JoeO – Page 100 – Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight

#144 First Flight at Dick Sporting goods Stadium

Interesting day. I wandered around a bit and found the LZ, which is North of the Stadium and police department. It’s not an ideal field, there is plenty of open space and it’s not too bumpy but there are sprinkler heads poking 6 inches above ground. You can make your best guess but there is always the chance of hitting a sprinker and flipping the buggy. Another issue is that the field slopes down into a sort of basin. So you have to think and plan to get the most level take off run. If the wind is ever comming out of the east or west I’ll launch right off the road.

Which brings me to an observation. The smoother the surface the easer it is to concentrate on getting the wing stable overhead. When you are bumping along in a field the buggy is trying to bounce into the sky and is to get bumped out of line with the wing . I can recall several takeoffs where the nose wheel was 15% out of line with the wing. It makes for slower takeoff speeds and reduced control. I’m using brakes more often than not when the ground is rough.

I took off in light breeze shortly after Dan arrived. The air was very similar to the last couple of days at Simms. Shifting currents and moderate bumps. I find myself turning more to the right with the torque and avoiding left hand turns. WORK ON MAKING HARD LEFT HAND TURNS. At one point I was carving some hard turns with about 45% bank. This looks like a fun place to explore but it is going to have to wait until I have a calm morning and can climb good and high without getting too much bounce. To the east there is a bunch of industry and a big gravel pit.

When it was time to land I saw a track in the field left by the grounds keeper and since it was in the same direction as the wind I landed on the track and avoided the minefield of sprinklers.

Dan didn’t have a very good day, I didn’t see it but I guess he fell after a very long take off run, breaking his prop and cage. Paul didn’t have any luck either. First attempt he got into some sink at take-off because of the slope. Twice he came down on his butt and was blowing dirt big time. Then there wasn’t enough wind and he stood there with his DK running. It ran so long that he loaded up the motor with carbon so that when the wind did come up it would come up to power. While I was watching Paul a lady cop came by and chatted with me. the best thing about this field is that we are welcome and have lots of cops nearby to protect us.

#142 & #143 Simms

Dan & John Sieb showed up. Very light and variable winds made it hard to get the wing stable overhead. I launched to the east and the climb was very slow. Dan said the breeze had shifted at the last minute and I made a downwind take-off.
The air was very similar to the last couple of times I have flown Simms. Areas where the air is strong and weak. I also noticed some very sinking air. It’s not the kind of flying where I’m comfortable using the foot steering.
Landed beautifully with the trimmers out. The wing does feel much more sporty and I’ll have to fly trim out more often.
Once again two quick flights.

#140th & #141 Moderately Strong &Variable Winds

The winds were blowing 15mph from the west when I arrived at 5:00pm so I turned on the classical channel and took a little nap. At 6:15 it had shifted to the NNW and come down to 6 to 8mph. I drove to the South East end of the field and set up. The launch was very sloppy. I had filled the tires to 25 pounds and I think they were bouncing me up into the air. At one point I popped about 2 feet up and the buggy was twisting, rather than come down out of alignment I pulled some brake and climbed out slowly. Remember to let some air out before the next flight! If the buggy is having a hard time getting started, try laying the lift ramp under the back wheels.

Once up, the air was moderately bumpy, I remembered that Greg Boulton had said it was very bumpy over the golf course so I stayed inside the perimeter of the field. At 400 ft AGL it was blowing 15 to 18 and I stayed gentle on the brakes making mostly flat turns. I did one impromptu touch and go…just because it was feeling good. The landing was a bit twitchy but I controlled better than yesterday and killed the motor at 10 feet. Delaying the flare to the last second is the trick because the 28 meter wind landed just as softly as I was doing with the smaller one.

Second flight was another ugly launch. When I first powered up, the buggy didn’t want to start rolling and I had to give a little push with my feet. Maybe the tires were sinking into the soft ground because of more pressure. I don’t think so …there is just allot of initial resistant to roll.

Second landing was good and I managed to taxi cross wind for 100ft before loosing it to the wind.

