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sun is shining. The sky is crystal blue and there's no trace of the thunder cloud which I had battled with all afternoon. By 4:00pm, only an hour and a half since I entered the cu-nim, a totally new day had begun.
THE OTHERS...
My instructor, Danko, went through a couple of negative spins resolved by a full-stall, after which he landed in a meadow. Karlo entered a negative
near the ground, threw his reserve at about 30 m and it barely opened. He landed uninjured as his canopy hit the power distribution pylon and ripped, taking his weight. Srecko pulled all the risers on one side, a new maneuver in paragliding. The wing entered a steep spiral, which he held for about 20 minutes, keeping just below cloudbase. He could not feel his arms for days later. Radovan pulled big ears, leaving only a few cells open. He still went up at 10 m/s but was eventually spat out by the Cb.
Seriously disorientated, he couldn't recover his glider in time and hit the ground hard, suffering serious bruising and a twisted ankle but incredibly nothing worse. Kruno did a full stall, but when he released his glider surged and cravatted, so he threw his reserve. He was spared by the thunder cloud. But he couldn't pull in his main canopy, and he hit the ground hard, crushing his vertebrae, but with no severe consequences. Leo was given the
same horrific treatment by the thunder cloud as I was. He didn't throw his reserve (he was dressed in a skiing jacket), but maintained a full frontal deflation by inserting his legs in his A-risers and pulling down. He was thrashed into a forest near Ucka.
Altogether, seven candles could have burned, but all of us survived. During the evening, we settled in at the private pension and I invited everyone for dinner to celebrate our new life. We went to a restaurant with a symbolic name-Fortuna. After dinner I went to bed. I thanked God for saving my life and fell asleep, completely exhausted.
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