Author: JoeO

Powered Paraglider pilot since 2005

Bummer …. Busted

#513
I knew it was too good to be true.  I had an LZ less than a minute from my front door.  I could land and “power kite” right back to my house.  Well after a beautiful 30 minute flight I was decending to the field when I saw a police cruiser parking by the truck.  It took a couple of laps before I was able to set up for landing and even then I was lifted by the upslope breeze and came in 100 yards east of the truck.  I could have pushed it and approached between a couple of trees but this wouldn’t have been a good time to showboat.
The officer was friendly and polite but informed me that the Town of Louisville had an ordinance making it illegal to fly over the city limits.  My field is just inside… Damn!  I’m sure that I will be able to overfly the Mesa area but I’m going to have to find a new field.
Just inside of the city


Vance Brand Airport in the fog #512

The fog was so thick
that there was nothing to do but sit in the cab and wait. 

Forty five minutes after I arrived Marek showed up …. he was all charged up and ready to go fog surfing.  I did my best to discourage him while we waited for Robert.   At 8:15 it was still pea soup, Robert had arrived and seeing that it wasn’t going to change fast he and I decided to go for a cup of coffee to kill some time.  Marek ….ever hungry for a flight stayed at the field.  When we returned it was starting to break up and we were beginning to see the trees south of the LZ. 

While Robert was warming his motor he discovered that the kill switch wasn’t working.  It wasn’t a show stopper but nobody liked it and we chatted about the time Jim King did a face plant at Monument Valley and John Black had to race down the runway to rescue him.  When we heard a couple of GA craft warming their motors Marek decided it was good enough for him.  His flight was 2 minutes max.   The take off was clean and I was surprised at how quickly he go off in the super saturated air but after less than one quick lap he came in for a power off landing.  Later I learned that his prop exploded shortly after take off.
I went out to set up and waited for Robert to launch.  When he blew the first attempt I took the opportunity and launched.  The wing came up slowly and the trike was even slower but there was plenty of room so I took my time and taxied a ways before committing.  Good Launch, except that I had neglected to buckle my helmet.  Damn!  Rather than fuss with digging the buckle out from under the helmet I tossed it over by the truck and continued to do laps.  The air was cool and the visibility was poor so I stayed around the field and waited for Robert.  His wing came up fast and did a forward fold.  I’m not sure what happened next but when I flew over I could see him prone with the motor running and Marek rushing over to assist.
It just wasn’t working out to be a good morning.  The air was smooth with large slow thermals creating lift south of the LZ.  Since it didn’t look like anybody else was going to fly I came down after a few more minutes.
Robert was ok but had cut some of his webbing and Marek was out with a damaged prop.  They decided to head over to Boulder for some free flight and I loaded up for the house.

Not a lot of airtime but a short flight is better than none!

Powered Paragliding … My New Home Field

This is the way is is supposed to be!  I woke with the dawn, had a cup of java and loaded the rig.  2 minutes later I was unloading at my new field.  Thanks to Buz it had been freshly mowed and cleared,  this was as good or better than launching at Titan.  The wind was light from the south and other than a few straw bales to avoid, there was plenty of room.  The launch was fast but smooth.  When the surface is good, this trike can roll. 
Wow! What a great site, Boulder to the West, the mesa below and lots of good scenery…  country estates, ponds and lakes, and the flat tops.    Best of all … plenty of alternate LZs if I got in trouble.  I stayed up about an hour first at 1000 feet and then some low and slow over the mesa.  To finish off, I buzzed the neighborhood and landed downwind facing the truck.  It was no problem to let the wing fly and “Power Kite”, back to the truck.

Powered Paragliding … Today was a comedy of errors # 509

I was excited to be flying from my new home field which was just a few blocks from home, unfortunately the winds were light from the west, which was exactly the wrong direction.  So… I drove 1/4 mile to the mesa above and set-up amid a group of stretching joggers.  There were two wonderful runways going in the wrong direction, so I decided to launch through the field.  The surface was smooth but the weeds were high, dry and thick.  I walked the projected route and tossed the worst of the scrub out of the way. 
The wing inflated well and while the run out was rough, it seemed doable until I drove into a large tangle of weeds and branches that I had missed during the preflight.  Abort … Abort … Abort…   

The mesa just wasn’t going to be suitable unless I had the perfect wind that would let me use the running path as a runway. While loading up and rubbing a sore elbow that had been whacked by a branch, I noticed that the wind was shifting to the south.  The sun was being covered nicely by the clouds and so I decided to give the lower LZ another try.