Glad I flew …Top speed was 43 mph and the wind kept me from being too aggressive but I learned what happens when the tires are over inflated and was able to compare the performance of the 28m with the 26m. The whole flight I felt like the wind was fighting me…like it was pushing me into turns that I didn’t want to make. Wish I had let the trimmers out, I think it would have performed allot better and I would have been more comfortable. Good but not the best.

#138 & #139

Murphy’s Law Day…

Loose Belt…fixed

Twitchy Winds…caused a comic down wind takeoff attempt

Tumble Weeds all over the place turned me into a part time gardener

3 set-ups

and 2 very short flights…The first was over with one quick lap. I noticed a weed in the risers that was shortening the “A”s. I’ve flown with sticks in the lines before but this time I could see where several lines had been drawn together and the wing was flying noticably forward . I kept a little pressure on the brakes afraid of a forward collapse. I was very concerned about deflation and so made a slow flat turn to the left (the side the tangle was on) and landed downfield and upwind. The second flight was just plain bumpy and more of a test flight than anything else.

Paul Dillon took a short flight and tweeked his cage. Greg Boulton came out and got in a couple of flights. Strong pilot, his second landing was into 10 mph air and beautifuly done. He was being twisted pretty good but still managed to land within a few feet of his truck. I had a little ossolation during one of my landings but it seemed to come in smooth and I was still able to taxi up to the truck.

#136 & #137 Simms LZ

The broken ground wire is repaired and the spade connectors are protected with a blob of high temp silicone. The silicone will act as a damper to keep the vibrations down and prevent the spades from breaking again.

Paul Dillon and Marek were at the field when I arrived. Very light winds…I blew the first launch like a rookie. It came up crooked and because I was going by feel instead of looking at the wing it was dragging the left side by the time I aborted. The second attempt was even more stupid. The buggy was slowed down by the terrain and the wing got locked into the prop wash turning me into a big “Push me-Pull you”. On the third attempt I got up with a little brake and immediately went into a climbing spiral. It felt great! 30% of bank and 40/m / minute of climb.

Second flight took two attempts because I aborted after spotting a bunch of vegetation in the lines. Too bad because I recovered once after a 40% collapse and pumping out the subsiquent cravat.

The wing was flying at 30 mph in calm air with trimmers out. Fast wing!

Paul got in a couple of flight and Marek stayed on the ground to help Paul.

#133 #134 #135 April 13, 2008

This was a “strange air” day, it wasn’t really bumpy but the air had lots of cross currents. For instance I would be starting a relatively flat turn that would turn into a steeply banked downwind hook. The take off runs seemed to be longer than normal and I had to use a little brake on every flight to get off the ground. A couple of times I got into sinking air when I was inside the perimeter of the power lines and had to turn away to keep from frying myself.
The capper was the third flight when I came in for a low and slow fly-by. I floated over the LZ for about 75 feet and punched it to climb out. The engine had come up to about 8o% thrust when the motor died without a burp. I damped the surge and came down softly. One thing I have noticed about the 26 meter wing is that the landings are very easy to control. I look forward to seeing if I can do as well with the 28 m.
The problem with the motor turned out to be one of the three spade connectors that come out of the bottom of the starter housing. Fortunately the one that broke was a redundant ground wire so i was able to disengage the Master Kill circuit and route the ground to it’s connector.

April 4th 2008 #131 #132 At Simms Lz

131 132

Marek and I met at Titan only to be met by the “Landowner” he has had a change of heart and we are no longer welcome. He had no complaints…there have been no problems…no major incidents or injuries. It’s Just, ” No Mo Fly Boys Allowed”.

Rather than waste anymore of the evening trying to plead our case, we packed up and hustled over to the Simms LZ. It worked out well because Chip W and Dan K. were already there and looking at the sky. Chip was grounded because his wing was in the shop after an extended vacation in Hawaii. (poor guy). Worked out well because I was able to lend him my 28 and I flew the 26. My worries about how it would fly at 6000ft were groundless. It came up fast and flew even faster. I noticed a little longer run out but with a touch of break it climbs out nicely.

