June 2008 – Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight

#165 Flying with the Balloons

Ballons fly with us !

Simms 6 am. Shortly after I took off I could see John driving into the field and when I came back 40 minutes later Paul and Marek were setting up. I followed John from above while he cruised the golf courses from about 100 feet. Paul was having a hard time getting up but finally slowed down and made a great launch.
I changed the jet to 150 ,it seems to have corrected the problem and the motor is running up much faster.

On the second flight I watched a balloon fight to land in our field. He wasn’t able to get over to us so he set down in the field to the West and relaunched after a few minutes and landed in the park to the west and a tad bid south. I guess he did that to avoid cutting the fence to get his crew into the first field.

#163 $ 164

Simms 6 am

Much better. Same conditions same wing but this time I used some power on landing and it was much better. There were some issues. First the motor is bogging at full throttle, it runs fine up to 5900 rpm but anything over that causes the motor to stutter and lose thrust. The left side brake toggle has a half twist which looks to have been there since it was last tied. I don’t know how I’ve flown it this long with out noticing, it’s not really a problem as long as I’m careful when I’m setting up..

#161 & #162

Windy and bumpy. Flew the 26 meter wing and landings were harder. Remember to ue more power landing with the 26.

155 thru 160 East Springs Airport

The best story is where Jerry flew my wing thinking that it was his Muse. It wasn’t until he landed and I asked him if he liked the Eden that he figured it out.
East Springs Airport is several miles east of Colorado Springs it is flat and there are rabbits and coyotes to chase.
Sunday there was quite a crowd at Simms.

Flights 151 to 154

All at Simms.

The 153rd was special because I finally made it all the way to Red Rocks Park without getting blown out or beat up. On the way back I flew into a bank of low cluds and finally got my shadow picture.

The last day when I spent 50 minutes flying against the wind to get back to the field. Ten minutes after landing a balloon came in for an emergency high wind landing in the field to the north.