Those Mgnificent Men

The back fly and deep stall are the entry and exit to the helico or helicopter which is the most difficult of all the accro moves possible on a wing my size. They both require hours of practice as the wing must be flown in its most critical stages right on and past the stall point in full control while it is fighting ,as it was designed to do, to re-inflate and fly in violent if controllable surges. The brake pressure rises and falls very quickly requiring delicate and small control movements to maintain stable flight. You can fly backwards, straight down and in rotation and this balance and minute brake adjustment is the dance called helico.

Organya is filling up with ever more pilots for Spain’s first accro comp being held soon a couple of valleys over about 60k away . My flying, confidence and ambition are improving daily. The après vol sessions in the landing field are populated by Spanish, French, Argentinians, Austrians, Germans, Italians, Dutch all manner of Eastern Europeans and of course the odd(what did you call me?) Englishman. Everybody is predicting a fun comp with 26 pilots entering with all levels of skill but you must be able to do 3 revs in the helico to qualify. So there is no room for numpties like me. The favourites are of course the brothers with Raul in charge but Horatio Lorenze has been number 1 for 2 years now since Raul and Felix retired from full time comp to partner with Nova and develop their own brand of wing designed for accro. The Accro Canaries, another Spanish team are also extremely skillfull as their twin pilot spiral around sat shows when the wingtips touch. As well as these some of Frances top accro pilots have turned up and rookies and locals who live and work close to and in Organya have been training hard. This weekend they make their bones. I am nowhere near the standard required for comp flying but the last few days have seen me master the spin, deepstall and backfly which I can now control indefinitely so the helico is next. I can hardly wait.