Month: May 2025

Beautiful morning and beautiful flight. After the last couple of weeks of mishaps and equipment failures it was a confidence builder. Love my Colorado!

Yesterday was a “No Fly Day”. Everything looked good until the right strut sheared off at the flange during inflation. It must have been hanging on by a thread because all it took was rolling on to grass from the asphalt. The prop chewed the tire and tube but fortunately, the prop itself, was not damaged. Huge thanks to Paul Czarnecki for rushing out to the field to rescue me.

The next morning I was back at the field with the axles and struts from “ol red”. The winds were light and twitchy. The launch was normal but the climb out was slow. The air was unstable from the surface to 500 feet.

First flights with the Lift EZ after installing a new line set. The wing performed well. My first impression was that it was a little more twitchy than the Colorado and about 8mph faster. The brake travel is considerably longer and I could have used a wrap to get a little more flare on landing. When trims were “all in” it was notably slower to respond. The biggest issue was that the magnets on the MacPara brake handles don’t hold on the APCO magnets.

May 13th, I installed a primer bulb to improve start time.

May 14th was a no fly day. The weather was perfect and I had jury rigged the magnets with parts off the old risers. But… I didn’t clear the lines and broke a lower D when it caught a prop. Bummer!

The combination of mechanical and mental errors is starting to piss me off. Be mindful.