Woke to blue skies, sunshine with scattered clouds. Forecast for Seville airfield is 13 degrees, sunshine with some clouds. Looks like it is going to be a lovely day for hang glider training!
By the time we have breakfast and set off, its cold again and overcast, as we get closer to Seville it gets more windy and at a point Tony (our HG instructor) even contemplates turning back.
We arrive at the Seville training towing field to some sunshine and light wind, perfect for flying! We rig, do the daily check and Paul one of the other students has the first tow, with a straight flight across the grass field to the winch. I'm next, get off to a good start, but fly too fast (pull the bar in) and before I know it, I crash into the ground, "let go" Tony shouts over the radio, as I hit the deck landing heavily on my right foot and twist my ankle. I get up, and don't seem to have any problem walking, so have 2 more tows with good hops across the field. Another spill, this time nothing serious, it looks like this is not going to be a walk in the park after all!
It has started to rain now, and the wind has got stronger, so we have a break, about 30mins later conditions improve, so another trip is made across the field moonwalking.
The wind picks up again with some rain falling as well so another break, with something to eat as we wait for conditions to improve.
At about 6:00pm after about 1 hr and 30mins of waiting the wind dies down and the rain stops, so we get up to continue. Ouch a sharp pain shoots through my right ankle, it looks like the twist of my foot was more serious than I thought. I ask the 2 other students to go ahead while I try to walk, but the pain is unbearable and I can't walk, not to talk of running, so looks like my day has come to an end!
I de-rig glider and watch while my fellow students have 3 more tows before we call it a day.
We drive back to Algondanales and go the a local café for food and drink where we meet a Norwegian hang glider pilot called Morten who happens to be a physiotherapist.
He kindly goes back to our apartment with us, has a look at my ankle and applies a cold compress to it while we watch some hang gliding videos we borrowed from Tony.
I call it a night, hoping that I can fly tomorrow.
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