Continue of the crash for first day

Ok, in last post we talked about the first CRASH at the first day of my hang gliding in Los Angeles, California.

Now the second CRASH.

After the first crash, I feel more confident, because I know what will cause it and how to avoid it. And I feel safe now.
Trying to be smart again.
And it went pretty good. I can pull in and push out the control bar as I want and the glider just do what I like it to do: climb or dive.
It works fine for several times.
Then the second CRASH comes: after I climb a little bit, the wings became unbalanced, left wing is low.
My instructor Paul didn't tell me how to handle this yet. (which is good, too much information will overflood beginner insead of helping them.)
So, I push the bar trying to slow down the glider. (Push bar out will make the glider climb and slow down.)
The glider did climb and slow down. But, in the mean time, the wings are way out of balance and one wingtip is pointing to the ground and glider CRASHING onto the ground, from around maybe 9 feet high.

My arms and legs hit the medal bar and hurt a little bit. No broken bone and not so painful.
Later on Paul and another glider Bob said they were worried about me since it might hurt more.
The wingtip hit ground first and absorbed most of the energy.

I learned my second experience: when wings are not balanced, do NOT push out, it will make things worse.
Pull in instead, will give you more air speed and more control.

So, pull in and look down gave me fist CRASH, push out when wings are not balanced gave me second CRASH.
Both crashes are very positive: no damage and leared knowledge.
Crash is not always bad thing, it let you know and remeber where is the edge.
Without crash, you only know the knowledge, but don't know the edge, and don't know how far you can push it up to.

Next post, I will take about the gliding site and some basic idea of hang gliding.

April, 2006, Los Angeles, California

Harry