This was my first flight in a month and the first since my friend Matt Bell was killed when he augered in at The Meadows. I kept it simple and boated around the patch for 30 minutes. Screw up of the day was flying with my emergency stuff bag unsecured. (Non event).
The winds aloft were 10 to 15 and light n twitchy at the surface. Nice and easy. No Drama.
The video below is not verified. Production value is far too good, including three cameras including POV drone.
Matt Bell was an experienced pilot. He wasn’t the kind of guy who slalomed around the palms or practiced wing tip drags. He was just a regular guy who showed up whenever the weather allowed and who attended every Fly-In within a two day drive.
A couple of weeks ago he got a new 18 meter Gin Carve that is described as a “responsive and dynamic wing”, it was small and spicy. This morning this morning shortly after takeoff at about 200 ft that wing unexpectedly entered diving spiral that ended after one and a half turns. Matt was killed instantly.
The accident was witnessed by Joe Taylor who contacted the authorities and initiated a search. When they found Matt the only clue to the cause of the crash was that his trimmers were … one out and one in. How they got wildly out of balance is not known. Perhaps he launched with the trim in and when he tried to “let them out”, one cam released freely while the other didn’t. New risers can be stiff. My Colorado certainly was and MacPara exchanged them for another set with modified cams that were easer to use.
We will never know if this was equipment error or pilot error.
RIP Matt.
Thank You Officer Kaufman for standing up for the PPG community.
Keith and Angie had been visiting but this morning they were boarding the Key West Express so I looked at the weather and …. Golly ….it looks beautiful.
It’s new into daylight saving so dawn wasn’t until 7:30.am. The winds were down to 0 at launch and built over the 3/4 hour to 7 from the east . The thermal layer was dramatic around 600ft.
Major mistake of the year was launching without the seat belt fastened. It was buckled on the seat and not hanging down so I had to reach behind with one hand and release the buckle. That clunky old thumb lever is genius! It was a non event.
I basically doodled around the patch and checked out the boat yards. The highlight of the day was an amazing new fountain at one of the mansions in the west corner of the meadows. There is an underwater element that look like the pedals of a flower. The effect is a wonderful 3D kinetic marvel that changes as you move around it.
There were two other Pilots all launching solo. The fellow closest to me was a newbie. He has a bit to much confidence due to a private GA License but I think he will do ok. The other was Steve , he chastised me for flying to close to the mansions. MEA CULPA.
It was nice to get back into the air.
It was a beautiful day for a test flight. Yesterday Troy, “The Krazy Kracker“ and I installed Robert Kittila’s Throggle. A throttle that has the brake toggle fixed to the body of the throttle body allowing the pilot to start the engine after he has the risers in hand ready to launch. Visually it’s a work of art. A black matte handle contoured to fit the hand with a groove cut for the brake toggle. The start, kill button and throttle/cruise control are molded into the top so that all the controls are within reach of the thumb. The cruise control is an aluminum tab that is easy to adjust and engage.
The first flight was cut short when I noticed a line tangle right after lift off but everything worked as advertised. The second launch was also a short flight but it allowed me to test the throttle.
I hope Robert finds a market for the throggle but it’s not me. After a very short flight I found a couple of things that were show stoppers. Probably the biggest is that it’s not easy to clip the throggle to the risers and I’m not sure they would stay attached in every situation. I like to park the brakes and give my arms a rest. Theoretically, with the throggle you set the cruise control and park the brakes but that doesn’t work for me because even when I’m out of the brakes I like to have control of the RPMs. It’s cumbersome to keep reaching over to adjust the cruise tab especially when it’s attached to the magnets. Incidentally the cable is too long and it looked like if it came off the magnet, it could easily be sucked into the prop. So …. I stopped testing parked brakes right there.
One issue was during the launch. I like to have my hands on the A lines during inflation. It’s possible to hook the #1 A with the thumb and control the throttle but once the wing is up, the A needs to be released and the thumb lever also gets released when that happens. So… for a moment the thrust is reduced. On a hard surface, like this morning, it was no big deal because the cart had very little drag but on grass the cart would slow immediately causing the wing to surge, forcing me to brake at a low speed to keep the wing overhead. It would delay the launch and add unnecessary complexity. The A assists can do the job without me being in the A’s but I like to feel the wing during those crucial seconds.
The thumb throttle control works fine but the spring tension had to be reduced to accommodate the short lever weaker thumb. I can imagine that without using the cruise control the thumb could get pretty tired.
Another problem was the way we wired into the motor. The starter can be engaged at any time whether the key is in or not. It can be tapped during a flight or perhaps while we’re standing around in the garage. It would be much better if it only engaged when the key was turned to run. That can be fixed if I change my opinion and decide to continue with this throttle. As it is, I’m going to have to rig some kind of mid-cable leash that will prevent a lost cable from going into the prop.. I’d like to put a Velcro hand strap across the body but I’m afraid that the toggle Not In the nifty groove would be too thick for my small hands. Plus …. Velcro adhesive doesn’t want to adhere to the 3D printed nylon.
I might have a couple more flights with the throggle but right now I’m pretty sure I’m going to re-install the old lever and be on the lookout for a new one with a start and kill integrated to the body of the throttle.
Weather was the keyword of the day. WU predicted 0-3 mph from the east . When I arrived there was ground fog and light wind from the north. While I unloaded the rig, a wind front of 10 mph came through that lasted about 10 minutes. Shortly after the sun came up the wind dropped. I set up and launched cleanly. The air was bumpy and the higher I flew the more the turbulence increased. A small private plane overflew my by 300 ft. I don’t know if he did it on purpose but he changed course slightly to fly right over my head. I descended to mitigate any extra bumps from his wingtip vortex. It was hard to tell if it mattered because I was being tossed around plenty as it was.
I returned to base and landed . I might have found clear air at a higher altitude but chose to land in case the low turbulence continued to build. I expect it would have because the ground was cool and the warming was not uniform.
First Sunset flight in a long time. Lost the right rear wheel on landing. Pin was gone. There was no damage . I think its possible that the pin was dislodged by a race mark that was rolling around behind the rig in the pickup truck. I replaced all four pins the next day. The race mark is gone.
Non event.
It’s not often you get such a perfectly timed shot
Good flight. Experimented with putting a camera near the starboard wingtip. Nice result that I’ll experiment with some more.
No Drama . Anne Connor came to watch.
Flew with Rob Norland. No drama.. stayed on the A’s during inflation and that helped. The poles have taken out the largest roads but there are going to be plenty of places to launch and land for the foreseeable future.
There was plenty of ground fog which made for a picturesque launch. After I watched Rob launch and the “parting of the fog”, I set up and followed him into the sky. Despite his reluctance to go out to the island, Rob made a beeline for Gasparilla Marina. Twenty minutes later he was back and we danced around each other for another 20 minutes.
It’s all good.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 
You must be logged in to post a comment.