Month: June 2009

#290 & 291 Last day of Paramotor City Fly-In

Lots of flights
The first flight was with the Eden III and it was absolutely the longest take off I’ve ever had. I rolled almost the whole length of the field at what should have been a sufficient take off speed, eventually pulling some brake when it looked like I might run out of field. The climb was slow but “It’s All Good”.

Second flight I used the Power Play and the take off was faster. I concentrated on keeping a little more brake pressure and sure enough the turns were much better and I felt much more in command of the wing. I remember Eric Dufore telling me once. The wing does not fly you…YOU FLY THE WING. I’ve decided to keep it because the problem wasn’t with the Power Play…just the way I was flying it.

Keven Kelsey and I flew side by side for awhile but I was considerably faster so it didn’t last long. This flight I made it a point to fly the Rio and stay low enough to take in the detail. It’s dry right now but you could see that when its running, it goes fast and is chewing away at the sides. There were huge land falls where thousands of tons of earth had fallen this spring.

The air was so still that the only place you would notice a bump was near the LZ and that was from other pilots stirring up the air.

X-Country & Luau

Wild Horse Canyon Cross Country
#289

Virga on three sides

Up early to a beautiful but scary sky. There was virga popping out on three sides. The local guys were advising to launch but be ready to turn back or set down if it started to get rowdy. I launched and went high quickly. There were two groups of three below and I would overshoot them circled around and stay on their 6. I can hardly wait till I’ve a little more time on the Thumper because I missed the boat as far as scenery goes. From 200 feet it was spectacular but from 2000 feet It’s not that impressive. I could tell Bubba’s group was in the weeds from the way they were turning around every feature. I was a little concerned that I would not have enough gas and flew the plan which was get high and if I ran out I would be able to glide to a place where I could be easily picked up. As it turned out I didn’t burn as much as I thought but when I looked at the tank it was damn low. My mistake was not realizing that since the buggy was at an angle the gas tank was tilted to the back making it look lower than it was.

When I got back to the field I was still way up there

Lava Canyon

John Black surprised me by taking his girl friend for a mid afternoon tandem ride. After his speech at the Salton Sea I thought he would mellow out. Oh Well He is the pilot in command and a very talented one at that. Good Luck to you John.

The afternoon was Debbie’s famous Amazing Competitions. We had a water balloon fight and the highlight was the Spam toss. I got pegged by a balloon right in the camera pouch which ended the great life of my little Cannon…oh well?

That evening was the big Luau dinner, Michelle and CC went all out. There was a traditional pork dish, potatoes, shrimp, and a chocolate & fruit fountain. The band played and Michelle gave a short but emotional speech that had an underlying message that I’m not sure that I caught. I hope there are no major changes in the air for Paramotor City! It was a great evening These people are family and I’m proud to be “one of the cousins”.

#287 & #288

Good long Flight. I climbed 2000 feet and had a great time carving with the Eden. The 4 stroke is doing well and as long as I’m patient it will get me as high as I care to go. The climb rate with the Eden is just a tad better than the Power Play and I can feel a difference being 1000 feet lower than when I fly at Springs East.

The second flight was sweet, I stayed up until it started to get active and really noticed it on landing.
The afternoon was spent getting a shower at the Casino Truck Stop and hanging around the Pavilion catching up with Jim King…Jim Doyle…Ike and the gang. Jim D. helped me out with my two meter and ended up lending me a FRS and headset for the X-Country tomorrow. It was blowing hard all afternoon so I chilled in the tent reading and watching the windsock.

We had a great Pizza Dinner and listened to the Route 66 band …I would have stayed longer because they were playing all my favorites from the “bad ol days” …songs like Mustang Sally but I need to get some sleep if I was going to be able to wake up for the X-Country.

Paramotor City Fly-In #286

Kevin on the edge of the Rio Puerco

I was out of the house by 4:30am and heading south with gloomy skies and a similar mindset. Massive losses and fraud have certainly proved that you cannot count on the future being as expected. BUT…As I cleared Raton Pass the clouds lifted and so did my spirits. I made great and was at Paramotor City by early afternoon. Keven Kelsey has staked me out a great tent site between two box trailers right on the flight line. Thanks Man ! First thing I did was give a big hug to Michelle who took my Eden and replaced the frayed “C” line. She told me to kite it and check that everything was alright. Good advice because the “C” was crossed under one of the “D’s” and had to be restrung.

After walking the field and checking out the “Rio” Kevin and I hooked up with ?Doug? and went to the casino for an early dinner at Johnny Rockets. Doug is a aircraft accident investigator with many decades of experience and Keven has been around aviation most of his life so they had lots in common and plenty of good stories. I was more than happy to sit and soak it up.

The winds were strong but came down nicely about 30 minutes before sunset. I launched without trouble and did a nice 45 minute exploratory flight. Amazing that I had flown here two years ago with the Simonini Buggy and didn’t get the lay of the land. The Rio Puerco twists North to South through the basin on either side of Paramotor City. There is a great RC airport North West which is off limits and a housing development to stay clear of but other than that it’s pretty much free air. The light was great so I took a few pictures and landed.


After packing up I discovered that the Route 66 guys had put together a pot luck with Pizza and various goodies. I regretted the earlier burger because they were certainly eating better than we did.

Vance Brand #285

The Weatherman got part of it right.
At 5:30am the air was barely moving from the W.N.W. but instead of a cloud base of 12,000 it was more like 6,500. I turned on the strobes and launched at a quarter till 6. The air was mixing but not terrible. I went south and west for about 45 minutes and returned when it started to get rowdy.
The cloud cover and rising sun made for some great light on Longs Peak

It has been awhile since I was here and the grass has grown allot. I was luck to find this personal runway heading just 10 degrees off the wind. On landing I overflew “my spot” by 30 feet but greased the “runway nicely.

Marek…Robert…and his new student Norm arrived about 7. They all got in several short flights lasting till 9am when we packed up to leave. Nobody stayed up long because the wind was building and while it wasn’t bumpy … it wasn’t butter either. Norm had his second flight and launched the first time with a very nice reverse. Tracy was with Marek and he is starting ground handling.


Just as I was returning home Marek called and said there was somebody flying over by Lucent and C-470. We were both curious because it was now after 11 and thermic as hell. I drove down there and caught the landing. The guy’s name is Bruce, he has been flying for 7 or 8 years and is free flight trained. He had flown over to the South Park site to take pictures of the ground breaking for the new church. We will be able to fly out of there for a couple more weeks but there goes another good site.