One recent Wednesday evening at the clubs Fun Fly something happened right before my eyes and I didn't even notice it till today. The day was like most. I was flying (this term "flying" I use lightly) my hand launch.
I was the first out on the field and as the evening grew later, so did the crowd for pilots. Most of the faces were familiar and one or two were not. I didn't think much of the new people except to offer the standard "Hi. How you doing?". It's normal on Wednesday to have some unfamiliar faces. I was engrossed in what I was doing and was not close to the winch to hear and see what was going on. What was happening was that Pancho was helping a new young man fly a new ARF plane that he had purchased from the Hobby Counter. As I said, I was busy trying to throw out my arm.
When I was recharging the batteries I had time to help on the winch. So, I put them up, pulled it back and then did it over again and again. Then this young man (I'll have to call him "young man" since no one knows his name) came up the winch, Pancho was helping him launch and then he was giving the transmitter to him to fly the rest of the flight. Pancho was by his side but it looked like we was there just in case he was needed. I did notice the the young man was landing his plane safely, a little far out, but safely nevertheless.
Near the end of the day, I was again on the winch "helping out". As the young man came up to the winch, I placed the winch line on his plan and asked "Are you ready to go up?". He hesitated then I tried to show him the quick tapping motion on the pedal. I had almost talked him into launching his own plane when Pancho came up and insisted on launching him. He did so without any explanation to me. I just thought that Pancho was maybe being too careful with him as I had seen him fly his plane well. Again, this young man made a reasonably clean flight and I was now watching him a little closer as I was trying to gauge his experience level. I thought "No problems here. He's ready for the winch.".
The next time he was ready for a flight, Pancho was still involved in another flight of his own or someone else's. This was my chance to do a little "nest pushing" and encourage him to launch himself. Once again I hooked him up, explained and demonstrated the rhythm of the pedal switch. He looked a little apprehensive, but this was only a look. He said nothing that would indicate that he didn't want to launch himself. Just as he was ready to launch, Pancho came up and offered additional words of encouragement, but didn't interfere this go round. It was time to fly.
He launched as most novices do, a little spastic at first, but soon he had the rhythm and before we knew it he was launched and off looking for a thermal. I once again watched his flight intermittently. I saw his landing and it looked ok to me. I encouraged him with kind words and talked him into going up again. So he did, launching himself.
I never thought any more of this encounter until now, 2 week later, after visiting with Pancho at the Hobby Counter. I was looking for additional newsletter input and Pancho said that we could write an article about this new young man. I thought this was a little strange as we have all seen novices using the winch for the first time. Then Pancho told me that the past Wednesday flying was the first time that he had flown, let alone use the winch. My mouth fell open as it all started to sink in as to what had happened.
This young man had his first flights, first landings, first launches and first complete solo all in the same evening. WOW! Then the next thought to come to mind was that in a very short time from now, this pilot could be giving a number of us a run for our money. I love it!
We all hope that this young man comes out again, joins the club and starts to fly with us on a regular bases. It's going to thrilling to watch him learn at this incredible rate.
G.W.
