmed up a little. It was delightful.
