September 2007 – Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight

83 & 84 Apex

Dry Lake Bed Apex

Dry Lake bed 30 miles North North East of downtown Vegas called Apex. I got to the field at 6:15 and flew with Pierre and another pilot that he had invited. One of those guys who acted like he knew everything but didn’t know anything! He had a 7 year old monster that he had owned for three years but never flown?! What a goof! He started it and walked around with the motor running but never set up for a flight.Apex is a nice place to fly. Big Dry Lake bed with smooth air. I noticed that it started to get bumpy when you flew past the border of the lake. Huh?Mechanical:I had to bush out the motor considerable to get the thrust line back to horizontal. The frame damage is all too abvious when you can see the curve in the vertical tubes that should be straight. The 176-C his still shutting off. It’s been a problem ever since I moved it to the trike…

81 & 82 Lake Jean

Climbed the slopes around Jean. 3000 feet of climb but never more than 1200 AGL.
Noticed big crack in muffler which I tore down and had welded at a local muffler shop.
Lots of touch and go’s

80 Lake Jean Nevada

Great Place! Thanks Pierre!

Natural Dry Lake Bed Protected on 3 sides from the wind

4 touch and go’s

#79 Chatfield

Had problems with GPS and rebooted it in flight. Worked on the low and slow at 1/4 throttle. Thinking about going up with some extra weight to see what the wing feels like more heavily loaded. I’m learning how to use the brakes with power…finally!

#78 Chatfield

Good long flight .Practiced touch and gos. Take off was a circle jerk with me re setting twice trying to chase the wind.

Note to self: if the wing changes after you set-up…wait a while before you reset…It could be a short wait…or the wind may change again and surprise you twice!

Several balloons were up including “The Big Blue Guy” who went high and headed North on a X-Country flight. The corn maze is looking good!

#77

Very light winds. I took some pictures of the Marina and generally flew all over Chatfield. My landing was hard and I’ve got to learn to come in with power.

#76

Great day! Marek and I took of in moderatly strong winds. It was great crabbing around the south end of the park. There were areas where it was blowing hard enough that there was no way to penitrate and just 100 feet away it was lite air. I really felt like a leaf in the stream.

That evening I won the last race of the season by a good margin.

A very good day!

#75

John Sieb and I covered alot of ground all over Chatfield and Roxboro Park. Three Ballons were up with us and I was digging it. On landing I broke the lower motor mount on both sides of the frame. it was not a hard landing so I think it was just metal fatigue. Also damaged were the prop tips and netting.