Here is where it starts to get interesting.   The first launch was successful but I had to set down quickly when I couldn’t shake out a cravat in the wing tip.  I could have stayed up and tried to work out the tangle, but since there was a good landing zone ahead of  me, I didn’t see any reason to tempt fate.  The landing was fine and I gathered up the wing and drove the rig back to my truck.  By now the wind had shifted to SSE which was perfect for the field.  I quickly layed out the wing, hooked up to the trike and jumped into the seat.  The wing came up straight and I was powering down the field when I noticed that I had picked up the wind sock, including the 20 foot pole!  This was a first,  I’d clipped wind socks on landing but never on a launch.  Apparently the right side was a little close or had oscillated to that side because, there it was, hanging from the farthest line and looking like it wanted to go for a ride.  I wanted nothing to do with it and aborted once again.  One more time, I gathered the wing and drove back to the truck. 

I was about to set up for my 4th attempt when I noticed that one of the rear tires had gone completely flat, which had probably happened during the aborted launch in the weeds.  Enough was enough, I really wanted to fly but I was going to have to be satisfied by a short hop across a couple of fields for flight number # 509

Titan. #508

Q and I slept on the boat last night so we were close to the field at dawn.  What a beautiful sunrise!  I slipped out of bed and as quietly as possible, raised the anchor and motored back to the marina all the while shooting pictures of the eastern horizon.  It was one of those maroon and orange sunrises with just enough cloud to paint a masterpiece.
John was at the field when I arrived and we both took off quickly.  The air was mostly good with a few areas of down slope turbulence.  I stayed up 45 minutes flying in the park and over the marina.

Marks "Hilltop" at the Arvada RC park #507

Great site. Great flight!
Mark Johnson is moving to Hood River so he invited the flock to his “Hilltop” LZ for a farewell flight. 
Great Video by Mike Bennett
It’s off hwy 93 not too far from my soon to be new home in Louisville.  Where we took off was behind a recently built housing development.  A couple of the homeowners came out to watch and it looks like they are PPG friendly.  The area is a flat hilltop with steep drop offs on three sides.  The weeds are low but there is a scattering of prickly pear that I’m going to have to watch for.   This is probably going to be my new home field and it’s got a lot to offer.  Close enough to the foothills for hill flying with several lakes, a gravel pit. RC Park and not to far to do a cross country to Golden or Louisville.
Mike Bennett, Ty, Mark Johnson and I all took off on the first attempt and landed on our feet and wheels without incident.  

Flat Irons

RC Park



Beery’s Gathering at Monument Valley 09 Video

Move over John Ford, the big dog is moving in.

Beery has captured what the Gathering is all about…
“NO FRILLS… NON COMMERCIAL…WITHOUT POLITICS… JUST FUN
He spares no one… the GOOD… the BAD or the UGLY. Its hanger stories, aerobatics and bloopers all sourounded by the most spectacular landscape in the world.

Beery does home movies the way my Daddy used to make em… what it lacks in polish he made up for in love of the subject. .. and I like it.

When two pilots pull a simultaneous abortion and narrowly miss blending each other’s wing you hear Beery chuckle and shout,” I GOT IT ON FILM! “
Pay attention and keep the remote handy because you will be rewinding over and over to catch it all. If you didn’t go …you will wish you had…and if you were there… You will bust a gut.

Good job Beery, I’ll be enjoying this long after I’ve lost the souvenir hat!
Now available on You Tube

Powered Paragliding Colorado #506

Titan
While I was in the area I ran up to Dorr Michigan and visited with Terry Lutke,  designer and builder of the Falcon 4 stroke.  We had a nice lunch and chatted about the pros and cons of training.  I left encouraged but thoughtful about the right way to train prospective PPG pilots.



Terry’s new two seater headed for the Pacific Rim



Q set the alarm for 5:15 and I awoke if a fog but managed to get on the road by 5:30 and was at the apartment and loaded by 6:40.  The conditions at the field were perfect, with a light wind from the south south west.  I’d left the key in the ignition after the last flight which had drained the battery while I was out of town so I drove to the north end of the field and set-up so that I could jump start the Falcon with the truck. 
The launch was fine but I did have to use a little brake and nurse it until  I’d gained a few feet of altitude.  Once up, I noticed that the air was moderately bumpy and the wind was shifting toward the west so I stayed near the patch and avoided the rotor that would be generated by the foothills. 
Often when the wind starts this type of shift an hour after sunrise it also picks up dramatically.  If it was from the south it might be hard to get back from the lake and if it was from the west it would be turbulent so I decided to land after 30 minutes and came in for a nice powered landing.
The Power Play has probably 450 to 500 hours and I’m concerned that it is suffering from high porosity or line shrinkage.  When initiating a turn it either jumps into the turn or is slow to start and then jumps into the turn.  It doesn’t seem as stable overhead either flying too far back or forward.  It might be that the air was more active that I thought and I was concerned for nothing but after talking with John Fetz this morning I’ve decided to stretch the lines and do a oral porosity test.