Month: February 2022

Nice flight! Joe Taylor, Matt Ball and I. Smooth air warm weather and no Drama.

Well this is a drag. I’ve run out of storage on word press and can’t load photos so I’m not going to be able to upload FlySkyHigh data.

****Update … the storage has been doubled.

It was a pretty short flight. The wind was counter to all the available runways so I had to launch from the field. The weeds are better than a month ago but still not good. Joe and a new guy were on the other side of the ditch so I relocated and set up while they flew off to the beach.

My set-up was a little different in that the wing itself was in a low spot where the prop wash didn’t affect it. It was a clean launch and it made me remember the majority of my flights have been from the grass. It was nice.

It was pretty trashy up to 350. I let the wing fly and fooled with the trimmers. It’s not easy but much better than the original trim cams. I didn’t notice a huge difference with trims out. Nexts flights I’ll learn more. The A assists were too short again and the “nite eyes” were no easier to release than the “sky cruisers. The landing was smooth.

Stats… I climbed to 1750 and max RPM 2900. Flew for 20 minutes

Minor Drama …. When the left side A’assist had been adjusted too short. The launch was clean but I immediately realized that the A’assists were way too tight. It was a beautiful day and the air was smooth. There wasn’t much danger of the wing going frontal but it needed to be fixed. I was able to release the right side easily but the left side would not budge. After tying several things I realized that without some kind of prying tool , there was no way to unlock the cam and there was no quick release in any of the knots. The problem was resolved when I twisted the cam, breaking the zip tie that attached it to the A’assist. The mallion snapped into position and it was all good.

The whole time I was futzing with the A’assist I had the throttle at 80% thrust and I just let the wing fly while I sorted out the problem. When I was done I looked around and was amazed to be at 2700 ft and about a mile downstream from the LZ. The wind was considerably stronger and when I turned back my ground speed was a 1.7. I’m not sure if that was forward or reverse. At 2700 it had been at least 30 and it looked like it would continue to increase.

The lakes below me were smooth as glass so I descended to 350 ft. There wasn’t a big transition in air speed or temperature. At 350 I was able to make my way back at a respectable 17 mph . I’d only been up for a 25 minutes but between the hassle with the A’s and the high winds aloft I decided to cut it short. I circled the area a couple of times to check out some RV’s camped on one of the lots. The landing was clean.