The most notable moment was when Marek was taking off . I was watching from about 80ft comming up from behind at his 8’oclock. Marek was starting his take-off run and 50 feet ahead of him Chip was getting ready to start. He popped some brake to lift off and almost immediatly began to drift back down, when he was alongside Chip his prop started cutting the grass and I saw a puff of dirt. Luckly he was able to stay airborne but the prop strike startled Chip who was just beginning his forward. I’m not exactly sure what happened but Chip ended up falling backward and going turtle while Marek managed to climbout and fly.
Mean while Dan cruised around all of us in his speedy little Spice.

I logged two good flights and one Touch and Go

It was a good day…

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March 12, 2008
I hurried and arrived at the field 30 minutes earlier than yesterday. The winds were light and from east. The forecast was for West by Southwest which put me on alert that it might be sketchy. The skies were partly cloudy, but it looked mellow enough so I set up for launch. It was not my prettiest take off, more of a lurch into the sky. I had to add a bit of brake to keep from drifting back down and touching a wheel. Once the climb was established I let the torque of the Simonini ease me into a right hand turn and climbed to 500 feet. After a couple of laps around the field with moderate bumps I decided to land. It wasn’t so bumpy that I was spooked but it was enough that I thought it would be a good idea to let the air settle a bit.
I waited 15 minutes on the ground and decided to try again. ….Maybe I rushed or was laying out the wing slightly off the wind but there were two bad inflations and…I tried to recover long after I should have aborted…Once, I got tipped on 2 wheels and was doing the Fred Flintstone before I decided to give it up I think the wing tip was low enough to touch ground.
A couple of days ago I watched a video of Chad taxiing in circles and maybe I was inspired to push it. And… I might have been able to pull it off if it were dry lake bed instead of a bumpy hay field. Feeling a little bit humbled I set up for the 4th time that afternoon launched and cruised around the field feeling the air. It was noticeably smother so I headed into the park, I wanted to take some pictures of the ice melt. The eastern side of the lake is clear but the entire western leg is iced over. There is a fracture from the seadoo beach across to mark #6 which widens when the wind blows from the south. I loitered around the marina at 1000 feet and then turned south to the RC Airport. After taking a few pictures of the “Tiny Airport’ I headed to the west arm of the reservoir. When I got near the south west inlet it started getting really bumpy. The wing was acting jerky with short quick oscillations from side to side. A couple of times the wing surged forward and I tentatively added some brake to get it back overhead. I flew another 20 seconds and the wing pitched aft far enough to put feet were level with my head. That got my attention big time… for the next few minutes I was getting the puppet treatment the front wheel of the trike seems to be my reference point and I watched it and the mirror as I bounced around doing what ballast does best. After a few seconds I worked on flying with a few pounds of brake pressure and tried to actively keep the wing centered overhead.

About half way out of the park I was watching the mirror and gently flying the wing when the left side collapsed. I was surprised how slowly it seemed to happen. The tip went limp and the leading edge folded forward. It seemed like several seconds but I suspect it was over very quickly. It re-inflated quicly after touching the brakes followed by hands up. As soon as the wing re-inflated and flying, I changed course to the east, thinking that the turbulence was caused by the cool air following the river, almost immediately, I was in smooth air. Ten minutes later I was back at the field and landed without incident.
All in all I think I handled it pretty well, it could be argued that I shouldn’t have gone up at all, but the conditions were acceptable I knew there was a chance it was going to be bumpy so I didn’t waste any time getting to altitude. When it did get rowdy I focused on the wing and while I probably should have been more aggressive with the brakes, I didn’t overdo it and managed the situation ok. The important thing was that I didn’t panic, it was a little like being 80 feet below the surface of the ocean and having your face mask ripped off your face. Keep your head and deal with the situation. It was an ‘atta boy’ moment. I think I ready to start practicing simple maneuvers and learning to more actively fly the wing.

