No Drama. Mike Lange and I. One thing of note was that I set up so that the trike was going to roll on a hard surface for the length of the cross street, width, approx 20ft. The Idea was that I could build up some speed right at the start and complete the rollout on the grass. What I didn’t expect was that the wing came up as fast as the trike but when I hit the grass my acceration slowed whereas the wing did not. I looked up and saw the wing was just about to tuck. I applied brake, hammered the throttle and it was all good.
I awoke at 4:45 and arrived at the field about 6:25. I knew it was going to be a good morning when I ran into Mike Otten at the gas stop. He was driving the Cheney Bros truck, making a delivery. He had seen the post about flying this morning but duty called and he choose to feed his family instead. We talked about doing a night flight during the July full moon. Maybe….
There was a very light breeze from the west and 76 degrees F. The air was mostly smooth with occasional bumps. Thermal layer was at 950 ft. Full Reflex most of the flight.
I haven’t flown for a couple of weeks , mostly due to weather. After 10 months of drought we now have daily downpours. Yesterday morning, I was met with 6 inches of standing water at the Peachtree LZ. The thermals would have been popping within an hour, so there wasn’t time to try Placida. I had to drive home unsatisfied. No big deal just a No Fly Day.
Placida is 20 minutes farther away but the surface has good drainage and the asphalt has just been resurfaced. It’s a wonderful place to fly , a couple sections of mowed fields and miles of fresh runways that point in every direction. It just doesn’t get any better. If you want to do a cross country, the Gaspirilla causeway is a couple of miles to the west. From there you can follow the beach for miles down Gaspirilla Island or go North up to Englewood.
I launched just after sunrise, right down the runway into 6 mph of wind. The air was mildly bumpy with wispy little clouds at 1000 feet. I could feel the moisture being pulled from the surface as the sun started cooking. A haze developed between the surface and 500 feet within 5 minutes of launch. Among the building cumulus clouds there were a few tall structures that looked like albino man-o-war jellyfish, the tendrils of virga hanging down. Twenty-five minutes was enough to scratch my itch and the air was starting to get rowdy so I decided to land before it got a little too thrilling. Good call, I flew through sinking air on final and dropped from 40 to 5 feet in a heartbeat. With brake and throttle I leveled out and floated two feet above the surface, right up to the truck. Sweet!
The winds had been blowing like stink all week but this morning was predicted to be 4 mph at 7:00. When I arrived at the field I was pleasantly pleased to see my first and last student, Tony unloading his Falcon. We probably haven’t flown together three times since his “solo” and it’s always more fun to share.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 
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