It was the second day (July 2nd) of the cross-country seminar held by Ian Grant at the GGC. The Freedoms Wings Twin Astir had been flown to the Aviation Museum for Canada Day and the Puchacz was used as a replacement for Freedom Wings operations. To progress toward my bronze badge, Ian suggested I try to complete a two-hour flight in Echo Romeo, one of our L-33 Solos. On the next day, I would carry out the off-field landing exercises with him in the Puchacz. Around 11 o’clock, the little Cu’s forming above Rockland looked pretty appealing, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, which in itself was a reason to celebrate given all the rain we had in June.
As I was being towed, my mind wandered and I imagined Rosie Vella and Jeff Lynne singing “Mr. Blue Sky”: “It’s stopped rainin’, ev’rybody’s in a play and don’t you know, it’s a beautiful new day hey, hey”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Ncxw1xfck&feature=related
With Rosie’s voice in the back of my mind, I admired the scenery and did not pay attention to the distance covered on the ground and the large expanse of forest separating me from the field. More than seven kilometers away from the threshold of runway 26, as I reached cloud base, I decided to cut the umbilical cord at 2,000 feet, under an irresistible little puffy cloud.
This turned out to be a case of premature release but I was in the same frame of mind as Pepé Le Pew, not realizing that I was about to engage in a game where my ardor would only meet strong resistance. But as Pepé would say, getting there is half the fun and, besides, a true gentleman must be prepared for anything!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLrF-IwF2hk
Well, anything but lift. It seemed that my presence in that sector had the effect of repelling every thermal I would try to sniff. My heart was sinking as quickly as Echo Romeo, with no Juliet in sight. As I circled for lift, I quickly glanced at the airfield and realized I was in trouble.
So, I headed south over the long series of farmers’ fields, pleading with Mother Nature for some lift and thinking about another Jeff Lynne’s famous song, used by NASA as the wake-up call song for space shuttle astronauts:
Don’t bring me down, Gruß!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_67S-IRgw
Well, Mother Nature was not receptive either. My trajectory resembled a lawn dart’s and like an astronaut, I was about to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. The only thing left to do was to choose the site of my retrieval. I selected the closest field to runway 08, landing parallel to the road hoping to stop close to a culvert as the ditch was deep and full of water. The next song that came to my mind was: Hold on tight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLmpL2AzLs
The touch down happened very quickly and felt like Mother Nature had kicked me in the backside. However, as I opened the canopy, a gentle breeze caressed my face. As Pepé would say, stop resisting me! Ian still had me pass the off-field landind test the next day but why fake it when you can experience the real thing?
Once on my feet, I transmitted my position to Norm, my tow pilot, and was soon greeted by a retrieving crew “extraordinaire”, composed of nothing less than the wife and daughter of our President, as well as Wolfgang and Jimmy, the only other student attending the seminar. The most charming half of the crew was immediately sent on a diplomatic mission to the farmer’s house and everything went smoothly from that point on.
As soon as we returned to the Club, I learned that Karl had “discovered” yet another great landing field near Cassleman and I teamed up with Ron Smith for another retrieve.
On that memorable Canada Day, I not only experienced my first landing out but also acquired lots of experience derigging and rigging Club ships. As I left the field, looking at the sunset, I consoled myself thinking that even the sun lands out at the end of each day!
Your Reporterus Maximus,
J. Marc
