This could be the start of something wonderful. I met with Paul Czarnecki at 8am at Lake Suzi Airpark. It’s a very nice airstrip that has 3000ft of beautifully groomed weeds. When I arrived the fog was too thick to launch so I watched Paul teach “carb tech” for 30 minutes. The weed were a little bit “grabby and I’ll have to be more attentive when launching there. The first attempt was aborted because the port side lines got caught causing the wing to come up very crooked. The second try was much better.
Yesterday I reduced the pitch by 1.5 degrees which brought the RPM up to 3900. The difference was significant, there was very little thrust at idle which made the problem of the prop thrust grabbing the wing go away but it also took much longer to get up to speed for take off. The machine seemed to be smoother and I used a lot more of the power band in flight. Today I think I’m going to add just a tiny amount of pitch to see if I can find a happy medium.
Paul took up his student’s wife for a quickly and then the student. We didn’t fly in close proximity but I did maneuver so that they could see where I was. Toward the end of the flight it started to get bumpy and a couple of times I was pulled dramatically to the side. On the surface the air was 90 degrees left of at the runway.
After landing Paul suggested that my A assists were too tight causing the leading edge to tuck a bit during inflation. I’m thinking that it isn’t the A’s it’s me putting too much pressure on them at the start of the launch.
I took a second flight with the lines tighter towards the center of the glider and it was a little better. That flight was cut to a quick circle because it was very active air.
Landing was a little harder , probably because the thrust is lower and my glide slope was steeper. I was a little surprised buy the harder landing and my inability to really pull down on the brakes. I’m going to have to work on my strength and remember to add a bit more throttle next time.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 