Last Wednesday at Simms when we stood around and watched the grass blow and today when I discovered that two of the trike tires were flat. I picked up some new tubes and after much cussing and found that bicycle tire irons were not going to work getting the tires mounted. So… I stopped at the local tire shop and they were more than happy to do it for 6 bucks a wheel. The tech over inflated them but that was no problem, I’d set the tire pressure when I put them on the trike. Later that afternoon at work we heard a loud bang and one of the guys in the shop saw a black saucer shaped object fly past the second floor window. I’d left the tires stacked in the bed of the truck. Apparently they were inflated correctly for the tire (60lbs.) but the wheels were only rated to 2 bars (about 28 LBS.) The bottom tire had blown after heating up in the truck, and when the bead broke it threw the wheel on top across the parking lot. 
Luckily, nobody was injured but I had to go back to little wheels where I learned how to mount my own tires. It’s not tools…it’s leverage and technique
( Pilot’s eye View )
Mike Bennett said he would be at Dick’s at 6:30… I arrived and unloaded at 5:30 so I could launch before the sun. It was 57 degrees and the wind was steady from the SSW at 5mph.
I set up and launched with only one issue. …….
Last week Mike Savino commented on my Facebook ….Check Lists …Check Lists… Check Lists… Well…. Today, the little thing I missed was the trimmers. I’d left them open after kiting in high wind on Wed. The buggy got up fairly quickly but the climb was terrible. I closed them and did a couple of laps for altitude. The plan was to traverse the new neighborhoods high and then descend to 150 feet and circle the old tower at Stapleton. If all went well I would get a trophy shot of my shadow on the tower, unfortunately there were three or four police cars spotlighting an apartment building directly between me and the tower. I could probably have pulled it off because I doubt they could have heard the 4 stroke from 1000 feet but…No good would come from getting their attention, so I decided to abort on the side of discretion and save it for another day. On the way back after crossing the highway I explored the southern field from 150 feet. Lots of trees but plenty of room to work with.
When I got back over the field Mike was setting up and Paul Dillon pulled in shortly after I landed. By the time I went up for the second flight Paul M., Dan K. and a couple of new guys were there. Shortly after Paul launched a Gov. type showed up looking for a fight. Apparently we had crossed into the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. I don’t think any of us was ever more than 600 feet inside the fence but from his perspective it could have looked like we were much deeper into his turf. After pleading ignorance, begging forgiveness and promising to brief the “new guys”, he cooled down and and left. 
( Photo Mike Bennett )
I set up on the entrance road to avoid the low clinging weeds and launched behind Dan and had a great flight.
( Photo Mike Bennett )
The last time I was in Cozmel it was twenty two years ago and I was on my honeymoon. It was a Mexican Resort in it’s prime. Megatels, boasting five swimming pools and four restaurants were going up at the rate of two or three a year. It was all good, everything was clean and new and everybody was enjoying a measure of prosperity.
I was a man on a mission, and justifiably left my bride in the hotel with a raging case of Monezuma’s Revenge to dive on a freshly sunken airliner 200 yards off the beach. Even though I hadn’t logged a dive in more than a decade there was no trouble renting a dive rig from an independent business man, sitting in the shade of a palapa hut on the beach. I remember some moron had painted the name “Enola Gay” under the pilot’s window by scrubbing the marine scum that was beginning to cover the fuselage with a green patina. The entire area had been declared a marine sanctuary and this desecration was just low class graffiti.
In 1969, I was 13, we had just landed a man on the moon and Lloyd Bridges was on TV every afternoon after school. The entire tourist industry of the island consisted of: 3 dive shops and 2 one story hotels. We would spend the morning spear fishing and cook our catch for lunch. No worries about rising sea temps or damaging the coral. I was immortal and so was everything else.
Oh but how times have changed…The reef is 90 percent dead and there is a MacDonalds where Aqua Safari used to be. I wonder what it will be like when I’m 73?
The first launch was a surprise. I popped up quicker than expected and started to float down but with a little brake I got climbing and started to circle the field while Mike got ready to launch. About 5 minutes into the flight at 1000 feet, I thought, “Did I open the fuel lines?” I had spent longer than normal warming it up and I taxied out to the launch site…AND…I’d been flying for at least 5 minutes. There was no reason to expect that it would still be running but it was and I knew I’d made a big mistake without even looking. When I got twisted around enough to get to the fuel I opened the vent and before I could open the flow valve the motor died.
Now What? I had some altitude, I could try to open the fuel line and restart. I had my doubts though because couldn’t prime the carb. I would’ve had to unbuckle and hang halfway out of the seat to blow into the vent hose, one bump and I’d be swimming. I was in a good place to get back to the LZ and if I fooled around and wasn’t able to restart the motor, it would have been a long push back to where I could re-launch. So…prudence being the better part of valor, I choose to go in “dead stick”. The rest of the story was a non event. I turned downwind, got in position and did a gentle S-turn to bleed off altitude. The landing was smooth but it would have been better if I had taken a wrap to get a little more brake input. It seems like there is a point in the flare where I cannot muscle any more brake. It might be fixable by shortening the brakes.