Glamis Dunes

Flying the Dunes

The big slope

John & I stopped at the Glammis Dunes on Sunday and got in two flights… that evening and another in the morning. We camped with the Sod Flyers from Sacramento. They are a very large club with a great Sod farm as their home field. Wealthy guys with lots of trikes. Ken from Oklahoma provided the most entertainment when he tried to launch with his new quad. His wheels were to thin and he had a hell of a time getting enough speed for takeoff. At one point he came down hard and bounced radically from one wheel to another. The quad is a very stable platform. He was able to find some hard pack the next morning and launched without problems.
The dune culture is amazing. There are ATVs and dune buggies for all sizes of riders.
Convoys of Concert buses and RV’s circled like covered wagons….Sometimes around a mini oval track where pre teens race tiny little dirt trikes. I flew over dunes that looked like ski slopes with huge moguls. Some of the bigger dunes were so high that you could fly the trough between them a hundred feet below the crest. It’s hard to realize how big they are until you see another wing for perspective.

On the way home we stopped at the site of Mo’s Flying Circus. The Fransisco Grande is a great place but the terrain isn’t nearly as interesting as at the Salton Sea. They wouldn’t let us fly at the resort unless we bought a room for the night so we drove a mile north and launch from an open field. The wind was right at the edge of my comfort zone but I got off without any problems. I cut the flight short because the motor was not coming up to power and acted sluggish. Later I discovered that the 1500 feet of altitude change was enough to detune the carburetor. The end of another great trip!

Salton Sea 2008

Flight #105 to #125
The 2008 Salton Sea fly-in was wonderful! This was the first time I have been to a flying event where I can truly say that I got my fill. Three days of four flights and two days of two flights…16 in all.
John Seib and I got an early start and drove straight through to Indio California, about 20 miles north of the Fly-in. There was snow and ice for the first couple of hours but as we approached Glenwood Canyon the roads cleared and we powered on until 11:00pm when we stopped at a Holiday Inn and crashed. Wednesday morning we gassed up drove to Vista Del Mar and got in a couple of flights before the end of the day. The only incidents were both non-events. Friday I had an engine out two minutes after take off. I was at 250 feet and still going down wind …no problem. I set down on the beach and called John Sieb to pick me up. It was the same wire I broke last summer during the Balloon fest…the ground wire from the go no go toggle. This time I used a little shrink tubing to protect the connection. A couple of days later my second gas cap got into the prop and parted with a bang. I was startled but no damage.

This was billed as the last Paratoys Fly-in at the Salton Sea and the absence of Michael Purdy…Jeff Goin and some others was conspicuous. Attendance was down a bit and the whole thing had a different feel than past years…There were still campfires at night and kiting wars but there was no Alan Chocolate Memorial Style Competition Somehow it was just more subdued than the past. One of the biggest differences was the large number of trikes and quads. Bob is all about selling his joint venture with Leon. The Paracruiser/Paratoys quad looks to be a winner. And I don’t think you will ever hear Bob calling the trike pilots girly girls again. The day of foot launch being the majority is going away. I hope he finds a wealthy young guy and flips Paratoys for a boat load of money. He deserves it.

John Black made a speech during the Banquet that was reminiscent of an AA Meeting….”HI I’M JOHN AND I’M A DUMB SHIT”….HI JOHN! It was a good thing he did. I guess he is a pretty aggressive pilot but I think he has seen his god. The near fatal crash had to be an eye opener and I doubt he will be doing any mid day flying again. The famous video is at the bottom of this post.

Chad is having a good year, the trike buggy is considered one of the best machines around and I know he is selling plenty. The clubhouse has opened their kitchen for breakfast and it a great time and place to sit and get acquainted. Chad brought his wife who is a delightful woman out going and cheerful.

Bob Armond was also at those breakfasts, drinking coffee and swapping stories. He wasn’t as stressed as years past… he did look tired. I was touched when on the last morning I approached him to purchase an emergency stuff sack and he refused my cash and gave me one as a gift.

I did some trading and am now the owner of an Eden III 26m wing. It has about 100 hours on it but it’s in great shape and the same colors as my first wing. It handles much better at this altitude and I expect it will be real sporty back home. I slept better because of a new air mattress arctic sleeping bag. Food was more plentiful because the club house opened their kitchen but I still ate way too much junk food.