I awoke at 4 am and couldn’t for the life of me get back to sleep so I packed up the rig and was at Vance Brand by 5:30. It was perfectly calm and 60 degrees. The first take off was perfect. The wing came up fast, I pulled some brake, slowed down and got everything stable then added power and launched. The climb was about 250 ft/min and the air was smooth as butter. After a couple of laps I noticed that I had neglected to put on the Fortrex and since there was somebody pulling into the field I cut power and set up for a landing. It was a horrible landing. I don’t know if my skills have degraded from not flying or I was not paying attention but I didn’t use enough brake and landed hard bouncing back up and moving way to fast.
Robert Kitilla was there with a wanna be, we chatted about the virtue of buying a new wing and or motor vs. used. I of course was on the side of buying new since a two stroke is going to fail sooner than later and Robert was pitching a new wing …. because … well because he sells new wings. 🙂
A few minutes later Marek arrived. We embraced and spent a few minutes catching up. His wife is leaving the work force to study radiology so he is going to be on a short financial leash for the next couple of years. We both joked about flying wings that wouldn’t pass an inspection.
Robert Kitilla was there with a wanna be, we chatted about the virtue of buying a new wing and or motor vs. used. I of course was on the side of buying new since a two stroke is going to fail sooner than later and Robert was pitching a new wing …. because … well because he sells new wings. 🙂
A few minutes later Marek arrived. We embraced and spent a few minutes catching up. His wife is leaving the work force to study radiology so he is going to be on a short financial leash for the next couple of years. We both joked about flying wings that wouldn’t pass an inspection.
The second flight was a long cross country out toward Boulder Res. I wasn’t proud of the launch because I touched down twice having let the wing oscillate. If I had been patient and slowed down allowing the wing to steady up … it would have been a much prettier and safer launch.
Once up Marek and I flew south to where there were 5 balloons flying. We both picked the closest one and did a fly by. They waved back in a friendly manner so I do not think they were concerned to have us in their airspace.
Marek is going to send some video …
All in all … it was good to be back in the air after such a long dry spell.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 