The second flight was great! Nothing to report.
(Old Stapleton Airport Tower)
(Denver)
(Dick’s Sporting Goods Arena)
From: Denver, CO 80210 US> To: 2502 Harborside Dr, Galveston, TX 77550-1463
US> > DRIVING DIRECTIONS> ————————————————–>
A) Denver, CO 80210 US> ————————————————–>
1. Start out going SOUTH on S RACE ST toward> E EVANS AVE. (go 0.1 miles)>
2. Turn RIGHT onto E EVANS AVE. (go 0.1> miles)>
3. Turn RIGHT onto S HIGH ST. (go 0.1> miles)>
4. Turn RIGHT onto E ASBURY AVE. (go> 0.3 miles)>
5. Turn LEFT onto S UNIVERSITY BLVD. > (go 0.3 miles)>
6. Merge onto I-25 S (Crossing into NEW> MEXICO). (go 214.3 miles)>
7. Take the US-64 E/US-87 E exit, EXIT 451,> toward RATON/CLAYTON. (go 0.2 miles)>
8. Turn LEFT onto CLAYTON RD/US-64/US-87.> Continue to follow US-87 E (Crossing into TEXAS). (go> 127.3 miles)>
9. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto> US-385/US-87/RAILROAD ST S. Continue to follow US-87> S. (go 38.8 miles)>
10. Turn RIGHT onto US-287/US-87/S DUMAS AVE.> Continue to follow US-287 S/US-87 S. (go 46.4 miles)>
11. Merge onto US-87 S via the exit on the> LEFT toward I-40. (go 2.3 miles)>
12. Merge onto I-40 E/US-287 S toward> OKLAHOMA CITY/FORT WORTH. (go 8.4 miles)>
13. Merge onto US-287 S via EXIT 78 toward> FORT WORTH. (go 288.8 miles)>
14. US-287 S becomes US-81 S. (go 30.9> miles)>
15. Stay STRAIGHT to go onto I-35W S/US-287> S. (go 8.9 miles)>
16. Merge onto US-287 S via EXIT 51. > (go 8.4 miles)>
17. Keep LEFT to take US-287 S via EXIT 34A> toward WAXAHACHIE/DALLAS. (go 1.5 miles)> 18. Keep RIGHT to take US-287 S via EXIT 444> toward LITTLE RD/WAXAHACHIE. (go 50.7 miles)>
19. Merge onto I-45 S toward CORSICANA. > (go 246.4 miles)>
20. Take EXIT 1C toward TX-275/HARBORSIDE> DR/FM-188/TEICHMAN RD. (go 0.3 miles)> 21. Stay STRAIGHT to go onto BROADWAY> ST/AVENUE J. (go 0.5 miles)>
22. Turn LEFT onto HARBORSIDE DR. (go> 4.6 miles)>
23. 2502 HARBORSIDE DR is on the LEFT. > (go 0.0 miles)> ————————————————–>
B) 2502 Harborside Dr, Galveston, TX 77550-1463
TOTAL ESTIMATED TIME: 17 hours 19 minutes > DISTANCE: 1079.46 miles> > >
To view your map, click on the link below or copy and paste> it to your browser: > http://www.mapquest.com/mq/3-hUBEfGzFUoKq
Booking #44J0W7
needed:
1)Velcro for Sat Radio
2)Get Regulator checked
3)Binoculars?
4)
(Green Mountain)
(home field)
Chatfield Reservoir
(home field and beyond ! ) 
(Morrison & Red Rocks)
This was a strange one. I got up early so I could launch before the sun only to find that I’d left the ignition on and the battery was dead. I pulled on the starter cord until I was sweating like a dog. This was different: every other time I’ve pull started the 4 stroke, it was a piece of cake. I don’t know if I was just weak or perhaps a circut was switched off …. whatever. I couldn’t pull start it. Two hard inspections didn’t turn up the cause. 
Eventually I decided to try jump starting from the truck and it fired right up. The motor idled while I set up the wing and when it was time to launch it started on the first pull. Huh? Is there something special about a dead battery that prevents the motor from firing? 
The air was good except for a layer at 250 feet that bounced me pretty good during the final approach. The lift off the dam was more turbulant than most mornings. Breeze was coming from the west so I stayed away from Red Rocks and did a lazy loop around the golf course and over by Marston Lake. There was virga in the east and the light was more yellow than usual. Very vivid in the yellows. 45 minutes after launch the wind had shifted from WEST to WSW. 
After a slow start in the Spring Series, Paradiso is making a good show during the first races of the Summer Series. Moderate winds 5 to 7 . Final results are not posted but we finished 3 minutes over 2nd to cross.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 
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