Author: JoeO

Powered Paraglider pilot since 2005

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.

John Black’s Wild Ride

105th Flight 52nd Birthday

Three Birthday Flights in a Row!
It was clear and cool all day with very little wind. I was getting antsy at the store and at 1:30 both Marcia and I were outta there. I hustled home to change and was at Titan by 3:30.
I knew it was going to be smooth by the haze hanging over the city. There was a very faint breeze from the SSW that was not moving anything. The tails of the wind indicator were hanging at a strange angle about two feet away from the poll and frozen into place like they had been starched. It w2as just enough to point the way less than 1/2 a knot.
The take off was one of the messiest yet. I popped up a bit early and set right back down. I was a little spooked because the wing surged and the front wheel dropped. I think if I had used a little brake I could have gotten off on the first bounce, instead I backed off the gas a bit …set it down and taxied until I could re-launch clean. Either way it was a non event…just another testament to the wonderful qualities of the Trike Buggy.
The temp was 43 degrees and I thought I could get along with golf gloves…and I did, but just barely. Much of the flight I kept my hands in my lap and when i got down they were damn cold!
The winds were about 10 mph at 1500 ft AGL. I went over by the Marina and cruised back to the field against the wind. I landed just after sunset and went home to enjoy a great birthday dinner with the whole family…including Mom

100th Flight!

john was already at the field when I arrived. I took of about 3:30 and played around the marina & LZ for about an hour.
Got into sink during landing but no problem. held the risers a little higher and the wing came up better.

Big List
Today was my 100th flight. …And …I’m looking forward to the1000th.I’ve swallowed three props a couple of frames a bit of pride and two years (plus a day). For a long time it was all about take off and landing , but it’s been 55 flights since I’ve had a difficult landing or really stupid take-off and now I’m learning to fly. What a ride ! Foot launch is king but I love my buggy.There have been a couple of engine outs, broken muffler springs and semi”puckering’ moments, but for the most part…all were non events.I’ve flown ocean beaches, dry lake beds, rocky mountains and cornfields. With hot air balloons, powered parachutes, gyro copters and a mess of PPG’s.During three major fly-in s and lots of mini s I have met instructors and manufacturers veterans and newbies. I’ve lost track of some of the guys I started with, one moved away another sold his rig early, and one was killed in a during a fly-in …people come and go…but allin all, a great bunch.. Several have been key and I really thank you.And look forward to the next time we meet.So…Brian, Doug and Roshanna, Leon Wayne and Suzi, Bubba, Alex andBo, Michael , Bob and Jeff, Michelle Eric and Jim. Casey and Chad
THANKS!

98 & 99

Two botched launches The wing came up slow and off to one side. When i did get up the left brake line was locked in a loop around the pulley. I sorted it out without problem but it was disconcerting not to have any pull at all. Another problem was that I started with the risers a little lower in my had and so I wasn’t able to “get on the A’s” with as much pressure as I usually have.
The landings were great! 1/3 power and brake. I have no doubt that I could have eased off the brakes added power and lifted of any time.

96 97 Simms

Bad launch that looked great. I was launching 90 degrees off a very light wind. The wing was oscillating and I took off with the wing far to one side. Instead of centering I stayed on the brake and turned hard into the sky. It worked because the Simonini has plenty of power for my weight but if I had been in another machine with less power it could have been bad.

95 Simms

Chip Marek and I. Also a very strange little dude who had followed me from the gas station. Not the best of days, Marek and Chip were planning a long flight and I had only enough gas for about 45 minutes.
Marek got up quickly and I went north to the golf course and then to the Park. When I got down Chip was standing by his machine which was badly damaged. he explained that he had put it on his bumper rack to check out a problem and forgot to bolt it down properly before testing the machine. It jumped out of the rack and broke the prop…cage…and muffler. $1000 + in damages.

94

Nice long late season flight with john Sieb. No Ipod and it made me more sensitive to motor noise. I heard a sympathetic vibration between 4400 and 4700 RPM. I also heard the spare”non vented” clipping against the frame. I hung over John while he flew low at the south west end of the lake. The landing was a hard surprise, I remember feeling a drop in temp just before flare. Proof that Vince’s repair was good.
I’m working on getting as much speed as possible before lift and trying not to use any brake.
I reversed the throttle to be able to get to the kill switch easier.

93

Broke the top left joint by the motor mount. Probably flew with it that way because the take off and landing were very smooth. I seem to remember that the motor was moving a little more on its mounts during the pre-flight.