I spent several hours balancing the prop and adjusting blade pitch. The prop balancer tool was giving me fits until I took off the donut but eventually after spraying and sanding half the night, I was able to reduce the vibration dramatically. I didn’t get to bed until 1:00am but it was well worth it.
Arrived at Peachland LZ at sunrise. The wind was light from the South East and increased slightly while I set up. The launch was clean. At 500 feet there was a bumpy layer and a the wind increased to 20+. I climbed to 1000 where it was much smother but I was only penetrating at 6 to 8 mph. Since the winds were expected to increase and up wind was a congested area, I chose to enjoy the view parked over the field for a few minutes and then land. I would have liked to run North East into the open but at 55mph I would have been down range in no time and it would have been a long hard flight back to the LZ. I could imaging me landing in Arcadia and hitching a ride back to town.
On the surface the wind had picked up considerably so it looks like it was a good call.
Good thing….. I got to flight test my work and got my flying fix.
Bad thing … I only got 4 hours sleep.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 