Learning to drive on the other side of the road?!

Dave Seib came to pick me up. Dave is one of the best pilots in the world so I felt pretty lucky to have him pick me up. I waited for about twenty minutes before he picked me up. He just ploughed through the crowd and took my glider out to his car in the parking lot. He got a call on his cell when we got to his car, so I threw the glider on his car by myself and tied it down. Dave walks around to the right hand side of the car and gets in. I stand at the back of the car looking at him thinking I don’t even know this guy and he wants me drive his car? I don’t know where were going! This is weird! So I go around to the left hand side and get in. Oh! Steering wheel is on the other side here. Man its strange riding on the other side of the car and driving on the other side of the road.
We headed to the Moyes factory about five minutes from the airport where I got to meet a few people and have a shower. After a couple hours getting things packed up into Dave’s car we head off to Rylstone for the Forbes Rally. It was a three hour drive to a small grass air strip. In the car we had Rob, a Dutch pilot, Mickey from Austria, Cantina from Germany, Dave from Australia and me. I always find it so cool at events like this when you get together with people from around the world.

When we get to Rylstone I find out Armond had crashed earlier and dislocated his shoulder. He was taken to hospital and wanted me to drive his car for him. It was still early and the guys decided to set up and go for a flight. I pulled my glider off the car and started to put it back together after being short packed for the trip. It took me a couple hours to get it all set up and I was running for my harness to go for a flight. I got myself all ready to go and a Brazilian pilot that was there acted as my ground crew. He signalled the tug to go and I was off. The air was silky smooth as we climbed out over the airport. They have had a lot of rain here over the last few weeks after seven years of drought. The whole country side was green and lush. The Aussies here are amazed how green every thing is. The tug pilot finds the last thermal of the day and waves me off in light lift. As I circle in very light lift I mostly just maintain my height but do manage to gain a few hundred feet. As I soak in the beauty of the country side I reflect on the day I have had and how lucky I am to be here. After an awesome half hour flight I come in and stuck my landing.
Putting my glider back together after flying with it half way around the world.


This is the car Armond bought. Seems to be a lot of white station wagons here. Works well for what we need.