And what's she dreaming about? Her very own set of wings.
I've been doing a little research on beginner gliders lately. What I need is a guide, a reference to help me decide what to buy. Someone must have already written something about choosing the right glider for you. I just need to find it. I assume that owning a glider is a bit like owning a motorcycle. You don't just ride off the lot with stock parts, unless you are really lucky and everything fits you just right. Every body is different so you can't go around riding other people's motorcycles. You make adjustments, change parts, add stuff and take stuff off, until it feels right. As you ride you get to know the bike and you compensate for a sticky clutch or a false neutral unconsciously. I believe it would be the same with a hang glider. You change the hang loops, main and backup, if they don't fit. Change the downtubes or control bar for something you like better, add safety wheels, and so on. And as you fly you get to know the glider and you learn to compensate for a little yaw without thinking about it. It effects the way you fly but it doesn't matter until you try out another glider or borrow one that you realize, hey, that's different!
I bought my Buell Blast used, as a "starter bike". Because it's used I never wasted energy worrying if it got a scratch or what would happen to it if I dropped it. And I have dropped it. More than once. Luckily I was never moving when it happened! The thing is though, that even though my intention was to move on to another bike, I have way too much fun riding it to give it up. Now that I know that bike so well I don't get stuck in that false neutral anymore. I know now not just how to ride a motorcycle in traffic, I know how to ride MY motorcycle in traffic.
I have to earn my H2, but to feel like a real pilot I will need to have my own glider and get to know it really well.
I hope that next spring I will have the opportunity and financial means to get an H2 rating and a glider. Until then, I'll keep my daydreams in check so I don't loose focus on the now: Massage therapy school, My family, My friends whom I've neglected all summer (they could have come out to the air field if they wanted to spend time with me, right?).